BY LEONARD PITTS, JR.
Dear Mr. So-Called President:
So let me explain to you how this works.
You
were elected as chief executive of the United States. I won’t belabor
the fact that you won with a minority of the popular vote and a little
help from your friends, FBI Director James Comey and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. The bottom line is, you were elected.
And this
does entitle you to certain things. You get your own airplane. You get
free public housing. You get greeted with snappy salutes. And a band
plays when you walk into the room.
But there is one thing to which
your election does not entitle you. It does not entitle you to do
whatever pops into your furry orange head without being called on it or,
should it run afoul of the Constitution, without being blocked.
You
and other members of the Fourth Reich seem to be having difficulty
understanding this. Reports from Politico and elsewhere describe you as
shocked that judges and lawmakers can delay or even stop you from doing
things. Three weeks ago, your chief strategist, Steve Bannon, infamously
declared that news media should “keep its mouth shut and just listen
for a while.”
Just last Sunday, senior policy adviser Stephen
Miller declared on CBS’ “Face The Nation” that “our opponents, the media
and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions,
that the powers of the president to protect our country are very
substantial and will not be questioned.”
What you do “will not be
questioned?” Lord, have mercy. That’s the kind of statement that, in
another time and place, would have been greeted with an out-thrust palm
and a hearty “Sieg heil!”
Here in this time and place, however, it
demands a different response:
Just who the hell do you think you are?
Meaning
you and all the other trolls you have brought clambering up from under
their bridges.
Maybe you didn’t notice, but this is the United States of
America. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Nation of laws, not of
individuals? First Amendment? Freedom of the press? Any of that ringing a
bell?
Let’s be brutally clear here. If you were a smart guy with
unimpeachable integrity and a good heart who was enacting wise policies
for the betterment of all humankind, you’d still be subject to sharp scrutiny from news media, oversight from Congress, restraint by the judiciary — and public opinion.
And
you, of course, are none of those things. I know you have a fetish about
strength. I know your pal Vladimir would never stand still for reporters
and judges yapping at him.
I know, too, that you’re accustomed
to being emperor of your own fiefdom. Must be nice. Your name on the
wall, the paychecks, the side of the building. You tell people to make
something happen, and it does. You yell at a problem, and it goes away.
Nobody talks back. I can see how it would be hard to give that up.
But
you did. You see, you’re no longer an emperor, Mr. So-Called President.
You’re now what is called a “public servant” — in effect, an employee
with 324 million bosses. And let me tell you something about those
bosses. They’re unruly and loud, long accustomed to speaking their minds
without fear or fetter. And they believe power must always answer to
the people. That’s at the core of their identity.
Yet you and your
coterie of cartoon autocrats think you’re going to cow them into
silence and compliance by ordering them to shut up and obey? Well, as a
freeborn American, I can answer that in two syllables flat.
Hell no.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
The Plot To Hack America
Randi Rhodes talks with guest Malcolm Nance US Intelligence +35 yrs, NY Times Bestselling Author, Navy Senior Chief.
'He will die in jail': Intelligence community ready to 'go nuclear' on Trump, senior source says
U.S. national security officials are reportedly ready to “go nuclear”
after Donald Trump’s latest attack on the intelligence
community.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the “real scandal” was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, he blasted what he said were “un-American” leaks that led to Flynn’s ousting.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/he-will-die-in-jail-intelligence-community-ready-to-go-nuclear-on-trump-senior-source-says/
In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the “real scandal” was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, he blasted what he said were “un-American” leaks that led to Flynn’s ousting.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/he-will-die-in-jail-intelligence-community-ready-to-go-nuclear-on-trump-senior-source-says/
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
This is so messed up: Trump didn't win.
By C Moon
The election was a fraud.
Clinton should be President.
Yet the congress, senate, FBI, CIA won't do anything about it—even though we all know the truth.
Our country had a weak link, and Putin found it.
I think he found it by watching the GOP steal the 2000 and 2004 elections. I'm sure it goes deeper than that.
But to me the simple fact is: Trump was not elected—and the house and senate races were fucked with, as well.
The election was a fraud.
Clinton should be President.
Yet the congress, senate, FBI, CIA won't do anything about it—even though we all know the truth.
Our country had a weak link, and Putin found it.
I think he found it by watching the GOP steal the 2000 and 2004 elections. I'm sure it goes deeper than that.
But to me the simple fact is: Trump was not elected—and the house and senate races were fucked with, as well.
Monday, February 13, 2017
Mika: 'What Stephen Miller Said Should Worry Everyone' Morning Blow MSNBC
Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller hit the Sunday shows to discuss
everything from voter fraud to immigration. The Morning Blow panel reacts
to Miller's alarming performance.
Question to Trump Voters: Aren't You Just Embarrassed?
Posted by Rude One
You know, I was halfway through writing a big piece that boiled down to "What if Donald Trump was a raging liberal who promised to do all the things I want? Would I be just ashamed to support him at this point?" I stopped because it was all so, so fucking obvious.
But I really want to know from Trump voters: Does any of this embarrass you?
Any of the shit with Michael Flynn and Russia?
Any of the ridiculous things Trump says, like threatening to "destroy the career" of a state legislator?
Any of the ludicrous comments and promises he makes?
His complete lack of understanding of the way the government actually functions?
His complete lack of knowledge about the United States's relationships with other countries?
The disastrous and unnecessary military mission in Yemen?
The fact that he is literally doing the things he said he was going to do, like tearing families apart?
The demonstrable lies?
Does any of it make a dent with you?
I stopped, too, because I realized that it doesn't. And that reasoning with most Trump voters is like running a flea circus. You can fool people into thinking the fleas are doing tricks and acrobatics, but it's just fleas being fleas. Whatever frame you put on it, they're gonna do whatever the fuck they please.
Whenever we face the joke of a presidency we're forced to endure right now, we're not merely facing the pumpkin-headed doom goblin at the top. We're facing all of his supporters who are unmoved by any ethical lapse, any law broken at this point, even the Constitution itself. So we either have to write them off as a mad tribe that has taken over the temple and hope they orgy themselves to death or we have to reason with them, however terrible it might be to walk up to a group of convulsing idiots and ask them to listen to your insights you got from watching CNN.
The takeaway from the blog post was going to be that I'd like to think that I'd be embarrassed. I'd like to think that it would matter even if President Stumblefuck McBleedingheart was going to tax the wealthy more and rein in Wall Street and get rid of money in politics and spend shit-tons on infrastructure and alternate energies and make reversing climate change a top priority and attack poverty with education and jobs programs and on and on. If he was as dumbly evil and evilly dumb as Trump, I'd like to think I'd be able to say, "Yeah, but, holy fuckballs, man, can we just impeach him already?"
Shame is a powerful tool. We need to deploy it more and make Trump's ardent supporters feel like outcasts for denying reality.
You know, I was halfway through writing a big piece that boiled down to "What if Donald Trump was a raging liberal who promised to do all the things I want? Would I be just ashamed to support him at this point?" I stopped because it was all so, so fucking obvious.
But I really want to know from Trump voters: Does any of this embarrass you?
Any of the shit with Michael Flynn and Russia?
Any of the ridiculous things Trump says, like threatening to "destroy the career" of a state legislator?
Any of the ludicrous comments and promises he makes?
His complete lack of understanding of the way the government actually functions?
His complete lack of knowledge about the United States's relationships with other countries?
The disastrous and unnecessary military mission in Yemen?
The fact that he is literally doing the things he said he was going to do, like tearing families apart?
The demonstrable lies?
Does any of it make a dent with you?
I stopped, too, because I realized that it doesn't. And that reasoning with most Trump voters is like running a flea circus. You can fool people into thinking the fleas are doing tricks and acrobatics, but it's just fleas being fleas. Whatever frame you put on it, they're gonna do whatever the fuck they please.
Whenever we face the joke of a presidency we're forced to endure right now, we're not merely facing the pumpkin-headed doom goblin at the top. We're facing all of his supporters who are unmoved by any ethical lapse, any law broken at this point, even the Constitution itself. So we either have to write them off as a mad tribe that has taken over the temple and hope they orgy themselves to death or we have to reason with them, however terrible it might be to walk up to a group of convulsing idiots and ask them to listen to your insights you got from watching CNN.
The takeaway from the blog post was going to be that I'd like to think that I'd be embarrassed. I'd like to think that it would matter even if President Stumblefuck McBleedingheart was going to tax the wealthy more and rein in Wall Street and get rid of money in politics and spend shit-tons on infrastructure and alternate energies and make reversing climate change a top priority and attack poverty with education and jobs programs and on and on. If he was as dumbly evil and evilly dumb as Trump, I'd like to think I'd be able to say, "Yeah, but, holy fuckballs, man, can we just impeach him already?"
Shame is a powerful tool. We need to deploy it more and make Trump's ardent supporters feel like outcasts for denying reality.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
GOP Rep tries the "death panel" line at town hall
Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R) fields questions at a healthcare reform listening
session in New Port Richey, Florida. The false claim of 'death panels'
in the ACA was PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" in 2009.
"..The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."
George Orwell
"..The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield."
George Orwell
Daily White House Press Briefing With Sean Spicer 02/11/2017
Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon) take
questions from the press (Bobby Moynihan, Mikey Day, Vanessa Bayer,
Sasheer Zamata, Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney).
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Trump's Willing Victims: The Poor, Dumb Bastards Of The White Working Class
Posted by Rude One
I know we're all supposed to be freaking the fuck out over Donald Trump's mad desire for as much Putin dick as he can take. And I know we're suppsoed to be fact-checking the shit out of the administration's magical list of "terrorist attacks" that the horror-loving media supposedly didn't cover adequately, which can only mean "left out a call for a lynch mob," since the list contains some of the major events of the last couple of years. But there's an article that's stuck in my craw, something that is especially enraging in this time of an open spigot of anger.
Over at CNN's website, there's a piece titled "Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope." It's about Beattyville, Kentucky, a town that's on the ass end of nowhere in Appalachia and a place that used to rely on coal mining until that dried up sometime in the George W. Bush administration (and, no, it wasn't mean ol' white-hating, tree-huggin' Obama that did it). And these dirt poor fuckers, addicted to opioids, racist up to their tits, and utterly reliant on the government for welfare, health care, and most of the jobs in the area, believe that Donald motherfuckin' Trump is gonna be their savior.
The whole article is a look at how liberal policies, you know, shit that was done by Democrats, have pretty much been the only things keeping the townspeople alive and how goddamned deluded they are to that fact. For instance, "Beattyville residents want jobs, especially ones that pay more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. They think if anyone can bring jobs back, it's Trump." It's so blindingly stupid and counter to everything that Trump and Republicans talk about. You know what's one way to make sure that you don't get a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? You raise the goddamned minimum wage, you know, like most Democrats want.
On and on the article goes. We learn that "57% of households receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security." And since hope is something that knows no rationality, "'I hope [Trump] don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits,' says [25 year-old Amber] Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare."
What do you say to Amber? Do you tell her that believing that Trump will create more jobs is as much a fantasy as Hillary Clinton's murders? Do you say that, if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, she's fucked, as she is if Paul Ryan's budget, with cuts to government assistance programs, gets passed?
They believe that Trump is some kind of demi-god who will magically create jobs and make their lives better. "'I believe he wants to take care of us, the little people,' says [a] gas station manager. 'I think he's going to quit giving money to all these other countries and take care of America. I truly do.'" No, you dumb shit, he's gonna give the money to himself, his family, and his friends. If a few coins drop on the floor for you to scrounge for, well, there you go.
And who knows how to change their minds. The death of coal mining jobs has also meant the death of any hope for union involvement. So all they've got is prejudice, talk radio, and alienation. And drugs. You can't forget the drugs. Goddamn, Mitch McConnell told Beattyville residents to their faces that bringing jobs to eastern Kentucky was "not my job" and they still voted for him.
Essentially, the people of Beattyville are refugees living in our country. They are utterly dependent on the government. They have been abused and abandoned by the forces of capitalism. And they exist in an area of deep poverty and crime. The kindest thing we could do for them as a nation is buy their houses and land and relocate them to somewhere where there are some fucking jobs. Because you're not gonna shit out a new industry that'll make Beattyville boom, unless there is big time investment in tourism (truth be told, it's in a goddamn beautiful area).
Coal is done, as I've said, as everyone who isn't a fucking maniac president has said, including the coal companies. It's either been lapped by natural gas or automation has taken over for the miners.
But for the poor who voted for Trump, you are going to be punched in the face repeatedly by your own fists. And you'll come running to Democrats to help you, and we will, 'cause that's who the hell we are, and then you'll run right back to the racist pricks because that's just who the fuck you are: ungrateful, uneducated bastards who have been brainwashed so thoroughly that you don't realize who is stabbing you and who is trying to get your wounds healed, willing victims asking, "Please, may I have another" as the knife is twisted in your gut.
I know we're all supposed to be freaking the fuck out over Donald Trump's mad desire for as much Putin dick as he can take. And I know we're suppsoed to be fact-checking the shit out of the administration's magical list of "terrorist attacks" that the horror-loving media supposedly didn't cover adequately, which can only mean "left out a call for a lynch mob," since the list contains some of the major events of the last couple of years. But there's an article that's stuck in my craw, something that is especially enraging in this time of an open spigot of anger.
Over at CNN's website, there's a piece titled "Trump gives America's 'poorest white town' hope." It's about Beattyville, Kentucky, a town that's on the ass end of nowhere in Appalachia and a place that used to rely on coal mining until that dried up sometime in the George W. Bush administration (and, no, it wasn't mean ol' white-hating, tree-huggin' Obama that did it). And these dirt poor fuckers, addicted to opioids, racist up to their tits, and utterly reliant on the government for welfare, health care, and most of the jobs in the area, believe that Donald motherfuckin' Trump is gonna be their savior.
The whole article is a look at how liberal policies, you know, shit that was done by Democrats, have pretty much been the only things keeping the townspeople alive and how goddamned deluded they are to that fact. For instance, "Beattyville residents want jobs, especially ones that pay more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. They think if anyone can bring jobs back, it's Trump." It's so blindingly stupid and counter to everything that Trump and Republicans talk about. You know what's one way to make sure that you don't get a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour? You raise the goddamned minimum wage, you know, like most Democrats want.
On and on the article goes. We learn that "57% of households receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from Social Security." And since hope is something that knows no rationality, "'I hope [Trump] don't take the benefits away, but at the same time, I think that once more jobs come in a lot of people won't need the benefits,' says [25 year-old Amber] Hayes, who currently receives about $500 a month from government assistance. She's also on Obamacare."
What do you say to Amber? Do you tell her that believing that Trump will create more jobs is as much a fantasy as Hillary Clinton's murders? Do you say that, if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, she's fucked, as she is if Paul Ryan's budget, with cuts to government assistance programs, gets passed?
They believe that Trump is some kind of demi-god who will magically create jobs and make their lives better. "'I believe he wants to take care of us, the little people,' says [a] gas station manager. 'I think he's going to quit giving money to all these other countries and take care of America. I truly do.'" No, you dumb shit, he's gonna give the money to himself, his family, and his friends. If a few coins drop on the floor for you to scrounge for, well, there you go.
And who knows how to change their minds. The death of coal mining jobs has also meant the death of any hope for union involvement. So all they've got is prejudice, talk radio, and alienation. And drugs. You can't forget the drugs. Goddamn, Mitch McConnell told Beattyville residents to their faces that bringing jobs to eastern Kentucky was "not my job" and they still voted for him.
Essentially, the people of Beattyville are refugees living in our country. They are utterly dependent on the government. They have been abused and abandoned by the forces of capitalism. And they exist in an area of deep poverty and crime. The kindest thing we could do for them as a nation is buy their houses and land and relocate them to somewhere where there are some fucking jobs. Because you're not gonna shit out a new industry that'll make Beattyville boom, unless there is big time investment in tourism (truth be told, it's in a goddamn beautiful area).
Coal is done, as I've said, as everyone who isn't a fucking maniac president has said, including the coal companies. It's either been lapped by natural gas or automation has taken over for the miners.
But for the poor who voted for Trump, you are going to be punched in the face repeatedly by your own fists. And you'll come running to Democrats to help you, and we will, 'cause that's who the hell we are, and then you'll run right back to the racist pricks because that's just who the fuck you are: ungrateful, uneducated bastards who have been brainwashed so thoroughly that you don't realize who is stabbing you and who is trying to get your wounds healed, willing victims asking, "Please, may I have another" as the knife is twisted in your gut.
New Dead Sea Scrolls Found
Archeologists in Israel discovered a 12th cave they believe once housed the Dead Sea Scrolls after finding historical artifacts proving they had been stored there. If they are right, it would be the latest “scroll cave” discovered in over 60 years, Harretz reported Wednesday.
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archeology found Cave 12, in the archeological site in Qumran, Israel, close to the location where the first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 in the West Bank. Until the announcement, it was believed that 11 caves had once contained the scrolls.
Cave 12 contained shattered pottery jars, which held the scrolls, scroll casings and strips of cloth that tied the scrolls, which were all over 2,000 years old, one of the project’s head researchers, Dr. Oren Gutfeld from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Travel + Leisure.
Researchers announced that the cave likely held the Dead Sea Scrolls after discovering empty lidded pottery jars similar to the ones found inside of Cave 8. While archeologists found a piece of parchment rolled up in one of the jars from the Second Temple period, which was the same era the Dead Sea scrolls were made in (530 BC to 70 AD), it was blank.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 manuscripts containing parts of what is now known as the Hebrew Bible. In addition to being one of the earliest copies of the Ten Commandments, it is also comprised of secular texts, such as calendars, astronomical information and community regulations.
These can now be viewed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Researchers said the Dead Sea Scrolls that used to be in the cave were likely stolen by Bedouins in the middle of the 20th century after finding two iron pickaxe heads from the 1950’s inside.
"Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we ‘only’ found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen," said Gutfeld.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Democrats Should Resist, But Everything That Happens Is On Republicans
Posted by Rude One
Let's get rid of one part of this in short order: Democrats in Congress should be resisting Trump every step of the way. That includes pushing hearings to crisis levels of antagonism, voting against every unqualified candidate, and, of course, filibustering his Supreme Court picks. It shouldn't even be up for discussion. They will lose and lose, but Democratic House and Senate members would be fundamentally misreading their marching, chanting, raging voters if they fail. As for the fear that Republicans in the Senate will get rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, you can be sure that the moment that Democrats do refuse to allow a vote on whatever right-wing nutzoid Trump tries to shove down America's throat, skeevy powermonger Mitch McConnell is gonna change the rules with his disturbing semi-grin that's a middle finger to his opponents. It's a question of when, not "if" on the filibuster.
Democrats can spin this easily. They could say they won't vote on things until the Muslim ban is halted. They could say that they won't vote for Trump's Supreme Court picks because a majority of Americans don't think he should be able to do so. They could stand up for the judiciary as Trump keeps ignoring court orders.
Democratic voters are already fighting. They are mightily insulted and want active rejection of all things Trump. These are flames that should be fanned by Democrats in Congress until Republicans start to feel the residual heat and are afraid of getting burned.
That's because, on some level, many Republicans realize that they own this presidency and its actions. Oh, sure, sure, they're fine going along with a great deal of dirt that Trump does. Except for the pathetic, neutered goat bleatings of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and a handful of others, Republicans are either conspicuously silent or hee-hawing in support of the Muslim ban, and they're drooling at the prospect of getting Scalia II on the court. But we're now just two weeks into the Trump administration (insert your own retching sound), and we've got a Benghazi and multiple foreign crises. There's only so long that you can keep your head in the sand until you just suffocate.
Actually, it's unfair to compare the disastrous raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen to Benghazi. What happened at the consulate in Libya was an unexpected event. The Yemen raid was an American plan that had been rejected by the Obama administration and then approved by Trump despite the lack of intelligence that might have prevented all the deaths that occurred, including a Navy SEAL and several children. In other words, Trump's first military test was a clusterfuck of fail. And not a single hearing has been scheduled nor have you heard a peep from Republicans.
And you might not, ever. You might not hear them say how utterly absurd it is that Trump is treating the president of Mexico like he's a gardener who cut a shrub at Mar-a-Lago too short. You might not hear them even whisper that agitating China is just dumb. You might not hear them wonder why the hell Trump is pissing on our relationship with Australia, one of our most reliable allies in the world. You might hear them cheering on another useless war, this time with Iran, because that'd just fulfill a dream they've had since 1979. You will hear them crapping themselves over any threat that's Muslimish while clamming up over domestic terrorists like white supremacists and Breitbart's staff.
Still, we know that not only are Republicans cowards, but they're liars and hypocrites who would dance on the corpses of dead children rather than admit their ideology has failed. They'd rather learn to breathe sand than lift their heads and walk upright because they're gonna get to kick sick people off health insurance, discriminate against LGBT Americans, and force women into back alley abortions, the trifecta of quotidian cruelty they're begging to inflict.
So how do we get through to them? Because, see, we don't have two years to wait for the congressional midterms. Hell, all we need is one terrorist event in the United States, and Trump will declare martial law because he's too dumb and deranged to know any other way to handle it.
Two plans: the first is already happening. Inundate the offices and phone lines, especially of GOP representatives. Make their lives miserable with people registering how angry they are. The reps, even in gerrymandered districts, are more vulnerable than most senators. We gotta get people running against them. Put these assholes out on the curb. And make the rest beg for mercy.
And our activism has to target people who voted for Trump. Yeah, I know, I know, they're loathsome racists or racist-adjacent. But there are a hell of a lot of them who are regretting their votes - the wayward Bernie voters, the "take him seriously, but not literally" idiots, and the ones who realized that maybe getting into a war with Mexico is a little worse than Hillary's emails.
Mostly, it all depends on the constant action of Democrats and non-aligned progressives. Make sure Republicans know that they will be held to account for what they do, not just Democrats. This is on the GOP. Make them pay.
Let's get rid of one part of this in short order: Democrats in Congress should be resisting Trump every step of the way. That includes pushing hearings to crisis levels of antagonism, voting against every unqualified candidate, and, of course, filibustering his Supreme Court picks. It shouldn't even be up for discussion. They will lose and lose, but Democratic House and Senate members would be fundamentally misreading their marching, chanting, raging voters if they fail. As for the fear that Republicans in the Senate will get rid of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, you can be sure that the moment that Democrats do refuse to allow a vote on whatever right-wing nutzoid Trump tries to shove down America's throat, skeevy powermonger Mitch McConnell is gonna change the rules with his disturbing semi-grin that's a middle finger to his opponents. It's a question of when, not "if" on the filibuster.
Democrats can spin this easily. They could say they won't vote on things until the Muslim ban is halted. They could say that they won't vote for Trump's Supreme Court picks because a majority of Americans don't think he should be able to do so. They could stand up for the judiciary as Trump keeps ignoring court orders.
Democratic voters are already fighting. They are mightily insulted and want active rejection of all things Trump. These are flames that should be fanned by Democrats in Congress until Republicans start to feel the residual heat and are afraid of getting burned.
That's because, on some level, many Republicans realize that they own this presidency and its actions. Oh, sure, sure, they're fine going along with a great deal of dirt that Trump does. Except for the pathetic, neutered goat bleatings of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and a handful of others, Republicans are either conspicuously silent or hee-hawing in support of the Muslim ban, and they're drooling at the prospect of getting Scalia II on the court. But we're now just two weeks into the Trump administration (insert your own retching sound), and we've got a Benghazi and multiple foreign crises. There's only so long that you can keep your head in the sand until you just suffocate.
Actually, it's unfair to compare the disastrous raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen to Benghazi. What happened at the consulate in Libya was an unexpected event. The Yemen raid was an American plan that had been rejected by the Obama administration and then approved by Trump despite the lack of intelligence that might have prevented all the deaths that occurred, including a Navy SEAL and several children. In other words, Trump's first military test was a clusterfuck of fail. And not a single hearing has been scheduled nor have you heard a peep from Republicans.
And you might not, ever. You might not hear them say how utterly absurd it is that Trump is treating the president of Mexico like he's a gardener who cut a shrub at Mar-a-Lago too short. You might not hear them even whisper that agitating China is just dumb. You might not hear them wonder why the hell Trump is pissing on our relationship with Australia, one of our most reliable allies in the world. You might hear them cheering on another useless war, this time with Iran, because that'd just fulfill a dream they've had since 1979. You will hear them crapping themselves over any threat that's Muslimish while clamming up over domestic terrorists like white supremacists and Breitbart's staff.
Still, we know that not only are Republicans cowards, but they're liars and hypocrites who would dance on the corpses of dead children rather than admit their ideology has failed. They'd rather learn to breathe sand than lift their heads and walk upright because they're gonna get to kick sick people off health insurance, discriminate against LGBT Americans, and force women into back alley abortions, the trifecta of quotidian cruelty they're begging to inflict.
So how do we get through to them? Because, see, we don't have two years to wait for the congressional midterms. Hell, all we need is one terrorist event in the United States, and Trump will declare martial law because he's too dumb and deranged to know any other way to handle it.
Two plans: the first is already happening. Inundate the offices and phone lines, especially of GOP representatives. Make their lives miserable with people registering how angry they are. The reps, even in gerrymandered districts, are more vulnerable than most senators. We gotta get people running against them. Put these assholes out on the curb. And make the rest beg for mercy.
And our activism has to target people who voted for Trump. Yeah, I know, I know, they're loathsome racists or racist-adjacent. But there are a hell of a lot of them who are regretting their votes - the wayward Bernie voters, the "take him seriously, but not literally" idiots, and the ones who realized that maybe getting into a war with Mexico is a little worse than Hillary's emails.
Mostly, it all depends on the constant action of Democrats and non-aligned progressives. Make sure Republicans know that they will be held to account for what they do, not just Democrats. This is on the GOP. Make them pay.
Pelosi: "Impeachment off the table"....again??? WTF??
Monday at Capitol Hill at a House Democrats news conference, discussing
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) comments last week that her “greatest desire,”
would be to impeach President Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Rep.
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the president has “acted in a way that is
strategically incoherent, that is incompetent and that is reckless.” and
that is not grounds for impeachment but “When and if he breaks the law,
that is when something like that would come up.”
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017
We Know How This Ends
The White House is once again tolerant of white supremacy.
WASHINGTON—There
are some remarkable stories that have vanished for now in this city.
One of the most prominent of these is that out-and-out white supremacy
is operating at the very top levels of the executive branch of the
government in a way that it hasn't since, I don't know, the Wilson
administration. The Collected Works of Steve Bannon are bad enough. From
USA Today:
"They are motivated. They're arrogant. They're on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian West is on the retreat."
And,
if Bannon isn't enough, there's this guy who looks at immigration as an
invasion, an act of war. Which, of course, never has been a problem
anywhere else in the world, ever. From New York:
"The ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty means that the electorate grows more left, more Democratic, less Republican, less republican, and less traditionally American with every cycle."
The whole campaign stank of this kind of thing,
but there was a great scrambling during the campaign to minimize or to
ignore it, or at least to minimize or ignore the possibility that it
would continue to flourish within the administration. (This manifested
itself more clearly in the stubborn refusal by many news organizations
to recognize how vital this phenomenon was to the campaign's overall
appeal.) This, it seems, was very premature. This development on
Wednesday is downright unnerving. From Reuters:
The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States. Such a change would reflect Trump's election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase "radical Islam" in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.
Leave
aside the fact that everyone who knows what they're talking about
thinks this move is counterproductive in the fight against that which
the president* believes he's at war. This is an unmistakable signal to
the camo-wearing, gravity-knife wing of modern conservatism that it's
less of a priority for federal law enforcement any more.
Related Story
This comes on the heels of a story in The Intercept that white ethnocracy is becoming quite the fashion among various law-enforcement officers.
In a heavily redacted version of an October 2006 FBI internal intelligence assessment, the agency raised the alarm over white supremacist groups' "historical" interest in "infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel." The effort, the memo noted, "can lead to investigative breaches and can jeopardize the safety of law enforcement sources or personnel." The memo also states that law enforcement had recently become aware of the term "ghost skins," used among white supremacists to describe "those who avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes." In at least one case, the FBI learned of a skinhead group encouraging ghost skins to seek employment with law enforcement agencies in order to warn crews of any investigations.
There
is no question that this old, rough beast has been unleashed in our
politics again. The first steps in unlocking the cage happened years
ago, when modern conservatism attached itself to the reanimated corpse
of American apartheid and rode it to glory. Anyone who doesn't see the
danger should pay a visit to Oklahoma City. That is what we can do to
each other if our leaders are reckless, ambitious men who think what
they say has no consequences.
In
the museum near where the Murrah Building once stood, there is the
handle of a jack that was in the back of the truck in which Timothy
McVeigh placed his bomb. That jack handle was blown nearly a quarter of a
mile and lodged in the wall of a law office. There is also a clear tube
containing hundreds of watches, all stopped at 9:03. No political gain
is worth that.
The Gridlockers Bitch About Gridlock
Democrats intensified their opposition to President Trump on Tuesday by
further delaying the confirmations of several of his Cabinet nominees,
prompting a bitter showdown with Republicans who accused them of
paralyzing the formation of a new administration.
First, Democrats boycotted a Senate committee scheduled to take two votes, one on Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, and the other on Steve Mnuchin, his choice to lead the treasury. Then, they blocked a vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
The theatrics reflected growing concern over Trump’s travel ban for refugees and foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, an order issued Friday with virtually no consultation with top government officials or senior lawmakers. In blocking Sessions, Democrats also cited the president’s firing Monday night of acting attorney general Sally Yates for refusing to defend the ban.
Full story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html
First, Democrats boycotted a Senate committee scheduled to take two votes, one on Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, and the other on Steve Mnuchin, his choice to lead the treasury. Then, they blocked a vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
The theatrics reflected growing concern over Trump’s travel ban for refugees and foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, an order issued Friday with virtually no consultation with top government officials or senior lawmakers. In blocking Sessions, Democrats also cited the president’s firing Monday night of acting attorney general Sally Yates for refusing to defend the ban.
Full story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Democrats Block Votes Because These Two Couldn't Stop Lying
Are Democrats finally growing a spine? Not really. Cenk Uygur and Ana
Kasparian, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.
"On Tuesday, shortly before the Finance hearing began, committee Democrats huddled in the office of the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and agreed that they would all boycott the session, aides said.
The boycott was prompted by Democrats’ concerns that Mnuchin had initially misstated his personal wealth on financial disclosure forms and misstated how OneWest Bank, a bank he led as chairman and chief executive officer, scrutinized mortgage documents. Democrats have also raised questions about Price and his personal financial investments in health-care companies and legislation he promoted that could have benefited several of the same companies. Some of the stock trades, as well as campaign donations from companies, closely coincided with one another.
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html
"On Tuesday, shortly before the Finance hearing began, committee Democrats huddled in the office of the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and agreed that they would all boycott the session, aides said.
The boycott was prompted by Democrats’ concerns that Mnuchin had initially misstated his personal wealth on financial disclosure forms and misstated how OneWest Bank, a bank he led as chairman and chief executive officer, scrutinized mortgage documents. Democrats have also raised questions about Price and his personal financial investments in health-care companies and legislation he promoted that could have benefited several of the same companies. Some of the stock trades, as well as campaign donations from companies, closely coincided with one another.
Hosts: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian
Cast: Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-democrats-face-a-key-test-tuesday-amid-promises-to-stand-up-to-trump/2017/01/31/1685487a-e7bd-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html
The Elder Scrolls Online Morrowind Announced
This June, the next Chapter in The Elder Scrolls Online will begin. Return to the iconic island of Vvardenfell for over 30 hours of adventure in a brand new location, with a new class, a new PvP mode, a new Trial, and so much more.
The fate of Morrowind hangs in the balance and you must take up the mantle of a hero to help Vivec, the legendary warrior-poet and Guardian of Vvardenfell, save the world from a deadly Daedric threat.
Set roughly 700 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, ESO's new Chapter takes you to familiar locations as you attempt to solve the mystery of Vivec's mysterious illness and restore his strength. Travel from the volcanic Ashlands to the mushroom-filled forests, and walk the streets of Vivec City, still under construction at this point in time.
With the largest landmass addition to date, a brand-new player class, and an intense new PvP mode, The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind is the perfect entry point for new players and a great way for veterans to continue their journey.
Those who already own ESO can simply upgrade their experience and immediately jump into the new Chapter when it launches on June 6, 2017 for all platforms, including on PC in Japan. And thanks to the One Tamriel update from last October, new players can also sail directly into Morrowind and play with other adventurers of all levels. The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind also includes all the original ESO content, so new players will have access to hundreds of hours of excitement throughout Tamriel. Existing players can choose to carry their characters over to Morrowind, or start fresh on a new adventure with a new face.
And you may indeed want to give a new character a go, as Morrowind introduces the first new class since ESO launched. The new Warden class wields powerful nature-based magic and, true to the Elder Scrolls franchise, can be customized with a number of abilities to suit your play style. Explore the island of Vvardenfell and charge headfirst into battle knowing your Warden's ferocious War Bear always has your back.
Morrowind also introduces a new Trial and PvP mode for you to check out. Enter the Telvanni tower of Tel Fyr with your strongest allies to battle your way through the Halls of Fabrication, and explore a part of the Clockwork City in a challenging new 12-player Trial. Or, you can head to the Ashlands to take on fellow players in exciting 4v4v4 battles in arena-like environments. These highly competitive fast-paced matches will feature your choice in a variety of game types across three different maps.
Four different editions of Morrowind will be available at launch: the Standard Edition, the Upgrade Edition, the Digital Collector's Edition and a physical Collector's Edition. Get all the details on what's included in each edition here, or you can check out our pre-order FAQ here.
Starting today, when you pre-order any edition of The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, you'll receive the Discovery Pack which contains the following:
- Exclusive Warden costume – a costume for all classes that matches the Warden's outfit, as seen in the announcement trailer above
- Dwarven War Dog – a unique armored (non-combatant) in-game pet
- Treasure Maps – maps detailing the location of Vvardenfell's greatest rewards
- Dwarven Crown Crate – a special Crown Crate that gives you the chance to receive Dwarven-themed mounts, pets, costumes and more
- Experience Scrolls – advance through Vvardenfell, gaining 50% more experience for two hours
We'll be sharing more details about each of the new features Morrowind has to offer over the next few months, and can't wait to have you discover the latest Chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online. Tell us what you're most excited about on our official forums, or on Twitter using the #Morrowind hashtag!
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2017/01/31/the-elder-scrolls-online-morrowind--announcement-and-details
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