Trump List for 1/30/18

Here is this week's Trump list from The Weekly List and Amy Siskind:

https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-63/

The Friday Link for 1/26/18

Three very different videos for this Friday.

First off,  a great video from Burger King.  I KNOW!  This is a fantastic real world breakdown of what the FCC's decision to get rid of net neutrality will really do, and it is presented in Whopper burger form.  It should be said one of the members of the FCC resigned about the same time this video came out because he stated the Trump Administration and the FCC were completely controlled by the internet service providers who want to bring a cable TV level of service to the internet.

The end of the video is top notch trolling of Ajit Pai, the jackass behind getting rid of net neutrality rules.  Maybe Burger King moved their HQ to Canada for more than profit reasons...



I love this SNL bit with Jessica Chastain from last week's show, What Even Matters Anymore.  It reminds me of my wife; the lava hot fury at Trump with is bubbling under the surface of a usually level headed and even keeled woman.  Personally I think it's one of the best SNL bits this year.



And finally, U2.  They seem to be remembering they were once one of the better protest bands, as they set their sights on Trump and the ugliness that surrounds him.



That's an eclectic trio!  Enjoy, have a great weekend!

Trump List for 1/23/18

Here's the latest update from The Weekly List:

https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-62/

The Birds, the Bees and the Minnesota Vikings

As I drove my kids to school Monday morning, we talked about the Minnesota Vikings disturbing loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game Sunday night.  I was commenting how Case Keenum, the serviceable Vikings quarterback, who outside of one half and one miraculous throw to end the game against New Orleans looked very much out of his league in the playoffs, was unlikely to take us to the Super Bowl in the future.  He just can't shake it off when an interception happens, even when it's not his fault.  It completely throws off his game.

It was then my even keeled son did something unexpected.  He exploded.  "Enough dad! You may be giving up, but it's time for me to say a few things.  The Vikings are good! And Case is a great quarterback.  He's our best option for next year!"

I was stunned.  I demanded he apologize for his tone (which he did) and we hashed out what was really going on.  Considering his fandom of the Vikings is young, he was angry and frustrated about them losing to Philly.  Me, having been a Vikings fan for almost 50 years, my anger and frustration burned out a long time ago.

Let's talk about Sunday night.  The Vikings spent all their energy, emotion and discipline in a week of grandstanding and glorifying the 'Minneapolis Miracle' play, a hail Mary where Case Keenum threw to Stefon Diggs, who then scampered into the end zone at the end of regulation, winning last week's Divisional playoff game.  It was a euphoric and exhausting finish, one for the ages.  It's not a surprise the Vikings had very little left when it came to the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles aren't a great team, but they took advantage of a jumpy and jittery Vikings squad who were looking to repeat the magic of the previous week, at the expense of basic fundamentals.

Leading up to Sunday's game, everything seemed to scream 'Vikings loss.'  Everyone was acting like this was going to be an 'easy' Vikings win, a HUGE red flag (Philadelphia had home field advantage for a reason!).  Earlier on Sunday, I told my son "watch us get blown out by four touchdowns and make Eagles journeyman quarterback Nick Foles look like the 2nd coming of Joe Montana."  Mission accomplished!  I turned it off at the end of the first half when the Vikings stopped playing.  As Philadelphia marched down the field, looking to add to their 21-7 lead, the Vikes seemed lost and disinterested.  That's when the game was over.  My family made the decision to watch 'The Martian' instead.

In reality, the Eagles did us a huge favor.  I watched the New England Patriots/Jacksonville Jaguars AFC Championship game.  The Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl again, regardless of the NFC.  It's not just the memory of last year's 25 point comeback in the final 17 minutes of Super Bowl 51 which convinced me the Pats will be victorious.  Watching them on Sunday, they're just in a class all by themselves.  Can you imagine how badly the psyche of Minnesota would've been destroyed if the Patriots routed us, AT HOME, in Super Bowl 52?  The negative vibe would've been so bad, people and corporations would've moved.

Eventually the Vikings will win the Super Bowl, and there's a good chance they could under Head Coach Mike Zimmer, but even if I thought they were the best team in football, I can't pick them to win.  Too many times the sure thing has failed me.  Too many times I have bought into the excitement, rejecting common sense.  I've become indifferent to the potential of a Vikings Championship, proven by my "that's too bad.  Hey, Matt Damon on Mars!"

But I'm not my 16 year old son, or my 13 and 10 year old daughters.  They're the ones starting off on their Minnesota sports fan journey.  They need to have their hearts ripped out for a few decades before they can put it into perspective.  As painful as those lessons are, that's okay!  Sports, including the Minnesota Vikings, are parsley on the plate of life.  If you ignore what's really important, focusing on such tertiary whimsy, you end up becoming a delusional, pathetic, hollow human, only happy when your team is wining, or the team you hate is losing (many Green Bay Packer fans gleefulness at Sunday night's Vikings loss would be Exhibit 'A').  You're prioritizing the plate decoration over the main course.

My son did point out the Chicago Cubs of baseball did finally win it all, and decades of frustrated Cubs fans celebrated.  Maybe my kids will celebrate a Vikings Super Bowl victory in their 20's, or in their 40's with their own kids.  Maybe it will be when they're grandparents, telling their grandkids of how their great grandfather always expected the Vikings to lose.

I'll always watch Vikings' playoff games, until they give me a reason to turn it off, and, without a doubt, I'll cheer for the Vikings if they win it all.  As they say, "nothing is impossible," but just don't expect me to believe in the impossible before it's proven to be plausible.  But then again, I'm not a 16 year old kid.

The Friday Link for 1/19/18

This will not get old anytime soon.  Here's the final play of the Vikings/Saints game, and the chaos that ensued afterwards.



You can't blame me for thinking the Vikings are going to lose.  My entire life, that's all they've done.  It would be one thing is they had won ONCE, but no.

A few years back, when they were playing the Saints in New Orleans for the NFC title, I started to believe.  Then Brett Favre threw across his body and was intercepted.  That's when the last bit of optimism I had died.

If they win on Sunday, great.  I still think they'll lose at home in the Super Bowl.  Don't call me a bad fan; I'm what they've made me.

I think the real foreign reality is how do you react in Minnesota if the Vikings were to win?  Regardless, two billion is still WAY too much to pay for a football stadium.  At least I'm consistent...

Have a great weekend everyone!  And go Vikes!

January Sports Roundup!

Finally, now that I'm not writing Trump lists, I can focus on stories I've wanted to write about.  This post will be about the world of sports!

#1 - Major League Baseball needs to investigate The Miami Marlins, namely Derek Jeter, the current CEO of the Marlins and the former New York Yankees superstar who seems to have sold out his current team.  The Miami Marlins traded Giancarlo Stanton, the exceptional hitting outfielder, the best player in baseball, to the New York Yankees.  In return, the Yankees only had to give up an average 2nd baseman, Starlin Castro, and two minor leaguers who will likely never make the majors.  Even Miami acknowledged the minor league players have limited potential.

This trade is unbelievable.  Starlin Castro is a few steps below Twin's 2nd baseman Brian Dozier.  He's a mid level player, nowhere near the talent level of Stanton.  I know some will say "what's the big deal?  So the Yankees got a great bargain."  The problem is this trade reeks of Jeter playing favorites and sending the Marlin's best player to his former team for peanuts.

I have zero doubt the three other teams in the hunt for Stanton probably were offering FAR more in trade for him.  He wanted to go to the LA Dodgers, a team who had strong interest in attaining him, and the Cubs and the World Series winner Astros were also in contention.  There's no way all three teams would've offered so little for baseball's best player.  This means Jeter, even though he's no longer a Yankee, and is supposed to have Miami's best interests at heart, made the decision to move Stanton to the Yankees, likely costing tremendous value from one of the other interested teams.  Miami lost HUGE in this trade.  This signifies a new future strategy for wealthy teams; start infiltrating the smaller market teams, and start sending their best players to the biggest teams for pennies on the dollar.

This reminds me of the time Kevin McHale seemed to instigate the trade of Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics, the team McHale garnered all of his glory from.  I think the Minnesota T-wolves had a chance to re-sign Garnett, something Stanton was unlikely to do with Miami, but at least the Celtics gave up five players and two draft picks in return (although most of the return value was garbage).

MLB should investigate why no real value came back to Miami.  In reality, baseball's going to say nothing, and (my prediction) Jeter will leave the Marlins in a few years, eagerly greeted back in NewYork to a hero's welcome.


#2 - College Football is still garbage!

There are a few reasons I shake my head at NCAA football.  First is the reality Ohio State, a team I do not like, would've mopped the floor with either Alabama or Georgia.  They just would've.  I'm not saying the NCAA purposely left out Ohio State, but I think their desire to have more SEC representation in their four team playoff made them overlook the best team in football.  Their formula needs tweaking, to say the least.

I have no respect for the South East Conference (SEC), the conference the NCAA considers to be their most important.  The SEC has set it up to where they rarely have to play a game in the cold.  While USC might be visiting the PAC 10 mountain colleges, Miami and Florida State occasionally play late ACC games in New England, and Ohio State and Michigan might have to play a brutal cold game in Minnesota, SEC schools rarely play in temperatures below 50.  Frankly, I think their best team would get their caboose handed to them in a November road game against Minnesota, if they had to play outside in 32 degrees.  I think the SEC is weak, but the NCAA is in love with them.

Finally, the NCAA Division I Football, the bowl games and the corporate sponsors all want to pick the teams who play for the championship.  They could easily play a 16 game tournament which would include every top team, and every undefeated team, but the powers that be are terrified of a smaller school not as prestigious as the handful of teams who's logos are featured in every hat store in the country, making a run.  This is why they're committed to a half ass solution of four teams, picked in a flawed manner, by a system which is definitely corrupt, to decide their champion.


#3 - Please remember, sports are supposed to be parsley on the plate of life.  When I hear Vikings fans scream about how the incredible ending of last Sunday's game was "the greatest moment in my life," I weep.  Your life SUCKS if the outcome of a sporting event is it's greatest moment.  Your family, your graduation, your wedding, your kid's births...none of that was better?

And it's not just major league sports.  The Brained High School basketball coach announced he's leaving the program because the parents are too intense.  This is a guy who was a cop, and he insists coaching is far more stressful.  The over emphasizing of sports, from youth to the majors, is one of the reasons this country stumbles.

Not saying I don't like sports.  I love baseball, and hockey. I'll be watching the Vikings game and cheering on the team, but when the game is over, I'll have about a thousand things far more important to deal with.  I have a full life, not one which needs to be propped up by false success.  If the best thing about your town or your state is a sports team, then your town or your state sucks.  #FACT!

The New Trump List!

One of the reasons I'm no longer doing Trump list is because I found a better one.  It's from Amy Siskind, a FAR better researcher, journalist and writer than I'll ever be.  I do beat her on number of snarky and comical GIFs, but I concede the match to her!

I'll actually try to post these on Monday, but this week, it's the Thursday after.

https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-61/

The Friday Link fro 1/12/18

The Friday Link goes to Comedy Central.

Three cuts; two related.  First the Daily Show and Trevor Noah, and his takedown of Trump referencing certain countries in an extremely derogatory manner.  I will warn you the language is rough, but you already knew that.



Second, we head off to The Opposition with Jordan Klepper and a field piece which is as good as anything from the heyday of Jon Stewart's Daily Show.  Kobi Libii goes to Twin Falls, Idaho to research the Breitbart story which was designed to still up anger about immigrants and refugees.

Watch both segments.  The end of the second clip features a doozie of a stupid answer from alt-media jackass Lee Stranahan.





Have a great weekend everyone

President Trump, Weeks 49, 50, and 51

Here's THREE WEEKS of ignorance, treason, buffoonery and incompetence coming from President Trump and his White House for Week 49 (Monday, December 18th through Sunday the 24th), Week 50 (Monday, December 25th through Sunday the 31st) and Week 51 (Monday, January 1 through Sunday the 7th).  This is likely not all of the Trump team's transgressions, but it's most of them.

(It's 6:30 PM!  Time for a bedtime cheeseburger!)

The disclaimer: the whole point of this list is to expose the incredible double standard of the Republican party.  If the letter next to the President's name was a 'D' instead of an 'R,' everything on this list would've had at least warranted press conference condemnation from the Republicans.  Many of these issues would've started immediate Congressional investigations, and some would've EASILY started impeachment proceedings.  Take your pick - the Papadopoulos Australia Revelation, the constant lies, the lack of work, his four hour work day, the Michael Wolff book, the continued Russian connections, Trump's utter failure in Puerto Rico; there are at least 15 things over the last three weeks which should've signaled the final day of Trump's term.

Instead, Republicans suck.

This will take some time.  Stretch, get a snack and a drink, and off we go!


Week 49

• White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump were hit with a new lawsuit which says they have made significant omissions on their federal financial disclosure forms
  
• The head of the CDC says there are no banned words handed down by Trump, but does not refute the story they were given a list of words they are not supposed to say
• Trump announces the GOP is undefeated in special elections in 2017...that is not even close to being truthful
• The family of Sgt. La David Johnson, who lost their loved one, who were attacked by Trump, and who have been given nothing but a run around, reveal they have been given seven different stories about how he died in Niger.  Once again, I DO NOT BELIVE IN POLITICIZING THE MILITARY OR THE DEATHS OF SOLDIERS.  The point of this list is what would Republicans be going crazy for if it was a Democratic president in office.  This would've undoubtedly already had multiple investigations if it was a 'D' in the White House
• Trump is officially removing climate change as a national security threat, even thought the military and NASA strongly disagree with him
  
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump actually said no other president before her father had ever openly discussed national safety with the public.  WOW...
• Apparently Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was purposely skipping a major foreign policy speech by Trump.  When word got out about it, Tillerson showed up in the end
• Trump uses an Amtrak derailment in Washington to push his infrastructure plan, which cut funding to Amtrak
  
• An investigation is beginning, an audit of the finances around EPA Director Scott Pruitt's trip to Morocco
  
• It's now known the Trump Campaign was warned directly by the FBI of the Russians, and immediately started communicating with the Russians
• Jill Stein's Green Party campaign is being investigated for possible collusion with the Russians by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which could in turn prove a definitive pattern by the Russians to defeat Clinton, installing Trump as their preferred leader
• Robert Mueller says he will work on the Trump/Russia probe until at least December of 2018
  
• Trump fans, after Twitter started purging their hate from Twitter, have taken to Taylor Swift's app for fans of her music, and have turned it into a racist, hate filled chat room
• The US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  The resolution was poised to pass overwhelmingly
• As the Trump tax bill prepares to pass, Republicans acknowledge there are major faults with it, but as opposed to pull the bill and fix the problems, desperate for ANY win, they're going pass it, vowing to pass another bill in the future to fix the issues
  
• Rex Tillerson was so ill prepared to be Secretary of State, he actually had to take diplomacy 101, including having to be told you need to treat allies better than you treat adversaries
• The Trump robot in Disney's Hall of Presidents is as creepy as one could imagine
  
• Former Intelligence Diretor James Clapper called Trump a Kremlin Asset, with Putin managing Trump as if Trump was an account he personally recruited.  Ex intelligence officials and diplomats are stunned by Clapper's evaluation
• Once again, the self proclaimed 'detailed oriented' Trump made a mistake.  Instead of linking the full text of Trump National Security report, the White House instead linked a tweet from 2nd Lady Karen Pence
  
• Various polls have majorities which say Trump is a hot head who should resign, Trump has dramatically worsened race relations, and Trump's approval rating is at an all time low, the lowest for any first year President, ever
• House passes Trump tax bill, high fives, sends it to the Senate, where they immediately have to pull three things out of it.  The provisions went against Senate rules for what they could approve with a simple majority vote.  Now the House gets to vote on it a second time, because the GOP apparently are idiots
  
• White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders again proclaims Trump can't release his taxes (an outright lie), that he'll see his personal taxes go up with the Trump tax bill (something she can no way prove without releasing his taxes, so another lie) and then tells the truth when she admits Trump's business will likely receive massive tax cuts
• North Korea, after being provoked by Trump, is now testing missiles with anthrax in them
  
• Thousands of mental health professionals are warning about Trump's increasing instability
• 41% of Americans want Trump impeached
• Trump holds a cabinet meeting which was far more like an evil dictator's 'cabinet meeting.'  The Secretaries and Vice President all took time praising Trump
  
• The House re-voted and the Trump tax bill is headed to Trump for a signature.  He won't sign it immediately, because apparently it's still not completely written
• Trump admits after the tax bill passes it was about giving massive tax cuts to businesses, not to the middle class, as described by the GOP
  
• Trump tells Representative Steve Scalise, who was shot earlier this year, that it was "a hell of a way to lose weight."
• Trump's bragging his tax bill killed ObamaCare.  It didn't.  It wounded it by taking away the mandate, meaning the more people who opt out, the less effective it will be, but it still exists.  They'll have to get Democratic votes to get rid of it completely, something which won't happen
  
• The Children's Health Insurance Program was mysteriously omitted from the tax bill, and hence is set to expire at the end of this year.  Trump says they'll deal with it in 2018, so don't get sick kids
• California woman is suing Trump's brownshirts, ICE agents, who illegally detained her.  She's a US citizen, and has been one for 20 years
  
• The leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, warned Trump to not fire Robert Mueller, as it would cause a Constitutional crisis
• After UN Ambassador Nikki Haley bullied the UN Security Council, and vetoed their resolution, the full UN General Assembly took up the vote.  Once again, Nikki Haley tried to bully the other countries into siding with the US.  It didn't go too well.  Nine countries, including the US and Israel, were on the US's side, 35 abstained (many abstaining after Haley's threats, because they didn't want to be perceived as a US puppet) and over 120 countries voted against Trump
  
• A biographer says Melania Trump is far happier when she's without her husband around
• In an eye raising announcement, Vice President Mike Pence says he is fully cooperating with the Mueller investigation
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump has no plans on firing Mueller because they are all convinced this will wrap up soon
  
• Karl Rove is begging the GOP to keep "Trump off the campaign trial in 2018
• Second US judge blocks Trump's new proposed birth control rules
• Former CIA Director John Brennan spoke up on Twitter after Trump's attempt at strong arming the world.  He called Trump's actions outrageous and described his behavior as "qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats"
  
• The purge is beginning at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Trump installed leader Mick Mulvaney has installed 6 Trump loyalists to the upper management, after revelations of the anti-administration CFPB uprising called 'Dumbledore's Army' came to light
• Trump's Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Scott Lloyd, has personally forbidden any immigrant teen in his custody from receiving an abortion with out his signing off on said procedure.  The Dec. 17th memo which describes this illegal policy was revealed after a 17 year old rape victim in custody was being denied an abortion
  
• 9 Million people signed up for ObamaCare in 2017
• Sanity returns! Six protesters who were being prosecuted on trumped up charges after they protested Trump's Inauguration were all found not guilty
• More Intelligence experts are agreeing with James Clapper's assessment Putin is handling Trump like a Russian asset
  
  (These fantastic photos courtesy of Twitter account @bornmiserable)
• Emails handed over to the Mueller probe from White House Lawyer Don McGahn show he was frantically researching federal law dealing with lying to Federal investigators and also was researching the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.  This points to McGahn knowing Flynn had lied to the FBI, and that he had made Trump aware of it too
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump had a heated exchange with Former Senior Presidential Advisor Steve Bannon.  In a Spring meeting, when Ivanka accused Bannon of leaking to the media, Bannon responded "She's the queen of leaks," referring to Ivanka.  Let's move past the pure comedic potential of that line alone. Ivanka shot back "You're a f*ing liar"
  
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump also went on TV to tout the Trump tax bill, misstating the timeline (some) people will see a benefit.  She also said these tax cuts will pay down the deficit, meaning she knows nothing of how economics work, and then she boasted about filing returns on postcards.  That is not going to happen
• White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn is stepping down to go work in the private sector
• Trump's pick to be Ambassador to The Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, was interviewed by a Dutch journalist about inflammatory statements he made about The Netherlands, including stating Muslims were setting fire to Dutch politicians, and there were no-go zones in The Netherlands where only Muslims were allowed.  Hoekstra, cockily, called that "fake news," following with "I never said that."  The journalist then played the tape, TO HIS FACE, of him saying it, to which he stated "I didn't call it fake news. I didn't use those words today..."  This is all on video
  
• Trump's long time personal assistant Rhona Graff met with the Mueller investigation
• Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has ruled out the possibility of an peace deal in the Middle East with Trump's announcement of the moving of the US Embassy to Jerusalem
• Trump signs the Trump tax bill, and a bill to keep the Government open, into law
• Senator Mark Warner, lead Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says he has seem damning evidence against Trump, evidence which would undoubtedly lead to his dismissal, but noted Robert Mueller has even MORE damning evidence
  
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump's diamonds from her defunct jewelry line where apparently used in a massive money laundering scheme
• Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for the family business records of White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner
• Trump, because of his ego, redesigned the Presidential 'challenge coin,' a memento handed out  during their time in office, to reflect an 'all Trump, all the time' meme.  No other President had a personally themed challenge coin
  
• Trump Administrations apparently holding an American Citizen in secret in Iraq and has yet to give him access to a lawyer.  They are implying if he renounces his US citizenship, he can walk free, so he's clearly not a terror threat
• Court says Trump's travel ban should not apply to people who have strong ties to the US
• Things Trump said he'd do on Day One of his term which he has yet to accomplish:  Fire all Ambassadors, Repeal and Replace ObamaCare with better cheaper healthcare, deport all undocumented immigrants, fix the Department of Veterans Affairs (undoubtedly far worse than when Trump took over), build a wall on the Mexican border, implement a plan to deal with ISIS, pull out of NAFTA completely and renegotiate it, get rid of all gun free zones, build safe zones in Syria for refugees to stop Syrian resettlement, stop all wasteful spending (has he met Pruitt and Zinke yet?), end the war on coal, completely change rules of visitation to the US, threaten all companies shipping their jobs overseas with a 35% tariff (did he make any calls on that one?), end abortion rights, shutter Planned Parenthood, and end all regulations 
  
• Energy companies and other businesses will not longer be prosecuted by Trump's DOJ for killing migratory birds as long as they just claim it was an accident
  
• Justice Department is weakening the guidelines for protecting immigrant children in court
• In court arguments, the argument against Mick Mulvaney running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau include Trump tweets which show his biased 'business over the consumer' stances
• Trump Administration is looking to Nazi Germany for a 'deterrent' against immigrants, promising to permanently separate parents from their children if the family is caught entering the country illegally.  The Nazis notoriously did that
  
• An appeals court rules Trump's travel ban exceeds presidential authority 
• At least 24 Trump staffers have not made it one year in his White House
• In an interview with CBS, Vice President Mike Pence frantically tried to avoid answering anything about what he knew, and when he knew it, in regards to Micheal Flynn.  Clearly he was avoiding going on the record with anything specific
• Trump, a man who has repeatedly denied climate change is real, has been arguing climate change IS real in efforts to get a protective wall built to prevent his golf course in County Clare, Ireland from falling into the sea
  
• Republicans are terrified of the mid-term elections.  They are calling for more bipartisan efforts with the Democrats after what THEY THEMSELVES DESCRIBED as a "pretty partisan [2017]." Freaking Senate Majority Leader Mitch 'I HATE OBAMA' McConnell made the laughable statement "We're going to be looking for areas of bipartisan agreement because that's the way the Senate is."  WOW!  Their internal numbers must be showing an impending blood bath
• A second court rules against Trump's transgender ban for the military
• Trump continues with his inconsistent official statements on North Korea, stating he supports new UN sanctions, and insists he "wants peace, not death"
  
• Investigators are keying in on a loan White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner got for his family business one month before the election in 2016.  The amount of the loan: $285 million
• A New York Times report states Trump was furious about the amount of visas the US was issuing, and let his feelings be known about immigrants from two countries in particular.  Referring to Haitians, a group Trump is no longer willing to keep here as refugees after natural disasters, Trump stated "they all have AIDS."  Referring to the 40,000 Nigerian visas issued, he stated Nigerians wouldn't "go back to their huts" after seeing the US.  Six officials who attended a meeting, or were briefed about it, have confirmed he did say those two statements
  
• Trump's average poll rating (including the bias pro-Trump polls) is only 37.1%, a full ten points lower than any other President, since Truman, at this point in their term
• Trump spent another day at one of his golf properties since taking office, the 84th trip to a golf course since he took office in January.  Remember when Republicans SCREAMED about how much President Obama golfed.  I SURE DO!
• Apparently the White House has no strategy for the 2018 elections, and hasn't even thought about it
  
• Trump took time from golfing to tweet.  He went after Hillary Clinton, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former FBI Director James Comey, trying to tie them all together in a laughably easy to disprove conspiracy theory.  Coincidently, the tweet was made minutes after Fox News aired a segment about the very same laughable conspiracy theory
• Christians in the Middle East have blasted Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for their stance on moving the US Embassy for Israel to Jerusalem. They say they've dramatically put their lives at risk, and have pretty much killed off all Christian tourism to the area
  
• Former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski, a man who physically assaulted a female reporter while on the campaign trail, has been accused of inappropriate sexual contact with pro-Trump singer Joy Villa at a November holiday party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC
  
• A Federal judge in Seattle has partially blocked Trump's latest restrictions on refugee admissions 
• Only 21% of Americans feel they are going to be better off under Trump's tax plan
• Someone sent Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin a box of manure for Christmas
• Steve Bannon claims the biggest problem in the White House is "Javanka," which is his 'celebrity name' for White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump.  I only put that here for "Javanka"
  
• The White House is disputing the confirmed New York Times story about Trump's incredibly insensitive comments about Haitians and Nigerians
• The top aide who helped Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke with his National Monuments purge, Downey Magallanes, is the daughter of a coal executive from Peabody Energy
  
• A Federal Judge has ordered Trump's anti-voting Czar Kris Kobach, and the Republican members of Trump's Anti-Voting Committee to hand over internal documents they purposely withheld from the Democratic members of the Committee
• Only 20% of Americans approve of the FCC's decision to get rid of net neutrality
• Trump told a roomful of millionaires and billionaires at Mar-A-Lago, since the tax bill passed, "you all just got a lot richer"
  
• Continuing his insane narrative no one ever said Merry Christmas, or favored Christmas, in the Obama White House, Trump, in his Christmas greeting to the troops, from his luxury office at Mar-A-Lago, stated "we say Christmas again very proudly"
• Trump, on Christmas Eve, tweeted out an image implying CNN's blood on the bottom of his shoe.  Former head of the US Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub called Trump a "wannabe Autocrat"
• Trump has spend 91 million in tax payer dollars in the first year of his Administration on vacations
  
• Trump has spent nearly a third of his term vacationing
• Rep. Charlie Dent, Republican, says Trump loyalty is the new litmus test for the GOP
• Ken Starr of the Whitewater Investigation insists there should be a full bipartisan commission to investigate Trump/Russia
• Trump spent his Christmas Eve tweeting out conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, laughably easy to discredit conspiracy theories, and is now calling for a purge of the FBI.  Mind you this is part of his long game plan to created a new, Trump loyal, government overseeing intelligence organization run by Erik Prince and controlled by Trump directly, like the SS
  
• Trump tells a child calling the Santa line at NORAD that Santa will treat you "the best he's ever treated you"
• The Pope suggests respect for migrants in his Christmas Eve message, directly contradicting Trump
  

Week 50

• Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the Secret Service to be on the lookout for three ghosts visiting Trump on Christmas night, ala Scrooge
  
• California is issuing immigrant pardons despite Trump's orders
• Trump and Melania arrived late to their Christmas church service, surprising for a detail oriented guy who is supposedly Christian.  I was at my church service, and there were numerous people who only go to church once or twice a year, and they managed to make it there on time
  
• During his Christmas Day mass, Pope Frances called for a Middle East two state solution and condemned Trump's decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem
• Nearly 80% of new enrollees into Obamacare for 2017 come from states Trump won in 2016
• Trump's nominees to run the Great Lakes region of the EPA, which includes 85% of the US's fresh drinking water, Cathy Stepp, never attended college and has no scientific positions in her background
  
• Former President Obama's Christmas tweet was more popular than the three Trump Christmas tweets combined
• Trump announced his Administration is lifting the ban on federal funding for experiments that alter viruses to make them more deadly and easier to transmit
• The UK government has officially asked the royal family to not invite family friends, the Obama's, to the royal wedding, if they're not planning on inviting Trump too.  They are concerned Trump will throw a temper tantrum
  
• Trump's cabinet members are trying their best to conduct as much of their agenda in secrecy, with seven Secretaries forcing people to go through FOIA requests to get basic daily schedules.  Most of their meetings are officially off the record, even when doing so violates public disclosure rules
• Trump announced it will cut the US's contributions to the UN by 25% in 2018 as he continues his temper tantrum in regards to the vote to condemn his decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
  
• Trump once again attacked the Steele Dossier.  He tied in Fox & Friends, like he's the bully on the playground, wanting his weasel friends to laugh with him.  He claimed the Steele Dossier was only a Hillary Clinton/DNC report.  It was originally Republican research against his campaign.  He claims the FBI has not been able to verify the dossier, which is blatantly false, as they've been able to prove almost every aspect of the dossier they've looked into, and then he claimed the same FBI which was backing him up, was actually "tainted" because of their continued investigation into the dossier.  He then claimed this is all about Hillary Clinton going after the Trump Campaign, over a year after the election.  Side note:  considering his reaction, the Steele Dossier has to be completely true
• Trump also attacked Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, trying to paint him as only a pro Clinton stooge, using the FBI to attack him, even though McCabe is retiring from the agency.  His allegation is based on a laughably easy to refute connection
• General Robert Neller of the Marine Corps is warning of war, referring to his troops to be ready for a "big-ass fight"
  
• Due to GOP ineptitude under former President Obama, and the current moves of the incompetent Trump Administration, China is poised to become the world's largest economy within the next few years
• Trump promised to be getting "Back to work" on Tuesday after Christmas.  He immediately went to golf any his course
  
• One of the largest groups to leave the GOP ranks are college educated women, who, polling has shown, are leaving the GOP en mass 
• An estimate is being formulated that Trump has spent at least 40 hours of his first year in office Tweeting.  It's announced this number is (likely) grossly underestimating the actual time he spends just looking at the social media platform
• Trump blames Jeff Sessions for losing the Alabama Senate seat.  He claims when Sessions accepted HIS offer to become the Attorney General, he should've refused the offer and stayed in the Senate.  Forgetting the insane argument Trump is putting forward, no one thought Alabama would go Democrat
  
• Disappointing the UK government, the British royal family have insisted they want the Obama's at the royal wedding, but the Trumps will likely not be invited
• Year end polling: Obama's Popularity - 63%.  Biden's Popularity - 57%.  Trump's popularity - 37%
  
• Trump, once again, falsely claims he repealed ObamaCare
  
• Trump is planning on rescinding environmental safety regulations put into place after the greatest environmental disaster in the history of the country, the Deepwater-Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an oil spill which could've been prevented if the oil company had just followed safety procedures, which they didn't 
• Trump Administration is rolling back fines against nursing homes who've been found to be guilty of neglect and mistreatment
  
• People are fearing Russia is already working on undermining the Elections of 2018 and that Trump will just label their attempts as fake news
• A national wine expert has tried Trump's wines.  The review: "Welch's grape jelly with alcohol." I don't think they liked it
• Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort might be indicted again, this time with a superseding charge, an indictment which included everything from the pervious indictment, but also has some new charges, usually far more serious, added on
  
• USA Today has another smacking editorial, this one criticizing the GOP for going after Robert Mueller and the FBI instead of being outraged about what they're uncovering
• Trump's Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wants to order the US to stop calling the West Bank 'occupied by Israel,' something it certainly is.  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is against that language change
• Clinton Watts, the former FBI Special Agent who revealed bombshell testimony last summer about Russia's clear involvement in the Election of 2016, states Russia never stopped their cyber attacks on the US, and, knowing this, the Trump Administration has done NOTHING to stop it
• Former President Obama beats Trump in the annual 'most admired man in America' poll.  Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama top the women's side, not Melania or Ivanka.  It's the first time in 71 years the man occupying the White House did not win the honor
  
• The Mueller investigation is questioning RNC staffers about if they knew if White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner was working with Trump Campaign data company Cambridge Analytica to help guide Russian online bot accounts, accounts which were used to help steer the 2016 Election
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump's New Year Resolution, "sleep more."  Sigh...
  
• Trump said he'd get back to work on Tuesday.  He didn't.  He went golfing.  On Wednesday he went golfing again.  On Wednesday, in an attempt to stop media from seeing him golf, someone parked a truck in front of the public land which has visual access to the course
• The White House's strategy with dealing with Michael Flynn and potential allegations is coming to light.  They plan on calling him a liar
• The Israeli's are proposing a train station near the Wailing Wall named after Trump
  
• The Labor Department's website has been flooded with fake comments in regards to a specific issue, the fifth time we've had a public comment period taken over by fraudulent comments, overwhelmingly in favor of the Trump proposal.  So far the Trump Administration is saying nothing about the clearly coordinated action
• The headline says 'Omarosa Still Getting Paid By the White House Two Weeks After Leaving.'  Let me fix that: It was two weeks since she was dragged out of the White House, as she repeatedly tried to gain access to the private residence.  And, for some reason, she's still getting a tax payer funded paycheck...
  
• Most of the country, 59%, feels as if Trump's Twitter usage is inappropriate
• A former tweet has come back to haunt Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.  August 1 of 2016, Trump tweeted out how much he appreciated the kind words of Paul Nehlen.  Nehlen is the unapologetic far right, anti-Semitic challenger to House Speaker Paul Ryan's House seat
  
• Jailed Russian hacker Konstantin Kozlovsky claims that Russian Intelligence, namely Major Dmitry Dokuchayev of the Russian FSB, a man with a FBI arrest warrant issued against him, ordered him to attack the DNC during the 2016 Presidential Election.  Once again, this was done to help Trump, as Trump still insists the Russians never did anything to help him
• Trump claims to have signed more legislation in his first year in office than anyone else in history.  This is a laughably easy to disprove lie
  
• It's been 100 days since Hurricane Maria devastated the US Territory of Puerto Rico.  So far, power's still out in many places, and there's been limited aid delivered in many communities.  The death toll is expected to be well over 1000, after the Trump White House purposely underreported the death toll
• I specifically put the Puerto Rico post ahead of this next post.  Today, Trump went after the magazine Vanity Fair, taunting them for apologizing for insulting Trump's Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.  Vanity Fair apologized, sending Trump into a rage, stating the magazine's on it's last legs, and specifically calling out Anna Wintour, the magazine's publisher's (Condé Nast) Artistic Director.  Trump considered this his most important issue at the moment
• Two Russian Comedians apparently pranked UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, making her believe she was talking to a Polish diplomat and having her actually defend a non-existent island nation of Binomo.  A spokesperson for Haley refused to comment
  
• Trump's first year in office beat a former record by a mile! Trump has had 34% of his Administration resign, reassigned or have been fired, far more than any other office holder
  
• For the third day since he promised he was going to get back to work, Trump went golfing.  We haven't even had a complete year with him in office and it's already the 113th day he's spent at a Trump owned property, and the 87th day he has spent at a golf course
• A court has ruled the EPA has to update their lead rules in 90 days, after opponents had proven the EPA had failed to make stringent standards to protect children from lead exposure
  
• Trump is preparing to rescind former President Obama's rules against fracking for oil on Federal land
• The new property tax rules in the Trump tax bill are leaving many people questioning what they are legally supposed to pay.  Apparently (shock) the rules were hastily and poorly written
• One thing Trump can't avoid is his official annual mandatory Federal medical check up, which is scheduled, with a military doctor, for January 12th.  The results of that check up will be made public
• People are yelling 'Lock Him Up' at the Trump Robot in Disney's Hall of Presidents
  
• A former State Department Advisor has stated Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's department cuts could increase child sex trafficking and terrorism, worldwide
• Trump once again insists he never really worked with Paul Manafort, that he was only part of the campaign for a few month.  Manafort was Trump former Campaign manager
• Trump during an impromptu interview with the New York Times:  "I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.  But for purposes of hopefully thinking I'm going to be treated fairly, I've stayed uninvolved..."  He added the investigations into his connections to the Russians make "the country look very bad"
  
• The New York Times 'interview' came about when Washington Correspondant Michael Schmidt was walking on the golf course, ran into an "unstaffed" Trump, who proceeded to talk on the record for a half hour, rambling on about the Justice Department, Russia Investigation and Paul Manafort
  
• Trump in his New York Times interview says "Another reason that I'm going to win another four years is because newspapers, television and all forms of media will tank if I'm not there, because without me their ratings are going down he tubes"
• Pro Trump singer Joy Villa has reportedly given the police a detailed account of the sexual abuse allegations against former Tump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski
• Trump has been warned he will be impeached if the House goes back to the Democrats in 2018, encouraging him to get on the campaign trail and help Republicans
• Trump has fired the remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).  He informed them of their termination via a letter delivered by FedEx
  
• Trump got fed a propaganda story by Fox & Friends which told him he's just a popular today as Obama was at the comparable time in 2009.  He gobbled it up.  They're laughably lying.  First, the only poll they're quoting is the far right Rasmussen poll, and they're even screwing that up.  Rasmussen has Trump at 46%, but Fox & Friends insisted it was actually 47%.  Even then, it still was short of Obama's number, 48%.  Obama's average rating in late December of 2009 was 49.6%.  Trump's average is 37.7%
  
• Trump's war against Amazon got weird.  Trump is insisting the US Post office needs to charge Amazon, and Amazon only, more money to deliver their packages
• Trump, in a March meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, exposed exactly how little he knows about international trade and trade negotiations.  White House officials reportedly characterized the meeting a "humiliating"
• Trump Advisors fear Trump will start a nuclear war with North Korea as a result of a temper tantrum
• Trump's foot dragging in regards to helping to fortify the election system prior to the 2018 election is putting states at risk for 2018
  
• Even though he's in office, Trump apparently is still involved in the management of his hotels, according to hotel workers
• Trump stated what could be the dumbest thing he's said since taking office, and that's saying something.  "In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record.  Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"  WOW!!!
  
• Almost immediately, The Weather Channel called out Trump for his scientific buffoonery
• A White House intern, Jack Breuer, is featured in the intern class photo flashing an UNDENIABLE white power sign
• Trump has once again threaten no action to help Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA, the Dreamers Act) benefactors, saying nothing will happen unless he gets the funding for his border wall and a complete revamping of the immigration system
  
• San Juan, Puerto Rican Mayor Carmen Yulia Cruz, pointed out Trump's massive failure in dealing with the hurricane ravaged island. She stated Trump does not represent "good hearted American values."  Agreed!
• Trump is planning on turning over his senior staff in the new year as a way to try to help the GOP hold the US House in 2018
• Senate Republicans are looking to 'streamline rules' to allow Trump's nominees to get through the Senate with less debate and open hearings
• Trump has spent more time in his first year of office on vacation then did Obama, Clinton, Reagan and Carter, COMBINED!
  
• Sheriff David Clark, the disgraced former sheriff of Milwaukee, who was once being considered by Trump to head up the Department of Homeland Security, is in trouble for apparently abusing his power by having a critic of his arrested after an airline flight, solely because the man criticized Clark
• In a win for the transgender community, Trump Administration, after losing repeated court challenges, has said it's pulling back it's appeal of the rulings, meaning come Monday, transgender troops are legally able to enlist
• When it was discovered that Russia was actually the country illegally selling fuel to North Korea, Trump went shockingly quiet on Twitter
  
• The Department of Justice is trying to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census in an effort to depress immigrant participation
• White House officials are upset about Trump's impromptu interview with the New York Times. When asked about the interview, one official said "What interview?  Today?"  Another called the interview "Embarrassing"
  
• Trump's views on immigrants seem to be coming from complete fiction, with no basis in reality.  He's particularly guilty of exaggerating immigrant criminality numbers
• Vice President Mike Pence's Christmas vacation in Aspen Colorado has been trolled by neighbors who have put out a banner which states 'Make America Gay Again'
  
• George Papadopoulos, the Trump Campaign staffer who has plead guilty in the Trump/Russia investigation, actually started the entire collusion investigation when he bragged about working with the Russians, while in London, to one of the top diplomats from Australia.  He also told the Australian, in MAY of 2016, the Russians had the DNC's emails, two months before they started appearing online, before Trump asked publicly for whomever had the emails to release them.  The Trump campaign stated they had no idea about the emails at this point.  When the emails started appearing online, the Australians informed the US authorities about their conversation.  Papadopoulos was apparently drunk
  
• This Papadopoulos revelation means, AT BEST, the Trump campaign was aware a foreign country hacked the DNC and decided to say nothing to the FBI about it.  AT WORST, they made the conscious decision to contact the Russians in an effort to get the e-mails instead of informing law enforcement about a foreign country trying to hijack the US Election.  For the record, Australia made the FBI aware of the Papadopoulos bragging the minute they realized it was real
  
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump's entire contribution to her father's Administration seems to have been a few speeches on women's empowerment, and a trip to India.  She also did a lot of work for her private clothing line
• Trump, for the fifth day in a row AFTER he said he would be getting back to work on Tuesday, went golfing
• Things are so bad in Puerto Rico, they are running out of IV bags.  This is a major Trump failure
• Trump insists stock prices would be 50% less than they are right now if Hillary Clinton had become President.  As usual, he offered zero evidence to back up his claim
  
• Trump then says the Democrats winning in 2018 would kill all the wealth he's created.  For the record, the first two years of President Obama's term, when the House and Senate were run by the Democrats, the stock market and the economy had better years than Trump's first year
• Trump is hosting a New Year's Eve Party at Mar-A-Lago.  The tickets are extraordinarily expensive.  Many people are pointing out Trump is basically allowing people to pay for access, where he himself profits
• Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein alleges Trump's lawyers are lying to Trump about the seriousness of the Trump/Russia investigation, because they're terrified it will end his term if he fires Mueller
• Trump spent a third of this time in office at one of his vacation properties
  
• More Russian oil tankers are found to be illegally delivering fuel to North Korea and so far Trump has said nothing about it
• Trump, six days after he said he was getting back to work, golfed for the sixth day in a row
• Without calling trump out by name, Pope Francis called 2017 a "wasted" year, a year filled with death and lies, harming the environment and humanity as a whole
  
• Trump's Anti-Voting Czar Kris Kobach, head of Trump's ant-voting commission, is furious because lawsuits are preventing him from severely limiting the voting rights of millions of Americans 
• Trump tweeted out "I want to wish all of my friends, supporters, enemies, haters and even the very dishonest Fake News Media, a Happy and Healthy New Year."
  
• NFL football players continued to protest by kneeling during the National Anthem, protesting racial inequality and injustice in America, and Trump himself
  

Week 51

• North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Un has placed a button on his desk in a terrifying taunt of Trump.  Trump has a button on his desk to summon a Diet Coke when he wants one.  Un says has a button to launch nuclear missiles when he wants
• Trump has somewhat fulfilled a campaign promise to cut staff in many of his Administrations Departments, with only Homeland Security, Veterans Affair sand the Interior so far not seeing cuts.  Considering most of those Departments, especially State, are running horrifically, Mission Accomplished
• Trump ignorantly claims the 33 billion in aid to Pakistan over the last 15 years has produced nothing in return for the US's investment, even though the head of US forces in neighboring Afghanistan have said the Pakistanis have indeed been fighting militants and terrorist groups on behalf of the US.  It's not quite sure what has prompted Trump's war on Pakistan
  
• Israel has said Vice President Pence's trip to Israel has been postponed indefinitely.  Pence's office states it is still on, just delayed
• Trump stated on New Years Day he was headed to IHOP for some greasy breakfast food and then off to golf.  Factoring in the two days prior to Christmas we know he golfed, Trump spent 9 of the last 10 days golfing.  Reminder - Republicans went BALLISTIC about how much President Obama golfed.
  
• Donald Trump Jr. (Tweedle Dee) starts the new year off by posting a Wikileaks conspiracy that the New York Times 'colluded' with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  First, the 'colluding' was actually them fact checking stories and making sure they did not release any confidential information to the public, but you'd think anyone but a complete moron would be doing his best to distance himself from he conspiracy factory which has gotten him into legal trouble with Trump/Russia
  
• Form RNC Chairman Michael Steele called out Trump for his continued embracing of racism
• Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci insists Trump and First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump desperately want him back in the White House
• Pakistan has summoned the US Ambassador for urgent meetings in regards to the disparaging remarks made about their country by Trump
• South Korea has apparently given up on waiting for Trump to learn diplomacy.  They have initiated an invitation to North Korea to have discussions during the Winter Olympics
  
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump is apparently hawking her clothing brand by posting pictures of her wearing them around the White House and then encouraging people to go buy them.  That would be illegal and, as one person described it, the 'definition of corruption'
• Most South American leaders feel Trump is insane.  They truly thought he would invade Venezuela
  
• After watching an outright lying report on Fox News, Trump tweeted out the Department of Justice should jail Clinton Aide Huma Abedin, former FBI Director James Comey and 'others.' The allegations he feels they should be arrested for have already been investigated and no charges were filed, but that doesn't stop Trump or Fox News
• Trump is claiming he himself is responsible for no major airline crashes in 2017
  
• Rep. Jim Bridenstine, the Republican who is nominated to be the head of NASA by Trump, has not voted in the House since being nominated
• Report out states Iowa Republicans are turning on Trump
• White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a man who's described as the 'de facto Secretary of State,' has no interest in maintaining our International alliances.  He stated "I'm a businessman and I don't care about the past.  Old allies can be enemies or enemies can be friends"
• Trump promotes his own "Fake News" awards which he plans to hand out on Monday the 8th
  
• Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted while Trump does believe the Justice Department is part of this made up boogie man he's calling the "deep state," she stated "obviously he doesn't believe the entire Justice Department is part of [the deep state]."  The Justice Department has over 100,000 employees
• Huckabee Sanders stated that Trump's relentless golf playing has made him a better president
• Republican Bill Shuster, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee says he will retire instead of running again, putting now the number of Republicans resigning from Congress, instead of running for re-election with Trump, at 30
  
• An Aspen, Colorado business woman who runs balloon rides is out 10K after Vice President Mike Pence decided to vacation there over the holiday.  Her balloon rides were grounded for safety reasons
• While Trump claims to be the reason airline deaths are down, which is ludicrous, Retired Astronaut Mark Kelly took Trump to task on the outrageous amount of gun deaths in the US, something Trump does have the ability to help limit
  
• Trump's promise of companies giving out more money to employees due to his tax bill has resulted in a total of 17 US companies giving out extra bonuses.  That's all
• Trump's now threatening to take away all aid to the Palestinian Authority because they won't negotiate with Israel.  Considering Israel is officially dropping any attempts at a two state solution, I'm not quite sure what Trump thinks they should negotiate
• As Trump says he supports the Iranian people protesting against their government, it's pointed out Trump has banned Iranians from entering the country
• Trump's attempts to keep Mitt Romney out of the US Senate seems to have failed as Orrin Hatch announced this will be his last term in office, paving the way for Romney.  Trump has been begging Hatch to stay
  
• Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke took 40K from a wildfire preparedness fund to help pay for his personal helicopter rides
  
• Trump's brown shorts, ICE agents, are led by Tom Homan.  He expressed a desire to arrest local elected officials who do not comply with Trump's orders on immigration and sanctuary cities
• Trump has removed President Obama's rules which prevented fracking on Federal land
• Trump, in one of the more terrifying things he's ever done, starts bragging about the size of the nuclear button on his desk after is is revealed North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Un has a button put on his desk.  The infatuation this guy has about size aside, he's AT BEST foolishly commenting about thermonuclear war
  
• Trump's comment about the size of his nuclear war button was triggered by a Fox News report
• Fusion GPS, the company behind the Steele Dossier, is demanding Congress release their full testimony to the public. They call out Congressional members who have leaked segments of the testimony, bits which seem to back up their far right conspiracy theories about the Steele Dossier, but the GPS folks insist the full transcript shows they effectively denounced all far right wing conspiracies associated with their work.  They also insist they brought evidence the contents of the Steele Dossier are indeed real, and hinted at there being FAR more the public is not aware of.  The Steele Dossier was counter intelligence originally commissioned by Republicans about Trump.  It details Trump's extensive connections to the Russians, and also is where the urine tape allegation originated from
• Trump deleted a tweet where he promoted Sean Hannity's Fox News show
• It's clear Trump spent the ENTIRE DAY watching Fox News and live tweeted it.  Most official Trump statements from January 2nd originated from Fox News hosts, whether factual or not
  
• Palestine officially tells Trump it's not for sale
• White House Spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway praised Trump's work ethic in December, a month where Trump spent 9 of the last 10 days golfing
  
• Coal mining deaths in 2017 doubled from 2016, after Trump dramatically eased up regulations on coal mining safety

We begin with the Michael Wolff 'Fire and Fury' notes:

• Former Senior Presidential Advisor Steve Bannon, in a new book about Trump from Michael Wolff, called Trump Jr.'s (Tweedle Dee) meeting with the Russians "Treasonous and unpatriotic."  He also said Jr. will crack like an egg under questioning
  
• Bannon goes onto say White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's illegal activities, namely his illegal money laundering deals, will be the element which will eventually "f*ck Trump"
  
• The most damning allegation from Steve Bannon in Michael Wolff's new book is that Trump himself, on the day of Trump Jr's Trump Tower meeting, met with the same Russians, as Trump Jr. took them up to see his dad.  Trump has repeatedly insisted he never knew anything about the Russians
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump goes on to describe Trump as being "white as a ghost" when the trend to him actually winning started to come true, and Melania, the First Lady, was openly weeping, but they were not tears of joy
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump tells the story of how, after Fox News' Roger Ailes suggested former Speaker of the House John Boehner to be his his Chief of Staff, Trump's response was "who's that?"
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump tells of how when aide Sam Nunberg was tasked with explaining the Constitution to Trump.  Apparently, when Nunberg had gotten to the 4th Amendment, Trump started playing with his lip and rolling his eyes back into his head.  It was at this point Nunberg quit, as it became apparent Trump had the attention span of a kindergartener 
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump explains Trump is desperately seeking the approval of two men, Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and Russian Despot Vladimir Putin
  
• In Wolff's book, Rupert Murdoch, realizing the path to success for Trump was to moderate some of his stances, was quoted, after a discussion with Trump, as describing Trump this way: "what a f*cking idiot"
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump tells of how Ann Coulter told Trump to not hire his own kids, something he almost immediately did
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump states Trump turned down former UN Ambassador John Bolton to be Secretary of State because his didn't like his mustache
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump quotes Trump as referring to then Acting Attorney General Sally Yates as a "[c-word]," the vulgar term for a woman
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump states Trump and his sons regularly subjected his Director of Communications Hope Hicks to repeated rude comments, even referring to her as "the best piece of tail"
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump states White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner could not name three Trump priorities six weeks into Trump's term
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump tells how White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump made an agreement that Ivanka would become the first female head of state (???)
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump points to the fact Trump colluding with Russia might not even be Trump's biggest crime, pointing to the treason comment by Bannon
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump states Trump likes to be in bed by 6:30, to eat cheeseburgers (?!?), watch TV and call friends
  
• According to the book, it was on one such call to a friend he sat and bad mouthed the New York Times, Saturday Night Live and the Steele Dossiers urine fetish allegation
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump has Trump bragging about how sleeping with his friend's wives made life worth living.  He would set up his friends, having their wives on speaker phone while he got his friends to admit indiscretions, or Trump would tempt them with hookers (!!!), and then make the moves on his friend's wives, appealing to them as 'their friend'
  
• According to the book, Trump apparently nicknamed Steve Bannon 'Bam Bam' after he found out about Bannon's history of spousal abuse
  
• Michael Wolff's new book on Trump states the Trump team who was on the plane when Trump told Trump Jr (Tweedle Dee) the alibi for the Trump Tower meeting went out of their way to make up excuses for why they had no idea what was being discussed.  They were avoiding being part of Obstruction of Justice charges by claiming they slept through it, or 'I never brought a pencil,' or claiming to be watching the movie 'Fargo'
  
• A report out says foreign governments are granting Trump major concessions for his personal projects as a way to get what they want from the US government
• Trump's Labor Department is expanding the disproven and costly program which drug tests people who are seeking unemployment aid 
• Trump, lashing back at the avalanche of horrific news today, claims Steve Bannon, his former Senior Presidential Advisor, has "lost his mind"
  
• Trump did not dispute that his son Donald Trump Jr. (Tweddle Dee) had committed treason
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders plays down Michael Wolff's new book on Trump. "[Trump] is exactly who was yesterday...[his] base is solid."
• Huckabee Sanders then insets that Trump's nuclear button is far bigger than North Korea's
  
• Trump is shutting down his voter fraud panel after states refuse to comply with the order to hand over their data bases.  Reminder:  this voter fraud panel was begun because Trump instead he had proof the 3 million votes he trailed Hillary Clinton by were fraudulent
• Russian social media company Vkontakte has given information to the Senate Judiciary Committee in regards to one of their senior executives communications with Trump's campaign
• Trump has sent Steve Bannon a cease and desist letter accusing the once top aide of 'disparaging' Trump.  If that's illegal, then do I have a few lists I can show you!
  
• Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair actually warned Trump the British Intelligence services were monitoring him during the Election year
• Apparently Kellyanne Conway was yanked off the air by First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump due to her "idiotic militancy," example "alternative facts"
  
• The White House is preparing to ban personal mobile phone devices at the White House
• When Trump called former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates the "c" word, he did so as she was trying to help protect him from associating with Michael Flynn
  
• In a sign the book is 100% true, Trump is frantically trying to stop the publication of Michael Wolff's new book, sending a cease and desist letter to the author and the publisher.  He's also demanding an apology.  Good Luck with all of that!
• Trump's Department of Justice is making the move to rescind the weakening of enforcement laws which allowed states to individually legalize marijuana.  This means the DOJ is looking to start making arrests in states where smoking the product is legal
• Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are going to open up pretty much all of the oceans for oil drilling, angering many states who are against drilling in protected areas
  
• At a White House Press briefing, Trump decided to make a statement, via video link.  He was sitting in the Oval Office, only a few feet away from the Press room, but instead of walking down and talking to the press, he did the weird video thing
  
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders is still in spin mode to try to offset the stories from Michael Wolff's book.  One reporter asked his he's mentally fit to be in office, which brought a terse response from Huckabee Sanders, stating Trump would "probably" not be in office of he was mentally unfit
• Huckabee Sanders also made the suggestion Breitbart News should fire Steve Bannon for his comments
  
• Trump's threats to the author and publisher of the new book about him have backfired spectacularly as they have moved up the release date of the book to Friday
• Reports are behind the scenes many Republicans are questioning whether or not Trump is fit for office
  
• Trump has released business documents to the Mueller probe, including details of the Trump attempt to build a hotel in Moscow.  The Trump Administration had been fighting the disclosure
• Trump's White House was frantically fighting with Attorney General Jeff Session about his decision to recuse himself in the Russian investigation.  He demanded Sessions stay involved, and when he didn't, Trump yelled at White House Counsel Don McGahn "Where's my Roy Cohn?" referring to the notorious "Trump fixer."  It's like a horse whisperer, but a horse is far smarter than Trump
  
• Bowing to pressure from Trump, the Department of Justice is reopening the email investigation into Hillary Clinton, even though she has been found to have done nothing wrong
• One of Trump's lawyers, Uttam Dhillon actually lied to Trump to try to stop him from firing former FBI Director James Comey
  
• Trump Administration is delaying a rule from Former President Obama which was designed to combat housing discrimination
• The Trump Justice Department is opening up another investigation into the Clinton Foundation, the 5TH (!!!), to in an attempt to validate 'pay to play' conspiracy theories which have already been disproven
• One of Trump's judicial nominees, Howard Nielson, argued that gay judges shouldn't hear cased involving gay rights, because they are biased
  
• Trump realizing he can't stop Michael Wolff's book from being released is now taking the angle of he was set up by Wolff and Steve Bannon.  Trump goes onto threaten Wolff and Bannon, the later of whom he refers to as 'Sloppy Steve'
• Wolff, in his book, describes the White House Communications operation as the most dysfunctional in history.  No one can argue with that
  
• Wolff's book also describes Trump's relationship with First Lady Melania.  They apparently would not seek each other for days in Trump Tower, have separate bedrooms in the White House, and he calls her his 'trophy wife.' Don't tell me Republicans wouldn't be making a major deal of of all of that if it was a Democratic President
  
• Wolff's book states Trump was desperate to say something nice about the KKK after the events of Charlottesville
  
• Many people who know Trump personally have come forward to say the new Michael Wolff book rings true, if you know him
• As Trump says he never allowed for a book to be written, Michael Wolff discloses he actually has tapes from a formal interview he had with Trump, as well as hours from when he was allowed unfettered access to the White House
• Michael Wolff's new book talks about how hard Steve Bannon was working to keep their back up plan, Mike Pence, away from any meeting which could compromise him to the Trump/Russia investigation
  
• NSA Diretor Mike Rogers announces his plans to leave the position in Spring
• In a terrifying passage from 'Fire and Fury,' Trump initially wanted White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner as Secretary of State (!!!)
  
• Trump headed to Camp David this weekend for talks with senior members of his Administration.  Left off the invite list is Attorney General Jeff Sessions
• Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat, states he knows numerous Republican Legislators who are convinced Trump's mentally unfit for office, but refuse to do anything
  
• Former Campaign Advisor, and man who has the task of trying to educate Trump on the Constitution, Sam Nunberg, not only admitted he called Trump an"idiot" but he went onto say that Trump is "a complete pain in the ass to work for"
• Trump claims Steve Bannon cried when he was fired
• According to Michael Wolff's book, Steve Bannon openly wondered why, even if the Trump campaign didn't think working with the Russians was treasonous and unpatriotic, why in the world would you not immediately call the FBI after that meeting
  
• Trump calls Michael Wolff "a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book."  1) If they are all lies, then sue him.  You have him dead to rights.  2) Boring???  Hardly!
• To defend himself on the accusations he's mentally unfit for office, Trump tweets out he is a "genius....and a very stable genius at that!"  Wow...
  
• Tourism to the USA is in a terrible slump thanks to Trump.  They have even coined the phrase 'Trump slump'
• Trump says he'll renew the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act (DACA, The Dreamers Act) but only if the Democrats 1) Agree to punish Sanctuary Cities, 2) Fund his border wall with an initial 18 billion, 3) hire more ICE agents, 4) restrict family members sponsoring other family member's visas, and 5) make it easier to detain and deport undocumented immigrants
• The CDC is planning to start nuclear war prep drills for the public
  
• Proving the entire Trump campaign was run by morons, Brad Pascale, the Campaigns Digital Director took to Twitter to contradict the claims made is Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' book. He states no one could make decisions without White House Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and idiot 2nd son Eric Trump (Tweedle Dum), as they were the joint Deputy Campaign Managers and nothing was approved without their knowledge.  This tweet proposes the question what did Eric Trump know about the meeting with the Russians, and when did he know it
  
• W. Bush's Ethics Czar Richard Painter went ballistic over Trump's 'stable genius' tweets, stating if he were a CEO, he'd had been removed from his office by noon
• First Daughter and White House staffer doing...something(?) Ivanka Trump had contact with Russian lawyer from the Trump Tower meeting which she had not disclosed.  Ivanka met with Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin after the notorious Trump Tower meeting
• Trump defended his 'stable genius' tweets by going on a grammatical slaughterfest at Camp David, where he claimed "I went to the best colleges, or college.  I went to - I had a situation where I was a very excellent student..."
  
• Kushner real estate company is under investigation by the SEC for it's 'visas for investing capital' scam
• White House aides had no problem talking publicly with Micheal Wolff on his book because they all thought it wouldn't come out until later "next year."  Unsure if they mean later in 2018, or in 2019
  
• Trump taunted Steve Bannon by insisting he was homeless and needed a shower
• Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio states even Trump's kids look at him skeptically most of the time
  
• Trump from Camp David says the countries who are "very harsh" on drugs, who "take it seriously," have a better success rate at dealing with drug problem.  For the most part, that statement is easily proven wrong 
• Trump is rallying his allies to attack Steve Bannon every chance they can.  They don't seem to need much encouraging
• CNN cut off White House Advisor Stephen Miller (NAZI!) when he increasingly became belligerent about the claims of Trump's failing mental status from the book 'Fire and Fury.'  Host Jake Tapper even went as far to elude to Miller only trying to talk to Trump himself and considered Miller staying on the air wasting the rest of the viewers time.  Trump compared the treatment to Reagan, which I presume was referring back to when Reagan's aides got belligerent at being caught red handed with Iran/Contra, something Reagan WAS INDEED guilty of
  
• CIA Director Mike Pompeo outright refused to answer what the CIA's response would be to a world leader claiming to be a "stable genius"
• Steve Bannon is groveling for forgiveness from Trump
  
• According to 'Fire and Fury,' Trump bragged that he and Kushner "engineered a Saudi coup," making sure his choice to be leader of the country ended up on top
  
• Two companies Trump touted for giving bonuses after the Trump tax bill was passed have announced major staffing cuts/layoff in the next few weeks.  The companies are Comcast and AT&T
• It's revealed Trump is hardly doing the job.  He says he starts work at 8 AM, but in truth he spends 8 AM to 11 AM in the residence watching TV.  He then takes an hour lunch at noon.  He says he works until 6 PM, but most days he checks out as early as 4 PM.  He's now proposing an 11 AM to 4 PM workday...WOW!  Can you imagine how outraged the right would be at a Democratic President doing this?
  
• Senior White House Advisor (and NAZI!) Stephen Miller had to be forcibly removed from CNN by security after his epic meltdown with Jake Tapper
• Trump messed up Tweeting again.  He meant to write he had a "consequential presidency," but then wrote out he was "an enormously consensual" president.  He then, instead of putting a link to a story, posted the e-mail address for the writer of the post he was referencing
  
• Trump is calling on the diplomatic corps and the Pentagon to push more military arms sales
• Trump and his team are hoping to stave off Trump having to testify to Robert Mueller by handing over a signed document claiming his innocence
  

Holy carp!  And that was the abridged version.

This is going to me my last Trump List.  First off, I think I proved my point. We should hold every Republican accountable for their silence and quiet endorsement when the truth about Trump comes out.  Some Republicans, like the ones on the Senate Intelligence Committee, are remaining suspiciously quiet even though THEY KNOW Trump is guilty of a litany of crimes.  The point of this list is what would've Republicans condemned a year ago.  Pick a list...

(What I have to do to get #RandyInCoonRapids to read one of these lists)

Hold all of them accountable.  It's clear elements of the Republican party decided to work with a foreign government over the best interests of the American people, and many Republicans who weren't part of that initial decision are sure trying hard to cover up the crime.  They only think about their political party.

The Star Tribunes excellent Sack.

The second reason I'm stopping Trump List is the time commitment. The week from Christmas Day to New Year Eve, I kept track of the time I spent just compiling this list.  It was 16 hours; two full work days, while I was on vacation.

I have kept Progressive Citizen X ad free for personal reasons.  I don't have an employee or intern to abuse...er....help compile and edit.  It's just too much time to do the list by myself.  I've got kids!

Good news!  I've found someone else who is putting in the time, and they have credibility!  Amy Siskind and her group are putting out The Weekly list.  It doesn't have my marginal humor (my favorite thing to do has been to 'Mad Max' out Scott Pruitt and the EPA) or the gifs, but it's solid top to bottom (although not as complete as my lists):  https://theweeklylist.org

I'll post a weekly link to those lists when they come out on the Twitter page (@MattMcNeilShow) and the Facebook Page (Progressive Citizen X/Matt McNeil Show).

Remember, #2018isEverything.  If we don't take back the House and Senate in 2018, this country will never be the same.  Get registered to vote, make sure all of your friends are registered to vote.  If you're not sure, ask them.  If they say no, then help them.  Make sure everyone knows where to vote on November 6th, 2018.  If your state has early voting, make sure you inform everyone of how to get people voting.  In Minnesota, Caucus Night is February 6th!  Be there!

Be strong, be diligent, be pissed off, be the difference!

Now, pretty Minnesota Winter images....

...fin...