Sorry it's a little late this week. Memorial Day weekend and all...
On with the countdown!
20. I can't tell if this is a prank or if they're serious. The House Republicans are proposing a bill which would force the Treasury Department to start a crowd fund page to help build Trump's 20 billion dollar border wall with Mexico. Not only is this a clear acknowledgment the wall won't be paid for by the Mexicans, this is going to raise one obvious question: when the fund gets hardly any donations, how are Trump and the GOP going to play off those optics? (5/22)
19. As we hear about the allegations Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen was working behind the scenes taking money with promises of access to Trump, it's announced a Russian Government and Russian mafia tied Ukrainian business man is the latest participating in the scheme. Cohen took half a million dollars from Columbus Nova, the US front company for Ukrainian born Russian Oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in late 2016, weeks after the Russians used social media and Wikileaks to throw the election to Trump. A meeting took place in Cohen's office in the Trump Tower, and was in regards to US investigations into pro-Russian Ukrainians. (5/25)
18. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen claims she has not seen the US Intelligence Communities extensive assessments which concluded Russia interfered in the Election of 2016, on behalf of Trump. She's seen nothing on Putin's desire to have Trump in the White House, not even the Steele Dossier. Once again, she's the Director of Homeland Security. Her statements also imply she's not even seen or read the testimony of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg pointing out the clear interference by the Russians on behalf of Trump. (5/22)
17. Trump doesn't have any advanced security features or protections on his personal cell phone, because he's deemed them too "inconvenient." If he doesn't switch phones regularly, foreign agents camped out near the White House could intercept his phone communications. (5/21)
16. Trump has ordered the Department of the Interior to allow hunters to shoot hibernating bears and their cubs. Trump is also making it legal to bait bears with donuts, shoot at animals from boats, and use spotlights to hunt. (5/23)
15. Trump signed three executive orders which are designed to make it easier to fire federal employees, and which allow the government to crack down on the unions representing government workers. The Administration claims this is only about easily removing sub-par workers, getting better negotiations at union contracts, and limiting the time union members spend on union work at the office. Trump and the Republicans want to annihilate the unions once and for all, so take their excuses with a grain of salt. (5/25)
14. Donald Trump Jr. is in trouble with the Senate Intelligence Committeee. He told them he was unaware of any other foreign countries offering assistance to his father's Presidential Campaign. As we mentioned in last week's countdown, he met with Government officials from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as a cyber technology group from Israel with extensive ties to the Israeli Intelligence community and their government. The Senate would like him to return and explain why exactly he lied. (5/25)
13. In an article published in Salon magazine, career diplomat John Freeley resigned as Ambassador to Panama citing Trump's horrific style of leadership, which he called a "velociraptor" destroying obstacles in his path. Freely says Trump's exactly the same guy in private as he is in public, only he swears a heck of a lot more, and "if you don't show him deference he kills you." He added "America is undoubtedly less welcome in the world today." (5/23)
12. Where in the world is Melania Trump? She hasn't been seen in public for two weeks. Granted part of that time was due to a medical procedure on a supposed kidney ailment, but experts were surprised her hospitalization was for five days, as the ailment described is usually a quick routine procedure. Since returning to the White House, she's not been seen. She's reportedly met with staff. Trump himself said the creepiest thing. Pointing to a window, he said "She's doing great. She's looking at us right there." (5/26)
11. In the wake of White House Aide Kelly Sadler's innapprorpraite comments about Senator John McCain, as he battles with cancer, and the subsequent leaking of those comments to the press, the White House has exploded. Aides are openly fighting with each other, pointing fingers as they accuse each other of being the leaker, and they're making these accusations in front of Trump. At an open door (???) meeting with the Press Office, Trump said Sadler would not be fired and asked who the leakers were, which prompted Sadler to start pointing her finger at everyone and claiming 'they're the leaker,' including her own boss. The meeting digressed from here, as apparently 'you're the leaker' is the new way to try to get back at people in the Administration you're not fond of. By the way, we know all of this because the conversation from the meeting was leaked. (5/27)
10. Trump has invited only Republicans to review his so called 'evidence' of the supposed major FBI spy ring which he alleges infiltrated his Campaign. No Democrats were invited to view this evidence. Trump tweeted this supposed FBI infiltration was part of the "Criminal Deep State," calling the spying on his campaign the greatest scandal of all time. Trump also made up and then railed against a quote from Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Once again he raged against the quote he had made up which he said validated his claims. Many analysts say this is a sign Trump's REALLY terrified of the Mueller investigation. (5/23)
9. The official Department of Justice meeting which Trump demanded, supposedly to prove the FBI was spying on Trump's campaign, was bizarre. First off, no Democrats were initially invited, something which eventually changed as Democrats were welcome into the meeting. The meeting was only supposed to be for Congressional members, but they were unexpectedly joined by Chief of Staff John Kelly and, even more shocking, Trump's newly hired lawyer Emmet Flood. This was after Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said no one from the White House would be there. When confronted on why exactly Flood was in the meeting, Sanders stated he "will be joining the White House Staff to represent the President and the Administration against the Russia Witch hunt." That's not a real Administrative position. As CNN's Sam Vinograd pointed out "Any pretense that this was about Congressional oversight blew up in smoke. This was [Trump] interfering in our intelligence/law enforcement system for personal gain." Most reports say the briefing did nothing to substantiate Trump's claims. (5/24)
8. At a hearing about contaminants with the EPA head Scott Pruitt, a reporter from the Associated Press was forcibly removed from the"public hearing." When the reporter asked to speak to the EPA public affairs spokesperson, they were told no. Multiple other reporters were also barred from the "public hearing." Later on, Press SecretarySarah Huckabee Sanders verbally shouted down a member of the Press Corp who asked about the incident. (5/22)
7. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, had his business partner Evgeny Freidman, agree to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against Cohen in exchange for a deal which would allow him to avoid jail time. In other legal news, Trump's current legal team is beyond incompetent. They've said Trump's willing to talk with Mueller but that Mueller "in no way" can ask him about anything after January 20th, 2017. O...kay... (5/22)
6. A Washington Post report says Trump, during a meeting in the Oval Office, turned the discussion to immigration. He mentioned how his comments about immigration really fire up his base. He then proceeded to make up list of Hispanic sounding names, and attached assorted crimes to the made up Hispanic aliases, like rape and murder. It's also reported White House Aide Stephen Miller, and Presidential Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner were uproariously laughing at Trump's undeniably racist antics. As one pundit noted, it's obvious "some of the cruelty is intentional." (5/27)
5. Rumors GOP Strategist Elliot Broidy's payout to Michael Cohen, designed to pay off a playboy playmate he got pregnant, and who eventually got an abortion, was actually a payout to cover up Trump's affair with said playmate, got even more evidence someone's not telling the truth. The day after the payment was made, Broidy scored a one on one meeting with Trump to lobby on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. Also Broidy's company, Circinus LLC, scored a 800 million dollar foreign defense contract at the beginning of his Presidency. Once again these deals should be investigated, as well as Broidy's unique connection to Trump. (5/22)
4. The NFL, in a frantic attempt to please Trump, has installed a new policy which says any player kneeling during the National Anthem will have their team assessed a 15 yard penalty, but players can stay in the locker room and not go out before the National Anthem if they choose. Clearly the league's scared Trump will remove their anti-Trust exemption, so they're telling their players, primarily the African American ones, to either shut up or to protest where no one can see them. Trump, giddy at the NFL owners caving, has now threatened protesting NFL players citizenship, saying it's conditional. "Maybe you shouldn't be in the country." (5/23-24)
3. Donald Trump Jr (Tweedle Dee) could be in some REALLY big trouble. Spain wiretapped conversations between Alexander Torshin, the Deputy Governor of Russian's Central Bank, when he talked with Russian criminal Alexander Romanov. The details of this conversation led to the meeting between Trump Jr. and Torshin in May of 2016, held at an NRA get together, during the campaign. It is unknown what Trump Jr. and Torsion discussed at the NRA meeting, but they insist it was a brief hello at dinner. Torshin is a close ally of Putin. The Spanish have handed a transcript of the Torshin/Romanov conversation to the FBI a few months ago. Spanish Prosecutor Jose Grinda told Yahoo News "Mr. Trump's son should be concerned." Thank you Spain! (5/26)
2. So I guess we can put the Nobel Peace Prize back in the box...Trump sent a letter to North Korean President Kim Jong-un cancelling their upcoming summit between the two countries citing North Korean hostility towards the USA. Trump claims Kim (who officially started balking at the peace talks when National Security Advisor John Bolton demanded the Libyan Model of North Korean denuclearization PRIOR to the US making any concessions [something everyone know would be a non-starter]), had become threatening. Trump included the following in his letter: "You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful and I pray to God they will never be used." Considering these talks were initially orchestrated by South Korea and China, it's unclear if Trump's letter has damaged their efforts, but South Korean officials were blindsided by Trump's letter (meaning he never gave them a heads up) and are trying "to make sense" of Trump's actions. Trump followed up his message of 'peace' by threatening all out war with North Korea, insisting Japan and South Korea would pay us for the war. Reminder: Trump had actually gone ahead and minted official peace conference coins, and Republicans HAD insisted Trump deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on this. Is there an opposite of the Nobel Peace Prize? (5/24)
1. A little over a month ago, it was revealed of the more than 7000 children separated from their parents at the US southern border, 1475 have disappeared from Federal overview, and the federal government has no idea where these kids are. One report proved some of the children did indeed end up in the hands of human traffickers. We have no idea where those children are today. Since then, the Trump Administration has ramped up their operation of separating parents from their kids at the border and have not put any safeguards in place to insure those kids don't permanently disappear while in US custody. Trump tried to blame Democrats for the operation policy of separating parents from their children at the border, a policy he himself ordered. Once again, the US Government has taken 1475 children from their parents, and has no idea where those children are today. Shame on all of us. (5/26)
Can you imagine what this country would be like if it was discovered a Democratic President had lost 1500 children he had ordered ripped away from their parents. Then imagine the reaction when the country found out some of those kids definitely ended up in the grasps of human traffickers. We'd be talking jail terms. Yet, in between the unforgivable bouts of silence dedicated to this issue, Republicans desperate to make an impression with Trump took to the cable news airwaves to defend the Administration losing these children. You can't make it up. I don't recognize this country anymore.
#2018isEverything! For Goodness sake, if that isn't already plainly clear...get registered to vote. Volunteer your time. Help a Democrat running to unseat a Republican. If we fail this year, I'm concerned there won't be another chance.
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