The Friday Link this week is adorable, well in a twisted way...
Imagine an evil sea creature, giant crab who's killed thousands over the years. Now imagine making said giant crab the hero of your film. By the end of this video, you'll be rooting for the crab.
This is also a student film! Kids today are amazing. Last night I was at a school academics display and one kid had built his own computer, one had tested human frailty in a space environment by conducting testing in a space vacuum, and another had built a workable tank for jellyfish. These are regular kids, at a regular public school, who are wickedly intelligent, yet fail to get any recognition on most days.
Whoever did this deserves the medals. They also deserve a Disney contract, STAT! Enjoy The Legend of The Crabe Phare!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Friday, May 18, 2018
You Made Us Do It!
This is a response letter to the highly ignorant and Conservative deflecting op-ed piece the New York Times ran in their Sunday Edition.
Dear New York Times,
I'd like to address the op-ed from Sunday, May 13th's paper 'Liberals, You're Not as Smart as You Think,' by Gerard Alexander.
This editorial tries to lay out the argument people on the Left, due to their arrogance, name calling, and extremist agenda, are the real villains in Trump's America. It reads more as a Conservative admission and threat; 'We Conservatives now realize Trump's a nightmare, but it was you Liberals who forced us to vote for him, and if you don't stop pointing out our undeniable mistake, we'll do it again!'
Alexander's argument boils down to a few different points. First is this idea the Liberals were the ones to start picking on conservatives whites. This is laughable. This country started down our current political discord path when Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC rules which ensured equitable and balanced points of view were presented. Within a decade after Reagan removed the rules, quality in media was replaced by conservative ideology and zealotry, aimed specifically at what conservative whites believed where their enemies. When Fox News came on the scene, their pitch wasn't 'a conservative view of todays news.' It was "CNN Lies," a preview of the narrative validation the network would spew for over two decades. Having evolved, the Right's modern mantra is ignore news you don't like, usually screaming about an unfounded bias, while labeling any criticism as 'a personal attack.'
As far as Liberals hurting Conservatives by screaming 'racist,' that's on Conservatives. When something undeniably bigoted happens (to be fair, usually from a group associated with the far right) Republicans rarely condemn it. Most times they dismiss the racism/bigotry by implying it's just the Liberal PC police. Meanwhile they turn themselves into victims, implying anyone condemning racism isn't just attacking the racist and racist behavior, rather attacking all people, a smear campaign against wholesome Conservative values at the hands of an unfair Liberal 'guilt by association.' It's pity party 101. Alexander also goes out of his way to dismiss the real racism in this country by implying it's unfounded (his Chinese dress/burrito cart argument). I notice he avoids mentioning Charlottesville completely.
How can Mr. Alexander overlook the daily name calling and belittling coming from Trump while calling out Liberals for their civil discord? The right voted for a man who mocked a disabled reporter. The right voted for a man who bragged about sexually assaulting a married woman. And they did so proudly and defiantly. Daily insults, scandals and embarrassments from the President are a far bigger issue in our current uncivilized America. By dismissing Trump's role in all of this, Alexander wipes away any credibility.
The article goes out of it's way tag the Conservative's many 'liberal demagogues.' Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Michael Moore are HATED by the right. At times, they have been somewhat tone deaf when it comes to the working white poor in this country, but Alexander's argument is a comment from Pelosi in 2014, and Obama in 2008, and Michael Moore from 2017, offsets the daily mountain of unacceptable comments, lies and deceit coming from Trump and his Administration. Sorry they hurt your feelings Gerard, but you seem to be searching pretty hard in the haystack for the needle which you hope you can hide behind.
Mr. Alexander, and bitter Trump fans realizing Rushmore isn't about to get prepped for the fifth head, you're in denial. Trump isn't what you thought he'd be, and that's got to be hard to accept. Fair enough. Take your time. Just do us a favor and stop with the pathetic "it's not our fault we hate Democrats more than anything else, hence we elected a completely unqualified sketchy businessman to the Presidency because we knew he'd anger Democrats; rather it's the Left's fault we voted for Trump even though to do so we had to get into bed with unprecedented incompetence, hypocrisy, mean spirited arguments and occasional undeniable racism."
And as to your threat to vote for Trump again, you might as well just say "we'll show you who's stupid!" Yes you would.
Dear New York Times,
I'd like to address the op-ed from Sunday, May 13th's paper 'Liberals, You're Not as Smart as You Think,' by Gerard Alexander.
This editorial tries to lay out the argument people on the Left, due to their arrogance, name calling, and extremist agenda, are the real villains in Trump's America. It reads more as a Conservative admission and threat; 'We Conservatives now realize Trump's a nightmare, but it was you Liberals who forced us to vote for him, and if you don't stop pointing out our undeniable mistake, we'll do it again!'
Alexander's argument boils down to a few different points. First is this idea the Liberals were the ones to start picking on conservatives whites. This is laughable. This country started down our current political discord path when Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC rules which ensured equitable and balanced points of view were presented. Within a decade after Reagan removed the rules, quality in media was replaced by conservative ideology and zealotry, aimed specifically at what conservative whites believed where their enemies. When Fox News came on the scene, their pitch wasn't 'a conservative view of todays news.' It was "CNN Lies," a preview of the narrative validation the network would spew for over two decades. Having evolved, the Right's modern mantra is ignore news you don't like, usually screaming about an unfounded bias, while labeling any criticism as 'a personal attack.'
As far as Liberals hurting Conservatives by screaming 'racist,' that's on Conservatives. When something undeniably bigoted happens (to be fair, usually from a group associated with the far right) Republicans rarely condemn it. Most times they dismiss the racism/bigotry by implying it's just the Liberal PC police. Meanwhile they turn themselves into victims, implying anyone condemning racism isn't just attacking the racist and racist behavior, rather attacking all people, a smear campaign against wholesome Conservative values at the hands of an unfair Liberal 'guilt by association.' It's pity party 101. Alexander also goes out of his way to dismiss the real racism in this country by implying it's unfounded (his Chinese dress/burrito cart argument). I notice he avoids mentioning Charlottesville completely.
How can Mr. Alexander overlook the daily name calling and belittling coming from Trump while calling out Liberals for their civil discord? The right voted for a man who mocked a disabled reporter. The right voted for a man who bragged about sexually assaulting a married woman. And they did so proudly and defiantly. Daily insults, scandals and embarrassments from the President are a far bigger issue in our current uncivilized America. By dismissing Trump's role in all of this, Alexander wipes away any credibility.
The article goes out of it's way tag the Conservative's many 'liberal demagogues.' Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Michael Moore are HATED by the right. At times, they have been somewhat tone deaf when it comes to the working white poor in this country, but Alexander's argument is a comment from Pelosi in 2014, and Obama in 2008, and Michael Moore from 2017, offsets the daily mountain of unacceptable comments, lies and deceit coming from Trump and his Administration. Sorry they hurt your feelings Gerard, but you seem to be searching pretty hard in the haystack for the needle which you hope you can hide behind.
Mr. Alexander, and bitter Trump fans realizing Rushmore isn't about to get prepped for the fifth head, you're in denial. Trump isn't what you thought he'd be, and that's got to be hard to accept. Fair enough. Take your time. Just do us a favor and stop with the pathetic "it's not our fault we hate Democrats more than anything else, hence we elected a completely unqualified sketchy businessman to the Presidency because we knew he'd anger Democrats; rather it's the Left's fault we voted for Trump even though to do so we had to get into bed with unprecedented incompetence, hypocrisy, mean spirited arguments and occasional undeniable racism."
And as to your threat to vote for Trump again, you might as well just say "we'll show you who's stupid!" Yes you would.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
The Trump Top 20 Countdown for the Week of 5/7/18
Welcome to the Weekly Top 20 Countdown of Trump's ineptitude and stupidity for the week of 5/7/18 to 5/13/18.
These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump and his Administration this week. If this was a Democratic Administration, EVERYTHING on this list would have triggered investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead we have a man who might have been running a shakedown of corporate America and foreign businesses, funneling money through his lawyer, with the leverage the Presidency of the United States as the catalyst, and the Republican Congressional leadership doesn't even bat an eye.
A quick Google search will give you plenty of news options on all of these stories. The ranking is purely on me. Please feel free to disagree and comment why below.
On with the countdown!
20. Trump wished his mother a Happy Mother's Day with a nice tribute. What was surprising is that he failed to mention ANY of the mother's of his children, not even current First Lady Melania Trump. (5/13)
19. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has ordered National Park police officers, a group of people hired to specifically patrol the US Park system, to the US-Mexico border to work border patrol duty, in a show of support for the Trump agenda. The ranks of the US Park police force were already grossly understaffed prior to this announcement. This is not helping. (5/9)
18. Melania Trump, in an effort to promote positive online experiences for kids, unveiled a booklet as part of her "Be Best" campaign. The only problem (outside of the name "Be Best" and ignoring her husband's atrocious online behavior), is she basically copied an Obama era phamplet the FTC published. Besides her introduction, it's exactly the same pamphlet, with the same headers and graphics. (5/7)
17. In what might be the shortest Administration term yet, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen actually drafted a letter of resignation after Trump was unnecessarily brutal to her in a cabinet meeting, where he accused her of failing to secure the US border. Trump's lengthy tirade was part of an overall demand that more needs to be done to stop non-white immigrants, with Trump viciously singling out Nielsen. (5/10)
16. National Security Advisor John Bolton snapped an the inference the US is going it alone on Iran, stating Israel is on our side. Table for two then... He also put forward the US will attempt to sabotage the remaining Iranian Nuclear Deal countries from continuing with the agreement without the US, threatening sanctions against companies based in European countries, countries which are supposedly our closest allies. It should be noted one country who makes out like a bandit with the US leaving the Iranian Nuclear Deal is Russia, whose companies are already planning on massive expansions into the country. Trump states Iran WILL negotiate with him, or else "something will happen." It's not clear on what he's implying, and White House officials are playing coy, but the implication is armed conflict with Iran. (5/10-13)
15. Our supposed European allies, befuddled by Trump's withdraw from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, have revealed the Trump White House never once produced an alternative plan to the current deal, only that he didn't like the current plan. This seems to add more validity to the theory the only reason Trump dumped the deal was because it was completed under the Obama Administration. (5/9)
14. One way to deal with bad news you don't want to believe is to pretend it doesn't exist. NASA has cancelled a program which tracks carbon and methane gases, the Carbon Monitoring System. Carbon and Methane gases cause greenhouse effects. They cancelled the program under direct orders from Trump. The total program cost per year was only 10 million dollars, and the program was delivering impressive, workable scientific data. (5/11)
13. Politico has the story of the Pentagon's evaluation of Presidential Advisor and Trump son in law Jared Kushner's VA health care initiative, a program meant to make the VA healthcare system more streamlined, with better coverage. The Pentagon's review labeled the first stage "devastating," with the report detailing 156 'critical' or 'severe' problems in the first stage alone. To give you an idea of how bad this plan is, usually the Pentagon considers a program having significant problems with 5 'critical' or 'severe' problems. (5/12)
12. Trump's pick to run the CIA, renowned torturer Gina Haspel, testifying to the Senate at her confirmation hearing, pinky swears she would never restart the torture...er, enhanced interrogation program ever again (wink). To understand what she really thinks about torture, look at her questioning at the hands of former criminal prosecutor Senator Kamala Harris. Harris repeatedly tried to get her to answer whether she thought torture was immoral. Haspel refused repeatedly to answer the question. For a human being with a soul, any human with any humanity, or for a Christian, this shouldn't be a tough question to answer. (5/9)
11. North Korea has released three American political prisoners (which is a good thing!) but leave it to Trump to take the credit for other's people's work, and then fumble the photo op. From all accounts, the Chinese and South Koreans had far more to do with the release of the prisoners than any negotiations from the USA, something Trump even mentioned when he says he was happy North Korea released the prisoners PRIOR to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meeting with Kim Jong-un. When the prisoners appeared with Trump on the tarmac in the early morning, he credited North Korea with treating the political prisoners "excellent"(???), and then bragged about how good the TV ratings were for him at 3 in the morning, with the prisoners standing right behind him. (5/10)
10. Trump's FCC Chair Ajit Pai announces net neutrality will end on June 10th. (5/10)
9. More scrutiny is on Trump in regards to the 1.6 million dollar payout from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to former Playboy model Shera Bechard, who allegedly had an affair with top Republican donor Elliot Broidy, an affair which ended with a pregnancy and an abortion. Research into the arrangement is pointing to the possibility this affair was never with Broidy, but rather with Trump. The non disclosure agreement was signed by the fake names "David Dennison" and "Peggy Peterson," both of which were the same exact names used in the non-disclosure between Trump and Stormy Daniels. Trump was close friends with Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, a friendship which came to an abrupt end in 2016, the same time as the alleged pregnancy. Bechard and Hefner were at one time an item and remained friends. Brody had potential advantages for taking the fall on this issue too. He's trying to get the Justice Department to drop a probe of an investment deal he made with Malaysia. If the probe is dropped, Broidy could make tens of millions personally. And Broidy has a history of bribing public officials. (5/8)
8. Proving this White House has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, White House Staffer and Trump special assistant (?!) Kelly Sadler decided to mock Senator, tortured POW, decorated war veteran and man in the last stages of his fight with cancer, John McCain. Criticizing McCain for saying he won't vote for CIA nominee and noted torturer Gina Haspel, Sadler made the attempt at what she labeled as 'humor.' "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway." Sadler has attempted to, privately, apologize to the McCain's for this incredibly insensitive comment. For some inexplicable reason, she's still employed by the White House, as they seem far more upset the media found out about the joke. Sadler, apparently promised Meghan McCain, the Senator's daughter, a public apology for her comments. So far she hasn't publicly apologized. It seems there isn't going to be a public apology. (5/11-13)
7. Chief of Staff John Kelly is supposed to be one of the few sane people in Trump's Administration, but his latest comments show how low that bar really is. Kelly stated the vast majority of undocumented workers who come into the US illegally are unwilling or unable to "assimilate into the United States into our Modern society," going onto state the vast majority are "rural people" where "4th, 5th and 6th grade educations are kind of the norm." He says he's for ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, Nicaragua, and the Sudan. Nothing from Kelly on white Europeans illegally in the US. (5/12)
6. Trump, to pay for his massive government handout to the ultra wealthy and largest corporations via the Trump Tax Bill, is sending budget cuts to the Congress for approval. Included in the budget cuts are 7 BILLION(!!!) in cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), meaning he is paying for billionaire tax cuts by removing healthcare for sick needy kids! (5/8)
5. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has now made it an official Trump Administration policy to separate parents from their children as they cross the US border. To prove how cold hearted he is, Sessions then went to Tennessee where he addressed this new policy, as well as the arrest of 97 workers picked up in a Tennessee raid. "I'm not shedding tears about them." Reminder: Sessions claims to be a devout Chrisitan. (5/11)
4. In shocking news, Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released stunning information which claims Trump's lawyer Micahel Cohen, in the months after the 2016 election, received $500K in money from a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin. It's quite possible this money reimbursed the Stormy Daniel payment. This is the same Russian Oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, who has already been questioned by the Mueller investigation. This story so far has been substantiated by AT&T, another company who paid Cohen's private company, Essential Consultants LLC, although they insist their payments were not suspicious, rather just seeking insight and understanding into Trump (BY PAYING TRUMP'S LAWYER!!!). The New York Times and NBC News have also validated elements of Avenatti's claim, with one source to The Daily Beast stating "how the F*** did he ever find out about this?" To recap, major corporations and Russians were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars into a company whose sole purpose was to pay off Stormy Daniels. The company doesn't seem to exist in ANY other capacity. The evidence points to people paying Cohen for access to Trump. (5/8)
3. Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, appearing on MSNBC brings more fire to the Michael Cohen Essential Consultants LLC story. He explains many companies were paying Cohen a lot of money for his 'expertise' in fields he has no expertise in, including medial advice, accounting and real estate. Avenatti also poked more holes in the story that Cohen paid for GOP strategist Elliot Broidy to settle a legal matter he was having with a Playboy playmate he was sleeping with, and who Broidy allegedly got pregnant. The financial arraignment seems to imply something else was going on, as legal matters of this nature are almost always billed hourly, not in lump sum amounts. (5/9)
2. The amount of money Michael Cohen received for 'consulting' work is astounding. Novartis admits having given Cohen 1.2 million dollars, and they have outright stated they gave Cohen this money because he was promising access to Trump. Novartis perviously had stated their donation to Cohen was only $300K. They had one meeting with him, determined he was useless to them, and never met with him again, but they still gave him the money. It's also looking like AT&T lied about how much money they funneled to Cohen. Their totall 'investment' was likely three times more than the 200K they initially reported. (5/9)
1. Because he's a major idiot, Trump decided to pull the USA out of the Iranian Nuclear Deal, a deal which had effectively shut down Iran's nuclear program. He seemingly did so solely because it was former President Obama who signed the deal. During his announcement, Trump repeatedly boldfaced lied to the American people. Even Trump Administration and Military officials loyal to Trump were telling him not to rip up the deal, advice Trump either ignored, or eliminated by removing pro-Iranian Nuclear Deal advisors, such as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. When asked the simple question "How does this make America safer?", Trump was quiet for a few seconds, stated "This keeps America safer," and then wandered away without really answering the question. Every major country on the planet condemned Trump's ignorance, outside of Israel, who wants the US to fight their war with Iran for them. The rest of the world has committed to trying to work around the US's withdraw, meaning the US is becoming less important to the international community. It also implies no one can trust the US when it comes to peace deals (North Korea). White House officials have admitted part of the reason Trump did this was to watch "experts freaking out on CNN." (5/8)
At this point we have to realize the damage Trump has done to the US' standing worldwide. Not only has he screwed up our trade relations in stunning fashion, not only has he ripped up successful peace initiatives and global treaties, not only has he stoked the fires of war in the Middle East, he has tied all of us to 'Trump,' whether we worship him or despise him (as most of us do). It will take decades for the United States to get even close to where we once stood in this world, IF we ever do return to that level.
#2018IsEverything! Make sure to pick five Democrats running is districts currently held by Republicans and vow to help them someway this summer. We have to take back the US House. The Minnesota House would be a nice get too!
These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump and his Administration this week. If this was a Democratic Administration, EVERYTHING on this list would have triggered investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead we have a man who might have been running a shakedown of corporate America and foreign businesses, funneling money through his lawyer, with the leverage the Presidency of the United States as the catalyst, and the Republican Congressional leadership doesn't even bat an eye.
On with the countdown!
20. Trump wished his mother a Happy Mother's Day with a nice tribute. What was surprising is that he failed to mention ANY of the mother's of his children, not even current First Lady Melania Trump. (5/13)
19. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has ordered National Park police officers, a group of people hired to specifically patrol the US Park system, to the US-Mexico border to work border patrol duty, in a show of support for the Trump agenda. The ranks of the US Park police force were already grossly understaffed prior to this announcement. This is not helping. (5/9)
18. Melania Trump, in an effort to promote positive online experiences for kids, unveiled a booklet as part of her "Be Best" campaign. The only problem (outside of the name "Be Best" and ignoring her husband's atrocious online behavior), is she basically copied an Obama era phamplet the FTC published. Besides her introduction, it's exactly the same pamphlet, with the same headers and graphics. (5/7)
17. In what might be the shortest Administration term yet, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen actually drafted a letter of resignation after Trump was unnecessarily brutal to her in a cabinet meeting, where he accused her of failing to secure the US border. Trump's lengthy tirade was part of an overall demand that more needs to be done to stop non-white immigrants, with Trump viciously singling out Nielsen. (5/10)
16. National Security Advisor John Bolton snapped an the inference the US is going it alone on Iran, stating Israel is on our side. Table for two then... He also put forward the US will attempt to sabotage the remaining Iranian Nuclear Deal countries from continuing with the agreement without the US, threatening sanctions against companies based in European countries, countries which are supposedly our closest allies. It should be noted one country who makes out like a bandit with the US leaving the Iranian Nuclear Deal is Russia, whose companies are already planning on massive expansions into the country. Trump states Iran WILL negotiate with him, or else "something will happen." It's not clear on what he's implying, and White House officials are playing coy, but the implication is armed conflict with Iran. (5/10-13)
15. Our supposed European allies, befuddled by Trump's withdraw from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, have revealed the Trump White House never once produced an alternative plan to the current deal, only that he didn't like the current plan. This seems to add more validity to the theory the only reason Trump dumped the deal was because it was completed under the Obama Administration. (5/9)
14. One way to deal with bad news you don't want to believe is to pretend it doesn't exist. NASA has cancelled a program which tracks carbon and methane gases, the Carbon Monitoring System. Carbon and Methane gases cause greenhouse effects. They cancelled the program under direct orders from Trump. The total program cost per year was only 10 million dollars, and the program was delivering impressive, workable scientific data. (5/11)
13. Politico has the story of the Pentagon's evaluation of Presidential Advisor and Trump son in law Jared Kushner's VA health care initiative, a program meant to make the VA healthcare system more streamlined, with better coverage. The Pentagon's review labeled the first stage "devastating," with the report detailing 156 'critical' or 'severe' problems in the first stage alone. To give you an idea of how bad this plan is, usually the Pentagon considers a program having significant problems with 5 'critical' or 'severe' problems. (5/12)
12. Trump's pick to run the CIA, renowned torturer Gina Haspel, testifying to the Senate at her confirmation hearing, pinky swears she would never restart the torture...er, enhanced interrogation program ever again (wink). To understand what she really thinks about torture, look at her questioning at the hands of former criminal prosecutor Senator Kamala Harris. Harris repeatedly tried to get her to answer whether she thought torture was immoral. Haspel refused repeatedly to answer the question. For a human being with a soul, any human with any humanity, or for a Christian, this shouldn't be a tough question to answer. (5/9)
11. North Korea has released three American political prisoners (which is a good thing!) but leave it to Trump to take the credit for other's people's work, and then fumble the photo op. From all accounts, the Chinese and South Koreans had far more to do with the release of the prisoners than any negotiations from the USA, something Trump even mentioned when he says he was happy North Korea released the prisoners PRIOR to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meeting with Kim Jong-un. When the prisoners appeared with Trump on the tarmac in the early morning, he credited North Korea with treating the political prisoners "excellent"(???), and then bragged about how good the TV ratings were for him at 3 in the morning, with the prisoners standing right behind him. (5/10)
10. Trump's FCC Chair Ajit Pai announces net neutrality will end on June 10th. (5/10)
9. More scrutiny is on Trump in regards to the 1.6 million dollar payout from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to former Playboy model Shera Bechard, who allegedly had an affair with top Republican donor Elliot Broidy, an affair which ended with a pregnancy and an abortion. Research into the arrangement is pointing to the possibility this affair was never with Broidy, but rather with Trump. The non disclosure agreement was signed by the fake names "David Dennison" and "Peggy Peterson," both of which were the same exact names used in the non-disclosure between Trump and Stormy Daniels. Trump was close friends with Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, a friendship which came to an abrupt end in 2016, the same time as the alleged pregnancy. Bechard and Hefner were at one time an item and remained friends. Brody had potential advantages for taking the fall on this issue too. He's trying to get the Justice Department to drop a probe of an investment deal he made with Malaysia. If the probe is dropped, Broidy could make tens of millions personally. And Broidy has a history of bribing public officials. (5/8)
8. Proving this White House has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity, White House Staffer and Trump special assistant (?!) Kelly Sadler decided to mock Senator, tortured POW, decorated war veteran and man in the last stages of his fight with cancer, John McCain. Criticizing McCain for saying he won't vote for CIA nominee and noted torturer Gina Haspel, Sadler made the attempt at what she labeled as 'humor.' "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway." Sadler has attempted to, privately, apologize to the McCain's for this incredibly insensitive comment. For some inexplicable reason, she's still employed by the White House, as they seem far more upset the media found out about the joke. Sadler, apparently promised Meghan McCain, the Senator's daughter, a public apology for her comments. So far she hasn't publicly apologized. It seems there isn't going to be a public apology. (5/11-13)
7. Chief of Staff John Kelly is supposed to be one of the few sane people in Trump's Administration, but his latest comments show how low that bar really is. Kelly stated the vast majority of undocumented workers who come into the US illegally are unwilling or unable to "assimilate into the United States into our Modern society," going onto state the vast majority are "rural people" where "4th, 5th and 6th grade educations are kind of the norm." He says he's for ending the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nepal, Nicaragua, and the Sudan. Nothing from Kelly on white Europeans illegally in the US. (5/12)
6. Trump, to pay for his massive government handout to the ultra wealthy and largest corporations via the Trump Tax Bill, is sending budget cuts to the Congress for approval. Included in the budget cuts are 7 BILLION(!!!) in cuts to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), meaning he is paying for billionaire tax cuts by removing healthcare for sick needy kids! (5/8)
5. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has now made it an official Trump Administration policy to separate parents from their children as they cross the US border. To prove how cold hearted he is, Sessions then went to Tennessee where he addressed this new policy, as well as the arrest of 97 workers picked up in a Tennessee raid. "I'm not shedding tears about them." Reminder: Sessions claims to be a devout Chrisitan. (5/11)
4. In shocking news, Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released stunning information which claims Trump's lawyer Micahel Cohen, in the months after the 2016 election, received $500K in money from a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin. It's quite possible this money reimbursed the Stormy Daniel payment. This is the same Russian Oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, who has already been questioned by the Mueller investigation. This story so far has been substantiated by AT&T, another company who paid Cohen's private company, Essential Consultants LLC, although they insist their payments were not suspicious, rather just seeking insight and understanding into Trump (BY PAYING TRUMP'S LAWYER!!!). The New York Times and NBC News have also validated elements of Avenatti's claim, with one source to The Daily Beast stating "how the F*** did he ever find out about this?" To recap, major corporations and Russians were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars into a company whose sole purpose was to pay off Stormy Daniels. The company doesn't seem to exist in ANY other capacity. The evidence points to people paying Cohen for access to Trump. (5/8)
3. Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, appearing on MSNBC brings more fire to the Michael Cohen Essential Consultants LLC story. He explains many companies were paying Cohen a lot of money for his 'expertise' in fields he has no expertise in, including medial advice, accounting and real estate. Avenatti also poked more holes in the story that Cohen paid for GOP strategist Elliot Broidy to settle a legal matter he was having with a Playboy playmate he was sleeping with, and who Broidy allegedly got pregnant. The financial arraignment seems to imply something else was going on, as legal matters of this nature are almost always billed hourly, not in lump sum amounts. (5/9)
2. The amount of money Michael Cohen received for 'consulting' work is astounding. Novartis admits having given Cohen 1.2 million dollars, and they have outright stated they gave Cohen this money because he was promising access to Trump. Novartis perviously had stated their donation to Cohen was only $300K. They had one meeting with him, determined he was useless to them, and never met with him again, but they still gave him the money. It's also looking like AT&T lied about how much money they funneled to Cohen. Their totall 'investment' was likely three times more than the 200K they initially reported. (5/9)
1. Because he's a major idiot, Trump decided to pull the USA out of the Iranian Nuclear Deal, a deal which had effectively shut down Iran's nuclear program. He seemingly did so solely because it was former President Obama who signed the deal. During his announcement, Trump repeatedly boldfaced lied to the American people. Even Trump Administration and Military officials loyal to Trump were telling him not to rip up the deal, advice Trump either ignored, or eliminated by removing pro-Iranian Nuclear Deal advisors, such as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. When asked the simple question "How does this make America safer?", Trump was quiet for a few seconds, stated "This keeps America safer," and then wandered away without really answering the question. Every major country on the planet condemned Trump's ignorance, outside of Israel, who wants the US to fight their war with Iran for them. The rest of the world has committed to trying to work around the US's withdraw, meaning the US is becoming less important to the international community. It also implies no one can trust the US when it comes to peace deals (North Korea). White House officials have admitted part of the reason Trump did this was to watch "experts freaking out on CNN." (5/8)
At this point we have to realize the damage Trump has done to the US' standing worldwide. Not only has he screwed up our trade relations in stunning fashion, not only has he ripped up successful peace initiatives and global treaties, not only has he stoked the fires of war in the Middle East, he has tied all of us to 'Trump,' whether we worship him or despise him (as most of us do). It will take decades for the United States to get even close to where we once stood in this world, IF we ever do return to that level.
On the funny side, 200 Presidential Historians have all chimed in and after only a year and a half, EVERY ONE OF THEM has placed Trump as the worst President of all time. Finally some relief for the Harrison, Buchanan, Harding, W. Bush and Camacho Administrations.
Friday, May 11, 2018
The Friday Link for 5/11/18
Once again, I'm in my May running around mess, so sorry the blog has been light this week. I'm going to get this done fast as there's a chance I can actually have some down time this evening.
We'll go with Conan first and the return of his best bit, Clueless Gamer. This time he has Bill Hader join him to play the game, God of War. Very enjoyable, but some violent images and some adult content. Viewer be warned!
Next up, two from Arrested Development (sort of). Season 5 is coming to Netflix soon, and I'm so freaking excited! Love this show, and to get you ready, here's the season 5 preview.
Sweet Lord, but it's topped this week by Ron Howard doing an Arrested Development type of narration for Star Wars. This is brilliant!
Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Mother's Day, from one big mother...
We'll go with Conan first and the return of his best bit, Clueless Gamer. This time he has Bill Hader join him to play the game, God of War. Very enjoyable, but some violent images and some adult content. Viewer be warned!
Next up, two from Arrested Development (sort of). Season 5 is coming to Netflix soon, and I'm so freaking excited! Love this show, and to get you ready, here's the season 5 preview.
Sweet Lord, but it's topped this week by Ron Howard doing an Arrested Development type of narration for Star Wars. This is brilliant!
Have a great weekend everyone! Happy Mother's Day, from one big mother...
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
The Trump Top 20 Countdown for the Week of 4/30/18
Welcome to the Weekly Top 20 Countdown of Trump's ineptitude and stupidity for the week of 4/30/18 to 5/6/18.
These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump, Giuliani (SPOILER!) and his Administration for this week. All the things on this list should be the lynchpin for investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead, as the Trump cesspool fills up around us, we have to keep reminding ourselves NONE of this is normal!
A quick Google search will give you plenty of news options on every one of these stories. The ranking is purely on me. Please feel free to disagree and comment why below.
On with the countdown!
20 - Secretary of Education Betsy Devos was hammered by the 50 'Teachers of the Year' in a private meeting where there was a recurring theme. Many of the teachers, including teachers who support Trump, told Devos her policy of dispersing public school education funds to charter schools and private school via a vouchers system are making the public school system FAR worse. Devos tried to point out some kids getting out of the bad schools as a plus, but the teachers quickly pointed out she doesn't seem to care at all about the the majority of students who are left behind in the subpar school, which is now grossly underfunded. (5/1)
19 - Admitting something we all knew, Trump's former personal doctor, Harold Bornstein, admitted that Trump dictated the now infamous one page letter from 2016 which stated that Trump was the healthiest person ever elected. (5/2)
18 - Eighteen Republicans have proudly submitted Trump's name to the Nobel Peace Prize committee for the Korean Peninsula Peace treaty, a peace treaty which doesn't even exist yet. They base part of their recommendation on the comments from the South Korean President Moon Jae-in who was reported to have implied Trump should receive the prize. THAT was a mis-translation. He actually stated how he (Moon Jae-in) didn't deserve the Nobel prize, only the prize of 'peace with the North.' One other slight problem with the Republican's submission; the deadline to submit nominees to the Nobel Peace Prize committee was in February. (5/2)
17 - On the now infamous March 20th phone call where Trump congratulated Russian evil dictator Vlad Putin on his fixed election victory, something Trump was told repeatedly NOT to do, Trump also stunned everyone, including Putin, by inviting Putin for a one on one meeting at the White House. What's remarkable is at the time he did this, the US and our European allies were in the process of ejecting Russian diplomats from the respective countries in response to the Russian nerve agent attack on British soil. The White House didn't release Trump's Putin invite at the time of the call. The Russian's believe Trump is just trying to get Putin to the White House in an effort to impress him. (5/4)
16 - At the NRA Convention, Trump comments if you ban guns, like they did in England, bad guys will just find other ways to attack each other. He went onto imply there's an unnamed London Hospital which has been turned into a "war zone" with "blood all over the floors" from knife attacks. He seems to be referring to a story of a hospital where the lead surgeon was referring to knife attacks in general, not that there are hourly patient dumps with thousands of knife wounds. It's also incredibly confusing where exactly Trump was going with this. Would he rather these people shoot each other? Is he applauding knife attacks? Seriously, I have no idea what Trump was thinking. Many in the British medical system quickly condemned Trump's comments, saying guns are not a viable solution to stabbings. (5/5)
15 - Senator John McCain 's thoughts on Trump are coming to light as he nears the end of his fight with cancer. McCain's autobiography is "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations," and in it he pulls no punches. Referring to Trump: "His lack of empathy for refugees, innocent, persecuted desperate men, women and children is disturbing. The way he speaks about them is appalling as if welfare and terrorism were the only purposes they could have..." "He has showered with praise some of the world's worst tyrants." "The appearance of toughness, or a reality show facsimile of toughness, seems to matter more than any of our values." (5/6)
14 - One month after a judge threw out a lawsuit claiming Trump was guilty of using the office of the Presidency for financial gain from foreign governments (violating the Emoluments Clause), the government of Qatar suddenly shelled out 6.5 million dollars for a condo in the Trump World Tower in Manhattan. The purchase also took place as the Qatari Government is lobbying heavily in Washington for a positive solution to the regional crisis they were having with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. (5/5)
13 - Chief of Staff John Kelly has apparently had it with Trump. He feels as if he is the only barrier between Trump and a catastrophe, often commenting that Trump is an "idiot." In a meeting with National Security Advisors, he referred to Trump as "unhinged." Of the 8 sources who commented on this story, most of them feel that Kelly will not be in the position past July. (4/30)
12 - Somehow, someway, Presidential Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has been found to have made MORE mistakes on his federal ethics disclosure forms. It was discovered he misstated the financial information on two Brooklyn loans, the latest in a string of mistakes he's made on these forms. The question now is how much of his forms were actually correct? (5/4)
11 - Dr. Harold Bornstein, Trump's longtime doctor, said his New York City office was raided by a top White House thug, Trump's longtime personal bodyguard Keith Schiller and another "large man," in early 2017. Also present was Trump Organization Chief Legal Officer Alan Garten. Apparently Trump was furious at Bornstein's admission that Trump had been taking Propecia, a hair growth medication, for years. The thug crew claimed Bornstein had violated the doctor patient privacy code, and not only did they confiscate all of Trump's medical files, they also ordered him to remove a private photo from the wall which featured Trump and Bornstein together. It's not clear if the Trump thug crew had any legal documentation which was needed for them to remove the files. (5/1)
10 - It seems everyone in the White House is an idiot. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put on the dog and pony show, power point presentation designed to scare Trump out of the Iranian Nuclear Agreement, the White House put out a press release stating "Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program..." They made this claim even though the Iranian Nuclear deal completely shut down their nuclear program. When it was discovered Netanyahu was using incredibly dated information for his presentation (information from 1993-2003), and that the US's press release was inflammatory to many different countries and groups, the White House attempted to quietly change the press release, changing the word 'has' to 'had.' (5/1)
9 - The Trump Administration has decided to end temporary protections for immigrants in the US from Honduras, a total of 57,000 people. Most of these people could now potentially be deported, even after living and working legally in the USA for 20 years. For many Hondurans, the reason they asked for safety in the US was because of threats to their lives back in Honduras, and/or because natural disasters destroyed everything they had in Honduras. (5/5)
8 - The question of who leaked the Mueller Trump interview questions to the New York Times is taking some interesting turns. On Monday, the Times ran a story featuring 'questions' Mueller was looking to ask Trump, but it doesn't appear the questions actually came from Mueller. Grammatical errors point to the questions coming from the Trump camp, something backed up for a former Mueller aide, Michael Zeldin. Zeldin points to the grammatical errors, and the methodology of the questions, to suggest these questions were actually written by someone from the Trump legal team writing down part of a conversation while talking to Mueller. Later, the Washington Post reported Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, after getting the Mueller team to supply the Trump team with an idea of the subjects Mueller was interested in talking with Trump about, took those generalized ideas and complied a list of 49 questions the team believed represented Mueller's questions. Trump has claimed the list of question points to Mueller admitting there's no collusion, something virtually every legal expert disagrees with Trump on. Most people point to the vagueness behind the subject of the questions as being introductory at best, meaning these questions are meant to be followed up with more question. (5/1)
7 - Both Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House Spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway refuse to deny if there have been other Trump financial payouts to women to keep quiet about affairs they had with Trump. Giuliani states "I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes." Conway stated she didn't know of any other payments, outside of the one to Daniels (another admission?) but then added the important caveat; "they didn't cross my desk as campaign manager." (5/6)
6 - Trump puts his foot on the trade war accelerator with demands that China cut their trade surplus with the US by $200 billion, end subsidies on advanced technology and sharply cut import tariffs to the US's standards. Considering Trump is currently only threatening $150 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, but wants China to cut their trade surplus by 50 billion more, without adding in China's cost of ending of subsidies and cutting of tariffs, this could be one of the dumbest opening salvos in the history of trade negotiations. It's reported China has stopped ordering all American soybean and soybean products, in any of their forms, making purchases from other countries instead. So far the White House has had no response (5/4)
5 - As Senator John McCain's battle with cancer has taken a turn for the worse, his spokespeople have let the White House know that Trump will not be welcome at his funeral or memorial. This on the heals of former First Lady Barbara Bush's family asking for Trump not to come to her funeral, and the Royal family in Britain laughing at the idea of Trump getting an invite to their royal wedding. I can't remember a president ever being told to not show up for funerals or weddings to the extent Trump has been told to stay away. (5/5)
And this week we have a four way tie for first place. All of these stories involve Rudy Giuliani and his nightmarish week, but because each story was it's own unique elements, I decided against combining them, and will treat them as a four way tie!
1 Trump's new legal representative Rudy Giuliani has stated Trump now has paid Michael Cohen back the $130,000 for the Stormy Daniels payment. "It's going to turn out to be perfectly legal; that money was not campaign money." Not only does this contradict the previous statements made by Trump in regards to his knowledge of the alleged payout, it acts as a pseudo-admission from Giuliani that Trump did have an innapporprate relationship with Stormy. Rudy Giuliani also has created chaos with other admissions from the Wednesday night interview. Republicans and former FBI director James Comey are taking issue with his calling the FBI agents who raided former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Nazi 'stormtroopers,' something Giuliani has doubled down on. Reports are the White House is 'gobsmacked' at Giuliani's description of Trump son in law Jared Kushner as "a fine man," but "disposable." Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she herself having lied repeatedly about the Stormy Daniels affair and payout, now says she can't even answer why she's been lying the entire time, because it involves a legal matter. Republican Rep. Charlie Dent has said enough is enough and is wanting hearings on Stormy Daniels, stating they'd already be well underway if it was President Obama's scandal. Giuliani also strongly implied there were other payouts similar to Stormy Daniel's. On Thursday morning, along with doubling down on the "stormtroopers" reference, Giuliani contradicted himself AGAIN. After saying the payments had nothing to do with the election, Giuliani stated the payments were there to help prevent the Stormy Daniels story from coming out before the election, hence avoiding the scandal from hurting Trump's political chances. Reports are the White House is in full blown panic mode over the Rudy Giuliani interview. (5/2-3)
1 Continued - Trump seems to be backing up Rudy Giuliani's admission from Fox News on Wednesday night. He now admits there was a payment, but that it was legal and not via his campaign dollars. In tweets which definitely read like his lawyers wrote them, not Trump, he carefully words the admission and defense. Reminder: Trump has lied dozens of times about this payout and the affair. (5/3)
1 Continued - Now Trump seems to be trying to walk back Rudy Giuliani's statements from Wednesday night; the statements about Stormy Daniels, about how the payout was from Trump, and whether or not the payout had to do with the election. Trump mentioned that Giuliani "started yesterday" and that he would "get his facts straight." Trump then mentioned the Mueller investigation is a pure witch hunt. A friend of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen (referring to a private conversation with Cohen) states Rudy Giuliani "doesn't know what he's talking about." Cohen mentioned there was a reason Rudy Giuliani was passed over for a White House position back when Trump took office. Later in the day, Giuliani released a press statement, walking back his comments from Wednesday night, and saying he misspoke and that Trump was (now) correct. (5/4)
1 Continued - Just when you didn't think Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani could get any worse at representing Trump, he went on ABC Sunday morning. Now he's saying Trump has no idea the 130K payment was for Stormy Daniels. He adds the payment had nothing to do with the campaign. Giuliani claimed Trump repaid the loan over time, and it was AFTER paying lawyer Michael Cohen did Trump bother to find out what the money was for (???). He said the Trump team did not leak the proposed Mueller interview questions, then suddenly suggested it was indeed a former Trump attorney who leaked the questions. He went onto to say no one has discussed a Cohen pardon, before saying "it wouldn't be illegal to talk about it." He added Trump would take the 5th Amendment if subpoenaed. Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's lawyer, appearing right after Rudy Giuliani, asked "Did that interview just happen? I mean, I'm not being spoofed, right?" After it was confirmed that was indeed a serious Giuliani interview, Avenatti stated "It was an absolute unmitigated disaster...a train wreck." (5/6)
For goodness same, how can Trump keep sending Rudy Giuliani off to do interviews on his behalf?!? Stunning!
More Nazis, racists, KKK members and white supremacists are running to be Republican candidates. Most of the time, the local Republican party doesn't seem care. Whose side are YOU on?
#2018IsEverything! Get registered to vote! Know the candidates! Know the issues! Know where you vote! Make sure five of your friends are registered and know where they vote! Help your local Democratic candidates! Then pick five Democrats in Republican leaning districts and vow to help them sometime this summer!
One seat shy of controlling the Minnesota House or the US House is failure. Remember that. There is no second place trophy this time around.
These are the 20 most boneheaded things coming from Trump, Giuliani (SPOILER!) and his Administration for this week. All the things on this list should be the lynchpin for investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges. Instead, as the Trump cesspool fills up around us, we have to keep reminding ourselves NONE of this is normal!
On with the countdown!
20 - Secretary of Education Betsy Devos was hammered by the 50 'Teachers of the Year' in a private meeting where there was a recurring theme. Many of the teachers, including teachers who support Trump, told Devos her policy of dispersing public school education funds to charter schools and private school via a vouchers system are making the public school system FAR worse. Devos tried to point out some kids getting out of the bad schools as a plus, but the teachers quickly pointed out she doesn't seem to care at all about the the majority of students who are left behind in the subpar school, which is now grossly underfunded. (5/1)
19 - Admitting something we all knew, Trump's former personal doctor, Harold Bornstein, admitted that Trump dictated the now infamous one page letter from 2016 which stated that Trump was the healthiest person ever elected. (5/2)
18 - Eighteen Republicans have proudly submitted Trump's name to the Nobel Peace Prize committee for the Korean Peninsula Peace treaty, a peace treaty which doesn't even exist yet. They base part of their recommendation on the comments from the South Korean President Moon Jae-in who was reported to have implied Trump should receive the prize. THAT was a mis-translation. He actually stated how he (Moon Jae-in) didn't deserve the Nobel prize, only the prize of 'peace with the North.' One other slight problem with the Republican's submission; the deadline to submit nominees to the Nobel Peace Prize committee was in February. (5/2)
17 - On the now infamous March 20th phone call where Trump congratulated Russian evil dictator Vlad Putin on his fixed election victory, something Trump was told repeatedly NOT to do, Trump also stunned everyone, including Putin, by inviting Putin for a one on one meeting at the White House. What's remarkable is at the time he did this, the US and our European allies were in the process of ejecting Russian diplomats from the respective countries in response to the Russian nerve agent attack on British soil. The White House didn't release Trump's Putin invite at the time of the call. The Russian's believe Trump is just trying to get Putin to the White House in an effort to impress him. (5/4)
16 - At the NRA Convention, Trump comments if you ban guns, like they did in England, bad guys will just find other ways to attack each other. He went onto imply there's an unnamed London Hospital which has been turned into a "war zone" with "blood all over the floors" from knife attacks. He seems to be referring to a story of a hospital where the lead surgeon was referring to knife attacks in general, not that there are hourly patient dumps with thousands of knife wounds. It's also incredibly confusing where exactly Trump was going with this. Would he rather these people shoot each other? Is he applauding knife attacks? Seriously, I have no idea what Trump was thinking. Many in the British medical system quickly condemned Trump's comments, saying guns are not a viable solution to stabbings. (5/5)
15 - Senator John McCain 's thoughts on Trump are coming to light as he nears the end of his fight with cancer. McCain's autobiography is "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations," and in it he pulls no punches. Referring to Trump: "His lack of empathy for refugees, innocent, persecuted desperate men, women and children is disturbing. The way he speaks about them is appalling as if welfare and terrorism were the only purposes they could have..." "He has showered with praise some of the world's worst tyrants." "The appearance of toughness, or a reality show facsimile of toughness, seems to matter more than any of our values." (5/6)
14 - One month after a judge threw out a lawsuit claiming Trump was guilty of using the office of the Presidency for financial gain from foreign governments (violating the Emoluments Clause), the government of Qatar suddenly shelled out 6.5 million dollars for a condo in the Trump World Tower in Manhattan. The purchase also took place as the Qatari Government is lobbying heavily in Washington for a positive solution to the regional crisis they were having with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. (5/5)
13 - Chief of Staff John Kelly has apparently had it with Trump. He feels as if he is the only barrier between Trump and a catastrophe, often commenting that Trump is an "idiot." In a meeting with National Security Advisors, he referred to Trump as "unhinged." Of the 8 sources who commented on this story, most of them feel that Kelly will not be in the position past July. (4/30)
12 - Somehow, someway, Presidential Advisor and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has been found to have made MORE mistakes on his federal ethics disclosure forms. It was discovered he misstated the financial information on two Brooklyn loans, the latest in a string of mistakes he's made on these forms. The question now is how much of his forms were actually correct? (5/4)
11 - Dr. Harold Bornstein, Trump's longtime doctor, said his New York City office was raided by a top White House thug, Trump's longtime personal bodyguard Keith Schiller and another "large man," in early 2017. Also present was Trump Organization Chief Legal Officer Alan Garten. Apparently Trump was furious at Bornstein's admission that Trump had been taking Propecia, a hair growth medication, for years. The thug crew claimed Bornstein had violated the doctor patient privacy code, and not only did they confiscate all of Trump's medical files, they also ordered him to remove a private photo from the wall which featured Trump and Bornstein together. It's not clear if the Trump thug crew had any legal documentation which was needed for them to remove the files. (5/1)
10 - It seems everyone in the White House is an idiot. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put on the dog and pony show, power point presentation designed to scare Trump out of the Iranian Nuclear Agreement, the White House put out a press release stating "Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program..." They made this claim even though the Iranian Nuclear deal completely shut down their nuclear program. When it was discovered Netanyahu was using incredibly dated information for his presentation (information from 1993-2003), and that the US's press release was inflammatory to many different countries and groups, the White House attempted to quietly change the press release, changing the word 'has' to 'had.' (5/1)
9 - The Trump Administration has decided to end temporary protections for immigrants in the US from Honduras, a total of 57,000 people. Most of these people could now potentially be deported, even after living and working legally in the USA for 20 years. For many Hondurans, the reason they asked for safety in the US was because of threats to their lives back in Honduras, and/or because natural disasters destroyed everything they had in Honduras. (5/5)
8 - The question of who leaked the Mueller Trump interview questions to the New York Times is taking some interesting turns. On Monday, the Times ran a story featuring 'questions' Mueller was looking to ask Trump, but it doesn't appear the questions actually came from Mueller. Grammatical errors point to the questions coming from the Trump camp, something backed up for a former Mueller aide, Michael Zeldin. Zeldin points to the grammatical errors, and the methodology of the questions, to suggest these questions were actually written by someone from the Trump legal team writing down part of a conversation while talking to Mueller. Later, the Washington Post reported Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, after getting the Mueller team to supply the Trump team with an idea of the subjects Mueller was interested in talking with Trump about, took those generalized ideas and complied a list of 49 questions the team believed represented Mueller's questions. Trump has claimed the list of question points to Mueller admitting there's no collusion, something virtually every legal expert disagrees with Trump on. Most people point to the vagueness behind the subject of the questions as being introductory at best, meaning these questions are meant to be followed up with more question. (5/1)
7 - Both Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House Spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway refuse to deny if there have been other Trump financial payouts to women to keep quiet about affairs they had with Trump. Giuliani states "I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes." Conway stated she didn't know of any other payments, outside of the one to Daniels (another admission?) but then added the important caveat; "they didn't cross my desk as campaign manager." (5/6)
6 - Trump puts his foot on the trade war accelerator with demands that China cut their trade surplus with the US by $200 billion, end subsidies on advanced technology and sharply cut import tariffs to the US's standards. Considering Trump is currently only threatening $150 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, but wants China to cut their trade surplus by 50 billion more, without adding in China's cost of ending of subsidies and cutting of tariffs, this could be one of the dumbest opening salvos in the history of trade negotiations. It's reported China has stopped ordering all American soybean and soybean products, in any of their forms, making purchases from other countries instead. So far the White House has had no response (5/4)
5 - As Senator John McCain's battle with cancer has taken a turn for the worse, his spokespeople have let the White House know that Trump will not be welcome at his funeral or memorial. This on the heals of former First Lady Barbara Bush's family asking for Trump not to come to her funeral, and the Royal family in Britain laughing at the idea of Trump getting an invite to their royal wedding. I can't remember a president ever being told to not show up for funerals or weddings to the extent Trump has been told to stay away. (5/5)
And this week we have a four way tie for first place. All of these stories involve Rudy Giuliani and his nightmarish week, but because each story was it's own unique elements, I decided against combining them, and will treat them as a four way tie!
1 Trump's new legal representative Rudy Giuliani has stated Trump now has paid Michael Cohen back the $130,000 for the Stormy Daniels payment. "It's going to turn out to be perfectly legal; that money was not campaign money." Not only does this contradict the previous statements made by Trump in regards to his knowledge of the alleged payout, it acts as a pseudo-admission from Giuliani that Trump did have an innapporprate relationship with Stormy. Rudy Giuliani also has created chaos with other admissions from the Wednesday night interview. Republicans and former FBI director James Comey are taking issue with his calling the FBI agents who raided former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Nazi 'stormtroopers,' something Giuliani has doubled down on. Reports are the White House is 'gobsmacked' at Giuliani's description of Trump son in law Jared Kushner as "a fine man," but "disposable." Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she herself having lied repeatedly about the Stormy Daniels affair and payout, now says she can't even answer why she's been lying the entire time, because it involves a legal matter. Republican Rep. Charlie Dent has said enough is enough and is wanting hearings on Stormy Daniels, stating they'd already be well underway if it was President Obama's scandal. Giuliani also strongly implied there were other payouts similar to Stormy Daniel's. On Thursday morning, along with doubling down on the "stormtroopers" reference, Giuliani contradicted himself AGAIN. After saying the payments had nothing to do with the election, Giuliani stated the payments were there to help prevent the Stormy Daniels story from coming out before the election, hence avoiding the scandal from hurting Trump's political chances. Reports are the White House is in full blown panic mode over the Rudy Giuliani interview. (5/2-3)
1 Continued - Trump seems to be backing up Rudy Giuliani's admission from Fox News on Wednesday night. He now admits there was a payment, but that it was legal and not via his campaign dollars. In tweets which definitely read like his lawyers wrote them, not Trump, he carefully words the admission and defense. Reminder: Trump has lied dozens of times about this payout and the affair. (5/3)
1 Continued - Now Trump seems to be trying to walk back Rudy Giuliani's statements from Wednesday night; the statements about Stormy Daniels, about how the payout was from Trump, and whether or not the payout had to do with the election. Trump mentioned that Giuliani "started yesterday" and that he would "get his facts straight." Trump then mentioned the Mueller investigation is a pure witch hunt. A friend of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen (referring to a private conversation with Cohen) states Rudy Giuliani "doesn't know what he's talking about." Cohen mentioned there was a reason Rudy Giuliani was passed over for a White House position back when Trump took office. Later in the day, Giuliani released a press statement, walking back his comments from Wednesday night, and saying he misspoke and that Trump was (now) correct. (5/4)
1 Continued - Just when you didn't think Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani could get any worse at representing Trump, he went on ABC Sunday morning. Now he's saying Trump has no idea the 130K payment was for Stormy Daniels. He adds the payment had nothing to do with the campaign. Giuliani claimed Trump repaid the loan over time, and it was AFTER paying lawyer Michael Cohen did Trump bother to find out what the money was for (???). He said the Trump team did not leak the proposed Mueller interview questions, then suddenly suggested it was indeed a former Trump attorney who leaked the questions. He went onto to say no one has discussed a Cohen pardon, before saying "it wouldn't be illegal to talk about it." He added Trump would take the 5th Amendment if subpoenaed. Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel's lawyer, appearing right after Rudy Giuliani, asked "Did that interview just happen? I mean, I'm not being spoofed, right?" After it was confirmed that was indeed a serious Giuliani interview, Avenatti stated "It was an absolute unmitigated disaster...a train wreck." (5/6)
For goodness same, how can Trump keep sending Rudy Giuliani off to do interviews on his behalf?!? Stunning!
More Nazis, racists, KKK members and white supremacists are running to be Republican candidates. Most of the time, the local Republican party doesn't seem care. Whose side are YOU on?
#2018IsEverything! Get registered to vote! Know the candidates! Know the issues! Know where you vote! Make sure five of your friends are registered and know where they vote! Help your local Democratic candidates! Then pick five Democrats in Republican leaning districts and vow to help them sometime this summer!
One seat shy of controlling the Minnesota House or the US House is failure. Remember that. There is no second place trophy this time around.
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