The other memo could be released

With a busy week or so, here is a catch-up post of anything Donald Trump.

The House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to make public the Democratic memo rebutting GOP allegations that the FBI abused surveillance laws, a move that will put the issue back on Trump’s desk this week. If Trump refuses to approve, the House of Representatives will vote and if they get a majority, they could release the Democratic memo once the FBI and Department of Justice approves.

Trump claims that the House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes memo “totally vindicates me” in the Russian collusion. Another piece of propaganda. I think only his faithful will believe that.

Trump first learned of the House Intelligence Committee document last month from some Republican allies in Congress and he watched it take hold in the conservative media, including on some of his favourite Fox News programs. Trump told confidants in recent days that he believed the memo would validate his concerns that the “deep state” — an alleged shadowy network of powerful entrenched federal and military interests — had conspired to undermine the legitimacy of his presidency, according to one outside adviser.

Trump had dismissed forceful pleas from the FBI director, Christopher Wray, and the second-ranking Justice Department official, Rod Rosenstein, to keep the memo under wraps. They said the four-page document was inaccurate and lacked critical context, and they made their views known in a remarkable public statement objecting to its release. Democrats said the memo, which disclosed material about one of the most tightly held national security processes, selectively used Republican talking points in an effort to smear law enforcement.

Trump accused the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat “Little Adam Schiff” of criminally leaking sensitive information by “…illegally leaking confidential information.” Trump did not provide evidence that Schiff has illegally leaked confidential information. [Shocking!]

Former CIA Director John Brennan scorned Devin Nunes for the release of the controversial GOP memo alleging FBI surveillance abuses, calling aspects of the move “exceptionally partisan” and saying Nunes has “abused the office” in refusing to allow Democrats on his panel to make their rebuttal document public.

Stocks went into free fall on Monday with the Dow plunged almost 1,175 points, by far its worst closing point decline on record. The White House Press Secretary Sarah “Simpleton” Sanders said in a statement that Trump was focused on “our long-term economic fundamentals, which remain exceptionally strong.” The statement cited strengthening economic growth, low unemployment and increasing wages for workers. The Dow and S&P 500 have lost just about everything they gained since the beginning of the year. [After always taking credit for the stock market increases since his first day in office, how will Trump react if the markets continue to fall.]

As Trump touted his economic agenda in Ohio, his face stared out of millions of television screens next to blaring red graphics and yellow numbers whirling like the reels on a slot machine, telling the story of a full-bore stock market plunge.

Trump has previously boasted that the stock markets broke 84 records at one point. Add the 85th: The worst single-day point fall ever.

As the market tanked, Trump was hitting Democrats for not applauding during his State of the Union speech last week. “They were like death and un-American. Un-American. Somebody said, ‘Treasonous.’ I mean, Yeah, I guess, why not,” the President said. You think someone said ” Treasonous” to him? Does he know the definition of the word?

The Trump administration is dismissing an immigration deal brokered by a bipartisan group of lawmakers as a non-starter just hours before it is expected to be formally introduced in the Senate. The bill would grant eventual citizenship to young undocumented immigrants who have been in the country since 2013 and came to the US as children, but it does not address all of the President’s stated immigration priorities. It would not immediately authorize the $30 billion that Trump is seeking to build the border wall. The bill is a companion to a piece of House legislation that has 54 co-sponsors split evenly by party.

Trump tweeted “March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!” Actually, 27 co-sponsors of the DACA bill were Democrats. More like he doesn’t care about them.

The House intelligence Committee was also prepared to interview Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, as part of the Russia probe. But that meeting was put off, as Bannon refused to be interviewed. He has been subpoenaed and has now delayed answering the panel’s questions three times as the committee negotiates with his lawyer and the White House over the terms of his interview.

At issue is whether the White House will allow Bannon to answer questions about his time in the Trump administration. It was unclear if the House would hold Bannon in contempt.

The Democrats raised questions about whether the committee chairman, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, coordinated with the White House in drafting the GOP memo. Nunes was asked during a Jan. 29 committee meeting whether he had coordinated the memo with the White House. “As far as I know, no,” he responded. [“As far as I know?” Either you did or you didn’t.] Trump praised Nunes in a tweet, calling him “a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!” [What did he “endure”? You say that to a person who risked his life – not for a memo lacking facts.]

A train derailment in South Carolina that killed 2 people and involved an Amtrak train could be some trouble for Amtrak as a piece of train technology was not implemented on that stretch of track that could of prevented the derailment. The same technology could of also prevented at least 2 other previous train derailment. Congress keeps on giving Amtrak and others postponement of implementing the technology continuously since it became a law to implement about 10 years ago. This includes the Trump administration.

In a since deleted Twitter post, but retweeted elsewhere, House Speaker Paul Ryan said a secretary at a school was “pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week”. Others criticized the tweet saying it isn’t much compared to the $500,000 he received from the Koch brothers. In addition, he has also said “I have heard time and again that the middle class is getting crumbs, but I’ll take it!”

A CNN employee discovered copies of Department of Homeland Security documents, along with other sensitive DHS material, in the seat-back pocket of a commercial plane. The documents critiquing the response to a simulated anthrax attack on Super Bowl Sunday were marked “For Official Use Only” and “important for national security.”

Trump said that it was “disgraceful” that Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson was killed by a man who police believe is an undocumented immigrant in a suspected drunk driving accident over the weekend. “We must get the Dems to get tough on the Border, and with illegal immigration, FAST!” Trump tweeted. So he has to take advantage of a death for his own gain.

Already at least 4 members of the Super Bowl winners, Philadelphia Eagles, will not visit the White House. Chris Long, who didn’t attend last years as a member of the losing New England Patriots, won’t attend this year either.

The U.S. trade deficit hit the highest level in nine years in 2017 at $566 billion in 2017, highest since 2008. This defying Trump’s efforts to bring more balance to America’s trade relationships. Another failure of his.

Eleven Democratic state attorneys general sued Trump’s administration over its decision to delay implementation of an Obama-era rule that would have expanded the number of wetlands and small waterways protected by the Clean Water Act. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said last week’s decision by the Republican administration to postpone implementation of the 2015 Clean Water Rule for two years is an assault on public health.

The latest figures means nearly $2 of every $10 the campaign has spent last year has gone toward legal fees. And in the last three months of 2017, about 41% of the Trump campaign’s spending went toward legal fees, according to the campaign’s most recent Federal Election Commission filing. The firm representing Trump’s former private attorney Michael Cohen, who was also a top surrogate during the campaign, was paid $214,467 by the campaign in the final months of 2017.

Seems Trump continues to like to be a “sh?t disturber”. Trump attacked the UK’s National Health Service, claiming it is “going broke and not working” and then claimed that the “Dems want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and non-personal medical care.”

Britain’s Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt replied that ” I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m [as in 28 million] people have no cover…. where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.”

Since at least May of 2016, the National Security Agency prominently displayed a mission statement with “honesty” atop its core values. It appears its priorities have changed. On January 12, the NSA removed the mission statement before replacing it with a newer version. The new “Mission & Values” statement not only removes “honesty” as its top priority, but strips any mention of “trust,” “honor,” and “openness” from the page.

A National Security Council official presented senior members of the Trump administration and other agencies with information suggesting that the United States needs to centralize its 5G network by the end of Trump’s first term [if he gets that far] as a safeguard against Chinese cybersecurity and economic threats, according to the documents.

Sanders said “the country would be better for it” if Nancy Pelosi smiled more often. Seriously?

An FBI special agent, Josh Campbell, says he’s turned in his badge so he can publicly voice his concerns over the politicization of the bureau by Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration. Campbell served as a special assistant to former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired last year.

The Trump administration has withdrawn its controversial nominee to head the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White, whose selection a year ago had failed to gather momentum with some Senate Republicans raising questions about her expertise. Not surprising, her position stirred controversy because of her statements on climate change where leading scientific assessments have repeatedly found that recent climate change is fueled largely by human greenhouse gas emissions.

UN Relief and Works Agency is claiming that “We signed our new framework agreement with the U.S. in the beginning of December in which every aspect of our relationship from funding to reform discussions was covered and agreed,” Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl told The Associated Press. “They did not explain the current decision by reform-related elements.” He said he believed the funding cut was linked to the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and a subsequent vote by the UN General Assembly to denounce the decision.

New polling on that first year of Trump shows that he has a lot of work to do in bringing the country together. There are just 12 states where Trump’s job approval rating was above 50% for the entirety of 2017. That pales in comparison to the 41 states where then-President Barack Obama was above 50% approval for his first year on office.

Analysts believe a government run 5G network would be costly. Most likely the US government will simply offer financial incentives to encourage US carriers to avoid using Chinese equipment, rather than building its own network. This would reduce the choice of hardware to choose from. The same would go for any phone connecting to the network.

Crackpot dictators and wanna be dictators are using Trump’s fake news and media assaults to go after their own media. But they are going further including [errrr] trumped up charges like distributing fake news, national security issues and conspiracy. [Wonder when that will hit the US.]

Trump said he would apologize for retweeting a series of posts by a UK far-right group in November, saying he didn’t know who they were at the time. Far right groups aren’t racist? Seriously?

In an impromptu news conference [scratching your hard time], Trump said “When you have a river that is un-crossable, that you cannot cross, you don’t build a wall, OK?” And then “But we’re saving hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars, by building that wall.” {which is it? A big difference.] Then after talking about the current immigration lottery system and how flawed it is, he adds “… we are going to build a wall.” Are they related?

Something Trump can try soon: Eugene V. Debs, who had been imprisoned for speaking out against World War I and had run for president from prison.