Pence doesn’t endorse Trump

Former Vice President Mike Pence said he “cannot in good conscience” endorse presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, a stunning repudiation of his former running mate and the president he served with. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. That’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” Pence said.

[“…at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years.” Huh? There is little to no difference between Trump’s first reign and what he is proposing. At “press time”, no response from Trump but if Trump follows his usual response, he will mention disloyalty as well as something like he did a bad job as Vice-President.]

The judge, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, overseeing the Georgia 2020 election interference case dismissed some of the charges against Trump and others, but the rest of the sweeping racketeering indictment remains intact. The judge wrote in an order that six of the counts in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump. But he left in place other counts — including 10 facing Trump — and said prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.

Trump suggested he was open to making cuts to Social Security and Medicare after opposing touching the entitlement programs. These two programs for senior citizens are generally consider untouchable by almost all politicians. Trump campaign spokeswoman later said that Trump was “clearly talking about cutting waste, not entitlements.” That same spokeswoman says it is Biden who won’t protect entitlement programs when Biden has already said prior “Not on my watch” about cutting them.

[Trump seems to have quite a few spokespeople. I wonder if some need time off after all the running around to clarify statements Trump have said in a day.]

When Trump was president, his administration’s budget proposals included spending cuts to Social Security, primarily by targeting disability benefits, and Medicare, largely by reducing provider payments. Trump also signalled in an interview with CNBC in 2020 that he was open to cutting federal entitlements to reduce the federal deficit.

Without any changes, Social Security’s combined trust funds are set to run dry in 2034, at which time the program’s continuing income from taxes will only be able to cover 80% of benefits owed. Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, known as Medicare Part A, will only be able to pay scheduled benefits in full until 2031.

Attorneys for Trump want to delay the start of his upcoming New York criminal trial until the US Supreme Court weighs in on presidential immunity, according to a new motion – a ruling that may not come until late June. The criminal trial related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to adult film star Stormy Daniels is scheduled to begin with jury selection on March 25.

[Unsure what has got to do with the other. Trump was never the president at any time during the trial or now. So immunity isn’t related.]

Recently, Trump met with the parents of a nursing student whose alleged killer was an undocumented immigrant. Trump has suggested hard-line immigration proposals, including a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

[Unsure, but would of Trump visited the parents if they were Republicans? Current statistics said that undocumented immigrant are not a large factor in the number of murders in the US. Between that and pushing Republicans in Congress to vote against the border deal, Trump and his cronies will still put the blame on the Democrats. Remember that Trump said no deal is better that the deal the Democrats put forward. Do you think Republican voters will remember this in November?]

“He [Trump] thought [Vladimir] Putin was an OK guy and Kim [Jong Un] was an OK guy — that we had pushed North Korea into a corner,” retired Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, said. “To him, it was like we were goading these guys. ‘If we didn’t have NATO, then Putin wouldn’t be doing these things.’”

Trump said, “Well, but Hitler did some good things.” Kelly said, “Well, what?” And Trump said, “Well, [Hitler] rebuilt the economy.” But what did he do with that rebuilt economy? He turned it against his own people and against the world. Kelly said, “Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.”

“There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán,” Trump said of the Hungarian president who visited Mar-A-Lago recently, adding, “He’s the boss and he’s a great leader, fantastic leader. In Europe and around the world, they respect him.”

[I don’t think many respect him. He’s another authoritarian leader like Trump.]

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his allies ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis may continue with the prosecution but only if Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor she appointed and had a romantic relationship with, exits the case. The judge wrote that the defendants “failed to meet their burden” in proving that Willis’s relationship with Wade — along with allegations that she was financially enriched through trips the two took together — was enough of a “conflict of interest” to merit her removal from the case. Wade resigned later on.

Trump asked Elon Musk last summer whether the billionaire industrialist would be interested in buying Trump’s failed social network Truth Social.

Trump, who is only a few years younger than President Biden, has said several times that he doesn’t think Biden is “too old” to be president but he did recently release a digital only add poking fun at Biden with comments Biden has said about his age.

[As you know Trump is the one to talk. Saying Mercedes instead of his wife’s name Melania. How could he mix that up? He’s also said the wrong name (maybe on purpose) for others including Nancy Pelosi. Also note that Trump doesn’t have a lot of campaign cash on hand. Some going to his legal defence. Maybe he will use his own money…. Hah!]

Trump mocked Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally in Rome, Ga., the latest in a series of insults he has hurled at his rival but one that disability advocates regard as a demeaning form of bullying.

[Do you ever see Biden knock any physical characteristics of Trump like being orange or overweight or his little hands? His mental capacity is a different story. And just what group hasn’t Trump demeaned except Christian whites?]

The Republican National Committee began laying off dozens of staffers, days after Trump’s handpicked team took the reins of the organization. The layoffs affect staffers across multiple departments. The cuts also go beyond senior staff to vendors and mid-level employees. Vendor contracts will likely be cut as well. Some staff who were asked to resign could reapply for jobs at the organization.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump said in a post on his platform, Truth Social, racistly referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He called Facebook “a true enemy of the people” but didn’t explain his reasoning. While in office, Trump wanted to expel TikTok from the US [because they are owned by ByteDance of China]. Now that Biden is pushing to expel them, Trump is having second thoughts.

“The thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media,” Trump told CNBC before US markets opened. Meta [owner of Facebook] stock dropped 5% at one point. “I think Facebook has been very dishonest. I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections.”

[I’m on Facebook. I really didn’t see anything on the platform that was directed more at Trump or the Republicans than the Democrats. It’s not like you will see something like huge banner saying “Vote for Biden” or “Down with Trump” on every page. Another lie.]

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps and is used by roughly 170 million Americans.

Kellyanne Conway [remember her?] is a lobbyist for TikTok. Trump also supposedly has a major donor who owns a small chunk of TikTok.

[That major donor would be a good reason why Trump did an about face and now supports TikTok.]

In the House of Representatives, Trump “lost” the vote as 352 voted for a TikTok ban and just 65 were against [50 Democrats, 15 Republicans]. It may be harder in the Senate.

Trump said last month he would consider imposing a tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports if he regains the presidency. As president, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on $50 billion of Chinese goods in June 2018.

[Trump’s buddy, President Xi won’t be too happy.]

A big legal week for Trump

Unlike last week, this was a very busy week in Trumpland. Trump Sewer? Trump Dump?

A federal judge’s ruling killed Donald Trump’s assertion of executive privilege to prevent the National Archives from turning over hundreds of documents pertinent to the House probe examining the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Although Trump is already mustering an appeal, the ruling represented a huge win for the House select committee probing one of the most alarming assaults on democracy in US history.

A day later, the same judge rejected another attempt by Trump’s lawyers to slow down the handing over of documents. That means Trump will now need to ask an appeals court for emergency help to keep the documents secret while he pursues appeals.

Short of a court order, the Archives will turn over more than 40 pages related to January 6, including White House visitor and call logs and three handwritten memos from the files of ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Trump is looking to hold off the Archives from giving the House hundreds more pages later in November, as the House pushes to speak to close advisers in his White House under subpoena.

But then a federal appeals court granted Trump’s request to pause the release of key White House records from his presidency to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, as he appeals a lower court’s decision that he can’t claim executive privilege to keep them secret.

The current list of those who have been subpoenaed include Meadows, former White House deputy chief of staff for communications Daniel Scavino, former Defence Department official Kashyap Patel, former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, Trump 2020 campaign manager William Stepien, former senior adviser to Trump 2020 campaign Jason Miller, attorney John Eastman who helped craft Trump’s argument that the election was stolen, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, 10 others [mostly White House officials] plus 14 people who were listed as organizers for the January 6th “rally” including people who received the “rally” permit, “supervisors”, “managers”, etc.

Trump said he considered it “common sense” for his supporters to chant “Hang Mike Pence!” during the Trump Insurrection but that he never feared for his vice president’s safety. How does Trump really know Pence would be safe? Was he there? Did he tell the insurrectionist not to harm Pence? Trump again took issue with Pence for not intervening to change the results as he presided over the count of electoral college votes by Congress. The count was ultimately interrupted after rioters breached the Capitol and Pence was whisked out of the chamber amid threats on his life.

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress, the Justice Department announced. Bannon, 67, was charged with one count related to his refusal to appear for a deposition and another related to his refusal to produce documents. Each count carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, the Justice Department said.

Trump scored two big legal victories and avoided having to sit for a deposition in a defamation lawsuit after former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos agreed to drop her claims. Zervos had sued Trump in 2017 after he denied allegations that he had sexually assaulted her. A judge had recently ordered Trump to sit for a deposition in the case by December 23.

A New York judge granted Trump’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by his former personal attorney Michael Cohen against the Trump Organization. Cohen sued the Trump Organization in 2019, seeking reimbursement of legal fees and saying that after he began cooperating with federal investigators, the company failed to fulfill its contractual obligations to indemnify him or pay his legal bills relating to his work for the firm.

At least 13 senior Trump administration officials illegally mixed governing with campaigning before the 2020 election, intentionally ignoring a law that prohibits merging the two and getting approval to break it, a federal investigation found. A report from the office of Special Counsel Henry Kerner describes a “wilful disregard for the law” known as the Hatch Act that was “especially pernicious,” given that many officials abused their government roles days before the November election. Trump — whose job it was to discipline his political appointees — allowed them to illegally promote his re-election on the job despite warnings to some from ethics officials.

The 13 included, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting homeland security chief Chad Wolf, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, senior counsellor Kellyanne Conway, White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, McEnany, Meadows, Stephen Miller, deputy White House press secretary Brian Morgenstern, Marc Short who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, and national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien.

No punishment is expected to be assessed because, by most legal interpretations, the president in office at the time is the only person who can take action to fire or reprimand his political appointees when they act illegally.

In the committee investigating the Trump Insurrection, Flynn suggested declaring a national emergency or even martial law should be done. He had previously said that since there was a Myanmar, then why not in the US. So much for democracy.

Nearly $1 million is donated weekly to Trump’s re-election campaign. Question would be what happens with the donations if he doesn’t run. Give to the Republican Party? Nah. Filly his piggy bank? I think so.

Mueller report released but how much will be shown

So the big news this week was Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been completed. The biggest question is whether on not all, most or small parts of the final report will be released to the public. The report was sent to Attorney General William Barr who will be looking at it this weekend. I’m sure it make interesting late night reading.

In a series of many tweets over the weekend Trump said “I am not happy that it [Lordstown, Ohio plant] is closed when everything else in our Country is BOOMING. I asked her [GM’s CEO] to sell it or do something quickly. She blamed the UAW Union – I don’t care, I just want it open!

A GM statement shot back saying “To be clear, under the terms of the UAW-GM National Agreement, the ultimate future of the unallocated plants will be resolved between GM and the UAW [United Auto Workers].”

Trump had a big Twitter storm, venting out at just about everyone – mostly the usual “victims”. But of all the comments he made, he didn’t mention anything about the deaths of t50 people in New Zealand just a couple of days earlier.

“I don’t think anybody can say the President is anti-Muslim,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said when confronted with evidence like Trump’s demand to ban all Muslim immigration during the 2016 campaign and a remark that “Islam hates us.”

But even on “Fox News Sunday” Mulvaney said: “The President is not a white supremacist. I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.” He did not explain why Trump has often had a chance to vigorously condemn white supremacists and has not done so. Mulvaney also dodged when asked whether Trump would give a speech condemning white supremacy.

Trump managed to find time to watch NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which he notably hosted twice in the past. He took to Twitter during his weekend Twitter storm to say “… how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!”. The episode he watched was a repeat from 4 weeks prior. Again. Does he know what collusion means?

[In 1969, the liberal-leaning CBS comedy show “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” mocked then-President Richard Nixon to the point where the comedic duo made it onto Nixon’s “enemies list.” Nixon then used his well-placed allies in the ranks of CBS executives, including CBS programming chief Robert D. Wood, to get the show canceled.]

Investigators in the Southern District of New York obtained a search warrant to access Michael Cohen’s Gmail account in February 2018. Google turned over some documents, but the tech giant “declined to produce data that it stored on computer servers located outside of the United States,” according to an affidavit submitted to the court by an FBI agent working on Cohen’s case.

Weeks later, Trump signed the CLOUD Act into law, which gave US law enforcement more legal pathways to pursue data stories overseas. The provision was tucked into the $1.3 trillion spending bill Trump signed to avoid a federal government shutdown. So Trump’s own approval may hurt him in the long run.

“I don’t mind. I mean, frankly, I told the House, ‘If you want, let them see it,'” Trump said when asked whether the American public had the right to see the fruits of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. This is an about change.

But, scratching your head time, he still says the investigation is “illegal” even though multiple court rulings said it isn’t.

Trump say recently that he “inherited a mess” with the Middle East but “doing very well”. But the Palestinians and Israel are no closer to any deal – maybe farther apart than in 2026, neither is the war raging in Yemen. ISIS is mostly defeated but the US primarily were in the sky – not on the ground. Meanwhile Bashar Assad is still leader in Syria.

Trump touted the humanitarian aid the US had sent to Venezuela and called on the country’s military to end its support for leader Nicolas Maduro by saying the US has been “really very happy to feed thousands and thousands of starving Venezuelans.” But I’m sure he won’t allow them to cross the border!

Expect Trump to pass out pardons like it was Halloween candy in order to protect those near him from testifying against him and use pardons to get them out of jail after sentencing as a reward. But Trump has completely bypassed the Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney which is set up to handle petitions for pardons, utilizing established procedures, standards and rules. So no advice of the DOJ’s career professionals, including the prosecutors and agents who investigated and prosecuted these crimes.

“All Americans should be thinking seriously now about Trump’s mental condition and psychological state, including and especially the media, Congress-and the Vice President and Cabinet,” George Conway wrote. He is the husband of Trump’s top White House counselor Kellyanne “The witch” Conway and while he’s a Republican, he dislikes Trump. She responded by saying “No, I don’t share those concerns.”

“A total loser!” Trump wrote, while retweeting a claim by his 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale that Conway was sore because Trump refused to give him an administration job he wanted.

“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” Trump tweeted, referring to a post at the Justice Department. Conway decided [for family reasons] not to take the job – he wasn’t denied the job as it was offered.

Trump continued, “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” Conway, a conservative lawyer, withdrew from consideration for the role early in Trump’s presidency. Seems he know much about him if he can describe him and his marriage. Surely they spoke at various gatherings that involved Conway’s wife.

Conway later replied “You seem determined to prove my point. Good for you! #NarcissisticPersonalityDisorder.” Later he wrote “You. Are. Nuts.”

Trump took aim at late Sen. John McCain for his vote against the GOP Senate majority during the Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare in 2017. McCain, who died last year, was the third Republican to vote against the bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, former President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, in 2017. “Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier ‘is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain,'” Trump said.

Trump referred to McCain as being “last in his class” at the US Naval Academy. Well, he wasn’t and at least McCain was in the military. Trump dodged the military with fake medical issues [lacking a soul could be one of them].

“No one will ever love you the way they loved my father,” Meghan McCain tweeted after. “I wish I had been given more Saturday’s with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine?”

Cindy McCain, the widow of McCain, posted a hateful message [on Twitter] she received from a stranger the same day Trump disparaged her late husband. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson is planning to deliver a “whipping” against Trump in response to the Trump’s recent attacks.

And the feud between Trump and the McCain family continues when Trump bemoaned how he “didn’t get a thank you” for approving McCain’s funeral in August.

Bridget McCain, who has kept her life private, broke her silence by tweeting “@realDonaldTrump Everyone doesn’t have to agree with my dad or like him, but I do ask you to be decent and respectful.”

She then added “@realDonaldTrump Even if you were invited to my dad’s funeral, you would have only wanted to be there for the credit and not for any condolences … Unfortunately, you could not be counted on to be courteous, as you are a child in the most important role the world knows.”

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings said his committee has obtained new information that several senior White House officials have used personal email and messaging accounts [i.e. WhatsApp] to conduct government business. This includes but is not limited to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Also included are former administration staffers Steve Bannon and K.T. McFarland. These may be in violation of the Presidential Records Act.

It has been a sort of unwritten rule for not to visit or host a foreign country leader within 2 weeks of that country’s election. Trump went against the rule as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the US. Trump actually denied he knew there was an election!

Maybe to try and boost Netanyahu who’s slipping in the polls, Trump overturned another longstanding US policy regarding the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, announcing “it is time” for the US to “fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty” over the region. This should add some tension in the Middle East.

Ummm. In an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network, asked Pompeo “could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?” Esther is the main heroine of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which was celebrated this week. “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” Pompeo said and added that he is “confident that the Lord is at work here.”

“It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” Trump tweeted which triggered rampant confusion among his own aides and administration officials.

Immigration policy continues to haunt Trump

Donald Trump reversed course after days of digging in on a policy that resulted in immigrant family separations at the border, signing an executive order that will keep far more families together at the border. The order also seeks more authority to detain those families together until the end of their immigration proceedings. That process will begin immediately, which is likely to be met with swift legal challenges, though the order does acknowledge that current law may restrict their hands. But there are no new special procedures for children already in custody, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump continued to mislead about the origin of the humanitarian crisis on the US border, saying Democrats refuse to approve new funds for detention facilities for children. Trump insisted that conditions at some of the child detention facilities were “the nicest that people have seen. … Democrat and court-ordered loopholes prevent family detention and lead to family separation, not matter how you cut it.” Children’s detention centers wouldn’t of existed if he didn’t separate them from their parents.

House Republicans had to scramble to fix a drafting error in a conservative immigration bill that would have accidentally given Trump $125 billion for border security, including his wall instead of the $25 billion intended.

One of two bills easily failed, the more conservative one, after over 40 Republicans voted against the bill in addition to all the Democrats. Trump can’t blame the Democrats on this vote.

A number of governors across the US [both Democrat and Republican] have either recalled or won’t send any personnel or hardware to the US-Mexican border after the outrage over family separations. Trump signed a memorandum to send National Guard troops to secure the US-Mexico border in April after hearing of a migrant caravan making its way through Mexico.

Kellyanne “The Witch” Conway is extending her boss’ thinking that the Democrats to blame because the Democrats created the law [unsure if true and in any case a very old law] that stops people from entering the US illegally. However, prior to the change in policy by the Trump administrator, it was a misdemeanor. They were briefly detained and then sent back. Now parents are arrested and children are sent elsewhere because of the parents’ arrests. If Conway is blaming the Democrats for the law, then properly change it!

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski refused to apologize after he dismissed the story of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was reportedly separated from her mother after crossing the border illegally by saying “womp womp” in an interview.

Trump is letting bygones be bygones as he endorses embattled Alabama Republican Rep. Martha Roby for re-election. Roby had publicly withdrawn her endorsement of Trump in the final days of the 2016 election after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. Roby was forced earlier this month into a runoff with Democrat-turned-Republican Bobby Bright. Bright has embraced the president and charged Roby with being insufficiently supportive of Trump. Trump is rejecting Bright as “a recent Nancy Pelosi voting Democrat”. This coming from a man who himself was a Democrat.

A trade association representing a dozen automakers doing business in the United States says Trump’s threat to slap 20 per cent tariffs on vehicles imported from Europe is “not the right approach.” [Soon Trump will impose tariffs on foreign players for all we know.]

Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, tells Trump and the Cabinet that it has been nearly a century since anyone reorganized the federal government. He says the U.S. is still dealing with a government from the early 20th century. Trump is calling it the “drain the swamp Cabinet meeting,” a reference to one of his major campaign pledges.

Trump has met with lawmakers after the Senate moved to block a White House plan to allow Chinese telecom giant ZTE Corp. to buy component parts from the US. ZTE is accused of violating trade laws by selling sensitive technologies to North Korea and Iran. The administration announced an agreement with ZTE earlier this month but has run into opposition in Congress.

Trump, in a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, says there is “growing frustration” in the United States with North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies like Canada that have not increased defense spending as promised. He thanked Canada for helping out in various missions but these contributions “do not excuse any of us from our commitments to ensure NATO has the resources it needs.” The US may be the biggest contributor but the US [or Trump for that matter] isn’t the NATO boss.

Trump will meet Queen Elizabeth when he visits Britain on July 13th. [Hopefully Buckingham Palace stocks up on plenty of disinfectant and anti-bacteria hand lotion.] Aside from seeing the Queen, Trump is planning on attending a NATO summit [that will be fun for him] on that same trip and maybe extend the trip to see Vladimir Poutine.

At a rally in Nevada, Trump claimed that two Democratic politicians there “don’t know how to say Nevada.” The two say “Nev-ah-da,” a pet peeve for the state’s residents, rather than the correct “Nev-AD-a,” Trump claimed. However, as he finished his speech, it was Trump who made the mistake. “Thank you very much, Nevada,” he said — pronouncing it “Nev-ah-da.”

Support for Democratic House candidates has ticked up slightly to 50%, according to a poll conducted by SSRS. The percentage of voters who said Democrats when asked which party they’ll support in November was up three points since CNN’s May poll, and Democrats have a sizable lead among voters who are most enthusiastic about voting. 42% of registered voters said they’ll support the Republican candidate.

White House press secretary Sarah “Simpleton” Sanders said she was kicked out of a Virginia restaurant by its owner because she works for Trump. “Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left,” Sanders posted on Twitter. The owner told The Washington Post in an interview that she “would have done the same thing again.”

A busy week for Mr. Drumpf

The White House [may have] has apologized to the British government after alleging that a UK intelligence agency GCHQ [the equivalent of the US National Security Agency] spied on Trump at the behest of former President Barack Obama. White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s comment from the White House podium about a Fox News report that said British intelligence helped wiretap Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.

The Fox correspondent suggested that Obama used the British to do the spying as it is illegal for Obama or his administration to order wiretapping without approval of a court.

And yet, while every politician not in the Trump administration [both Republican and Democrat] claim there is no evidence of wiretapping, the administration claims there is. Trump said he would produce evidence within the next couple of weeks. Why not now? [Maybe because he has none!]

Whether or not there is any evidence about Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower in New York, the damage will be done. Trump supports will continue to claim this the same way Trump and supporters claimed that Obama wasn’t born in the US or many other lies that were mentioned through the election process.

Meanwhile Trump claims he used quotations in his initial tweets claiming he wasn’t specifically saying wiretaps but other forma. And yet his latter tweets about it didn’t have quotes around wiretapping word. Backpedaling didn’t work. No one believes him.

In an interview Kellyanne “The Witch” Conway, senior White House adviser, said “What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately,” including “microwaves that turn into cameras,….” Latest she said that comment was taking out of context. I hope so but I doubt it!

Conway said “we know (former national security adviser) General (Michael) Flynn was wiretapped,” with no proof, of course. Then she said it was “leaked” – not the same as wiretapped.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in town on Friday for a visit, supposedly was given a copy of Playboy – not for the pictures [although it may be the first edition with nude females in over a year, but I digress] but because it has an article on how Trump supposedly thinks. Doesn’t Germany have their own intelligence agency?

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, 14 million Americans who were using the Affordable Care Act won’t be able to afford Trumpcare. This could rise to 26 million by 2026. In total, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured by 2026 under the GOP plan, compared to 28 million who would lack insurance under the current law [ACA].

While 5.9 million lost coverage with Obamacare, 22.8 million were added according a Forbes article. So in the end, maybe 35 million who were covered prior to Obamacare, may not be in 10 years with Trumpcare.

The American Health Care Act, would reduce the federal deficits by $337 billion over 10 years. Some of this is due to the wealthy Americans not paying the same share under ACA as well as large corporations paying less as well.

Thirty-one states – including 16 with Republican governors – elected to expand Medicaid under Obamacare and have found it to be a successful way of insuring low-income adults at little cost to their states. Trump said it could take several years before a drop in prices. Hmmmm.

Not surprising some Republicans and the Trump administration are downplaying the report. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said “If you’re looking to the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place.” [Would they be saying the same thing if the report favored them?]

“I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said. Even Conservative Breitbart News were laughing that the comment.

“The press is making Obamacare look so good all of a sudden. I’m watching the news, it looks so good,” Trump said. Dummy, actually it is the polls have stated that Americans like Obamacare.

While 5.9 million lost coverage with Obamacare, 22.8 million were added according a Forbes article.

Before one Trump controversy can finish, another one stirs up. It is common that the incoming President will ask those appointed to step down as the new government is set up. 46 US attorneys [who are appointed] were kept on but unceremoniously were let go this past Saturday. One of them, Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, tweeted Saturday that he was fired after refusing to resign as requested by Trump’s administration. The Southern District is special that it takes on the toughest cases in the US often lasting at least a year.

This gets interesting because Deutsche Bank which facilitated the laundering of ill-gotten Russian gains to the tune of $10 billion. And the US Attorney that was investigating Deutsche Bank was Bharara. Meanwhile Trump owes Deutsche Bank somewhere in the neighborhood of $364 million. So Trump delays or maybe even kills the investigation [and maybe Trump’s bill may even be reduced].

Bharara was brought in under Barrack Obama on the recommendation of Trump nemesis Senator Chuck Schumer. Bharara is considered neutral going after politicians on both sides. Trump informed Bharara that he wanted to keep him on as a gesture to Schumer – then the incoming minority leader – whom Trump had previously supported for years. By letting go the US attorneys do, this will delay the various ongoing investigations until new appointments are announced and confirmed.

Two days before the mass dismissal of US attorneys, Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave no indication in a conference call with US attorneys across the country that some of their jobs were in peril.

The former CEO of Deutsche Bank [Wilbur Ross] is now the CEO of the Bank of Cyprus and one of the major shareholder is a Russian billionaire who bought a mansion owned by Trump for over $95 million when Trump bought it for just $45 million earlier. The billionaire tore it down and never lived there.

Homeland Secretary John Kelly claims that his Customs and Border Protection agents will not ask those coming into the country their religion or political affiliation but there has already been at least a few cases where those trying to enter the country were in fact asked. Muhammed Ali Jr was asked. So was at least one Canadian trying to enter the US. The same goes for politics. See below.

In another example of continuous repeat of Canadians having problems entering the US, a woman of descent from India but born in Canada was hold for 6 hours and sent back home even though her two white friends could continue on. She was fingerprinted, photographed and questioned before being refused. She said she was told she was an immigrant without a valid U.S. visa even though her valid passport said she was born in Canada. She was told that she would need a visa if I ever went in the States again and the border agent told her “I know you might feel like you’re being Trumped.” A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman noted that possession of a valid travel document does not guarantee entry to the United States [this even though the border agent said she wasn’t a Canadian by birth].

Meanwhile, part of Trump’s 2005 tax return was leaked to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston. The return said he earned US$153 million and paid $36.5 million but most of the tax came from the Alternative Minimum Tax. Without AMT, he would of paid 4%. Instead, he paid 25% – still below the amount he should of paid.

Trump tweeted “Does anybody really believe that a reporter, who nobody ever heard of, ‘went to his mailbox’ and found my tax returns?” I guess he never heard of Johnson who won a journalism prize. The White House called it illegal. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign website called for the end of the AMT, which is expected to bring in more than $350 billion in revenues from 2016 to 2025. Again he’s favoring the wealthy.

Khizr Khan, the Muslim Gold Star father who famously offered to lend Donald Trump his copy of the U.S. Constitution has cancelled a scheduled speech in Toronto because “his travel privileges are being reviewed,” according to the event organizer.

General Motors announced 1100 jobs will be cut. I’m sure Trump will blame it on the Obama administration somehow.

Jared Kushner [Trump’s son-in-law] and family are part owners of 666 5th Avenue in New York. It was purchased by a group including his family for $1.1 billion in 2007. Now a Chinese company with alleged ties to the Communist Party there could buy it for over $2.2 billion. The Kushners would get around $400 million of that. Double the price in under 10 years? Sounds fishy. The building was already probably one of the most expensive in the US. That same Chinese company wants to buy a hotel next to a US naval base in San Diego. The Obama administration said no but Trump may say yes.

The European odds makers came out with a few of them related to Trump:

• 5/1 odds that Melania will end her marriage with Donald before his tenure is up.
• 6/1 odds that Tiffany will be the first Trump child to denounce him. [Ivanka is 7/1, Barron is 16/1]
• 1/10 odds the marriage remains intact until a successor is inaugurated.
• 500/1 odds to ban the Irish [a bit odd there].
• 5/6 odds that Trump will outlaw guns in a state.
• 25/1 odds that Trump and Vladimir Poutine will win the Nobel peace Prize.

 

 

Another interesting week in Trumpland

From Donald Trump’s speech to congress…..

• Trump was actually right when he said the crime rate was the highest increase in 50 years between 2014 and 2015 but that was because the murder rate in 2014 was the lowest ever.
• Trump asserted his administration’s support of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines are “creating tens of thousands of jobs.” But estimates maybe 15,000 temporary construction jobs and a further 42,000 indirect jobs with most disappearing once the construction is done.
• “The stock market has gained almost $3 trillion in value since the election on November 8, a record,” Trump said. Yes but he’s taking credit for something he had little to do with. He hasn’t implemented much and the market is reacting to his pro-business stance.
• “The vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country,” Trump said. Trump said he used data from the department of Justice – who didn’t verify. Other sources say maybe a 50-50 split between foreign and American “terrorists”.
• ” Ninety-four million Americans are out of the labor force,” Trump said. Not true. The Atlanta Federal Reserve says some 44.1 million are retired, 15.4 million are disabled, 12.9 million are taking care of a family member and another 15.5 million are in college or job training. They are listed as not wanting a job.
• “Since my election, Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, …, Wal-Mart and many others have announced that they … will create tens of thousands of new American jobs,” he said. Many of the jobs announced since his election were previously announced. In some cases, the jobs would likely have turned up no matter who’s president. But his pro-business stance has helped.
• “We’ve saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by bringing down the price of the fantastic … new F-35 jet fighter,” he said. The price per fighter dropped when an additional 90 more stealth fighters were ordered.
• Trump characterized his proposal to increase the defense budget as “one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.” Maybe by amount but not by percentage as there was a huge spike when the US entered World War II as well as during the Vietnam war [for example]. $54 billion today is worth far less than $54 billion a century ago.
• “The time for trivial fights is behind us,” Trump said. Considering he has had “fights” over things that shouldn’t concern him, I’m doubting they will end.
• Trump confused some when he said [about Obamacare] that he doesn’t view it as government’s role to make sure Americans can actually afford that insurance but then said “no one (is) left out” by state governments.
• When Trump ended with a call for bipartisan cooperation on repealing and replacing the “collapsing” Obamacare, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi shook her head no. Not surprised.

Trump offered big cuts to the corporate tax cuts, “massive” relief to the middle class, and $1 trillion infrastructure program but didn’t say how they will be paid. Wipe ISIS but said nothing about the issues in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. Build the Mexican wall but didn’t mention who will pay and it was coming soon. But when? The Executive Order was signed a month ago.

Almost nothing mentioned on immigrants [and his bans] or trade packs like NAFTA.

Trump started off the week well keeping fairly quiet and then his speech. Problem is that a new can of worms opened up regarding the Department of Justice secretary Jeff Sessions and his chats with the Russian ambassador during the elections – which is a no-no. He is now not involved with anything related with the Russian meddling [duh!] but that may not be enough.

A Republican congressman was whining about some women at the speech given by Trump wearing white suits [and a few comments about the looks] and claimed that these were supports of Hillary Clinton. In fact, they wore white to honor the Suffragettes as well as women’s month. Out of touch the congressman is.

Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz criticized the White House on Wednesday night after Kellyanne “The Witch” Conway retweeted an allegation that Wasserman Schultz did not stand or clap during a standing ovation for the widow of a slain Navy SEAL during Trump’s address to Congress. In fact, video shows she did.

From the previous blog where CNN and New York Times were banned, add the BBC, Daily Mail, Politico and Los Angeles times to those that were banned at White House briefings. The White House correspondents association protested the decision to ban.

The ban came after CNN and the New York times both reported that White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, told the FBI to tone down the investigation related to the Trump administration chatting with Russian intelligence.

[I’ve said it before (although maybe not in this blog), with the Trump administration abusing the media, the media should boycott the White House briefings and any news conferences and events that involve the administration. Unsure if the right wing media would comply.]

Now Trump has gone one step further by deciding not to go to The White House Correspondents dinner. This is the first time a president has decided to do so in 35 years. I guess he can take a huge onslaught of criticism and jokes about him sand his administration.

Trump suggesting that Americans could get another chance to seize Iraqi oil as compensation for its military efforts there. This is basically one of the things that radicals has always said – grab Arab oil.

Not surprising, Trump delayed the replacement to his travel “ban” executive order. Supposed to be this week…. Maybe next week. Oh, it could be in October the way things are going.

The second version of the travel ban still hasn’t been released but a leak suggest Iraq has been pulled off the country list. The order won’t include any explicit exemption for religious minorities in the countries targeted by the travel ban.

A section of the international arrivals area at Dulles International Airport outside the nation’s capital [as well as other airports] has been transformed into a virtual law firm, with legal volunteers ready to greet travelers from affected countries and ask if they saw anyone being detained and in preparation for the second version of the travel ban.

The first Trump travel ban [or just his administration] may have had an effect on the tourist industry. Global searches for U.S.-bound flights are down 22 per cent from Jan. 1-Feb. 22. Interest in Florida cities dipped by up to 58 per cent, while searches for Las Vegas and Los Angeles were down by 36 and 32 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile it seems the US is popular with Russians with a huge increase.

The initial draft bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] has hit some snags from some Republicans. The draft bill itself was leaked. So I wonder how many had access to the bill.

“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated,” said Trump – already another hint that it will take quite a bit of work to change. So much for Trump’s election promise to make it a priority. He probably never saw the size and complexity of the resulting act until he was elected.

Fake News! Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly had someone on his show who is a “Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor.” Except few in Sweden had ever heard of him, much less taken advice from him. In fact, the man lives in the US and works for Modus which does “operations and management of possible kidnap and ransom situations.” He was also in trouble with the law in 2014 and also has no idea where Fox got his title from. Fox is expected to mention the error. Maybe not quite fake news but definitely a fake title.

CNN has a clock that shows when the last time Trump has attacked someone on Twitter.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer recently checked his aides’ cell phones to ensure they weren’t communicating with reporters as part of an aggressive effort to stem the recent tide of White House leaks. He informed them that the use of encrypted texting apps, like Signal and Confide, was a violation of the Federal Records Act. Such a hypocrite since some Trump staff have used Confide. A leak of the leaks?

Despite Trump’s anger about unnamed sources, White House budget officials insisted on anonymity as they outlined details of Trump’s spending plans to reporters on a conference call.

Hilariously, now Trump says Obama could be behind the leaks. He’s not in office and he has no say. So how?

In the 1990s, Trump was a frequent anonymous source of information about his social life and television series, “The Apprentice,” said newspaper columnist Linda Stasi. Once Trump called and pretended to be someone else delivering information about him; Stasi said she could easily recognize his voice.

Conway is a witch. How dare she site like that in the Oval Office couch with many guests in the Oval Office? It is one thing to do that with fellow Trumpians in a private chat but not that. Shameful. She claims she needed to do that for a better angle [as if she is a professional photographer]. As for the right wingers who poke fun at Obama, this was Obama’s office. Was his White house. Everyone else works for him.

Trump and his family’s extended stays in Mar-A-Lago in Florida and Trump tower in New York are costing the Secret Service millions daily. Donald likes to go to his sprawling estate while Melania is in New York with their youngest. It was Trump who said that Obama took too many vacations – spending taxpayer’s money in protecting him. But he has been in Florida probably every weekend since elected in addition to his other trips.

Vice President Mike Pence used a personal email account to conduct state business while he was governor of Indiana, discussing issues like the resettling of Syrian refugees and other matters on an AOL account that was hacked in a phishing scam. So if you get hit by a phishing scam you are not tech savvy much. The only difference between this issue and what happened to Hillary Clinton was that she was privileged to more national security issues but even he delved into national issues.

At a previous CPAC conference, Ted Cruz says Trump is not a Conservative. But he seems to support Trump. What a flip-flopper.

Trump on the Oscars and the mess at the end: “I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end,” Trump told Breitbart. “It was a little sad.” Actually most believe they were quite lite on the politics. Maybe that’s why it was boring according to most critics.  “Look, it just seems like the other side, whenever they’re losing badly, they always pull out the race card,” he said. Race card? Seriously?

“In fact I did much better than many other than other Republicans in the last election.” By popular vote, he was one of the worse. He’s not even close to the best for electoral votes.

Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, financed and was an executive producer of “Suicide Squad,” which won for hair and makeup. Maybe he can help Trump and that thing on top of his head?

 

Another typical Trump week

The Justice Department warned the Trump administration last month that Michael Flynn misled administration officials regarding his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States and was potentially vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians. Flynn would later apologized.

The concern was raised after Flynn claimed he did not discuss with the Russian ambassador the sanctions being imposed by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russia’s interference in the election. Flynn was not yet in government. Flynn spoke to the ambassador on the same day Barrack Obama announced sanctions for Russia meddling in the US elections.

The message was delivered by then-Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Other top intelligence officials, including James Clapper and John Brennan, were in agreement the White House should be alerted about the concerns.

The chief of the propaganda department, Kellyanne Conway, stated just hours before Flynn’s resignation that Trump had full confidence of his National security adviser. So who was right?

Spicer first said Flynn was fired by Trump and then said Flynn resigned. Spicer blamed the Department of Justice for sitting so long even though Trump knew of Flynn’s mistake for almost 3 weeks. Flynn himself had the shorted time as National Security Advisor at 24 days – typical average is 2.5 years.

Just six days into his presidency, Donald Trump was informed his national security adviser had misled his vice-president about contacts with Russia. Trump kept his No. 2 in the dark and waited nearly three weeks before ousting the aide, Michael Flynn, citing a slow but steady erosion of trust, White House officials said.

Trump slammed intelligence officials and the media over what he called “very, very unfair” treatment of his ousted national security adviser Flynn. How else do you treat him. In addition, so he is again criticizing the CIA, NSA and others – the same departments that he just recently praised. I’m sure he is not going after the right wing media as they seem to be the only media he will take questions from.

Trump also accused holdovers from the Obama administration of leaking out information about his alleged contacts with Moscow to hammer his administration. No proof, of course.

“The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred.” He added that the news reporting was “merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.” She lost 3 months ago. Get over it. You think they’ll still be covering up things in 2 years?

Meanwhile, Trump also wants to go after the people who leaked the documents that got Flynn sacked. Of course we know that nothing will ever come out of it because there will not be any investigation. It will just be another part of Trump’s arsenal where he can whine about, to reflect blame, etc.

Ret. Vice Adm. Bob Harward turned down Trump’s offer to be national security adviser replacing Flynn.

As well, the FBI is not expected to pursue any charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn regarding a phone call with Russia’s ambassador, barring new information that changes what they know.

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, said that firing Flynn for his contacts with Russia is “not just paranoia but something even worse.” I guess they wanted him so he can be blackmailed.

Conway got a verbal spanking when she promoted Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. One of the rules state that senior government employees cannot promote and product. Conway was pushing Ivanka’s brand after the Nordstrom shopping chain dropped her brand. Normally anyone who violates the rule is let go. She wasn’t.

At his news conference Trump claimed he had the “biggest Electoral College win since Reagan”. Nope. President Obama won 332 electoral votes in 2012 and 365 in 2008. President Clinton got 379 in 1996 and 370 in 1992. The first President Bush received 426 in 1988. Trump couldn’t even get his total right. He said 306 when he got 302. Can’t remember 3 long months ago?

He also claimed that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had “set a record” of being overturned by the Supreme Court 80% of the time. In fact, the Supreme Court overturned 87% of the cases by the 6th Circuit Court and 85% by the 11th Circuit during the same period.

A year ago candidate Trump was whining that Boeing would close their South Carolina plant and move it to China. The plant is still there and Trump is there to tell Boeing to add more jobs.

After hiring 6 foreign workers in December, Trump Vineyard Estates LLC [owned by son Eric] wants to hire another 23 foreign workers. Here’s another kicker. The winery is using H-2 visa program – when allowed to bring in foreign workers when no American workers can do the job. Huh? You bring in someone high in the scientific field for a H-2 visa. Not someone to pick grapes or drive a tractor.

Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination as Labour Secretary because of his past. Quite a few Republicans wouldn’t approve of his nomination.

In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that he’d like to see the U.S. Embassy in Israel moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but noted that “we’re looking at it with great care.” That sounds a bit more like a bit of a reversal of his election campaign where he said he would move the embassy if elected. Another campaign promise out the window.

Supposedly, Trump may have blabbed about some top secret information at a supper he was at [I would assume with some people who didn’t have a proper level of clearance]. No. It wasn’t at McDonalds.

Trump said that he will do “everything within our power to stop long-simmering racism.” Problem is that the right [who voted him in] is more known to be anti-Semitic, anti-Islam and just racist than the left [think Fascism, KKK, etc.] Trump notes that he won 306 [not 302] electoral votes and fostered “tremendous enthusiasm” during his campaign. But some ugliness also appeared during his campaign and even now.

Trump his still using his unsupported [and outdated] Samsung Galaxy S3 [not made in the US, BTW] for his tweeting and Email. He is using it even though he was given a more secure phone to use. Two US senators have filed a letter [complaint?] to the US Department of Defense Secretary.

“I do get good ratings”, Trump said at a rare news conference. He’s looking for TV ratings?

“I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess.” Huh? It’s only a mess since he became the Commander in Tweet.

Trump continues to invent things that didn’t exist or was incorrect. Trump is even posting on Instagram with a quote from Abe Lincoln that were never attributed to Lincoln. And it wasn’t surprising that already someone investigated the quote.

Spicer said the recent Yemen raid was “obviously a huge success” and that “anyone who suggests it was not a success does a disservice” to William “Ryan” Owens, the Navy SEAL who was killed during the mission. That turned heads. Using his death for political reasons.

Recently, Spicer was scrutinized for saying, on three separate occasions over two days, that there was an unspecified terror attack in Atlanta. There wasn’t. They were in Orlando.

It seems that even Trump “is disappointed in Spicer’s performance during the first two weeks of the administration.” I’m sure both will deny that.

Spicer has repeatedly called for individual journalists to apologize for mistakes. Many of the White House correspondents aren’t too happy with him from day one.

Joining the Department of Propaganda is Stephen Miller. He claimed that Trump has done more in his 3 weeks of office than most presidents in their entire term.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau visited Trump this past week. Seems that Trump feels the portion of the NAFTA deal with Canada won’t be tweaked/modified much compared to the US/Mexico portion of the deal.

Trudeau did get big brownie points when he presented a framed picture of Trump with Justin’s father [Pierre Elliot Trudeau] at a gala in 1981 when Trump spoke as the elder Trudeau was awarded a family man of the year award in New York. In addition Trump also got a Canadian made sculpture with the rock itself coming from Cleveland.

Spicer called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Joe Trudeau. A few cartoon images have since appeared.

Of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one was from Lebanon. Yet none of these countries were listed in the executive order. With the exception of Lebanon, Trump has business interests in all those other countries plus Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Woops. At least 6 players of the Super Bowl winners, New England Patriots, are saying they will not visit the white House and Trump. The Patriots’ owners a good friend of Trump. See if he changes any mind.

Strike two for Trump

In a 3-0 ruling, the 9th Circuit rules against reinstating travel ban from Donald Trump’s executive order which [among other things] banned people from entering in 7 countries. “The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States,” the judges wrote.

Trump has already tweeted that he may go to the Supreme Court. But given that the Supreme Court currently lacks its ninth member, there a real chance of a 4-4 split on the bench along ideological lines, which would have the effect of affirming the ruling of the 9th Circuit, inflicting a more permanent blow to the new administration.

The court chastised the Trump administration for failing to provide an explanation for how national security concerns justified an “urgent need” for the executive order to be immediately reinstated.

Even after Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, said to Sen. Richard Blumenthal that he found Trump’s attack on a federal judge on Twitter “disheartening” and “demoralizing” and an aide to Gorsuch spokesman confirmed that Gorsuch said those words [as well as other senators], Trump claims Gorsuch never said those words. “Alt-words“? We will see if he stays impartial like this if confirmation.

Then Trump said Sen. Blumenthal never fought in Vietnam – associating this “lie” with a misrepresentation. Blumenthal apologized for misrepresenting his service but enlisted in the Marine Reserve after multiple deferments. Trump, on the hand, never enlisted, instead obtaining multiple student deferments and ultimately a medical deferment for a bone spur to avoid the military draft.

Even nuttier, propaganda department spokesman, Sean Spicer, is claiming that Gorsuch’s comments is not about Trump.

“But courts seem so political…” Trump said in a speech. Well, when the Supreme Court is divided by political parties and Trump has already nominated a Republican judge, well it is one thing he got right all week.

Both Republicans and Democrats are distancing themselves from Trump. In an interview on GP friendly Fox News, Trump said “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?” After Bill O’Reilly said about Vladimir Poutine, “But he’s a killer, though. Putin’s a killer.” During Putin’s years in power, a number of prominent Russian opposition figures and journalists have been killed.

Trump seems to care more about his daughter Ivanka’s fashion line got dumped by Nordstrom store chain by tweeting about the issue. But where was he at that time [according to a schedule]? In a national security briefing. So his daughter’s petty issues take precedence over national security? The same man who whines about the security of the country as the reason to have that 7 country ban? [It is possible a lackey of his tweeted the message but no indication of that.]

Nordstrom claimed it was because of declining sales. White House propaganda specialist, Sean Spicer, claims because it was because of the ban on 7 countries. Indirectly it could be as people who would buy her junk, maybe stopped because of her father’s politics. This also goes back to the original issue of Trump [and family] separating themselves from the family business.

After the Nordstrom mess, there is talk of how Trump can still run his Washington hotel. The hotel is on government land and he spent millions to convert to a hotel but part of the deal was no government employee could own the hotel. Clearly, he is a government employee.

There are rumors flying that Trump could appoint Sarah Palin as US Ambassador to Canada. A Canadian MP says if Palin was named the top U.S. representative to Canada, it would be tantamount to having to deal with two Donald Trumps. If you recall, Palin claimed she could see Russia from her state of Alaska. It is 55 miles away. She must have good eyes. 🙂

There are 693 high-level positions that require Senate confirmation to be filled. Trump’s tram has filled 35 at this stage. In comparison, Obama filled 38 in 2009. But 8 years ago Obama had 23 member of his administration filled. Trump has 8 with Jeff Sessions confirmed. In total, there are 1,200 positions that require Senate confirmation and about 4,100 appointed positions.

Trump tweeted it was a “disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country,” charging, “Obstruction by Democrats!” But Obama’s Cabinet wasn’t completely confirmed until late April 2009. Democrats contend the administration has failed to fully vet the nominees.

In an early February poll, it showed CNN/ORC’s latest poll results, starting with 44% approval and 53% disapproval of Trump’s job performance. As for the travel ban, 53% of Americans oppose the travel ban, 47% in favor. 90% of Republicans think he’s doing a good job. [I guess that part of the poll is fine with him but he still may disallow the poll as not a 100% of Republicans like him.]

“Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election” tweeted Trump. So if it does show favorable results, it’s fake. During the campaign trail, when the polls turned sour, he made unfounded claims about “crooked polls” and “They are rigged just like before” just before taking office.

“People want border security and extreme vetting” tweeted Trump. He obviously didn’t get that from any real poll. Maybe in his mind though.

Nice, in a call with the Australian Prime Minister, Trump hung up on him. The great statesman.

From my previous blog, Kellyanne Conway claimed she made a mistake just once using the word “massacre” when Conway brought up her infamous “masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre” with MSNBC but she used the same phrase when interviewed by Cosmopolitan 4 days earlier [quote wasn’t printed at the time because the reporter couldn’t find anything about that massacre]. Later she told Fox News that her “haters” would be talking about it “for a week.” [She’s finally right!]

The chief information security officer for the White House’s Executive Office of the President has been removed from his position. Cory Louie was appointed to the position by former President Obama in 2015, charged with keeping safe the staff closest to the president — including the president himself — from cyber-threats posed by hackers and nation-state attackers. It’s thought he was either fired or asked to resign one evening recently, and was escorted out from his office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the West Wing.

Now everything is quite but one source said it’s because the remaining staff have “targets on their back” and are afraid of speaking out, calling the actions a “witch hunt” for former Obama appointees. Accusations of poor management were said to be reasons or excuses for his forced departure amid what was described as a “toxic” working environment. Maybe Louie asked Trump not to use his personal Twitter account – especially on his unsecure Android phone.

Mike Pence had to vote in favor of confirming Betsy DeVos as Trump’s education secretary – showing that not all Republicans are happy with the choice [or Trump]. Not a good sign.

Andrew Puzder, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department, employed an undocumented immigrants for years, the business magnate said in a statement. He later said at one point up to 40% of them were undocumented.

Melania Trump has re-filed a libel lawsuit against the corporation that publishes the Daily Mail’s website, this time in New York, for reporting rumours that she worked as an escort. It could hurt her chances to promote products, “each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world.” Asking $150 million. Funny. I don’t see her ever endorsing anything. In addition, I don’t remember any previous First Lady [while in office] endorsing anything. She hasn’t appeared in public at one point for almost 3 weeks and she is claiming to be photographed so much?

[If you recall, when Melania came to the US to model in one of Trump’s agencies, according to sites on the Internet she did not have a work visa. But according to some reports she hauled in something like $20,000 over 3 months. Probably unless you are a known model you don’t make that much money. So what else did she do? Hmmmm.]

Trump accused the media of deliberately minimizing coverage of threat posed by the Islamic State group, saying news outlets “have their reasons” for not reporting what he described as a “genocide” underway at the hands of group. White House released a list of 78 attacks it described as “executed or inspired by” the Islamic State group since September 2014. The AP could not verify that each of the incidents had connections to the Islamic State group. The list appeared to be hastily assembled, including several misspellings of the word “attacker”. [Surprised?]

As a professional attention seeker, Trump is whining that the media does not report terrorist attacks in Europe “…And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it.” It’s not that they don’t want to report some but it’s because according to the Global Terrorism Database, maintained by the University of Maryland, of the 321 attacks in Europe in 2015, many were not reported [in the US] because while there was damage, few had any deaths and they weren’t newsworthy. I don’t think people want to see daily terrorist attacks in the news in addition to the other news. It is not dishonest. News editors have to decide whether it is a good news story and whether those following their news will want to see it.

Trump visited the headquarters for U.S. Central Command where he said “we strongly support NATO”. Huh? Didn’t he want to leave NATO during his campaigning? Trump once dismissed the trans-Atlantic military alliance as “obsolete,” and said he would decide whether to protect NATO countries against Russian aggression based on whether those countries “have fulfilled their obligations to us.”

The Trump administration has started removing language praising the Affordable Care Act from federal websites. It has made several changes to the online pages of the Health & Human Services Department, which oversees the law.

In another false claim, Trump says the murder rate in the US is at a 47 year high. In fact, it has dropped from 1970 at 8 murders per 100,000 to 4.9 murders in 2015.

Trump says California’s consideration of legislation to become a statewide sanctuary for people living in the country illegally is “ridiculous.” He suggested withholding federal funding as a possible punishment. He seems to use that against anyone who doesn’t follow his rules.

Trump is already back paddling on the plans to enact a complete replacement for the Affordable Care Act. “I would like to say by the end of the year, at least the rudiments, but we should have something within the year and the following year.”

A $50 book about Donald Trump was displayed at the very front of the National Museum of American History’s gift shop right after the inauguration, its red-white-and-blue cover featuring Trump’s “signature” stare-and-hair. The book contains a series of false assertions such as he won but had just 200,000 less votes than Hillary Clinton, “is a kind-hearted philanthropist and humanitarian” [but hasn’t given to his own foundation in years], etc. The book was pulled from the shop within 48 hours of release. [I guess if you got one it’s a collector’s item now.]
 

Another loony week in Washington

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” That was related to the Statue of Liberty. Now? Not under the Donald Trump administration. For them it’s more like “Give me your rich, your well connected. Your billionaires yearning to get tax free shelters….”

The American Psychiatry Association has a nine-point checklist for narcissism – if someone displays just five of the traits, they have Narcissistic Personality Disorder. From what it looks like Trump has at least 5 and as many as all 9 of the traits.

Trump’s ban went out the window as a judge ordered it struck down. The administration will go back to the court for a stay.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump wrote on Twitter. Of course if the judge went his way Trump would of tweeted something like “He deserves a raise for upholding the American values, blah, blah, blah.” The judge in question was appointed by George W. Bush.

Trump denied his immigration order was to blame for the chaos at the nation’s airports over the weekend, instead pointing to computer glitches, protesters and even the “tears of Senator Schumer.” And while there was a glitch last Sunday night affecting 150 flights for Delta, the protesting started on Saturday – way before the glitch. Trump even said the executive order was working perfectly.

How many terrorists were refugees to the US? None. But they even detained a 5 year old. Must be the mastermind to the next terrorist attack. Nobody would expect the kid. Another 4 month old girl from Iranian who needs surgery has been denied entry. Some Canadian hospitals may try to help out.

People were scratching their heads when spokesman Sean Spicer compared banning those from the 7 countries [they don’t want to use the phrase “Muslim ban”] to the shooting of 6 Muslims by a right wing nutcase in Quebec City. Huh? A white [probably] Catholic killed 6 Muslims – not a Muslim killed 6 whites. Idiot.

Some top experts in the economy believe the seven country ban will hurt the US economy in many areas. Already a higher dollar isn’t helping. In 2015 foreign tourist spent $199 billion which counts as an export [9% of all exports]. As an unfriendly country to some, the tourists will spend less – not just from those 7 banned countries but others. Building a wall along the border with Mexico and his vow to rip up NAFTA could discourage visitors and students from many countries. Education spending from overseas reached roughly $36 billion in 2015 — up nearly 50 per cent from three years earlier. It is also considered an export.

There is talk of friendly countries such as from Canada to require various biometrics taken [in addition to other countries]. Even those with Nexus cards, dual citizenship and others. Even the former Prime Minister of Norway was denied entry as he was in Iran for a human rights conference.

Over the past decade, the number of foreign students in the United States soared 73 per cent, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Overseas students typically pay the full tuition price, receive little financial aid and make up 8 per cent to 10 per cent of tuition revenue in the United States. More than 1 million foreign students studied in the United States during the 2015-2016 academic year, supporting 400,000 jobs in the process. Autos and auto parts totaled $152 billion in 2015 could also be at risk. Agricultural exports amounted to $137 billion.

Top Trump aides also defended the order, comparing it to a 2011 policy on Iraqi refugees. In 2011, President Barack Obama imposed additional checks on Iraqi refugees after two Iraqis were charged with terrorism offences in Kentucky. But that was for a known offence. Kellyanne Conway wrongly claimed that the 2011 policy “was never covered in the press.” She also falsely described it as Obama’s own “ban” on refugees.

Not to be outdone Rudy Giuliani [he doesn’t seem to have any official title] claimed he was the orchestrator of the ban with the legal help of the new attorney general as well as at least two Republican congressmen. Too bad he didn’t bring in some constitutional lawyers who would of told him he’s wrong – if he actually spearheaded the ban. Giuliani claimed he wanted to make the ban all legal. Uh huh.

Trump fired the acting attorney general of the United States after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

Press secretary, Sean Spicer, accused the acting attorney general of having “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” No. More like going against a legal order that is probably unconstitutional and morally wrong.

Conway was at it again claiming there was a cover-up or lack of media attention in 2011 during the “Bowling Green Massacre” in 2011. Problem is that there was never one. The two men lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky “admitted using improvised explosive devices against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and who attempted to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq for the purpose of killing U.S. soldiers.”

Trump signed an executive order to reduce regulations for small businesses in the Oval Office surrounded by small business leaders, saying it would “massively” cut regulations and calling it the “biggest such act that our country has ever seen.” I wonder how he measures this order versus others.

The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was removed but administration didn’t offer any explanation for the move, only said via Twitter that Daniel Ragsdale is returning to his previous position as deputy director.

A day after Donald Trump’s first call as president with Russia’s Vladimir Poutine, leading congressional Republicans made clear they oppose any attempt by the new administration to wipe away U.S. penalties imposed on Moscow by the Obama White House.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation to lead the State Department — have told associates they were not aware of details of the directive until around the time Trump signed it.

A state visit to Britain by Trump later this year will go ahead, the prime minister’s office said despite 1.8 million signed a petition on the government’s web site asking the government not to invite him. Any petition with more than 100,000 signatures must be considered for a debate in Parliament, though not a binding vote. Last year, Parliament debated whether to ban Trump, then a presidential candidate, from visiting Britain after a similar online petition. He had been invited to come to Britain later this year as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II.

Speaking of the British royalty, we knew for a while that Trump is a womanizing filthy pig. Here is another example related to the future Queen of England.

Being a Trump is sometimes not so good. Nordstrom dumped Ivanka Trump’s clothing and shoe lines because of low sales. The move comes amid an effort by what is called the #GrabYourWallet campaign to encourage shoppers to boycott products with ties to Donald Trump, his family and his donors.

A small group protesting a far-right commentator’s appearance at the University of California at Berkeley hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and sparked a massive bonfire, prompting officials to call off the event. Trump tweeted “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” I think he doesn’t get the point again. The meeting the commentator was canceled not because of his views but because of the violence. The commentator has already been banned from Twitter over his comments is a vocal supporter of Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll whose comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim and white supremacist.

Trump said he won’t roll back federal workplace protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people, giving a rare nod of approval to President Barack Obama’s work on the issue. Wow. One thing he won’t change back…. Although there is plenty of time.

Apple is considering legal options regarding Trump’s executive order for banning people from 7 countries, which has affected hundreds of its employees, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Amazon and Expedia have joined a legal challenge.

Watch CNN’s Anderson Cooper laughing at how really dumb Conway is. 

Tom Price [nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services] has had stock trades call into question whether he will work in the public interest or his own, and the other, Steven Mnuchin [nominee for Treasury secretary], has appeared to have misled the committee on his company’s foreclosure practices after the Great Recession were under scrutiny. Democrats on the committees refused to attend and allowed the Republicans in the room vote to suspend the rules of the committee. Under committee rules, it is required that at least one Democrat be present for the panel to vote to send a nominee to the Senate floor.

Trump has nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, a Denver based judge. If confirmed, the 49-year-old Gorsuch would be the youngest justice on the court and could be shaping decisions for decades.

Trump’s first weekend in charge, hmmm

WhiteHouse.gov immediately wiped pages on LGBT rights, civil rights, climate change, and health care from its “issues” section after Donald Trump took the oath of office. Sad. Sad. Sad.

CNN had photographs of the crowds at the National Mall comparing Trump’s crowd during his oath [just after noon] versus Barack Obama’s crowd in 2009 at an unknown time. Clearly Obama won. Some estimates put Obama’s crowd at 1.8 million. Obama had temperatures in the 20Fs while Trump had his in the 40Fs. As of 11am, Metro [transit] ridership was 513,000 for Obama and just 153,000 for Trump. Other examples was Obama in 2013 at 317,000 and George W. Bush at 197,000 in 2005. Metro, Washington’s subway system, tweeted Saturday’s women’s march there were 275,000 trips taken Saturday by 11 a.m.

“I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people. They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there. And they said, Donald Trump did not draw well,” Trump said. He also called the media liars for fabricating the totals. As if he is a crowd numbers expert! Trump’s team call it Alt-Facts according to Kellyanne Conway.

Even press secretary, Sean Spicer, claimed that it was the biggest crowd ever for an inauguration. Who are they kidding?

Look here. [2017 on the left, 2009 on the right.]

In the U.S., Nielsen estimates 31 million viewers watched TV coverage, but that’s less than Barack Obama’s [38 million] and Ronald Reagan’s first inaugurations. Trump tweeted his was higher than Obama’s second inauguration but failed to mention Obama’s first.

I didn’t watch the inauguration at all except the odd 10-15 seconds here or there but I wonder if any of the national coverage including show the many protesters as the motorcade went by.

The National Mall’s administration were told to remove the tweets related to the number of people attending the 2009 and 2017 inauguration.

During the 2009 and 20013 inauguration as Obama went by the Canadian Embassy to Congress, the 3 RCMP Mounties in front of the embassy saluted. When Trump went by, no salute. Someone at the embassy said they were too close to each other to salute. Looked that way on video.

Trump was at it again on Twitter. He’s taking credit that he has created jobs when companies have said the jobs created have nothing to do with him and were ongoing. When a NBC Today correspondent said that Trump’s impact on job creation “(according to the companies we hear from,) it is very small or nonexistent,” Trump went on a rampage used his standard “fake news” comment and saying that “No wonder the Today Show on biased @NBC is doing so badly compared to its glorious past. Little credibility!” In fact, NBC is #2 in the morning shows and #1 among 25- to 54-year-olds, the key demographic for advertisers.

At the CIA, in front of the wall that honors those who died while serving their country, Trump lies say that he never had anything against the CIA or intelligence community. He then rants about the media. The outgoing CIA director had some not so kind words for him.

Remember throughout the election campaign, Trump refused to release his tax information claiming that he was in the middle of being audited [hinting that it would be released after]? Well now advisor Kellyanne Conway says that Trump will never release them. [BTW, that is a long audit.]

Meanwhile far-right/alt-right site Breitbart News has a running list of announcements titled “Trump Jobs Boom”. That’s more like “fake news”.

Meanwhile, GM to lay off 2,000 workers on inauguration day. For that, I’m sure Trump will blame it on Obama. That is 1,200 workers in Lordstown, OH and 800 in Lansing, MI. Trump not rescuing their jobs. Trump thanked GM this week after GM said it would hire and “retain” 2,000 in the coming years. So that doesn’t mean just 2,000 hired. An additional 1300 GM employees in Detroit will lose their job in March.

“Americans to Trump: Enough With the Tweets,” the headline said, citing a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. According to the poll, 69% of Americans are wary of Trump’s Twitter habit.

Trump said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” that he doesn’t “like to tweet,” but has to use the social network to respond to the “dishonest media.” Ha. Ha. Ha. Why doesn’t he let one of his stooges respond then.

Seeing that the quality of acts at the inauguration concert was razor thin, Azealia Banks stepped in. Still didn’t help much!

From the bookies, they say there is anywhere between a 20% and a 50% chance Trump will be impeached in his only term. A 500 to 1 chance that Trump will repaint the White House gold.

Vladimir Poutine says Trump would never try to coax a contestant that Trump had helped organize because while they are beautiful but “low class”. Nice.

Rudy Giuliani has been tapped to “lend expertise” and to advise the Trump administration on cybersecurity. The former New York mayor “will be sharing his expertise and insight as a trusted friend concerning private sector cybersecurity problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector,” said a brief statement from the incoming Trump administration. Giuliani is the chief executive of his own private-sector cybersecurity venture, Giuliani Partners.

After leaving office as mayor of New York at the end of 2001, this venture claims to offer “a comprehensive range of security and crisis management services.” His consulting firm has hired controversial staffers, and has worked for questionable clientele, reports have said. The company seems to be raking it in for a company that nobody knows what the company actually does. But it is raking in money. Unsure for what. Reminds me of money laundering or fraud. Money comes in but no work done others than something with the 2016 Olympics.

A report from Canadian real-estate agency Royal LePage suggests many Americans who oppose incoming president Donald Trump continue showing a desire to purchase property in Canada. The company says U.S. traffic on its website surged 329 per cent the day after the U.S. election Nov. 8 and climbed 210.1 per cent year-over-year the week after Trump’s victory. For all of November, says Royal LePage, U.S. traffic to its site grew 73.7 per cent over 2015 and rose 40.9 per cent annually in the fourth quarter. During that three-month period, the report says U.S. interest in real estate was primarily focused on Canada’s largest markets, with Ontario, B.C. and Quebec receiving 72.7 per cent of all U.S. regional page views. Three-quarters of the American inquiries concerned residential properties.

Not surprising, a contradiction for the Trump Organization. A month ago Trump vowed to do “no new deals” while in office. Now his company will still pursue US deals – but he won’t control the company.

While some ethics officials have said that foreign leaders who pay for rooms and services at his various hotels would run afoul of the constitutional ban on foreign gifts or payments to the president, Dillon referred to it as a “fair-value exchange.”

Bookies are taking odds or chances of whether he will be impeached in the next 4 years. Anywhere from 20% to 50%. The highest pay-out with the lowest odds is 500/1 from Paddy Power – if the Republican paints his entire White House gold.

Samantha Bee, the late-night comic, referred to adviser and former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as the president-elect’s “omnipresent spokescobra” for her ability to transform his “upended port-a-potty of a campaign” and labelling her a “soulless, Machiavellian despot”. “I know Kellyanne doesn’t believe those homophobic and sexist things in her heart because Kellyanne doesn’t believe anything in her heart,” she said. “She will say literally anything.”

In the days after Donald Trump’s election, stores in midtown Manhattan watched a stream of foot traffic slow to a trickle as gates went up and police officers fanned out. Security restrictions near Fifth Avenue’s gilded Trump Tower have eased somewhat since then, but small businesses and people who live nearby are still worried about four years of inconvenient detours.

Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer said there are at least 105 businesses on 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues employing over 1100 people. [So for all the claims from Trump of new jobs for Americans, here could be some job losses.]

Odd fact: The top states for pain killers and the top states for heroin users were all Trump winning states.

Oh. If you haven’t noticed. I haven’t called Trump by his title….