Liberty In Peril

                                                                                              formerly,

                                                                                       The Llano Ledger

5-26-17

Amazing how the jackbooted bastards in blue have no problem beating the hell out of American protesters.  Yet, seemed achingly incapable of recently handling an outrageously violent security detail of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Fox News reports:

"Authorities in Washington, D.C., said that at least nine people were injured in the attack with two seriously injured and requiring an ambulance to take them to the hospital.  A Voice of America video showed police officers struggling to protect the protesters and ordering the men in suits to retreat. Instead, several of the men dodged the officers and ran into the park to continue the attacks."

Why the hell didn't police do their duty?  Haul the rampaging members of the dictator's 'security' detail to jail?

"The video also shows the attackers kicking one woman as she lay curled on a sidewalk, wrenching another woman's neck and throwing her to the ground and kicking the face of a man carrying a bullhorn.  “I am an American citizen. I didn’t expect something like this to happen here,” Abbas Aziz, a 62-year-old Kurdish teacher, told Fox News."

Why wouldn't you expect this?  Forget?  We live in a fascist police-state.  Soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  The police did not do their job.

"Four of the attackers ganged up on Aziz – knocking him to the ground with punches to the head and repeatedly kicking him in the chest and head before police drove them away."

Why didn't they arrest these sons of bitches?  Haul their asses to jail.  Diplomatic immunity allows foreign thugs to do as they please in our formerly great country? The Trump nazi and his henchmen have remained gutlessly silent.

Gets worse.  Insult to injury.  The Washington Post reports:

"Turkey’s Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest Monday with the U.S. ambassador to Ankara over what it said were “lapses of security” during a violent confrontation between protesters and Turkish bodyguards during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington earlier this month."

The security detail went on a rampage.  Were not arrested.  Worse?  Allowed to leave the country.

"The summoning of the ambassador, John Bass, sharply escalated a diplomatic rift between Turkey and the United States after the brawl, which prompted outrage in the United States, as well as calls for the prosecution of the Turkish guards and even the expulsion of Turkey’s ambassador to Washington."

Exactly, what should have happened.  Did not.  Why not?

"American and Turkish officials have provided directly contrasting versions of how the violence unfolded. Local police said the Turkish guards savagely attacked a peaceful protest outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence as Erdogan was visiting.  The melee, which was recorded by video journalists, showed what appeared to be Turkish security guards kicking and choking protesters as D.C. police struggled to contain the unrest. The footage also showed that Erdogan was watching, from a distance, as the fighting raged."

Should have hauled his ass to jail along with the guards.  Forget?  The son of a bitch was in charge of the rioting, rampaging bastards.  Did not call off the dogs.

"Turkish diplomats have criticized the local police for failing to quell an “unpermitted” and “provocative” demonstration."

Foreign visitors now dictate in this country what is or is not permitted or provocative? Is that right?

"The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement on Monday went even further, criticizing “the inability of U.S. authorities to take sufficient precautions at every stage of the official program.” And it demanded that the United States conduct a “full investigation of this diplomatic incident and provide the necessary explanation.”

F--k  'em.

"The spiraling argument appeared to undermine what by all accounts had been a friendly meeting between Erdogan and President Trump before the violence at the protest. In a joint press appearance at the White House, the two leaders were full of mutual praise and spoke of hopes for a closer and more productive relationship."

There's the problem.  Two goddamned nazi strongmen with their noses up each other's ass.  In this country, the First Amendment guaranties the right of peaceful protest.  Protesters were peaceful.  Erdogan's security detail were not.  Should have had their asses hauled to jail, then permanently expelled from this country.

5-26-17

Same jackbooted tactics now used in our formerly great country.  Two egregious examples.  CBS News reports:

"Security guards at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  headquarters in Washington, D.C., manhandled a reporter and forced him to leave for trying to ask FCC commissioners questions Thursday, according to the reporter.  CQ Roll Call senior defense reporter John Donnelly said he was confronted by security guards who weren't in uniform when he tried to ask commissioners questions away from the podium at a press conference, according to the National Press Club. Donnelly, the chairman of the National Press Club's Press Freedom Team, said he displayed his congressional press pass, tape recorder and notepad throughout the event, but security guards shadowed him like he was a threat -- even waiting for him outside the restroom.  When Donnelly approached FCC Commissioner Michael O'Reilly, two guards pinned him against the wall until the commissioner passed, according to Donnelly. Frederick Bucher, one of the guards, asked Donnelly why he didn't ask his question during the news conference before forcing him to leave the building."

Forget?  We now live in a goddamned fascist police-state.  Soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

Second example:

"The FCC incident marks the second time this month law enforcement used force against a reporter asking federal officials questions. A reporter was arrested in West Virginia last week after attempting to ask Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about an Obamacare replacement bill, an arrest strongly condemned by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union."

A goddamned fascist police-state.

5-26-17

In follow up to an earlier edition here and elsewhere, ABC News reports:

"Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke -- who last week claimed that he was appointed to be an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security -- is denying allegations that he plagiarized content in his 2013 master's thesis, while calling the reporter who broke the story a "sleaze bag."  CNN reported on Saturday night that Clarke, a controversial figure who has spoken out against the activist group Black Lives Matter and has been accused of human rights abuses by civil rights groups, lifted language from several sources in building his thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School."

Couldn't be, could it?  A nazi sheriff wouldn't do anything like that, would he?

"The CNN report claims that Clarke footnoted his sources in the thesis, titled "Making U.S. security and privacy rights compatible," but failed to use quotation marks in places where he had used passages verbatim, which breaks with school guidelines."

I'm shocked.  LOL.

"The Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where Clarke earned a master's degree in security studies in 2013, confirmed on Sunday to the Associated Press that the allegations published on CNN are being reviewed. The school removed his thesis from its online archive on Friday, a school spokesman told the AP."

Be interesting to see where this all goes, if anywhere.  If the plagiarism allegations are true, certainly goes to character.  What is far, far worse, however, is the following:

"Clarke's office has come under scrutiny over four deaths that have occurred in his jail since 2016, including an incident in which an inmate gave birth to a stillborn baby.  Among the most high profile incidents to take place in Clarke’s custody was the death of Terrill Thomas, a 38-year-old man who died of thirst in Milwaukee County Jail in April 2016.  Thomas was found dead in his jail cell nine days after he was arrested in connection with a shooting. The death was ruled a homicide, with dehydration the primary cause, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel."

The Sheriff has not stepped up:

"Clarke has not commented on the details surrounding Thomas' death, and issued a press release in September of 2016 citing an internal investigation of the case as the reason for his silence."

A bullshit excuse.  Gutless.

"This month, a Milwaukee jury recommended criminal charges against seven Milwaukee County jail staffers in the death of Thomas, but ignored Clarke."

Why?  How could he possibly have not known what was going on.  Forget? It's his jail.  Insult to injury?  This gutless piece of shit blames his support of the Trump nazi for his ongoing problems in the jail.

5-26-17

In follow up to the last edition, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein finally succumbed to intense pressure.  CBS News reports:

"Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel to oversee the previously confirmed FBI investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters.  "I have determined that a Special Counsel is necessary in order for the American people to have full confidence in the outcome," Rosenstein said in a statement.  The letter announcing the appointment says that Mueller is authorized to investigate "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and...any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

While the Trump nazi has the legal right to fire Rosenstein, to do so would likely immediately result in impeachment.  Obstruction of justice.  Under such circumstances, Republicans couldn't remain silent.  Wouldn't be returned to office.

"The appointment comes as numerous Democratic lawmakers have called for a special counsel, colloquially known as a special prosecutor. Such calls increased in recent days after Mr. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. On Tuesday, it was revealed the Comey had written a memo alleging that Mr. Trump had asked him to back off from investigation former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The memo allegedly says that the president said, in a private conversation with Comey at the White House, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Let the games begin.  More ominously for the Trump nazi:

"Rosenstein's letter announcing the appointment of Mueller says, "If the Special Counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the special counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters."

Had to have enraged, sent a chill up the spine of the fuhrer.

In another article, CBS News reports:

"President Trump told Russian officials last week that a day earlier, he fired FBI Director James Comey, whom Mr. Trump called a "real nut job," and said that it relieved "great pressure" on him, according to a report published Friday by The New York Times.  "I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job," Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office, according to a summary of the meeting, obtained by the Times.  "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off," he added."

Think so?  On a comical note, sounds like the kettle calling the pot black, doesn't it?

NPR reports:

"President Trump told Russian officials last week he had fired the "nut job" FBI Director James Comey in order to ease the pressure of the mounting investigation into his campaign's ties to Russia, according to a report from The New York Times.  "I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump told the Russian foreign minister and U.S. ambassador on May 10 during an Oval Office meeting, according to a transcript of the meeting read to the Times by a U.S. official. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."

Equally interesting?

"White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not dispute the account of the conversation to the Times, and in a statement to NPR argued that the Russia investigation was harming U.S. foreign policy."

The noose seems to be figuratively tightening.  The Washington Post reports:

"The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter.  The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to these people, who would not further identify the official.  The revelation comes as the investigation also appears to be entering a more overtly active phase, with investigators shifting from work that has remained largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, the people said."

Fascinating, isn't it?  Seems to be confirmed by ABC News:

"The federal investigation of alleged collusion between associates of President Donald Trump and Russian officials is looking not only into Trump campaign advisers previously cited in public accounts, but it is also scrutinizing at least one current White House staffer, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.  The Washington Post was the first to report on this detail of the investigation, saying a "senior White House adviser" has become "a significant person of interest" in the probe.  Officials speaking to ABC News would not identify the staffer, and it is unclear exactly why authorities are interested in this individual."

Of course, none of the above implies criminal charges are pending.

Michael Flynn seems to be at the apex of Trump's continuing problems.  NBC News reports:

"A former senior Obama official confirmed to NBC News that after months of disagreement, the Obama administration had decided to arm the Syrian Kurds — but in January incoming National Security Adviser Mike Flynn asked his counterpart, Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice, not to do it.  McClatchy first reported that Flynn had blocked the plan to arm the Syrian Kurds for an attack on Raqqa, the ISIS capital in Syria, a move that was opposed by the Turkish government, which Flynn had been paid $500,000 to represent."

Certainly, an issue if for no other reason:

"Flynn had not yet registered as a foreign agent or disclosed that Turkey had paid him as a lobbyist. After he was fired as national security adviser, Flynn registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department."

Too little, much too late.

Fox News reports:

"Weeks before President Trump's inauguration, Michael Flynn told the transition team he was under federal investigation for working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, the New York Times reported late Wednesday.  The disclosure by Flynn on Jan. 4 was first made to then-Trump transition team lawyer Donald F. McGahn II, who is now the White House counsel, two people familiar with the case told the newspaper.  Flynn's conversation with the transition team came a month after the Justice Department notified Flynn he was under investigation, according to the Times."

Anything wrong with this picture?  Anything at all?  Trump and his henchmen apparently didn't think so.

NPR reports:

"What does Michael Flynn, President Trump's erstwhile national security advisor, think about Russia?  His statements and actions are so contradictory, they could induce whiplash.  In his book, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies, published last July, here is what Flynn thought about working with Russian President Vladimir Putin: "There's no reason to believe Putin would welcome cooperation with us. Quite the contrary, in fact."  Seems clear enough: Russia is an adversary. Be wary of Putin. A standard position in the national security community.  Yet Flynn was also busy making contacts with Russia. In December 2015, Flynn sat next to Putin in Moscow at a celebration for RT, the state-run TV network."

Worse?

"Documents show that Flynn was paid $33,000 for a speech he delivered at the event. As a retired Army lieutenant general, he was required to get permission from the military to receive payments from a foreign government, and according to media reports, it's not clear whether he requested it."

What webs we weave.

CNN reports:

"Vice President Mike Pence is standing by a March statement that he first learned of now-fired national security adviser Michael Flynn's ties to Turkey from media reports, despite renewed scrutiny and revelations President Donald Trump's transition team was made aware far earlier.  "The vice president stands by his comments in March upon first hearing the news regarding General Flynn's ties to Turkey and fully supports the President's decision to ask for General Flynn's resignation," said an aide to Pence, who declined to be named.  But questions about what Pence knew and when are swirling thanks to new media reports about what Flynn revealed to Trump's transition team, which Pence oversaw."

Someone's clearly lying.  Guess who?  Equally disturbing?

"The question of what Pence knew and when first arose months earlier after reports surfaced that Flynn discussed sanctions with Russia's ambassador to Washington despite Pence's public claim to the contrary. It's also one that was posed after Pence stood before news cameras and claimed that Trump had fired FBI director James Comey because of a memo written by the deputy attorney general -- only for Trump to later reveal he planned to fire Comey regardless."

Anything wrong with the above?  Anything at all?

The Washington Post reports:

"But as The Post's Abby Phillip began documenting last week, Pence has hardly been immune from Trump's foibles and from saying untrue things about them. And now twice in the past week, his defenses of the White House he serves in have been pretty directly contradicted in ways that seriously call into question his credibility."

So what else is new?  Precisely, why special counsel is so desperately needed to get to the bottom of all unanswered questions and seeming contradictions by all those involved.

In another article, The Washington Post seemingly summed up the problem for Trump vis a vis Flynn:

"At the center of so many political — and now possibly legal — controversies of the Trump administration is one man: retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn.  Flynn, Trump's national security adviser during the transition and for less than a month during his presidency, was involved in a lot of questionable Trump administration actions, including:

    "Repeatedly talking with the Russians despite warnings from others on Team Trump not to (and despite the White House denying in January that it had contacts with Russian officials during the campaign).

    "Misleading the White House about the nature of those conversations with the Russians once those conversations became public. Vice President Pence said on TV that Flynn didn't discuss U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington. But the FBI was monitoring Flynn's conversations with the Russians, and it turns out that, yes, he did discuss U.S. sanctions.

    "Continuing, for 18 days, to be Trump's national security adviser despite warnings from the top Justice Department official at the time, Sally Yates, that the Russians knew Flynn was lying about his conversations and, thus, had leverage over him.

    "Was the person Trump pressured then-FBI Director James B. Comey to lay off investigating, according to Comey's notes. (Flynn “is a good guy,” Comey recalled the president as saying to him.)"

All the above?  Troubling.  Greatest problem for the president, however?

"But perhaps the most damning of all of Flynn's troubles — and the one that could keep haunting the Trump administration — is something that has little to do with Russia: Flynn was working for the Turkish government while working for Trump, which means that he was advocating for policies that benefited Turkey while serving as Trump's national security adviser. And Trump may have known about this."

All the above will likely cause Trump continuing political problems.  Worse as far as the president is concerned?  Will likely all be part of the criminal investigation conducted by Mueller.

5-26-17

The Trump nazi is getting stiff resistance to gutting environmental regulations.  NPR reports:

"In the Senate this week, lawmakers took up the Regulatory Accountability Act, which would require all agencies to consider the cost of a regulation when creating it. Oil and gas and other industry groups laud the bill as promoting "good governance" and "accountability," while environmental groups complain that it would "emphasize costs to industry over benefits to Americans."

Indeed.  GOP nazis couldn't care less about the environment.  Bottom line always comes first.

5-26-17

The Trump nazi and others like him make their money off corporate welfare.  That is, legalized theft.  In the case of Trump, tax abatements.  The great unwashed foot the bill.  NPR reports:

"The tax abatement was crucial. It was crucial to the finances of the deal making sense at the time it was struck. It was crucial to the banks who loaned him money to get it done," O'Brien adds. "So in tandem all of those things were very important. It couldn't have been done without them."

Didn't end there, however:

"Over the years, Trump has eagerly sought out federal, state and local tax breaks whenever possible, and they have added significantly to his bottom line. When he built Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in the 1980s, he successfully sued the city to get a tax abatement on the property."

Nor there:

"When he wasn't seeking tax breaks, Trump was lobbying local governments to lower the appraised value of his hotels and casinos in order to reduce his property tax bill."

Kicker?

"Although Trump has never released his tax returns, The New York Times estimated last year that he has gotten at least $885 million in tax breaks, grants and other subsidies for his properties in the city."

Guess who made up the difference?  Literally looted to foot the bill?  Wake up.  You've been bamboozled.

The Trump nazi and his henchmen will not provide requested information sought by Congress investigating the fuhrer.  NPR reports:

"At a Senate hearing Thursday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, accused Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin of failing to answer his questions about President Trump's business ties to people who might be violating money laundering and other U.S. laws."

Called stonewalling.

"Mnuchin responded by suggesting Brown "just send me a note on what you are looking for."  Brown pointed out that he had already sent a two-page letter."

Doesn't end there:

"I haven't received an answer that I asked for — about potential conflicts of interest and ownership in the [Trump] administration," Brown said, referring to a March 2 letter he wrote to Treasury.  The letter requested a "comprehensive list" of the Trump family's "investors, business partners, politically exposed persons and related actors."  Such a list is needed to reveal whether Trump's associates and investors have been in compliance with laws related to bank secrecy, sanctions, money laundering and other regulations, Brown said."

Hold the stonewalling bastard in contempt of Congress.  Should that fail, think the recently appointed special counsel won't investigate all this anyway?

5-26-17

Twice American taxpayers were looted to fix damage wrought by banks and savings and loans too big to fail.  About to get fleeced again.  Don't think so?  Couldn't happen?  Wake up.  The Washington Post reports:

"Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he would soon formally call for rolling back regulations on thousands of small and regional banks, arguing that major changes were necessary to help these companies make more loans and boost the economy."

At whose expense, Mr. Secretary?

5-26-17

The 'President' made his maiden debut on the world stage with a carefully written and delivered, yet achingly substanceless speech in Saudi Arabia.  Remarkably, did a 180 rhetorically.  Said nothing to offend Muslim leaders in attendance.  Applause polite, but restrained.  After all, as far as the Arabs are concerned, the United States has done nothing to rein in the Israeli aggressor.  Also, certainly haven't forgotten all the Islamaphobic comments made by the Trump nazi during the campaign and after.

Interestingly, the speech indeed could have been delivered by his two most recent predecessors with two exceptions.  No mention of democracy and/or human rights.  Not surprising, since the Trump nazi believes in neither.  This region of the world suppresses its minions with an iron fist.  The 'President' clearly admires strongmen, brutal dictators.

Fits right in with all the abuses going on in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.  To say nothing of the misogyny.  After a couple disastrous weeks before departure on his foreign junket, Trump was certainly on his best behavior overseas.  ... While his domestic troubles await his return.  Be interesting to see if the Trump nazi can maintain a facade of sanity for the duration of the junket.

In Israel, the Trump nazi haughtily, disingenuously, ineffectively tried to excuse disclosure of classified information to the Russians when challenged by reporters.  CNN reports:

"President Donald Trump sought to rebut claims Monday that he damaged Israeli intelligence capabilities by revealing highly classified information to Russian operatives earlier this month.  "Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel," Trump said ahead of a bilateral session with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

Beside the point, you clueless jackass:

"Trump is accused of disclosing the information during an Oval Office session with the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to the United States on May 10. The information centered on attempts by terrorist groups to load bombs into laptops in an attempt to blow up airliners.  The accusations, however, never suggested that Trump told his Russian visitors that the information came from Israel. Instead, the information Trump revealed is thought to have been so specific that its origin was clear."

Bet his sick sycophants still buy his bullshit?  No matter what he says or does?  Forget?  Can't confuse idiots with the truth.  Impossible.

CBS News reports:

"President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered remarks together on Monday from Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem."

Cozy, isn't it?

"While Mr. Trump admitted that Israeli-Palestinian peace is difficult to achieve, the president pledged to work toward it and expressed confidence that it would happen eventually. Netanyahu thanked Mr. Trump for a "change in American policy on Iran," though it's unclear what that means in terms of the Iranian nuclear deal."

Forget?  Both men have a penchant for talking out the ass.  Truth?  What's that?  Shit squat to disingenuous dolts.

"During their meeting shortly before the remarks, Netanyahu praised the intelligence cooperation between Israel and the U.S. as "terrific."  This prompted Mr. Trump to say to the pool reporters covering the meeting, "Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel. Never mentioned it during that conversation. They were all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word Israel."

Pitiful, isn't it?  Nobody said that.  No one at all.  Trump lied.  Alice In Wonderland.  Yet, his clueless supporters buy his lies, distortion of reality, rewrite of history, etc..

"The president said that the U.S. wants Israel to have peace and said, "We are more than friends -- we are great allies." The president pledged to work toward Israeli-Palestinian peace, which he said he has heard is the "toughest deal of all" and expressed confidence that it would eventually happen."

Absolute, unadulterated horse shit.  If the Trump nazi and his predecessor truly wanted peace, they would have reined in the Israeli aggressor.  Have not done so.  Failed to cut off aid, weapons, etc..  Consequently, Israel does at it pleases.  With virtual impunity.  Under current circumstances, why would the Palestinians agree to negotiate?  Nothing in it for them.  Just more of the same.

Here is precisely why there is no peace, will be no peace:

"The prime minister said he and his wife are "absolutely delighted" to welcome Trump and first lady Melania Trump to the "eternal capital of the Jewish people, the united capital of the Jewish faith. Netanyahu said that Israelis applaud Trump for becoming the first sitting U.S. president for visiting the Western wall."

The prime minister is referring to Jerusalem.  Claimed by the Palestinians as their capital.  Why wouldn't the Palestinians and others continue to fight like hell?  Forget?  Their land was stolen in 1948 with the blessing of the United States, Europe, and the United Nations.  The Israeli aggressor has continued to steal additional territory ever since.  Continued to murder Palestinians desperately trying to hold on to what is theirs.  ... Land the Israelites rightfully  lost generations ago due to their excesses.

Now, the Trump nazi and the Israeli aggressor desperately try to rewrite history.  Sadly, there won't be peace.  There can't be.  Not under these circumstances.  Worse?  This conflict spread like wildfire since 1948.  Morphed into international terror.  Ironically, using the very same methods of terror invented and implemented by the founders of the modern State of Israel.  (Latest example?  The bombing 5-22-17, Manchester, England.)

Trump had already met with the Palestinians.  Got more than an earful.  The Washington Post reports:

"Earlier, he had traveled to Bethlehem for a private meeting with Abbas to discuss the peace process and his vision for anti-terrorism cooperation.  ... But while Trump spoke in generalities about the goal, Abbas laid out the specifics of Palestinian demands — which have been supported by the Arabs and rejected by Israel through decades of unsuccessful peace negotiations shepherded by American presidents."

Certainly, wasn't music to the Trump nazi's ears:

“We reassert to you our positions of a two-state solution along the borders of 1967, a state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem, living alongside of Israel,” he said, referring to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank following a war against three Arab armies.  ... Abbas said he had also drawn Trump’s attention to more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel who have been on a hunger strike for over a month, led by Marwan Barghouti, whom supporters call the Palestinian Nelson Mandela.  Abbas delivered to Trump a letter from the families of the strikers, who have demanded more family visits, access to telephones, medical care, the freedom to study and cessation of isolation as a punishment."

Certainly, a bone of contention since the Israeli aggressor wishes to do all it can to keep its boot heel on the throat of the Palestinians.

"Israel and some U.S. lawmakers have objected to American aid to the Palestinians, claiming the money is used to make payments to the families of prisoners, who are considered “freedom fighters” among many Palestinians. Trump did not mention the aid or the payments in his public remarks."

They are freedom fighters.  Fighting the Israeli aggressor.

"Abbas also spoke of Palestinian insistence that all “final status issues” be resolved “based on international law” and United Nations resolutions, as well as the Arab Peace Initiative first offered more than a decade ago. It promised Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state."

The Israelis do not want a Palestinian state.  Nor are they willing to grant Palestinians full Israeli citizenship.  ... Despite stealing their land in 1948 and more territory ever since.  They want the Palestinians to accept Israeli subjugation.  That's not going to happen.  Precisely, why the violence continues unabated.

5-26-17

In follow up to an earlier edition here and elsewhere, NBC News reports:

"The latest battle over illegal immigration in the Trump era is unfolding in Texas where a small border town is suing the state over a new law that bans so-called "sanctuary cities." [EL CENIZO, Texas]

Suit has indeed been filed against the Abbott nazi and his henchmen.

"Critics argue the legislation is unconstitutional and will trigger racial profiling. But in a new interview with NBC News, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended the law.  "The biggest misconception is the so-called 'show your papers' requirement," Abbott said. "There is no requirement that you show papers. That is absolutely false."

The Governor is a liar.  That's exactly what will be the end result of the law.  Abbott is disingenuously talking out both sides his ass.

"Abbott signed Senate Bill 4 earlier this month on Facebook Live, arguing that it was about public safety.  "No one can be pulled over and stopped whether walking or driving just for no reason or because of what their race may be," he said. "There has to be that probable cause."

The Governor, again, is lying out his ass.  Goes on all the time.  All over the Nazi State of Texas.  He knows full well probable cause is whatever the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue define it to be.  This is the way things are done in a goddamned fascist police-state.  The Governor knows this.  Yet, lies out his gutless ass.

"My wife is the first Hispanic first lady" of the state, he said. "They have absolutely nothing to fear. The only people who face any type of consequence are criminals. If you commit a crime and you're wanted by the federal government, then yes you have something to be concerned about. If you haven't committed a crime, and you're not wanted by the federal government, you have no concern."

More goddamned bullshit.  A lie.  Not how things work in a fascist police-state.  Not what's going on in the streets of our formerly great country.  The Governor knows this.  Clearly lives in his own achingly delusional world.  He nor his wife get harassed because he is Governor.  Nor do other officials.  The Governor and his ilk receive special treatment.  Not so, the great unwashed.

For the Governor to imply otherwise, offers proof of one of two possibilities.  Either, he's knowingly a goddamned liar.  Or, worse, too damned ignorant to know what's truly going on in the fascist police-state we now live in.  Soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  Either possibility does not speak well of our sad excuse for a governor.

The mayor of El Cenizo has it quite right:

"(The new law) hinders the relationship between police departments and the community," Reyes said. "It decreases the criminal activity reports. It opens up the door to more domestic violence and more sexual assaults against immigrants that would go unreported. And that's dangerous."

Yet, our nazi Governor remains too aggressively stupid to be confused with the truth.  ... By the way, Governor, Wells Fargo line your pockets to ignore the deceptive trade practices complaint I filed against them with your office back in 2014 when you were Texas Attorney General?

5-26-17

The Sessions nazi is succumbing to judicial pressure.  NPR reports:

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions is narrowing the scope of an executive order on so-called sanctuary cities, jurisdictions that limit cooperation with immigration officials."

The Sessions nazi is responding to growing pressure from the judiciary:

"A federal judge in California last month blocked a key part of that order, reasoning that the Trump administration had overstepped by threatening to yank federal money from those places."

An inconvenient truth to the Trump nazi and his henchmen.

"In the new memo, the attorney general defines the cities narrowly — as places that "willfully refuse to comply" with federal law. Sessions also made clear the threats apply only to a modest pool of grants administered by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, not the entire stream of U.S. funding for states and localities."

The nazi had no choice:

"That point figured prominently in the recent ruling by federal Judge William Orrick, who wrote: "Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration-enforcement strategy of which the president disapproves."

Resistance continues to grow.  CBS News reports:

"There is a peaceful rebellion growing against federal immigration law and the interpretation of that law by the Trump administration. More than 800 houses of worship across the country have volunteered to shelter illegal immigrants and their families who face deportation -- daring federal agents to step through their stained-glass doors. The churches and synagogues are joining more than 600 cities and counties that have declared themselves sanctuaries—ordering their police not to detain people if it's only because of their immigration status. In no other venue of the law has so much of the nation stood in defiance of Washington."

5-26-17

Pressure continues to grow on former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.  NBC News reports:

"Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn appears to have lied to security clearance investigators by telling them he was paid by "U.S. companies" when he traveled to Russia in December 2015, according to a letter released Monday by the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee."

Say it ain't so, Mikey, say it ain't so.

"The Oversight Committee has in our possession documents that appear to indicate that General Flynn lied to the investigators who interviewed him in 2016 as part of his security clearance renewal," said Rep. Elijiah Cummings of Maryland in a letter to committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?

"Specifically, the Committee has obtained a Report of Investigation dated March 14, 2016, showing that General Flynn told security clearance investigators that he was paid by 'U.S. companies' when he traveled to Moscow in December 2015 to dine at a gala with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The actual source of the funds for General Flynn's trip was not a U.S. company, but the Russian media propaganda arm, RT."

Follow the money trail.

Flynn has refused to honor a congressional subpoena, pleading the Fifth Amendment.  Readers are reminded both Flynn and the Trump nazi during the campaign crowed innocent people don't plead the Fifth.  Fascinating, isn't it?

The Washington Post reports:

"Trump himself invoked the Fifth Amendment in 1990, during his bitter and public divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump. The real estate mogul took the Fifth to avoid answering questions about adultery; according to Wayne Barrett's “Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth,” the Fifth Amendment is Trump's “favorite” and allowed him to not answer a total of 97 deposition questions that were mostly about “other women.”

Fascinating, isn't it?  Gets worse:

"Several years later, in 1998, after Bill Clinton admitted that he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, Trump said this about the president: “I'm not even sure that he shouldn't have just gone in and taken the Fifth Amendment.”

When politically expedient, the Trump nazi took a far different tact:

"But by last year, Trump was singing a different tune: During the presidential election, he repeatedly slammed former staffers for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton who took the Fifth during a congressional probe into her use of a private email server."

'Don't do as I do, do as I say,' right, Mr. 'President?'

“The mob takes the Fifth,” he said at an Iowa campaign rally in September. “If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

Hypocrisy?  Stunning.

Quotes courtesy of a most gifted, insightful writer, Kristine Phillips.

5-26-17

Trump's supporters are about to get the shaft.  The nazi plans to eviscerate food stamps to provide tax breaks for the top 1%.  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump’s anticipated cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, will likely be felt most in regions of the country with chronic high rates of unemployment — from the rural Southeast to aging manufacturing towns to Indian reservations.  People in those regions are temporarily exempt from national work requirements for the SNAP program, because there are not enough jobs there for everyone who wants one.  But there is growing anticipation that the budget to be unveiled on Tuesday could incorporate proposals drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation that would eliminate or curtail the unemployment-rate waivers. That means the federal government could cut off assistance to unemployed adults who live in areas where few jobs are available."

Voted for this nazi? Tough shit.  Get what you deserve.  Enjoy the f--king.  No sympathy.  No sympathy at all.

5-26-17

In follow up to the above, the Trump nazi released his budget.  Not surprisingly, targets the people on the bottom and middle class who voted for him.  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump on Tuesday proposed dramatic changes to the role of the federal government, issuing a budget plan that culls or eliminates numerous programs that the White House says are a waste of money or create too much dependency."

If employers were forced by statute to pay a livable wage, would be far less need for these programs.  Must never be forgotten poorly regulated capitalism is the way the top 1% enrich themselves.  Zero-sum, winner-take-all.  A few crumbs, a bone now and then to keep the masses in control, subservient.  To whom?  Wake up.  Their corporate masters.  -- Who not only own them, but their bought and paid for shills at all levels of government.

"Some of these programs — including Medicaid and the modern version of food stamps — provide benefits to up to a fifth of all Americans, and the breadth of the cuts has rattled lawmakers from both parties who have warned that the reductions go too far."

Trump's budget is all but dead on arrival.  Republicans know full well they wouldn't be returned to office.  The Trump nazi is a charlatan.  A phony.  Did all he could to come off as a populist during the campaign to secure the election.  Now, his true colors are out for all to see.  Made his money the old fashioned way.  Stole it.

Six bankruptcies, only four of which admitted to.  Looted contractors who built his empire.  Looted students at Trump 'University.'  A Trump Foundation no more than a front to line his pockets.  Too bad the GOP won't pass his budget.  Would ultimately unleash change unlike ever seen before in this formerly truly great country.  As the masses ferociously reclaim their destiny peacefully.  Dumping their nazi oppressors.  Breaking their chains.

"These cuts, White House officials said, would usher in a sustained period of strong economic growth that would increase wealth, create more jobs and reduce poverty."

No more than a repeat of history, that is, failed Reaganomics.  Failed trickle down.  One of the reasons why only the top 1% recovered from the 2008 meltdown, while the rest of the country took it hard in the ass.  Without the Vaseline.  Why this economy never recovered for the bottom and middle class.  Now, the Trump nazi and his henchmen want more of the same failed policies.  To line their bottomless pockets.

“I think what Trumponomics is and what this budget is a part of is an effort to get to sustained 3 percent economic growth in this country again,” Mulvaney said in a briefing with reporters."

This man is delusional.  Who will pay for this growth?  Who will have income sufficient to finance it?  The unwashed masses are the ultimate engines of growth.  Denied a livable wage to line corporate coffers and shareholder pockets, who do these clueless bastards in the Trump regime think will finance this growth?

"Funding for Medicaid, the health-care program for low-income Americans and many people in nursing homes, would be cut by more than $800 billion over 10 years. Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a modern version of food stamps that provided benefits to 44 million people in 2016, would be cut 29 percent. In many cases, a higher burden of paying for anti-poverty programs would be shifted away from the federal government and onto the states."

Delusional.  Won't happen.  Republicans already hear the rumble.  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution clearly, catastrophically looming on the horizon.

Voodoo economics:

"But they also made rosy assumptions about economic growth that many economists — both conservative and liberal — said went too far. Trump has proposed cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, but his budget assumes that corporate tax receipts will increase almost every year. The budget says the U.S. government will collect $328 billion in estate and gift taxes over the next decade, but it also says Trump will eliminate the estate tax."

The top 1%, including the Trump nazi, don't live on the same planet as the rest of us.  Embrace the attitude, "Let 'em eat cake."  What is proposed is not sustainable.  Both political parties understand a day of reckoning is well on its way.

NPR reports:

"The proposed budget unveiled Tuesday by the Trump administration doubles down on major cuts to biomedical research, fighting infectious disease outbreaks, health care for the poor, elderly and disabled, and prevention of HIV/AIDS."

Do the top 1% think they won't suffer ramifications?

In another article, NPR reports:

"Critics call the spending blueprint "Robin Hood in reverse."  "The president is essentially abandoning many people the economy has left behind — a large number of whom voted for him — and is pursuing policies that would make their lives more difficult than they already are," said Robert Greenstein, president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities."

Should the Trump nazi last his first term, think his sycophants will return him to office?

NBC News reports:

"President Donald Trump's newly unveiled budget contains a massive accounting error that uses the same money twice for two different purposes. Based on its supersized projections of 3 percent GDP, the president's budget forecasts about $2 trillion in extra federal revenue growth over the next 10 years, which it then uses to pay for Trump's "biggest tax cut in history."

Gets worse:

"But then it also uses that very same $2 trillion to balance the budget."

More stunning?

"White House budget director Mick Mulvaney didn't deny the math, saying it was done "on purpose," during a press briefing Tuesday."

Voodoo 'economics.'

"I'm aware of the criticisms and would simply come back and say there's other places where we were probably overly conservative in our accounting," he said. "We stand by the numbers."

Idiots are running this country.  ... Into the ground.

5-26-17

Plot thickens.  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials."

Called obstruction of justice.

"Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election."

Obstruction of justice.

"Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president."

Why have they remained silent?  Ultimately work for "We The People," not the Trump nazi.

"Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James B. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

Think Trump's sick sycophants will ever wake up?

Gets worse:

"In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials said the White House appeared uncertain about its power to influence the FBI."

Amazing how history seems to be repeating itself.

The White House clearly does not believe in ethics.  NPR reports:

"The Office of Government Ethics has rejected a White House attempt to block the agency's compilation of federal ethics rules waivers granted to officials hired into the Trump administration from corporations and lobbying firms."

Stunning, isn't it?  Not surprising, however.

Here is the problem:

"The White House action, a letter to OGE Director Walter M. Shaub Jr. from Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, was first reported by The New York Times. The newspaper had earlier published a detailed account of lobbyists turned appointees who were granted waivers and now oversee regulations they previously had lobbied against.  With an ethics waiver, a federal official is free to act on matters that normally would trigger concerns about conflicts of interest or other ethical problems. Federal regulations say the waivers generally should be made public on request. The Obama administration routinely posted waivers online. The Trump administration has issued an unknown number and released none."

How about that?  No problem?  Business as usual?

5-26-17

Good news.  NPR reports:

"Civil rights advocates and Democrats are celebrating after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature had drawn two congressional districts that amount to unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. Election experts say the decision is likely to boost the prospects for success in similar challenges across the South."

About time.

5-26-17

Texas Governor Abbott and equally fascist Republicans in the Legislature are desperately trying to force their outrageously perverse religious and ideological views on the rest of us by statute.  In direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.

NPR reports:

"Late Sunday and early Monday, Texas legislators advanced a version of the divisive "bathroom bill" regulating transgender students' restroom access and passed a law that would allow publicly funded adoption agencies to refuse to work with would-be parents based on religious objections."

Raw nazism.  Outrageously, unconstitutional.  If signed into law, will certainly be challenged in court.

"... Democrats remained steadfast in their opposition, the Texas Tribune reports:

    " 'Let's be honest and clear here: This amendment is the bathroom bill, and the bathroom bill is an attack on transgender people,' said state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso. 'Some people don't want to admit that. Maybe that's because they're ashamed, but make no mistake about it — this is shameful.' "

It is.  Republicans have turned into nazis.  Desperately force their perverse religious views on all.

"Meanwhile, the state Legislature has also approved a bill that would permit publicly funded adoption agencies to deny services to would-be parents based on religious objections."

Outrageously, unconstitutional.  Will be challenged in court if signed into law.

"But critics of the bill say it would effectively enable state-funded adoption agencies to turn away single, gay or non-Christian people."

Precisely, why Republican nazis are doing all they can to force enactment.

5-26-17

In follow up to the last edition vis a vis ubiquitous digital tracking, The Washington Post reports:

"Google will begin using data from billions of credit and debit card transactions — including card numbers, purchase amounts and time stamps — to solve the advertising juggernaut’s long-standing quest to prove that online ads prompt consumers to make purchases in brick-and-mortar stores, the company said on Tuesday.  The advance, which enables Google to tell retailers how many sales they created through their digital ad campaigns, is a step toward what industry insiders have long described as the “holy grail” of digital advertising. If effective, the program could help persuade marketers to choose Google’s services over the television advertising that still gobbles up the lion’s share of retailers’ ad budgets."

Never get enough, do they?  Guess who pays for this concerted, determined, egregious assault on privacy?

"But Googles's latest move to tie people’s digital trails to their real world behaviors is likely to renew concerns over whether technology giants and their affiliated companies know too much about people’s lives — and whether they disclose enough about how they collect and use that information."

Worse?  Far worse?  Most users are too damned aggressively stupid to care.

"Google collects massive amounts of personal data from smartphones and desktop computers, including location information from Google Maps and other apps, the search terms that people use in a Google search, and people’s Web browsing habits. All of that information is tied to the real identities of users when they log into Google's services."

Comfortable with this?  Too damned aggressively stupid to care?

Wake up:

"Google would not say how merchants had obtained consent from consumers to pass along their credit card information. In the past, both Google and Facebook have obtained purchase data for a more limited set of consumers who participate in loyalty programs. Consumers that participate in loyalty programs are more heavily tracked by retailers, and often give consent to share their data with third parties as a condition of signing up. (Not all consumers may realize they have given such consent, according to the digital privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation)."

Couldn't care less?  Trust them no matter what?

"Peter Eckersley, technology projects director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, expressed skepticism about whether the "double-blind encryption" described by Google could protect privacy effectively. Past efforts by technology companies to protect the anonymity of users have been easily defeated, he said.  "So this may well be a massive betrayal of the trust that consumers have placed in Google and their credit card companies, to keep their data confidential," Eckersley said. "But we won't even know for sure until Google publishes clear information on how it is handling this data."

Think they ever will?  Care?

CBS News reports:

"Your phone may be sending out ultrasonic tones right now. Sounds the human ear can't pick up, but which other devices can.  A research team sponsored by the German government discovered more than 230 apps on Google's Android market that secretly tracked users through the use of ultrasonic audio. The so-called ultrasonic tracking beacons can help create intimate profiles of people, tying them to a slew of devices communicating with each other through the beacons."

No problem with this?

"Here's how it works: Let's say your friend's smart TV uses the beacon, and you watch that TV. When a beacon from your phone meets the one from the TV, advertisers tied to both learn a bit more about you — and your friend.  In a paper posted online by the researchers at Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany, the team wrote that they identified 234 Android apps "that are constantly listening for ultrasonic beacons in the background without the user's knowledge."  Four out of 35 stores the team visited in two European cities use the ultrasonic beacons to track shoppers, as well."

Acceptable?

"Google confirmed to CBS News that the apps discovered by the researchers have all either been suspended or updated to meet the company's privacy policies. In order for the use of ultrasonic beacons to be permissible on Android devices, app developers have to disclose to users that the apps will be using their cellphone microphones for that purpose."

Take them at their word?  When they won't fully explain what and how they track?

5-26-17

News coverage during the Nixonian constitutional crisis over four decades ago was second to none.  Haven't seen its equal since, -- until now.  From a most unlikely source, usually known for fluff.  CNN reports:

"Fox News on Tuesday removed from its site an inaccurate story that peddled a conspiracy theory about the murder of Democratic National Committee Staffer Seth Rich. The story had remained online for almost a week after CNN pointed out basic problems with its assertions."

Sadly, inexcusable.  Political expediency, agenda, trumped truth.

"On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich," a statement on the Fox News website said. "The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed."  "We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted," the statement added.  It was not immediately clear if the reporter or editor responsible for the story were facing any disciplinary action and a Fox News spokesperson was not immediately available for comment."

Fox sat on a story it knew to be false:

"The family would like to thank Fox News for their retraction on a story that has caused deep pain and anguish to the family and has done harm to Seth Rich's legacy," he said. "We are hopeful that in the future Fox News will work with the family to ensure the highest degree of professionalism and scrutiny is followed so that only accurate facts are reported serving this case."

Political agenda trumped truth.  Direct betrayal of not only this family, but Fox viewers, listeners, readers.

"Rich was shot to death last July in the streets of Washington, DC. The Metropolitan Police Department continues to investigate the murder and police say there is evidence to suggest Rich was the victim of a botched robbery."

Didn't stop the Nazi Right from bastardizing the truth:

"But for months, right-wing media outlets have floated unproven theories that Rich was the person who provided Wikileaks with thousands of internal DNC emails, and suggested his death was retribution for the supposed leak. No real evidence has been provided to support such claims."

That's right.  There isn't any.

"Last week, both Fox News and a Fox affiliate in Washington, WTTG-TV, published and aired reports, sourced to private investigator Rod Wheeler, that said evidence showed Rich had been in contact with Wikileaks before his death. Wheeler later told CNN he had no such evidence and that he had only heard of some information attributed to him in a FoxNews.com story from a Fox News reporter with whom he spoke."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?

"The FoxNews.com story on the case also cited a "federal source" who said the FBI had conducted a forensic analysis of Rich's computer and discovered thousands of emails with Wikileaks. But a law enforcement official told CNN that the FBI never had possession of Rich's laptop and did not conduct a forensic analysis of its contents."

Coup de grace?  Get this:

"For six days, Fox News allowed the story to remain up on its website as network personalities like Sean Hannity promoted it on their platforms. Refet Kaplan, managing director of Fox News digital, would only say on Friday that the outlet would "track developments in the story and will update further when the situation warrants."

Nothing quite like figuratively shooting yourself in the ass, then failing to take full ownership of that failure.

Insult to injury?  Unforgivable faux pas?

"Earlier Tuesday, Seth Rich's brother Aaron sent a letter to the executive producer of Sean Hannity's Fox News show pleading with him to find "decency and kindness" in his heart and stop spreading an unproven conspiracy theory about the unsolved murder.  Soon after, Fox News pulled the story from its website. Hannity, however, continued to peddle the discredited conspiracy theory on his Twitter account.  Asked about Hannity's continued promotion of the discredited conspiracy theory, Bauman declined to comment."

If all the above is true, the credibility of Fox remains at least highly questionable, if not in the toilet.

NPR reports:

"The retracted May 16 online story claimed to report as fact that the late Seth Rich, a 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer, was actually the person who leaked tens of thousands of emails from the DNC to WikiLeaks and that his murder was tied to that action. Rich was fatally shot last July in what police have called a botched robbery and there is no evidence known publicly to suggest he did share those emails. The Rich family had publicly pleaded with Fox News and others to stop trading in such speculation absent facts."

Rightfully, so.

"The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting," the Tuesday statement read. "Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards." The Fox News statement did not apologize or specify what went wrong or how it did so, and it did not bear the name of its author. But it promised to continue to investigate the story and provide updates."

More disturbing?

"Fox News' star host Sean Hannity, who had pushed the theory relentlessly, said on his radio show that he retracted nothing. He also tweeted the importance of finding out the truth. On television Tuesday night, Hannity said he would no longer talk about the story "out of respect for the family's wishes — for now."  Yet Hannity, a leading Donald Trump advocate and confidant, did not apologize or say the story was wrong. Instead, he pivoted to assailing the "destroy-Trump media [and] the Democrats."

No question, truth takes a back seat to politics.  Precisely, why media is currently a small fraction of what it used to be.  A problem on both extremes.  The Nazi Right protects the Trump nazi no matter what he says, does, or doesn't do.  The Center and Left are derelict in their failure to figuratively hold the Trump nazi's feet to the fire.  Finally appears to be changing as Trump's behavior becomes increasingly bizarre.

"A version of the Fox News' May 16 online story ran on the Fox local station in Washington, D.C., Fox 5, the night before. Journalists and executives within Fox watched with growing alarm as Hannity, the network's fixture at 10 p.m., repeatedly legitimized suspicion that Rich's death was linked to the DNC leaks.  The claim about Rich's death has also been embraced on the air by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Fox News contributor. As far back as August, Fox host Eric Bolling compared the story to something out of the Showtime spy thriller Homeland and called Rich's killing "a hit."

Fake news.  Courtesy of Fox:

"The May 16 FoxNews.com report claiming proof of Rich's involvement in the DNC email leaks was used by Trump defenders to deflect growing concerns on Capitol Hill and among current and former intelligence officials about the nature of contacts during the campaign between Trump's circle and figures with ties to Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia."

Clearly, Fox had an agenda.

NBC News reports:

"Fox News announced Tuesday it had retracted a story published last week that reignited conspiracy theories around the unsolved killing of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, whose family demanded an apology from the conservative news network.  Later Tuesday, the conspiracy's most prominent proponent, Fox News' Sean Hannity, announced on his show that he would stop discussing the case "for now." It was a major back-down for the well-known host who had used his Twitter account earlier to vow he would never be silenced by "Liberal Fascism."

Truth, indeed, has a way of silencing out of control partisan assholes masquerading as news people.

"Long before the retraction, the Fox News story fell apart almost the moment it was published.  Within a day, one of its main sources — a private investigator working with Rich's family, but paid for by a conservative Dallas millionaire — recanted his story. The family has since sent him a cease and desist letter.  Subsequent reporting by NBC News and other outlets also found that the local police investigating Rich's death never even gave his laptop to the FBI, so there was no way Fox's purported source could have seen it.  A former law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of Rich's laptop told NBC News definitively: "It never contained any e-mails related to WikiLeaks, and the FBI never had it."

The Washington Post reports:

"Hours after the retraction was published, Sean Hannity, who had latched on to the idea that Rich — not Russia — was the source of the massive DNC email leak, told viewers of his prime-time Fox News show that “out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now,” he would not be talking about Rich’s death.  “I want to say this to you, my loyal audience, which is very important: Please do not interpret what I’m saying tonight to mean anything,” Hannity said. “Don’t read into this. I promise you I am not doing — going to stop doing my job to the extent of my ability.”

What 'job' is that, Sean?  Talking out your ass, distorting reality, engaging in unproven conspiracy theories?  To support your insane fuhrer in the Oval Office?

"He added: “I serve at the pleasure of the Fox News Channel. And I am here to do my job every night. I’m under contract, as long as they seem to want me.”

Sad, isn't it?  No remorse.  No regard for the truth.  Only fervent willingness to goose step along with the Trump nazi.

"Earlier on Tuesday, Hannity seemed defiant, even as Fox backed down from the story. He said on his radio show that he felt badly for Rich’s family, but added that it was his “moral obligation” to ask whether a DNC whistleblower was in touch with WikiLeaks."

A crock of shit.  No basis in fact.  Political expediency at its very worst.

“All you in the liberal media, I am not Fox.com or Foxnews.com; I retracted nothing,” he said on his radio show."

You're out of uniform, Mr. Hannity.  Where's your swastika armband, you fascist son of a bitch?

Assholes like Hannity have no clue the damage they do to surviving family members promulgating false stories as truth.  Courtesy of The Washington Post, the following is an editorial written by Mr. Rich's parents:

"Imagine living in a nightmare that you can never wake up from. Imagine having to face every single day knowing that your son was murdered. Imagine you have no answers — that no one has been brought to justice and there are few clues leading to the killer or killers. Imagine that every single day, with every phone call you hope that it’s the police, calling to tell you that there has been a break in the case.

"Imagine that instead, every call that comes in is a reporter asking what you think of a series of lies or conspiracies about the death. That nightmare is what our family goes through every day.

"Our beloved son Seth Rich was gunned down in the early hours of July 10, 2016, in his Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Bloomingdale. On the day he was murdered, Seth was excited about a new job he had been offered on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

"Seth had dedicated his life to public service, and he told us that he wanted to work on the campaign’s effort to expand voter participation because he loved our country dearly and believed deeply in the promise of democratic engagement. Seth had been walking around, calling friends, family and his girlfriend, pondering the broader picture of what the job change would mean. He wondered how he would pick up and move to New York City for four months, the strain that might put on his relationships, and how it would all affect the life he had built for himself in Washington.

"The circumstances of what happened next are still unclear. We know that Seth was abruptly confronted on the street, that he had been on the phone and quickly ended the call. We also know that there were signs of a struggle, including a watchband torn when the assailants attempted to rip it off his wrist. Law-enforcement officials told us that Seth’s murder looked like a botched robbery attempt in which the assailants — after shooting our son — panicked, immediately ran and abandoned Seth’s personal belongings. We have seen no evidence, by any person at any time, that Seth’s murder had any connection to his job at the Democratic National Committee or his life in politics. Anyone who claims to have such evidence is either concealing it from us or lying.

"Still, conservative news outlets and commentators continue, day after painful day, to peddle discredited conspiracy theories that Seth was killed after having provided WikiLeaks with emails from the DNC. Those theories, which some reporters have since retracted, are baseless, and they are unspeakably cruel.

"We know that Seth’s personal email and his personal computer were both inspected by detectives early in the investigation and that the inspection revealed no evidence of any communications with anyone at WikiLeaks or anyone associated with WikiLeaks. Nor did that inspection reveal any evidence that Seth had leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks or to anyone else. Indeed, those who have suggested that Seth’s role as a data analyst at the DNC gave him access to a wide trove of emails are simply incorrect — Seth’s job was to develop analytical models to encourage voters to turn out to vote. He didn’t have access to DNC emails, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee emails, John Podesta’s emails or Hillary Clinton’s emails. That simply wasn’t his job.

"Despite these facts, our family’s nightmare persists. Seth’s death has been turned into a political football. Every day we wake up to new headlines, new lies, new factual errors, new people approaching us to take advantage of us and Seth’s legacy. It just won’t stop. The amount of pain and anguish this has caused us is unbearable. With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us.

"To those who sincerely want to get to the bottom of Seth’s murder, we don’t hold this against you. We don’t think you are monsters, and we don’t think you are terrible people. We know that so many people out there really do care, don’t know what to think and are angry at the lack of answers.

"We also know that many people are angry at our government and want to see justice done in some way, somehow. We are asking you to please consider our feelings and words. There are people who are using our beloved Seth’s memory and legacy for their own political goals, and they are using your outrage to perpetuate our nightmare. We ask those purveying falsehoods to give us peace, and to give law enforcement the time and space to do the investigation they need to solve our son’s murder."

Mary Rich and Joel Rich

Hopefully, this outrageous debacle will usefully serve as a wake up call desperately needed in the news community.  At least, CNN, The Washington Post, NPR, and NBC have stood tall vis a vis this latest fiasco.

5-26-17

Once again, House Republicans have figuratively shot themselves in the ass.  NPR reports:

"The revised Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act will leave 23 million more people uninsured over the next decade than if that act, also known as Obamacare, were to remain in place. The GOP bill would also reduce the deficit by $119 billion.  That's what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported on Wednesday in its latest score of the American Health Care Act."

To line the pockets of the top 1%.  Dead on arrival.  -- The Senate has already started from scratch.

Seems Republicans remain intent on behaving like Keystone Kops.  Thought the debt ceiling secure until the end of the fiscal year?  Think again.  The Washington Post reports:

"White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday said that tax receipts were coming in “slower than expected” and that the federal government could run out of cash sooner than it had thought.  Mulvaney’s comments, which came during a House Budget Committee hearing, resurrected an issue that Congress has mostly ignored in recent months but that will soon force some tough political decisions.  A few hours later, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin echoed these concerns, telling another House committee, “I urge you raise the debt limit before you leave for the summer.”

Wasn't this supposedly resolved weeks ago?

5-19-17

Once again, the Trump nazi disgraced himself.  The Washington Times reports:

"President Trump took aim at the Black Lives Matter movement and former President Obama Monday, saying ambush-style killings of police last year during tensions in minority communities were “a stain on the very fabric of our society” and that too many Americans “obstruct” law enforcement."

What obstruction?  Where?  Obstruct police in performance of their duties?  Guess what?  You go to jail.  What the hell is our nazi president talking about?  Right to peacefully protest?  Rhetorically criticize the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue?  What does the Trump nazi want?  Silence in the face of criminal activity perpetrated by police?  Including shakedowns?  Police brutality?  False arrests?  Tickets falsely given to line government coffers?  Murders of innocent, unarmed citizens by police on the job?  Silence?  Not a chance.

“We are living through an era in which our police are subjected to unfair vilification and defamation — even worse, hostility and violence,” Mr. Trump said at a memorial ceremony at the Capitol for fallen officers. “More officers were slain last year in ambushes than in any year in more than two decades.”

Our nazi fuhrer remains achingly delusional.  Police reap the benefits of what they sow.  The public can't, won't remain silent when police wantonly commit crimes on the job.  The number of police killed on duty remains minuscule.  Not so the number of people they kill yearly.  Many of whom are innocent, unarmed citizens.

"Of fallen officers, Mr. Trump said, “We owe it to their memory to put truth before politics, justice before agendas, and to put the safety and security of the American people above everything else.”

Achingly empty, meaningless rhetoric from a nazi.  If this fascist son of a bitch truly believed in truth, he wouldn't lie like hell on a daily basis.  Would hold the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue accountable for their crimes.  Does not.  Grants them carte blanche to do as they please.  With virtual impunity.  Precisely, why this country remains deeply divided.  While an unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looms on the horizon.  Hear the rumble?

"While the president didn’t mention Black Lives Matter by name, Mr. Trump said, “The attacks on our police must end, and they must end right now.” He specifically addressed ambushes of police last year in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and in Dallas."

Indeed, so too must near continuous murder of innocent, unarmed citizens by the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue.  Gutless pieces of shit.

"The president also called for Americans to “end the reckless words of incitement that give rise to danger and give rise to violence” against police."

What are you talking about, Mr. 'President?'  Suppressing the truth?  That is, the fact no foreign power, no terrorist organization, not even the criminal element pose a greater threat to life, liberty, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties than government itself.  All levels and branches.  All law enforcement.

“It is time to work with our cops, not against them, but to support them in making our streets safe, not to obstruct, which we’re doing,” Mr. Trump said.  “True social justice means a future where every child in every neighborhood can play outside without fear, can walk home safely from school, and can live out the beautiful dreams that fill their hearts.”

Law enforcement remains egregiously out of control, you fascist son of a bitch.  Think a kid can safely play out in the street?  Think he couldn't get killed holding a toy gun by a gutless jackbooted piece of shit in blue?  You're achingly, embarrassingly delusional, Mr. 'President.'

"According to the NLEOMF, law enforcement fatalities nationwide rose to their highest level in five years in 2016, with 135 officers killed in the line of duty."

Compare that to approximately 1,000 people killed by law enforcement each year.  How many of them were innocent, unarmed?  Anything wrong with this picture?  Anything at all?  Who cries for them?

5-19-17

In follow up to the last edition, NPR reports:

"Just days after her comments to Chinese investors set conflict-of-interest questions swirling, Jared Kushner's sister will not be holding a similar presentation that had been scheduled for Saturday. Nicole Kushner Meyer, who has been in China courting investors interested in the family firm's stateside real estate development, had drawn significant criticism for mentioning her family's White House connections in a pitch last weekend."

The Trump family continues to use the Trump nazi's office to further its business interests.  When called on it, makes a hasty retreat, -- until next time.

"As NPR's Rob Schmitz reports, Meyer had been scheduled to deliver a presentation in the southern city of Shenzhen, seeking to sell Chinese investors on the EB-5 visa — a controversial federal program that offers a path to permanent residence for investors who create at least 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers.  But The Washington Post reports that now there will be no meetings for Kushner Companies in China this weekend, citing a company spokeswoman."

When will the Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution be enforced?  When?  Equally pointedly, why is the path to American citizenship sold to rich foreigners while the Trump nazi and his henchmen bar entrance to refugees fleeing from war?  Anything wrong with this picture?  Anything at all?

5-19-17

The following, if true, could be devastating to the Trump nazi.  The Washington Post reports:

"The New York Times is now reporting that according to “associates” of former FBI director James B. Comey, President Trump asked Comey at a private dinner in January to pledge his loyalty. Comey told Trump that he could not do that, the sources say, and now blames this in part for Trump’s decision to fire him.  The White House denies this account, but sources close to Comey who spoke to NBC News say this is what happened."

Raises a number of questions.  Most critical?  If this indeed happened, why didn't Comey immediately go public?  The public had the right to know.  So did Congress.  The former Director needs to be placed under oath and questioned.

This sound like a man fit to be president?  NBC News reports:

    "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017"

Truth remains a moving target:

"Trump's tumultuous 48 hours came to a head during an exclusive interview Thursday with NBC News' Lester Holt, when the president contradicted the reason for Comey's firing — giving mixed messages and undercutting what his aides and surrogates were telling reporters about the FBI chief's surprise exit.  The president said he came to the decision to oust Comey on Tuesday after thinking about how "this Russia thing ... is a made up story."  Comey had been investigating potential links between members of the Trump campaign and Russia and the Kremlin's alleged interference in the 2016 election."

Anything wrong with this picture?  Anything at all?

"Trump revealed to Holt that he had been planning to fire Comey even before he received Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's recommendation to do so.  That was a reversal from what members of the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, had told reporters. White House officials had flatly denied that the Russia investigation had something to do with Comey's firing."

Can't seem to get their stories straight, can they?  Think this generates confidence in the Trump nazi overseas?

"Trump in his interview with Holt expanded on the conversations he had with Comey after the termination letter he sent to him was made public. "I greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation," Trump wrote.  Trump said those discussions occurred once during dinner and twice over the phone. He gave no indication that those discussions or others were taped.  "I'm not under investigation," Trump added."

Wishful thinking?  ... As the noose figuratively tightens around the necks of those closest to him vis a vis possible collusion with the Russians?  To interfere in the last presidential election?

Gets worse:

"Trump on Friday again tweeted that any alleged collusion was "fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election."  He followed up by attempting to defend his team by saying it's not their fault if they don't speak with "perfect accuracy" — and suggested that he would be open to ending future press briefings.

    "As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!....
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

    "...Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017"

This sound like someone fit to be president?  In full possession of his faculties?  Got all his marbles?  Should the Trump nazi exclude the press, to effectively cover his ass, hide from the public what's truly going on, time to impeach, convict, and remove the son of a bitch from office.

Democrats and Independents are not the only ones doing some serious soul searching.  A few Republicans are beginning to wake up.  NPR reports:

"When President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska was one of several Republicans in Washington voicing concern. As details unfolded throughout the week, Sasse, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, continued to call the timing of the firing "troubling," though he maintains there is not yet a need for an independent investigation or special prosecutor to look into Russian meddling in the 2016 election."

There isn't?  Currently?  No more than the fox guarding the chicken coop.  Forget?  Republicans own Congress, the courts, all levels and branches of government.  That may soon change as the Trump nazi continues to reveal himself for whom and what he is.  Could certainly lead to Republicans not being returned to office.

"The timing of this firing I think is very troubling because there's obviously an active investigation into the president's campaign and organization and associates," he says. "And I just wish the president would spend much more time tending to this crisis of public trust."

There are at least two devastating possibilities.  First?  The Trump nazi and his henchmen may be guilty as hell vis a vis collusion with the Russians.  If so, called treason.  Second?  The Trump nazi may have profound mental issues making him unfit to be president.

"We have a crisis of public trust in this country that is much deeper than just the last four months or the last 18 months. We have an erosion of a shared narrative about what America is about. And we have the huge unpopularity of almost all of our governing institutions. That should trouble everybody."

Should, but doesn't.  Certainly, not most Republicans.  To say nothing of Trump's die hard supporters.  Good to see, however, at least one Republican is quite concerned:

"The FBI is a really important institution in American life. We believe in three separate but equal branches. But our founders distinguished between legislative functions and executive functions and judicial functions. And so investigative and prosecutorial functions are in the second branch and so ultimately they report up to the president, but the FBI director has a 10-year term for a reason. He or she is not supposed to be thought of as a Republican or a Democratic actor but as an impartial investigator who doesn't really report through a chain of command that is ultimately political."

That's the way it's supposed to be.  Has not been for quite some time, however.  Certainly, going back to the McCarthy "Red Under Every Bed" Era nearly seventy years ago.

This Republican is quite astute:

"We need to know a lot more about 2016, but the thing that keeps me up at night is 2018 and 2020. We know what the Russians are trying to do. We know that technology around info ops [information operations] is getting better and better.  Here's what I think comes next: I think you're going to start seeing data leaks in the 2018 and 2020 cycle that'll be Steve Inskeep's [as a fictional example of a candidate for office] credit card records. ... And it'll be 93 percent real stuff and 7 percent fabrications. And so it'll all be very plausible because you were in the city at that time and then you were away from work for this travel and you did X, Y and Z but then 7 percent of the credit card records will be "Why are you buying so much clothes at a women's clothing store in Chattanooga? That's weird, Steve. Your wife isn't in Chattanooga."

Precisely, the problem.  A portend of things to come.  Good to see at least one Republican understands the danger.  The above quotes came from an interview Sen. Sasse had with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

NPR reports:

"Soon after Trump's tweets, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., requested that White House Counsel Donald McGahn turn over any recordings of the president's conversations with Comey to the House Oversight Committee. Krishnamoorthi also asked for any recording of Trump's Wednesday meeting with Russian officials, and "any conversations regarding the hiring or firing" former national security adviser Michael Flynn.  "These White House tapes could accelerate current investigations as previous tapes have aided past inquiries," Krishnamoorthi said in a statement."

Did the 'President' truly think firing Comey would not only contain, but end all ongoing investigations?

CNN reports:

"Presidents often get angry, but most go to great lengths to hide their fits of rage and the impression that red faced fury rules their actions.  Not Donald Trump."

Most presidents wisely restrict any public display of anger.  For damned good reason.  Wish to be viewed as in control, unflappable under enormous pressure, stress that comes with the job.  Certainly, don't want their fitness for office questioned.

"In three-and-a-half months in office, the 45th President has shown that indignation, impulsiveness and a prickly desire to protect his own self image are at the core of his governing philosophy."

Likely due to profound narcissism.

"The latest example of the President's simmering fury has emerged in the aftermath of his firing of James Comey this week, apparently the culmination of long-brewing animosity towards the FBI director.  Trump gave a glimpse of his irritation and impatience with Comey during an interview with NBC News on Thursday.  "He's a showboat," Trump said. "He's a grandstander."

Doesn't that precisely describe the Trump nazi himself?  Isn't that exactly what Trump is?  A showboat, grandstander?  Isn't it precisely the Trump nazi's petulance that makes him egregiously unfit for office?  Worse?  The one with his finger on the nuclear button?

CBS News reports:

"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer refused to answer questions Friday about whether there are recording devices in the White House or if the president recorded a conversation with fired FBI Director James Comey, after the president tweeted that Comey had "better hope that there are no 'tapes'" of conversations between the two of them."

Interesting, isn't it?  Chilling, as well.

In update, The Washington Post reports:

"Updated: President Trump is also now declining to comment on whether he has a tape of his Comey conversation. "Well I can't talk about it," he told Fox News's Jeanine Pirro in a new interview. "I won't talk about it. All I want is for Comey to be honest. And I hope he will be."

Think history may indeed be repeating itself?

ABC News reports:

"Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate's number two Democrat, said President Trump may be obstructing justice by firing FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the investigation into Russia's meddling in the U.S. election and Moscow's ties to Trump associates."

This is indeed a problem for Trump.  A growing issue not going away any time soon.  Worse, the 'President' seems to be stupidly, figuratively shooting himself in the ass with rhetoric achingly contradictory, self-defeating, constantly challenging any semblance of credibility the 'President' retains.

“President Trump is dangerous because he may be obstructing justice in terms of the investigation that goes to the heart of our democracy, the accountability of the president,” the Illinois senator said during an interview on MSNBC Friday."

Seems, at the moment, to be history repeating itself:

"While most Senate Democrats and some Republicans have criticized the timing and rationale for Comey’s firing, Durbin’s assertion that Trump may have been obstructing justice is notable because it would be an impeachable offense. President Richard Nixon resigned after the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against him, including one for obstruction of justice. President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House on two charges including obstructing justice; he was acquitted by the Senate."

Republicans stood tall decades ago during the Nixon fiasco.  A few are now doing so as well.  To date, however, only a few.  With all levels and branches of government owned by the GOP, will take ferocious public resistance to force desperately needed change, accountability.  ... If Republicans are keenly aware they won't be returned to office, such change will quickly come.

"Durbin also said Friday that it was apparent from the moment news broke of Comey's firing Tuesday evening that the initial reason given of his being sacked for actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation was false.  “This idea that President Trump was dismissing Comey to defend the honor of Hillary Clinton. That's laughable. This is a man that invented the phrase 'lock her up,'” the senator said."

Yet another indication Trump's contradictory statements are coming back to haunt, figuratively bite him hard on the ass.

The Washington Post reports:

"On Friday, the president created another stir with a flurry of tweets, one of which warned that Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”  In an interview with Fox News, Trump declined to say such tapes actually exist, even as congressional Democrats demanded that he produce them."

Aggressive stupidity always comes back to figuratively bite one hard on the ass.  If recordings exist, they are evidence.  Should Trump erase evidence, called obstruction of justice.  The 'President' never seems to think first before articulating.

"Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Democratic senator and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said that Trump’s tweet was a “thinly veiled threat” that “could be construed as threatening a witness in this investigation, which is another violation of federal law.”

Indeed.  Achingly, stupid.

The Post goes on to report:

"Comey wrote in a farewell letter to his former colleagues: “I have long believed that a President can fire an FBI Director for any reason, or for no reason at all.”  That decision in Comey’s case, however, becomes legally problematic if it is done with the intent of circumventing an investigation.  “If shown that Trump removed Comey to avoid being investigated? Yes impeachable: abuse of power, corruption, undermines rule of law,” Harvard University law professor Noah Feldman tweeted Friday."

Indeed.  Trump has no credibility.  Lacks judgment.  Severe narcissism interfering with any semblance of judgment.  Think this man fit to be president?  Comfortable with his finger on the nuclear button?

Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe is no company man.

"McCabe directly contradicted White House assertions that one of the reasons Comey was fired by President Trump on Tuesday was because he had lost the respect and support of the FBI rank and file."

Not so.  McCabe's boldness had to have enraged the Trump nazi:

"Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day," McCabe said, saying he holds Comey in the "absolute highest regard."

More disturbing to the Trump nazi?

"McCabe also said the FBI's ongoing probe into Russian involvement in the 2016 elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign was "highly significant," disputing a White House characterization that the investigation "was one of the smallest things that they've got going on their plate."  "It is my opinion and belief that the FBI will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely," McCabe said."

The Associated Press reports:

"A group of 20 attorneys general is calling for the appointment of an independent special counsel to continue the investigation into Russian interference in last year's presidential election.  The group led by Democratic Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey called President Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey during the ongoing investigation a "violation of public trust" in a letter sent Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein."

Indeed, it is.

"The group said in the letter that only the appointment of an independent special counsel "with full powers and resources," can begin to restore public confidence."

Without question.

In follow up to the above, the Trump nazi, despite the raging ongoing controversy, still remains locked in his own delusional world.  CNN reports:

"President Donald Trump denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russian operatives in an interview Saturday night on Fox News, adding that he wants "to get to the bottom" of the questions about Russian influence in the election."

That why you fired the man leading the investigation, Mr. 'President?'

"Everybody's convinced: They say there is no collusion," Trump said. "There is no collusion. We had nothing to do with Russia."

Who's "convinced," Mr. 'President?'  You?  Your loyal lap dogs?  Who?  Precisely, whom, Mr. 'President?'

"Pressed by Pirro about launching an independent commission to investigate the issue, Trump suggested the current investigations taking place in Congress will suffice."

Will they?  Think so?  The fox conveniently guarding the chicken coop?  Haven't forgotten, have you, sir?  Both houses of Congress are owned by Republican nazis.  Precisely, why there is desperate need for special counsel to get to the bottom of this.  The media is not doing its job.  Has not held the feet of this insane, fascist bastard and his henchmen proverbially to the fire.

Delusion runs rampant in the White House.  The Washington Times reports:

"The White House further defended President Trump’s decision to fired FBI Director James B. Comey, saying he did it despite the political peril it created for himself because it was the “right thing for the American people.”  White House press secretary Sean Spicer described it as a selfless act.  “The actions that he took he knew could be detrimental unto himself,” he said. “But none of those things mattered because the president had to do the right thing for the American people, because he believes Jim Comey is the wrong man for that position.”

Alice In Wonderland.

5-19-17

The following must send a chill up the spine of the Trump nazi and his henchmen.  NPR reports:

"Investigators looking into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia will be able to pursue leads by tapping into a huge database of suspicious financial transactions maintained by the federal government.  Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions operating in the U.S. are supposed to inform the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, when they see transactions that indicate possible money laundering, such as all-cash purchases of expensive real estate."

Follow the money trail:

"Senate investigators indicated last week that they would be using the database to begin tracking the financial activities of some of Trump's associates."

At least Flynn's pockets were lined by the Russians.

"Congress has kind of shifted the focus here to the money, and they're trying to see if there's a money trail that could link and identify different participants," says Jimmy Gurulé, a law professor at the University of Note Dame and a former Treasury Department official.  "It goes to the old adage of 'follow the money.' If there was collusion between the Russians and members of the Trump campaign, was it for free or was there some exchange of moneys or payments from foreign governments?" he adds."

Interestingly, the White House continues to stonewall all questions vis a vis existence of Oval Office recordings sought by Senate investigators.  Why?

5-19-17

The 'President' once again figuratively shot himself in the ass.  The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State."

White House denies all.  So does the National Security Advisor.

"The information the president relayed had been provided by a U.S. partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, officials said.  The partner had not given the United States permission to share the material with Russia, and officials said Trump’s decision to do so endangers cooperation from an ally that has access to the inner workings of the Islamic State. After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency."

The Post stands by the story.  White House advisors continue to deny all.  Trump nazi?  Stupidly, cluelessly undermined his advisors who 'loyally' 'defended' the indefensible.

“This is code-word information,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump “revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.”

Trump claims he had every right to do so.  Legally, he did.  Still think he's fit for office?  Judgment not in question?

"In their statements, White House officials emphasized that Trump had not discussed specific intelligence sources and methods, rather than addressing whether he had disclosed information drawn from sensitive sources."

Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.  Pitiful, isn't it?

"The CIA declined to comment, and the NSA did not respond to requests for comment."

Can certainly understand why Central Intelligence  and NSA declined to comment.  Trump did enormous damage to both, as well as our allies who didn't trust him before this latest debacle.

"But officials expressed concern about Trump’s handling of sensitive information as well as his grasp of the potential consequences. Exposure of an intelligence stream that has provided critical insight into the Islamic State, they said, could hinder the United States’ and its allies’ ability to detect future threats."

Simply put, the Trump nazi remains egregiously unfit for office.  Getting worse.  Think the following isn't highly disturbing?

"In his meeting with Lavrov, Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange."

Pitiful, isn't it? Gets worse:

"Trump went on to discuss aspects of the threat that the United States learned only through the espionage capabilities of a key partner. He did not reveal the specific intelligence-gathering method, but he described how the Islamic State was pursuing elements of a specific plot and how much harm such an attack could cause under varying circumstances. Most alarmingly, officials said, Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat."

Think he hasn't placed agents and sources at risk?  Endangered our allies who provided this information?  Here is the danger:

"The identification of the location was seen as particularly problematic, officials said, because Russia could use that detail to help identify the U.S. ally or intelligence capability involved. Officials said the capability could be useful for other purposes, possibly providing intelligence on Russia’s presence in Syria. Moscow would be keenly interested in identifying that source and perhaps disrupting it."

You Republican fascists here in Nazi Llano County still support Trump?  Despite all to date?

Fox News reports:

"National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Tuesday adamantly defended President Trump’s conversations with Russian officials as “wholly appropriate,” pushing back for a second day on a news report claiming the president revealed highly classified information on an Islamic State terror threat during that meeting."

Gen. McMaster knows better.  Disingenuously ignores the thrust of The Washington Post story.  Carefully, cagily chose his words to provide as much cover for his boss as possible.  Clearly, a company man.

"During a tense White House briefing, McMaster suggested the details discussed in that meeting concerned ongoing operations that were public for months."

Again, this achingly disingenuous, gutless son of a bitch failed to directly dispute details within The Post article.  Such as the fact the Russians would be able to reverse engineer information provided by Trump to discover and unmask the source.  Despite his claim to the contrary:

“The president in no way compromised any sources or methods in the course of that conversation,” McMaster said.  The same official publicly had refuted The Washington Post report on Monday evening, describing the claims as false."

Indeed, he did.  The Trump nazi himself, however, stupidly, ludicrously turned the National Security Advisor into a liar:

"The president himself has since acknowledged he shared “facts” about the terror threat with Russia, while saying he was in his right to do so."

How can anyone in government be trusted when they all continue to self-servingly lie?  Truth, indeed, a moving target in the fascist police-state we already live in.  Soon expanded to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

Kicker?  Coup de grace?  The National Security Advisor now plays the exact same game as the Trump nazi.  Won't be confused with the truth:

"McMaster on Tuesday continued to dispute the premise of the story. While acknowledging Trump shared information with the Russians, he maintained the discussion was appropriate.  “I stand by my statement that I made yesterday … the premise of that article is false,” he said.  “… That conversation was wholly appropriate.”

Aching non sequitur. Alice In Wonderland.

NPR reports:

"President Trump is responding to the backlash against the allegations that he shared "highly classified" information with the Russians by saying he had "the absolute right to do" so."

Alice In Wonderland.  Worse, beside the point.

"He tweeted this morning:

    "As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

    "...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017"

Failing to leave well enough alone and continuing his rant against Comey:

"And he went a step further again taking aim at fired former FBI Director James Comey and "leakers":

    I have been asking Director Comey & others, from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.....
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017"

Clearly, doesn't consider himself a leaker.  ... Don't do as I do, do as I say:

"The irony seemed lost on Trump that he himself is being accused of being a "leaker" — and that he criticized Hillary Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of classified information during the campaign, calling her "not fit":

    Crooked Hillary Clinton and her team "were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." Not fit!
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2016"

Can't confuse the Trump nazi with the truth.  No matter what.  Lives in his own delusional, achingly f--ked up world.

CBS News reports:

"President Trump is standing by his actions after a report by the Washington Post revealed he divulged classified information to Russian officials at the White House last week."

Can't, won't be confused with the truth.  Neither can his supporters.

"Tweeting early Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump said he wanted to "share with Russia... facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety" which he claimed he had "the absolute right to do."

    "As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....
    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017"

Day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet in the achingly delusional world of Donald J. Trump.

NBC News reports:

"The latest revelation, first reported Monday by The Washington Post, cited current and former U.S. officials who said Trump's disclosure to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week involved one of the United States' valuable intelligence sources on ISIS. The arrangement with the unidentified source was so sensitive, according to reports, that the details were not shared with even U.S. allies and members of the government.  Trump in his tweets Tuesday didn't specifically say whether he spilled such information to Russian officials."

That's correct.  Here, however, is where it gets most interesting:

"But in response to those reports, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, told the press Monday that "at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed. I was in the room, and it didn't happen."  The reports, however, don't allege that Trump disclosed sources or methods of gathering intelligence — only that he imparted disclosed information that could help the Russians identify those assets."

That precise disingenuous parsing by McMaster is outrageously unbecoming the National Security Advisor.  Indeed, to date, crux of the matter.  McMaster figuratively shot his credibility to shit.  To defend the indefensible.  The Trump nazi.

In follow up, The Washington Post reports:

"President Trump appeared to acknowledge Tuesday that he revealed highly classified information to Russia — a stunning confirmation of a Washington Post story and a move that contradicted his own White House team after it scrambled to deny the report."

Clearly, the 'President' lacks judgment.

"Trump's tweets tried to explain away the news, which emerged late Monday, that he had shared sensitive, “code-word” information with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador during a White House meeting last week, a disclosure that intelligence officials warned could jeopardize a crucial intelligence source on the Islamic State."

Precisely, what appears to have happened.

"Trump described his talks with the Russians as “an openly scheduled” meeting at the White House. In fact, the gathering was closed to all U.S. media, although a photographer for the Russian state-owned news agency was allowed into the Oval Office, prompting national security concerns."

That's also true.  Where is the Trump nazi's judgment?  Where?

"Trump's tweets undercut his administration's frantic effort Monday night to contain the damaging report. The White House trotted out three senior administration officials — national security adviser H.R. McMaster, deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — to attack the reports."

All three shamelessly, gutlessly lied for their fuhrer.

Republicans, with rare exception, remain cowardly silent.  NPR reports:

"Republicans in Congress are calling for briefings and pleading for "less drama" at the White House following revelations that President Trump shared classified intelligence with Russia — but are muted in their criticism of him.  For the leader of Senate Republicans, the biggest concern is that the controversy over Trump's sharing of secrets — with the successor to what Republican President Ronald Reagan once labeled the "evil empire" — is that it's distracting lawmakers from their legislative program."

Had it been a Democratic president, truly think the shit wouldn't have already hit the fan?

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday morning in an interview with Bloomberg News that "we could do with a little less drama from the White House on a lot of things." McConnell added that all of the drama coming from the White House lately was interfering with the ability of Republicans senators to "focus on our agenda, which is deregulation, tax reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare."

Clearly, ole Mitch "The Bitch" McConnell is growing achingly old, increasingly tired, hopelessly weary.  Time to retire, Senator.

Remarkably, the maverick from Arizona, however, still has some fire in the belly:

"In a statement, Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., said the intelligence sharing was "deeply disturbing." McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added "reports that this information was provided by a U.S. ally and shared without its knowledge sends a troubling signal to American's allies and partners around the world, and may impair their willingness to share intelligence with us in the future."

Indeed.  Apparently, few others in the GOP can see that far ahead.  -- Other than:

"Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said it would "be very troubling" if Trump shared sensitive information with the Russians, and said the Senate Intelligence Committee "should be briefed on this important issue immediately." Collins is a member of that committee.  The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said the White House is "in a downward spiral right now." He added the Trump administration has "got to figure out a way to come to grips with all that's happening."

In another article, The Washington Post reports:

"A growing number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers are calling on President Trump to hand over the transcript of the White House meeting last week in which he revealed highly classified information to Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador, according to current and former U.S. officials.  Members of Congress — primarily Democrats — have spent several days demanding that Trump turn over tapes of White House meetings after he suggested, while defending his decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey, that he records his conversations.  But the calls intensified Tuesday morning after Trump seemed to acknowledge on Twitter that he had shared sensitive information during his meeting with the Russians."

5-19-17

In a week seeming to know no bounds, the Trump nazi once again figuratively shot himself in the ass.  If the allegations are true, could wind up forcing his departure from office.  Obstruction of justice, -- again, if true.  CBS News reports:

"President Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the FBI investigation into Michael Flynn's ties with Russia and with Turkey, according to a memo written by Comey documenting their meeting, CBS News' Andres Triay and Jeff Pegues confirmed Tuesday."

Stunning, isn't it?  Certainly, brings back memories of the not-so-good old days of "Tricky Dick" Nixon's demise.

Gets worse:

"The day after Flynn submitted his resignation, February 14, Mr. Trump met with Comey in the Oval Office and told him, "I hope you can let this go," according to the memo. "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go," Mr. Trump said.  The New York Times reported that Comey, according to his memo, said in response, "I agree he is a good guy."  The memo, first reported by the New York Times, was part of a paper trail Comey used to document "the president's improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation," Times reporter Michael Schmidt wrote. A source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Comey wrote the memos because "Comey is a careful lawyer," and he knew he had to be careful with this situation."

If the above is indeed true, the question must be asked why did Comey sit on this information?  The public has a right to know.  In a democratic republic must never be forgotten the people ultimately run this government.  Not the other way around.

"The White House released the following statement to CBS News:  "... the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn."  A White House official told CBS News that if Comey "had those concerns, why weren't they shared with the deputy Director, why weren't they shared with Congress, why weren't they shared with DOJ?"

Exactly.  Precisely, why Comey needs to be placed under oath and questioned.  The public needs to know the truth.  Whatever that truth happens to be.  Why sit on such explosive information?  Regardless of the fact Comey may not have wished to interfere with ongoing investigations both in the FBI and Congress.

The 'President' appears to be egregiously unfit for office.  Has mental issues that may disqualify him for office.  May wind up leading to his constitutional removal from office.  Another matter, indeed, if the 'President' obstructed justice or treasonously conspired with the Russians.  In such circumstances, rises to a much higher level.  No matter the truth, ongoing investigations of precisely what happened, and is continuing to happen, must not be obstructed.

"On the day of the Oval Office meeting, Comey, according to the Times, had attended a terrorism threat briefing with other officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the vice president. After the briefing, Mr. Trump told Pence, Sessions and the others present to leave the room, leaving him alone with Comey for the conversation about Flynn."

Disturbing to say the least.  If true, why would the 'President' place himself in such a compromising position?

"After Comey wrote the memo, he shared it with senior FBI officials. According to the Times, they believed Mr. Trump had tried to influence the investigation, but they decided to keep the conversation secret, so that it would not affect the investigation."

Again, truly don't know this for sure until Comey testifies under oath as to what went down, how it went down.  Even if true, especially if true, seems to many of us criminal activity on the part of the president should take precedence over that of underlings.  Top down, not bottom up.  Regardless of difficulty of evidence collection, that is, making a case.

The problem with doing it bottom up is often the ring leader gets lost in the weeds.  Only the underlings suffer the consequences.  Top banana goes free.  As happened in Iraq vis a vis war crimes committed during the Bush "The Tush"-"Slick Dick" Cheney regime.  There was no justice.  Obama, apparently fearing the same treatment upon leaving office, declined to pursue charges of war crimes against the people at the top of the Bush regime.

"Last week after the president fired Comey, a senior FBI official told CBS News that "there is a whole lot of interfering" in the Russia investigation. The official was referring to White House and Justice Department actions as they relate to the Russia investigation."

By definition, obstruction of justice.  ... Although, the legal definition is achingly convoluted, difficult to prove.

ABC News reports:

"Recently fired FBI Director James Comey was asked by President Trump to drop the bureau's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a memo Comey wrote of his meeting with the president. Details of the memo, first reported by The New York Times on Tuesday, were later confirmed to ABC by sources close to Comey.  In the memo, which Comey shared with top FBI associates, he wrote that Trump said, "I hope you can let this go," referring to the inquiry into Flynn's actions. "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," said Trump, according to a source who read the memo. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

NPR reports:

"President Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to close down the agency's investigation into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn just one day after Flynn was let go, according to two sources close to Comey.  An associate of Comey's who is familiar with the matter confirms that the former FBI director memorialized the conversation with Trump in a memo he wrote immediately after their Oval Office conversation on February 14. The news was first reported by the New York Times."

NPR further claims:

"Comey — who was fired one week ago by Trump amid the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia — wrote in the February memo that Trump asked for the investigation of Flynn to go away — to which Comey gave a non-response response. Then he left and wrote detailed notes, according to the source.  "It was an ask" not a command, the source said. A small number of FBI agents were made aware of the memo and the conversation, and agents kept working on the investigation.  A second Comey associate told NPR that Comey wrote notes for his files after several conversations with Trump.  "He was concerned," the second source said."

Until Comey is placed under oath, none of this can be resolved.  ... Possibly, not even then.  Truth, increasingly, a moving target.

Republicans are growing weary, increasingly concerned.  The Washington Post reports:

"Congressional Republicans are increasing pressure on the Trump administration to produce documents related to the latest string of controversies involving President Trump, amid flagging confidence in the White House and a growing sense that scandal is overtaking the presidency.  As the White House sought to contain two major scandals — Trump’s disclosure of highly classified material to Russian officials and an alleged attempt to shut down an investigation into his former national security adviser — some members of the GOP began predicting that the party will rally behind some sort of independent investigative body to probe Trump’s White House."

If they wish to be returned to office, need to stand up to the growing insanity.

Democrats are increasingly restless.  CBS News reports:

"Following the revelation that President Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the FBI's investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's ties to Russia, both Senate and House Democrats are calling into question whether or not Mr. Trump committed an obstruction of justice.  Speaking on CBS This Morning, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia and former running mate to Hillary Clinton, says that "if the facts are as they are alleged, yes, it could get close to obstruction of justice."  "You have to have an intent to obstruct but you also have to take an action to obstruct, and the action was the firing," Kaine said.  Kaine said the next move is for Congress to hear directly from Comey and Mr. Trump, with any notes or alleged tapes of their conversations, in order to sort through what was asked of Comey."

Kaine is right.  No rush to judgment.  Comey must be questioned.  Any recordings, notes provided from all involved.  What we seem to have so far, however, is foot dragging by Republicans.  Needs to immediately change.  Now.  Alternative?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming on the horizon.

CBS News reports:

"Soon after news reports circulated that President Trump had asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Arizona Sen. John McCain suggested the Trump saga is reaching a "Watergate size and scale."  That comment came during an on-stage interview with CBS News' Bob Schieffer Tuesday night at a dinner honoring McCain. On Wednesday, Schieffer talked with "CBS This Morning" about his conversation with McCain.  "John McCain is deeply worried about this," Schieffer said. "I think he believes that Donald Trump is in serious trouble right now, and it it up to Donald Trump to get himself out of it."

McCain is right.  For younger readers, this smacks of Watergate some 45 years ago.

"The former "Face the Nation" anchor also said he talked with many Republicans Tuesday night, and "their feeling is that until they get this settled, not much is going to happen with the Trump administration." Settling that, Schieffer says, will demand more openness -- "he has got to get this all out on the table once and for all. Until he does that," he said, "we really don't know what's going to happen. But this thing has raised a notch."

Doesn't appear Trump has any ability, wherewithal to resolve growing problems he's stupidly, ludicrously imposing on himself.  Continues to figuratively shoot himself in the ass.  Be interesting to see if and/or when his base wakes up.  No matter what, resistance must be ferocious, but peaceful.  Otherwise, the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue are granted carte blanche to murder on the job.

The path Trump is on is not sustainable.  He's tearing this country apart.  The fascist police-state we already live in is determinedly expanded to the Fourth Reich.  By both the Trump nazi, the Sessions nazi, and others in his regime.  Led by old men who may have mental issues.  If not, then great evil is beginning to overtake our formerly great country.

CBS News reports:

"News that President Trump shared "inappropriate" -- and possibly highly classified information -- about an ISIS plot with Russian diplomats sent shockwaves throughout Washington, D.C., and beyond.  But it wouldn't be the first time a sitting president has shared classified information. Past presidents have shared secret intelligence, and the president has broad authority to declassify information, as the highest U.S. government official. What differentiates Mr. Trump's disclosure -- a revelation he has confirmed -- is the justification for it and the approach, according to experts in presidential history and national security.  "I've never seen anything like this in terms of this kind of aspect -- the apparent recklessness involved," said Chris Edelson, assistant professor of government and a director of Politics, Policy and Law Scholars Program at American University in Washington, D.C."

Certainly, questions the fitness of Mr. Trump for office.

"Past presidents have generally only shared classified information after deliberation and for a specific purpose. But, according to Mr. Trump's own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, Mr. Trump decided to share information with the Russian diplomats during the course of their meeting last week, and the president was unaware of where the intelligence originated. Sources have confirmed to CBS News that the information originated from Israeli intelligence sources, and it's unclear if the president had the explicit approval of the Israelis to share it."

Again, calls Trump's fitness for office into question.

NBC News reports:

"Some of the intelligence President Trump provided to Russian officials is so secret that American news organizations are still being asked not to report it, two U.S. officials told NBC News.  The requests by U.S. intelligence officials cast doubt on the assertion by the president's aides that the sharing was appropriate.  Trump told the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador in the Oval Office that the Islamic State had used stolen airport security equipment to test a bomb that could be hidden in electronic devices and slipped undetected into an airplane cabin, the officials said. And he named the city in ISIS-held Syria in which the intelligence was gathered, the officials added."

All this further calls Trump's fitness for office into question.

The following is the take of NPR:

"Can you rely on what White House officials say on behalf of the U.S. government to be true?  The answer, even by the account of President Trump himself, is no."

Amusingly, but sadly, true.  Trump himself has repeatedly contradicted his staff.

"Of all the crises and controversies consuming this White House, perhaps none is more fundamental than the collapse of its credibility. And a close look at some of the administration's policies, statements and controversies suggests chief responsibility of that collapse can be laid at the feet of the man who works in the Oval Office."

Trump's staff are desperately trying to figuratively cover his ass.  Getting increasingly difficult after each new faux pas.

Succumbing to growing pressure, DOJ appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller special counsel in charge of the Russian investigation, 5-17-17.  More to come in the next edition.

5-19-17

Think the following proper behavior of an elected official, -- or egregious abuse of power?  NPR reports:

"Ever since the election of Donald Trump, Republican moderates in Congress have been under pressure from new activist groups to oppose the president. For U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, the pressure is starting to show. He complained to the employer of one of the activists about her political participation — with some troublesome consequences.  A fundraising letter from Frelinghuysen to a Lakeland Bank board member is signed "P.S. one of the ringleaders works for your bank!"

No problem with the above?  Had it been the other way around, think Republicans wouldn't have ferociously responded against a Democratic congressman doing the same?  -- For you Llano County partisans out there, okay if Republicans engage in such activity, but not Democrats?  Don't do as I do, do as I say?

"Last month, Saily Avelenda, a senior vice president and lawyer for Lakeland Bank, was called into her boss's office and handed a fundraising letter that Frelinghuysen sent to a member of the bank's board of directors. It asked for donations to help him fight organized opposition to the Republican agenda. At the bottom of the letter, scrawled in pen next to his signature, there was a note: "P.S. one of the ringleaders works for your bank!"

This kind of shit is precisely why our formerly great country is miserably failing.

"Avelenda was not fired, but she says she had a lot of explaining to do. For that, and other reasons, she says she decided to resign."

Shouldn't have resigned.  Should have stood up to the corporate management suite.  -- Same advice to anyone, either party, caught in this situation.

"I had to write a statement to my CEO," she said. "It was not something that I expected, and I thought that my congressman put them in a situation and put me in a really bad situation as the constituent, and used his name, used his position and used his stationery to try to ... punish me."

Precisely, why you should have courageously stood tall.  No matter the consequences.  This is not, should not, be a partisan issue.  No more than abuse of power.

"The letter is unusual and noteworthy, says Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, because members of Congress don't usually turn to businesses in their district to do damage to their political opponents.  "It's certainly troubling," Libowitz said. "Whether or not it breaks a criminal statute is one issue, but the very clear issue is that it appears that a member of Congress might be using his power to threaten someone's employment because of their political activities."

Indeed.  Worse?  Egregiously, un-American.

"Lakeland Bank, which has 53 branches in New Jersey, responded to WNYC's original report on its Facebook page writing that it's the bank's philosophy to "promote our employees' full awareness and interest in civic and political responsibility such that each employee has the opportunity to support community activities or the political process in the manner that she or he desires."

If that's true, indeed, the case, why did the bank accept her resignation?  Why?

5-19-17

The Washington Times sagely reports:

"Ann Coulter, conservative author and one of Donald Trump’s most dedicated followers, claimed Sunday that the president’s hiring of his relatives in the White House is the only “fascist” thing he’s done in office."

Bless her heart.  LOL.

5-19-17

'Can fix ignorant, can't fix stupid.'  NPR reports:

"Addiction experts are up in arms following remarks from Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, in which he referred to medication-assisted treatment for addiction as "substituting one opioid for another."

Indeed, it's unadulterated bullshit.  Price simply did not know what he was talking about, -- or too stupid to grasp what he was saying.

"Nearly 700 researchers and practitioners sent a letter Monday communicating their criticisms to Price and urging him to "set the record straight."

Indeed.

"The medicines Price referred to are methadone and buprenorphine, both of which are opioids. The letter notes that there is a "substantial body of research" showing the drugs' effectiveness, and that they have been the standard of care for addiction treatment for years."

Clearly, the Price nazi does not understand addiction.  Hasn't a clue.  No conception.

"The drugs tamp down cravings and prevent withdrawals, helping people suffering from addiction stop misusing prescription or illicit opioids, and get back to living productive lives. Experts say Price's remarks, made last week to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, ignore the primary benefits of such medications and go against scientific evidence."

-- Republican fascists apparently do not believe in science.  ... At least the ones surrounding the Trump nazi.

5-19-17

Think the following doesn't sound like raw nazism in the Senate?  Promulgated by Republican fascists?  NPR reports:

"The Senate is negotiating its own legislation to repeal and replace much of the Affordable Care Act in secret talks with senators hand-picked by party leaders and with no plans for committee hearings to publicly vet the bill."

Doing what they do best.  F--king the American public in secret.

"Senate Democrats have a different take. "Your morning reminder that under the cloud cover of the FBI story, 13 GOP Senators are still secretly writing a bill to destroy the ACA," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., tweeted Monday morning."

5-19-17

The 'President's' inexperience in government became devastatingly clear yet again. The Russians trolled the nazi after he met with the Russian Foreign Minister.  CNN reports:

"The White House blocked US reporters from photographing the meeting, opting to allow only White House and Russian photographers to capture images of Trump's interactions with Lavrov. The White House official insisted it is standard practice to keep more of a lid on presidential meetings with lower-level foreign officials, as opposed to visits from heads of state, which typically come with greater press coverage."

Not to be.  The Russians gleefully f--ked him over:

"The White House did not anticipate that the Russian government would allow its state news agency to post photographs of an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russia's ambassador to the US, a White House official said."

Figuratively speaking, the Trump nazi caught with his pants down:

"Photos of Wednesday's meeting, taken by a Russian state news media photographer one day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey amid questions about possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow, were ultimately posted by Russia's news agency, TASS.  The White House did not post photos of the meeting although an official White House photographer was also in the room, the White House said."

Worse?

"They tricked us," an angry White House official said.   "That's the problem with the Russians -- they lie," the official added."

Trump nazi doesn't?

"The Russians used the photos to troll the White House in its social media posts Wednesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted a photo of a smiling US President shaking hands with Lavrov on Twitter, adding strange and ironic optics to the questions already swirling around the White House over Comey's firing."

Insult to injury?  Again:

"The White House blocked US reporters from photographing the meeting, opting to allow only White House and Russian photographers to capture images of Trump's interactions with Lavrov."

Made a fool out of the nazi.

"In response to the White House official's complaint that the White House was "tricked," former Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice said on Twitter: "No kidding!"

Has only himself to blame?  Forget?  One last time for you clueless Llano County GOP nazis:

"The White House blocked US reporters from photographing the meeting, opting to allow only White House and Russian photographers to capture images of Trump's interactions with Lavrov."

5-19-17

The Sessions nazi has come under severe criticism for his role in Comey's firing.  NPR reports:

"A Justice Department spokesman argues that recusal did not bar Sessions from weighing in on the decision to fire Comey.  "The recommendation to remove Director Comey was a personnel decision based on concerns about the effectiveness of his leadership," spokesman Ian Prior wrote in an email. "The recommendation had nothing to do with the substance of any investigation."

The appearance, alone, screams otherwise.  So does the timing.

"That argument doesn't sway Barrett, a former Justice Department lawyer who served as associate counsel in the Iran Contra investigation.  "The problem is you can't sort of say, 'I'm changing the Director of the FBI for B through Z' and pretend there's no A involved here. A is this investigation," Barrett said.  He argues Sessions should not be involved in choosing a new director for the FBI, and suggests the safest course might be to leave Acting Director Andrew McCabe in place until the campaign probe is completed."

Forget?  The Trump nazi and his henchmen do as they please.  To date?  With impunity.  ... Must not be forgotten we live in a fascist police-state, -- soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

5-19-17

Sure sign of insanity?  Repeating the same behavior over and over and over again expecting a different result.  Prohibition of alcohol was a raging failure.  Led to the rise of the Mafia.  Increase in crime.  People still drank no matter the law.  Fast forward forty years to the Nixon-Agnew War on Drugs.  Another miserable failure.  Led to corruption of every law enforcement agency in the country.  Did nothing to stop or even control the abuse of drugs.  Exacerbated the problem.  ... And it is a problem.

Enriched smugglers.  Lined the pockets of corrupt law enforcement, prosecutors, judges.  Worse?  Far worse?  Overloaded the jails and prisons throughout the country.  People did five years for getting caught with a joint.  Felons released from prison on drug-related convictions could not, and cannot find good, high paying jobs.

Didn't stop drug usage.  Didn't stop, or even slow down trafficking.  Quite the opposite.  Increased it.  Now, the Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi wish to return to the 'good 'old days of yesteryear.  Eschew treatment for punishment.  Punishment certainly didn't work up to now.  This change in policy will cause the cost of drugs to skyrocket, leading to more ancillary crime to pay for the increased cost.  Worse?  More violence.  Yet, 'law and order' nazis in the Republican Party remain achingly clueless.

NPR reports:

"In a memo to staff, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to "charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense" — a move that marks a significant reversal of Obama-era policies on low-level drug crimes."

We already live in a goddamned fascist police-state.  Now, extended to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"Holder had asked prosecutors to avoid slapping nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that carried mandatory minimum sentences, practices that, as NPR's Tamara Keith explains, "give judges and prosecutors little discretion over the length of a prison term if a suspect is convicted." Holder's recommendation had been aimed partly at helping reduce burgeoning prison populations in the U.S.   Now, if prosecutors wish to pursue lesser charges for these low-level crimes, they will need to obtain approval for the exception from a U.S. attorney, assistant attorney general or another supervisor."

A step backwards.  For no good reason.  Will certainly further contribute to overloading the prison system.  Do nothing to reduce drug usage.  Will certainly increase ancillary crime to pay for increased cost of drugs.  Increased violence.  Yet, the Sessions nazi remains achingly delusional, a congenital liar:

"But in his speech Friday, Sessions asserted that the policy change is aimed not at low-level drug users, but rather drug dealers and traffickers.  "If you are a drug trafficker," he said, "we will not look the other way. We will not be willfully blind to your misconduct."

First, the low level user will certainly get caught up in the failed but now increased jackbooted effort.  Second, the Obama Administration, nor any other, was indifferent to dealers and traffickers.  Enforced the law.  For the Sessions nazi to imply otherwise is no more than blatant deception, a goddamned lie.

Here is the problem with the change in policy:

"Keith notes this marks a return to the "tough-on-crime philosophy" of the 1980s and '90s — a return that advocacy groups have feared for some time.  "This is a disastrous move that will increase the prison population, exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and do nothing to reduce drug use or increase public safety," Michael Collins, deputy director at the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement emailed to NPR. "Sessions is taking the country back to the 1980s by escalating the failed policies of the drug war."

Llano County readers are reminded the criminal jackbooted tactics of the Narcotics Enforcement Team (NET) in this five-county area did nothing to end or reduce drug trafficking and use locally.  Nothing at all.  In fact, NET was ring leading meth production according to cooks working for them.

"The memo also drew a long, scathing rebuke from Holder himself.  "The policy announced today is not tough on crime. It is dumb on crime," he said in a statement. "It is an ideologically motivated, cookie-cutter approach that has only been proven to generate unfairly long sentences that are often applied indiscriminately and do little to achieve long-term public safety."

That's true.  Without a doubt.  Yet, the Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi cannot, will not, be confused with the truth.

"But Sessions argues the shift in policy is a means of fulfilling the Justice Department's "role in a way that accords with the law, advances public safety and promotes respect for our legal system. It is of the utmost importance to enforce the law fairly and consistently."

Nonsense.  Quite the opposite.  Will exacerbate the problem.  Lead to less public safety, far more scorn, far less respect for the legal system.  Sadly, already at a record low.  Soon to get worse.  As the doomsday clock strikes ever closer to midnight.  Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming on the horizon.

Here is the take of The Washington Times:

"In a statement on the new policy, announced Friday, Mr. Holder said the decision “ignores a rare bipartisan political consensus that has formed around sentencing reform effort and will take this nation back to a discredited past.”  Mr. Holder’s policy changes, made as part of the Obama administration’s “Smart on Crime” initiative, were meant to discourage harsh sentences for certain drug-related offenses. One such policy rescinded Friday by Mr. Sessions, directed prosecutors not to include total drug quantity amounts in criminal charges when doing so would trigger mandatory minimum sentences under certain circumstances — such as if the defendant’s actions did not involve violence or a threat of violence, or if the person had no significant ties to drug-trafficking organizations or gangs.  Mr. Holder was critical of Mr. Sessions’ approach, which instead directs prosecutors to charge the most serious, provable offense in each case. Under the Sessions memo, prosecutors do have discretion to seek departures from the standard, but it requires they receive supervisory approval and document the reason for any departure in each case file."

The Sessions nazi is handcuffing prosecutors.  Allowing them no discretion without consent of the fuhrers in charge.  Giant step backwards.  Expansion of the goddamned fascist police-state we already live in to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"Mr. Holder, citing Justice Department data, said since implementation of the Smart on Crime directive in 2013, prosecutors have used the discretion provided in his memo to pursue more serious drug cases.  “The data showed that while they brought fewer indictments carrying a mandatory minimum sentence, the prosecutions of high-level drug defendants had risen and that cooperation and plea rates remained effectively the same,” Mr. Holder said. “These reversals will be both substantively and financially ruinous, setting the Department back on track to again spending one-third of its budget on incarcerating people, rather than preventing, detecting, or investigating crime.”

The change in policy by the Sessions nazi is no more than raw, unbridled nazism.

5-19-17

Resistance grows to the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and sick sycophants including the nazi Governor of Texas.  NPR reports:

"A new Texas law banning sanctuary cities has outraged Democrats, immigrant advocates and police chiefs. Joining the opposition is a tiny, defiant city on the Mexican border.  El Cenizo is a city that fought for its very existence. It's all of half a square mile, located on the twisting Rio Grande just east of Laredo. It has fewer than 4,000 residents and only eight city employees."

Yet, courageously standing up to the Abbott nazi and his equally fascist henchmen.

"El Cenizo, along with Maverick County, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Texas law filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens. It argues that the state of Texas "may not commandeer" local officials to enforce federal law.  The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund expects to file a second lawsuit, arguing that the "show me your papers" law in Texas is unconstitutional.  Mayor Reyes vows his city will not rescind its safe haven ordinance. "If they want to throw me in jail, go ahead," he said. "I strongly believe in what we're doing."

Hat's off, Mayor.  Stand tall.  These goddamned Republican nazis must be ferociously, but peacefully resisted.  Remain an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

5-19-17

In follow up to an earlier edition, an undocumented immigrant has finally received some relief.  ABC News reports:

"An undocumented mother of four who took refuge in a Denver church out of fear of being deported to Mexico was granted a stay of removal and will leave the sanctuary Friday, her attorney said."

No one should have to go through this.  Think the GOP is the party of the family? Wake up.  You've been bamboozled.  Lied to.  Deceived.

"Jeanette Vizguerra, a 45-year-old Mexican native and immigrant rights activist, has lived in Denver for 20 years and has three U.S.-born children –- Luna, 12, Roberto, 10, and Zury, 6. Her oldest child, 26-year-old Tania Baez, was born in Mexico and has a work permit in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program."

Yet, this mother of four was threatened by the Trump nazi and his goons in ICE with deportation:

"In February, Vizguerra took sanctuary in the basement of the First Unitarian Society of Denver after her latest application for a stay of removal was rejected. She skipped her scheduled check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of fear that she would be immediately deported and separated from her children.  She had since moved to the First Baptist Church of Denver, several blocks away. Now after 86 days in sanctuary, she is expected to leave the church Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. local time, according to her attorney, Hans Meyer."

This woman is not a felon.  Should not have had to go through this.  Nor should her children.

"ICE on Thursday granted Vizguerra’s stay of removal application until March 15, 2019."

Apparently, the Trump nazi's criminal jackbooted bastards in ICE succumbed to enormous public pressure, -- for now.

"Her lawyer said Vizquerra embodies American values of integrity and perseverance.  “Jeanette Vizguerra has demonstrated unimaginable courage to fight for her family, for basic due process of law, and for fundamental fairness in our immigration system,” lawyer Hans Meyer said in a statement Thursday. “Jeanette is a living example of the true American values of courage, integrity and perseverance.”

No longer matters in a goddamned fascist police-state soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich:

"ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer told ABC News in February that Vizguerra was an “enforcement priority” based on two misdemeanor convictions, including what her lawyer says is the common practice of using a fake social security number to get a job. Neudauer did not say if Vizguerra's request for an extension earlier this year was denied due to a change in immigration policy."

These jackbooted bastards need to be reined in.  Present an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

"U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who has been working closely with Vizguerra’s attorney and introduced a bill in March for her relief, said he is “pleased to hear” the mother has been granted a temporary stay and that she should “never” have been a target for deportation.  “We must continue fighting for policies that keep families together and fix our broken immigration system,” Bennet said in a statement Thursday."

Not according to the Trump nazi, his henchmen, the Republican Party, as well as the criminal jackbooted bastards in ICE.

"Democratic Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado, who also introduced a bill on Vizguerra’s behalf, said he is “grateful” the mother will be “afforded more time in the U.S. and the due process she deserves.”

Hat's off, Senator and Congressman.  Much more needs to be done.

5-19-17

Trump and his henchmen continue to receive ferocious resistance.  CNN reports:

"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced an auditorium of jeering Bethune-Cookman University graduates Wednesday as she gave a commencement address that many students and graduates said she was in no place to deliver.  As she opened her remarks, some students stood and turned their backs to her. At times hecklers drowned out her remarks."

5-19-17

NBC News reports:

"A group of 21 senators demanded Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price provide answers about reported plans to overturn a non-discrimination rule in the Affordable Care Act.   In a letter sent in response to a court filing last week strongly suggesting that HHS may overturn Rule 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. That rule prohibits discrimination in health care on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability."

Bigotry, misogyny, homophobia.  The Republican Way.

5-19-17

ABC News reports:

"Environmentalists notched a rare win in the Republican-led Senate on Wednesday as a GOP effort to reverse an Obama-era rule restricting harmful methane emissions unexpectedly failed.  The 51-49 vote against the repeal measure was a blow to the fossil-fuel industry and groups linked to the conservative Koch Brothers, which had waged a public campaign to overturn the Interior Department rule. The rule, finalized in November, would force energy companies to capture methane that's burned off or "flared" at drilling sites because it earns less money than oil. An estimated $330 million a year in methane — the component of natural gas — is wasted through leaks or intentional releases, enough to power about 5 million homes a year."

5-19-17

Think we don't live in a goddamned fascist police-state?  Wake up.  NPR reports:

"Since at least 2011, ICE officials have been able to search for information from nearly a thousand law enforcement agencies across the country, authorized by formal agreements struck between ICE and regional law enforcement groups. In an email, ICE spokesperson Matthew Bourke confirmed the agency can still directly "ping" for information in all of these local law enforcement databases, noting that none of these past data-sharing agreements have been invalidated since the first ones were signed in 2008. Below is a 2011 ICE map visualizing the law enforcement databases which ICE can still access. Bourke says no new agreements have been signed since a privacy impact assessment in October 2011. (A Freedom of Information Act request for the text of these agreements has been filed.)"

This country no longer serves the best interests of We The People.  No more than a goddamned fascist police-state, soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  Delusionally believe you're free?  Think so?

5-19-17

What webs we weave.  NPR reports:

"Cyber security experts are still scrambling to contain a global ransomware attack that has infected tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Russia, China, Ukraine, and India."

Sadly, just the beginning.  Likely, far more of the same.  Most galling?

"The attacks are being blamed on a piece of malware called WCry, WannaCry or Wana Decryptor, alleged to have been stolen from the National Security Agency, as the Bleeping Computer site reports. It was reportedly distributed by the Shadow Brokers, which claimed to have hacked an NSA-linked team of hackers last August. The Shadow Brokers group, which is suspected of having ties to Russia, posted Windows hacking tools last month."

If the origin of this attack lies in NSA-produced malware, time for some serious soul searching.

"Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked evidence of the agency's data collection program in 2013, has spoken out on Twitter to criticize the NSA for building this "dangerous attack tool." Yesterday he posted a New York Times article detailing the attack on the NHS in the UK, writing, "Today we see the cost."

    "Despite warnings, @NSAGov built dangerous attack tools that could target Western software. Today we see the cost: https://t.co/u6J3bcHnXE
    — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 12, 2017"

Indeed.  Quite true.  Time for developers, manufacturers to finally wake up.  Improve technology to the point where this kind of attack becomes virtually impossible.  At least contained.  Equally important.  All devices need to be highly encrypted, extremely difficult to break into.  Take years of effort by a super computer.  With or without a warrant.

To protect us against not only hackers, but those stupidly entrusted to 'protect' us.  -- The criminal jackbooted bastards in blue who seemingly routinely engage in warrantless fishing expeditions.  Back up your data.  Do so constantly.  Had the victims of this attack done so, their data could have been easily recovered.  Microsoft had issued patches for this vulnerability some time back.  Not all users had installed the patches.  Windows leaves much to be desired.  Linux, far better.  So are Apple systems.

In follow up to the above, Microsoft is certainly no happy camper.  NPR reports:

"When the National Security Agency lost control of the software behind the WannaCry cyberattack, it was like "the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen," Microsoft President Brad Smith says, in a message about the malicious software that has created havoc on computer networks in more than 150 countries since Friday."

Disingenuous bullshit.  Yes, of course, NSA needs to rethink its policies.  But, no, doesn't let Microsoft off the hook.  The problem is Microsoft concerns itself with being able to track and sell user data to line corporate coffers.  Rather, than providing a product that is truly secure.

"This is an emerging pattern in 2017," Smith, who is also chief legal officer, says in a Microsoft company blog post. "We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world. Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage."

Doesn't absolve you greedy bastards from producing a highly insecure operating system product for years subject to all kinds of vulnerabilities.  When will you design operating systems that take years to break into even with a super computer?  Protect user privacy from the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue who routinely, with or without a warrant, go on fishing expeditions?

Precisely, why many of us are looking for alternatives.  Don't trust patches since they appear to facilitate tracking to line corporate coffers.  Did you know on Windows 10 systems the user cannot turn off updates?  They're done automatically.  Making the machine unusable online for many of us who value security.  Who owns these goddamned machines?  The users who paid for them?  Or, Microsoft?

5-19-17

In stark contrast to the above, proof positive insanity knows no bounds, CBS News reports:

"Two former intelligence officials and a retired Navy admiral told a Senate committee Thursday that the U.S. should consider responding to Russia's intrusion in the 2016 presidential election with a military cyberattack of its own.  In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, and retired Admiral James Stavridis said the U.S. should consider targeting the bank accounts of Russian President Vladimir Putin or wealthy Russian oligarchs. But former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned that any cyberattack against Russia could invite severe retaliation."

Precisely, why civilians are, and must remain in charge of the military.

5-19-17

Augmenting the last two articles above and the growing insanity in our formerly great country, indeed, day is night, night is day, and shit smells perversely sweet in the perniciously psychotic world of the corporate management suite.  Think the following won't gain wide acceptance?  CBS Boston reports:

"It could be the future of office life: high-tech tracking devices that can monitor your entire day on the job."

... Think the hopelessly ignorant, aggressively stupid, achingly gutless sheep in our formerly great country wouldn't jump at the chance?  To be good, compliant, company bought and paid for corporate chattel?  Isn't that why they literally bare their asses for corporate inspection by the company doctor?  Piss in a cup under employer supervision?  To sit at a keyboard, stock shelves all day, etc..

"The Boston start-up Humanyze wants to convince big business and employees that being watched can be a good thing."

... Like coming down with a raging case of poison ivy, diarrhea, stomach flu?

“It’s sort of like a Fitbit for your career,” said Ben Waber, CEO of Humanyze. And just like a Fitbit, it’s with you all day long."

Aren't corporate peasants lucky?  Truly blessed?  How about forced wearing of a shock collar to keep 'em all in line?

"The same ID badge that opens office doors can now track your every move and more. “We are essentially able to augment those ID badges to figure out in real time really what people are doing at work.”

... Like how many turds are dropped in corporate commodes each day on the company dime?

This, what this country is ultimately heading for as the Trump nazi transforms the goddamned fascist police-state we already live in to the Fourth Reich?

5-12-17

The government continues to nazify.  Agencies desperately, subversively increase power.  On their own.  No authorization required.  A truly pernicious change imposed by the Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.  NPR reports:

"The Drug Enforcement Administration has proposed hiring its own prosecutor corps to bring cases related to drug trafficking, money laundering and asset forfeiture — a move that advocacy groups warn could exceed the DEA's legal authority and reinvigorate the 1980s-era war on drugs."

Called nazification.  Expansion of the goddamned fascist police-state we already live in to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"The agency's proposal, published in the federal register in March, received little if any public attention. But it would represent the first time the DEA had its own, dedicated prosecutors to go after drug-related offenses. Those lawyers would be shared or "detailed" to U.S. attorney's offices and the main Justice Department, after an assessment of which regions needed the most help."

No more than concerted, determined, intentional expansion of the fascist police-state we already live in.  Pharmaceutical houses would be looted to pay for it.  So would looted citizens through asset forfeiture.  No more than  legalized theft in what's already a fascist police-state.  Who protects us from our 'protectors?'

"The idea worries the Drug Policy Alliance, which lobbies for a public health approach to drugs. The Alliance argues that the plan "exceeds DEA's authority under federal law" because the prosecutorial arm of the Justice Department can't be funded through the drug diversion registration program without input from Capitol Hill.  "In this notice, the DEA effectively proposes a power grab and is trying to end-run the congressional appropriations process," said Michael Collins, deputy director at the Drug Policy Alliance."

No longer a free country.  Perniciously enslaved to all levels and branches of government.

"If the Sessions DOJ wants to abandon criminal justice reform, and escalate the war on drugs, that conversation should happen above board and in public; not in some arcane rulemaking document that very few people read or understand," Collins added."

The mark of a nazi.  An exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Nazi America.  The Fourth Reich.

Yet, the Trump nazi remains achingly inconsistent.  Proposes to cut the drug czar's budget 95%.  Go figure.

5-12-17

The following is the take of Llano County U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway vis a vis recent House passage of Trumpcare:

"Obamacare was full of broken promises. Then-President Obama told the American people time and time again, ‘If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor; if you like your health insurance you can keep your health insurance.’ The American people learned very quickly that under Obamacare, they would not be able to keep their doctor, or their health insurance. In fact, the cost of premiums rose, while access to quality health care fell.

"Thursday, we took the first step towards fulfilling our promise to the American people: to repeal Obamacare, and repair the broken health care system. The American Health Care Act contained all the relief the American people were asking for. Individuals with pre-existing conditions are protected and will receive quality coverage. Young people will be able to remain on their family plan until the age of 26. We’ve strengthened Medicaid, and most importantly, we’ve put individuals and their doctors back in control of their own health care decisions.

"The American Health Care Act is the answer that our fractured health care system needs. The time is now for the Senate to act, so President Trump can sign the American Health Care Act into law and rid our nation of the disastrous Obamacare once and for all."

The House passed this bill without scoring by the Congressional Budget Office as to cost, winners and losers, the number of people losing coverage, evisceration of Medicaid coverage, etc., all in a desperate effort to provide tax breaks to those who don't need them, the top 1%.

Reaction from providers was swift, ferocious. CBS News reports:

"Many of the country's most respected doctors' groups and consumer health organizations are decrying Thursday's vote in the House for a Republican health care bill that could cut health benefits for millions of Americans.  The bill, which passed by a narrow margin, is an amended version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), a GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.  Within hours of the vote, many of the country's top medical organizations representing hundreds of thousands of physicians and doctors in training, made public statements and spoke out on social media."

Will certainly cost them dearly financially as those losing coverage go without care.

"Our organizations,  which represent over 560,000 physicians and medical students, are deeply disappointed that the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), an inherently flawed bill that would do great harm to our patients," a joint statement from six medical groups whose members include family physicians, pediatricians, obstetricians, gynecologists, osteopathic physicians, psychiatrists and medical students said."

Had these hopelessly greedy professional bastards eschewed profound greed, all this could have been avoided.

"Despite their efforts to educate lawmakers prior to the vote about the implications of the Trump-endorsed legislation, the organizations said, "Regrettably, the AHCA, as amended and passed by the House, violates our principles, dramatically increasing costs for older individuals, resulting in millions of people losing their health care coverage, and returning to a system that allows insurers to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions."

Too little, much too late.  Will certainly not pass the Senate as is.  ... Despite Trump and his fellow nazis prematurely, ludicrously doing a victory dance.

"The bill will now head to the Senate, where lawmakers are expected to make substantial changes. The medical organizations urged senators to "promptly put aside the AHCA, and instead work with our organizations to achieve real bipartisan solutions to improve affordability, access, and coverage for all."

Likely, not to be.  Forget?  Republicans are owned by the top 1%, bought and paid for.  ... Right, TL? TB?

"The American Medical Association issued a separate statement noting that it had strongly opposed the bill. "If the AHCA were to become law, millions of Americans would lose health insurance coverage, and the safety net provided by Medicaid would be severely eroded," the AMA said.  Dr. Andrew Gurman, president of the AMA, said people with pre-existing health conditions face the possibility of going back to the time when insurance companies could charge premiums that made access to coverage out of the question. He urged the Senate and the administration to work with physicians, patients, hospitals and other provider groups "to craft bipartisan solutions so all American families can access affordable and meaningful coverage, while preserving the safety net for vulnerable populations."

All to provide tax breaks to the top 1%.  At a time of record corporate profits and cash reserves.  At a time where many corporations pay under 10%, some, zero.  Others evade taxes by moving headquarters overseas.

GOP nazis on recent break from the House are avoiding town halls like the plague.  Not so, one courageous GOP House member.  NPR reports:

"On Monday night, a few days after voting in favor of the House bill to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Elise Stefanik, 32, from Northern New York, held a town hall at a public television station.  Stefanik is a moderate Republican in her second term. She's also the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. After refusing for weeks to say how she planned to vote, she was one of a handful of last-minute "yes" votes for the GOP health care bill."

One of few courageous enough to attend a town hall, face stiff, ferocious opposition:

"The room felt icy and tense. The event remained orderly — it was taped and livestreamed, which seemed to help keep a lid on things. Still, outrage kept rumbling to the surface.  When Stefanik answered one question about "why the rich are getting tax breaks" under the House Republicans' health care bill, some in the crowd detected a dodge and they started heckling."

Indeed, they did.  Held her feet to the fire.  As they should:

"It is true — Obamacare increased taxes on Americans across the board on cost of health care," Stefanik said before the crowd interrupted. Moderator Thom Hallock asked them to quiet down.  "Our legislation repeals the Obamacare taxes, whether it's the medical device tax, the tax on high quality health care plans. We repeal the tax, the health insurance tax. That will help lower costs," she said."

Sadly, just a piss hole in the snow.  Far greater problem?  The fact neither Obamacare or Trumpcare reins in the unbridled greed of providers and the insurance cartel.  ... Catch the fact the Congresswoman failed to answer the question?  Her constituents would have none of it:

"You didn't answer the question," someone called out."

Indeed.  She didn't.  Ignored the fact the whole point of Trumpcare is not healthcare per se, but lining the pockets of the top 1% with tax breaks they don't need.  At a time of record corporate profits and cash reserves.  ... As the hopelessly greedy corporate management suite evades whatever little taxes it truly pays here to go overseas.  To pay nothing here.  Then, disingenuously pisses and moans about having to pay taxes on money it brings home.  A crock of shit.  The hopelessly greedy f--king the achingly needy.  The American Way.  Nazi America.

"Several people on their way out said Stefanik wasn't really listening, and her answers seemed canned."

Forget?  She's a politician.  They all tow the party line.  Both parties.

"Stefanik said she heard the frustration. She also said repealing Obamacare was one of her earliest campaign promises.  "I know there are certain areas where we're going to disagree, but it's my job to listen," she said. "And I think I did that tonight."

Her constituents don't think so.  Solution?  Don't return her to office.  Then again, what's the alternative?  A Democrat?  The Congresswoman's job is not just to listen, but to act on her constituents' wishes.  Then again, no longer happens.  Both parties equally guilty.  Serve only themselves.  Not their constituents.  Another reason why participation in elections remains so poor.

5-12-17

Think the following isn't the mark of a fascist dictator?  CBS News reports:

"Attention viewers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Televisions will now be tuned to Fox News.  CBS News has confirmed an email was sent to researchers at the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research responding to apparent efforts to change the channel on internal television screens. The email from "[White Oak] Digital Display" sent on Wednesday, May 3, was sent to inform the researchers of the "reason for the change from CNN to Fox." White Oak is the name of the FDA's campus.  The email goes on to inform employees that the decision came from the Trump administration.   "The reason for the change is that a decision from the current administration administrative officials has requested that all monitors, under our control, on the White Oak Campus, display FOX news," the email reads."  Then, White Oak apologizes for the "inconvenience," adding, "I am unable to change any of the monitors to any other news source at this time."

Truth, however, is always a moving target in our formerly great country.  Especially, in the Trump Regime:

"An FDA spokesperson got back to CBS News after our deadline, telling us, "There was no directive or memorandum from the Administration that went out to employees about broadcast news channels displaying on monitors in common areas throughout the FDA's White Oak campus."

Someone's lying.  Guess who?

5-12-17

The Trump nazi and henchmen are betraying  members of the military who are immigrants, seeking citizenship.  Texas Standard reports:

"Serving in the armed forces may be the ultimate display of citizen loyalty. In fact, you don’t have to be a citizen to enlist in the U.S. military. And serving, even in a combat zone, doesn’t guarantee a military member will be granted citizenship. Last year, the Standard profiled an Army vet who was deported for committing a crime, even after serving six years in the military. Like Humberto Barajas, many joined in part because serving “can be a faster path to citizenship.” But, now, the New York Times is reporting the process of granting citizenship to immigrant soldiers is suffering serious delays."

Due to the Trump nazi and his equally bigoted, fascist henchmen.

"Margaret Stock, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, and a lawyer representing some people suing the government for not fulfilling path-to-citizenship promises, says immigrants have been earning citizenship through military service since 1775.  "People are told when they enlist that they can apply immediately for naturalization,” Stock says. “In fact there’s a law that allows people serving during wartime to apply for naturalization after one day of  honorable service in the reserve, or on active duty.”  Stock says military service doesn’t guarantee that citizenship will be granted. A soldier must qualify for citizenship. But she says the government’s current stance is unprecedented."

These men and women are loyal soldiers.  Place their lives on the line for a country they're not citizens of.  Die in battle.

“This is the first time in history that the Department of Defense has ordered a complete halt to the naturalization of military service members,” Stock says.  Citizenship is not only a benefit for immigrant military members. Stock says they must take steps to achieve it.  “In their contracts, it says they are required to apply for citizenship as soon as they are able to do that,” Stock says. “And they believed in good faith that the government would process their applications, but the government is no longer processing their applications in good faith.”

The Trump nazi, unbridled bigotry.

"Stock says immigrant soldiers have been essential to U.S. military success.  “The United States military has won every war because of immigrants,” she says. “If you know military history, you know 20 percent of the Army in World War I was made up of immigrants. It’s shameful, and it’s a rejection of our history to treat immigrants who are serving in the manner that we’re treating them right now.”

This policy is ass backwards.  Horrifically, unjust.  Any non-citizen who joins the military deserves immediate provisional citizenship.  That is, as long as they serve honorably, receive an honorable discharge or die in battle, that citizenship should then become permanent, irrevocable.

5-12-17

Democrats and others are indeed questioning the Trump nazi's increasingly erratic behavior. The Washington Times reports:

"As tension builds with North Korea, Democratic lawmakers say they’re increasingly concerned with President Trump’s finger on the nuclear trigger and want to pass a law prohibiting him from striking without congressional approval.  “We do not trust him with our nuclear weapons arsenal,” said Sen. Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat. “We do not want him to use nuclear weapons first in the North Korean standoff — not just there in Korea, but all across the planet.”  He and Rep. Ted Lieu of California introduced the the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act in January, and held a press conference Wednesday to say a petition drive backing their bill has reached 500,000 signatures."

What is so dangerous about this is the fact that both the North Korean dictator and the Trump nazi are egregiously unstable.  Any mistake, miscalculation could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.

“As his comments become more erratic and inconsistent on the use of nuclear weapons, we think it’s imperative for the United States Congress to reclaim its constitutional authority to have the power to determine whether or not these nuclear weapons are used first against any country,” Mr. Markey said."

Snowball's chance of passing in a GOP-owned Congress.  Despite the fact it's first use of nuclear weapons that's being restricted.

5-12-17

Internet service in Llano County already stinks.  Fixing to get far worse.  NPR reports:

"The Federal Communications Commission will vote on May 18 to formally begin the process of loosening regulations that enforce the so-called net neutrality rules for Internet providers."

What that means is service will grow slower than it already is.  To line the pockets of the ISPs.

"Ajit Pai, who became chairman of the commission in January, says he supports a free and open Internet, which rests on a basic principle of "net neutrality."

This government lackey is a goddamned liar.  The direct opposite is true.  Talks out both sides his ass, just like his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.

"This term in recent history has come to encapsulate the idea that Internet providers should treat all web traffic equally and fairly, but Pai opposes the regulatory approach to enforcing net neutrality that was adopted by the FCC's then-Democratic majority in 2015. Those rules dramatically expanded the agency's authority and oversight over Internet service providers, classifying them more like utilities, similar to traditional telephone companies."

Failed miserably since the rules were never put into effect.  Precisely, why service has grown progressively worse.  Yet, this goddamned nazi won't be confused with the truth:

"In an interview with NPR's David Greene, Pai says he wants the government to focus on correcting actual anti-competitive behavior that Internet providers might demonstrate, rather than regulating against hypothetical harms.  "Preemptive regulation is appropriate when there's a major market failure — when the Internet is broken," he says."

This piece of shit is so clueless he doesn't realize that's already happened.  Or, is lying out his ass.  Forget?  Not only are ISPs already regulating data speed as they see fit, websites download big data tracking every time you access a page.  To track and ultimately sell your data.  This tracking effort slows things down even more.  All a ruse.  Precisely, why you should use Tor browser.  Run it through a VPN if Tor is blocked.  To avoid this collection of data.

ISPs and websites do this to maintain an unsustainable status quo.  To line the pockets of the hopelessly greedy corporate management suite.  You've been bamboozled.  Fleeced.  Dropped trou, took the ungreased shaft hard up the ass, then praised the greedy f--kers for the f--king.  Get what you truly deserve.  Think aggressive stupidity isn't always 'rewarded?' Wake up.

5-12-17

Our national socialist governor, the Abbott nazi, is about to do the will of his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.  TPR and Texas Standard report:

"No sanctuary in Texas – that seems to be the top story across the Lone Star State, as a controversial bill essentially banning governments from implementing “sanctuary city” policies for immigrants who are unauthorized, heads to the governor's office. The Texas Senate voted 20-11 to approve the version of Senate Bill 4 that the House passed last week. Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted "I'm getting my signing pen warmed up."

Will be promptly challenged in court.  Think the nazi governor is for states rights?  Truly believe that?  Law enforcement across this state is opposed to this bill.  Know full well it will lead to more unreported crime, victims going without justice.  ... Hey, Greg?  Head so far up your ass your eyeballs have turned inside out?  This, the reason for your egregious lack of vision?  Or, is someone like Wells Fargo lining your pockets to embrace nazism?  You're out of uniform, sir.  Where is your swastika armband, you fascist son of a bitch?

Here is the crux of the matter.  Determined nazification of our formerly great country by the Abbott nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.  Texas Standard in another article reports:

"The Texas House has approved a resolution calling for a new U.S. constitutional convention. The resolution calls for a series of amendments to limit federal power and spending, as well as term limits for members of Congress. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider has more:  Debate over the measure was sharp and partisan, but brief. In one exchange, State Rep. Roland Gutierrez challenged one of the bill’s leading advocates, State Rep. Rick Miller, regarding the House’s recent passage of the “Sanctuary Cities” bill.  “What do you tell all those good folks about the unfunded mandate that we did last week?” Gutierrez asked.  “We’re here to discuss this resolution. Okay?” Miller said.  “But that’s my point, Representative Miller,” Gutierrez said. “We’re here talking about your so-called federal overreach. And yet your own party just last week suggested to all of us that we want to have more federal government in our backyard. We want to abrogate local control.”

Proof positive Republican nazis, including Abbott, do not truly believe in states rights.  Only what's politically expedient.  ... Right, Governor?

Think our clueless national socialist Governor lives on the same planet as the rest of us?  The Washington Times reports:

"Gov. Greg Abbott defended a new law cracking down sanctuary cities in Texas Monday, saying accusations of racism were nothing but “wild rhetoric.”

... Hey, Governor?  Have no clue racism, racial profiling are ubiquitous across the Nazi State of Texas?  That the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue don't racially profile, harass the innocent?

“That is nothing but wild rhetoric that is divorced from reality,” Mr. Abbott on Fox News. “Most of the people coming across the border in Texas are not from Mexico, they’re from around the entire globe. So this has nothing whatsoever to do with those who are Hispanics, point one."

You're out of your mind, Governor.  Where do you get your information?  Out your ass?

“Point two, most Hispanics in the State of Texas are here legally so they have absolutely nothing to worry about,” he explained, “Point three, it is illegal for a law enforcement officer to racially profile anybody. And so if somebody does that the law enforcement officer will be in an amount of trouble themselves.”

You've either lost your mind, Governor.  Or, are lying out your goddamned nazi ass.  Clearly, you don't know what you're talking about.  Need to visit Nazi Llano County.  Racial profiling remains ubiquitous across this state.  As it does throughout the rest of our formerly great country.  The criminal jackbooted bastards in blue are seldom held legally accountable for their crimes.  Example after example after example are presented each week in this publication and elsewhere.

When you lie like hell, present bullshit as truth, you lose whatever little credibility you have.  Nothing more than a phony charlatan.  Have repeatedly disgraced yourself in public office.  Refused to hold Wells Fargo accountable for deceptive trade practices as Texas Attorney General.  Abrogated your oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution.  A clueless piece of crap securely attached to the taxpayer tit.

How much did the corrupt corporate bastards at Wells Fargo line your pockets?  Is that why you failed to answer a deceptive trade practices complaint filed against them?  You remain a worthless piece of shit, Governor.  Serve only yourself and your corporate masters.  As our not-so-great state continues to nazify, think resistance won't be ferocious but peaceful?

Otherwise, grants your murderous criminal jackbooted bastards in blue carte blanche to murder on the job.  Sadly, as they already do with virtual impunity.  In Nazi America.  Will get exponentially worse, however.  A fascist police-state to be extended into the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  There will be no silence, Governor.  No quiet acquiescence.  Too deaf to hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution already catastrophically looming on the horizon.

Gets worse.  Our nazi Governor and his achingly fascist sidekick, the Paxton nazi, are attempting a preemptive end run around court action against this atrocious law. Texas Standard reports:

"Governor Greg Abbott signed SB4 into law Sunday. It was expected that the measure regulating so-called ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ would prompt lawsuits. But it surprised many that the first to file a suit was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.  Paxton is asking a federal court to declare the law constitutional. The lawsuit is against Travis County, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and members of the Austin City Council.  The move appears to be a pre-emptive strike against challenges to the law. The first challenge was filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)."

Incredible, isn't it?  The arrogance of these two goddamned Republican nazis.  ... Paxton under criminal indictment himself, about to go to trial later this year.  There will be many more suits.  Stiff resistance in the community.  Ferocious, but peaceful, resistance.  This is raw nazism.  The Fourth Reich well under way.

Law enforcement is against this law.  Knows full well few, if any, undocumented victims of crime will step forward.  Papieren Bitte!  Papers Please! Nazi America.  This cannot, will not, be tolerated.  ... Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming on the horizon.

The American Civil Liberties Union is stepping up.  Rising to the occasion.  The Washington Times reports:

"The ACLU issued a “travel alert” to Americans on Tuesday warning them that they could be entering a low-rights zone if they go to Texas once the state’s new anti-sanctuary law takes effect in September.  Part of the new law explicitly permits police to ask the legal status of those they encounter during their regular duties. The core of the law punishes sanctuary cities by fining police leaders and allowing the ouster of public officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents."

Why would anyone wish to visit Nazi Texas under such conditions?  Think the business community won't suffer the consequences?

"The American Civil Liberties Union predicted racial profiling will result and American citizens will be ensnared. It warned travelers to be aware."

Indeed.  Has already been going on for quite some time.  Will certainly get worse after this goddamned nazi law takes effect.

“The ACLU’s goal is to protect all Texans and all people traveling through Texas — regardless of their immigration status — from illegal harassment by law enforcement,” said Lorella Praeli, ACLU director of immigration policy and campaigns. “Texas is a state with deep Mexican roots and home to immigrants from all walks of life. Many of us fit the racial profile that the police in Texas will use to enforce Trump’s draconian deportation force.”

Uncommon valor.  Stand up to the nazis in Texas government.  These fascist pieces of shit remain out of uniform.  Where are their swastika armbands?  If this law stands and you're from out of state, think twice about visiting.  ... Get harassed by a goddamned criminal jackbooted bastard in blue?  Find an attorney.  Sue the living shit out of the bastard, the department, and the governmental entity in charge.  Hit them where it truly hurts, the pocketbook.

5-12-17

While the Abbott nazi refuses to acknowledge ubiquitous racial profiling throughout the country, here is yet another example.  CBS News reports:

"A federal lawsuit says law enforcement officers in one majority-white Mississippi county are unfairly targeting black people for traffic stops and searches of homes and property without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.  The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi on Monday sued the sheriff's department in the Jackson suburb of Madison County. The suit seeks a court order against policies it says create unequal treatment of black and white people. It also seeks a civilian board to review complaints against the department.  Ten black residents -- men and women ages 27 to 62 -- are plaintiffs in the case. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs say they were illegally searched, detained, or arrested by county sheriff's officials while commuting to work, driving in their neighborhoods, or spending time at home."

Wake up, Governor.

"ACLU Mississippi executive director Jennifer Riley-Collins says problems have existed for generations. The lawsuit says Tucker has continued longstanding policies, including warrantless searches of black residents' homes and seizure of their property, vehicle roadblocks that target black people and "jump out" patrols by plainclothes deputies that target black people for searches."

This shit goes on all over the country.  Despite the fact there are laws on the books prohibiting it.  ... Right, Governor?

"For Black residents, Madison County is a Constitution-free zone where their right to equal protection under the law and against unreasonable searches and seizures is nonexistent," Collins said in a statement. "These practices force thousands of people to live in fear and under constant threat of being subject to suspicionless searches and arrests simply because of the color of their skin."

Wouldn't want to confuse our clueless nazi Governor with the truth, would we?  Insurmountable, unarguable truth?  'Can fix ignorant, can't fix stupid.'  ... Right, Governor?

5-12-17

Think people outside our formerly great country aren't also standing up to nazism?  A 16-year-old girl in her scout uniform stood tall.  Uncommon valor. The Washington Post reports:

"It was a strangely international group of nationalists marching down the streets of Brno.  Plastered with an image of burned-out cars and blaring angry music, a van led the crowd through this ancient city in the Czech Republic on Monday. “Stop multi-kulti experimentum!” read the words on the van.  Hundreds followed. Some wore black, with shaved heads and sunglasses. Some waved the green flag of a Slovakian political party whose members used to dress like Nazis and now hold seats in parliament.  European Union flags gashed with red X's flew above the crowd. A huge black banner hailed the German “identitarian” movement — the same label used by the American white nationalist Richard Spencer."

Has the entire world gone nuts?  The scourge of German Nazism, Italian Fascism ended only 72 years ago.  Yet, the world seems to have clearly forgotten lessons learned.  Sadly, both here and abroad.

This young girl courageously confronted the nazi bastards:

"Lucie Myslikova, 16, was standing on the sidelines in her scout's uniform with some friends and handwritten banners: “A good patriot doesn't Heil.”

Indeed, they don't.  Not here.  Not anywhere.  For young readers, Ms. Myslikova is talking about the Heil Hitler salute.  The mark of the Nazi regime.  Right arm snappily extended up and straight out at a 45 degree angle, palm turned upward, accompanied by an equally snappy boot click.

"Their words were swallowed by the passing rally.  But the next day, a photo of Lucie would become a global symbol of defiance against Europe's rising far-right movements: On a continent where many fear the heirs to Nazism are gathering strength, in an amateur photographer's frame, a teenage scout half smiles in the face of dark-glassed anger."

Uncommon valor.  Standing up to goddamned nazis.  Hat's off, Ms. Myslikova.

"Lucie had not been scared, she told The Washington Post. She even told the marcher so, when he warned her that “those refugees will rape you,” the teen recalled in a phone interview.  “I told him they're fleeing a war,” Lucie said in Czech. “This is about life.”

Indeed.

"Lucie has been a Scout for seven years. The global organization's Brno arm has taken her hiking across the Czech Republic and parts of Europe and taught her to accept people no matter who they are or what they think, she said.  She knows that scouting was banned when the Nazis occupied her country during World War II, she said — and by the Communists after that."

Too bad so many of her elders in our formerly great country don't see the danger here. Right now.  As the Trump nazi turns the fascist police-state we already live in to The Fourth Reich.

“I don't think that it's time for another Hitler,” Lucie said. But “there are people who listen to them. They know neo-Nazis are bad, but they might agree with some of what they're saying.”  So when the Worker's Party put on this year's rally on May Day in Brno, Lucie put on her uniform and went down to the square."

Uncommon valor:

"Lucie said she saw a bit of scuffling from the sidelines but no major violence. Nor was she much concerned, she said, when a man with a shaved head made a beeline toward her and started yelling.  “He would knock into me, or grab my friend's shirt,” she said. “But we would tell him: You know you can't hit us. You can't hurt us.”  The man was trying to convince her that she should be frightened about waves of immigrants crossing through Europe, Lucie said.  “Those refugees will rape you,” she recalled him saying. “Maybe you’re not scared, but I’m afraid for my daughter, that they will rape her.”

... A raucous, boot clicking, goose stepping, treasonous, treacherous, traitorous Sieg Heil!, Mr. 'President?'

5-12-17

The following is something the young, and not so young, should never ever forget.  CBS News reports:

"It still appalls him after 70 years. Ben Ferencz says the lack of remorse on the blank faces of the Nazis he prosecuted for killing more than a million innocent people is still revolting. The 97-year-old recalls the scene at Nuremberg in vivid detail to Lesley Stahl on the next edition of 60 Minutes Sunday, May 7 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.  "Defendants' faces were blank all the time…absolutely blank,…like…they're waiting for a bus," recalls Ferencz. Asked what was going on inside him, Ferencz replies, "I'm still churning," as he tears up.  "I'm still churning."

Seatbelts on...

"Ferencz was a 24-year-old Army private with a law degree from Harvard who had served in many of the major battles of World War II, when he was transferred into a new Army unit charged with investigating war crimes.  He entered several newly liberated concentration camps in search of evidence. After the war, as part of the Nuremberg prosecution team, he came upon a cache of secret Nazi reports documenting the systematic killing of more than a million people, victims massacred by SS troops not in concentration camps, but in the towns and cities where they lived."

Think the same could never ever happen here?  Truly believe it?  Mr. Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor still living.  Hat's off, sir, for the justice you've afforded the victims of German Nazism.

"They were 3,000 SS officers trained for the purpose and directed to kill, without pity or remorse, every single Jewish man, woman and child they could lay their hands on," he tells Stahl."

A portend of things to come as our formerly great country expands from the fascist police-state we already live in to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich?

"Now, I will tell you something very profound, which I have learned after many years. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people."

Wake up.

"Ferencz's trial, of 22 commanders of the SS units called Einsatzgruppen, was trial number nine at Nuremberg.  All 22 pled not guilty. "'Nicht Schuldig'…Same thing, not guilty," says Ferencz. But he had their own written reports of the murders they and their men had committed. He didn't even have to call any witnesses. Still the defendants denied their guilt."

Hear this before?  Any time recently?

Coup de grace:

"One in particular did so in such a flagrant way, Ferencz says, he almost lost his composure in the courtroom.  "He gets up and he says, then uttering the words in German before translating, 'What? The Jews were shot?  I hear it here for the first time.'  Boy, I felt if I'd had a bayonet, I would have jumped over the thing and put a bayonet right through one ear and let it come out the other."

How does the saying go?  ... Something to the effect, -- when good men in the face of great evil do nothing, remain silent, they're neither good, -- nor men.

5-12-17

The Trump nazi has again abrogated his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.  CNN reports:

"The order, which Trump inked during a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, directs the IRS to exercise "maximum enforcement discretion" over the Johnson amendment, which prevents churches and other tax-exempt religious organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. It also provides "regulatory relief" for organizations that object on religious grounds to a provision in Obamacare that mandates employers provide certain health services, including coverage for contraception."

This executive order is in direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.  Will certainly be challenged in court.  If churches wish to engage in political activity, need to give up tax exempt status.  Why should taxpayers have to pick up the slack?

The Washington Times reports:

"The White House said the American Civil Liberties Union showed its true colors Thursday by threatening a lawsuit to block President Trump’s executive order that protects political speech by religious institutions and faith-based groups.  "I don’t think anybody is surprised at the ACLU wants to come out against Republicans,” said White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders. “They talk about debating tolerance except when it comes to people of faith and I think that this is actually [something] they should be celebrating, that people are being protected.”

Disingenuous, phony bullshit.  They have the right to say whatever they want.  They don't, however, have the right to endorse candidates, engage in political activity on the taxpayer dime.  If they wish to do so, must give up tax exempt status.  Again, why should looted taxpayers have to pick up the tab?  In essence, pay for their political activity?

"The ACLU said it would sue because of the action and another executive order that lifted the Obamacare mandate for faith-based institutions to pay for abortion services. The ACLU called the orders a “thinly-veiled efforts to unleash his conservative religious base into the political arena while also using religion to discriminate.”

Indeed, that's precisely what these nazis are doing.  Have every right to believe as they wish.  No right to force it on the rest of us.

The nazis in the White House remain achingly delusional:

"The White House counsel’s office is prepared to defend the executive orders, said Ms. Sanders, adding that they were confident they would prevail in court."

Like you've done so far vis a vis immigration, etc.?  That is, the executive orders so far blocked by the courts?

“I think that the Constitution is on our side here,” she said. “The very basis of it is freedom of speech and it shouldn’t be taken away simply because of the faith you may hold.”

Again, blatant distortion of reality.  Has nothing to do with faith belief, free speech, etc..  Believe as you wish.  Talk all you want.  Engage in whatever political activity you see fit.  Endorse whomever you please.  Just don't do it on the taxpayer dime.  Do the right thing.  Give up undeserved tax exempt status.

Stop forcing your outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on the rest of us by statute, etc..  Pure and simple.  It's about discrimination against anyone who doesn't believe as they do.  This cannot, will not, be tolerated in a democratic republic under the United States Constitution.  The Nazi Right is out of control.  Continues to bastardize religion for political purposes.

CBS News reports:

"The actions taken today are a broadside to our country's long-standing commitment to the separation of church and state. Whether by executive order or through backroom deals, it's clear that the Trump administration and Congressional leadership are using religion as a wedge to further divide the country and permit discrimination," said American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romer in a statement."

That's all it is.  Clear bastardization of the First Amendment Establishment Clause for political purposes, expediency.

"The statement went on to say "President Trump's efforts to promote religious freedom are thinly-veiled efforts to unleash his conservative religious base into the political arena while also using religion to discriminate. It's a dual dose of pandering to a base and denying reproductive care. We will see Trump in court, again."

The right thing to do.  Sue the living shit out of the nazi bastard and his equally fascist henchmen.

5-12-17

More of the same.  This time with consequences.  CBS News reports:

"Mark Green -- President Donald Trump's pick for Army secretary -- withdrew his nomination Friday, amid anger from LGBT groups and Democrats over comments he has made about things including transgender issues, Islam and evolution."

Withdrew for damned good reason.  Had disgraced himself.

"It is with deep regret today I am withdrawing my nomination to be the Secretary of the Army," Green, a GOP Tennessee state senator, said in a statement obtained by CBS News' Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett.  "I am honored that President Trump nominated me for this position," Green continued. "I appreciate his support and confidence in me, as well as that of Secretary Mattis and many others, and their desire to Make America Great Again by preparing our military to face the many challenges in the world for the safety and security of our nation. But to meet these challenges, there should be no distractions. And unfortunately due to false and misleading attacks against me this nomination has become a distraction."

Abject bullshit.  A lie:

"Green was under fire for comments on a radio program in which he called Syrian refugees -- in his words, "ISIS people" — and fights for transgender bathroom access, "evil." Green in a 2013 Facebook post also reportedly complained that President Barack Obama "supports transvestites in uniform." Green defended himself against backlash in a Facebook post last month, saying that "certain people are cutting and splicing my words to paint me as a hater."

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, guess what?  It's a f--king duck.

5-12-17

Resistance in Congress is growing.  NBC News reports:

"Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Patty Murray of Washington, along with Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, recently reintroduced the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act. The proposed legislation attempts to reduce harassment and bullying on college campuses by requiring colleges and universities to "establish policies to prohibit harassment based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion."

About time.  Especially, as the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and Republican fascists continue to force their perverse ideological and religious views on all.

"The bill also includes within its ambit "cyberbullying," or harassment that occurs via digital communications, and sets up a competitive grant program for universities to establish preventive training programs and provide counseling to students that experience harassment.  The bill was first introduced in 2010 and is named after Tyler Clementi, who took his own life shortly after fellow Rutgers University students secretly filmed him and posted video online of him and another man. The 18-year-old's death sparked public outcry and motivated the creation of Dan Savage's now global "It Gets Better" campaign and the Tyler Clementi Foundation."

Amazing, isn't it?  That all this remains an issue in 2017:

"Nearly 7 years later, what is different is not the content of the 2017 bill, but the political climate, according to the bill's sponsors. A statement released by the offices of Murray, Baldwin and Pocan refers to a "Trump effect" and mentions both a "hateful" climate on campuses and the Trump administration's own actions on LGBTQ rights."

The Trump nazi, his henchmen, and the GOP continue to shit on these rights.  If civil and constitutional rights and liberties are denied to anyone, guess who's next?

"Lawmakers are deeply concerned with the rise of hateful and intimidating incidents spreading throughout college campuses nationwide, including actions undertaken by President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to withdraw guidance pertaining to discrimination against transgender students under Title IX of the education amendments of 1972," the statement reads."

Republican fascists are directly responsible for this ongoing atrocity.  Remain intent on imposing their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on all by statute, executive order, regulation, etc..  In direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.

Gutlessly refuse to stand up with those fighting for these rights?  Get what you deserve.  Too bad the rest of us suffer for your cowardice.

"The senators also cite Trump's personal demeanor and governing style as creating a permissive environment for anti-LGBTQ bullying and harassment. "Especially now, with a bully-in-chief in the White House, we need to make it clearer than ever that this kind of behavior simply should not be accepted," Murray stated."

Indeed.  Keep shining the spotlight on the fascist bastard, his henchmen, and GOP nazis.

"When asked to respond to the proposed legislation and the "Trump effect" statement issued by the Democratic lawmakers, a White House official shot back."

Certainly, got the attention of the Trump flunky bastard:

"Instead of pointing fingers and placing blame, the Trump administration will continue to work with parents, students and educators to solve the longstanding problem of bullying which distracts students from excelling in schools," the official wrote in an email sent to NBC Out."

A crock of shit.  Symbolism over substance.  The Trump nazi, his henchmen, and GOP fascists are directly responsible for this ongoing problem.  Refuse to take responsibility.

"President Trump is committed to protecting the rights of all Americans, including the LGBTQ community, and continues to be respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights, just as he was throughout the election," the official added."

Abject bullshit.  An outright lie.  Distortion of reality.  Re-write of recent history.  Deception, unbridled, shameless.

"In the joint statement he issued along with Sens. Baldwin and Murray, Rep. Pocan said the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act is so important because "President Trump has not yet shown that his Administration will defend the rights of LGBTQ students."

In fact, quite the opposite.  Despite disingenuous, false claims to the contrary by Trump's henchmen.

"Bullying is a real and persistent danger for many LGBTQ students at our colleges and universities, but there is no federal legislation that specifically protects students from being targeted based on sexual orientation or gender identity," Pocan stated."

Needs to be since the states have not stepped up:

"Only 19 states and the District of Columbia have anti-bullying laws that address sexual orientation and gender identity. Greytack said when these laws do not list protected characteristics, such as gender identity and and sexual orientation, "they really don't help LGBTQ students."

Sick religion rules.  LGBTQ kids pay the price.

5-12-17

Why are taxpayers looted to pay for the following?  Why isn't the Trump nazi picking up the tab?  CBS News reports:

"When Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner took their family to a ski resort in Whistler, Canada during Passover last month, U.S. Secret Service went, too, and the cost of their portion of the trip was over $65,000.  CBS News' Laura Stricker confirms, based on a review of federal purchase orders, that the U.S. Secret Service spent the following on Jared Kushner's and Ivanka Trump's family trip:

    "$6,884.03 for "multi-day ski passes for USSS personnel"
    "$59,654.39 for "hotel accommodations for USSS personnel"

"The purchase orders do not appear to show the travel costs incurred for Secret Service on the trip."

NPR reports:

"For the second time in less than two weeks, the State Department has hit the "delete" button after complaints that it was promoting Trump family business endeavors.  This time, the State Department deleted a retweet of a post by President Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump.  The Office of Global Women's Issues, a small sub-agency at the State Department, used its official Twitter account to retweet an Ivanka Trump tweet touting her new book, Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success. The office has a mandate to "promote the rights and empowerment of women and girls through U.S. foreign policy."

No investigation?  No sanctions?  Why special treatment for the Trump nazi and his family?

5-12-17

Think the Trump nazi and his family aren't using the presidency to line their pockets?  Doing so openly?  NPR reports:

"The sister of President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, highlighted her powerful brother as she pitched financing the family firm's real estate project in New Jersey to Chinese investors."

Have no problem with this?

"That's according to reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times, who were attending the publicly advertised event at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beijing on Saturday before press was removed from the room.  "Speaking in a ballroom, [Nicole] Meyer said the project 'means a lot to me and my entire family,'" according to the Times. "She mentioned her brother's service as chief executive of Kushner Companies, the family business from which he resigned in January, saying he had left to serve in the Trump administration."

The Emoluments Clause is quite clear.  Why isn't it enforced?

"It's highly problematic," Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tells NPR. "It appears that Jared Kushner's family business is using his name and his official position to bring in investment."

That's exactly the intention.  Despite family denials to the contrary.

Far more outrageous?  Visas and a path to citizenship are up for sale:

"The event was organized by QWOS, a firm that helps Chinese citizens access U.S. green cards through investments. Its advertising highlights the controversial EB-5 visa program, which provides a path to a green card to foreign nationals who invest at least half a million dollars and create 10 full-time jobs.  "Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States," said one pamphlet for the event to raise money for the project, according to the Post."

The Trump nazi and his henchmen deny entrance to this country of refugees fleeing oppression, war.  Deport undocumented family members married to American citizens.  Then, to attract business investment in his empire, the 'President' is more than willing to 'sell' visas and a path to citizenship to rich foreigners?

CNN Money reports:

"The EB-5 visa has been used by the Trump and Kushner family businesses. Foreigners, particularly wealthy Chinese nationals, have used the EB-5 program as a ticket into the states. And that promise has helped attract foreign investments for U.S. real estate projects.  President Trump has taken an anti-immigration stance and vowed to severely tighten the use of work visas. The EB-5 program has come under fire by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.  Lawmakers say the program essentially sells citizenship to high-income foreigners."

You think?

5-12-17

Think the Secretary of State isn't a nazi?  Get this.  ABC News reports:

"Translating "America First" into diplomatic policy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has proclaimed that the United States can't always afford to condition its foreign relationships and national security imperatives on countries adopting American values like human rights."

Think this isn't the mark of a fascist?  Political expediency trumps human rights in the world of the Trump nazi and his henchmen:

"In some circumstances, if you condition our national security efforts on someone adopting our values, we probably can't achieve our national security goals," Tillerson said. "It really creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests, our economic interests."

There it is.  Money, power trump all.  Think this national socialist piece of shit fit for office?  Certainly, has no clue national security interests include human rights issues or, more precisely, the lack thereof in countries who have no respect or regard for them.  Power, money clearly cloud his vision, blind him to what's truly important.  Absolutely necessary for world piece and true prosperity for the masses, not just the top 1%.  Thinks like the autocratic corporate titan he once was, not America's top diplomat.

5-12-17

Nothing quite like having to clean egg off your face, is there?  CBS News reports:

"Prosecutors in Maryland said Friday they are dropping rape charges against two teenagers -- undocumented immigrants -- in a case that the White House used to promote President Trump's deportation policy.  "It's horrendous and horrible and disgusting what this young woman in Rockville went through," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in March."

Turned out to be bullshit, 'fake news.'

"Spicer was commenting on a case at Rockville High School in Maryland, just outside of Washington, in which two recent immigrants from Central America, ages 17 and 18, were charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in a school bathroom."

All bullshit.  A ruse.

"Part of the reason that the president has made illegal immigration and crackdown such a big deal is because of tragedies like this," Spicer said. "Immigration plays its toll on our people if it's not done legally."  His remarks drew national attention to the case and contributed to a firestorm of anti-immigrant criticism."

All bullshit.  'Fake news.'  A ruse.

"But the teenagers' lawyers said the sex was consensual and was even planned in advance with the young girl. On Friday, State's Attorney John McCarthy announced the charges were being dropped.  "We have concluded that the facts in this case do not support the original charges filed in this matter," McCarthy said. "This case blew up because they immediately assumed there were immigrants and, as a result, they immediately assumed they were rapists," says Maria Mena, the lawyer for the 17-year-old."

Nazi justice.  In a fascist police-state.  Soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"Both teens are still in custody and they could be facing lengthy deportation proceedings."

Why?

5-12-17

The Trump nazi and his henchmen do not believe in science.  Certainly, won't be confused by it.  The Washington Times reports:

"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt came under fire Monday after he began cleaning house at a key scientific review board, with critics charging the agency once again is prioritizing politics over science."

Precisely, what's happening.  Worse?  The Trump nazi and his henchmen couldn't care less about public health.  Only lining the pockets of their corporate masters, at expense of public health.

"In personnel changes first reported by The New York Times, the EPA has told nine members of its 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors that their terms will not renewed. The board reviews data used in agency rule-making and, during the Obama administration, was made up mostly of academics. In the past, the board has included representatives from private industry."

Expect pollution to increase.  Global warming, as well.  To line corporate coffers, pockets of the top 1%.

"But the incident has given more fuel to progressives who already believe Mr. Pruitt’s EPA is putting science on the back burner — and putting the interests of oil and gas companies first."

No question.  The Republican Way.

“There’s a name for Donald Trump’s environmental policy: aggressive stupidity. The scientists he just fired have been working on nothing more political than making sure our water is safe to drink and our air is safe to breathe,” said Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “By turning them into political targets, Trump is proving yet again that he doesn’t care about ordinary people.”

Doesn't.  Never has.  Only lining his pockets, getting his cookies off abusing power.  This achingly nazi son of a bitch is certainly no populist.

"Throughout his first few months on the job, Mr. Pruitt has maintained that his focus is getting the EPA out of the business of burdensome federal regulations. He’s disputed the notion that under his watch the agency will disregard scientific research."

His actions scream otherwise.  Proof positive he's no more than a liar.

5-12-17

Trouble in Trump 'paradise.' The Washington Times reports:

"In dramatic testimony before a Senate subcommittee, Obama-era acting attorney general Sally Yates said she discussed with Trump administration attorneys the possibility of criminal charges against national security adviser Michael Flynn weeks before he resigned over concerns he lied to the White House about his contacts with Russia.  “This was a matter of some urgency,” Ms. Yates said. “To state the obvious — you don’t want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians.”

Think the shit may be about to hit the fan?

"Flynn’s forced February resignation stemmed from reports that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about discussions he’d had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about U.S. sanctions."

"When asked to further describe her “sense of urgency,” Ms. Yates said she told White House counsel Donald McGahn on January 26 that statements Mr. Flynn was making were further compromising him, in addition to exposing Vice President Mike Pence, who was out publicly defending Mr. Flynn.  Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Ms. Yates if Mr. Flynn had lied to the administration about his Russian contacts, particularly to Vice President Mike Pence.  “It certainly appeared that way - yes,” Ms Yates said."

The question to be answered is why the Trump nazi took so long to dump Flynn's ass.  Not yet clear.

5-12-17

Subsequent to writing the above, the 'President' summarily fired FBI Director James Comey. -- The day after testimony given by Ms. Yates.  Interesting, isn't it?  Apparently, Trump considered him a liability.  After all, the noose seems to be tightening around the necks of Trump's henchmen investigated for possible collusion with the Russians vis a vis interference in the last presidential election.

Comey led the investigation.  The reason given for his firing was ostensibly his handling of the Clinton email investigation last summer.  -- This, after Trump had earlier praised the effort.  Makes no sense.  Not credible.  More likely, Trump wishes to appoint someone he can control.  Precisely, why a special prosecutor needs to be appointed to conduct a truly independent investigation.

Especially, after the following was disclosed:

ABC News reports:

"FBI Director James Comey requested additional money and manpower from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election just days prior to his firing, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation.  The request, first reported by The New York Times, comes as Trump administration officials claim that Comey's termination is unrelated to the investigation. Comey additionally briefed some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on the request on Monday."

Trump nor his henchmen have any credibility.  Remain so clueless they can't understand why the timing of the firing has ignited such a firestorm.

"A spokesperson from the Justice Department explicitly denied that such a request was made, saying it is "100 percent false" and that "it didn't happen."  The spokesperson added that the denial came directly from Rosenstein himself, who authored a letter to Trump Tuesday recommending Comey's dismissal."

Someone's lying.  Guess who?

Outrage is mounting.  Not just from Democrats, however:

"But the timing of the announcement shocked politicians on both sides of the political aisle in part due to the ongoing FBI investigation into possible contacts between Russia and Trump associates during the run-up to the 2016 election and after, which Comey was leading."

The Trump nazi is either desperately trying to cover his ass, -- or remains egregiously incompetent.  How could any president since the Nixon fiasco over 40 years ago not understand the impact, consequences of such a firing and its timing?

The Washington Post reports:

"Last week, then-FBI Director James B. Comey requested more resources from the Justice Department for his bureau’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to two officials with knowledge of the discussion.  Comey, who was fired by President Trump on Tuesday, made the request in a meeting last week with Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, and Senate Intelligence Committee members were briefed on the request Monday, the officials said."

Readers are advised Rosenstein is the official responsible for justifying Comey's firing:

"Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said reports that Comey had requested more funding for the Russia investigation are "totally false." Such a request, she said, "did not happen."  Rosenstein wrote the memo that was used to justify Trump’s swift and unexpected firing of Comey on Tuesday evening."

Stinks to high heaven.  Especially, since subpoenas had recently gone out vis a vis the ongoing congressional investigation.  ... Apparently, the Trump nazi intends to squelch all the investigations.

CBS News reports:

"Former FBI Director James Comey met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week to request more "resources, energy and attention" for the Russian investigation, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News.  Comey then met with the two leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia -- on Monday and informed them about his request to Rosenstein.  A Justice Department spokesman said that the report about Comey requesting more resources "is totally false."

Clearly, somebody's lying.  How can this goddamned government be trusted to get anything right when it all it seems to do now is lie?

"This development comes a day after President Trump fired Comey in a shocking move. In a letter to Comey, the president said that he accepted the recommendation from the attorney general and deputy attorney general that Comey be "terminated and removed from office."

Readers are reminded the Sessions nazi had already earlier recused himself from the investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election, as well as possible collusion by the Trump Campaign.  Then, he recommends Comey be fired, the man leading the investigation.  Anything wrong with this picture, anything at all?

The following is from the letter the Trump nazi sent Comey firing him:

"While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau," he wrote."

Why would the Trump nazi include the last quote above in his letter firing Comey if he wasn't concerned about being a target himself of that very same investigation?  This reeks.  Worse?  No one has confirmed yet whether or not Comey did indeed make these assertions to the Trump nazi.  Makes no sense.  An FBI Director would not have done this.  Not during an ongoing investigation.

CBS News reports:

"Some Congressional Democrats compared FBI Director James Comey's firing to the famous "Saturday Night Massacre" during Watergate. Top Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging the FBI to retain all Russia investigation documents and not share them with the Trump administration."

Indeed, a wise move.  The targets of an investigation should have no access to that information until and unless there are charges brought.

"It was brazen, one of the most staggering, stunning acts of a president compromising an investigation," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said.  Democrats savaged the president's decision, calling it "Nixonian," "mind-boggling" and "a cover-up," reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes. If there was any question about the need for a special prosecutor, there is none now," Blumenthal said."

A special prosecutor should have long since been appointed to eliminate any possibility of this investigation being compromised by the 'President' or his henchmen.  Republicans should have demanded this themselves.  To ensure their return to office.

"Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused the Trump administration of systematically silencing law enforcement leaders who cross them.  "They fired Sally Yates. They fired Preet Bharara. And now they fired Director Comey, the very man leading the investigation. This does not seem to be a coincidence," Schumer, D-N.Y., said."

No, it does not.  Yet, Democrats are not the only ones crying foul:

"Some Republicans were scathing too. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said on Twitter: "I've spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey's firing. I just can't do it."

This should remain a non-partisan issue.  As it was over forty years ago during the Nixon fiasco.  Republicans stood tall.  Did the right thing.  Should do the same when and if there is indeed proof Trump and/or his henchmen conspired with the Russians.  That's what an unbiased investigation is for. To determine the truth.

The Washington Post reports:

"Aftershocks from President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey roiled the Senate on Wednesday, as key Republicans criticized Trump’s decision and Democrats slowed committee business to protest the lack of an independent investigation into Russia’s election meddling.  The Justice Department also began to confirm reports that the White House has denied — that Comey sought more resources for his probe into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government shortly before he was fired.  “I understand that there have been additional requests. That’s all I can say,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters midday."

The Trump nazi clearly didn't fully think through Comey's firing and its timing.

"A chaotic morning had already unfolded in the upper chamber, as Democrats gathered on the Senate floor, invoked an obscure Senate rule that prevents committee hearings from continuing past midday and then met to discuss how to intensify their push for a special prosecutor."

Should have gotten off their ass quite some time ago.  Remain an achingly small fraction of what their party formerly stood for.  Are bought and paid for by their corporate masters, -- as are GOP fascists.

"Meanwhile, the Republican leader of the Intelligence Committee said Comey’s firing will frustrate bipartisan efforts to investigate Russian interference in the election and any possible ties between the Kremlin and associates of Trump."

The criminal investigation conducted by the FBI needs to continue unabated.

"The boldest, most extreme step Democrats could take is to slow Senate business to a crawl. They could refuse to allow consideration of any legislation or nominees awaiting confirmation votes until Trump agrees to appoint a special prosecutor."

If Republicans refuse to stand tall, precisely what Democrats should do.

NPR reports:

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were interviewing four candidates Wednesday to serve as interim FBI director, following the firing of James Comey.  The fact that Sessions is conducting the interviews also raises an ethical question regarding his pledge to recuse himself from investigations dealing with the Trump campaign. The FBI, which the attorney general oversees, is conducting an investigation into Trump associates' ties to Russia."

The Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi, do as they please.  Ethics?  What's that?

5-5-17

In follow up to an earlier edition of this publication, The Washington Post reports:

"Baton Rouge Acting U.S. Attorney Corey Amundson announced Wednesday that federal prosecutors will not bring charges against the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, asserting that all the prosecutors and agents who investigated the matter found “insufficient evidence” to proceed with a prosecution."

Convenient, isn't it?  As expected, they protected and coddled the bastards.  Expect far more of the same as the Sessions nazi determinedly ignores egregious criminal activity perpetrated by the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue.  Resistance must remain ferocious, but peaceful.  Otherwise, you grant the bastards carte blanche to murder on the job.

“There are no winners here, and there are no victories for anybody,” Amundson said. “A man has died, a father, a nephew has died. My heart goes out to the family.”

Go f--k yourself, Counselor.  You've disgraced yourself and the oath you falsely took to protect and defend the Constitution.

"A video of the July 5 shooting shows Sterling, 37, lying on his back with two officers on top of him. One of the officers appears to yell, “He’s got a gun!” and then shots ring out."

A ruse, the fascist bastards in the Trump nazi's 'Justice' Department gutlessly rubber stamped.  No justice in a fascist police-state.  Soon to be the Fourth Reich.  Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looming on the horizon.  As the doomsday clock strikes ever closer to midnight.

NPR reports:

"Relatives of Alton Sterling say they're frustrated and saddened by news that the Justice Department won't prosecute two Baton Rouge, La., police officers who were involved in the man's shooting death last summer.  Video footage of the killing showed the officers holding Sterling on the ground when he was shot multiple times, prompting protests and a federal inquiry."

No justice.  A goddamned fascist police-state.  Soon to be the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  A raucous, boot clicking, goose stepping, treasonous, treacherous, traitorous Sieg Heil!, Mr. 'President?'  You're out of uniform, sir.  Where is your swastika armband?

5-5-17

The following is indicative of precisely how sick, convoluted, and perverse the achingly fascist criminal jackbooted bastards in blue have become.  How they present an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties. The Washington Times reports:

"Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. on Friday issued criticism that spanned the political spectrum, telling gun-rights activists that “rat bastards on the left” never give up while also saying some of the misadventures of the GOP-led Congress can be “very painful” to watch."

What is truly painful to watch is nazis like 'Sheriff' Clarke make absolute jackasses of themselves, yet psychotically, ludicrously consider themselves to be good law enforcement officers who supposedly embrace civil and constitutional rights and liberties while doing the exact opposite.  Readers will recall this piece of shit has been featured before in this publication.  People who 'think' like him present an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

“We won a huge battle last November, but we did not win the war,” Sheriff Clarke said at the NRA lobbying arm’s 2017 Leadership Forum. “You see, our fight for freedom continues in earnest.”  “You see, these rat bastards on the left never give up,” he said. “No, I didn’t misspeak."

You wouldn't know freedom if it bit you hard on the ass, you fascist son of a bitch.  What you clearly don't understand, miss in your nazi zeal is the fact those of us in the Center and Left are fighting your goddamned attempt to force expansion of the fascist police-state we already live in to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.  Over half this country will never, ever accept the blatant nazification of our formerly great country by nazis like you, 'Sheriff.'

Psychotically, believe all in the Center and Left eschew gun rights?  Think so?  Like you nazis on the Right, we're well aware the Founders intended the Second Amendment as the last best defense against outrageously corrupt, abusive government.  Precisely, why we'll never give up those rights.  Never.  Especially, at a time when our formerly great country continues to nazify.  As the Trump nazi desperately attempts to extend the goddamned fascist police-state we already live in to the Fourth Reich.

Insult to injury?

“You see, for them defeat is never final. Election defeats don’t matter,” he said. “It’s simply a time to regroup and continue their assault on our Constitution, the rule of law, liberty, and American exceptionalism."

You mean like Republican nazis did to Obama for eight years, 'Sheriff?'  Obstructing every step of the way?  Wake up, 'Sheriff.'  The election was stolen.  With help from the Russians.  Possibly as well from collusion by the Trump nazi and his henchmen with the Russians.  To say nothing of the FBI Director desperately trying to throw the election just days before.

-- Not that Hillary, however, was any better choice than the Trump nazi.  The assault on the Constitution comes from you "rat bastards" on the Nazi Right.  Forget?  You haughtily dictate to a woman what she can and cannot do with her uterus. Not yours, you fascist son of a bitch.  To concertedly, determinedly force GOP achingly perverse ideological and religious views on all by statute.

In direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is freedom from religion.  You nazi bastards have deliberately overloaded the courts with GOP fascists more than willing to legislate their equally perverse ideological and religious views from the bench.  To say nothing of gerrymandering election districts to ensure Republican nazis attain and retain office.

Your fellow criminal jackbooted bastards in blue, prosecutors, and the courts have eviscerated all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  To consolidate Executive power, establish a goddamned fascist police-state.  What rule of law?  The law clearly doesn't apply to you goddamned jackbooted bastards in blue.  You bastards murder innocent unarmed civilians with impunity.

When was the last time a murderous jackbooted bastard in blue was executed?  When?  When will the rule of law apply to all in our formerly great country, you fascist son of a bitch?  Where is your swastika armband, 'Sheriff?'  You're out of uniform.  Worse?  Out of your league.  What 'American exceptionalism'  Where?

Talking about every undeclared war since 1950 not-so-cleverly designed to line the pockets of the war profiteering corporate management suite?  Even the war in Afghanistan could have been avoided had the State Department conducted full background checks on the 9/11 terrorists.  Heeded warnings from flight schools that the terrorists only wished to learn to fly straight and level, not take off and land.  Instead, "rat bastards" in both the GOP and Democratic Party gutlessly sold us out.  Eviscerated all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

Wake up, you achingly ignorant, fascist son of a bitch.  Ferociously pointedly, take your head out of your ass.  Butt hole stinks.  Clouds your vision.  Perverts judgment.  So much so, this piece of crap gutlessly cherry picks fringe bullshit, makes insane statements with no basis in fact:

“Now, why would I call them rat bastards?” he said. “First of all, because I can. Second, as you know I call ‘em as I see ‘em. But third and more importantly, just listen to Saul Alinsky, a socialist professor who admired Lucifer, for heaven’s sake. And Alinsky’s admired by the left.”

That all you got, 'Sheriff?'  No more than a narcissist like your goddamned fuhrer, the Trump nazi?  Cherry pick nonsense from someone on the lunatic fringe of the Left to match your equally psychotic rhetoric coming from the Nazi Right?  A pox on both your houses, you fascist son of a bitch.

“As you know, I worked hard to help Donald Trump get elected president of the United States, and I will fight even harder to help him make American great again,” he said."

Like the Trump nazi, 'Sheriff,' you're an unhinged wing nut.  Unfit for office.  Ferociously pointedly?  How is the Trump nazi making America great again by extending the goddamned fascist police-state we already live in to the Fourth Reich?  You, and others who 'think' like you, dangerously present an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  A threat far greater than any foreign power, terrorist organization, or the criminal element.

5-5-17

In an attempt to rein in the Trump nazi militarily, a Democrat has introduced a bill regarding a new AUMF.  The Washington Times reports:

"The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee introduced a new bill Thursday to revoke the broad war-making powers granted to the president in 2001 and 2002 and to replace them with a much slimmer authorization targeting the Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban."

Nowhere near enough.  Grants the insane, fascist son of a bitch way too much leeway.  The solution is to replace AUMFs with what the Constitution clearly demands, a congressional declaration of war.

"Rep. Adam Schiff’s Authorization for the Use of Military Force would give the president the power to commit ground troops to the fight, but puts a three-year limit on the authorization."

Nowhere near good enough.  Far too much latitude for the Republican national socialist.  Why not rein the nazi in?  Re-assert congressional authority to declare war?  Instead of allowing presidents to continue to line the pockets of their war-profiteering masters in the corporate management suite?

“For far too long, Congress has abdicated its constitutional responsibility to authorize military action abroad, effectively ceding the war-making power to the executive branch,” said Mr. Schiff in a statement announcing the resolution, which he sponsored along with nine fellow Democrats."

Your bill goes nowhere near accomplishing your stated objective, Congressman.  Worse, has a snowball's chance of passing the House.  Worse?  The Senate.  Forget?  Both houses of Congress are run and owned by GOP nazis hellbent on lining not only their pockets, but those of their corporate masters.  Care nothing about military personnel who do the fighting and dying to line the pockets of Corporate America.

5-5-17

One hundred days into the Trump regime, the country remains more divided than ever.  The Trump nazi is certainly unhappy about Republicans in Congress who failed to march in goose step.  Amusingly, after all the bullshit, fanfare, grandiose claims during the campaign, the Trump nazi has yet to sign one major piece of legislation into law.

Comically, however, not the fault of Democrats, but Republicans themselves who couldn't agree on the extent of the f--king they  were willing to inflict on the bottom and middle class to line the pockets of the top 1% with tax breaks.  At a time of record corporate profits and cash reserves.  Precisely, why Trumpcare failed the first time around.

Why tax breaks will be delayed since GOP nazis need evisceration of Obamacare to finance tax relief for the very top.  While the bottom and middle class go without care they will no longer be able to access.  Will wind up in emergency rooms sicker and more expensive to treat.  At taxpayer expense.  GOP nazis couldn't care less.  As long as they get theirs, no problem.  ... Right, TL?  TB?

While the Trump nazi remains stymied in court on his immigration and sanctuary cities executive orders, the Sessions nazi continues to defend the right of the 'President' to rhetorically eviscerate the judges who have had the courage to stand up to the goddamned fascist.  CBS News reports:

"Sessions said that the "greatest threat to the independence of the judiciary is if judges become more political and people cease to believe they're deciding opinions based on law and facts."

Too late for that, you clueless fascist son of a bitch.  Both extremes routinely do so on the bench.  When on the Right, quite acceptable?  Happens all the time.  Latest example?  The Gorsuch nazi ensconced on the Supreme Court.  When on the Left, egregiously unacceptable to nazis like you, Mr. Attorney General?  Indeed, a goddamned double standard.

Here is the long-term result of the mindless, achingly convoluted crackdown on illegal immigration: The break up of families.  Zola Cervante is one such victim.  Here is part of her story as reported by NPR:

"Every other weekend, I pack a suitcase: a sketchbook, laptop, homework, clothes and my navy blue U.S. passport. That's my ticket to see my dad, who has been living alone in Tijuana, Mexico, for the past six years.  Apá, as I call him, was deported when I was 11 years old and my family's life has never been the same. Separation defines our routine — the stress, the traffic, the hellos and the goodbyes."

While this happened during the Obama regime and, most pointedly and unlike Democrats, don't Republican nazis claim to be the party of the family?

"Every time I see my dad, I get emocionada — like excited but emotional at the same time. Apá is 46 years old. He's not very tall, but he didn't seem so short six years ago.  That's when my childhood ended."

Indeed, it did. During the Obama regime:

"I was 10, asleep in bed, when the sound of police sirens outside my home woke me up. A friend started a fight while visiting my aunt at the house. The "compadre" got rowdy and threatened my mom. That's when my dad grabbed a gun to protect us and got in trouble.  It's hard to talk about this night with my family.  My dad was arrested and charged with assault with a firearm and possession of an unregistered weapon. He was married to my mother, an American citizen born in New York, but Apá says he never applied for citizenship, which he now regrets."

Gets worse:

"You think you are established [in the country] and that nothing can happen," he says. "I never thought."  My dad was tried and found guilty in June of 2010 of being in possession of and brandishing an unlawful weapon. It was the day of my fifth-grade graduation. Within a year, Apá was deported to Tijuana."

For defending his family as an undocumented alien.

"Back then, U.S. deportations were on the rise and peaked in 2012 when more than 400,000 people were deported."

Under the Obama regime.  Yet, the Trump nazi and his equally fascist henchmen, as well as clueless supporters falsely claim Obama was soft on illegal immigration.  What planet do these goddamned hopelessly ignorant nazis live on?  Yet, these GOP nazis falsely, haughtily claim to be the party of the family?  Give me a break.  The hypocrisy reeks.

Coup de grace?

"Apá doesn't have family in Tijuana, but he chooses to live there to be as close as he can to us in Los Angeles. He worries about us a lot.  "It's just living in a constant fear ... not being able to do anything in case anything happens," he says."

Nazi America.  A goddamned fascist police-state soon to be transformed by the Trump nazi and his henchmen into The Fourth Reich.  The Founders?  Spinning in their graves.  Appalled at how achingly gutless we've grown, cowardly willing to tolerate this bullshit.

Great humor in at least one aspect of this growing insanity in the Trump regime.  Get this.  NBC News reports:

"Aliens are here and up to mischief — if the prank calls to a newly established government hotline are to be believed."

Gets better:

"Reports of space aliens and UFOs may have tied up lines at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's newly launched office for victims following a frenzied Twitter campaign on Wednesday."

Doesn't your heart bleed for Trump's equally clueless henchmen?

"The VOICE hotline, established on Wednesday through an executive order, aims to provide public information and resources to the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants."

Very few instances of such crimes.  The Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi continue to talk out the ass.  Lie like hell.  To impose their fascist ideology.

"But one Twitter user decided to take a stand against the hotline, which he considers "absurd," after noticing that it was introduced on Alien Day — an annual promotional event dedicated to the Alien movie franchise starring Sigourney Weaver.  Alex McCoy, 28, encouraged others online to call the hotline and report encounters with extraterrestrial beings.  "I thought this was a chance to push back on how Trump has demonized the immigrant community. [The idea] really took off," he told NBC News."

Indeed, it did.  Further indication of precisely how much resistance the Trump nazi and his henchmen are generating.

"McCoy said that wait times were over 20 minutes and that the line crashed Thursday morning."

Not surprisingly, the government denied it:

"ICE spokesperson Bryan Cox said the hotline did not crash but confirmed to NBC News that the office received alien-related prank calls. He said additional operators will be added if future data reveals long wait times.  The VOICE line remains in operation," Cox said. "As yesterday was its first day I can't give you any sense of whether this group had any impact at all on wait times or call volume because there's no prior data to compare."

Called bullshit.  Fudging the truth.  Then again, what else would you expect from a national socialist, fascist, jackbooted law enforcement agency clearly out of uniform?  No swastika armbands.

"Asked why he opposes the new office, McCoy said resources for victims of crime already exist, but the Trump administration is highlighting offenses committed by immigrants in order to advance his "long attack" against the community."

Indeed, he is.  What national socialist in the mold of Hitler, Mussolini would not?  McCoy is certainly no commie wing nut:

"The online campaign was personal for McCoy, who said he served as a U.S. Marine overseas from 2008 to 2013 alongside immigrants in uniform. McCoy now works for Common Defense, an organization of military members opposed to President Donald Trump's policies."

What patriotic American would not stand up to Trump and his effort to impose the Fourth Reich?

The Trump nazi at one hundred days has done what no other president has done in at least the last hundred years.  Pissed and moaned about the changes in life required as president.  CNN reports:

"President Donald Trump, reflecting on a first 100 days in office that has featured no major legislative wins and low approval ratings, said Thursday he thought the job would be easier."

Proof positive this piece of shit hadn't a clue.  Expected to run the government like a business.  The government is no business.  Certainly, not in a democratic republic with several levels of government and branches.  The nazi clearly didn't understand he couldn't dictate his will as president.  Unlike a CEO in the corporate arena.

"I loved my previous life, I loved my previous life. I had so many things going," Trump said in an interview with Reuters. "I actually, this is more work than my previous life. I thought it would be easier."

Can always do what's in the best interests of the country.  Resign in disgrace.

"I do miss my old life. This -- I like to work. But this is actually more work."

Imagine that.  Couldn't be, could it?  What planet does this nazi live on?

"And, while I had very little privacy, in my old life because, you know, I've been famous for a long time. I really -- this is much less privacy than I've seen before. This is, you know, something that's really amazing. At the same time, you're really into your own cocoon because there's such massive protection, that you really can't go anywhere."

Tough shit.  Do the right thing.  Resign in disgrace.  You remain egregiously unfit for office, an exigent threat to all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

The Trump nazi continues to have psychotic visions of grandeur.  ABC News reports:

"I truly believe that the first 100 days of my Administration has been just about the most successful in our country's history," Trump says in his weekly address, released Friday, a day ahead of the milestone."

Not one major piece of legislation has been signed into law.  The Gorsuch nazi has already legislated his perverse ideological and religious views from the bench on the Supreme Court.  Immigration and sanctuary cities executive orders remain blocked by the courts.  The Sessions nazi on behalf of his fuhrer, the Trump nazi, is doing all he can to reverse DOJ oversight of the murderous criminal jackbooted bastards in blue.  Trumpcare went down in flames.  In the latest version considered, became quickly known that members of Congress and their staffs would be allowed to remain on Obamacare while the states could opt out.  That provision was hastily withdrawn, obviously to avoid public backlash.

The Trump nazi continues to eviscerate regulations desperately needed by the country to protect public health and safety.  Regulations of the corporate management suite are being gutted to line the pockets of his cronies in the corporate management suite at expense of the bottom of the food chain and middle class.  To say nothing of the massive assault on privacy designed to line the pockets of these very same hopelessly greedy bastards.  Net neutrality to be eviscerated.  Tax overhaul by the Trump nazi and fellow Republican fascists is being cleverly designed to benefit themselves and the rest of the top 1% at expense of the bottom and middle class.  Sadly, the list can go on and on.  All achingly negative.  Certainly, this piece of shit is no populist.

What accomplishments?  Other than for the corporate management suite and the rest of the top 1%?  Shit squat.  Aren't we lucky?  Truly blessed?

The Trump nazi continues to insanely flip flop and lie on a continual basis.  Certainly, has our allies in a quandary.  Latest example?  The Washington Times reports:

"President Trump pushed back Friday against South Korea’s objections to paying for a U.S.-deployed missile defense system, insisting that it’s “appropriate” for Seoul to shoulder the $1 billion cost.  “Why should we pay for it?” Mr. Trump said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Times. “It’s a phenomenal protective system, best in the world by far, and that’s meant to protect South Korea. So I respectfully say that I think it would be appropriate if they paid for it.”

Then, flip flopped.  Said the U.S. would pay for it after all.  Many in South Korea remain opposed to it, have protested.  Don't want the escalation.

Conflicts of interest regarding Trump's business empire remain unresolved a hundred days in.  ABC News reports:

"When it comes to avoiding conflicts of interest in the White House, President Donald Trump has ripped up the playbook in his first 100 days.  Most presidents have taken pains to avoid even any appearance that they might be exploiting their office for personal financial gain. Trump doesn't seem too worried."

What fascist dictator would?  Does as he pleases.  So far, with impunity.

"His company has doubled membership fees at his Palm Beach club, whose popularity has benefited from press coverage of his meetings there with political leaders."

Taxpayer money has been used to provide security and routinely transport the nazi there on nearly a continual basis to the tune of millions.

"The Trump Organization, now under the leadership of his sons Don Jr. and Eric Trump, has proceeded with overseas resort projects, thereby handing foreign governments potential leverage to influence the president. Trump has boasted of the charms of his new luxurious Washington hotel despite the impropriety of having diplomats bent on advancing their countries' interests spend money there."

Certainly, an issue vis a vis the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and its prohibition of such.

"Asked about a lawsuit filed by a watchdog group accusing him of profiting off the presidency, Trump was dismissive: "Totally without merit."

Interesting to see how long this goes on with impunity.  -- As our formerly great country expands from a fascist police-state to the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"The Trump International Hotel near the White House, where diplomats like to stay and the embassies of Bahrain and Azerbaijan recently threw parties, according to a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The watchdog group argues that the president is violating a clause in the U.S. Constitution barring him from accepting payments from foreign governments without Congress' consent."

Still to be resolved.  Other Trump family members continue to financially benefit from the Trump nazi's presidency.

The gutless Trump nazi still will not take responsibility for his disgraced former national security advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn currently under investigation.  Laid the blame on Obama.  -- Despite the fact the former president fired the son of a bitch.

In a dangerous twist, the Trump nazi is giving the military power to act on its own.  CBS News reports:

"The White House is giving the Pentagon greater flexibility to determine the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, in another move by President Donald Trump to shift greater power to his military leaders."

Clearly, the Trump nazi doesn't understand why there is the need for civilian control and oversight of the military.  Why the Secretary of Defense and the Commander In Chief are civilians.

The mark of a nazi dictator?  Breaking the court system up to his advantage.  Fox News reports:

"President Trump upped his battle with the federal appeals court potentially standing in the way of his agenda, saying Wednesday he “absolutely” has considered proposals to break up the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit.  Trump made the comments in an interview with The Washington Examiner. His complaints came on the heels of the appeals court earlier this year helping block his controversial “travel ban” and a federal District Court judge in northern California on Tuesday blocking his bid to cut off sanctuary city funding."

Tough, isn't it?  The Trump nazi wants unlimited dictatorial power in a supposedly democratic republic.  Called treason.  Direct abrogation of his oath of office to protect and defend the United States Constitution.

"That judge, William Orrick, is not on the 9th Circuit bench, but the case could hit that court if appealed."

Tough shit.

"Trump accused his opponents of “judge shopping,” and told the Examiner they “immediately run to the 9th Circuit.”

Republican nazis don't do the same?  Don't overload the courts with GOP national socialists more than willing to legislate their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views from the bench?  In direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.

"And he gave a nod to congressional proposals to split up the appeals court into smaller parts."

Likely, won't happen.  Democrats will filibuster.  Republican nazis not likely to invoke the nuclear option on legislation.  Would come back to quickly bite them hard on the ass.  Even if they did, would set off a 'war' in Congress unlike ever seen before.  Absolutely nothing would get done.  Worse than now.

Think the 9th Circuit liberal?  Get this.  CBS News reports:

"Employers can legally pay women less than men for the same work based on differences in the workers' previous salaries, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.   The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court ruling Thursday that said pay differences based exclusively on prior salaries were discriminatory under the federal Equal Pay Act.  That's because women's earlier salaries are likely to be lower than men's because of gender bias, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Seng said in a 2015 decision."

The 9th Circuit liberal?  Clearly, bought and paid for, securely in the pocket of its hopelessly greedy, achingly misogynist masters in the corporate management suite.  Ladies?  You're egregiously being f--ked over by the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and the court system clearly in bed with the corporate management suite.  Trump a populist?  Give me a f--king break.  All bullshit.  A ruse.

"A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit cited a 1982 ruling by the court that said employers could use previous salary information as long as they applied it reasonably and had a business policy that justified it."

Think these bought and paid for nazi 'judges' aren't in the pocket of the corporate management suite?  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, guess what?  It's a f--king duck.

"This decision is a step in the wrong direction if we're trying to really ensure that women have work opportunities of equal pay," said Deborah Rhode, who teaches gender equity law at Stanford Law School. "You can't allow prior discriminatory salary setting to justify future ones or you perpetuate the discrimination."

The corporate management suite and its bought and paid for GOP shills don't want equal pay.  Hurts the bottom line.  They want indentured servitude.  Grants them near unlimited power.  Lines their pockets.

The public is stupid.  Achingly, gutlessly stupid.  Why cooperate with your corporate masters by sharing your salary history?  Why literally bare your asses for corporate inspection by the company doctor?  Piss in a jar under company supervision?  To sit at a computer all day, stock shelves, etc..  For a measly salary with little to no benefits.  Struggle to get by day to day while your corporate masters and shareholders live in the lap of luxury?

When you're downsized to line corporate coffers at a time of record corporate profits and cash reserves, why do you gutlessly, cowardly, stupidly agree to train your foreign replacements who will work for a fraction of your salary?  Have no one but yourselves to blame.  Forget?  You put up with this bullshit generation after generation after generation.  Acquiesce to the f--king.  Instead of rising up against your oppressors.  Think the Founders aren't spinning in their graves?  Wouldn't recognize the country they fought so hard to create.

Truly believe the Trump nazi is looking out for your best interests, ladies?  Wake up.  ABC News reports:

"The White House says President Donald Trump is appointing the former president of a leading anti-abortion organization to a senior position at the Department of Health and Human Services.  Charmaine Yoest, who actively supported Trump in his campaign, will serve as assistant secretary of public affairs at HHS. From 2008 until February 2016, she was president of Americans United for Life, which campaigned at the federal and state level for tough restrictions on abortion."

These fascist bastards are desperately forcing their outrageously perverse ideological and religious views on all.  In direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.

"Under Yoest, the group promoted measures that would require women seeking abortions to undergo a sonogram and impose tough regulations on abortion clinics that could lead to their closure."

That sonogram is medically unnecessary.  A highly invasive transvaginal procedure that amounts to sexual assault.  Precisely, why doctors remain so opposed.

"Yoest began her career serving under Ronald Reagan in the Office of Presidential Personnel and was an adviser to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign."

The above further proof the nazism is deeply entrenched, for quite some time.  Won't change until you rise up.  Say no more.  If not, get what you richly deserve.

Think the following is no more than symbolism over substance?  More of the same old, same old?  An effort to cover its ass in response to increased criticism vis a vis egregious warrantless invasion of citizen privacy in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment?  Here is an NSA statement courtesy of NPR:

NSA Stops Certain Foreign Intelligence Collection Activities Under Section 702

    The National Security Agency is instituting several changes in the way it collects information under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

    Section 702, set to expire at the end of this year, allows the Intelligence Community to conduct surveillance on only specific foreign targets located outside the United States to collect foreign intelligence, including intelligence needed in the fight against international terrorism and cyber threats.

    NSA will no longer collect certain internet communications that merely mention a foreign intelligence target. This information is referred to in the Intelligence Community as "about" communications in Section 702 "upstream" internet surveillance. Instead, NSA will limit such collection to internet communications that are sent directly to or from a foreign target.

    Even though NSA does not have the ability at this time to stop collecting "about" information without losing some other important data, the Agency will stop the practice to reduce the chance that it would acquire communications of U.S. persons or others who are not in direct contact with a foreign intelligence target.

    Finally, even though the Agency was legally allowed to retain such "about" information previously collected under Section 702, the NSA will delete the vast majority of its upstream internet data to further protect the privacy of U.S. person communications.

    The changes in policy followed an in-house review of Section 702 activities in which NSA discovered several inadvertent compliance lapses.

    NSA self-reported the incidents to both Congress and the FISC, as it is required to do. Following these reports, the FISC issued two extensions as NSA worked to fix the problems before the government submitted a new application for continued Section 702 certification. The FISC recently approved the changes after an extensive review.

    The Agency's efforts are part of its commitment to continuous improvement as we work to keep the nation safe. NSA has a solemn responsibility and duty to do our work exactly right while carrying out our critical mission.

You're egregiously, determinedly f--king the people you've sworn to protect, serve.  Shitting on all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  The real threat to this country is no foreign power, terrorist organization, or the criminal element.  It's, now, all levels and branches of government.  A government that's egregiously betrayed the people it's falsely sworn to protect and serve.  Precisely, why an unwanted dreaded second American revolution catastrophically looms on the horizon.  Hear the rumble?

5-5-17

The Trump nazi's mental fitness for office remains in question.  Why would a president invite a brutal dictator who's murdered thousands of his own people to the White House?  NPR reports:

"During a "very friendly" phone conversation, President Donald Trump invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, signaling a massive shift in attitude from the U.S. toward a leader known best for inciting an extrajudicial war on drugs in his country that's killed more than 7,500 people."

This sound rational to you?  Would anyone in his right mind invite an individual like this to the Oval Office?

"Duterte also publicly attacked Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, multiple times last year, once calling Obama the "son of a whore," before walking that statement back. In October, Duterte said Obama could "go to hell" and he also threatened to "break up" with the U.S."

Is the Trump nazi so afraid of the North Korean dictator he would get in bed with this insane son of a bitch in the Phiippines just to secure yet another ally?

Insult to injury:

"A statement from the White House said Trump invited Duterte to discuss the "importance of the United States-Philippines alliance," and that the two also talked about "the fact that the Philippine government is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs."

This sound nuts to you?  ... Particularly, the last quote above?  This son of a bitch is responsible for the murder of more than 7,500 people in his country who he claims were either drug users or involved in the drug trade.  Now, the Trump nazi wishes to personally congratulate him in the Oval Office for "fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs?"  Anything wrong with this picture?  Anything at all?

"The tactics Duterte has used to wage that battle, since he was elected in June, have garnered global reprimands.  "Do your duty, and in the process, you kill 1,000 persons, I will protect you," Duterte told police on July 1, the day after he was sworn in, Michael Sullivan reported for NPR."

This, a dictator you want visiting the Trump nazi in the Oval Office?

"The Philippines president has also been accused of encouraging civilians to kill people attempting to buy or sell drugs."

This, the kind of law enforcement you 'law and order' Republican fascists in Nazi Llano Country want here?

"Forget the laws on human rights," he said in his final campaign speech before he was elected. In September, he compared himself to Adolf Hitler."

This, why you GOP fascists here in Nazi Llano County voted for the Trump nazi?  What you want here as well?

"In December, Duterte released a statement saying Trump had told him he was conducting his war on drugs "the right way." Less than three weeks later, the top human rights official with the United Nations called for the Philippines leader to be investigated for murder."

Have full faith and trust in the lunatic occupying the Oval Office?

"It isn't the first time since Trump has taken office that he has looked past a leader's human rights issues, in an effort to strengthen ties.  Trump called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month, to congratulate him on a victory that gave the authoritarian leader increased power, and the two are scheduled to meet in person in Washington next month."

He congratulated a dictator.  No problem with that?  This, now the American Way?

"The White House also hosted Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi a few weeks ago, despite concerns about an Egyptian government that's sent tens of thousands of political dissidents to jail since the 2013 coup that brought el-Sissi to power."

No problem with that either?  Trump's invitation set off a firestorm.  Fox News reports:

"Not only were U.S. lawmakers left scratching their heads at the Duterte invite, but The New York Times reported that officials at the State Department and the National Security Council were caught off guard and that it’s likely to spur internal objections."

You think?

"Duterte’s leadership in the Philippines and his controversial war on drugs has led to a sharp spike in extrajudicial killings. He’s been accused of masterminding mass killings and is facing a complaint for alleged mass murder before the International Criminal Court.  He’s also threatened to kill Filipino journalists, bragged about personally executing people and has spoken about his willingness to commit rape. He’s also compared himself to Adolf Hitler."

Think saner members of the Trump regime aren't appalled?  Here is the issue the invitation poses:

“President Trump weakens American values when he fails to stand up for human rights,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a written statement Monday. “President Duterte has overseen the illegal killing of thousands of his own people in the Philippines. By welcoming Duterte to meet with him in the White House, Trump risks giving Duterte’s actions – and his brutal human rights violations – an American stamp of approval.”

Worse?

"Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted, “We are watching in real time as the American human rights bully pulpit disintegrates into ash.”

What happened to our formerly great country?  We've lost ourselves.  Equally to the point?  Get this:

"Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., in a statement, said Trump's invitation was "unnecessary" for addressing the North Korea threat.   “President Trump's decision to welcome the Philippines’ leader to Washington at a time when thousands of Filipinos are being slaughtered in the streets—at President Duterte’s direction—calls into question long held American policy of promoting human rights and the rule of law,” he said in a statement."

Ferociously:

"John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, took it a step further and said Trump is “morally complicit in future killings.”  “Although the traits of his personality likely make it impossible, Trump should be ashamed of himself,” he added."

Consider yourself a Christian?  Support the Trump nazi no matter what he says, does?  Think the Head Honcho of your religion would approve?

The Trump nazi has praised six dictators around the world.  Sen. McCain is not a happy camper. The Washington Times reports:

"Sen. John McCain called President Trump’s praise of dictators around the world “disturbing” on Tuesday.  “It’s very distributing. It’s disturbing because we’re proud Republicans, and we stand for human rights,” Mr. McCain told MSNBC."

No Senator, that's not quite true.  You're one of the few who do.  ... To your great credit.

Don't think Trump delusional?  How about a recent news interview on CBS the Trump nazi, in a pique of anger, walked out on?  The Washington Times reports:

"President Trump became agitated in an pre-taped interview that aired Monday with CBS News’ John Dickerson when asked about claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him."

Can't have that, can we?

"Mr. Trump said that despite an initial warm welcome from Mr. Obama, he and the former president have not had a relationship since due to claims the Obama administration put the Trump campaign under surveillance.  “You saw what happened with surveillance, and everybody saw what happened with surveillance,” Mr. Trump said."

Say what?  This sound like a man with all his marbles?  In control of himself?

“Look you can figure it out yourself, [Mr. Obama] was very nice to me with words, and when I was with him, but after that there has been no relationship.”

Wonder why?

"Mr. Dickerson continued asking the president why he made such claims, including calling Mr. Obama “sick” and “bad,” to which Mr. Trump became aggravated and ended the interview in the Oval Office.  “I think our side has been proven very strongly,” Mr. Trump said. “You don’t have to ask me. Thank you, thank you very much.”

Sound rational?

Consider the following exchange early on in the interview between Dickerson and Trump courtesy of CBS News:

JOHN DICKERSON: If somebody's going to behave like that in front of you in here, how do you know that people aren't always just telling you what you want to hear?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You mean, with the tears?  Is it?

JOHN DICKERSON: No, just, you know, they see the power of the White House and the Oval Office and they think, "Yes, Mr. President." Who tells you no?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I think when it comes to the Oval Office, I think everybody means that. You know, when I have foreign leaders here, no matter what country, no matter how big. We had -- Chancellor Merkel. We had-- we have them all. They all come here. They still take notice at the Oval Office.

JOHN DICKERSON: Right.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And they mean it.

JOHN DICKERSON: But that's what I mean. One of the worries about a presidency is that everybody tells you yes. Nobody helps you figure out where your blind spots are. So how do you -- how do --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well--

JOHN DICKERSON: -- you find that?  How do you get?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --that's, I guess, it's one of those things in life you have to be able to figure it out. Maybe I've been figuring that out anyway long before I got here.

This sound like a president in full control of his faculties?  Fit to have his finger on the nuclear button?  With all the saber rattling currently going on vis a vis North Korea still comfortable with this man in control of the United States military?  What makes this situation particularly dangerous is the fact both the North Korean dictator and the Trump nazi have serious instability issues.  One miscalculation could lead to thousands of people losing their lives in a nuclear conflagration.

Interview gets worse, increasingly bizarre:

JOHN DICKERSON: Any other gadgets you've gotten installed here since you came?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, everyone thinks that this is very ominous right here. See this? These are phones. These are very, you know, secure phones. But this is a -- very ominous looking because of the red button.

JOHN DICKERSON: What does that get you--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well--

JOHN DICKERSON: -- when you press the red button?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: -- it gets you a Coke or gets you a Pepsi. One or the other, it'd have to be. Any other cola companies I should mention?  Right?  But it gets you something. But every time I press that, people--

JOHN DICKERSON: Worry you're--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: In fact I have fun with people. They'll be sitting down. I changed the-- the way it works. I'll have people sitting here. Used to be they never had chairs that anybody can remember in front of the desk. But I've always done it this way where I'm at the desk and I have people here.

Frightening, isn't it?  Consider the following.  CNN reports:

"After puzzling comments about 19th Century abolitionist Frederick Douglass and marveling that no one knew Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, President Donald Trump has just unloaded another historical non sequitur.  In the latest strange aside, Trump said that Andrew Jackson, the populist rabble-rousing President with whom he has begun to claim political kinship, had strong thoughts about the Civil War -- even though he died 16 years before the conflict broke out."

Sound sane to you?

"He was really angry that -- he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War," Trump said in an interview with Salena Zito, a Washington Examiner reporter and CNN contributor, on Sirius XM radio. "He said, 'There's no reason for this.' "  Trump's comment makes little sense because Jackson died in 1845 and therefore could have had limited knowledge about events leading up to the conflagration pitting his native South against Northern states."

Still comfortable with the Trump nazi's finger on the nuclear button?

Here is the take of Trump's press secretary on the highly controversial CBS interview, courtesy of ABC News:

"After President Donald Trump was pressed Monday morning as to whether he stood by derisive descriptions of President Barack Obama, White House press secretary Sean Spicer affirmatively answered the question for him during the day's press briefing."

Indeed, he did.  Unequivocally.  ... One idiot leading another.

"In an exchange with CBS's John Dickerson, Trump was asked about his classification of Obama as "sick and bad" in a series of March tweets in which he accused his predecessor of ordering a wiretap of Trump Tower. The president told Dickerson, "You can figure it out yourself," "I don't stand by anything," and "you can take it any way you want" at various points in the interview.  Asked for clarification by ABC News' Cecilia Vega on the claim that Trump doesn't "stand by anything" and "if he still believes President Obama is an evil guy," Spicer answered unequivocally.  "He clearly stands by that," said Spicer. "That's something he made clear if you look at the entire back and forth."

Insanity trumps reason.  Literally:

"Trump abruptly ended his interview with CBS earlier in the day after expressing that he has "own opinions" as he and Dickerson discussed the wiretapping accusations.  Trump never provided evidence for the allegations and the idea that Obama ordered the action has been debunked by intelligence officials and members of both major political parties."

As the world turns...

5-5-17

Think the following isn't the mark of a dictator?  NPR reports:

"As Trump appointees take their new positions in the federal bureaucracy, a legal battle is escalating over alleged intimidation of the civil servants who make the government function.  The nonprofit United to Protect Democracy is suing the Departments of Energy and of Health and Human Services for records that would document or disprove such allegations. One of the group's lawyers, Ben Berwick, wrote in an online post that the goal is "protecting the civil service from purges, intimidation or politicization."

Someone has to.  Our government is no longer trustworthy:

"The DOE suit seeks documents concerning an attempt by the Trump transition team to get the names of civil servants and contractors who worked on climate change programs. The HHS case seeks similar documents that would have targeted employees who worked or expressed views on the Affordable Care Act or abortion rights."

Frightening, isn't it?  Expected in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, not in a democratic republic.

5-5-17

Republicans are not happy campers vis a vis the budget showdown.  Think Democrats won. The Washington Times reports:

"Democrats won the latest shutdown showdown fight, triumphing over President Trump on nearly every major issue in the $1 trillion spending bill negotiators announced early Monday.  Mr. Trump emerged with more money for the Pentagon, but the funds will be tacked onto the deficit rather than offset by the deep domestic cuts the president sought. Mr. Trump also failed to get any money for his border wall and was forced to agree to make “unauthorized” Obamacare payments.  Democrats, meanwhile, struggled to think of a single major fight they lost — and couldn’t come up with any significant defeat in the bill.  “Overwhelmingly, we were very pleased with the outcome — issue after issue,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “I would not say there’s a major loss in here.”

The reason for this cannot be attributed to Democrats, however.  Rather, directly due to the fact Republicans cannot seem to agree on anything.  Have not been able to get their act together.  Infighting reins supreme.

Take of the Trump nazi?  Fox News reports:

”President Trump on Tuesday defended the controversial $1 trillion-plus budget deal heading for a vote – as he and congressional Republicans face conservative anger at what critics see as a cave to Democrats on everything from sanctuary cities to funding for Planned Parenthood.  “The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there!” Trump tweeted, adding that the solution is to elect more Republican senators in 2018 "or change the rules" of the Senate filibuster."

Remarkable, isn't it?  Coup de grace?  Get this:

"He added a warning shot: "Our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September to fix mess!"

Couldn't agree more, Mr. 'President.'  ... Finally, we agree on something.  LOL.  -- For totally different reasons, however.

5-5-17

Clearly, trouble in Trump 'paradise.'  To say nothing of the GOP and their super rich shills sporting BigMoney.  Hell must indeed be freezing over.  Get this. The Washington Times reports:

"A political action committee that enthusiastically endorsed then-candidate Donald Trump in the election revoked its backing Tuesday, saying he has “caved” on most of the big promises he made on immigration.  Americans for Legal Immigration PAC said Mr. Trump has yet to cancel President Obama’s 2012 deportation amnesty for Dreamers, has set the level of refugees too high, and has sent signals through staff that he may eventually be open to legalizing most illegal immigrants."

Think so?

“We were so hopeful that Donald Trump would be a man of his word because the campaign promises he made to Americans were the things America needs to do to survive and thrive, but unfortunately, Trump has made it clear he cannot be trusted on his most powerful campaign issue of stopping illegal immigration and amnesty,” said William Gheen, the PAC’s president."

Doesn't your heart break?  Be interesting to see if such defections continue.

5-5-17

Think Republican nazis aren't bought and paid for by their corporate masters?  Wake up.  ABC News reports:

"Republicans on Tuesday cast former President Barack Obama's law overhauling the nation's financial rules as an obstacle to economic growth as a House panel launched a marathon session to undo much of the Wall Street regulations.  The Financial Services Committee, led by Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, started the painstaking work of crafting legislation that would repeal about 40 provisions of the Dodd-Frank law that Congress pass and Obama signed in 2010 after the financial meltdown two years earlier."

You GOP fascists here in Nazi Llano County think this a great idea?

"Democrats accused the GOP of amnesia about what led to the meltdown that pushed the economy to near collapse. They said Hensarling's bill would gut consumer protection and allow banks to make the kind of risky investments that required taxpayers to come to the rescue of the nation's largest financial institutions nearly a decade ago."

How soon they forget.  Greed rules.  ... Right, TL?  TB?

"The 2010 Dodd-Frank law put the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the 1930s Depression. It clamped down on banking practices and expanded consumer protections to restrain reckless conduct by financial firms and prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown."

Can't have that, can we?  Forget?  Greed rules.  Readers are reminded taxpayers took it hard in the ass without the Vaseline.  No one on Wall Street was prosecuted.  The bastards got a free pass from Obama and his henchmen.  Truly think there's much difference between Democrats and Republicans?  Both f--k the people they supposedly serve.  To line their pockets.

5-5-17

Resistance to the Trump nazi grows at an increasingly ferocious pace.  Methods of obstruction expand.  NPR reports:

"Democrats at the state level are getting increasingly elaborate in their efforts to oppose President Trump at every turn. You might even say they're trolling him.  And nowhere is that more evident than in several blue-state efforts to hinder or outright block the president's long-promised southern border wall.  In California, for example, state lawmakers are debating whether to blacklist contractors who help build the president's proposed border wall.  "If you're a business that wants to do work with Trump's proposed wall, then quite frankly, California doesn't want to do business with you," said Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara, who represents Los Angeles County."

A most welcome development as the Trump nazi feverishly tries to expand the fascist police-state we already live in to the Fourth Reich.

"Lara's bill would ban the state from contracting with any company that provides goods or services to the federal government for a federally funded southern border wall.  "What would we think of businesses that would work on an internment camp?" Lara asked. "What would we think of businesses that work on segregated schools? I mean, these were legitimate projects back in the day. And if they so happened to exist in this time, would we be OK with businesses contributing to that?"

Good question.  Businesses, of course, are not happy campers.  Don't wish to be held accountable.  Forget?  Greed rules.  Bottom line reins supreme.

Think the following isn't sending a chill through the financial community?  Get this:

"State lawmakers are increasingly turning to divestment bills as a tool to drive public policy. California, for example, has banned its massive public pension funds from investing in the coal industry and certain companies that do business in Iran."

Doesn't your heart break?

5-5-17

GOP nazis can't see the forest for the trees.  Think the following won't cost taxpayers dearly long-term?  NPR reports:

"Former first lady Michelle Obama might find some of the latest actions by the Trump administration pretty difficult to stomach.  On Monday newly minted Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced a rollback of school lunch standards championed by the former first lady, declaring at a Virginia school that the administration would "Make School Meals Great Again."

Think junk food won't increase cost of healthcare in the long run?  Truly believe that?  Think taxpayers won't ultimately be saddled with the bill?  Aren't Republicans a party of conservatives?

5-5-17

Sadly, the Trump nazi's misogyny and homophobia have emboldened the insane to boldly come out of the woodwork.  Two heartbreaking examples.  The first involves the Girl Scouts, the second a funeral home that denied services to a gay man and his dead  husband.  Both examples, horrendous.  Worse, a portend of more to come as our formerly great country continues to nazify.

NPR reports:

"The Archdiocese of Kansas City says it is severing its years-long relationship with Girl Scouts in nearly two dozen Kansas counties because the organization promotes materials "reflective of many of the troubling trends in our secular culture."  "The decision to end our relationship with Girl Scouting was not an easy one," Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann said in a statement released Monday. He asked pastors to "begin the process of transitioning away from the hosting of parish Girl Scout troops."

Reason?

"Naumann said he is troubled by materials that highlight the roles of women such as birth control activist Margaret Sanger and feminist writers and activists Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. A local representative of the Girls Scouts told NPR that these women and many others have been celebrated because of their leadership qualities."

Can't have that, can we?  Gets worse:

"The archbishop's letter also states that Girl Scouts of the USA "contributes more than a million dollars each year to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS), an organization tied to International Planned Parenthood."  However, on its national website, the Girl Scouts says it "does not have a relationship or partnership with Planned Parenthood." The organization says it pays membership dues to WAGGS, and compares the relationship to the one between the U.S. and the U.N.: "The United States may not agree with every position the UN takes, but values having a seat at the table."

Clearly, the not-so-good Padre does not want girls to grow up to be women who think for themselves.  Worse?  Assert ownership of their uterus.  Forget, ladies?  The Nazi Right owns your bodies.  Or, thinks it does.  Knows what's best for the 'lil lady.'  Believes you're too stupid to think for yourselves.  They'll do your thinking for you.  ... Right, TL?

Homophobic nazis are no smarter.  NBC News reports:

"One Mississippi family's pain and grief after losing a loved one was compounded when the local funeral home suddenly refused to perform their relative's cremation because he was gay.  Robert Huskey passed away in May 2016 after his heart condition worsened over the previous year. Knowing that his death was imminent, Huskey's nephew had made arrangements with the local funeral home the month before his passing."

Not to be.

"But according to a lawsuit announced Tuesday by Lambda Legal, the Picayune Funeral Home suddenly refused to pick up and cremate Huskey's body as planned on the day of his death. All because that day, the lawsuit alleges, the funeral home discovered Huskey was gay and married to Jack Zawadski, his partner of 52 years.  "I felt as if all the air had been knocked out of me," Zawadski said in a statement released Tuesday. "Bob was my life, and we had always felt so welcome in this community. And then, at a moment of such personal pain and loss, to have someone do what they did to me, to us, to Bob, I just couldn't believe it. No one should be put through what we were put through."

Here is the issue:

"No federal or Mississippi state law protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination — in fact, Mississippi's controversial House Bill 1523 was signed to protect the rights of businesses that turn away LGBTQ customers because of moral or religious opposition.  Lambda Legal is fighting H.B. 1523 in court, too, and a judge blocked the law from taking effect until a higher court gives a final ruling on whether it's unconstitutional. But in the meantime, there's still no law protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination.  "The state of anti-discrimination laws in Mississippi is virtually nonexistent. Certainly not in Picayune," said Littrell, who called the funeral home's decision to refuse services to Huskey's family "profoundly wrong."

Gutlessly fail to stand up for civil and constitutional rights and liberties for all, guess who's next?

5-5-17

Another interesting twist in the fight against homophobic bigotry.  NPR reports:

"Just half-a-year after a federal judge tossed out three lawsuits against Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who grabbed headlines in 2015 for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds, a court of appeals ruled Tuesday that the men suing Davis can continue their case."

Finally, some semblance of justice:

"Last August, U.S. District Judge David Bunning dismissed a case brought by David Ermold and David Moore against the Rowan County clerk, citing an executive order by Kentucky Gov. Matthew Bevin. Under the order, marriage licenses no longer need to carry the name of the county clerk who issues them.  This change, Bunning argued at the time, rendered moot the complaints brought by Ermold, Moore and several other people."

Not so:

"But in their opinion Tuesday, the three judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the story doesn't end there:

    "We conclude that the district court's characterization of this case as simply contesting the 'no marriage licenses' policy is inaccurate because Ermold and Moore did not seek an injunction — they sought only damages. This action is not a general challenge to Davis's policy, but rather seeks damages for a particularized harm allegedly suffered by a specific set of plaintiffs."

Once in awhile, the courts get it right.

"The appeals court ruling revives the couple's lawsuit and sends the case back to Bunning."

Excellent.  This woman needs to be held accountable.  If she couldn't in good conscience issue a marriage license, should have done the right thing.  Resigned in disgrace.  As most GOP nazis, doesn't understand her job is not a right, but a privilege.  Incredibly disgraceful she was invited by Republican nazis to attend Obama's State of the Union Address back in 2016.

4-28-17

Why is a former Trump nazi flunky protected?  Why?  The Washington Post reports:

"Former national security adviser Michael Flynn probably broke the law by failing to disclose foreign income he earned from Russia and Turkey, the heads of the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.  Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), said they believe Flynn neither received permission nor fully disclosed income he earned for a speaking engagement in Russia and lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey when he applied to reinstate his security clearance. They reached this conclusion after viewing two classified memos and a financial disclosure form in a private briefing Tuesday morning.  “Personally I see no evidence or no data to support the notion that General Flynn complied with the law,” Chaffetz told reporters after the briefing."

If that's the case, why hasn't the Department of 'Justice' charged the son of a bitch?  Could it be the Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi are protecting this flunky?  ... As well as themselves?

"Said Cummings: “He was supposed to get permission, he was supposed to report it, and he didn’t. This is a major problem.”

Fascinating, isn't it?

"Chaffetz and Cummings stressed that as a former military officer, Flynn would have needed special permission for his appearance at a gala sponsored by RT, the Russian-government-funded television station, for which he was paid $45,000. For his work lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government, he was paid more than $500,000.  “It does not appear that was ever sought, nor did he get that permission,” Chaffetz said.  The Republican later added that while Flynn was clearly not in compliance with the law, “it would be a little strong to say that he flat-out lied.”

Give me a break.  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, guess what? It's a f--king duck.

"Flynn’s omission could cost him. Violations of this nature can be punished by up to five years of jail time, though President Trump’s Justice Department ultimately would make the decision about whether to investigate or charge him."

Precisely, why nothing will likely come of this.  Especially, since the Trump nazi and others are under investigation themselves by the FBI to determine if there was any collusion between them and the Russians to throw the last presidential election.

4-28-17

The Trump nazi continues to lie and/or distort reality during interviews.  The Washington Post reports:

    “I saved $725 million on the 90 planes. Just 90. Now there are 3,000 planes that are going to be ordered. On 90 planes I saved $725 million. It’s actually a little bit more than that, but it’s $725 million.”

Trump keeps claiming he saved hundreds of millions of dollars on the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter planes by intervening in negotiations with Lockheed Martin. But Lockheed already had planned cost reductions, and Trump overstates his role.

So what else is new.  Same old shit.  Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.  When all else fails?  Lie like hell.

    “President Xi [of China], from the time I took office, they have not been currency manipulators.”

Trump falsely claims China stopped devaluing its currency since he took office. China had not devalued its currency for about two years prior to his election.

This fascist son of a bitch continues to lie out the ass.  Reporters need to call it exactly what it is.

    “You live by the sword, you die by the sword, to a certain extent. But we create a lot of jobs, 500,000 jobs as of two months ago, and plenty created since. Five hundred thousand. … As an example, Ford, General Motors. I’ve had cases where the gentleman from China, Ma, Jack Ma (chairman of Alibaba Group), he comes up, he says, ‘Only because of you am I making this massive investment.’ Intel, only because of you. … The press never writes that.”

Trump likes to claim undue credit for corporate decisions that were made before he was elected president. We keep a running list of such claims here. And Trump exaggerates the number of jobs created since he became president; the number of net new jobs since January 2017 is 317,000.

Nothing quite like the truth to set the record straight.

    “It will be bigger, I believe, than any tax cut ever. Maybe the biggest tax cut we’ve ever had.”

This is doubtful. The biggest tax cut since World War II appears to have been Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut, which was valued at 2.89 percent of the gross domestic product, according to the Treasury Department. Assuming a $20 trillion GDP in 2018, Trump’s tax cut would need to be valued at least $580 billion a year in order to exceed the size of the Reagan tax cut.

The Trump nazi continues to talk out the ass.  Has lost all credibility.  Grandiose claims he cannot deliver.

    “Oh, I’m seeing numbers — $24 billion [for a border wall], I think I’ll do it for $10 billion or less. That’s not a lot of money relative to what we’re talking about. If we stop 1 percent of the drugs from coming in — and we’ll stop all of it.”

During the presidential campaign, Trump used to claim that he could build a 1,000-mile-long wall, made of precast concrete slabs 40 feet high, for $8 billion. The Fact Checker checked with construction experts and instead received estimates as high as $25 billion. A report issued by Senate Democrats in April came up with an even higher estimate: nearly $70 billion, before paying for land acquisition. The report said that maintenance costs would run about $150 million a year.

Trump and his henchmen cannot, will not, be confused with the truth.

Trump’s claim that the wall would halt the flow of drugs is dubious. Experts say that drugs are actually shipped through the border on the underside of vehicles that have permits to cross the border in a special lane. “As long as the U.S. remains the world’s largest consumer of coke, and as long as Mexico continues to provide it, no wall will ever be able to stop the trade,” wrote Roberto Saviano in Newsweek.

As long as there is demand, drugs will enter this country.  Smugglers will always find a way.  As long as drug prohibition continues, profit to be made will remain so high there will always be those willing to risk arrest.

    “You know, back when they did NATO there was no such thing as terrorism.”

When NATO was founded in 1949, terrorism had long existed in Europe, often carried out by separatist groups (such as Irish Republicans) or anarchists. A bombing in 1867 in London by the Irish Republican Brotherhood killed 12 people and injured 120.

Doesn't the Trump buffoon know when he lies, distorts reality, talks out the ass, no one but his sick sycophants believe him?

    Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) “said you will be the greatest president. He said you will be, in front of five, six people, he said you will be the greatest president in the history of this country.”

Cummings has disputed this account, as the AP noted to Trump. Cummings told CNN that he said Trump he could become a good president “if . . . IF . . . he took steps to truly represent ALL Americans rather than continuing on the divisive and harmful path he is currently on.”

The Trump nazi clearly, insanely suffers from delusions of grandeur.

The above quotes are courtesy of two gifted, insightful writers, Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Glenn Kessler.

4-28-17

Trump's daughter Ivanka, like dear old dad, remains severely truth-challenged.  The Washington Post reports:

"A German crowd booed Ivanka Trump on Tuesday after she called her father a “tremendous champion of supporting families.”

Sad, isn't it?  The first hundred days of the Trump regime scream otherwise.  Apparently, Trump's loyal daughter remains unaware of the families his Gestapo ICE jackbooted thugs have broken up under the Trump nazi fuhrer's direction.

"Trump was taking her first crack at diplomacy abroad in her new role as assistant to the president, vowing at an economic conference in Berlin to create “positive change” for women in the United States."

The only way she can effectively do that is disavow the misogyny embraced by the nazi son of a bitch she calls Dad.  As loyal First Daughter, that will likely never happen.

“He encouraged me and enabled me to thrive,” she said on a panel with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and other female leaders. “I grew up in a house where there was no barrier to what I could accomplish beyond my own perseverance and my own tenacity.”  Miriam Meckel, editor of the German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, noted the audience’s response of groaning and hissing and asked Trump whether her father is actually an “empowerer” of women."

Damned good question.

“I've certainly heard the criticism from the media, and that's been perpetuated,” Trump said on the panel, “but I know from personal experience, and I think the thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades when he was in the private sector are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women.”

All non-credible bullshit.

"President Trump was caught on tape in 2005 talking about grabbing women’s genitals without their permission and, in a 2004 interview, called pregnancy an “inconvenience” to employers."

Wouldn't want to confuse her with the truth, would we?  Then again, blood runs thicker than water, doesn't it?

4-28-17

More trouble for the Trump nazi's border wall.  NPR reports:

"As the White House pushes Congress to fund President Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall, a new wrinkle has emerged that could stymie parts of the massive project.  Mexican engineers believe construction of the border barrier may violate a 47-year-old treaty governing the shared waters of the Rio Grande. If Mexico protests, the fate of the wall could end up in an international court."

Likely, will.

"Antonio Rascón, chief Mexican engineer on the International Boundary and Water Commission, said in an interview with NPR that some border wall proposals he has seen would violate the treaty, and that Mexico would not stand for that."

Why would it?  Why should it?

"Antonio Rascón, chief engineer of the Mexican section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, says the U.S. has already built nearly 700 miles of security fence and Mexico has consistently opposed it."

Indeed, they have.  To date, with little effect.  ... But that may change.

"A concrete wall that blocks trans-border water movement is a total obstruction. If they plan that type of project, we will oppose it," he said in his first public comments on the border wall."

If it goes to the World Court and the United States ignores an unfavorable ruling, the consequences from the world community in terms of trade, relations, etc., could indeed be severe.

"Mexico is watching with growing alarm as Homeland Security moves ahead with its plan to dramatically extend a border barrier that already has caused serious flooding."

Need to sue.  Cut off trade despite economic consequences.

"The 1970 Boundary Treaty lays out the precise border between the U.S. and Mexico and sets rules for the riverside regions. The treaty states both U.S. and Mexican officials on the International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, must agree if one side wants to build any structure that would affect the flow of the Rio Grande or its floodwaters."

Be interesting to see what effect this treaty ultimately has on the Trump nazi's plans, -- if any.

4-28-17

The public does not seem to be behind GOP plans to revamp healthcare.  The Washington Post reports:

"In strategy and substance, the American public disagrees with the course that President Trump and congressional Republicans are pursuing to replace the Affordable Care Act with conservative policies, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.  Large majorities oppose the ideas at the heart of the most recent GOP negotiations to forge a plan that could pass in the House. These would allow states to choose whether to keep the ACA’s insurance protection for people with preexisting medical problems and its guarantee of specific health benefits.  Public sentiment is particularly lopsided in favor of an aspect of the current health-care law that blocks insurers from charging more or denying coverage to customers with medical conditions. Roughly 8 in 10 Democrats, 7 in 10 independents and even a slight majority of Republicans say that should continue to be a national mandate, rather than an option for states to retain or drop."

This could dearly cost Republicans.  Might not be returned to office.  Precisely, why the first attempt failed.  .. While this renewed attempt does not yet seem to be doing any better.

4-28-17

A most unusual photo op for the Trump nazi and his henchmen.  The Washington Post reports:

"The White House announced Monday that it would host an unusual private briefing on North Korea for the entire Senate, prompting questions from lawmakers about whether the Trump administration intends to use the event as a photo op ahead of its 100-day mark."

The Trump nazi, his henchmen remain achingly shameless.

"Press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the lawmakers would be briefed Wednesday by several senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. He emphasized that the meeting plan had been convened by Senate leadership and that the White House was serving “as the location.”  Yet the White House setting perplexed lawmakers who have grown accustomed to such briefings taking place in a secure location on Capitol Hill, where there is more room to handle such a large group."

The Trump nazi and his henchmen continue to do all they can to deflect attention from the fact the administration, so far, is a failed regime.  So much so, the 'President' appears lame duck 100 days in.

4-28-17

Not been a good couple of weeks for U.S. Navy SEALS.  CBS News reports:

"A U.S. Navy SEAL has been arrested and charged with four counts related to child pornography after investigators found explicit images and videos of minors on his cell phone, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court Thursday.  Gregory Kyle Seerden, identified in court records as a member of Navy SEAL Team 1, was arrested in California last week. Federal prosecutors allege he molested a young girl in Virginia while she was sleeping. Investigators allegedly found videos on his cell phone showing the abuse."

Has the entire country lost its mind?

4-28-17

The Sessions nazi once again revealed profound ignorance, aching incompetence.  CBS News reports:

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday seemed to describe Hawaii as if it weren’t part of the U.S. (or possibly a lesser part) and expressed outrage that a federal judge had the ability to block the Trump administration’s travel ban."

The Sessions nazi, despite the fact he is a lawyer, has no clue the three branches of government were designed by the Founders to be a check and balance on one another.

“We are confident that the president will prevail on appeal and particularly in the Supreme Court, if not the 9th Circuit. So this is a huge matter,” Sessions, a former Republican senator from Alabama, said in an interview with radio host Mark Levin, surfaced by CNN on Thursday.  “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power,” he added."

Clear to whom?  A nazi dictator and his equally deluded henchmen?

"Sessions complained that the “very, very liberal Ninth Circuit” that has been “hostile” to the order."

Why do you consider it "liberal," Mr. Sessions?  Because it stands up against a fascist dictator in the Oval Office, sir?  Imposition of the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich?  Didn't you vote to confirm the judge when United States Senator, you fascist son of a bitch?

"The two Democratic senators from Hawaii were quick to pounce on the remarks as they circulated on social media Thursday.

    "Mr. Attorney General: You voted for that judge. And that island is called Oahu. It's my home. Have some respect. https://t.co/sW9z3vqBqG
    — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) April 20, 2017

    "Hey Jeff Sessions, this #IslandinthePacific has been the 50th state for going on 58 years. And we won’t succumb to your dog whistle politics
    — Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) April 20, 2017"

Hat's off, Senators.  Stick it to the clueless, hypocritical, nazi son of a bitch.

NBC News had the following take:

"Hawaii's congressional delegation fired back at Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday for saying that a federal judge who blocked President Donald Trump's immigration order hailed from "an island in the Pacific."  "The suggestion that being from Hawaii somehow disqualifies Judge Watson from performing his Constitutional duty is dangerous, ignorant, and prejudiced. I am frankly dumbfounded that our nation's top lawyer would attack our independent judiciary. But we shouldn't be surprised," Sen. Mazie Hirono said in a statement."

This is to be expected from a racist, misogynist, homophobic fascist who won't under any circumstances be confused with the truth.  ... Just like his goddamned fuhrer, the Trump nazi.

"U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, who presides in Honolulu, ruled against the Trump administration's revised travel ban last month, halting the administration's attempt to limit immigration for a second time.

    "Hawaii was built on the strength of diversity & immigrant experiences- including my own. Jeff Sessions’ comments are ignorant & dangerous
    — Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) April 20, 2017"

Clearly, not how a national socialist, that is, a nazi 'thinks.'  Precisely, why Adolf and Benito must be grinning ear to ear on their fiery perches.

"I wasn't diminishing the judge or the island of Hawaii, that beautiful place. Give me a break," Sessions said in an interview on MSNBC on Friday. "I was just making the point, that's it's very real one judge out of 700 has stopped the president of the United States from doing what he believes is necessary to protect our safety and security."

The Sessions nazi remains delusional, as does his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.  Safety and security are not at risk.  Have not been.  What is at risk is the Bill of Rights, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties as the Trump nazi and his henchmen desperately try to impose The Fourth Reich.

Coup de grace?

"Sessions was one of 94 senators who voted to confirm Watson in 2013. No senators voted against him."

4-28-17

The Sessions nazi is ramping up pressure on sanctuary cities.   NPR reports:

"The U.S. Justice Department has escalated its approach to so-called "sanctuary cities," writing at least eight jurisdictions Friday to put them on notice they could be failing to cooperate with immigration authorities.  Alan Hanson, the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's grant-making arm, warned the cities that they're required to submit proof that they comply with federal immigration law."

Know what DOJ can do with that 'proof?'  Cities need to stand tall.  Stand up to the Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.

"Failure to comply with this condition could result in the withholding of grant funds, suspension or termination of the grant, ineligibility for future ... grants, or other action, as appropriate," Hanson wrote."

Should that happen? Sue.

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has adopted a hard line on immigration, dating to his time in the U.S. Senate. Sessions links immigration to a variety of social problems, including what he calls a rise in crime."

Untrue.  Phony propaganda.  The truth?  Directly, the opposite.  Immigrants, documented or not, are for the most part law-abiding.  Wish to stay under the radar.  Commit fewer crimes than citizens born here.

"In a statement accompanying the letters to sanctuary cities, the Justice Department said "many of these jurisdictions are also crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime."

Again, a lie.  Simply, no truth to it:

"While murders and other violence are on the rise in some major cities, most scholars have concluded that crime remains near historic lows, and that immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S.-born citizens."

The Sessions nazi won't be confused with the truth.  Under any circumstances.  Nor will his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.

"The Justice Department statement blasted New York for gang murders there, labeling them "the predictable consequence of the city's 'soft on crime' stance."

The Sessions nazi remains achingly delusional.  New York's not-so-finest have the well-earned reputation of taking a raucous hard dump on all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.  Have had to be reined in.  The Sessions nazi is either uninformed, -- or worse, delusional:

"New York's murder tally is one of the lowest in the nation according to data collected by the FBI. Peter Donald, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, responded on Twitter, saying, "Did DOJ really say the NYPD is soft on crime?"

Indeed, quite the opposite. Concertedly, shits on the Bill of Rights.

"California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said his state has a "right to determine how it will provide for the safety and general welfare of its residents and to safeguard their constitutional rights."

The Sessions nazi, and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi obviously don't agree.

"Becerra added: "Fear mongering and falsehoods will not intimidate our state into compromising our values. Federal threats to take away resources from law enforcement or our people in an attempt to bully states and localities into carrying out the new administration's unsound deportation plan are reckless and jeopardize public safety."

Clearly, a nazi couldn't care less about any of the above.  Only expansion of what is already a goddamned fascist police-state into the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"Attorney General Sessions, who is touring the Southwest border this week, told MSNBC that most cities are cooperating. "We're pleading with the cities, let's don't have a fight over this," Sessions said earlier Friday. "So I hope we don't end into a fight, but we're perfectly willing to do whatever I can to ensure that we have the kind of unified effort that protects America."

The Sessions nazi remains achingly delusional.  Forget?  There is no exigent threat from any foreign power, terrorist organization, or the criminal element.  The true threat now?  All levels and branches of nazi government.  Who protects us from our 'protectors?'  Who?  The Sessions nazi lies: quite on the contrary,  opposition is exponentially growing from cities unwilling to comply with the efforts of the Trump nazi and his surrogate, the Sessions nazi to impose The Fourth Reich.

Subsequent to writing the above, the court fight is  indeed on.  Fox News reports:

"A California judge on Tuesday blocked President Trump’s executive order that sought to withhold federal funds from so-called “sanctuary cities.”

Here, here.

"The ruling from U.S. District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco said that Trump's order targeted broad categories of federal funding for sanctuary governments, and that plaintiffs challenging the order were likely to succeed in proving it unconstitutional."

That's right.  Ironically? States rights.  Forget?  Aren't GOP fascists supposedly in favor of states rights?  Apparently so, only when they want states to pass statutes abrogating LGBT, abortion rights, all civil and constitutional rights and liberties routinely shit on by the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue, etc..

Moreover, the federal government is constitutionally responsible for immigration, not the states.  Also, Congress constitutionally appropriates funding, not the president.  Bet there won't be other arguments made by the states against this overreach of federal power?  Be interesting to see how this suit is adjudicated.

"The decision will block the measure for now, while the federal lawsuit works its way through the courts.   The news comes on the heels of the Department of Justice threatening on Friday to cut off funding to eight so-called “sanctuary cities,” unless they were able to provide proof to the federal government that they weren’t looking the other way when it came to undocumented immigrants."

F--k the Sessions nazi and his fuhrer, the Trump nazi.  Goddamned fascists.  Resistance to the Trump nazi's imposition of the Fourth Reich must be ferocious but peaceful.  Otherwise, the criminal jackbooted bastards in blue are granted carte blanche to murder on the job.

4-28-17

The Trump nazi continues to disingenuously whine the media doesn't give him credit for what he's accomplished since taking office.  What has he accomplished? What?  Fox News reports:

"President Trump, who this week boasted at a Wisconsin tool factory that “no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days,” said in a Friday morning tweet that he’s not getting enough credit from the national media for all his successes."

What successes?  Where?  We now have the Gorsuch nazi on the Supreme Court.  This piece of shit, like his predecessor, will legislate his perverse religious and ideological views from the bench.  In direct violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, church-state separation, that is, freedom from religion.

Again, what successes?  Trumpcare miserably failed.  Went down in flames.  Not due, however, to any concerted effort by the Democrats.  Not at all.  Rather?  Nazis in the GOP couldn't agree on how bad they were willing to f--k the masses out of healthcare to line the pockets of the corporate management suite and top 1% with tax breaks.

At a time of record corporate profits and cash reserves.  At a time when corporations leave for overseas to evade U.S. taxes.  Then, lay off employees to increase profitability.  Hire foreign workers at lower pay.  Force American workers about to be fired to train their foreign replacements.  All a ruse.  To line the pockets of the top of the food chain.

What accomplishments has the Trump nazi achieved since taking office?  What? Where?  Certainly, hasn't repealed Obamacare.  Equally pointedly?  Trump's effort to impose outrageously unconstitutional immigration executive orders remains blocked.  With damned good reason.  Outrageously unconstitutional.  Nazi.

Our allies don't trust him.   Worse?  His 'judgment?'  Non-existent.   Dropping the 'mother' of all bombs in Afghanistan only strengthened the enemy's resolve.  The air field in Syria attacked with cruise missiles was operational the very next day.  Flew combat missions.  The North Koreans remain as defiant and determined as ever.  Where's the armada Trump claimed was on its way to the Korean peninsula?

"On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer defended the Trump administration’s accomplishments. “Look at the record that he’s achieved over these first 90 days,” Spicer told Fox News’ “The First 100 Days.” “It’s very clear that he’s committed to the conservative principles and agenda that he outlined in the campaign.”

Crock of shit.  Abject, nonsense.  What record?  Empty rhetoric.  Nothing of substance.  All talk.  The first hundred days haven't even passed, yet the incompetent, insane, fascist son of a bitch appears lame duck.  To date, an achingly failed presidency.

The Congressional Review Act was used by the Trump nazi to undo regulations imposed by Obama to protect the public.  GOP nazis consider that to be a good thing.  Fox News reports:

"Other CRA-tied action includes a February measure to overturn a stream protection rule from the Department of Interior that would have restricted what mountaintop mining firms could dump into nearby waterways.  On March 31, Trump overturned a Labor Department rule that limited how many unemployment applicants states can subject to drug testing. An April 3 measure eliminates worker safety regulations aimed to track and reduce workplace injuries and deaths.  Most recently on April 13, Trump nullified a Department of Health and Human Services rule that allowed states to withhold federal family planning dollars from clinics that provide abortion services."

The Trump nazi deliberately placed the public in danger to line the pockets of his corporate cronies.  Stuck it to the people on the bottom of the food chain and the middle class.  Further abrogated the constitutional right to abortion.  None of this is good.  It's national socialist, nazi, right wing and fascist.  A direct, frontal assault on all civil and constitutional rights and liberties.

In a desperate attempt to demonstrate he's accomplished something, anything before his first hundred days come and go, the Trump nazi announced his tax 'plan' Wednesday.  NPR reports:

"This is going to be the biggest tax cut and the largest tax reform in the history of our country," Trump's Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said at a panel Wednesday morning."

Is that right?  Think so?  Wake up.

"But what's coming out later Wednesday afternoon are guidelines, not legislation, akin to what would be revealed in a campaign. Though there's no sign Congress is ready to take this up immediately, Mnuchin made it sound urgent, saying the administration wants to move "as fast as we can."

Desperation.

"The headline is a 15 percent business tax rate. That cuts the corporate tax rate down from 35 percent."

At a time of record corporate profits and cash reserves.  Guess who pays for this bonanza of tax cuts for the corporate management suite and top 1%?  ... Think you won't be digging a bit deeper?  Forget?  Extremely few corporations pay the 35% rate.  Many under 10%.  Others pay zero.  Think an egregious f--king of the little guy, gal won't wind up front and center?

"This plan would be a windfall for Trump. He pays taxes for his businesses through the income tax code, so his plan would slash his own tax liability potentially in half, saving himself tens of millions of dollars."

The Trump nazi clearly isn't rich enough.  Needs more.  Republican nazis delusionally believe growth, not you, will pay for the tax breaks.  Think so?

Truly believe growth will magically occur as the deficit skyrockets, national debt balloons?  To say nothing of impending trade wars on the horizon.  -- The Trump nazi is imposing up to a 24% tariff on lumber coming from Canada.  One of our most trusted allies.  Think the Canadians won't wind up retaliating?  Guess who takes it hard up the ass without the Vaseline? Wake up.  Intend to build a house?  Cost of home construction will skyrocket.

4-28-17

The first hundred days of the Trump regime have not been good for the LGBTQ community.  NBC News reports:

"For many LGBTQ Americans, the early days of Trump's Republican administration have been fear-inducing. A series of Cabinet appointments have been roundly criticized by LGBTQ advocacy groups. An early draft of a reported executive order legalizing broad discrimination against LGBTQ people threw the community into a panic. The dismantling of Obama-era protections through executive orders came with the simple stroke of a pen."

What did they expect?  Did they truly believe a Republican nazi would stand up for their civil and constitutional rights and liberties?

"One hundred days of Trump translates into 100 days of erasure for the LGBTQ community," GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis told NBC News. "From the Census exclusion, to rescinding Obama's guidance for trans youth in schools, and lack of any LGBTQ mentions on the White House website, he has spent the early days of his administration trying to remove us from the very fabric of this country, and we must resist."

If you remain silent, get what you deserve.  If you won't support those fighting for all civil and constitutional rights and liberties, as the Trump nazi imposes the Fourth Reich, you're hopelessly clueless, achingly gutless.

4-28-17

Several New England Patriots players snubbed the 'President.'  Did not show up with the Super Bowl winning team at the White House.  Doesn't your heart bleed for the Trump nazi?  Speaks volumes.

4-28-17

If a spending agreement is not reached, a government shut down is possible April 28.  A week before, the Trump nazi appears to be whistling past the graveyard in the middle of the night, -- so to speak.   The Washington Times reports:

"President Trump expressed confidence Friday that budget negotiations would succeed in avoiding a government shutdown.  “I think we’re in good shape,” Mr. Trump said during a brief press appearance before reporters in the Oval Office.  Congress has one week to reach a deal and pass a spending bill before current funding expires next Friday. Several major sticking points remain, including payments for Obamacare that Democrats are trying to force into the spending package."

Why would Democrats cooperate?  Not stonewall as Republicans did for eight years during the Obama regime?  The Trump nazi wants funds for the border wall included.  Why would Democrats agree?  If he retaliates by not funding Obamacare, the ACA will quickly fail.  Guess who owns the failure?  Ultimate consequence of that failure?  Neither the Trump nazi or other GOP national socialists will be returned to office.

Kicker?

"White House press secretary Sean Spicer also expressed confidence that there wouldn’t be a shutdown, although the Office of Management and Budget had begun giving guidance Friday to federal departments and agencies about plans for a shutdown."

Shut it down.

4-28-17

Democrats seem to be wisely entrenching.  The Washington Post reports:

"Senior House Democrats held a conference call on Thursday night with members of the Democratic caucus, and according to a Dem aide, one of the key conclusions reached on the call was this: In the battles over Obamacare, Trump’s border wall, and funding the government, Democrats — not the White House — must behave as the ones with the leverage."

Indeed, have nothing to lose.  Not so, the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and GOP fascists.

"As the 100-day mark of the Trump presidency approachs, panic has set in among aides who fear that the press coverage will brutally (and accurately) reflect his historical lack of accomplishments. This is leading to questionable decisions on their part that could prove destructive to the country — and could backfire and make the 100-day mark coverage even more brutal for them. But this worry should also be seen as handing more leverage to Democrats in the near term. Dems seem both aware of this and inclined to act accordingly."

Republicans own all levels and branches of government.  Consequently, now own the failure as well.

“We have the leverage and they have the exposure,” Dem leader Nancy Pelosi told people on the call, per the aide, adding that, because Republicans are in the majority, keeping the government funded will be seen as “their responsibility.”

Indeed, it will.  Forget?  They own it all.  Congress, the White House, and the courts.

The quotes are courtesy of a gifted, insightful writer, Greg Sargent.

4-28-17

Bill O'Reilly finally got the boot from Fox.  NPR reports:

"Fox News is parting ways with Bill O'Reilly, who for years stood as one of cable news' most popular hosts. The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced the move in a statement Wednesday.  "After a thorough and careful review of the allegations, the Company and Bill O'Reilly have agreed that Bill O'Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel," the statement read."

Breaks your heart, doesn't it?  Seems the network is succumbing to pressure to finally do something about its problem with misogyny.

4-28-17

NPR reports:

"The Wall Street Journal reports that ExxonMobil has applied for a waiver from the U.S. to resume a joint venture with a Russian-owned oil company."

Apparently, the request was subsequently denied by the Trump regime.  Can't imagine why? Wake up.

4-28-17

In follow up to the last edition, The Washington Times reports:

"Protesters infringed on President Trump’s freedom of speech by interrupting a campaign rally last year in Louisville, Kentucky, lawyers for the president argued Thursday.  Responding to a lawsuit brought against the president last month in Louisville federal court, Mr. Trump’s attorneys wrote in a legal filing Thursday that protesters “interfered with the Trump campaign’s First Amendment right” when they disrupted his March 2016 political rally.  “Of course, protesters have their own First Amendment right to express dissenting views, but they have no right to do so as part of the campaign rally of the political candidates they oppose,” the Trump attorneys wrote."

Can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.  When that fails, lie like hell.

"The claim comes in response to litigation initiated last month by three anti-Trump protesters who allege they were assaulted at the rally as a result of the president’s own instructions.  “Get ‘em out of here!” Mr. Trump repeatedly told the crowd when his rally was disrupted, allegedly provoking some of his own supporters to physically assault the protesters, according to the lawsuit."

The Trump nazi was summarily protected, coddled by law enforcement at the rally.  Anyone else?  Would have had his ass arrested.  Been quickly, successfully prosecuted.

4-28-17

The following is how the Trump nazi and his henchmen are treating DACA immigrants, that is, "Dreamers." The Washington Post reports:

"While Juan Manuel Montes Bojorquez, 23, was walking to a taxi station in Calexico, Calif., a Border Patrol agent on a bicycle stopped him, asking him for identification. Having accidentally left his wallet in a friend’s car, Montes says, he had no identification on him, and no way of proving his status as a “dreamer” allowing him to live in the United States legally."

Even in Nazi America, there is no law requiring the public to carry identification.  ... At least, not yet.

"Another officer was called to the scene and took Montes into custody that night, Feb. 17, driving him to a station near the border. Hours later, at about 1 a.m., immigration officials walked Montes across the border, physically removing him from the U.S. and leaving him in Mexico near Mexicali, Baja California."

This is now how jackbooted bastards in law enforcement under the Trump nazi treat 'Dreamers':

"Montes, immigration advocates and lawyers say, is believed to be the first “dreamer”— a beneficiary of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — to be deported. They say he has an active work permit."

Clearly, no longer matters in the Trump nazi's Fourth Reich.

"The Department of Homeland Security disputes these claims and has provided no record of the incident. Officials only confirmed that Montes was deported when he tried to re-enter the country on or about Feb. 19, which he admits."

Talk out both sides their nazi asses.  Lie like hell.  With impunity:

"Attorneys on behalf of Montes filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act on Tuesday demanding that the federal government turn over all information about his sudden removal. The conflicting accounts surrounding the case leave many questions unanswered, but the allegations heightened existing concerns that DACA recipients are now being targeted for deportation, despite President Trump’s pledges to “show great heart” toward them."

Clear indication of a fascist police-state?  When government refuses to provide information about the whereabouts of a missing person:

“We have through the last few weeks attempted to get the records or any explanation about what happened to Juan Manuel,” said Nora Preciado, a Los Angeles attorney with the National Immigration Law Center and one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit. The lawyers on March 15 requested all records of Montes’ interactions with immigration authorities, but DHS has not yet provided them. “We’re trying to get answers,” Preciado told The Washington Post."

What are the Trump nazi and his henchmen doing?  Desperately trying to provoke an unwanted dreaded revolution?

4-28-17

Internet service stinks in this county.  Unbelievably poor.  Stands to get far worse now that the Trump nazi is reversing Obama's executive orders on net neutrality.  What that means is service will grow worse, cost will increase.  Always happens when regulations get shot to shit.  NPR reports:

"The new head of the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched his long-expected campaign to undo the regulations adopted in 2015 under former President Barack Obama. Specifically, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to loosen the legal structure that placed Internet service providers under the strictest-ever oversight of the agency, in favor of a "light-touch regulator framework."

What that means is ISPs will do as they please.  As they already do, but on steroids.  The one major provider here in Nazi Llano County is already slowing data transmission down as it pleases.  Even with regulations in place not to do so.  Guess what?  They aren't being enforced.  Guess why?  Wake up.  Moreover?  Deregulation of ISPs will result in them quickly forming a cartel just as the insurance industry did years ago in Texas.  Doing so because Texas regulators were, and are, bought and paid for by the insurance cartel.  The same will happen with ISPs.

"All this means the FCC is beginning a new phase of one of its hottest, longest-running debates: How should the government regulate Internet service providers to ensure that they don't act as gatekeepers to Americans' equal and fair access to websites and Web services?"

Again, already happening here in Llano County.  Why?  The bastards enjoy a captive audience.  Have their users securely by the nuts.  Give them a hard squeeze and vicious twist every now and then as they see fit.  Will worsen as nearly all regulation of this industry is eviscerated.  Forget?  There is no such thing as a 'free' market.  No more than a crock of shit.  A ruse perpetrated by the corporate management suite and their bought and paid for shills in the Republican Party.

To keep the masses under control.  Ensure the flow of wealth from bottom to top in this ass backwards system we live in.  The market is owned, operated, manipulated by those with the wealth to do so.  Called laissez-faire, that is unbridled, capitalism.  Republican nazis crave deregulation because their pockets are lined by their corporate masters.  They're bought and paid for.  A goddamned ruse.  The public pays dearly for this carefully engineered royal f--king.

"Over time, the FCC established so-called net neutrality principles that state that Internet providers shouldn't block or slow down any websites or apps (no blocking or discrimination) and shouldn't charge extra for faster loading (no paid prioritization)."

Already happening.  Will certainly grow worse under the Trump nazi and his henchmen.  Anything to make a buck, including forcing users to figuratively drop trou, take the ungreased shaft hard up the ass.  Then praise the f--ker for the vicious f--king.  The Republican way.  It's how they line their pockets.  Hear the rumble?  An unwanted dreaded second American revolution already catastrophically looming on the horizon. 'What a country!'  Will certainly grow worse as our formerly great country continues to nazify under the Trump nazi to The Fourth Reich.

4-28-17

Think these bastards aren't bought and paid for?  ABC News reports:

"A Senate Democrat is accusing the head of the Environmental Protection Agency of violating federal law by agreeing to headline a state GOP fundraiser.  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse filed an ethics complaint Tuesday against EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt over a planned May 5 appearance as the keynote speaker at the Oklahoma Republican Party's annual gala dinner. The Rhode Island Democrat says that would violate the Hatch Act, which limits the political activities of executive branch employees."

Time to end the goddamned corruption:

"The unmistakable impression one receives from the May 5 invitation is that by purchasing a ticket or agreeing to sponsor the OKGOP Gala, the attendee will have special access to a federal employee discussing official actions already taken, and to be taken in the future," wrote Whitehouse, who is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee."

4-28-17

Think the healthcare industry needs less regulation?  ABC News reports:

"Prosecutors say an Alaska dentist charged with Medicaid fraud pulled a sedated patient's tooth while riding a hoverboard."

You read it right.  LOL.

"Seth Lookhart was charged with 17 counts of Medicaid fraud after prosecutors say he billed Medicaid $1.8 million last year for IV sedation used in procedures that didn't call for it."

Couldn't be, could it?

"Prosecutors say in an indictment that investigators found a video on Lookhart's phone of him riding a hoverboard while extracting a sedated patient's tooth. They say he texted the video to his office manager and joked that it was a "new standard of care." Prosecutors say investigators contacted the patient and she told them she was unaware that Lookhart was riding the hoverboard while operating on her."

The office manager was also charged.

Anything wrong with this picture?  Anything at all?  This, why Republican nazis wish to end 'burdensome' regulation?  ... Think this 'dentist' shouldn't permanently lose his license to practice?

4-28-17

In follow up to the last edition, two more 'medical' butchers were arrested in Michigan.  CBS News reports:

"A Detroit doctor and his wife were arrested Friday morning and charged with their alleged participation in a conspiracy to perform female genital mutilations on young girls, federal prosecutors say.  Fakhruddin Attar, M.D., 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, both of Livonia, Michigan, are charged with conspiring to perform the mutilations on girls between 6-8 out of Fakhruddin Attar’s medical clinic in Livonia. They’re accused of conspiring with Jumana Nagarwala, another Michigan physician who was arrested in Detroit on April 12."

Think this piece of shit shouldn't permanently lose his license to practice?

"Female genital mutilation involves removing external female genitalia partially or in full, sometimes for religious or cultural reasons. Between 100 and 140 million women and girls worldwide are thought to have undergone such a procedure, which is internationally denounced as a violation of human rights, according to the United Nations."

... This, why Republican nazis wish to end 'burdensome' regulation?

4-28-17

Been quite a bit of confusion regarding healthcare plans enjoyed by members of Congress under Obamacare.  Worse?  False statements made by legislators at recent town halls vis a vis cost and subsidies.  The Washington Post reports:

"The ACA requires members of Congress and many congressional staffers to leave the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program and join the health-care exchanges in the District. Through the federal plan, lawmakers and their staff members had about 70 percent of their insurance premiums covered by the federal government."

Don't pity the bastards.  Know their annual salary?  $174,000.  To say nothing of perqs, kickbacks, other bribes, retirement benefits, whatever they can steal, etc..

4-28-17

Another egregious example of government not doing what is in the best interests of the public it allegedly serves.  Fox News reports:

"The parents of an Idaho boy injured by a government-planted cyanide “bomb” have filed a petition calling on the White House to ban the controversial devices, used for decades by the Agriculture Department to control predators.  Canyon Mansfield, 14, was knocked to the ground last month when an M-44 predator control device spewed cyanide gas into his face and killed his dog. The family had no knowledge the device -- set by the U.S. government some 350 yards from the Mansfields' doorstep -- was there."

Unbelievable, isn't it?

"Canyon stumbled upon the unmarked device while running up a hill behind his parents' home with his 3-year-old golden Labrador, Casey. "When the M-44 detonated, the boy watched as his dog lay dying, suffocating from the orange-colored cyanide sprayed by the device.   "It's an image that haunts him," Theresa Mansfield said. "And there's been no apology from the government."  The M-44s, also known as "coyote-getters," are designed to lure animals with a smelly bait. When an animal tugs on the device, a spring-loaded metal cylinder fires sodium cyanide powder into its mouth.  Over the years, thousands of non-target animals -- wild and domestic -- have been mistakenly killed by the lethal devices."

While farmers, ranchers, and others can't afford to lose livestock, there has to be a better way of dealing with this problem.  The devices need to be clearly marked, so at the very least provide no threat to humans.  Property owners adjacent to federal land need to be made aware of the location of such deadly traps.  The government claims it's doing so.  Clearly, not.

"The Mansfield dog's death follows a string of other recent incidents in which family pets and endangered species were accidentally killed by M-44s. A gray wolf was killed in February when it came upon the device on private land in Oregon's Wallowa County.  Four conservation and animal-welfare groups announced Tuesday they are suing the Trump administration for "failing to protect endangered species from two deadly pesticides used to kill coyotes and other native carnivores."  "Cyanide bombs are indiscriminate killers," said Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity."

Science needs to come up with a better method of predator control.  Then again, the Trump nazi, his henchmen, and most Republicans do not believe in science.  Think they know best.  Only way to solve this is to sue the living shit out of the bastards.  That, they understand.

"In just the past several weeks they’ve injured a child and killed an endangered wolf and several family dogs. These dangerous pesticides need to be banned, but until then, they shouldn’t be used where they can hurt people or kill family pets and endangered wildlife," Adkins said.  The government, meanwhile, has called the accidental death of family pets from M-44s a "rare occurrence," and said Wildlife Services posts signs and issues other warnings to alert pet owners when traps are placed near their homes."

Apparently, failed to do so in the Mansfield case:

"Lyndsay Cole, a spokeswoman for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, recently told Fox News these devices "are only set at the request of and with permission from property owners or managers."  But the Mansfields claimed they had no knowledge the devices were anywhere near their home and said they were not familiar with how they work.  The Bannock County Sheriff's Office, which responded to the incident, also told Fox News it found no warning signs in the area near where the devices were planted."

Someone's lying.  Guess who?

Tim Chorney, Publisher
Liberty In Peril

Tim Chorney, Publisher
Liberty In Peril
Formerly,
The Llano Ledger
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