Look, things in war don’t always go as planned. I will be the first to say that. No mission is every 100% fool-proof. But there are many aspects about the Yemeni mission, and Trump’s involvement in it, that are worrisome. In case you haven’t followed this story, in the first week of his presidency, Donald Trump approved a raid on … Read More
The Blessed Ban
[View the story “The Blessed Ban” on Storify]
White House Staff Concerned That The President Is An Idiot
There are two stories in this HuffPo piece. One of them is what Kevin Drum calls “liberal porn” — something that we progressives like to point to and laugh and how terrible our current president is. So let’s get that part out of the way: WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one … Read More
Trump Clusterfuck Continues
People are calling this administration — not even two weeks old — a slow-motion trainwreck. I disagree. There is nothing slow-motion about this at all. It seems like every 6 hours there is something unprecedented happening, being met with bipartisan criticism. This is not normal. Last night, it was the firing of the Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who reasonably … Read More
The Kinda Crazy, Somewhat Uplifting, Complete Unprecedented Weekend Of Trump
On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order that bans some refugees and immigrants from entering the US. It hits ‘pause’ on Syrian refugees coming into the US. And also temporarily shuts the door on citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Initially, the ban even applied to people with valid visas or green cards. Over the weekend, … Read More
Emoluments Lawsuit Against Trump To Be Filed Today
New York Times: WASHINGTON — A team of prominent constitutional scholars, Supreme Court litigators and former White House ethics lawyers intends to file a lawsuit Monday morning alleging that President Trump is violating the Constitution by allowing his hotels and other business operations to accept payments from foreign governments. The lawsuit is among a barrage of legal actions against the … Read More
President Trump
It is 12:50 pm EST. I had to type “President Trump” as the title of this post, because… well, I had to let it sink it. If felt awful. He’s been president for 50 minutes. I don’t have much to say. I said a lot on Facebook, which I will reprint here: Please indulge (or ignore) my thoughts about you-know-what, … Read More
Trump Not Liked
From Gallup: President-elect Donald Trump approaches Inauguration Day with a significantly lower favorable rating than his three immediate predecessors received when they were presidents-elect. Trump’s 40% favorable rating is roughly half of what Barack Obama enjoyed before his inauguration in 2009 (78%) and is much lower than the pre-inaugural ratings for George W. Bush (62%) and Bill Clinton (66%). *** … Read More
The Bombshell Report That Russia Can Blackmail Trump, Explained
There’s an enormous amount we don’t yet know about CNN’s bombshell report that US intelligence agencies believe Russia has “compromising personal and financial information” on President-elect Donald Trump and that his campaign was in direct contact with with Russian intermediaries before the election. We don’t know who CNN’s sources are or if those people’s information is accurate. We don’t know … Read More
Obama (Belatedly) Takes Action Against Russian Hackers
Moments ago, the Obama administration struck back at Russia, imposing sanctions against its intelligence apparatus and expelling 35 diplomats in retaliation for the alleged orchestration of hacking attacks designed to interfere in the presidential election. The sweeping actions outlined by the White House three weeks before the new administration takes office include: Shutting down two compounds, one in in Maryland … Read More
It’s Not A “Conflict Of Interest” If You Change The Definition of “Conflict Of Interest”
Greg Sargent caught Sean Spicer explaining why Trump’s blatant conflicts of interest aren’t unethical: “You tell everyone, here’s what’s going on, here’s the process, here are the people that are playing a role, that’s being transparent. Conflicts of interest arise when you’re not — when you’re sneaky about it, when you’re shady about it, when you’re not transparent about it.” … Read More
Republicans Will Like Anything As Long As It Helps Republicans
This graph says it all: Republican opinion on Putin seems to have moved not because Trump is pro-Russia or because there’s suddenly an opportunity for better relations with Moscow. It moved because Russia interfered in the election to the Democrats’ detriment, whether that was the core motive or not. That’s the point we’ve reached in partisan polarization, apparently. Want better … Read More
Anti-Trump Activism Roadmap
This has gone viral, and good for it:
Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been A Climate Change Scientist?
Now we’re into the naming names phase. The Washington Post reports: Global warming — “it’s a hoax.” Donald Trump has said that more than once. So it’s understandable that the request by the president-elect’s transition team for the names of individual Energy Department employees and contractors who worked on the issue makes them worry that the trick could be on … Read More