monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Lash wrote:

They are employers with contracts. Free speech laws don’t mean there aren’t conditions of employment that may lead to your unemployment when you legally exercise your right to speak.

I don't see how this is a response to my post.

...While it’s hardly new, conservative animus toward McConnell is now reaching white-hot levels, fed in part by the belief that McConnell’s not just a RINO, but a living obstacle to Donald J. Trump. Former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon has let it be known that he and his journalistic and financial allies are waging war not just on McConnell, but on any Republican senator up for reelection in 2018 who does not promise to abandon the Leader. And now comes an open letter from six right-wing leaders addressing McConnell and his entire Senate leadership team in language normally reserved for the bitterest of political enemies, if not history’s great monsters.

Quote:

2017 has been a disappointing year for the millions of Americans who fully expected, and had every right to expect real change in Washington. Republicans were given full control of the federal government. They — you — have done nothing. Worse, it is painfully clear that you intend to do nothing because, as is most apparent, you had no intention of honoring your solemn commitments to the American people. You were not going to “drain the swamp.” You are the swamp.

Former Alabama judge Roy Moore, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, once said publicly that he did not take a “regular salary” from the small charity he founded to promote Christian values because he did not want to be a financial burden.

But privately, Moore had arranged to receive a salary of $180,000 a year for part-time work at the Foundation for Moral Law, internal charity documents show. He collected more than $1 million as president from 2007 to 2012, compensation that far surpassed what the group disclosed in its public tax filings most of those years.

When the charity couldn’t afford the full amount, Moore in 2012 was given a promissory note for back pay eventually worth $540,000 or an equal stake of the charity’s most valuable asset, a historic building in Montgomery, Ala., mortgage records show. He holds that note even now, a charity official said.

...The charity has employed at least two of Moore’s children, although their compensation is not reflected in tax filings. Moore’s wife, Kayla, who is now president, was paid a total of $195,000 over three years through 2015.

The Kochs are central here.

US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of challenging media licences for NBC News and other news networks after unfavourable reports.
He took aim at NBC, which made him a star on The Apprentice, after it reported he wanted to boost America's nuclear arsenal almost tenfold.
Mr Trump labelled the report "fake news" and "pure fiction".
NBC also angered the White House last week when it said the secretary of state had called Mr Trump "a moron".
Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning: "With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!"
Welcoming Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Washington later in the day, the US president denied the NBC story.
"It is frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it," he said at the White House.
When asked if he wanted to increase the country's arsenal, Mr Trump said he only ever discussed keeping it in "perfect condition".
"No, I want to have absolutely perfectly maintained - which we are in the process of doing - nuclear force.
But when they said I want 10 times what we have right now, it's totally unnecessary, believe me."
He added: "I want modernisation and I want total rehabilitation. It's got to be in tip-top shape."
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis also disputed NBC's story.
"Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the US nuclear arsenal are absolutely false," he said in a statement.
"This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible."
(The Committee to protect journalists tweeted)
"Trump’s assertion that @NBC’s license could be challenged emboldens other gov'ts to embrace authoritarian tendencies"
The president's tweet about US broadcast networks provoked a free-speech uproar.
Walter Shaub, who led the US Office of Government Ethics under President Barack Obama, said it could lead to "the point when we cease to be a democracy".
The Committee to Protect Journalists said the US president's comment was a poor example for other world leaders.
According to NBC News, Mr Trump told a top-level meeting at the Pentagon in July that he wanted to dramatically boost the American stockpile of atomic missiles.
He reportedly made the request after seeing a downward-sloping curve on a briefing slide charting the gradual decrease in US nuclear weapons since the 1960s.
Attributing its report to three officials in the room, NBC said Mr Trump's request surprised those present, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
The network reported that Mr Trump had also called for additional US troops and military equipment.
The US has 7,100 nuclear weapons and Russia has 7,300, according to the US non-partisan Arms Control Association.
Media commentators say the president would struggle to remove broadcasters' licences if he wished to do so.
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates US broadcasters, issues licences not to networks as a whole, but to local stations.
NBC owns nearly 30 local stations.
It would be difficult to challenge a licence on the basis that coverage is unfair, say pundits.
Last week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured reporters that Donald Trump was an "incredible advocate" of constitutional free-press protections. This week, the president is contemplating whether a broadcaster could be forced off the airwaves because he doesn't approve of its news coverage.
Never mind that the federal government licenses local televisions stations, only some of which are owned by national broadcasters like NBC.
Just because a threat is unworkable in the extreme doesn't mean the president won't make it.
Media-bashing is one of Mr Trump's favourite pastimes - a means of venting frustration, apportioning blame and, perhaps, distracting reporters who always enjoy a bit of journalistic navel-gazing.
As with the NFL anthem-kneeling controversy, the cultural battle lines form quickly when it comes to questions of media bias. The president knows this and uses it to his advantage.
Taking pot-shots at journalists is one thing, of course. Contemplating the use of government coercion to stifle a broadcaster because of its news content is another.
Even if such an outcome is unthinkable in the US at the moment, there are places in the world where press freedoms aren't as deeply entrenched. Their leaders are watching the president, too.

Israeli spies looked on as Russian hackers breached Kaspersky cyber-security software two years ago, US media report.
The Russians were allegedly attempting to gather data on US intelligence programs, according to the New York Times and Washington Post.
Israeli agents made the discovery after breaching the software themselves.
Kaspersky has said it was neither involved in nor aware of the situation and denies collusion with authorities.
Last month, the US government decided to stop using the Russian firm's software on its computers.
The Israelis are said to have notified the US, which led to the ban on Kaspersky programs.
The New York Times said that the situation had been described by "multiple people who have been briefed on the matter".
Classified documents are reported to have been stolen from the home computer of a US National Security Agency (NSA) employee who installed Kaspersky's antivirus software.
The NSA, the White House and the Israeli embassy in Washington have not commented on the matter.
The New York Times said that the Russian embassy had not responded to a request for comment.
Kaspersky has published a statement saying that it was not involved in and does not have knowledge of the situation.
"As the integrity of our products is fundamental to our business, Kaspersky Lab patches any vulnerabilities it identifies or that are reported to the company," the statement said.
"Kaspersky Lab reiterates its willingness to work alongside US authorities to address any concerns they may have about its products as well as its systems, and respectfully requests any relevant, verifiable information that would enable the company to begin an investigation at the earliest opportunity."
The firm added that it has never helped, nor would help, governments in matters of cyber-espionage.

Trump spoke to Sean Hannity in a wide-ranging interview on Fox News Wednesday night and again attacked the media -- but praised Hannity.

"Media is bad," Trump said. "They are really dishonest people. Very, very dishonest people in many cases.

"I will say this, you have been so great," Trump told Hannity moments later. "I'm very proud of you. I am a ratings person. Has anyone seen his ratings? What you are doing to your competition is incredible. No. 1 and I'm very proud of you -- an honor to be on your show."

"President Trump's denunciation of the media as 'the enemy of the American people' is the greatest threat to democracy I've seen in my lifetime" - William H. McRaven

Piper Laurie: I lost my virginity to Ronald Reagan... and he was no gentleman

HOLLYWOOD veteran Piper Laurie has revealed how she lost her virginity as a teenage starlet to the man playing her on-screen father, future President Ronald Reagan.

“This pattern of failure from McConnell’s gang of five leadership team while loathing and attacking their own base, the most loyal bloc of voters that has elected them and all of their caucus members, can no longer be tolerated,” said Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund

. . . two Bozells, . . .

Just imagine if Richard Nixon had suddenly told his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, as Kissinger was walking into the office of Chinese leader Mao Zedong to set up the historic opening to China, “Nah, don't do that, I've changed my mind.”