monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Not only that: just imagine, 'California' would be translated to Spanish.

The White House has changed its answering machine message to blame Donald Trump's political opponents for its failure to answer calls.

The US is in the middle of a government shutdown, leaving many federal services without staff.

But callers to the White House comment line at the weekend were informed that Democrats were to blame.

The recorded message says calls cannot be answered because Democrats are holding government funding "hostage".

The recorded message was set up on the White House comment phone line, which accepts calls from members of the public.

"Unfortunately, we cannot answer your call today because Congressional Democrats are holding government funding - including funding for our troops and other national security priorities - hostage to an unrelated immigration debate," the recording says.

"Due to this obstruction, the government is shut down."

Some members of the public opposed to Mr Trump expressed outrage at the partisan message on the public service.

The message seemed so unusual to some that it was confirmed as genuine by fact-checking and urban legend-debunking website Snopes., in addition to dozens of journalists checking the recording for themselves.

The line was frequently busy at the weekend, requiring multiple attempts before the BBC could get through to confirm the recording.

Isn't it rich, and the French don't have a word for entrepreneur. Our humiliation never ends.

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Trust in U.S. institutions, particularly the government, has plunged in President Donald Trump’s first year in office, according to a leading survey released on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The annual Edelman Trust Barometer showed overall trust in the four institutions it measures - the government, media, business and non-governmental organizations - falling more steeply in the United States than in any of the 28 countries surveyed.

Trump has broken with presidential tradition and repeatedly denounced the media and judiciary - attacks his critics say risk undermining public confidence in those institutions.

By contrast, the country that saw the biggest trust gains among its own citizens was China, after a year in which President Xi Jinping cemented his hold on power at a triumphal party congress.

Faith in the Chinese government jumped 8 points to 84 percent. In the United States it fell 14 points to 33 percent.

“The United States is enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust,” said Richard Edelman, head of the communications marketing firm that commissioned the research.

Xi was the headliner in Davos last year, days before Trump was inaugurated. This year, Trump is the main attraction. He is expected to defend his “America First” policies in a speech on the final day of the conference of policymakers, CEOs, bankers and celebrities in the Swiss Alps, which runs from Jan. 23-26.

Pointing to the steep erosion in trust in the United States, Edelman said it was the first time since the survey began 18 years ago that such a precipitous drop was not linked to a specific event, such as an economic crisis or catastrophe, like the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Instead it comes at a time when the U.S. economy is showing robust growth and stock markets are at record highs.

“Normally when things are going well, trust is pretty good,” Edelman said. “Increasingly there is a disconnect between trust and economic outcomes.”

HILLARY CLINTON COULD STILL BECOME PRESIDENT IF RUSSIA PROBE FINDS CONSPIRACY EVIDENCE

If Trump did conspire with Russia, the president “should resign, or, if he doesn’t, he should be impeached,” Lessig wrote in his essay. Vice President Mike Pence would also have to either resign or get impeached, which would make House Speaker Paul Ryan the president of the United States, Lessig wrote at the time.

Given that there is “no mechanism in American law for a new election,” nor “a mechanism for correcting the criminal results of the previous election,” Ryan ought to nominate “the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside, and let her become President,” Lessig went on to say.

“What's left of Newsweek is actively making people dumber and less informed and honestly should be unfollowed and shunned for this kind of behavior.

That fantasy was borne out of a blog post in October penned by Harvard Law professor and activist Lawrence Lessig, who wrote that Mueller's investigation would eventually lead to Trump's impeachment. While that is improbable, it's not completely impossible.

But Lessig took his theory a step farther, saying that, in some world, the presidential chain of succession would reach Paul Ryan, who would literally hand the most powerful office in the nation from himself to Clinton — a member of the opposite party and his party's enemy number one.

Harvard Law professor and activist Lawrence Lessig,

It's kinda like tellin some 4 year old kid that, yes, there really is a Santa Claus, ya know? Except here the kids are adults.

Uhh, actually, naw, I aint.

I see 'em runnin'; and I see 'em hidin'.

Didn't you see? The Schummer Shutdown is over.

Who blinked first?