monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The program, "Countering Violent Extremism," or CVE, would be changed to "Countering Islamic Extremism" or "Countering Radical Islamic Extremism," the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

Such a change would reflect Trump's election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase "radical Islam" in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.

As I predicted last night, the shooters in the Quebec mosque attack are Muslim, as is generally the case in these circumstances. The jihadis were shouting “Allahu akbar” as they gunned down men worshiping at a Quebec mosque.

Wow! There must be bots here voting down posts with facts the second they are posted. The rubel is rolling fast ...

Steve Bannon Is Turning Trump Into an Ethno-Nationalist Ideologue
Steve Bannon, the ethno-nationalist former head of right-wing media outlet Breitbart, is “emerging as the most powerful person in the White House,” Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman noted on Wednesday. “That’s not the problem; somebody has to occupy that perch. The problem is what Bannon wants to do with it.” What Bannon wants to do, as Donald Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor, is to persuade the president to adopt and execute his far-right ideological vision. This might prove easy enough, but not for the reasons usually given.

Trump Adviser Stephen Miller: ‘Hard to Envision Smoother Rollout’ of Immigration Order

If it helps at all, both Obama and Trump would need to rely on the specialists to determine the optimal time for the raid. Experts will sit in a room and present pro and con until POTUS is comfortable making the call. Also, ops can be called off during implementation up to a point and the experts try to work in options should elements turn negative.

I'm grateful I don't have to make those decisions.

Junior? Do you always have to be an asshole?

Trump Vows to Get Rid of Electioneering Restrictions on Churches

What this would mean in practice is that people employed by religious bodies (and other kinds of nonprofit organizations), most especially ministers of the Christian Gospel, could endorse and exhort support for special candidates and other matters decided at the ballot box right there in the pulpit — or perhaps more importantly, through utilization of church resources (signs, flyers, phone and email lists, and presumably even paid ads). It would save the time and trouble involved in the winking and nodding that often goes on with clerical politicking. But less innocently, the proposed new policy might also pave the way to coerced electioneering statements imposed on individual ministers and congregations by denominational leaders. It would definitely politicize the Sabbath in a big way.