monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

I didn't get that sense from Finn's comment — probably because I recognize that sort of speech. It's from academia; it's a professorial thing.

Silencing Elizabeth Warren backfires on Senate GOP

The Senate has silenced Elizabeth Warren.

And by doing so, majority Republicans just handed the liberal firebrand a megaphone -- further elevating President Donald Trump's fiercest and most prominent critic in the Senate and turning her into a Democratic hero.

MoveOn members contributed $250,000 to Warren's re-election campaign in about 12 hours. Warren went straight from the Senate floor to a call-in appearance on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, a favorite of progressives And by midafternoon, a fund-raising email from Ms. Warren had arrived in the inboxes of her supporters.

“I’m still banned from speaking on the Senate floor — but there’s still time for you to make your voice heard,” the email read, with a link to a page for contributions.

That may be the effect, but I doubt it was the motivation.

24 JAN 2012, 7:26 P.M.
President Barack Obama will visit Intel's sprawling Fab 42 construction site in Chandler, Ariz. on Wednesday following the president's State of the Union address in Washington Tuesday evening, according to the White House.

Intel's $5.2 billion fabrication plant at its Ocotillo campus in the suburb of Phoenix is scheduled to come online in 2013 (see an artist's rendering of the future facility below) and is currently the second-largest construction project in the world after the facilities being prepared for the London Olympics being held this summer. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner visited the Fab 42 site last November and Obama toured Intel's state-of-the-art Fab D1D silicon wafer fabrication facility at the Ronler Acres campus last February.
... ... ...

Shutting Down Speech by Elizabeth Warren, G.O.P. Amplifies Her Message

After the vote to bar Ms. Warren from speaking further about Mr. Sessions, other senators, including Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Tom Udall of New Mexico, read Mrs. King’s letter without facing any objection, prompting some activists to raise charges of sexism. Appearing with Mrs. Clinton in New Hampshire in October, Ms. Warren reminded Mr. Trump that “nasty women vote.”

Republicans seized her microphone. And gave her a megaphone.

The Secret Service paid Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. $2,200 a month to rent a cottage adjacent to his home in a Wilmington, Del., suburb.

The Defense Department has regularly paid for space near temporary or part-time presidential residences, including near the Chicago home of President Barack Obama.

Whoever is taking care of the nuclear football needs a place to sleep, close to the president. Thus, the need to rent space in Trump Tower, officials say.

One possibility would be for the Pentagon to lease a condominium from a resident in the building who owns the space.

Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, said Monday that the administration will continue using the term "fake news" until the media understands that their "monumental desire" to attack the President is wrong.

"There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term," Gorka, a former Breitbart editor who also holds a PhD in political science, told syndicated conservative radio host Michael Medved.

"That's how unhealthy the situation is and until the media understands how wrong that attitude is, and how it hurts their credibility, we are going to continue to say, 'fake news.' I'm sorry, Michael. That's the reality," he added.

Gorka was asked by Medved whether he would acknowledge that the administration's controversial statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day was "at least questionable...

"No, I'm not going to admit it. Because it's asinine. It's absurd. You're making a statement about the Holocaust. Of course it's about the Holocaust because that's what the statement's about. It's only reasonable to twist it if your objective is to attack the President."

A few things to note in this extraordinary statement from Gorka...the explicit admission that the Trump administration has been using and will to continue use "fake news" to purposefully misinform the public. Gorka is saying 'we'll use this phrase incorrectly as a propaganda weapon.'

Ivanka Trump served for several years as a trustee for a fortune set aside for the daughters of Rupert Murdoch, people familiar with the arrangement said. Her role highlights the close ties between President Trump’s family and the family that controls Fox News Channel, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets.

"There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term...

At least 13 people have been killed and more than 140 injured by the Soviet military in the capital of Lithuania as Moscow continues its crackdown on the Baltic republic and its drive for independence.
Troops broke through the defences set up by more than 1,000 protesters who had gathered to protect a Lithuanian radio and television centre at about 0200 local time.

Soldiers then smashed through the glass windows of the station and overwhelmed defenders armed with sticks.

A sound truck moved through the city telling residents that power was being assumed by the National Committee for Salvation, a group formed by the small pro-Soviet faction of the Lithuanian Communist Party, three days ago.

"Lithuanians, do not resist," the military said. "Your government has deceived you. Go home to your families and children."

Many of the Lithuanians refused to retreat under the attacks and sporadic gunfire continued for at least 90 minutes.

The television and radio stations, which broadcast throughout the republic, went off air after the assault.

Just before the radio station shut down, an announcer said: "We address all those who hear us. It is possible that (the army) can break us with force or close our mouths, but no one will make us renounce freedom and independence."

The broadcast facility was one of several buildings seized by Soviet troops in Vilnius since they began cracking down on 11 January. Yesterday, tanks ploughed into unarmed demonstrators in Vilnius before soldiers opened fire on a crowd attempting to defend a government building.

The assault represents a major escalation in the Soviet Government's use of force against the republic.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to Donald Trump, described a fake “massacre” three times, it has emerged.

The controversy began last week when Conway, defending the president’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, told MSNBC that two Iraqis who came to the US and had been radicalised “were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre”.

Fact-checkers quickly pointed out that no such massacre took place. Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former president Bill and defeated candidate Hillary, described it as “completely fake”, tweeting: “Please don’t make up attacks.”
Conway, who was Trump’s campaign manager during the election, tweeted the next day that she had made an “honest mistake” and had meant to say “Bowling Green terrorists”, referring to two Iraqi citizens from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who had been convicted of trying to send weapons and money to al-Qaida.

But on Monday it emerged that this was not an isolated incident: she had used the word “massacre” twice before during interviews with reporters.

On 29 January, speaking to Cosmopolitan.com, she was even more specific about the non-existent event: “[T]wo Iraqi nationals came to this country, joined Isis, traveled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here, and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers’ lives away.”

And on the same day, Conway was captured on video telling TMZ: “There were two Iraqis who came here, got radicalized, joined Isis, and then were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green attack on our brave soldiers.”

Democrats seized on the triple discrepancy. Zac Petkanas, senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said: “It’s now clear this wasn’t an honest mistake or a simple slip of the tongue.

Quote:

"There is a monumental desire on behalf of the majority of the media, not just the pollsters, the majority of the media to attack a duly elected President in the second week of his term...

For shame! Yes, I remember how the right muted their criticism of Obama during his first weeks in office; their respectful silence was so eloquent.