monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

New York Times Feb 14, 2017
To the Editor:

Fevered media speculation about Donald Trump’s psychological motivations and psychiatric

Last week, the Idaho House Education Committee voted to approve new statewide science standards for K-12 education for the first time since 2001. Missing from the standards, however, is any mention of climate change — committee members voted to reject all five paragraphs of the original standards that referenced climate change and mankind's role in the phenomenon.

Jim Sciutto ‏@jimsciutto 1h1 hour ago
Breaking: In potential major break w/long-standing US policy, WH says two-state solution not something Trump administration will insist on

The NY Times is not even fit to wrap fish with.

Today's entry in our on-going huge tally - Things Trump Has Done.

Quote:

President Donald Trump Tuesday signed the first in a series of congressional regulatory rollback bills, revoking an Obama-era regulation that required oil and mining companies to disclose their payments to foreign governments.

That regulation, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, was strongly opposed by the oil and gas industry — including Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who as head of Exxon Mobil personally lobbied to kill the Securities and Exchange Commission's rule that he said would make it difficult to do business in Russia.

Politico
So then, that's one heck of an accomplishment. Actually, it's really two accomplishments in one! Double bonus points.

- First, it allows (even encourages) multi-national corporations or any corporation dealing outside the country to just funnel millions or billions in bribes into the pockets of some of the worst jackals walking the earth

- Second, it drains the swamp (given that "swamp" is defined as any and all regulations on business that might, no matter how morally justified or whether or not in accord with international law, limit the profit-taking of those business entities.

So, cheers to Trumpism for its part in making the planet a shithole.

Quote:

Jim Sciutto ‏@jimsciutto 1h1 hour ago
Breaking: In potential major break w/long-standing US policy, WH says two-state solution not something Trump administration will insist on

Another huge surprise.

Let's get those horrendous executive orders on guns repealed already!

For Everyone on the MSM staple diet:

Amid the Flynn controversy, why are John McCain and Lindsey Graham not TRAITORS for presuming to conduct US foreign policy in Ukraine? Who invited McCain onstage in Kiev in 2014, 7000 miles from Arizona, whence he hails as senator and where life is just perfect? Who instructed him to speak on behalf of the citizens of Ukraine to oust its elected president? Check the Constitution, MSM. As a result, Kiev launched its bombing of civilians in peaceful lands that had not seen conflict since 1945, and Ukraine has become a failed state in three years. (Still marginally better than what was done in the name of democracy and human rights to Libya, though).

Michael Flynn discussing cooperation with Russia is supposedly grounds for scandal -- yes, the lifting of sanctions imposed by Obama as revenge for Russia's "election hacking", for which not a shred of evidence was adduced, other than the fact the Democrats didn't like the result, amid the incessantly repetitive bleating -- but McCain and Graham starting a war, in contravention of the US Constitution and International Law, is just fine? … They should be the ones impeached, arrested and imprisoned, you hypocritical cretins. You are unable to handle the truth and/or are late to the game, yet pronounce yourselves experts. Once again, ignorance is no excuse… whether it stems from being asleep at the time, or from being clinically brain dead as a result of too much American television (and yes, Canada, that means you too).

And incidentally, as a practical matter, the Logan Act only applies when US Establishment interests are hurt. It has remained largely unused since its passage in 1799 and never once been enforced. In fact, the vast majority of you have never even heard of it. Does that tell you anything? No?… Just as perjury isn't really perjury when Bill Clinton perjures himself, and just as the Espionage Act doesn't apply to Hillary......

In this day of wild events in the Trump White House, featuring the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and all sorts of finger-pointing from the president on down, one pointed finger requires some attention. It’s wielded by breitbart.com’s Matthew Boyle, or perhaps his close-to-POTUS sources, and it’s aimed right at White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

In Breitbart World Priebus is identified with the “GOP establishment forces inside President Donald Trump’s White House [who] forced out National Security Adviser retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn,” so there could be an element of simple factional payback here. But Boyle goes on to blame Priebus for, basically, all the trouble the new administration is encountering in trying to impose its will on Washington and the country at large.

Politics Chat: What Really Got Michael Flynn Canned — and Who Will Trump Fire Next?
By Jonathan Chait, Margaret Hartmann, Ed Kilgore, Eric Levitz, Olivia Nuzzi, and Jebediah Reed

Jebediah Reed: Flynn is out after 24 days — the quickest firing of a cabinet-level official in American presidential history. There are a number of narratives circulating about what happened: It was a deep State hit. Or this was something Trump and Bannon wanted anyway. Or this was the White House caving to media pressure. What story of Flynn’s firing do you think is most convincing?

Seen on FaceBook:

Any chief-of-staff who isn’t prepared to confiscate Trump’s Android, delete his Twitter account, and crush sedatives into his food will fail to produce order.

If that's really President Donald Trump's and his administration's view, then it signals a significant shift in US Middle East policy, reversing decades of bipartisan consensus.

But since voiced views and perspectives even on key issues (see e.g. NATO, Crimea ... ... ...) nowadays change quickly and often, we'll see what happens next.

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Seen on FaceBook:

That's good enough for me — nihil obstat!

Let's face it, that outcome is dead. It was killed by the Palestinians and their European supporters. Trump is just acknowledging reality.