monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Self-hating Jews are horrible.

Admit it: Trump is unfit to serve

Let’s not mumble or whisper about the central issue facing our country: What is this democratic nation to do when the man serving as president of the United States plainly has no business being president of the United States?

The Michael Flynn fiasco was the entirely predictable product of the indiscipline, deceit, incompetence and moral indifference that characterize Donald Trump’s approach to leadership.

Just resisting Trump won't do enough for Democrats

...Republicans and their allies — most notably the network of wealthy donors organized by the Koch brothers — have created formidable political operations that execute these functions with great skill and precision in more than 30 states. Democrats have permanent, well-managed and well-financed electoral capacity in less than a handful of states.

This dire political imbalance contributed to the Trump victory last year. He did not need his own “ground game” in 2016. He rode to power on the voter mobilization coattails of the Republican right’s multistate political juggernaut, which maximized Republican voter turnout in every key battleground state.

Even more ominous, this state machinery further solidified remarkable Republican dominance in such key states as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Georgia and Iowa. Republicans now have majorities in all state legislative chambers in more than 30 states and have elected 80 percent of the governors, 77 percent of senators and 73 percent of House members from 30 states...

House GOP leaders will elaborate on their Obamacare plans

House Republican leaders plan to unveil on Thursday elements of their plan to repeal and largely replace portions of the Affordable Care Act.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday that committee leaders will brief GOP lawmakers on some specific proposals at a closed-door meeting scheduled for Thursday morning. The meeting comes as leaders are working to rally sharply divided GOP members around a single plan to remake the health-care law.

A Senate hearing to “modernize the Endangered Species Act” unfolded Wednesday just as supporters of the law had feared, with round after round of criticism from Republican lawmakers who said the federal effort to keep species from going extinct encroaches on states’ rights, is unfair to landowners and stymies efforts by mining companies to extract resources and create jobs.

The two-hour meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee was led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who said last month that his focus in a bid to change the act would be “eliminating a lot of the red tape and the bureaucratic burdens that have been impacting our ability to create jobs,” according to a report in Energy and Environment News.

The scandal-hit bank that loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to Donald Trump has conducted a close internal examination of the US president’s personal account to gauge whether there are any suspicious connections to Russia, the Guardian has learned.

Deutsche Bank, which is under investigation by the US Department of Justice and is facing intense regulatory scrutiny, was looking for evidence of whether recent loans to Trump, which were struck in highly unusual circumstances, may have been underpinned by financial guarantees from Moscow.

The Guardian has also learned that the president’s immediate family are Deutsche clients. The bank examined accounts held by Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, her husband, Jared Kushner, who serves as a White House adviser, and Kushner’s mother.

The internal review found no evidence of any Russia link, but Deutsche Bank is coming under pressure to appoint an external and independent auditor to review its business relationship with Trump.

Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell Jr, a member of the House Ways and Means committee, said: “We know that Deutsche Bank is a major lender to President Trump, and the firm is also currently undergoing scrutiny by the Department of Justice for alleged misconduct.

The hope that Stein and Sanders' followers seem to have that a loud primal scream at injustice will do the trick is about as delusional as things get.

“Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday morning, adding in a second post that “the spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!”

House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz requested Wednesday that the Department of Justice launch an investigation into the leaks surrounding the ouster of Michael Flynn.

Robert Costa ✔ @costareports
Trump friend tells me decision for POTUS to hold big rally Sat in FL is part of his desire to "go to his people" and "bring back the crowds"
12:51 PM - 15 Feb 2017

Kellyanne Conway's interview tricks, explained

...That evasiveness, along with her “Bowling Green massacre” and “alternative facts” controversies, has made her a popular target for criticism and parody. But Conway’s ability to avoid answering even basic questions about Trump’s positions or statements demonstrates real skill. I talked to Seth Gannon, a former champion debater and coach at Speech Labs, who explained how Conway masterfully redirects key terms and concepts, preys on interviewers’ politeness, and displays an almost “postmodern” ability to recreate reality in order to trip up her interviewer and paint Trump in the best possible light.

Conway’s talent for surviving tough interviews is hard to deny. But it’s that same talent that should raise questions about whether interviewing her is a worthwhile journalistic practice at all.

“Once she has decided not to give meaningful answers to questions,” Gannon says, “there is no way to have successful interview by traditional measures. There’s only gradations of failure, only gradations of non-answers.”...

Clinton didn't see it as much of a problem.

That's an awful thing to say.

Chauvinists of any faith or ethnicity are what's really horrible.

It really isn't up to you to make pronouncements on what political views are permissible for Jews.

You don't get to determine what's "politically correct".

That's not kosher.

McGentrix wrote:

Secondly, we are recording conversations of American citizens?

Well yes, you do. It's called mass spying