How fitting. They're drawing the line at the woman.
In a position that doesn't affect the rest of the world.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Such Resistance!
How fitting. They're drawing the line at the woman.
In a position that doesn't affect the rest of the world.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
FBI Turned Blind Eye to White Supremists in Law Enforcement
A number of these right-wing infiltrators are not just white supremicists, they are anti-government.In a heavily redacted version of an October 2006 FBI internal intelligence assessment, the agency raised the alarm over white supremacist groups’ “historical” interest in “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” The effort, the memo noted, “can lead to investigative breaches and can jeopardize the safety of law enforcement sources or personnel.” The memo also states that law enforcement had recently become aware of the term “ghost skins,” used among white supremacists to describe “those who avoid overt displays of their beliefs to blend into society and covertly advance white supremacist causes.”
[...]
[In 2009, a Department of Homeland Security report, coordinated with the FBI concluded] that “lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent right-wing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.”
[...]
Faced with mounting criticism, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano disavowed the document and apologized to veterans. The agency’s unit investigating right-wing extremism was largely dismantled and the report’s lead investigator was pushed out.
[...]
Daryl Johnson, who was the lead researcher on the DHS report [and] who now runs DT Analytics, a consulting firm that analyzes domestic extremism, says the problem has since gotten “a lot more troublesome.”
[...]
Johnson added that Homeland Security has given up tracking right-wing domestic extremists. “It’s only the FBI now,” he said.
The Intercept
A "sovereign citizen" is a member of a group who believe they are sovereign in the same way a country is sovereign and have no reason to abide by US laws.A 2014 survey found that sovereign citizen extremists were perceived by law enforcement agencies as a top threat, ahead of foreign-inspired extremists. And a 2015 DHS intelligence assessment, written in coordination with the FBI, warned about the continuing threat sovereign citizen extremists pose to police officers.
Oh yes we can.After a series of investigations uncovered substantial numbers of extremists in the military, the Department of Defense moved to impose stricter screenings, including monitoring recruits’ tattoos for white supremacist symbols and discharging those found to espouse racist views.
“The military has completely reformed its process on this front,” said the SPLC’s Beirich, who lobbied the DOD to adopt those reforms. “I don’t know why it wouldn’t be the same for police officers; we can’t have people with guns having crazy ideas or ideas that threaten certain populations.”
Reforming police, as it turns out, is a lot harder than reforming the military, because of the decentralized way in which the thousands of police departments across the country operate, the historical affinity of certain police departments with the same racial ideologies espoused by extremists, and an even broader reluctance to do much about it.
[...]
Whether the First Amendment protects an officer’s right to express racist, white supremacist views — or even to associate with organizations that endorse those views — is something that remains a subject of debate.
[...]
“This election, for white supremacists, was a signal that ‘We’re on the right track,’” said [Pete Simi, a sociologist who spent decades studying the proliferation of white supremacists in the U.S. military]. “I have never seen anything like it among white supremacists, where they express this feeling of triumph and jubilee. They are just elated about the idea that they feel like they have somebody in the White House who gets it.”
But, of Course!
Gregg Phillips, whose unsubstantiated claim that the election was marred by 3 million illegal votes was tweeted by the president, was listed on the rolls in Alabama, Texas and Mississippi, according to voting records and election officials in those states.
AP News
So, according to Phillips' calculations, he alone counts for three of his3 million fraudulent voters.
This is the guy Trump is quoting and whose "data" he's using to support his own claim of voter fraud. In case you missed it: Who is Gregg Phillips?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
UK Counter Petition
One hundred thousand. Almost as much as 1.6 million.A poorly-worded petition supporting US President Donald Trump’s planned state visit to the UK in defiance of protests has hit 100,000 signatures on the UK Parliament website, meaning the government must respond.
The petition, which is riddled with spelling mistakes, argues that Trump should be allowed to make a state visit to the UK because “he is a leader of a free world.”
It goes on to state that Britain is a country which does not believe people who “appose our point of view should be gagged [sic].”
The petition comes as a separate appeal to block the visit surpassed 1.6 million signatures.
The petition in support of Trump, which grew rapidly Tuesday morning, now has the required number of signatures needed before the government will respond.
RT
At any rate, I don't understand the point. Isn't the issue already being considered in parliament due to the 1.6 million who don't want him?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Meanwhile in Ukraine
Two things:
1) This isn't in the popular news magazines and TV reports that Trump watches, and he doesn't like daily briefings; 2) He's supportive of Putin, right?
Fighting has been going on for three years and there's a peace deal?Almost three years after it broke out, there’s no end in sight for the conflict in Ukraine’s easternmost regions, which has killed more than 9,600 people and poisoned ties between Russia and the West. A 2015 peace plan brokered in Minsk, Belarus, by Germany, Russia and France has failed to bring about a resolution.
[...]
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed the surge in fighting on the “aggressive actions” of Ukraine’s military, which he accused of trying to take territory from separatists in the Donetsk region. Troops crossed the line of contact separating the two sides, showing Ukraine is unwilling to adhere to the peace deal, he told reporters on a conference call.
Bloomberg
Up and At It
He may have left work, but he didn't take the weekend off from tweeting.
By NICK GASS 09/15/16 12:02 PM EDT
Donald Trump's speech on economic policy got off to a rocky start Thursday, as the famously unscripted candidate was forced to revert to his notes when a teleprompter loaded with his speech apparently failed.
Politico
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
RIP Molly Ivins
Sure do miss you. Especially now.
The film makers are raising money to create this documentary. Go here to follow the progress or to donate.
Google Molly on YouTube and watch any of the videos. You won't be disappointed.
Molly Ivins 8/30/44 - 1/31/07
The film makers are raising money to create this documentary. Go here to follow the progress or to donate.
Google Molly on YouTube and watch any of the videos. You won't be disappointed.
Monday, January 30, 2017
And Good on Sally
Not only did she get fired, but with venom. Click here to read the statement replacing her. And here to read the letter she composed that got her fired.President Trump fired his acting attorney general on Monday after she defiantly refused to defend his immigration executive order.
[...]
Ms. Yates’s decision confronted the president with a stinging challenge to his authority and laid bare a deep divide at the Justice Department, within the diplomatic corps and elsewhere in the government over the wisdom of his order.
“At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful,” Ms. Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers.
NYT
They'll be getting their own nasty dismissal any minute now.Over the weekend, four federal judges temporarily blocked part of the executive order, prohibiting the government from sending people back to their home countries. Court hearings and further motions in those cases are scheduled this week.
[...]
The visa ban has also rattled other agencies: the Defense Department, which says it hurts the military’s local partners in conflict zones like Iraq; and the Department of Homeland Security, whose customs officers are struggling to enforce the directive.
[...]
Corporate chieftains from Detroit to Silicon Valley sharply criticized the ban, saying it was inconsistent with their values. Mr. Trump also faced mounting legal challenges across the country as two Democratic-leaning states, Massachusetts and Washington, signaled they would attack the policy in court and a Muslim advocacy group filed a lawsuit calling it an unconstitutional religious test.
[...]
At the State Department, which is also without a leader, career officials are circulating a dissent memo that argues that closing the borders to more than 200 million people to weed out a handful of would-be terrorists would not make the nation safer and might instead deepen the threat.
[...]
There is open hostility to Mr. Trump’s ideas in large pockets of the government, and deep frustration among those enforcing the visa ban that the White House announced the order without warning or consulting them.
..but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
The Religion Test
Making them pass a religion test is how."This is all uncharted territory," said Austin-based immigration lawyer Jason Finkelman. "We’re all trying to figure out what’s going on."
[...]
[Sam Witten, a 22-year veteran of the State Department and principle deputy assistant secretary of state for refugee programs from 2007 to 2010] echoed that sentiment, saying that DHS and the State Department are already so "thorough" and "careful," calling the vetting process in place already "very extensive."
[...]
"In general, those of us who work in the refugee process believe the vetting is so intensive and lengthy and extreme that there is unlikely to be a significant level of fraud," Gilman said.
[...]
"No one wants a refugee to come into the country who would threaten national security," he said.
[...]
[Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School] expressed concern over Trump's intention to prioritize Christian refugees because the program is "set up to give protection to those in gravest need."
[...]
The vetting process is already so "extreme," that Finkelman said he doesn't know how much more extreme it can get.
ABC
This is heinous.While DHS officers can ask refugee applicants whatever questions they feel are appropriate, typically, interview questions are heavily security-related, Witten said. Going forward, each DHS interviewer will be tasked "to ask enough questions to figure out -- to their satisfaction -- whether the person meets the requirement that the president is imposing -- that they are a Christian," Witten speculated.
Stay On 'Em
Gee, how could that have happened?AT A TESTY MEETING with a crowd of constituents Sunday evening, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., became the latest Democratic senator to face a grassroots backlash for voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Whitehouse was one of 14 Democrats who voted last Monday to confirm Mike Pompeo, a fierce Trump ally who largely shares the president’s antagonism towards Muslims and personal privacy, and has strongly suggested that he supports bringing back intelligence gathering techniques that include torture.
[...]
The venue hit its capacity of 600 people, leading the overflow crowd to chant for the senator to come outside so they could hear his explanation for the vote.
“You are entitled to an explanation of why I have voted for some of the defense nominees and I will concede right off the bat that I may have been wrong,” Whitehouse told people in the auditorium.
The Intercept
Did that explanation make any sense whatsoever? Still, how neat would that be if the president were named Whitehouse?“Why did I vote for Pompeo?” Whitehouse said. “I think that there are a lot of you who may disagree with me on this, and I appreciate it. Sometimes I feel pretty confident, sometimes you need to make a judgment call.”
“He’s a Rubio guy,” the senator continued, drowned out by a chorus of booing. “Sometimes you need to be in a position to say no if something really, really significant happens.”
The crowd, unhappy with the response, began yelling again, and called for the senator to disclose his positions on other Trump cabinet nominees.
[...]
Whitehouse committed to voting against Betsy DeVos for education secretary, Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary, Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Scott Pruitt for EPA, and Andy Puzder for labor secretary.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Winning Hearts and Minds
They can't even come into the building? That's a bit harsh.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Fake News
That's taking "if it was terrorism, it must be Muslims" a bit far, considering the target was a mosque.A MASS SHOOTING at a Quebec City mosque last night left six people dead and eight wounded. The targeted mosque, the Cultural Islamic Center of Quebec, was the same one at which a severed pig’s head was left during Ramadan last June. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the episode a “terrorist attack on Muslims.”
Almost immediately, various news outlets and political figures depicted the shooter as Muslim. Right-wing nationalist tabloids in the UK instantly linked it to Islamic violence. Fox News claimed that “witnesses said at least one gunman shouted ‘Allahu akbar!’.”
Intercept
Hell, no. Their work is done.[L]ocal police did apparently arrest two suspects at first: both [the suspect] along with [a member of the mosque who allegedly phoned police, Moroccan Mohamed] el Khadir. And until the investigation is complete, one cannot know for certain what the motives here were.
[...]
But these assertions are utterly false. The suspect is neither Moroccan nor Muslim. The Moroccan individual, Mohamed el Khadir, was actually one of the worshippers at the mosque and called 911 to summon the police, and played no role whatsoever in the shooting.
The actual shooting suspect is 27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette, a white French Canadian who is, by all appearances, a rabid anti-immigrant nationalist.
[...]
[T]his is exactly why no responsible news organization, let alone the White House, should rush to depict the shooter as Muslim and of Moroccan descent when so little is known about what happened. Yet not only did Fox and the Trump White House do exactly that, but worse, neither has retracted or corrected their claims long after it became clear that it was false
FURTHER UPDATE:
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Nothing arbitrary about that! Brilliant. Like an angry housewife whose husband is cluttering up the garage.
RIP Luke Kelly
Twice a year I have to officially remember Luke Kelly.
Luke Kelly Nov. 17 1940 - Jan. 30, 1984
sorely missed by so many
sorely missed by so many
The Moral of the Story
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.There is a story Donald Trump liked to tell on the campaign trail. [...]
The fable goes like this. A “tender-hearted” woman finds a wounded snake on the road. She takes it in and nurses it back to health. The snake, revived, bites her. The woman, dying, asks why.
[...]
“‘Oh, shut up, silly woman,’ said the reptile with a grin. ‘You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.’”
“Does that make sense to anyone?” Trump says to cheers.
[...]
The fable of the snake, in Trump’s rallies, was about Syrian refugees. For that issue, it is worse than useless — it is slander. Precisely zero Syrian refugees have launched terrorist attacks against the United States of America. But the fable of the snake is not without value. It is a powerful metaphor for Donald Trump’s presidency.
[...]
There is nothing Trump has done that should surprise. His policies have aligned with his promises. His actions have aligned with his history. His conspiracy theories, his thin skin, his strange obsessions, his impulsive behavior, his poor management, his bizarre tweets — all of it was present in his campaign too.
[...]
It was all there. The way Trump is at his most sensitive when he is at his most powerful. His tendency to wield bizarre conspiracy theories against his opponents. His flagrant disregard for the truth. His anger at being held accountable for his own words and actions. His desire for vengeance against those he feels wronged by.
[...]
Those who confidently told the country to take Trump seriously but not literally should be ashamed of themselves. Those who rationalized their support by assuming staff would rein him in, or the Oval Office would humble him, have been proven wrong.
[...]
All of this was predictable. We knew damn well what Trump was when we took him in.
Vox
Don't Count on the Dems
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.Instead of attempting to salvage the doomed and fatally flawed Affordable Healthcare Act, progressives should seize the time and push for single payer health care, said pediatrician and political activist Dr. Margaret Flowers.
[...]
The push, however, must come from the people, not the Democrats. “Even Sen. Sanders has backed down and is saying, Let’s protect the Affordable Care Act now and we’ll fight for single payer later,” said Flowers.
Black Agenda Report
Give 'Em Hell
Another worthless Democrat trying to harvest a windfall from the public's backlash to Trump. Add DiFi to Schumer, et al.
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
Gee, how could that have happened?AT A TESTY MEETING with a crowd of constituents Sunday evening, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., became the latest Democratic senator to face a grassroots backlash for voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Whitehouse was one of 14 Democrats who voted last Monday to confirm Mike Pompeo, a fierce Trump ally who largely shares the president’s antagonism towards Muslims and personal privacy, and has strongly suggested that he supports bringing back intelligence gathering techniques that include torture.
[...]
The venue hit its capacity of 600 people, leading the overflow crowd to chant for the senator to come outside so they could hear his explanation for the vote.
“You are entitled to an explanation of why I have voted for some of the defense nominees and I will concede right off the bat that I may have been wrong,” Whitehouse told people in the auditorium.
The Intercept
Still, how neat would that be if the president were named Whitehouse?“Why did I vote for Pompeo?” Whitehouse said. “I think that there are a lot of you who may disagree with me on this, and I appreciate it. Sometimes I feel pretty confident, sometimes you need to make a judgment call.”
“He’s a Rubio guy,” the senator continued, drowned out by a chorus of booing. “Sometimes you need to be in a position to say no if something really, really significant happens.”
The crowd, unhappy with the response, began yelling again, and called for the senator to disclose his positions on other Trump cabinet nominees.
[...]
Whitehouse committed to voting against Betsy DeVos for education secretary, Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary, Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Scott Pruitt for EPA, and Andy Puzder for labor secretary.
Speaking of Trump's Cabinet
While Bannon is the de facto security adviser for tRump, his actual National Security Adviser is ex-General Michael Flynn.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Now that's weird. This could be a "dynamic" situation.People close to Mr. Bannon said he is not accumulating power for power’s sake, but is instead helping to fill a staff leadership vacuum created, in part, by Mr. Flynn’s stumbling performance as national security adviser.
Mr. Flynn still communicates with Mr. Trump frequently, and his staff has been assembling a version of the Presidential Daily Briefing for Mr. Trump.
[...]
A president who likes generals and abhors political correctness, Mr. Trump found in Mr. Flynn — who joined Trump backers in an anti-Clinton “lock her up!” chant during the campaign — perhaps the most politically incorrect general this side of his hero, Gen. George S. Patton.
[...]
[I]t is unclear when the maneuvers to reduce Mr. Flynn’s role began. Two Obama administration officials said Trump transition officials inquired about expanded national security roles for Mr. Bannon and Mr. Kushner at the earliest stages of the transition in November [...] after Mr. Flynn had begun to chafe on the nerves of his colleagues on the team.
[...]
[Flynn] has also continued to dabble in the kind of bomb-throwing behavior that concerns Mr. Trump’s allies, such as planning to attend an anti-Clinton “Deploraball” event at the time of the inauguration. He was urged to skip it by Trump allies, and ultimately agreed.
[...]
Mr. Flynn’s reputation has raised questions among some in the cabinet. Two weeks ago, [Bannon and Jared Kushner] held a meeting with Rex W. Tillerson, Mr. Trump’s pick to run the State Department, Mr. Mattis and Mike Pompeo, now the C.I.A. director, to discuss coordination — Mr. Flynn was invited but did not attend.
Part of the meeting was devoted to discussing concerns about Mr. Flynn, according to an official with knowledge of it.
NYT
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
tRump's Cheney
Hint: It's not Pence, as undesirable as he is.
The whirlwind first week of Donald J. Trump’s presidency had all the bravura hallmarks of a Stephen K. Bannon production.
It started with the doom-hued inauguration homily to “American carnage” in United States cities co-written by Mr. Bannon, followed a few days later by his “shut up” message to the news media. The week culminated with a blizzard of executive orders, mostly hatched by Mr. Bannon’s team and the White House policy adviser, Stephen Miller, aimed at disorienting the “enemy,” fulfilling campaign promises and distracting attention from Mr. Trump’s less than flawless debut.
But the defining moment for Mr. Bannon came Saturday night in the form of an executive order giving the rumpled right-wing agitator a full seat on the “principals committee” of the National Security Council — while downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, who will now attend only when the council is considering issues in their direct areas of responsibilities. It is a startling elevation of a political adviser, to a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president’s top military and intelligence advisers.
[...]
[I]n terms of real influence, Mr. Bannon looms above almost everyone except the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in the Trumpian pecking order.
[...]
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Bannon — whose Breitbart website was a magnet for white nationalists, antiglobalists and conspiracy theorists — always planned to participate in national security.
NYT
That's a Big Number, Don
He's looking at the very least at some ugly protests if he goes. But look at the bright side. He wouldn't be getting on any helicopters.More than a million people have signed a parliamentary petition demanding that US President Donald Trump is prevented from making a state visit to Britain.
Monday's milestone far exceeds the 100,000 signatures needed to get parliament to consider debating the issue.
The petition gathered the large number of signatures in less than 24 hours.
alJazeera
It's all in the name: tRump.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Rise and Shine
And we sure don't want any bad "dudes" in this country.
Study the world!
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Also, this morning, his thoughts are beginning to scatter. He must be watching the news on Fox TV.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Senator Listing on Muslim Ban
I don't know who put this together, and I certainly haven't done the research, so caveat lector.
Lots of silent Republicans here.
Lots of silent Republicans here.
Chuck Had This One Coming
Politicians are scrambling to get on the side of the people who are finally taking matters into their own hands because the fucking politicians won't.
Good. Do not let these asshats use you as an Anti-Trump hammer for the Democrats. There's so much more at stake.
#NoBanNoWall
Good. Do not let these asshats use you as an Anti-Trump hammer for the Democrats. There's so much more at stake.
#NoBanNoWall
I Have Discovered Donald Trump's True Identity
I realized last night that Donald Trump is a comic book villain.
The first one that came to mind, merely because of his shape, was The Penguin from the Batman comics.
But it fits, doesn't it? The Penguin was a puffed up, pampered, sadistic mobster businessman. He owned the Iceberg Lounge in Gotham which was just a front for The Penguin's illegal and unprincipled ventures. He struts around in fancy clothing, imagining himself a gentleman criminal, when he's actually just a megalomaniac. He surrounds himself with beautiful women, while he himself is grotesque. The only difference is, The Penguin is relatively sane and is just a mobster, not psychotic. Oh, and much smarter than Trump.
Got a better character for comparison? Or is Trump his own comic villain. Hey, there's an idea for an enterprise...
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
The first one that came to mind, merely because of his shape, was The Penguin from the Batman comics.
But it fits, doesn't it? The Penguin was a puffed up, pampered, sadistic mobster businessman. He owned the Iceberg Lounge in Gotham which was just a front for The Penguin's illegal and unprincipled ventures. He struts around in fancy clothing, imagining himself a gentleman criminal, when he's actually just a megalomaniac. He surrounds himself with beautiful women, while he himself is grotesque. The only difference is, The Penguin is relatively sane and is just a mobster, not psychotic. Oh, and much smarter than Trump.
Got a better character for comparison? Or is Trump his own comic villain. Hey, there's an idea for an enterprise...
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
In Defiance of Court Orders?
During yesterday's Muslim ban crisis, some airport customs and border patrol officials were refusing to release detainees.
It's not clear to me whether they had the legal right to do so in every instance.
Alternative facts.
Also:
It's not clear to me whether they had the legal right to do so in every instance.
As many as possible? Are some of the agents incommunicado?The ruling does not necessarily mean the people being held at airports across the US are going to be released, said Zachary Manfredi, from Yale's Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, who helped draft the emergency stay motion.
"The judge's order is that they (lawful visa/green card holders) not be removed from the US -- it doesn't immediately order that they be released from detention," he told CNN.
"We are hoping that CBP (Customs and Border Patrol), now that they no longer have a reason to detain them, will release them. But it is also possible they could be transferred to (other) detention facilities." "We are getting the order to as many CBP officers as possible right now," he added.
Fort Wayne Home Page
Fort Wayne Home PageA federal judge in New York temporarily blocked the order Saturday night for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries who have already arrived in the US and those who are in transit, and who hold valid visas, ruling they cannot be removed from the US.
[...]
Similar legal rulings were made in Virginia and Washington State. In Massachusetts, however, two judges went further, saying the government should notify travelers who would have been affected by the executive order that for the next seven days they are free to travel to Boston.
[...]
Federal judges in Boston have ruled early Sunday that officials may not detain a person on the basis of President Trump's executive order.
[...]
The US Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday it will comply with judicial orders not to deport detained travelers affected by President Donald Trump's seismic move to ban more than 130 million people from entering the United States.
[...]
President Trump said the government was "totally prepared" for the ban. "It's working out very nicely," Trump told reporters Saturday. "You see it at the airports. You see it all over."
Alternative facts.
Also:
By the way, this is a very thorough and professional article at the Fort Wayne Home Page. Too bad our national news services can't do as good a job as these three reporters: ARIANE DE VOGUE , ELI WATKINS AND ALANNE ORJOUX.Protests are scheduled Sunday at least even cities: Orlando, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Washington and Chicago, mostly at airports.
Great News for ISIS
Her name was Nawaar Bint Anwar Awlaki.
Or, as Reuters headlines it:
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
The United States of Mafia
Yeah, but not before he sends a message.President Trump has dismissed the United Nations as a social club and suggested the United States could cut its funding of the organization’s efforts.
NYT
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.Speaking Friday for the first time at the United Nations as Ambassador, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley outlined her vision for the role of the U.S. at the international organization.
[...]
"Everything that is working, we are going to make it better. Everything that is not working, we are going to try and fix. And anything that seems to be obsolete and not necessary, we are going to do away with," Haley pledged.
[...]
"For those who don't have our backs, we're taking names."
NBC
Of Course, It's Not Over
("Detained" - not "detailed").
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
No Wonder Trump Didn't Give Rudy the Position He Wanted
He can't keep his trap shut.
To be clear, he then says it's not based on religion, it's based on terror risk. And then he said it worries him that Pakistan isn't on the list. I guess they didn't ask him for input.
To be clear, he then says it's not based on religion, it's based on terror risk. And then he said it worries him that Pakistan isn't on the list. I guess they didn't ask him for input.
A Little Desperation
He doesn't give a fig about Christians anywhere. He just wants to rally his base and get some handle on the news cycle.
And by "base", I mean "base". Who are too dim-witted to realize that Muslims in the Middle-East have been executed in larger numbers, and a great percentage of them by American weapons.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Ban Trump
MP Jeremy Corbyn has signed on. I like it.An online petition to prevent US President Donald Trump making an official state visit to the UK has generated enough signatures to warrant it being considered for debate in parliament.
[...]
[T]he petition has crossed the threshold needed for it to be debated in the British Parliament and currently boasts more than 140,000 signatures beyond the 100,000 required to trigger a parliamentary debate.
[...]
The petition gathered over 80,000 signatures in the last hour alone.
[...]
“Donald Trump should be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US Government, but he should not be invited to make an official State Visit because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen,”the petition states.
[...]
“Donald Trump's well documented misogyny and vulgarity disqualifies him from being received by Her Majesty the Queen or the Prince of Wales. Therefore during the term of his presidency Donald Trump should not be invited to the United Kingdom for an official State Visit.”
RT
UPDATE 1/31: A counter petition.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Speaking of National Security and Incompetence
In this case, can you be sure?Thomas Countryman was on his way to Rome for an international meeting on nuclear weapons on Wednesday when he found out he had been summarily removed from his position. The senior diplomat turned around and got on the first flight back to Washington.
It was a sudden and unceremonious end to 35 years as a foreign service officer, the last four months of it as the acting undersecretary for arms control and international security. But Countryman was not alone. The Trump White House carried out an abrupt purge of the state department’s senior leadership last week, removing key officials from posts that are essential to the day-to-day running of the department and US missions abroad.
[...]
Countryman’s position was especially sensitive. He was acting as “undersecretary T”, the official required to sign off on US arms sales or security assistance abroad, and the person charged with negotiating, implementing and verifying international arms control agreements and international security.
[...]
The motives behind the sudden wave of sackings are unclear. Some of the outgoing diplomats saw it as one more sign of chaos from a new administration that is desperately short of experience. Others saw it as a wrecking operation, aimed at debilitating the state department at a time of upheaval: while the White House planned its ban on entry for people from a list of Muslim countries, and while Trump frames a new foreign policy before Tillerson arrives in his post.
In the past, the state department has been asked to set up early foreign contacts for an incoming administration. This time however it has been bypassed, and Trump’s immediate circle of Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Reince Priebus are making their own calls.
[...]
“The world doesn’t stop turning just because there is a new US administration,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security advocacy group.
Guardian
Wheeeeeeeee!Among the other top officials to be removed from their positions were Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary for management; Michele Bond, who was in charge of US consuls around the world; Joyce Barr, assistant secretary of state for administration; and Gentry Smith, the head of the office on foreign missions.
David Robinson, the assistant secretary of state for conflict stabilisation operations, also received a letter telling him to pack up his desk and leave, according to Jon Finer, who was John Kerry’s chief of staff.
[...]
“This is no way to treat people who have served under Democrats and Republicans, who have been unstintingly loyal to their country and their government,” said Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs in the last Bush administration.
[...]
When Daniel Baer, the former US ambassador to the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, was preparing to leave this month, he offered to visit Washington to brief the transition team. Such briefings are part of an outgoing ambassador’s duties – they are laid out in the state department’s foreign affairs manual – and there were sensitive issues to discuss, including the upcoming renewal of the team monitoring the Ukraine conflict. Baer was told his parting advice would not be required.
[...]
The acting state department spokesman, Mark Toner, pointed out that as political appointees they were routinely expected to submit their resignations.
Although that is true, it is also customary for such officials to stay in positions until their replacements are ready to step in, for the sake of continuity. In this case, there are no replacements on the horizon.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
"Malevolence" and "Incompetence"
The man thinks he can just sit up at his desk signing papers to rule theThe malevolence of President Trump’s Executive Order on visas and refugees is mitigated chiefly—and perhaps only—by the astonishing incompetence of its drafting and construction.
NBC is reporting that the document was not reviewed by DHS, the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Department of Defense, and that National Security Council lawyers were prevented from evaluating it. Moreover, the New York Times writes that Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, the agencies tasked with carrying out the policy, were only given a briefing call while Trump was actually signing the order itself. Yesterday, the Department of Justice gave a “no comment” when asked whether the Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed Trump’s executive orders—including the order at hand. (OLC normally reviews every executive order.)
Lawfare
Herr Bannon, not Kellyanne Conway, is the Trump Whisperer.Friday night, DHS arrived at the legal interpretation that the executive order restrictions applying to seven countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen -- did not apply to people who with lawful permanent residence, generally referred to as green card holders.
The White House overruled that guidance overnight, according to officials familiar with the rollout. That order came from the President's inner circle, led by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. Their decision held that, on a case by case basis, DHS could allow green card holders to enter the US.
Of course not. But you do if you're a white nationalist.Even while he was preparing to sign the order itself, he declared, "This is the ‘Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.’ We all know what that means." Indeed, we do. This document is the implementation of a campaign promise to keep out Muslims moderated only by the fact that certain allied Muslim countries are left out because the diplomatic repercussions of including them would be too detrimental.
[...]
This is the first policy the United States has adopted in the post-9/11 era about which I have ever said this. It’s a grave charge, I know, and I’m not making it lightly. But in the rational pursuit of security objectives, you don’t marginalize your expert security agencies and fail to vet your ideas through a normal interagency process. You don’t target the wrong people in nutty ways when you’re rationally pursuing real security objectives.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.[I]t’s a very dangerous thing to have a White House that can’t with the remotest pretense of competence and governance put together a major policy document on a crucial set of national security issues without inducing an avalanche of litigation and wide diplomatic fallout. If the incompetence mitigates the malevolence in this case, that’ll be a blessing. But given the nature of the federal immigration powers, the mitigation may be small and the blessing short-lived; the implications of having an executive this inept are not small and won’t be short-lived.
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