Is the Radical Left’s Stephen Lendman Spear Heading Trump’s Defense? (ODT)
via Ukrainegate Should Be Called Adam Schiffgate or Schiff/Bidengate – Stephen Lendman
Author: peterimrich
First the FBI now the CIA any Independant arm of government is a danger to this President why? Because they alone threaten his image and spin. (ODT)
Does Trump understand democracy? I’m really asking.
His approach to politics is combative — kill-or-be-killed. If you hit him, he will hit you back harder, no matter what the rules of the game are.
That might be a great strategy in a WWE ring. It’s less good in life.
Trump gives demeaning and sometimes racist (“Pocahontas”) nicknames to political opponents. He never apologizes, even when he has been caught admitting to sexual misconduct with women (and been accused of plenty more by a host of women) or making fun of a disabled person.
He appears to believe you are either the winner or the loser, and he must be the winner. His only strategy has been brute force. And he doesn’t seek out solutions in which all parties win.
This approach has been very destructive on the policy front. But it’s not clear whether it’s going to work for him in the long term.
via Trump’s Assault on the Constitution: Politics as World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
Trump suggested following Israeli tactics at his wall and shoot their legs (ODT)
Republican talking points have focused on denying that there was an explicit quid pro quo in Trump’s phone call, even though the White House readout has him saying, “The United States has been very, very good for Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily” and asking for a “favor.” But Taylor’s texts indicate that, as the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, he interpreted Trump’s message as an invitation to trade a politically motivated investigation for U.S. assistance and a White House visit.
via Trump-Ukraine Call Was Anything but “Routine,” Texts Show
Clive Palmer is suing YouTube sensation Jordan Shanks for defamation. Instead of capitulating however, Shanks doubled down and tore strips off Palmer in the funniest response to a legal threat yet. If you have been legally threatened in similar ways – we want to hear about it – click here to let us know – the Streisand effect may work in your favour.
QAnon figure BurnedSpy, whose wife works on the prime minister’s staff, has propagated bizarre theories about Alexander Downer and Julie Bishop
The FBI has previously warned that QAnon could act as a potential motivator for “domestic extremists” and last year Reddit banned one of its main QAnon threads for repeated violations of its content policy, warning it would not tolerate content “that incites violence, disseminates personal information, or harasses” users.
In Australia, one of the more significant QAnon figures tweets under the handle @BurnedSpy34 and has amassed 21,000 Twitter followers in just over a year. BurnedSpy tweets daily QAnon material, including bizarre theories about Alexander Downer and Julie Bishop.
The Guardian has learned the identity of BurnedSpy and established he is a longstanding family friend of the Australian prime minister and his wife, Jenny.
The wife of BurnedSpy works on the prime minister’s staff.
FACT
When he isn’t raving about how the deep state is conspiring against him, Donald Trump loves to boast about the economy, claiming to have achieved unprecedented things. As it happens, none of his claims are true. While both GDP and employment have registered solid growth, the Trump economy simply seems to have continued a long expansion that began under former president Barack Obama. In fact, someone who looked only at the past 10 years of data would never guess that an election had taken place.
via Brace yourself: the Trump slump hits US economy and the world
It should be underlined, though, that the possibilities for foreign interference in US elections is a much bigger phenomenon than simply this sort of organized-crime style arm twisting by a president.
The Republican-majority Supreme Court has gutted campaign finance law and has allowed essentially anonymous money to flood into campaigns. The Roberts court, in striking down McCutcheon v. FEC”> in McCutcheon v. FEC limits on individual spending on campaigns, opened the door to Donald Trump to simply buy the 2016 election. If he had tried to do that in the 1990s he’d have gone to jail just for that infraction.
In addition, since the money is anonymous, it can be foreign. I wrote on this issue earlier,
The Power of Fox has destroyed Democracy while we sit back and let it. (ODT)
Fox News’ propagandistic coverage of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal is winning over its audience, a new poll shows. Fox viewers have become the president’s firewall, opposing his impeachment by a 71% to 17% margin while non-Fox viewers support it, 51% to 31%.
via New poll: Fox’s audience is accepting its impeachment spin | Media Matters for America
It’s legal because I’m President. I can rob a bank shoot you it’s legal (ODT)
via Trump Now Wants China To Investigate The Bidens | HuffPost Australia
That meeting has gained a new lease of life. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, recently in the United States, was called by Trump as part of Barr’s effort to marshal cooperation in investigating the workings of US law enforcement and intelligence behind the 2016 campaign. The New York Times did not miss the humour of this. “In making the request – one of many at Mr Barr’s behest – Mr Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself.”
via The President Did It: Donald Trump’s Phone Around – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It seems just a few days ago that the Liberals were telling us how good they’ve been at creating jobs. I suppose if you use the word “creating” in the sense of a making up a thing that’s not really there, then one would have to agree.
Then again, Scottie is very helpful these days. When it was discovered that one of the councils being given drought relief was actually experiencing a bumper season, our PM told us that he made no apology for being generous… which would be fine, were it not for the fact that the councils to which he was so generous didn’t seem to be in any Labor electorates. I’m mildly surprised that the metropolitan electorate of Chisholm wasn’t given drought relief, not because it’s a marginal electorate, but because city people have to pay higher food prices thanks to the drought…
And then there’s the NDIS which is so generous that it had more money than people needed. How else do you explain the $4.5 billion in unspent funds this financial year? Incompetence in its administration? Ridiculous. The Coalition is in charge! An obsession with returning the Budget to surplus no matter who suffers? You cynic! As if the government would do such a thing.
via Downer, The Spy Who Gave In What He Was Told… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Donald Trump had an absolutely bananas press conference on Wednesday afternoon. Oh, and the President of Finland was there too, watching in abject horror, as the President* had a real time meltdown on live tv.
There were so many completely batsh*t crazy moments, but one of the worst had to be at the end, when Trump snarled and raised his voice at Reuters reporter, Jeff Mason. What got Trumpy so upset? Mason asked him what he wanted Zelensky/Ukraine to do about Hunter Biden. Simple question, right? Well, Trumpy didn’t like it…not one bit.
Here are some other moments from the press conference:
Trump Completely Loses His Mind At Press Conference With Finland’s President | Crooks and Liars
Sinclair Broadcasts News Across America. This Is their Message (ODT)
The federal Reserve, Impeachment, The Democrats Trump blames everything but himself for the crash. He’s gone Twittering Mad (ODT)
via Trump blames ‘impeachment nonsense’ for Wall Street rout
The LNP focus on Unions as the greatest thieves in the country. They busted Craig Thompson for $13 mill to prove it. How can you be so conned Australia? (ODT)
The cost of misconduct for the major banks and AMP just keeps ticking up. It’s not over yet but at this stage of peak remediation provisioning, the number appears to be approaching the magic $10 billion mark on a pre-tax basis.
Paul Bongiorno
@PaulBongiorno
I am more convinced than ever it is time for churches, pseudo churches and those claiming to be churches paid taxes. Why should secular Australia bankroll, homophobes, frauds, misogynists, child abusers,main chancers and hypocrites ? Let them pass the plate and pay up.
via What a ‘balls-up’ of a government – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australians are carrying the 2nd most personal debt burden in the world will they now be paid to increase it? Wages are and have been stagnant for years production is up so who has profited from growth if personal debt has increased so much? Not the average Australian. Immense effort is being made to force fixed savings into the market. The banks dont lose by the way they continue to charge for their services. Debt is a good way to keep a nation’s work force obedient and compliant while income and wealth gaps grow. It’s what appears to be a respectable form of human bondage under the surface but human bondage nevertheless. (ODT)
Denmark’s third largest lender, Jyske Bank, is in effect paying home owners to borrow at the moment, with a standard mortgage of -0.5 per cent; now that’s value.
Jyske can do this by borrowing money from institutional investors at a negative rate — and there’s plenty of negative interest rate paper floating around at the moment, somewhere north of $US15 trillion ($22.37 trillion) in value — and passing it on to their customers, who then can pay back less than they borrow.
The bank clips the ticket with the usual fees and charges, but leaves the customer gruntled and still makes a tidy profit on the loan.
In industries propped up by temporary migrant workers, underpayment of workers is so widespread, it’s said to have become a business model. #TheDrum reporter @rubycornish takes a look at widespread wage theft in Australia
via Coalition’s workplace laws to diminish unions, not wage theft
Why Trump hates FOX it has REAL NEWS as well as TRUMP NEWS and it doesn’t always cover the REAL up. (ODT)
Fox’s newsroom got an incredibly rare scoop undermining Trump. It may be falling apart. | Media Matters for America
and
Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing have made over 90 appearances on Fox in 2019
Show your hand Giuliani or fold (ODT)
US President Donald Trump urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a phone call to assist an investigation designed to discredit the Mueller probe into Russian election interference.
Details of the phone call were restricted to only a select number of senior officials, mirroring the handling of Trump’s controversial phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, The New York Times reported.
The revelation of the call, confirmed by other US media outlets, comes just over a week since Morrison appeared at a campaign-style rally alongside Trump in Ohio and dined with him at a state dinner at the White House.
Two administration officials said the call between Trump and Morrison had occurred in recent weeks, and was explicitly made to discuss the Russia issue. It is not clear whether Morrison agreed to Trump’s request.
via Trump asked Scott Morrison to help discredit Mueller probe into 2016 election
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