Michael Cohen pleads guilty to being a liar and Trump is his echo (ODT)
Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump’s former longtime personal lawyer, has admitted to lying to the US Congress in a guilty plea filed to a New York courtroom in a surprise appearance. Key points
Mr Cohen admits to lying to a US Congress Committee about a Moscow Trump Tower
Tower negotiations were underway during Mr Trump’s Presidential bid
The President responded by labelling Mr Cohen a “liar” and a “weak person”
Greg Sheridan of Murdoch’s Australian says “don’t listen to what Trump says but what his Presidency does” as if it’s what Trump does. However even a stopped clock is right twice a day. (ODT)
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced that all operations in the West Bank and Gaza will close by early 2019. Half of the agency’s staff are expected to be let go in the coming weeks.
USAID is one of the largest aid organizations in the region, supplying around US$5.5 billion to the occupied Palestinian territories for infrastructure, medical and social services, and humanitarian aid. There is currently no alternative in sight.
Some US$215 million that the United States was to invest in humanitarian aid and development in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip has been withheld, according to an analysis for the U.S. Congress. U.S. financing for UNRWA has also been blocked as part of President Trump’s blackmail tactics against the Palestinians.
Greg Sheridan of Murdoch’s Australian keeps insisting” don’t listen to what Trump says pay attention to what he does. He’s not that bad”. Good one Sheridan even broken clock is right twice a day.( ODT)
In a wide-ranging and sometimes discordant 20-minute interview with The Washington Post, Trump complained at length about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome “Jay” Powell, whom he nominated earlier this year. He argued that rising interest rates and other Fed policies were damaging the economy – as evidenced by GM’s announcement this week that it was laying off 15 per cent of its workforce – though he insisted that he is not worried about a recession.
“I’m doing deals, and I’m not being accommodated by the Fed,” Trump said. “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”
He added: “So far, I’m not even a little bit happy with my selection of Jay. Not even a little bit. And I’m not blaming anybody, but I’m just telling you I think that the Fed is way off-base with what they’re doing.”
President Donald Trump on Monday appeared largely unimpressed by the dire warnings outlined in a recent scientific report issued by more than a dozen federal agencies, which, among its various conclusions, found that the United States is bound for economic disaster unless its reliance on fossil fuels is dramatically curtailed.
“I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Mississippi. The milquetoast response was paired with a physical shrug of the shoulders.
Trump then directly dismissed the report’s conclusion that climate change will bring severe economic damage to the country.
“I don’t believe it,” Trump continued. “No, no I don’t believe it.” He then appeared to blame China, Japan, and “all of Asia” for being the world’s worst climate change offenders, while claiming that the US is currently the “cleanest we’ve ever been.”
“The Trump Foundation functioned as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” she said on Twitter. “There are rules that govern private foundations, and we intend to enforce them — no matter who runs the foundation.”
The lawsuit alleges numerous violations, including using the charity’s funds to finance Trump’s political campaign (an illegal campaign donation) and benefit Trump’s for-profit businesses (a violation of laws against self-dealing).
In a move environmentalists and journalists denounced as a blatant effort to bury facts that conflict with the president’s denialism and pro-fossil fuel agenda, the Trump administration used the Friday after Thanksgiving to quietly release Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA), which warned “Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization” and concluded that “greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the only factors that can account” for planet-threatening warming.
“The decision to release this damning report when families are beginning to celebrate the holidays and newsrooms are short-staffed is a brazen attempt to bury the truth from the public that we must act now to move off fossil fuels and stabilize the climate,” Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement.
Environmental groups, journalists, and climate scientists are reacting to the Trump administration’s decision to release a major climate report the day after Thanksgiving—a move some are describing as an effort to bury an assessment packed with an “astonishing amount of science,” and they are hoping to see that effort backfire “bigly.”
“It’s an absolute disgrace to bury the truth about climate impacts in a year that saw hundreds of Americans die during devastating climate-fueled megafires, hurricanes, floods, and algal blooms,” said National Wildlife Federation president and CEO Collin O’Mara.
discuss Trump’s top ten lies and his totalitarian obsession with controlling what his supporters in particular define as true or false — and why this is all matters.
Clocks get more things right each day than Donald Trump (ODT)
It’s telling that Trump favors the most anti-democratic European governments and movements, the ones that peddle bigotry, while choosing to pick fights with the leaders of Britain, Germany, and now France. It’s no less revealing that other European far-right figures find him so appealing. None of this, however, should be surprising. The narratives of Europe’s right and the president’s rhetoric overlap, as do the policies they favor.
US President Donald Trump has signalled his administration will not seek any further sanctions against Saudi Arabia following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month.
Trump, instead, said his top priority is preserving America’s “steadfast” alliance with the kingdom.
Trump’s assures the US his thumb is on the pulse pity it’s Khashoggi’s(ODT)
Trump on Friday: “I’ve been fully briefed” but Crown Prince “absolutely” not involved. CIA, via Washington Post, later on Friday: Crown Prince definitely involved. Trump on Saturday: “We haven’t been briefed yet.”
Then there is the difference between Finland and California. Finland has…wait for it…rain. Year round. The climate is significantly different than drought-ridden California, where we have not had a major rainfall in a year and consistently higher than normal temperatures. There is no way a person with critical thinking skills could see parallels between the two areas and their fire remittance techniques.
So perhaps that’s why the Finns are having so much fun dragging Trump on Twitter.
In 2016, the conservative bastion of Orange County, California, voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since the Great Depression. Two years later, Democrats succeeded in capturing all of seven of its congressional seats ― a stunning feat in what has traditionally been a seat of Republican power that catapulted both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the White House.
“It’s not surprising at all, but there is something extra evil about ordering the death of a bunch of people who tortured and murdered a dissident on your orders while you pretend you had nothing to do with it.”
A stronger phrase than abject shamelessness needs to be coined in order fully to characterize the cheapness of what the White House is apparently considering. (Note that the White House denies the NBC story; but four sources are pretty damning).
Trump’s mood takes a foul turn: ‘He’s pissed at damn near everyone’ sums up Trump’s crumbling mental state. The whole article is worth a read, but this paragraph serves to illustrate: In the last week, the President’s frayed and fraught relationships have been laid bare for all to see: He’s furious at Kelly for a Paris trip that ended in a public relations debacle. He’s blaming his political advisers for losing the winning narrative of the midterms. And he was caught off guard by his wife’s shot across the bow at one of the top advisers in the West Wing – a sign that their private conversations clearly aren’t functional. So there you have it. Event after event that call into question Donald Trump’s mental state. Episode after episode of bizarre behaviour. Countless instances of forgetfulness. Account after account of absurd statements and incongruous actions. Tweet after astonishing tweet from the most powerful man in the world, who believes that tweeting is the way to conduct global diplomacy, initiate trade wars, address worldwide conflicts, threaten adversaries, and carry out international negotiations. He even sees tweeting as a mecha
“Trump describes the free media as an ‘enemy of the people’; attacks leaders of democratic countries while cozying up to authoritarian nations; and now uses his influence to try to stop the counting of votes in Florida and Georgia,” Sanders wrote, referring to the president’s demand earlier this week that Florida immediately end its legally required recount and declare the GOP candidates he endorsed the winners.
“There is only one way to describe him: Authoritarian,” the Vermont senator added.
At a weekend commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the president who proudly declares himself a “nationalist” stood apart, even on a continent where his brand of populism is on the rise.
Demonstrations are taking place in more than 1,000 U.S. cities and towns on Thursday evening—beginning at 5:00 PM (local time)—in response to President Donald Trump “installing a hack” to oversee the ongoing investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“We’re not shedding any tears for, nor are we protesting for, Jeff Sessions. He’ll likely be remembered as the worst Attorney General in American history. We’re protesting Trump installing a hack to obstruct Mueller’s investigation.” —Public Citizen
By forcing Attorney General Jeff Session to resign and appointing Matthew Whitaker—a hostile critic of Mueller’s probe into election meddling—progressive organizers say the emergency nationwide #ProtectMueller protests are designed to raise the alarm about the “existential threat” Whitaker poses to the investigation and to let Trump know in no uncertain terms that “nobody is above the law.”
You can read the whole list. But here is a sampling of the topics Cummings and his Democratic colleagues have set their sights on:
White House security clearances (involving Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, national security adviser John Bolton, and others)
The controversial addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census
The Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban
The State Department’s decision to close its cyber office
The Environmental Protection Agency’s use of a political loyalty list
The possible participation of Cambridge Analytica’s foreign employees in US elections
The deadly ambush in Niger that left four American soldiers dead
The use of private email by White House officials
Trump’s response to the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico
The dealings of the Trump Foundation
Potential conflicts of interest between Kushner’s business actions and his policy advice
Payments the Trump Organization received from foreign sources
Russian intervention with state voting systems
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with foreign officials
You can now ask but you won’t get them so what can be done?(ODT)
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he doesn’t want to let Democrats see his tax returns once they assume control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
But that’s actually not up to the president ― according to the law, at least.
The leaders of key congressional committees can ask the IRS for anybody’s tax returns. Republicans simply did not want to do so. Democrats said in October that they would ask the IRS for Trump’s returns if they regained control of the House, which they did on Tuesday night.
Trump said Wednesday that he would hand over his tax returns if he weren’t being audited ― an excuse he has made since his 2016 campaign, even though nothing about an IRS audit prevents a candidate or a president from disclosing his returns.
US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions was fired on Wednesday after unrelenting criticism from President Donald Trump over his recusal from an investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential race.
Sessions told the president in a one-page letter that he was submitting his resignation “at your request.”
Sessions’ departure was widely expected to come soon after Tuesday’s congressional elections in which Republicans retained their majority in the Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives.
Wisconsin’s Koch-funded Republican Gov. Scott Walker lavished the Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn with over four billion in taxpayer subsidies last year in a deal that he claimed would create 13,000 jobs in the state, but that agreement is increasingly looking like a massive con-job amid new reports on Tuesday that Foxconn is planning to bring in Chinese workers to fill spots that the governor insisted would be filled by Wisconsinites
None of this bad—deplorable—behavior on Trump’s part is ideological. He is not merely playing a vigorous role to advance his stances in fierce partisan policy debates. He is continuing—and intensifying—his war on truth and propriety. He is abusing his office, deploying troops to counter a nonexistent enemy, to create fear in order to gain a political advantage. He seeks to divide, not repair. He exploits tragedy. He engages in racism. He encourages extremism that leads to political violence and murder. Trump has been guiding the GOP and large parts of this nation into a dark place.
It’s true that many of the House and Senate races are about local concerns and matters that directly affect voters: health care, education, wages, and so on. But all these contests are occurring within a Trump-dominated context. As the egotist he is, Trump has proclaimed that this election is about him. In this instance, he is correct. That means the midterms collectively are a referendum on the damage Trump is doing to the office of the president and the political culture of the United States. Though Trump may not be on the ballot, decency is—and its future is on the line.
He is not refiguring the character of democracy, he is destroying it, and in doing so, resurrecting all the elements of a fascist politics that many people thought would never re-emerge after the horrors and death inflicted on millions by fascist dictators. As Gil Scott-Heron once noted in the title of his studio album, it is “Winter in America.” Actually, it is worse: It is winter in fascist America.
Underhand Republican tactics – gerrymandering, voter suppression, more – underpin a vice-like grip on power
With the deck this stacked, it isn’t enough to win. Wresting control back from the entrenched minority will take overwhelming victory. It may take, in other words, a genuine political revolution.
The man who shot and killed two women in a yoga studio in Tallahassee on Friday appears to have posted racist and misogynistic videos online.
Police said Scott Paul Beierle, 40, attended the studio as a customer before opening fire. He also shot and wounded four people before he was tackled by people in the studio, police said. He then shot and killed himself. Police said the studio appeared to have been picked as a target at random.
These midterms have seen a surge in female candidates as women rail against their president – including in Iowa’s prairie country, where being “nice” has its limits.
partisan gerrymandering — the practice of drawing electoral boundaries that favour one party over another — could be an ace up the Republican sleeve in next Tuesday’s elections.
By design, partisan gerrymandering suppresses the responsiveness of elections, stifling the translation of more votes for one party into additional legislative seats for that party.
Nationally, Democrats could require more than 55 per cent of the two-party vote for Congress to win 50 per cent of the seats in the Congress.
Virtually every politically relevant indicator points to the Democrats winning a majority of seats in the US House of Representatives at next week’s midterm elections.
Public opinion polls have long suggested an 8-to-9-point lead for a generic Democratic House candidate over a Republican candidate. President Trump’s approval ratings, in the low 40s, are historically associated with about a 40-seat loss for Republicans, more than enough for Democrats to win a majority.
As Americans, we must speak openly about the perils of white supremacy, anti-Semitism and both the rhetorical and real dehumanization of those we perceive as unlike us. Those wielding political power and influence need to publicly and clearly condemn acts of violence by extreme far-rightists and the ideologies underpinning this form of domestic terrorism.
In the meantime Trump and News Corp advertize publicly without embarassment on Fox News
Designed by Goebells in the 30s and revived Roger Ailes in the 90s and brought back for Trump today It’s the Murdoch/ Fox/Trump channel at it’s Goebellian prime. Straight from the neo-Nazi handbook of public persuasion of fear hate and racism. (ODT)
‘This is distracting, divisive Donald at his worst’
The video was discussed at length by Cuomo and Don Lemon on Wednesday.
After pointing out that “much of the footage” in the ad “comes from Fox,” a network often praised by Trump and once-helmed by Ailes, the “Willie Horton” ad creator, Cuomo called both ads “grossly distorted, bigoted, but also effective.”
With only five days until the midterm elections, Trump has returned to immigration with renewed gusto. His anti-immigration stance was critical to his success during the 2016 presidential election and “he is counting on similarly inflammatory words and images to help the GOP hold its congressional majorities,” The Washington Post‘s Seung Min Kim reported. Just this week, Trump publicly vowed to end birthright citizenship and said he would deploy as many as 15,000 active-duty troops to the border.
“I don’t see anything in this video that I haven’t heard from the president consistently for the past couple of years,” .”It’s a naked appeal to fear and hate, and it is racist,”
Ever seen a lying POTUS? You can find one in Trumpland a curiosity theme park intended to terrify like Jurassic Park (ODT)
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits,” Trump said during an interview with Axios scheduled to air as part of a new HBO series.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Republican Party is not directly responsible for the spike in hate crimes toward minorities. But it is indirectly responsible in three ways:
1. The party has largely allowed itself to be captured by the alien ideology of Trumpism
2. The party is running at least 16 far, far right extremists [with two ‘fars’] for national office, and many more far right extremists [with just one ‘far’].
3. Media catering to the GOP, such as Fox Cable News and right wing talk radio, is vicious toward minorities and often uses dog whistles against Jews.
While the Democratic Party is not entirely free of far right racists, the phenomenon in that party is tiny compared to the problem in the Republican Party. This difference comes in part from the way the three considerations listed above are entangled with and reinforce one another.
Attorneys for Kansas militia members who conspired to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali immigrants have asked the court to take into account at a sentencing hearing next month what they called President Donald Trump’s rhetoric encouraging violence.
Defense attorneys for Wright argued that since Trump’s election the nation has seen an unprecedented increase in civil rights violence, repeatedly citing White House statements such as calling Islam “a dangerous threat” and painting Americans as “victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad.”
As recently as Tuesday, when their motion was filed, his attorneys pointed to another Trump tweet saying that “some very bad people” are mixed in the South American migrant caravan and calling it is “an invasion” of the country.
“As long as the Executive Branch condemns Islam and commends and encourages violence against would-be enemies, then a sentence imposed by the Judicial Branch does little to deter people generally from engaging in such conduct if they believe they are protecting their countries from enemies identified by their own Commander-in-Chief,” Wright’s lawyers wrote.
The current mid-term election cycle is making it even harder to ignore how far unabashed racists’ and white nationalists’ attempts to enter politics have come.
Trump and his cronies are absolutely guilty of legitimizing, normalizing, and fueling white supremacy, white nationalism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and anti-Semitism, all of which invariably lead to abhorent violence, the likes of which we saw in Pittsburgh this weekend.
We must fight those things, those people, and their ideas as if our societies and our futures depend on it. They do.
We speak with Ari Lev Fornari, a rabbi at Kol Tzedek Synagogue in West Philadelphia who has worked with HIAS, a Jewish agency that aids refugees that the gunman targeted online. We also speak with Dr. David Glosser, a retired neuropsychologist who has volunteered with HIAS in Philadelphia. Glosser is the uncle of Stephen Miller, a key political adviser to President Trump who has pushed for a crackdown on immigrants. Glosser speaks directly to his Stephen Miller, saying, “It’s absolutely unacceptable to utilize hatred and bigotry to advance your political ends. This is a shallow, shabby expression of ambition. It’s poisonous to the country, destructive to society, and a complete repudiation of your own background and your own past.”
President Donald Trump often shields himself from criticism of anti-Semitism by hiding behind his Jewish daughter and son-in-law, but some Jewish leaders aren’t buying it. Following the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in which 11 people were killed, members of a progressive Jewish organization wrote an open letter to Trump, telling him he’s unwelcome in their city until he denounces white nationalism.
“Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted,” they continue. “… You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.”
Hatred: Trump has encouraged chants of “lock her up” regarding Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential election. He has demeaned and demonized other political foes, engaging in name-calling and bully-like taunting. And he has offered comfort to haters, such as when he noted there were “very fine people” among the white nationalists who organized the Charlottesville protest. He has repeatedly called the media the “enemy of the people.” He did so once again Monday morning, even as the national discourse focused on the possibility of healing divisions. All this is hate, pure and simple.
Bigotry and prejudice: Trump pushed the racist birther conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obama. He claimed an American federal judge could not be impartial because he was “Mexican.” He has routinely referred to his African American critics as “low IQ.” He has often uttered misogynistic comments, referring to women as pigs and dogs. (And there is that Access Hollywood tape.) He pressed for a ban on Muslim travelers to the United States (and had to revise course to skirt judicial opposition to its prejudicial nature).
Violence: Trump recently praised a Republican congressman for assaulting a reporter. That remark prompted media outlets to review his previous comments that encouraged violence. Here’s one. Here’s another. These videos don’t lie.
So if the checklist is hatred, bigotry, prejudice, and incitement of violence, the response is check, check, check, and double-check.
Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, said a review of social media pages didn’t indicate affiliation with far-right extremist organisations but show “an intense support” for Trump as well as Islamophobic sentiments and the promotion of conspiracy theories
Cesar Sayoc jnr.
Shortly after the arrest, Trump called the suspected mail bombs “terrorising acts” and praised law enforcement officers.
“We will prosecute them, him, her, whoever it may be, to the fullest extent of the law,” he said at a White House event. “We must never allow political violence to take root in America and I’m committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it and stop it now.”
However, just before Sayoc was taken into custody, Trump posted a tweet that seemed to question the timing and veracity of the bomb scares.
olddogthoughts 