January 6, 2017

Robert Reich Lays Bare Trump's Four Techniques for Manipulating the Media @alternet

Robert Reich Lays Bare Trump's Four Techniques for Manipulating the Media @alternet:
"Historically, tyrants have tried to control the press using 4 techniques that, worryingly, Donald Trump is already using."

Without Warning or Public Input, House Republicans Vote to Dismantle Ethics Oversight Office

This May Be Trump's Most Frightening and Dangerous Tweet Yet

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/donald-trump-frightening-tweet-nuclear-weapons
"Trump has suggested in years past that he believes a nuclear war is inevitable. So any tweet from him on this subject deserves great scrutiny—at least as much as his tweets about Alec Baldwin, SNL, and the musical Hamilton. The posting of this tweet, and his staff's inability to explain it, are frightening signs that Trump is not ready for the task of controlling weapons that can destroy the world."

Is Donald Trump a Traitor? @alternet

Is Donald Trump a Traitor? @alternet:
"Donald Trump’s flirtations with Russia and Vladimir Putin are part of a broader pattern of reckless and irresponsible behavior. Trump has numerous conflicts of financial interest that would appear to violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution. His sons, Eric and Donald Jr., were involved in a scheme (since withdrawn) that looked a lot like an attempt to sell access to his administration through million-dollar “charity” donations. Trump has threatened to violate the First Amendment by suppressing freedom of the press, encouraged violence against Clinton and those he deemed his enemies, suggested he would not respect the outcome of the election if he lost and now promoted people widely regarded as white supremacists or white nationalists to senior positions in his administration. Donald Trump has also selected key advisers and cabinet level officials who have close personal and financial relationships with Russian leaders in banking, finance and government. The sum total of these facts leads to a very troubling conclusion. President-elect Donald Trump is a traitor. As suggested by John Shattuck, a Harvard university professor, in the Boston Globe, Trump’s actions may approach the legal definition of treason as defined by U.S. federal law. Members of the Republican Party who knew about Russia’s efforts to interfere with the presidential election and chose to suppress or block such information, for fear of hurting their candidate’s chances, are also traitors."

Report: After Legislative Coup, North Carolina Can No Longer Be Considered a Democracy

The Venerable New England Journal Of Medicine Rips Into Tom Price, Trump's Pick For HHS

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/23/1613933/-The-Venerable-New-England-Journal-Of-Medicine-Rips-Into-Tom-Price-Trump-s-Pick-For-HHS
"Tom Price M.D. is Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. He would only be the third physician to hold that post. Traditionally, the HHS secretary focused their efforts on improving health care for the poor, the sick and the vulnerable. They tended to champion causes such as decreasing tobacco use, improving Medicare and fighting the HIV-AIDS crisis. In a new editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, (NEJM) based on his history in politics, Tom Price looks to go in a different direction."

HHS Director Nominee Traded Health Stocks While Moving Legislation Affecting Them | Crooks and Liars

HHS Director Nominee Traded Health Stocks While Moving Legislation Affecting Them | Crooks and Liars
"The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Rep. Tom Price was trading in health stocks at the same time he was moving legislation that directly affected their value."

Former Rockette: Troupe Should Not Perform at Inauguration; Trump Has Degraded, Objectified Women

‘Never seen such a desperate need to be liked’: Internet mocks Trump’s insecure tweet on A-list celebs

‘Never seen such a desperate need to be liked’: Internet mocks Trump’s insecure tweet on A-list celebs
"Reports abound over word that one Donald J. Trump—president elect, reality TV star, self-described p*ssy grabber—is having a difficult time landing A-list performances for his inauguration day. One source told the Wrap Trump’s transition team is “willing to pay anything” for a Justin Timberlake or Bruno Mars appearance. Another said they offered celebrity bookers ambassadorships in exchange for handing over a vocal sensation to serenade the president-elect on his big day. And yet, so far the only celebrity Trump’s officially landed is 16-year-old “America’s Got Talent” runner-up Jackie Evancho, who will be performing the National Anthem on Jan. 20."

Trump Gushes Over Putin After Russian Dictator Sends Him A Christmas Love Note

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/23/trump-gushes-putin-russian-dictator-sends-christmas-love-note.html
"America will be putting into office a president who views Putin as a hero and role model."

What Did Trump Know? (And When Did He Stop Knowing It?) | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann | GQ

Trump's Biggest Lender Wants New Terms

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trumps-biggest-lender-looking-new-terms
"Donald Trump's biggest creditor, Deutsche Bank, is seeking to restructure some of the president-elect's debt, Bloomberg reports. Trump's companies owe the German lender at least $364 million, more than half of his total $713 million debt load, and his loans with the bank—a potential source of leverage over the incoming commander-in-chief—pose a significant conflict of interest."

Stating the Obvious, Gingrich Confirms 'Drain the Swamp' Was All Talk

Stating the Obvious, Gingrich Confirms 'Drain the Swamp' Was All Talk
"President-elect Donald Trump's campaign trail refrain of "drain the swamp" was "cute" while it lasted—but don't expect to hear much of it from here on out, Newt Gingrich told NPR this week. "I'm told he now just disclaims that," Trump ally Gingrich said to NPR's Rachel Martin of the phrase. "He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore"."

Sorry New York Times, But Racism DID Get Trump Elected

How You Can Automatically Fact-Check Donald Trump's Lies @alternet

How You Can Automatically Fact-Check Donald Trump's Lies @alternet:
"Since his tiny hands first signed up for the site, President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been spewing misleading, flat-out inaccurate rants with no end in sight. Before the election, he was slinging racist and plain false statistics about African-American crime rates and his imaginary opposition to the Iraq War; after the election, his so-called “landslide” electoral victory. The bottomline, in case you’re brand-f*cking-new to the internet: Trump tells a lot of lies on Twitter. Seeing through the lies is pretty easy, but with dishonest tweet after dishonest tweet, the laborious task of fact-checking the madman sure adds up, so treat yourself to this delightful new Chrome extension that fact-checks Trump’s tweets for you."

Trump subtweets Putin on nukes

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-putin-subtweet-nuclear-weapons-5d95c32a08e0#.m0zvdueco
"Trump’s tweet comes almost exactly a year after he stumbled through a question about nuclear weapons during a GOP presidential debate, revealing he had no idea what the “nuclear triad” was. Since then, Trump’s made a number of concerning remarks about nukes, including being dismissive about the potential of a nuclear arms race on the Korean peninsula to refusing to rule out using nukes in Europe."

The Nixonian Ways Of Donald Trump

Trump, white nationalism’s favorite thinker, and America’s premier crackpot make strange bedfellows

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-white-nationalisms-favorite-thinker-and-america-s-premier-crackpot-make-strange-bedfellows-7e57c0b7e6be#.j41es9waz
"Aleksandr Dugin — a Russian theorist sometimes called “Putin’s Rasputin” because of his Kremlin ties — is the white nationalist movement’s favorite philosopher and shares certain ideological affinities with Steve Bannon, a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump. If this wasn’t worrying enough, Dugin and Bannon share a personal connection with one of America’s foremost crackpot conspiracy theorists: radio host and Infowars.com proprietor Alex Jones."

GOP Plans to Destroy Our Safety Net Will Also Kill Democracy @alternet

GOP Plans to Destroy Our Safety Net Will Also Kill Democracy @alternet:
"Newt Gingrich openly bragged recently at the Heritage Foundation that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress were going to “break out of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt model.” That “model,” of course, created what we today refer to as “the middle class.” Ever since the election of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been working overtime to kneecap institutions that support the American middle class. And, as any working-class family can tell you, the GOP has had some substantial successes, particularly in shifting both income and political power away from voters and towards billionaires and transnational corporations."

Could Donald Trump Tweet US Into Nuclear War?

Trump team boycotts meeting with Israeli official to stand in solidarity with Swedish neo-Nazi

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/21/1613313/-Trump-team-boycotts-meeting-with-Israeli-official-to-stand-in-solidarity-with-Swedish-neo-Nazi
"First it was reported that Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s pick to be national security advisor, had a meeting with the leader of a far-right Austrian political party that was founded by ex-Nazis. And now, a senior member of Trump’s transition team who was in Israel to attend “a gathering of conservative parliamentarians from the US and Europe” joined in a boycott of a high-level briefing with Israel’s deputy foreign minister after Israel refused to allow a Swedish neo-Nazi to attend the meeting"

That Drone Skirmish With China? It Was Over Before Donald Trump’s First Mean Tweet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-drone-china_us_58594304e4b08debb78b0542
"Donald Trump launched his Twitter campaign against China’s seizure of a U.S. Navy research submersible last week to great fanfare ― and, as it turns out, hours after the crisis had already been defused. It’s unclear whether the president-elect or his aides knew that fact ― it would have been included in the intelligence briefing available to him each morning ― before he sent out his misspelled missive of outrage at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters ― rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act,” Trump wrote. He deleted that version and replaced it with “unprecedented” spelled correctly at 8:57 a.m. But even his first version came four hours after U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus was informed that the Chinese navy had agreed to return the “underwater unmanned vehicle.” That information would have been known to Trump had he taken the “Presidential Daily Brief” prior to posting his first tweet."

Donald Trump’s Nuke Tweets Cause International Jitters

Goldman Sachs' Stock and Political Influence Are Both on the Rise

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38812-goldman-sachs-stock-influence-in-trump-administration-both-on-the-rise
"Wall Street behemoth Goldman Sachs has seen its stock prices ascend by 33 percent since Election Day, and is responsible for the lion's share of the gains on the Dow Jones Industrial Average over that time."

Democrats Bust Trump For Rigging His Cabinet With Social Security And Medicare Cutters

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/12/20/democrats-bust-trump-rigging-cabinet-social-security-medicare-cutters.html
"The American people are going to be in for a big shock when Republicans put their agenda into action."

Scientists Scramble to Protect Decades of Climate Research Before Trump Takes Office

There is no reason to ever build another coal plant in the United States

https://thinkprogress.org/renewable-cheaper-than-coal-589e43113faf#.9lwxa1m4k
"For the second year in a row, wind and solar accounted for roughly two-thirds of new U.S. generating capacity, while natural gas and nuclear made up most of the rest. That’s because right now, in much of the United States, wind and solar are the cheapest form of power available, according to a new report from investment bank Lazard. Analysts found that new solar or wind installations are cheaper than a new coal-fired power installation just about everywhere — even without subsidies — while the cost of renewables continues to fall rapidly."

New rule protecting waterways from coal mining will be early target of Trump administration

https://thinkprogress.org/interior-department-finalizes-rule-to-protect-streams-from-coal-mining-pollution-1d159d079fc9#.sqbu8vrb7
"The rule would protect thousands of miles of streams, and Trump has vowed to undo it."

Trump Doubles Down On Planned Parenthood Witch Hunt

‘Our first crybaby President’: Internet hammers Trump after he again whines about losing popular vote

‘Our first crybaby President’: Internet hammers Trump after he again whines about losing popular vote
"Has any presidential election winner ever complained as much about his victory as President-elect Donald Trump has? Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to once again rail against people who pointed out that he lost the popular vote to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes."

State Department Worried Trump Is Going to Be a Foreign Policy Madman @alternet

State Department Worried Trump Is Going to Be a Foreign Policy Madman @alternet:
"Now we've got an actual madman going to the White House, a man who appears to have no control over his impulses and no understanding of why following them is dangerous."

Trump Vows Nuclear Arms Race

National Enquirer morphs into propaganda rag for President-elect Trump

https://thinkprogress.org/national-enquirer-morphs-into-propaganda-rag-for-president-elect-trump-237ffcec7700#.to7gytpgm
"Trump’s adoration of the National Enquirer is not new. He has a longstanding friendship with CEO David Pecker, defended the publication as unimpeachable, and has even written articles for the tabloid. The admiration is mutual, too: in August, the Wall Street Journal reported the Enquirer paid $150,000 to prevent a story about Trump’s affair with a former Playboy model from being released, and they were one of the only publications to endorse him."

The 'reasonable' Republican candidate just blocked a democratic vote on $15 minimum wage

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/20/1613000/-The-reasonable-Republican-candidate-just-blocked-a-democratic-vote-on-15-minimum-wage
"While Republicans in North Carolina thwart the democratic process of our Constitution by stripping the elected incoming governor of his powers, the Republican governor of Ohio—John “I love war” Kasich—is abusing his powers. Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Monday signed legislation blocking next year's special election vote on whether to raise Cleveland's minimum wage to $15 per hour, according to his office. Senate Bill 331 prohibits communities in the state from raising the minimum wage beyond the state's minimum wage rate, currently set at $8.10 per hour. State lawmakers passed the bill earlier this month at the request of Cleveland city officials and others, who sought to forestall a special election on the wage hike next May. Sounds to me a lot like big government making decisions for local municipalities? Bill 331 had started off as legislation that would allow pet stores to get around local ordinances and buy from inhumane “puppy mills.” Guess what? This bill is still going to be effective in that regard. The good news for Ohioans is that Senate Bill 331 makes bestiality illegal—so they can check that off their list of national problems they’ve handled—but it also limits communities from stopping telecoms from installing microantennas on street lights. What does the Ohio state Constitution have to say about all of these added-on pieces of legislation around a pet store bill? A bill that started out dealing with pet stores now intrudes on municipal decisions about utilities' rights of way and attempts to nullify the potential result of a Cleveland initiative - though the state constitution requires that "no bill shall contain more than one subject." There’s a war being waged in our country and it’s not on Christmas."

Psychiatrists Call For Trump Mental Exam, Fear He Might Be Unstable

Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas: Guess who Trump's national security advisor met up with?

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/20/1612991/-Lie-down-with-dogs-wake-up-with-fleas-Guess-who-Trump-s-national-security-advisor-met-up-with
"From the Department of Sure, Why Not? The leader of the Austrian far-right Freedom Party has signed what he called a cooperation agreement with Russia’s ruling party and recently met with Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the designated national security adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump of the United States. And what is this Freedom Party all about? First of all, it was “founded in the 1950s by ex-Nazis.” (Normally, one could stop right there, but ...). And what would have been the governing philosophy of this party had they managed to win its recent election? The Freedom Party presidential candidate, Norbert Hofer, had indicated he might use a little-noticed power of the president to dismiss the federal government, or at least some ministers, a move most observers forecast would precipitate new national elections. Rather like North Carolina on steroids, eh? Anything else? Aside from sowing domestic ferment in Austria, a Freedom Party-led government would press to lift the sanctions imposed on Moscow for its 2014 seizure of Crimea and meddling in war-torn eastern Ukraine. Something Trump’s nominee for secretary of state—and Vladimir Putin—support completely."

It's Always About The Oil: Rex Tillerson Edition | Crooks and Liars

It's Always About The Oil: Rex Tillerson Edition | Crooks and Liars
"It would be a mistake to ignore what Trump is trying to do here. When we speak of a coup, we're really talking about how oil billionaires banded together to put a man in office who would let them have their way with energy and foreign policy."

Trump Is Reviving Failed GOP Policies Because He’s Completely Clueless About How To Govern

William Rivers Pitt | This Is Real, This Is Happening

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/38795-this-is-real-this-is-happening
"The sun will rise on January 20 to shine down upon Donald Trump taking the presidential oath of office. The bitter winter wind will raise up his hair flap like a shark fin unless his handlers dog it down like some errant sail, he will complete the oath, and every living organism on Earth will be joined together as we enter the uncharted waters of the terrifying history to come."

Can American Fascism Be Stopped? @alternet

Can American Fascism Be Stopped? @alternet:
"Trump’s populism was a total fraud. Every single Trump appointment has come from the pool of far-right conservatives, crackpots, and billionaire kleptocrats. More alarming still is the man himself—his vanity, impulsivity, and willful ignorance, combined with an intuitive genius as a demagogue. A petulant fifth-grader with nuclear weapons will now control the awesome power of the U.S. government."

Newt Gingrich Promises “All Out War” On Federal Safety Regulations Under Trump

Texas Begins $350 Million Cut In Medicaid Services That Will Devastate Disabled Children | Crooks and Liars

Texas Begins $350 Million Cut In Medicaid Services That Will Devastate Disabled Children | Crooks and Liars
"The state of Texas this week reportedly began implementing $350 million in Medicaid cuts, which federal agencies have warned will be "devastating" to services provided to disabled children."

It's Time We Start Calling the Republican Party What It Is: A Domestic Terrorist Organization

It's Time We Start Calling the Republican Party What It Is: A Domestic Terrorist Organization
"Since 2012 we’ve seen Republicans shut down our government when they knew it was never going to accomplish anything; several have praised a Russian dictator who hates this country (because this pro-Putin stance by conservatives has been going on since well before this election); they pushed our country to the brink of default for the first time in history by lying about what the debt ceiling is; and did everything they could to prevent this president from having the power to keep improving on an economy a Republican president spent eight years destroying. And that doesn’t even get into what happened in 2015 when the GOP blatantly attempted to sabotage President Obama’s negotiations with Iran. They took the unprecedented move to sidestep him by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress and sent a letter directly to the Iranian government basically saying the deal they were working on with the president was pointless because they were going to undo it as soon as they could. But nothing they’ve done over the last few years comes close to what we’re witnessing right now. The vast majority of the GOP is sheepishly lining up to defend and support Donald Trump, a man who the heads of our major intelligence agencies (NSA/CIA/FBI) have said was the beneficiary of a cyber attack against the United States. An attack they say was ordered by a tyrant and murderer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a blatant attempt to undermine our democracy hoping to help the person he wanted to be our next president. This is a party that wasted millions of dollars on bogus investigations into Benghazi, and swore to spend years investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails had she won, that doesn’t seem all that concerned with the fact that our intelligence officials are literally saying that a foreign leader (who hates this country, by the way) did just about everything he could to help the most pro-Russian presidential candidate in our nation’s history get elected."

How Our New Corporate Overlords Plan to Thrive | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann | GQ