DT's on vacation at Mar-a-Lago for the second time in the three weeks since he's been inaugurated (and second time in 2 weeks). Remind me again about his incredible stamina? Anyway, on to the list.
- On Friday, February 10th, DT met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. Despite not wearing a translation ear piece, DT, who does not speak Japanese, laughed and nodded at Abe's speech, apparently taking his cues from aides in the audience who were wearing translators.
- On Friday, February 10th, in a huge breech of traditional Japanese decorum, DT tweeted a photo of he and Prime Minister Abe-san with the caption, "Heading to Joint Base Andrews on #MarineOne with Prime Minister Shinzō earlier today." It is unclear if he refers to all word leaders by their first name.
- On February 10th, 2017, DT violated Japanese social norms by not only not bowing to Prime Minister Abe-san, but grabbed and shook his hand aggressively for several seconds, patting and then pulling the Prime Minister's hand repeatedly.
- On February 10th, 2017, DT once again got his talking points for his administration from morning cable news. At 8:03 AM EST, MSNBC's Morning Joe mentioned a Lawfare blog post that mentioned that the entire opinion on the blocking of the executive order banning entry to the US by visa holders from 7 majority Muslim nations did not cite a statue that "forms the principal statutory basis for the executive order." At 8:15 AM, 12 minutes later, DT basically quoted the article with the addendum, "A disgraceful decision!" The Lawfare post was, in no way, supportive of the executive order and ultimately does not dispute the opinion. In fact, the post ends, "Eventually, the court has to confront the clash between a broad delegation of power to the President—a delegation which gives him a lot of authority to do a lot of not-nice stuff to refugees and visa holders—in a context in which judges normally defer to the president, and the incompetent malevolence with which this order was promulgated."
- On February 10th, 2017, in response to 9 sources contradicting disgraced retired General Mike Flynn, White House national security advisor's claims that he did not communicate with the Russian ambassador about the possibility of lifting US sanctions on Russia, and the revelation that Mike Pence repeatedly denied that the conversation took place, Congressman Eliot Engel of New York demanded that DT fire Flynn immediately, and Senator Claire McCaskill demanded that FBI Director Richard Comey begin investigations into Flynn's relationship with Russia. It is unclear if Pence was intentionally lying or simply repeating what Flynn had told him. Meanwhile, when asked about it, DT said he had not seen any news about it.
- Source: https://engel.house.gov/latest-news1/trump-must-relieve-flynn/
- Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/michael-flynns-disaster/516285/
- Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/flynn-holds-call-with-pence-amid-calls-for-probes-of-contacts-with-russian-ambassador/2017/02/10/f8fb83a0-efe1-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html?utm_term=.f9b556000ba4
- On February 10th, 2017, CNN reported that US investigators have corroborated some elements of the Steele dossier (the "golden showers" document). The "salacious" elements of the document are not those that have been confirmed. In predictable fashion, press secretary Sean Spicer called CNN "fake news" (twice!) and "disgusting."
- On February 10th, 2017, Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico tweeted the following, which requires absolutely no comment:
- On February 10th, 2017, NBC reported that Russia is considering handing over Edward Snowden as a "gift" to DT, according to US intelligence.
- On February 10th, 2017, CBS reported that a Federal Elections Committee commissioner demanded that DT provide evidence of his claims of wide spread, massive voter fraud.
- On February 10th, 2017, protestors outside a DC public school blocked unqualified billionaire Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos from entering. The ensuing video has become the latest Twitter music video craze since white nationalist and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer was punched on camera the day of the inauguration.
- On February 10th, 2017, to no one's surprise, Representative Tom Price, who lied under oath at his confirmation hearing about being offered pharmaceutical company stock at a discount, was voted Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
- On February 10th, 2017, Representative Jason Chaffetz, who faced over 1,000 angry constituents at a town hall meeting last night, claimed that rabble rousers from surrounding states infiltrated his constituency. The people who demanded answers from him last night included a mother who requires yearly cancer screenings she can only afford at Planned Parenthood and a 10-year-old girl.
- On February 10th, 2017, the Washington Post reported that despite denials by Sean Spicer and the agency itself, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency conducted raids in at least 6 states between Monday and Friday this week. People were detained in shopping centers and outside schools while waiting to pick up their children.
- Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/federal-agents-conduct-sweeping-immigration-enforcement-raids-in-at-least-6-states/2017/02/10/4b9f443a-efc8-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.fa110b8b9610
- Source: http://www.decaturish.com/2017/02/immigration-attorneys-report-ice-raids-on-buford-highway/
- On February 10th, 2017, a Gallup poll was released saying that only 29% of Americans think world leaders respect DT, marking the lowest Americans see the US's international standing in decades.
- On February 10th, 2017, at town hall meeting in Tennessee about the Affordable Care Act, citizen Jessie Beaumont reminded her GOP representatives of what it actually means to be a Christian.
- On February 10th, 2017, the Chicago Tribune reported that a Black man in suburban Indiana who served 10 years in prison convicted of an armed robbery he did not commit, has only now had the crime struck from his record by Mike Pence's successor as governor. Pence had the document that would erase the crime he did not commit and for which he served a quarter of an unjust sentence from Keith Cooper's record for months, but could not be bothered to lift a pen to sign the document.
- On February 10th, 2017, the Justice Department, lead by new Attorney General and noted racist Jeff Sessions, moved to withdraw support for pro-transgender policies set out by the previous administration by filing a memo requesting that a nationwide appeal against an injunction of pro-transgender policies apply only to the states that brought the litigation, meaning that states that had not brought suit could continue to withhold civil rights from transgender Americans.
- On February 10th, 2017, NFL player Michael Bennett released a statement that he will not be visiting Israel with the NFL, as the itinerary has been constructed by the Israeli government to make him and his fellow players an "influencer and opinion-former" and "an ambassador of good will" for the government. He goes on to say that when he visits Israel, he will visit all of the country, including the West Bank, and is particularly interested in learning about the lives of Palestinians.