I've been home sick most of the day so my commentary is a little more colorful than usual. I'm sure I'll be back in my very matter-of-fact mode tomorrow, but between rage over the Sessions confirmation and a stomach bug, I am feeling a bit punchy.
Also-- starting tags for the entries on this one, since that was overwhelmingly the most popular option, and I will be going back and editing the previous entries to add tags at some point soon.
- On February 8th, 2017, in response to Kellyanne Conway's fictitious Bowling Green Massacre, Politico and the New York Times co-published an article about the white supremacist terrorist who actually planned a massacre in Bowling Green, Ohio. DT is restructuring the anti-extremism commission to focus exclusively on Muslim extremists, despite white terrorists being a greater threat to Americans.
- On February 8th, 2017, CNN reported on Sean Spicer's penchant for including the city of Atlanta in his list of American cities targeted by Islamist extremist violence. Atlanta has never been the site of an Islamist terrorist attack, though it was most recently attacked, verbally, by DT as "in horrible shape and falling apart" and "crime infested," after Representative John Lewis said he would not attend DT's inauguration.
- On February 8th, 2017, Spicer said in his daily press briefing, "I can only hope that if Coretta Scott King was still with us, that she would support Senator Sessions's nomination." As Mrs. King wrote a 12 page letter outlining why Sessions's history of suppressing Black voters made him unqualified to be a Federal Judge, we don't have to hope-- we know she would not.
- On February 8th, 2017, while holding the floor against the confirmation of noted racist Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Senate Democrats took up Senator Elizabeth Warren's reading of Corretta Scott King's letter outlining Sessions's history of suppressing Black voters, thus making him unqualified for a Federal judgeship. Though Senator Warren was voted off of the floor by republican senators for attempting to read the letter, her colleagues were not. All three senators who were not accused of violating rule 19 were men.
- On February 8th, 2017, Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General of the United States, despite a second night of Senate Democrats holding the floor to protest his nomination.
- On February 8th, 2017, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Communications Workers of America sued DT over his executive order requiring that, for every new legal protection introduced by a federal agency, two would have to be cut.
- On February 8th, 2017, Politico reported that DT had another disastrous phone call with a world leader, this time French President Francois Hollande. The French official source said of DT, "At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. 'wants our money back,' the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be 'obsessing over money. It was a difficult conversation, because he talks like he’s speaking publicly,' the official said. 'It’s not the usual way heads of state speak to each other. He speaks with slogans, and the conversation was not completely organized.'"
- On February 8th, 2017, in other news from France, the country's international intelligence organization revealed that they believe that the Russian government is working to get white nationalist and president of the white supremacist National Front party, Marine Le Pen, elected as President of France.
- On February 8th, 2017, Syrian President and dictator Bashar al-Assad praised DT for his stated hardline on fighting terrorists. DT was praised by the Ayatollah of Iran yesterday, making Assad the second Middle Eastern dictator to praise DT in as many days.
- On February 8th, 2017, 100 evangelical Christian leaders signed an open letter denouncing DT's executive order barring entry to the US by visa holders from 7 Muslim majority nations. The letter will run as an ad in The Washington Post.
- On February 8th, 2017, 200 public school students in Pittsburgh marched to Senator Pat Toomey to protest the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Just a reminder that DeVos owes the state of Ohio $5,300,000 ($5.3M) in fines for a school privatization PAC she chaired and who said she was proud to have donated tremendous amounts of money to the republican party to buy influence.
- Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2017/02/08/Pittsburgh-area-students-rally-against-confirmation-of-Education-Secretary-DeVos-Trump/stories/201702080141
- Source: http://plunderbund.com/2017/01/23/trumps-education-pick-owes-ohio-5-3-million-in-fines-for-school-privatization-effort/
- Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/02/07/shes-a-billionaire-who-said-schools-need-guns-to-fight-bears-heres-what-you-may-not-know-about-betsy-devos/?utm_term=.4006378e9d52
- On February 8th, 2017, Senator Ted Cruz, described by former Speaker of the House John Boehner as "Lucifer in the Flesh," called the Democratic Party the party of the KKK. Cruz is apparently unaware that the KKK abandoned the Democratic Party in the 50's when democrats embraced the civil rights movement, making him one of apparently dozens of Federal Government officials who would fail a high school American History class.
- On February 8th, 2017, a group of water protectors shut down a Citibank branch in Chicago to demand that the corporation divest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. It is unclear if this will have an impact on the bank's investment in the pipeline.
- On February 8th, 2017, the Independent reported on Gayle McCormick, a hero who divorced her husband of 22 years because his vote for DT opened her eyes to all of the problems in their marriage and with him. Not all heroes wear capes.
- On February 8th, 2017, DT once again took to Twitter in a totally unhinged tantrum (and the sun came up this morning, too!). The subject of today's tantrum ranged from railing against the Federal Courts for suing "America," when the Federal Court is part of America and who they are suing is DT; several tweets about how smart his so-called "Muslim ban" really is, including posting the results of an informal internet poll and making an hilarious typo in one that quickly became the source of numerous Twitter dick jokes; going after the media, again, for posting "fake news" with an article from, ironically (if irony is even still possible in this climate), the fake news website The Federalist; gushing about Intel (add them to your boycott list, everyone!), and attacking Nordstrom for dropping his daughter Ivanka's products, which he felt so strongly about that he RTed it from the official @POTUS account, despite the fact that this is a clear violation of government ethics, not that anyone has actually held him to that or any standard. Click to enlarge the screenshots and try not to die of embarrassment.
- On February 8th, 2017, Nordstrom stock jumped 4% after DT's tweets lambasting the department store for dropping his daughter Ivanka's clothing and accessories brand.
- Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/318597-nordstrom-stock-gains-over-4-for-the-day-after-trump-tweet
- On February 8th, 2017, a leaked memo DT is expected to sign would allow companies to buy conflict minerals. The decision is likely the result of a meeting DT had with the CEO of Intel, who would be able to cut costs by no longer auditing their supply chain to ensure the company purchases no conflict sourced materials for use in their products.
- Source: https://theintercept.com/2017/02/08/leaked-memo-trump-conflict-minerals/
- On February 8th, 2017, USA Today reported that native born citizen Ibtihaj Muhammad (not an immigrant, not the child of refugees, but a born and bred New Jersey woman), who made history as the first Muslim woman to medal for the US in the Olympics just six months ago, was detained for 2 hours at US customs without explanation.
- On February 8th, 2017, ICE officials detained Guadalupe García de Rayos for deportation, sparking massive protests in Phoenix, Arizona, including demonstrators who surrounded the van in which she was held. Rayos has lived in the US since she was 14, and has a husband and three children. Mrs. Rayos has checked in every year for 8 years to immigration officials after being arrested using someone else's social security number to work. DT's recent immigration executive order expands the definition of crimes that allow for deportation, and ICE officials are acting accordingly.