Going to try to update this throughout the day, so as not to end up focusing a full 2 or 3 hours on all of this garbage at a time. Anyway, here's what's up so far (with about 30 articles I have to read, a massive DT Twitter tantrum, and, as always, more happening every hour, it seems). Here's a little political comic aimed at someone in my life, first:
- On March 1st, 2017, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration had scrambled in their last days to preserve the intelligence on the contact between DT campaign officials and Russian government officials. The article also notes two items that I don't think I've necessarily seen anywhere else: first, that American allies, including the UK and the Netherlands, "provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials -- and others close to... Putin -- and associates of... Trump." The second, that American intelligence agencies had independently "intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them with the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates."
- On March 1st, 2017, the Southern Illinoisan reported that republican Representative Mike Bost would not hold a town hall because, “You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you’d put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That’s not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive.” It is not clear what ritual he is referencing, or why he believes there have ever been as many as 900 yelling rugs.
- On March 1st, 2017, republican Representative Kevin Cramer, never one to leave a colleague hanging, added some gross misogyny to fellow congressman Mike Bost's orientalism by saying that all the congressional women democrats who wore suffragette white to DT's awful address on Tuesday were, "poorly dressed" in "bad-looking pantsuits," referring to their choice to wear the symbolic color as "a disease."
- On March 1st, 2017, in pastor Sam Rodriguez joins Jackie Evancho in the ranks of DT inauguration performers who laid down with dogs and were surprised to wake up with flees. Rodriguez, who delivered the prayer at the inauguration, has outfitted his church in Sacramento with cots for those afraid to stay in their homes who are seeking safe haven from ICE raids. At least he's doing something now, I guess.
- On March 2nd, 2017, the Daily Beast published an article asking if Sergei Kislyak is not just a Russian diplomat, but a spy recruiter. While this should be taken with a grain of salt, and a reminder that most questions posed in a headline can be answered with "No," it does provide some startling details into what may be the Russian government's systematic attempt to undermine any and all Western democracies they can.
- On March 2nd, 2017, the Indy Star broke the news that then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence had not only used a private AOL email address for government business, but that he had been hacked (though the descriptions of the hack sound more like phishing, to me, something John Podesta was dragged over the coals for having been). In typical hypocritical fashion, Pence said that there is no comparison between his use of a private email address and Secretary Hillary Clinton's, which he roundly criticized and encouraged the FBI to investigate. I agree-- Secretary Clinton's private email server was never hacked.
- On March 2nd, 2017, Whitehall announced that DT's trip to the UK to meet with the Queen will be shifted from England to Scotland, in order to avoid protests. This is one of the most hilarious decisions I've ever heard, as Scotland perhaps hates DT more than any other part of the United Kingdom, and Scotland Twitter is responsible for some of the most creative epithets to describe DT (see below).
- Source: http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/donald-trump-visit-will-shift-to-scotland-to-deter-protests-1-4380716
- Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/hilarywardle/scottish-twitter-reacts-to-trumps-presidency?utm_term=.ndEO1VowJ#.acVBKl7DG
- Source: http://9gag.com/gag/abZy938/scots-shower-trump-with-glorious-scottish-insults-after-his-brexit-tweet
- On March 2nd, 2017, Senator Marco Rubio tweeted, "After the votes taken earlier this afternoon, the U.S. Senate has now confirmed all of the available Cabinet nominations." Less than 12 hours later, in the early morning of March 3rd, 2017, DT tweeted: "It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet."
- On March 2nd, 2017, in a related story, ABC News reported that, while DT has chosen former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue for Secretary of Agriculture, the White House has not filed the paperwork to officially nominate him.
- On March 2nd, 2017, several news outlets reported the devastating cuts to the EPA under DT's proposed 2018 budget, including slashing 30% of grants to Native Peoples to combat pollution, a 70% cut to an Obama passed program on cutting greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, 30% to Flint's water clean up program, and a 97% cut of Great Lakes clean-up programs.
- Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-budget-idUSKBN1692XA
- Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/02/epa-halts-inquiry-into-oil-and-gas-industry-emissions-of-methane-a-powerful-greenhouse-gas/?utm_term=.883b940d376c
- Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/03/trump_great_lakes_epa_cuts.html
- On March 2nd, 2017, several countries and private funders have pledged $190 million dollars to bridge the gap left by DT's executive gag order, stripping federal funding from international organizations that provide or even recommend abortions.
- On March 2nd, 2017, despite the promised new immigration executive order, DT did not file a replacement for the infamous "Muslim ban." Perhaps the news about Jeff Sessions took the wind out of his sails.
- On March 2nd, 2017, DT toured the USS Gerald Ford and gave a speech to the crew members. During his visit, he was given a flight jacket and admiral's cap, which others who have received the same honor have simply taken home, as he was specifically told by the crew members who presented it to him. Veterans expressed their disgust at the 5 time draft dodger wearing an admiral's cap in front of a group of active military.
- On March 2nd, 2017, the New York Times reported a deep split in the White House over whether or not to pull out of the international Paris Climate Agreement. Noted white supremacist and apocalypse hopeful Steve Bannon wants to withdraw, while Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State and a former Exxon executive apparently does not. Ivanka Trump is apparently also against withdrawing, but she does not have an official role in the White House.
- On March 3rd, 2017, father of two young children who are natural born American citizens and husband to a naturalized US citizen Jose Escobar was picked up from work by ICE agents because of some lapsed paperwork related to a previous deportation stay he had been granted after a lawyer had given him bad advice on how to obtain legal residency. He was never brought before a judge and his deportation to El Salvador, where he has not been since he was 14, was expedited. He arrived in the country still wearing his work clothes with nowhere to go as he has no family or friends in the country. Escobar has no criminal history.
Well, I just hit save and lost the content of nearly 30 articles worth of information that I had put in for the last edit here, and it's 8:00 PM and I've been working on this since 5:30 PM. I'll find them and put them in tomorrow, but let's get down to why you're actually here...
- On March 3rd, 2017, retaliating against Jeff Sessions recusing himself from any investigations into DT or his campaign staffers communicating with Russian officials during the election, DT went on a Twitter tantrum attacking Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as hypocrites and demanding investigations into their entirely public, sanctioned meetings with Russian officials as members of the government, but not before TWICE misspelling the word "hereby" and deleting the tweets in which he did.
- On March 3rd, 2017, DT returned to Mar-a-Lago for the fourth time in the (I can't believe it's only been) six weeks since the inauguration.
- On March 4th, 2017, starting around 6:30 AM, DT sailed off the rails on a Twitter tantrum accusing President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the election, based, apparently, on a Breitbart article published yesterday. Obama did not tap (or "tapp," as DT put it) Trump Tower, nor would he have had the legal ability to do so, but the FBI did receive warrants in late October to monitor members of DT's staff to see if they were communicating with Russian officials.
- On March 4th, 2017, apparently bored of incriminating himself, DT redirected his ire from a fictional Obama illegal espionage conspiracy to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently quit his job hosting the apprentice because of the "baggage" of the show's association with DT. DT tweeted that Schwarzenegger didn't quit, he was fired for low ratings, and the former Governator fired back, "You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker."
- On March 4th, 2017, "Tens Of People Rally Across The Country In ‘March 4 Trump’." LOL