Hello, Everyone. If you aren’t watching the ABC sitcom, “Black-ish” WHY NOT?
Here are clips from the latest episodes.
Black-ish!
Trump’s America
Good Dre Hunting
Read: Rage almost all the time.
Catch the full episodes on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V3j6gur_1CY
She’s ‘strong’…she’s ‘tough’…
All that stereotypical rubbish that they’ve managed to use to negatively cast – and only to justify the never-ending demeaning, disrespect, diminishing, complete disregard and dismissing of this great woman… her whole being and even her pain..
Let’s coddle and protect every other person – man and woman – instead…that black woman over there..? She can fight for herself…she’s ‘tough’..she’s ‘strong’…
I will never stop fighting and looking out for this glorious woman…
The damage that this has done in the short and long-term cannot be measured…
And no, it was not worth it …
What she’s been through, what she’s had to contend with…what she’s dealt with – and all the crap thrown at her…all the crap she’s had to put up with…the insults, the attacks, the endless dehumanization, the disrespect, the continued undermining of and chipping away at her and her marriage…
And even in the end, still not being deemed nearly good enough – or even as worthy or deserving as some 2 penny ho…
Sorry, at some point, this woman deserves to get her life – a fully present, attentive and doting husband…focused, grounded, responsible daughters…her whole and intact family – completely back…without any hangers-on and all manner of agenda-driven folk hovering about in the vicinity…or even remotely for that matter…
May God continue to bless and protect, guard, guide and direct her and her family always..
Eliihass,
I’m sure that the Obamas are devastated same as us and likely worse.
Besides the devastating implications of the November 8 outcome, I worry about her specifically…I worry about her in just about the same way I would have even if the other candidate had won… the bothersome particulars and dynamics shifted somewhat with the surprising outcome, but only shifted somewhat..
This is now the period for detoxing and decompressing, recalibrating, reconnecting, resetting and renewing ..as she said in their People interview…stepping away and taking account …now that they’re out of the structural metaphor for it…understanding the effects of this interesting and often brutal and in many ways, discombobulating, negatively impacting, altering and irreversibly damaging experience…all that trauma…all the stress…the disturbance…the temporary shift in dynamics between a wife and her President husband who allowed that for a time that her President husband was temporarily busy and had to focus on other priorities and seen as surrogate husband, boyfriend by other women…but that’s over now…the different sorts of energies and mess introduced by dubious, messy hangers-on looking to usurp and desperate to stay on in the orbit of the now powerful man with access…have to be permanently cleared..
Additionally, in spite of the phantom ‘natural shock-absorbers’ automatically attributed to a ‘strong’ black woman like her…
8+ years and counting of being literally and completely stripped – including of her own previously built identity, her professional accomplishments and double Ivy League degrees …her own earned income…and being told to shut up and stand completely stripped of everything she once had including her voice and opinions…in the middle of a pressure cooker in a hostile environment staffed and filled with all manner of hostile and agenda-driven opportunists – who felt absolutely no obligation to her as the unelected and un-elevated wife – and even less respect and regard for her as the perceived powerless black wife…and so completely overlooked, disregarded, undermined and dismissed and tried to erase her…until in the end, God said no…
8+ years of endless pummeling, attacks, vicious taunts, abuse, dehumanization, betrayal, backstabbing, undermining and disrespect by her husband’s foes and ‘allies’ alike…and never protected, defended or rallied around…and miraculously surviving – and not outrightly insane… in a position that still left her in the end, just an unelected supportive wife, supposedly ‘mooching’ off the taxpayers and ‘riding her husband’s coat tails’..with folks dismissing her…and even questioning and doubting her qualifications and capability whenever her name comes up as their preferred future presidential candidate..
Stripped completely of her power and her shield ..her natural defenses..her voice… physically, emotionally and psychologically torn apart….mercilessly battered, brutalized and bloodied and then made to walk on eggshells – for fear of distracting from or hurting her husband’s candidacy, presidency, legacy…
Stripped completely of everything she’d built up for years and worked so hard for herself and for the family she always wanted, prioritized, fully invested in and fiercely protected…and in the end, left essentially diminished ….reduced to …random poor black girl ..appendage ….required occasional appendage whose only import was birthing the 2 precious daughters that most importantly, biographically cast the historic President as great father …for so long existing entirely – not as alongside full-fledged life partner and brilliant wife of great worth and value …but relegated to the sidelines with other random cheerleaders and left to mostly languish …and not even permitted to swat away the often hostile and resentful cheerleaders – many with designs on their various romanticized versions of her husband…folks who tried to elbow her out of her own husband’s life …folks who poked her in the eye especially once they realized she couldn’t be that important if she was relegated to the same cheerleader section as they were – and they got to share equal billing with her in her own husband’s White House…And heaven help her if she was ever caught looking lost in thought or unhappy…she was even further denigrated as ungrateful and ‘angry’ and ‘mean’ – by even those who virulently opposed her husband but who weirdly seemed to hate her even more than the elected politician they claimed not to like or support…and took joy in her pain..they were always quick to wish he’d cheat on her …hoping they’d divorce…and counting down to it…and loudly cheered…thrilled to bits whenever images or headlines skewed or not, bellowed that she’d been ‘humiliated’ by her husband ‘flirting’ or ‘smitten’ with other women…including those who now went out of their way to squeeze the gossip headlines for what it was worth, by leeching onto her husband…under the guise of ‘political activism’ and ‘supporting’ her husband’s administration’s causes …calculatingly and slyly inserting themselves and perpetually name-dropping her husband under every guise and random ‘association’ that insinuated them into his orbit…sometimes enabled by dubious White House and campaign aides who traded access and spitefully cultivated and stoked some of the headline subjects in their bid to put the ‘difficult’ historic black First Lady they saw as in their way, ‘in her place’…including in the thick of the gossip headlines, strangely and outrightly disrespecting the First Lady in very blatant and insidious ways..
Her womanhood was not only maliciously deconstructed but questioned and viciously maligned when all other attacks failed to break her…with endless YouTube videos including those by fringe nutwings now turned ‘mainstream media’ circulating…and as so many now abound for posterity..
It’s easy for so many to now pretend that none of this matters…or deeply affected her…or hurt or left deep marks, many scars, or several deep wounds …but they did…and even as she ‘sucked it up’…grinned and bore it…divined ways to not publicly or privately lose it…completely lose her mind, some of us, led by warrior women like my discerning mother, kept our focus on her…carried her in our hearts, wrapped her up in permanent protective hugs and lifted her up in endless prayers …never letting go or leaving her alone with the wolves …we kept our eyes out for her, never missed a thing…we never missed the obvious absences…her attempt to create an even tougher shell …live like she didn’t really care or even need her husband’s attention…the nuances…or her studied responses over time to outright slights, disrespect, disregard of, insults and attacks on her…and where others missed it, we saw her every wince, swallow hard, bite her lip, smile knowingly, cast a quick glance and then stare right ahead and away from the offending scene… we saw when she perfected a hard to read, blank look…a look many interpreted variously as ‘cold, hard and tough’…a look when offered would upset those who hoped she’d offered a ‘loving’ look…we who follow her closely, saw and heard what the casual observer missed…and completely understood why she responded exactly how she did each time…we knew each actor and narrative …We saw how her eyes changed over the years…noticed how the twinkle and light in her eyes gradually faded…
So forgive me if I don’t participate in the chant for the President to quickly return to saving America.. and to being with folks who just want to be indulged by him…and want to be in his presence once again…his own family be damned…
There’s a lot of rebuilding to be done first and most importantly at home…his home..
That’s the job he needs to focus on now…fully reconnecting and fully re-engaging with his own wife…and not just for a week or two…the damage of intrusion and invasion done over 8+ years will need time and a real commitment to even begin to unravel and reverse…
And then the spending time and reconnecting with their daughters can then begin…
I’ve always contended that I’ve never had any use for, or ever been impressed by ‘heroes’ who leave their own families in tartars…while they play hero to and are hailed hero to others…
And our society has a way of seriously undermining, rooting against and permanently damaging and destroying marriages and families – and simply moving on and not even blinking…
But with Gods grace, and as far as my mother and the rest of us are concerned, this is one marriage and family that will not become a statistic…
The unending prayers continue…
There’s something terribly wrong when even bloody Bill Kristol is more vocal, less mealy-mouthed and incredibly forceful in his push-back against the buffoon and those who surround him as they desecrate our White House…
Democrats need to man the f up…
Where is the opposition…where are Democrats…why is everyone cowardly and self-interestedly packaging what little and mostly nonexistent and ineffective and mealy-mouthed ‘push-back’ against the buffoon they have, around their future political ambitions..
Either too busy tweeting out trite recycled quotes, self-promoting and talking themselves up by punctuating rally speeches with their own manufactured biographies and resumes burnished only by undeserved, establishment/plutocrat benefactor-supported elected positions…all with an eye to cultivating a following to boost their future political ambitions..and the ultimate last step on that political ladder they’ve been steadily pushed up on…
Too cowardly, too self-serving, too self-aggrandizing to actually care to do what they actually signed up for…too busy doing everything but what they were elected to do…disappearing most of the time…and calculatingly doing the occasional reappearance act only when they think it’s safe to…and only to exploit a poll-tested and compatible topic, situation and audience, yell out a few corny platitudes, have everyone pat them on the back for the insincere act and recycled, banal platitudes, and then hurriedly scuttle away back into some rat hole waiting for another calculated opportunity to self-promote and parade themselves as potential Democratic Party presidential candidates for 2020..
Nothing for the masses…nada..
It’s just an endless calculation with an eye on future political ambition and position …
Say what you may about bloody Chelsea Manning, but there’s no disputing that this bit at least is, for all intents and purposes, mostly spot on…
“…We need someone who is unafraid to be criticized, since you will inevitably be criticized. We need someone willing to face all of the vitriol, hatred and dogged determination of those opposed to us. Our opponents will not support us nor will they stop thwarting the march toward a just system that gives people a fighting chance to live. Our lives are at risk – especially for immigrants, Muslim people and black people.
We need to stop asking them to give us our rights. We need to stop hoping that our systems will right themselves. We need to actually take the reins of government and fix our institutions. We need to save lives by making change at every level…”
https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/824709246252187649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In Photos: 35 Amazing Places Barack Obama Traveled During His Presidency
http://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/president-obama-travel#intro
https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/824631066807926784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/SamMorrisDesign/status/824431282994221056/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Super photo!
https://twitter.com/markmobility/status/824579764619005953/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But give him a chance…he’s really not so bad and is eager for ‘unity’ they say…and as long as he remembers to occasionally punctuate those corrosive lies of his with warm and consistent praise for, and name-dropping President Obama…
Even as his every move remains very clearly anti-Obama and insidiously highest level hostile – including completely removing everything Obama – and in some instances, preferring even Clinton stuff – like in the buffoon’s selection of his version of the Oval Office –
https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/824500793877364736/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Touré
✔
@Toure
Trump’s 1st prime time network interview with ABC News on Wednesday night got 7.5m viewers. Obama’s 1st got 17m viewers. Trumpy lose again.
1:24 PM – 26 Jan 2017
https://twitter.com/royalpizzaboy/status/824481960630312963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A Former Side Piece to the Holy See?
The balls on these clowns.
Michael Tackett Verified account
@tackettdc
Callista Gingrich, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s wife, is being considered to be ambassador to the Vatican.
LOL…
Because being the congressional staffer turned adulterous 3rd wife of the despicable married man you cheated with for 6 years…and as he divorced his cancer-stricken wife while she fought for her life…
Because subsequently joining and positioning herself front and center and singing loudest in the National Basilica choir on high-profile occasions and some Sundays, is what’s needed in our Ambassador to the Holy See..
http://thehill.com/sites/default/files/blogs/gingrichcallista2.png
http://twt-thumbs.washtimes.com/media/image/2012/12/25/christmas_basilica122512_c0-14-720-433_s575x335.jpg?1f436552f267a26c951f3b2393294be770e18021
Callista Gingrich sings at Antonin Scalia funeral
https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/12/03/Style/Images/SAcallista001_1322950501.jpg
How are they ever going to resist the urge to do some serious dubious benefiting from this to pay off Newts still outstanding bills…including his $30,000 Tiffany’s bill for Callista’s necklace…
http://www.peteykins.com/sparklepics5/CallistaTiffany2.jpg
https://twitter.com/SenBobCasey/status/824707211914080257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Lawd have mercy
https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/824695356436815872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/MsKellyMHayes/status/824707261754994690/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Luvvie’s at it again. If you need a laugh,not only the post is funny, but the entire thread on Facebook is full of gems.
Can We Drunk Text Our Bae, Barack, That We Miss Him?
The New Yorker published an imaginary text conversation between Barack Obama and someone who represents all of us still in our feelings about him leaving the White House. Here’s a snippet:
Barack: You knew this would be tough at first. Transitions are never simple.
Me: I miss you so bad
Me: Things without you really really suck
Barack: Does someone else have your car keys?
Me: Yes
Barack: Good.
This is basically all of us, wading in a pool of our feelings. Six days after he left and we’re watching the world crumble because a Walking Cheeto is blowing everything to hell. I just wanna send President Obama voicemail recordings of Toni Braxton heartbreak songs. “It’s just another sad love song racking my brain like crazy.”
Nope..
Not even as a joke…
I happen to be in the group that thinks that Michelle Obama deserves to finally have her husband – and their life as a couple first and foremost..back..
8 plus years – and not even counting the years away in Springfield as state senator and then in D.C as Senator… way, way more than enough..
The toll this has taken on his family …the irreversible personal damage done …cannot be measured…and no amount of praise, flattery and hero-worship can assuage or repair that..
Watch this clip…here 0:32 …Question: was the Was it a good experience for your daughters? The President can’t even straight out say yes…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-kgp6lzCzsQ
Enough..
https://twitter.com/ByronTau/status/824740352976367616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
lowdown muthaphuckas
Trump White House abruptly halts Obamacare ads
01/26/17 06:05 PM EST
The Trump administration has pulled the plug on all Obamacare outreach and advertising in the crucial final days of the 2017 enrollment season, according to sources at Health and Human Services and on Capitol Hill.
Even ads that had already been placed and paid for have been pulled, the sources told POLITICO.
The decision sends the clearest signal yet that President Donald Trump is determined to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare. Hours after being sworn in, Trump issued his first executive order allowing federal officials to start unwinding parts of the law.
“President Trump is signaling he’s the new sheriff,” said Rep. Chris Collins, (R-N.Y.), the president’s top congressional ally. “He’s been elected with a mandate. He’s not going to tolerate his employees contradicting and undermining his mandate to get this country going in another direction.”
Individuals may still sign up for Obamacare plans until the Jan. 31 deadline — but the Trump administration isn’t advertising that fact any longer.
BWA HA HA HA HA
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/824757289668075520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ktumulty/status/824770325934129157?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
On the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.
In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the National Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that they might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.
Trump also expressed anger over a retweet sent from the agency’s account, in which side-by-side photographs showed far fewer people at his swearing-in than had shown up to see Barack Obama’s inaugural in 2009.
According to one account, Reynolds had been contacted by the White House and given a phone number to call. When he dialed it, he was told to hold for the president.
For Trump, who sees himself and his achievements in superlative terms, the inauguration’s crowd size has been a source of grievance that he appears unable to put behind him. It is a measure of his fixation on the issue that he would devote part of his first morning in office to it — and that he would take out his frustrations on an acting Park Service director.
Word rapidly spread through the agency and Washington. The individuals who informed The Washington Post about the call declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the conversation.
Neither Reynolds nor the Park Service would talk about it.
https://twitter.com/rolandsmartin/status/824727030000484352
eliihaas, where are you?
Dems to David Brock: Stop Helping, You Are Killing Us
Democrats know they need someone to lead them out of the wilderness. But, they say, that someone is not David Brock.
As David Brock attempts to position himself as a leader in rebuilding a demoralized Democratic Party in the age of Trump, many leading Democratic organizers and operatives are wishing the man would simply disappear.
Many in the party—Clinton loyalists, Obama veterans, and Bernie supporters alike—talk about the man not as a sought-after ally in the fight against Trumpism, but as a nuisance and a hanger-on, overseeing a colossal waste of cash. And former employees say that he has hurt the cause.
In the weeks since Donald Trump pulled off a surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, party stalwarts have scrambled to identify key figures for a robust revitalization in a post-Obama era.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/26/dems-to-david-brock-stop-helping-you-are-killing-us.html?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon
Here I am Sis…thanks for sharing this…so much to unpack..
“…Another senior 2016 Clinton aide, who asked not to be named because the ex-staffer did “not want to deal with Brock’s bullshit,” described Brock and his organizations in 2016 as “useless—you might as well have thrown those [tens of] millions of dollars down a well, and then set the well on fire.”
Brock and his teams also became staunch allies of the Obama reelection campaign and the Obama White House. Brock would throw lavish parties where Team Obama figures would make appearances and liberally sip the champagne—still, it wasn’t hard to find former White House dwellers who questioned Brock’s usefulness.
Tommy Vietor, a veteran of the 2008 Obama campaign who later served as a National Security Council spokesman, on the other hand took a more generous approach to Brock’s Media Matters, noting that it was “a very smart and well-executed idea,” but conceded that Brock himself “hasn’t proved his expertise in campaigning.”
“There is a sense that he cares less about progressive policies and moving the ball forward, and is actually more focused on stroking his ego.”
Still, Brock is not without his allies on the left, or center-left. James Carville, a longtime friend and ally of the Clintons who has worked for Brock’s operation, is skeptical that anti-Brock operatives know any better.
“Are they calling for purges?” Carville rhetorically asked The Daily Beast. “David has a really good relationship with a lot of donors and people who can help the party. If I were them, I would be thinking of ways I could work with David Brock, as opposed to having a tribunal determining the extent of party purity. I don’t think we need to walk around with ideological chastity belts.”
Brock said. “I came into organizing in progressive politics 14 years ago with a lot of baggage from the right wing and, understandably, there was skepticism. I overcame that over time with hard work and performing well, and earning people’s trust. There’s no other way to do it…I’m going to continue earning the trust as I go.”
LOL ..
So many political opportunists and self-serving douchebags, so little time..
Can’t even believe that after the fiasco that was this presidential election, that anyone is still looking to David Brock for anything, little less guidance on how to win…
Surely, our party isn’t that desperate and so devoid of ideas…
Senators Warren and Booker try to answer Democratic anger at votes for Trump nominees
This week, in a video message to his 800,000-plus Facebook followers, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) promised to keep resisting the Trump administration, in solidarity with the people in the streets.
“Don’t let this stuff become normal so we’re just becoming numb to it,” Booker said. “We have got to stay in the trenches and keep fighting.”
Below that video — and below an image of Booker testifying against Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) this month — the senator was deluged with people asking for more.
“You are my senator,” said Eileen Mary Kenny. “I voted for you enthusiastically. I’d like you and the Democrats to be MUCH tougher on this administration. Please block these terrible Cabinet nominees. Obstruct in every way you can.”
“I’m not overwhelmed, I am pissed!” said Alice Carney. “YOU, Cory, need to obstruct everything they are doing.”
“Senator you need to truly represent our state,” said Brenda Santos. “Please do not vote for ANY Cabinet picks.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/26/warren-booker-try-to-answer-democratic-anger-at-votes-for-trump-nominees/?utm_term=.8d80a4062bb7&wpisrc=nl_politics-pm&wpmm=1
Looky here, Chicas!
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/824678414665801729
Steve Bannon also just lashed out at the media, demanding that they ‘shut up’ and ‘be quiet’…LOL
This even as he has now added Alex Jones and his Info Wars crazies as part of the official White House press corps…yes, you can’t make this sh*T up…they now get to be seen as ‘legitimate media’…
We must guard against them overcoming any of this initial confusion…and getting on and finding their groove…or rather, normalizing their pull stuff out of their b*tt, wing it till it ‘makes sense’, mediocrity …because there’s nothing even crazier and more dangerous, than know-nothings with power, who still don’t know anything, but who find their way around, find their footing and settle in…with still little knowledge…and much power to wield…
https://twitter.com/RuthHHopkins/status/824725395891167232
Cheeto Benito still has AN UNSECURED PHONE!!!!
DA EVERLIVING PHUQ?!?!??!?!
Trump moving forward with “the wall” is an all-out assault on our values. Americans of every race, gender & creed will hold him accountable. pic.twitter.com/izUvFZnZZn
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) January 26, 2017
Gorgeous piece –>> In Photos: 35 Amazing Places Barack Obama Traveled During His Presidency https://t.co/RmWM3KQfp9 via @TravelLeisure
— meta (@metaquest) January 26, 2017
Here comes the enemies list.
Virginia group to publish Nazi-like blacklist of businesses ‘openly hostile’ to Trump
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/virginia-group-to-publish-nazi-like-blacklist-of-businesses-openly-hostile-to-trump/
UNITED WE STAND
NEA: more than one million letters emailed to U.S. Senate in opposition to Betsy DeVos https://t.co/okvGkPNAuY
— U.S. Senate Update (@USSenateUpdate) January 26, 2017
He boarded Air Force One and DID NOT TURN AROUND TO WAVE.
You know…as Presidents have done for DECADES.
PS-Nobody was there to meet him at the airport in Philly.
BWA HA HA HA HA AH AH AH
Dan Pfeiffer @ danpfeiffer 27m27 minutes ago
Any Democrat that votes for Sessions to be in charge of protecting civil and voting rights is going to end up on the wrong side of history
That any Democrat has to be reminded or warned about this, is something..
Trump’s Basis For Voter Fraud Paranoia? ‘Look At What Is Registering’
ByTIERNEY SNEED
Published JANUARY 26, 2017, 2:24 PM EDT
PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump, in remarks to a GOP retreat in Philadelphia Thursday, hinted at his administration’s plans for a major investigation into voter fraud.
“We also need to keep the ballot box safe from illegal voting,” Trump said. “Believe me, you take look at what is registering, folks — they like to say,
Oh, Trump Trump Trump… take a look at what is registering.'”
It is unclear exactly what Trump meant by “what is registering,” but his White House Press Secretary said Wednesday that the investigation will focus on “urban areas.”
“I think in terms of registration … you’ve got folks on rolls that have been deceased or have moved or are registered in two counties,” he said. “This isn’t just about the 2016 election — this is about the integrity of our voting system.”
Ironically, at least four people close to Trump have been found to be registered to vote in more than one state.
Trump’s Crony Cabinet May Look Strong, but They Are Scared
This is the backdrop for Trump’s rise to power—our movements were starting to win. I’m
not saying that they were strong enough. They weren’t. I’m not saying we were united enough. We weren’t. But something was most definitely shifting. And rather than risk the possibility of further progress, this gang of fossil-fuel mouthpieces, junk-food peddlers and predatory lenders have come together to take over the government and protect their ill-gotten wealth.
https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-crony-cabinet-is-full-of-scared-losers/
Please RT: NC Senator Burr on fence about Devos nomination and instructing interns to count constituent responses. Call 202-224-3154.
— Pamela Alexander (@jeditigger) January 26, 2017
Y’ALL!!!!!
Wow, It Gets Bigger
By Josh Marshall Published January 26, 2017, 12:45 PM EDT
Last night I noted that a top Russian spy who is the number two person in the FSB department which allegedly oversaw the US election hacking operation had been arrested and charged with treason. Was he a sacrificial lamb and olive branch to Trump? A way for Putin to claim that his spy services had perhaps gone rogue? Or was he suspected of being a source to US intelligence? People who fall from grace in Putin’s Russia are often dealt with with trumped up criminal prosecutions. But treason is a special charge.
Well, now we have reports that Sergei Mikhailov is suspected of being a US asset at the heart of Russian intelligence.
The report is from The Moscow Times, a respected English language publication. But the report appears to rely on a report in Novaya Gazeta.
From the Moscow Times …
A top cybersecurity specialist in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was arrested on Wednesday reportedly on suspicion of leaking information to the U.S. intelligence community — a bombshell accusation that, if true, would mean Washington had a spy in the heart of Russia’s national defense infrastructure.
Here’s the additional detail …
According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the FSB believes Sergei Mikhailov tipped off U.S. officials to information about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company “King Servers,” which the American cybersecurity company ThreatConnect identified last September as “an information nexus” that was used by hackers suspected of working for Russian state security in cyberattacks.
The article goes on to say that four others have been arrested in connection to the treason case against Mikhailov. It is important to note that even if these are the charges, in a country like Russia, what you’re charged with isn’t just not necessarily true. It may not even be what the state and prosecutors think is true.
But this immediately poses the question: if Mikhailov was a US asset, how was he compromised? Did the information put out by US intelligence somehow lead to his exposure? Without putting too fine a point on it, a number of close advisors to President Trump are being scrutinized for ties to Russia. Some of them participated in the intelligence briefings the President receives. Do we have a very big problem?
https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824343503572307968
https://twitter.com/GetWisdomDude/status/824695258990665729
PROTEST, RESIST!
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/824693462192844802
https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/824676940300845056
https://twitter.com/garywhitta/status/824672148669108226
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/824684770063966210
https://twitter.com/CBSDFW/status/824683574158917632
https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/824660363601936385
https://twitter.com/mic/status/824661164227452928
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/824683365186072577
this is insane.
I despise everyone who voted for him.
DESPISE THEM for putting MY country at risk.
Well, Hillary had that one right. They are deplorables.
We Can’t Have Four Years of This
by Martin Longman
January 26, 2017 1:02 PM
Media criticism is a huge part of my job and I’ll always find things to fault in how the media covers our politics and our politicians. I do not believe, however, that the media went easy on Donald Trump during the campaign. I’ve actually never seen any politician get so savaged day after day as Trump was in the last election. Pretty much everything we know about Trump’s shortcomings came from articles written either by bigfoot reporters at our major newspapers or by longtime Trump-watching journalists in the New York area.
Trump lost the endorsement of dozens of newspapers that have endorsed Republicans in the past. In the end, in the entire country, he only won the endorsement of a single handful of metro newspapers. Even the right-wing media turned on him, including the National Review which opposed him with real fury. I could write a separate article about how Clinton was treated, but I want to stay on my topic.
Donald Trump was exposed by the media and people had access to all the information they needed to know about his fraudulent business practices, his dishonest and bullying litigiousness, his failure to honor contracts, his sordid personal life, his connections to prominent organized crime figures, his business failures, his record of racism, his foreign entanglements, and his almost unbelievable personal narcissism. Maybe the media actually helped Trump despite giving us all this information because they gave him so much attention and chased his every shocking move, but they didn’t give him a pass or fail to treat him with appropriate skepticism.
We all learned something about the standing of the media when enough of the public shrugged it all off and supported him to make him our president. I think it’s clear that the media lost their credibility with much of the electorate, and we can debate how much they earned that loss of credibility. Yet, it’s clear to me, at least, that they lost more than they deserved to lose.
Now, when I open up the Washington Post and an article begins with the following paragraph, I know things are messed up.
Even after more than a half a decade in office, a failing war based on falsified intelligence, a drowned New Orleans, and a global collapse of the economy, no major newspaper ran straight news articles this hostile and disrespectful about President George W. Bush. Donald Trump has been in office less than a week, and his word is already an open joke and so lacking in credibility that our major newspapers have no compunction about dismissing his utterances out of hand.
Reading the transcript of his first big presidential interview with ABC News, I was something close to paralyzed with fear. Watching it made things worse.
The Entire Senior Management Team at the State Department Has Resigned
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 26, 2017 12:07 PM
Josh Rogin is reporting a huge story today.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s job running the State Department just got considerably more difficult. The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.
In addition to Patrick Kennedy, Undersecretary for Management (the number 2 job at State), the list of resignations include:
It is normal to expect a fair amount of turnover with an incoming administration (especially when it involves a president from another party), but this is not normal.
Two national polls: Obamacare now more popular than Trump
01/26/17 10:42 AM
By Steve Benen
The day before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Fox News released the results of a new national poll that showed the Republican with a 42% favorability rating. The same poll found “Obamacare” with a 50% favorability rating.
It created an awkward political dynamic: the new president is now less popular than the health care law he’s eager to destroy.
Yesterday, Public Policy Polling released the results of a new national survey – the results of which were shared exclusively with The Rachel Maddow Show last night – that pointed in a similar direction. Support for the Affordable Care Act, in this poll, stood at 45%, while Trump’s support was 44%.
That’s obviously a pretty modest difference, but the broader point remains the same: Trump is working from the assumption that the ACA is a disaster the public is eager to get rid of, but when pollsters actually gauge Americans’ attitudes, the reform law is more popular than the president bashing it.
All of this comes the week after the release of an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that found the Affordable Care Act “has never been more popular” than it is right now. A Washington Post report added:
IGNORAMUS!
https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/824654816056135682
https://twitter.com/telesurenglish/status/824670700543827968
DA PHUQ?
Top State Dept Leadership Resigns En Masse
ByJOSH MARSHALL
Published JANUARY 26, 2017, 11:28 AM EDT
This is pretty stunning. Josh Rogin at the Post is reporting that unexpectedly yesterday, the top career leadership at the State Department all resigned. These are not Obama era appointees but career FSOs who’ve served under Presidents of both parties.
From the Post …
This is bad for Tillerson. But it’s bad for everyone. Kennedy was reportedly trying to stay on in his position, as I believe he did from Bush to Obama. It sure sounds like there was some precipitating event.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/824651840906260480
Trump is Our Enemies’ Best Recruitment Tool
by Martin Longman
January 25, 2017 1:49 PM
Oh, lookee here, a draft executive order! The New York Times helpfully explains that this order would do all kinds of unsavory things that prove that there’s a wee bit of difference between Trump and Obama, as well as between Trump and Clinton and Republicans and Democrats.
For example, the executive order would make it possible to begin filling up Gitmo with more detainees after Obama spent his entire eight-year presidency trying to empty it. It would open the door to more black sites like the ones we ran under Bush in Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Thailand, and Afghanistan. Of course, to do that, the order would allow Trump to deny the Red Cross access to our prisoners. The order would also open the door to allowing torture again. To get around a new congressional law that insists our interrogators abide by the Army Field Manual, they may just amend the Field Manual to allow torture.
So, what we have here is basically a roadmap for bringing back all the most notorious and shameful elements of Bush’s War on Terror.
When Trump went to the CIA last week, he revisited a belief he has held for a while:
https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/824392929821200384
75% of all known voter fraud cases from 2016 INVOLVE TRUMP VOTERS.
https://twitter.com/notaxiwarrior/status/824474427219963904
RUSSIA & TRUMP ARE UNDERMINING OUR DEMOCRACY!
See Venus’s joy at realizing that she will be in the Final.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/824496380991434752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Quick Takes: Is Trump Morally Unfit or Are We Facing a Constitution Crisis?
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 25, 2017 5:50 PM
* Yesterday Paul Krugman tweeted this:
An American first: a president who was obviously mentally ill the moment he took office. Thanks, Comey
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 24, 2017
* In a tweet storm today, Maggie Haberman of the NYT describes a man who is mentally unstable.
… started calling advisers and aides angry about the @BCAppelbaum RT by parks, accusing media of being out to get him. Trump’s worst 2/
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 25, 2017
…to let go of any grievance or perceived slight. And he is genuinely transfixed by people thinking his election isn’t legit. He is 4/
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 25, 2017
* Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin speculates that “Maybe Trump Isn’t Lying.”
The supposition among pundits, elected officials and political insiders is that Trump, like his argument over the inaugural crowd size, “lies” to make himself feel better. His staff salutes, repeats his lies and then gets bashed. What if, however, he thoroughly, “honestly” believes his crazy, unsubstantiated claims?
Rubin goes on to suggest that there are only two options for explaining what is going on.
We are not calling — yet — for invocation of Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. (“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”)
The Emperor is Actually Crazy
by Martin Longman
January 25, 2017 3:45 PM
It wasn’t too hard to find a list of crazy things that Caligula did when he was in charge of the Roman Empire in the 1st Century. You can probably guess why I went searching for such a thing, since we now, too, have a leader who is narcissistic beyond belief and clearly insane. Trump’s latest demonstration of this is his call for a major investigation of (virtually non-existent) voter fraud which he insists happened, despite having just sent his own lawyers into court to fight recounts by arguing that “All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.”
I was in the car running an errand and had the opportunity to hear a presser given by Republican congressional leaders Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state. Listening to them dance around Trump’s clear mental imbalance on this issue was a sound to behold. Sen. Thune did manage to promise “better message coordination” between Congress and the White House in the future, chalking up the whole thing up to growing pains.
The reason Trump reminds me of an unhinged Roman emperor is because his political allies are always walking on eggshells, afraid to contradict him but (so far) largely unwilling to vouch for his false and delusional statements and beliefs.
Meanwhile, PENCE is sitting on the FENCE, just waiting to jump off and into that Oval Office Leather.
Yep, and the GOF’inP dominated Congress is giddy with delight. They will be well positioned to screw us the way they have wanted to for decades.
UNINTELLIGENT POS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o5wfBr3kAM
DAVID MUIR (HOST): When you say in your opinion, millions of illegal votes, that is something that is extremely fundamental to our functioning democracy, a fair and free election.
TRUMP: Sure, sure, sure.
MUIR: You say you’re going to launch an investigation into this.
TRUMP: Sure, done.
MUIR: What you have presented so far has been debunked. It’s been called false.
TRUMP: No it hasn’t, take a look at the Pew reports.
MUIR: I called the author of the Pew report last night, and he told me that they found no evidence of voter fraud.
TRUMP: Really? Then why did he write the report?
MUIR: He said no evidence of voter fraud.
TRUMP: Excuse me, then why did he write the report? According to Pew report — He is groveling again. You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they write something that you want to hear but not necessarily millions of people want to hear, or have to hear.
MUIR: So, you’ve launched an investigation?
TRUMP: We’re going to launch an investigation to find out. And then the next time — and I will say this, of those votes cast, none of them come to me, none of them come to me. They would all be for the other side. None of them come to me. But when you look at the people that are registered, dead, illegal, and two states, in some cases, maybe three states. We have a lot to look into.
They have always come for Black folks https://t.co/NANNxJsUAv
— Pretty Foot (@PrettyFootWoman) January 26, 2017
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/824641630934302720
meanwhile that POS Chelsea Manning disses POTUS, by calling him weak. That MOFO should’ve rotted in jail, but once again, PBO proves that these white folks are soooo fucking UNGRATEFUL, downright spiteful, HATEFUL.
You see that ISH? Ungrateful mofo.
First they came for the Latinos, Muslims, women, gays, poor people, intellectuals and scientists and then it was Wednesday.
— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) January 25, 2017
Why Does Betsy DeVos Think Federal Student Loan Debt Has Grown by 1,000 percent?
by Ben Barrett
January 25, 2017 4:52 PM
Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee have six days before they vote on whether to proceed with the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Education Secretary. DeVos’ inability to discuss fundamental education policy topics in the first hearing has led some members of Congress to seriously doubt her competence for the post.
But while her unsure footing and non-answers to basic policy questions related to K-12 schools have attracted the lion’s share of attention, what left many higher education analysts scratching their heads is the confidence with which she delivered a shocking and incorrect statistic about the growth in student indebtedness over time.
In response to an inquiry from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) about how she would improve student loan repayment rate data so that students could make more informed decisions, DeVos acknowledgedthat, “The issue of student debt and the amount of student debt, over $1.3 trillion right now, up over 1,000 percent in the past eight years is a very serious issue.”
That’s not true. Although outstanding student debt now comes close to $1.3 trillion, outstanding federal student debt has grown by 97 percent since 2009–a very large increase, but far less than the 1,000 percent Devos claimed. Indeed, for her point to have been true, student loan debt would have to have been $130 billion eight years ago. In fact, the total federal loan balance in 2009 was $657 billion — more than five times that.*
WHY ISN’T MEDIA REPORTING ON THIS AND ASKING TRUMP QUESTIONS?
Intelligence Committee will investigate possible Russia-Trump links
The Senate panel could use subpoenas to secure testimony from Obama officials and the Trump team.
By Elana Schor
| 01/13/17 06:16 PM EST
| Updated 01/13/17 06:39 PM EST
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said late Friday that his committee will investigate possible contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, reversing himself one day after telling reporters that the issue would be outside of his panel’s ongoing probe into Moscow’s election-disruption efforts.
Burr and the intelligence panel’s top Democrat, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said in a joint statement that the committee’s probe would touch on “intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns” as well as Russian cyberattacks and other election meddling outlined in an intelligence report released last week.
.
The committee will use “subpoenas if necessary” to secure testimony from Obama administration officials as well as Trump’s team, Burr and Warner said.
The bipartisan Senate announcement came hours after several House Democrats aired their frustrations with FBI Director James Comey following a classified briefing on Russian election disruption. The Democrats were livid that Comey refused to confirm whether he is conducting an inquiry into potential Trump ties to Russia — a question that he publicly declined to answer earlier this week.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/burr-says-intel-panel-will-investigate-possible-russia-trump-links-233621
https://twitter.com/MtnMD/status/824454601701261312
READ: Why It’s Dangerous to Celebrate the Lack of Arrests at the Women’s March on Washington
Jess Zimmerman: “The high-fives of cops at the Women’s March and the blows raining down on BLM are the front and back of the same hand.”
Kenrya Rankin Jan 24, 2017 2:10PM EST
SNIP
A glance at any Women’s March photo will give you a clue to the reason. Underneath those pink hats were a lot of white faces—a stark reminder of the 53 percent of white women who voted for Trump, as one protester [Angela Peoples, co-director at GetEQUAL] reminded everyone with a sign that later went viral. The average marcher did not look like John Lewis, or like Ieshia Evans. The average marcher looked like me—a white lady. If I don’t look like someone a cop wants to arrest, that’s not a testament to my law-abiding goodness, or the cop’s. It’s a testament to how sexism in this country fuels racism, and vice versa. It’s a testament to exactly what we need to resist.
She goes on to challenge White women to use their privilege to advance causes that impact people of color.
Effective protest does not require anyone having their head cut off. But it does require recognizing that this zero-arrest protest wasn’t something a largely white and female crowd earned. It was given to us, whether we asked for it our not, because of our frailty. Because we are something to be protected, not a serious threat. Because our safety has been the engine of our oppression and the oppression of others. We owe it to ourselves, and to those others, to use this gift wisely. If the police stay their hand with you, white women, it is not a compliment. It is condescension. But it is also an opportunity. How will you use it?
http://act.colorlines.com/acton/ct/1069/s-02da-1701/Bct/q-12a7b/l-sf-contact-12a6e:ad01/ct6_0/1?sid=TV2%3AaoaXQXnqi
Congratulations to Venus and Serena Williams for making the Australian Open Final!!!
YEAH!!!!1
Trump be like, I signed some E.O.s, how you like me now? Wants pat on head like a good little boy for scribbling flat lines on paper.
SHAKES HEAD. In fact DOES one of these numbers:
Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Obama stock photo draws backlash
“The Road Women Marched On This Weekend Was Paved By Black Resistance“:
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
WHY AREN’T DEMOCRATS DEMANDING TO KNOW;
1. why he needs them
2. why taxpayer monies should be going toward them
3. what are their legal liabilities
See, THIS is the type of shyt when Democrats say that they want the politicians to stand up and fight – HERE IT IS.
Are ya’ll noticing that Trump is sitting behind a desk signing papers?
The pen is hi penis, and it’s still small. All talk and signing papers. Who the fuck gets into office and starts signing papers without congress?
the IMAGE of doing something, when he’s not doing shyt.
The pen is his penis, and it’s still small
Tee hee hee
Today’s Google Doodle is Bessie Coleman :)
I love Black-ish.
Dre’s Trump monologue from last week, about DON’T YOU EVER QUESTION HIS PATRIOTISM…was inspiring.
BAM!
SHORT DRE: GTFOH
Good Morning, Everyone:)
Good Morning, Rikyrah & Everyone.
Have you been catching this season’s episodes of BALCK-ISH?
I have really enjoyed this season of Black-ish. They always had something very nuanced in each episode. Peanut loves the show. I had to explain to her why everyone reacts to Diane the way that they did.
” Everyone sees that Diane has great potential. She’s either going to win the Nobel Prize for something…..or get her face on the FBI’s Most Wanted Wall. I don’t see it falling out any other way.”
She understood that…LOL
LOL Diane is a STAR!
7 Reasons Diane Johnson From ‘black-ish’ Is the Most Lovable Character, Hands Down
https://www.bustle.com/articles/78372-7-reasons-diane-johnson-from-black-ish-is-the-most-lovable-character-hands-down