A Mexican man has apparently taken his own life just half an hour after being deported from the United States.
Guadalupe Olivas Valencia, 45, jumped from a bridge at the border after he was deported for the third time.
He was found unconscious next to a plastic bag with his belongings and died in hospital a short while later.
His death came as the Trump administration issued new guidelines to widen the net for deporting illegal immigrants from the US.
Witnesses said Mr Olivas was shouting that he did not want to return to Mexico and seemed to be in severe distress.
He jumped off a bridge just yards from El Chaparral, the main border crossing point between the US city of San Diego and Tijuana in Mexico.
Local media said a plastic bag like those US customs officers put migrants’ belongings in was next to the man.
Mexican officials said it was the third time Mr Olivas had been deported from the US.
He died of a heart attack and concussion.
Mr Olivas was a native of Sinaloa, one of Mexico’s most violent states and the stronghold of a major drug cartel.
Many Mexicans cite violence as a reason for leaving for the US.
The US released two memos on Tuesday aimed at speeding up the removal of undocumented migrants.
One memo, from Homeland Security chief John Kelly, includes instructions to enforce an existing provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act that allows authorities to send some people caught illegally at the border back to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.
It is unclear whether the US has authority to force Mexico to accept foreigners.
But Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Mexico would not accept the “unilateral” immigration proposals.
Mr Kelly and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are due to arrive in Mexico later on Wednesday.
Mr Videgaray said the new border guidelines would now be the main point for discussion during those meetings.
He also said Mexico would take legal action to defend the rights of Mexican citizens abroad, and take the issue to the UN if necessary.
An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the US, many of them from Mexico. US President Donald Trump made immigration and border control a key part of his campaign.
he was very graceful
https://mobile.twitter.com/lexi4prez/status/834879040095924225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/justinjm1/status/834906014633897984
🤔’Perilously close’…? Really..?!!!
The buffoon and his inner circle brazenly crossed that line more than a long while ago..
Time for you to go, Reince Priebus!
https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/834936909067493376
Watching him desperately sucking up to stinky, satan’s stand-in Steve Bannon like a little b*tch, made one wonder how much lower this pathetic weasel could stoop to keep his plum pretend-place and his warped and misguided sense of relevance, power and domination..
This picture is everything
https://mobile.twitter.com/WEENOnline/status/834840326992957440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/834906895920029700
https://twitter.com/AP/status/834893148853788673
Yup…Trump and Steve Bannon’s America…
White supremacists gone wild..
But nothing to see here…let’s coddle and elevate and celebrate the real poor done-in victims…the damsels in distress: daughter-wife and communist-born 3rd wife of the buffoon who’s cultivated and incited and unleashed the racists and their crazy on the country…
The heat is on at republican town halls and constituents are lighting their ass up! Keep it up, people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsOuSmSLGOs
NOT.MY.PRESIDENT
Nothing to see here folks!
THESE MOFOS ARE NUTS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/02/23/bannon-trump-administration-is-in-unending-battle-for-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/?postshare=161487879490400&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.8cafc44ddc4b#comments
Self-appointed gurus and Svengalis – even when unkempt, soulless and unhinged – are usually intriguing, and typically exhibit some level of depth, thoughtful insights and perspectives – even if unpopular… and always, always, embody a certain level of intellectual sophistication… no matter how disheveled and physically unpalatable …
Steve Bannon simply put, is just another hollow, bloviating, opportunistic, dime store, dime a dozen, pedestrian White Supremacist sociopath, who was clearly not loved or breastfed as a baby …and who symbiotically aligned with a desperate and ripe for the plucking, fast-unraveling, campaign trail megalomaniac Trump, desperate for support, cheerleaders and validation – and looking to harness whatever support he could get and whoever was left out there to provide it…and ultimately, landing plop in the lap of the same raucous fringe white supremacists dregs and rejects that he’d previously often played footsie with…and in return, rewarding them not just with a choice place in his inner circle and a prime seat in the White House, but is dangerously normalizing and legitimizing them and their dubious mindset and agenda…
A smug, creepy, leering, self-impressed, wannabe intellectual – but ultimately more gassy and garrulous, and not terribly eloquent or compelling…this guy Bannon, contrary to every attempt by the usual spin-master suspects to elevate and assign him ‘impressive even if outsider genius’ status …is as uninspiring and unconvincing as he’s all around unimpressive…
Smugly and affectedly spitting out hollow, verbose, overdone, pocket book pseudo-intellectualized ideology – aka empty crap…mostly acquired by osmosis and exchanges with likeminded twits from right-wing talk radio swamp …and the occasional think-tank pseudo-intellectual…
Verbose empty crap targeting and seeking to impress, control and solidify alliances with a mostly hate-filled, closed-minded, unintellectual audience of fellow white supremacists …pretending to follow along – but only because they’re eager to cling to, pretend to understand and agree… but only to provide another layer of ‘justification’, ‘legitimacy’ and cover for their white nationalism – and what really motivates their dangerously manifested prejudices and virulently racist mindset and shared oppressive agenda…
Bannon is only relevant, top of mind and infinitely dangerous- only because of his presence in our People’s House…and his proximity, unfettered access to, and the unusual influence he now wields over the volatile, ignorant, impulsive buffoon desperate for validation, that also happens to have our nuclear codes…
Trump Waste Of Taxpayer Money Sets A New Record With 4th Weekend Trip To Florida
By Jason Easley on Thu, Feb 23rd, 2017 at 2:09 pm
President Trump will once again spend the weekend at his Florida private club, as his 4th straight taxpayer funded trip will set a record by spending more money on travel in a month than former President Obama spent in a year.
President Trump will once again spend the weekend at his Florida private club, as his 4th straight taxpayer funded trip will set a record by spending more money on travel in a month than former President Obama spent in a year.
Ken Vogel of Politico reported that Trump is heading back to Palm Beach, FL to meet with donors, “The party’s biggest donors are gathering in Palm Beach for a retreat organized by the Republican National Committee, and the president has been announced as the featured speaker, according to people with knowledge of the plans. A number of senior administration officials will also attend the retreat, the people familiar with the planning said, a key draw for the donors.”
Taxpayers will now be paying for Donald Trump and senior administration officials to meet with Republican donors in Florida. It is not a coincidence that the RNC is holding the donor retreat on the weekend in the same city as Trump’s private club.
When makes President Trump makes his fourth trip to his club in Florida, he will have spent more money on those trips alone ($13 million) than former President Obama spent during an entire year on travel ($12.1 million).
We have a lunatic as President.
One that is an asset for a hostile foreign power.
All logic dictates that one of our branches of government is totally compromised by this hostile foreign power.
But, I’m supposed to be mad that The Spooks are fighting back.
In ordinary times, against anyone else, I would be up in arms.
But, today?
Eh.
Are We Witnessing a Coup Operation Against the Trump White House?
Our intelligence apparatus is doing far more than stoking paranoia about the Russian bogeyman—it’s threatening democracy.
By Patrick Lawrence
A couple of books come to mind amid the relentless leaks emanating from the spooks on either side of the Potomac and, not to be missed, their high approval ratings among our patriots of liberal persuasion.
..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKenXQjTHAg
YA’LL BUILT THAT Governor Walker ain’t shit.
Dan Schneider thinks he’s slick…
Dan Schneider is as complicit and as phony as Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence and every other self-described republican and conservative that has directly and indirectly benefitted and profited from the alt-right movement…and every single last one of them who’s continued to dangerously play footsie when it suits their purposes, with various strains and versions of the alt-right for many years and up to this day ..
…And in many instances themselves, embrace and embody the very same mindset in varying degrees, of said alt-right groups…
Found this comment over at BJ about immigration:
@Peale:
This is why I listened to the people who signed the alarm bells. They said don’t listen to the bullshyt about illegal immigration. THEY SAID that this was all about LEGAL immigration.
They used the bullshyt of ‘ they didn’t follow the rules’.
Well…all these people DID FOLLOW THE RULES AND FOLLOWED THE PROCESS.
And, you want to do this to them?
That’s why the most disturbing part of the Muslim ban was the arbitrary CANCELLING OF 100 THOUSAND VISAS -because THOSE had been done according to the processes that the US Government set up.
Trump’s move to deport more immigrants
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/opinion/trumps-move-to-deport-more-immigrants.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&referer=https://t.co/F6oaGYdW3D
OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Now #Trump can deport spouses & families of US military personnel. Letter: @NinaBernstein1
— David Beard (@dabeard) February 23, 2017
The Trump Travel Slump
http://www.frommers.com/tips/miscellaneous/the-travel-press-is-reporting-the-trump-slump-a-devastating-drop-in-tourism-to-the-united-states
It’s a Big world out there. And people have the right to spend their money where they want to. They aren’t forced to spend it in the USA.
The Travel Press is Reporting the ‘Trump Slump,’ a Devastating Drop in Tourism to the United States
Experts across the travel industry are warning that masses of tourists are being scared away from visiting the United States, and the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating.
By Arthur Frommer
Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income.
It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it.
Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all.
As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%.
Civilized folks aren’t going to come anywhere near America with the toxicity of a million sewer systems flowing from #45 & his merry band of RACISTS,
I was a Muslim in Trump’s White House. I lasted 8 days.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/rumana-ahmed-trump/517521/
When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days.
Leah Varjaques / The Atlantic
RUMANA AHMED 10:09 AM ET
In 2011, I was hired, straight out of college, to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council. My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman––I was the only hijabi in the West Wing––and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included.
Like most of my fellow American Muslims, I spent much of 2016 watching with consternation as Donald Trump vilified our community. Despite this––or because of it––I thought I should try to stay on the NSC staff during the Trump Administration, in order to give the new president and his aides a more nuanced view of Islam, and of America’s Muslim citizens.
I lasted eight days.
When Trump issued a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all Syrian refugees, I knew I could no longer stay and work for an administration that saw me and people like me not as fellow citizens, but as a threat.
The evening before I left, bidding farewell to some of my colleagues, many of whom have also since left, I notified Trump’s senior NSC communications advisor, Michael Anton, of my departure, since we shared an office. His initial surprise, asking whether I was leaving government entirely, was followed by silence––almost in caution, not asking why. I told him anyway.
I told him I had to leave because it was an insult walking into this country’s most historic building every day under an administration that is working against and vilifying everything I stand for as an American and as a Muslim. I told him that the administration was attacking the basic tenets of democracy. I told him that I hoped that they and those in Congress were prepared to take responsibility for all the consequences that would attend their decisions.
He looked at me and said nothing.
It was only later that I learned he authored an essay under a pseudonym, extolling the virtues of authoritarianism and attacking diversity as a “weakness,” and Islam as “incompatible with the modern West.”
Charles Blow speaks for me
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/opinion/the-death-of-compassion.html?_r=0&referer=https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F02%2F23%2Fopinion%2Fthe-death-of-compassion.html%3AO818ku6tZDRY2JRQerkSYmPfj1w&cuid=988491
Charles Blow today:
……………
Compassionate conservatism is dead; Trump and his band of backward-thinking devotees killed it.
Trump is rushing headlong into Muslim bans and mass deportations, wall building and Obamacare dismantling. Indeed, it feels like the campaign promises Trump is keeping have to do with cruelty and those he’s flip-flopping on have to do with character.
For instance, it is now abundantly clear that Trump had no intention whatsoever of draining the swamp in Washington. He is simply restocking it to his liking.
This is why I have no patience for liberal talk of reaching out to Trump voters. There is no more a compromise point with those who accept, promote and defend bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia than there is a designation of “almost pregnant.”
Trump is a cancer on this country and resistance is the remedy. The Trump phenomenon is devoid of compassion, and we must be closed to compromise.
No one need try to convince me otherwise. The effort is futile; my conviction is absolute. This is a culture war in which truth is the weapon, righteousness the flag and passion the fuel.
Fight, fight, fight. And when you are finished, fight some more. Victory is the only acceptable outcome when freedom, equality and inclusion are at stake.
He needs to urgently put out a PBX message to folks and have a chat with the likes of Marc Morial then…and fast too..
Because as long as Morial and co. keep blurring the message and countering the resistance with photo-ops that not only provide cover for and normalize the buffoon…courtesy of his daughter-wife, it will be an even steeper uphill battle to nip this madness in the bud..
GOP’s risky delusion about town hall protests
Errol Louis
By Errol Louis, CNN Political Commentator
Updated 9:54 AM ET, Thu February 23, 2017
White House spokesman Sean Spicer is kidding himself if he truly thinks the wave of protesters swarming Republican congressional town hall meetings from coast to coast represent a flash in the pan, or some less-than-authentic paid lobbyist campaign.
“Protesting has become a profession now,” Spicer said on Fox News. “They have every right to do that. Don’t get me wrong, but I think that we need to call it what it is. It’s not these organic uprisings that we’ve seen through the last several decades. You know, the tea party was a very organic movement. This has become a very paid, Astroturf-type movement.”
Wrong, Mr. Spicer. The town hall protests appear to be driven by an authentic concern about the future of health care reform and troubling reports about Russian meddling in the November elections. Reporters who investigated allegations that paid protesters disrupted a recent town hall in Utah found none, and even some Republican lawmakers targeted by protesters in Iowa and upstate New York acknowledge the anxiety of their constituents is real.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5Iq3NVW8AEGeKe.jpg
OMG Hilarious!
DA HAIL???
From Newsweek:
A seriously deluded poseur, Gorka is a bloviating, self-aggrandizing crook with an over-inflated and very bloated sense of self and things – and a whole lot to hide…
Cherishes the idea – and fancies himself a potential future Svengali to the buffoon if something were to happen to Bannon…
Like all those affiliated with Breibart and Steve Bannon, there’s nothing decent, honorable or redeemable to speak of..
“….Since Trump appointed Sebastian Gorka last month as a deputy assistant, Mr. Gorka has been an increasingly visible defender of the administration.
Mr. Gorka, 46, is a former editor for the far-right media outlet Breitbart News and a friend of Stephen Bannon, the former Breitbart chairman who is now a powerful assistant to Mr. Trump.
In his Breitbart articles, he has criticized foreign policy under the Obama administration and trumpeted the threat of the Islamic State group.
Until recently, Mr. Gorka was not well known to Washington policy makers. But his increasing visibility has brought headlines, some less welcome than others.
He has appeared in a number of television and radio interviews as a representative of the Trump administration and a member of a White House team called the Strategic Initiatives Group. The Daily Beast called it a think tank within the White House that was set up by Mr. Bannon and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
The group’s formation raised red flags, said Julianne Smith, a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of strategy and statecraft at the Center for a New American Security. The National Security Council has traditionally played a decisive role in foreign policy decisions, she said. “Now we have the Strategic Initiatives Group and the National Security Council both working on issues of national security and strategy.
As for the speculations about Nazi sympathies, they go back to one of Mr. Trump’s inauguration balls, when Mr. Gorka — appearing in photos and a video interview with Mr. Hannity — wore a medal that could be interpreted as a nod to Miklos Horthy, a Hungarian leader who entered into a strained alliance with Nazi Germany in the early years of World War II…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/us/politics/dr-sebastian-gorka.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=business/media&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Media&pgtype=article&_r=1
“…The omission of Jewish victims of the Holocaust in its statement for Holocaust Remembrance Day raised objections from Jewish groups across the political spectrum but the Trump administration’s combative defense was perhaps the most surprising move by a presidency facing record low approval numbers. Last Monday, Deputy Assistant to the Trump Sebastian Gorka refused to admit that that it may have been poor judgment not to specifically acknowledge the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust.
Gorka was an odd choice of proxies for the White House to put forward in defense of its Holocaust Remembrance day statement.
He has appeared in multiple photographs wearing the medal of a Hungarian group listed by the State Department as having collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
Gorka, who worked in the UK and Hungary before immigrating to the U.S., was photographed at an inaugural ball wearing a medal from the Hungarian Order of Heroes, Vitezi Rend, a group listed by the State Department as taking direction from Germany’s Nazi government during World War II.
Gorka did not respond to a request for comment but appeared to be wearing the medal on his chest during the Trump inauguration ball and in an undated photo posted on his Facebook page.
Eva Balogh, founder of the news analysis blog Hungarian Spectrum and former professor of Eastern European History at Yale University, confirmed to LobeLog the identity of the medal worn by Gorka. She said:
Yes, the medal is of the “vitézi rend” established by Miklós Horthy in 1920. He, as a mere governor, didn’t have the privilege to ennoble his subjects as the king could do before 1918, and therefore the “knightly order” he established was a kind of compensation for him. Officers and even enlisted men of exceptional valor could become knights. Between 1920 and 1944 there were 23,000 such knights. The title was inheritable by the oldest son. I found information that makes it clear that Gorka’s father, Pál Gorka, used the title. However, since he was born in 1930 he couldn’t himself be the one “knighted.” So, most likely, it was Gorka’s grandfather who was the original recipient.
Gorka’s PhD dissertation lists his name as “Sebestyén L. v. Gorka,” which suggests that he is carrying on his father’s title, albeit in an abbreviated format, according to Balogh…”
http://lobelog.com/why-is-trump-adviser-wearing-medal-of-nazi-collaborators/
http://lobelog.com/wp-content/uploads/gorka2.png
http://lobelog.com/wp-content/uploads/gorka0.png
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/834800692472795136
BWA HA HA HA HA Nothing beats failures like TRYING though, Johnny boy!
https://twitter.com/politico/status/834789177447288832
Just like the ignorant buffoon he chose to work for, and the likes of Rick Perry, Jeb, etc. and all the many other supposedly unstoppable and faux-highly-impressive ‘magic’ makers before him that turned out not to be …and instead flailed and fizzled out —many of these greedy propped-up folks are just as unimpressive and nothing like the respectable ‘mavericks’ the spinners in the media try to insist they are…
Besides the dubious process and vouchers like watching his confirmation hearing exposed the guy as just another very average joe who by some fluke of color found himself in the top job at Shell and consequently, as Putin’s pal..
In the end Steve Bannon with the assist of his junior understudy Stephen Miller, calls the shots…the others are largely peripheral …including these non-campaign insiders brought in for several reasons including providing cover and optics and giving the ignorant, hollow, pretend-president buffoon a veneer of seriousness and legitimacy – all while pleasing Putin..
The true insiders are Bannon, Miller, Jared and Beauregard Jefferson…and soon enough, expect resignations and quick departures by the likes of Mad dog Mathis and skinhead McMaster …the buffoon and his inner circle are now even more paranoid than ever before..
He’s the Secretary of EXXON. He doesn’t remotely care about the rest of it.
LIZA
Get well soon
Get well soon
Get well soon
Misses you
She’s going to be ok…God is in control…
We keep her in our prayers…
Get well, Liza :)
The Role of Morality in a Pluralistic Democracy
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 23, 2017 10:53 AM
As I mentioned previously, it was interesting to watch conservative Christians wrestle with the fact that the party they have been loyal to for years nominated Donald Trump to be president. A few, like Russell Moore, chose not to support him. But for the most part, both the leaders and their followers got behind one of the most immoral men who has ever run for president.
Those who actually struggled with that decision reached their conclusion based on one or both of the following:
I’ve already discussed the moral challenges to only being pro-life when it comes to a fetus. But I know what some of my conservative Christian friends would say in response to my argument. Their position would be that they support the lives of gay teens, people with HIV and drug addicts. They just don’t see it as the government’s job to intervene – that should be left up to private individuals and the church. Except when paired with the dismal record of most churches on filling the void, that argument ceases to be about morals and becomes one about the pragmatism of politics.
On the other hand, I’ve been told that, contrary to what the Bible says and what Jesus taught, the only real work of Christians in the world today is evangelism. That’s because if people die before they are “born again,” they will spend eternity in hell. Rick Santorum even went so far as to suggest that there was something redemptive in suffering.
Abandoning policy plans, Trump’s ‘fine-tuned machine’ stalls
02/23/17 10:41 AM
By Steve Benen
When Donald Trump unveiled his Muslim ban, the president made it seem as if he were responding to a national security crisis in need of immediate attention. When the administration’s policy failed in the courts, Team Trump scurried to come up with a quick solution.
More recently, however, the White House’s schedule has slowed quite a bit. After Trump vowed he’d see his opponents “in court” – a phrase apparently intended to signal new judicial appeals – Trump’s lawyers quietly moved in the opposite direction. When the administration decided to move forward with a new, revised policy, Trump said we’d see his executive order “toward the beginning or middle, at the latest” of this week.
Yesterday, the White House said the new policy would be unveiled next week.
In the meantime, Team Trump’s plans to unveil proposals on health care reform and tax reform haven’t just been delayed; CNBC reported yesterday those plans have been scrapped altogether.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/834792267374268416
Decency wins..
LOVE RULES
Ezra Klien suggests that “Donald Trump is dangerous when he’s losing.”
Somehow they keep misreading even that which stares them right in the face…
The idea you have to wait a year to see if a bumbling megalomaniac buffoon who’s already cornered and cocooned, furious, blaming and lashing out… will be cornered and cocooned and furious, blaming and lashing out..
Wait longer and his even below mediocrity and insanity will not only be completely normalized and par for the course, but will even be glorified – as they’ve already begun to spin it – as some rare and impressively otherworldly and stratospherical level of genius…
I’m Still Bearish on an Infrastructure Plan
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 23, 2017 8:16 AM
Almost immediately after the election in November, I began going against the grain to predict that Trump would not follow through on his promise of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. But something Johnathan Cohn wrote recently reminded me that in making that case, I had failed to articulate very clearly an assumption I was making about why it would never get off the ground.
It all comes back to something that has been clear for a long time now. Trump wanted to win the presidency, not BE president. That is why, almost four months after the election, he still spends an inordinate amount of time bragging and lying about his great victory. It was the winning (and defeating his opponents) that mattered.
We have also known for a long time now that Trump has no self control and a very short attention span. The grueling work of putting together actual policies and working them through Congress is not something he is ever going to do. That would be one thing if he was a good delegator. He could simply provide his thoughts and hand the implementation off to others – something that many of his predecessors did. But as Cohn points out – the whole idea of paying attention to actual policies is anathema to this president.
Fox News contributor Alan Colmes dies at 66
https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/834769367749509120
May he Rest In Peace…
RIP
No, The Resistance Isn’t Working Quite Well
by Martin Longman
February 22, 2017 2:50 PM
…………………….
That’s why I think Jonathan Chait overstates the case:
As I have tried to make clear in two recent posts, I don’t think it’s really possible to rattle the Republican majorities because they are too ensconced in power to have a need to worry about accountability. Maybe some congresspeople are avoiding town halls that are guaranteed to do them more harm than good, but that doesn’t mean that more than a handful of them are actually more worried about getting beaten by Democrats than by primary challengers from their right.
And the press may not be going docile on Trump, but that doesn’t mean that their reporting is more effective now than it was during the campaign.
As for popular culture, we saw what that was worth on November 8th.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from their efforts to resist, but I also don’t want people to think that what’s being done so far is “working quite well.” It’s not.
What’s working more than anything is what Trump and his team are doing and not doing. Their incompetence and overreach are limiting their effectiveness and creating divisions on the right. Aside from modestly effective obstruction by Senate Democrats, the only thing slowing down Trump and the congressional Republicans is their radicalism combined with their amateurish grasp of how to use the tools they now own.
They will start to figure these things out. They’ll get their people in place. And they’ll begin to really hammer and disempower their political enemies.
Keeping them divided and fighting among themselves is the best strategy for now, but the political resistance needs to be geographic in scope and focus. Local Democratic organizations that have been dormant for years need to lead this charge from below, but the messaging at the top needs to change, too.
This is big: Sen. MURKOWSKI (R-AK) to vote against repeal of Medicaid expansion – which the House bill will repeal.
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) February 23, 2017
This is a good thing.
10 months after we began the fight for #VaRoR, I’m proud to announce that we have restored #votingrights to 151,897 Virginians
— Terry McAuliffe (@GovernorVA) February 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/834771052500762625
Interesting that Ellison is calling for impeachment at this time. He’s from neck of the woods, but I’m not feeling him as new DNC chair.
The U.S. Air Force is stumped by Trump’s claim of $1 billion in savings on jet https://t.co/lp1uH32UDe pic.twitter.com/HGDCLRP5Wb
— Bloomberg (@business) February 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/834774083946569728
Shell companies bought 60% of condos in Trump’s Florida property-Ukrainian money launderers called it home @Kegan05
— Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) February 23, 2017
‘This is not Trump’s America’: Passengers cheer as racist man kicked off flight for harassing Pakistanis. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 https://t.co/iTLPhhp4xw pic.twitter.com/oLJ91bXiPp
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) February 23, 2017
Trump and his henchmen are causing pain and suffering out of pure hatred. Mr Guadalupe Olivas Valencia was in despair about being deported to Mexico & killed himself. OMG! It’s soul crushing.
Prayers to his family. I am so sorry.
The everloving PHUCK!!!!
ICE removes detainee diagnosed with brain tumor from the hospital
— The Hill (@thehill) February 23, 2017
Yeah, but Marc Morial and the other props provided daughter-wife with yet another diversionary photo-op…
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/23/06/3D8E1E8800000578-4250914-image-m-15_1487829626052.jpg
Coonery! Where the shrimps at?!!1
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/23/06/3D8E1E8300000578-4250914-image-a-14_1487829620966.jpg
Hmmph
Ivanka pushes the White House to focus on human trafficking
President Trump this afternoon will hold a listening session on domestic and international human trafficking, including women and girls who are sexually exploited for profit. We’re told that the sudden West Wing attention to the issue was driven by Ivanka Trump, a huge West Wing force despite her decision not to take an official title at first.
How the meeting came about: Ivanka Trump and Dina Powell, White House senior counselor for economic initiatives, had a few meetings with some of the groups attending today’s 2:30 p.m. session in the Roosevelt Room. “Ivanka recommended the meeting to the president and he immediately agreed, given what a horrible issue it is in the U.S. and internationally,” a source said.
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https://m.popkey.co/449211/47vxZ.gif
So FAKE First Lady Ivanka and President Bannon running SHIT now.
Mike Allen Jonathan Swan 2 hrs ago
The backup plan on Trump’s infrastructure package
The Capitol Hill calendar is way overstuffed — a Supreme Court nomination, plus Obamacare repeal legislation; tax reform; and budget, spending and debt-ceiling fights, including a possible showdown over a government shutdown.
So Republican sources tell us that a backup plan is emerging for one of Trump’s top priorities:
The plan: Push off until next year any consideration of the massive infrastructure plan Trump wants to push for roads, airports and other big projects, giving Republican lawmakers more breathing room amid a crowd of issues that’ll require massive effort, time and political capital.
The politics: Republican strategists say that Democrats, who’ll be reluctant to give Trump a win, will be in a jam as midterm elections close in: They’ll be under huge pressure to support big projects that’ll bring money and improvements to their districts. And blue-collar unions, including construction and building trades, can be expected to favor of the package, driving a wedge into the Democratic base.
What this shows: Trump officials, who originally wanted to flood the Capitol zone with their massive asks, are learning the rhythms of Washington — playing what White House counselor Kellyanne Conway last night called on Fox News “long ball, long haul.”
Lips pursed
How Banks Want To Make It Easier To Launder Money
What are the limits to financial sector greed?
By David Dayen
YESTERDAY 12:30 PM
T he persistent whistling you’re hearing around financial centers in Manhattan is coming from contented bank executives. Since the election of Donald Trump, their companies’ stock prices have soared, amid expectations of regulatory abandonment. Their former colleague ex–Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn is setting policy inside the White House, and their former lawyer Jay Clayton plans to blind the SEC to their money-making schemes. If Republicans can get their act together on major legislation, bank executives will be rewarded with a triple bounty of tax cuts: on their corporate taxes, their individual rates, and the Obamacare taxes that fall entirely on the wealthy.
But what’s the old saying about giving someone an inch and their taking a mile? Instead of smiling at their good fortune and getting down to the business of ripping off clients for profit, the world’s largest banks want to do less to stop drug lords, tax cheats, and terrorists from moving money through their institutions—at precisely the moment when the regulators are poised to walk off the field themselves.
The ask comes in the form of a report the Clearing House Association, a financial-industry trade group, released last week. The report proposed numerous reforms to the anti–money laundering (AML) compliance process, complaining that “the nation’s financial firms are effectively deputized to prevent, identify, investigate, and report criminal activity.”
Financial firms are forced into this duty because of a federal law, the Bank Secrecy Act, in place since 1970. Since banks, you know, perform banking transactions, they are uniquely positioned to detect when a drug lord or a sketchy hedge fund is trying to wash illicit money through legitimate channels. When transactions are larger than $5,000, or have hallmarks of terrorist financing, tax evasion, or money laundering, they must file a suspicious activity report (SAR) and deliver them to federal regulators. This provides raw data for law enforcement to connect the dots on criminal activity.
“Just three weeks after Rex Tillerson took office…it’s clear that his tenure is already in trouble”
— POLITICO (@politico) February 23, 2017
Uh huh
Uh huh
Punk Azz Bytch Muthaphucka
Rob Portman won’t meet Women’s Marchers who paid for tickets: ‘He only wants to talk to Republicans’
Travis Gettys
23 FEB 2017 AT 07:26 ET
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) canceled the tickets of several activists who had paid to attend a Lincoln Day dinner sponsored by the Seneca County Republican Party.
Eight members of the recently formed and Women’s March-inspired Seneca County Rising had made reservations for Wednesday’s dinner, where Portman was the keynote speaker, but received a notice from PayPal the evening before that their tickets had been canceled and their purchase refunded, reported The Advertiser-Tribune.
One of those activists, Katie Finneran, had taken off work to drive two hours from Ohio State University to hear her senator speak before her ticket was suddenly canceled.
“It’s just not fair, because I’m not even a Democrat,” the 25-year-old Finneran told the Columbus Dispatch. “Just because Republicans are in power does not mean Republican citizens have more of a voice than Democratic citizens or even independent citizens or Green Party citizens or Libertarian citizens. He represents everybody, not just the Republican Party.”
………………………
Karin Brown, a German immigrant, said she’s been unable to reach Portman’s office to express her concerns about President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“I’m really afraid,” Brown told The Advertiser-Tribune. “I came from a country where this happened. I came from Germany. I know exactly how these steps went. It’s exactly how they’re doing it here now. It scares me to no end.”
Brown said she hadn’t planned on causing any trouble inside the event, and simply wanted to talk to her senator.
“We were not going to make a ruckus, but I guess we’re doing that now,” Brown said. “Portman only wants to talk to Republicans. He wants nothing to do with Democrats.”
For Pence:
Remember when you defunded PP, fueled the worst HIV outbreak in Indiana’s history, & then used Obamacare to clean up the mess you created?
— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) February 23, 2017
ICE agents resemble more and more the Gestapo of Nazi Germany…is this what America has become. We as Citizens cannot look the other way
— Pretty Foot (@PrettyFootWoman) February 23, 2017
This story will make you hang your head in shame if you have an ounce of compassion. The comments under it will shake your faith in mankind.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) February 23, 2017
NEW POLL: Two-thirds of Americans fear Trump will involve US in another major war
— The Hill (@thehill) February 22, 2017
@Brandossius @metaquest @thehill Which will be his rationale for immigration enforcement, after adding 15K ICE and border patrol #LEOs.
— Arapaho415 (@arapaho415) February 22, 2017
@Brandossius @metaquest @thehill DJT wants #dictator’s police-state.
SecretService only good for lining own pockets.
— Arapaho415 (@arapaho415) February 22, 2017
@arapaho415 @washingtonpost Mosteller’s replacement is head of Trump’s private security detail Keith Schiller 😐
— Rick Neal (@Rick_Neal) January 23, 2017
Trump’s effort to be the sole authority for truth hits a snag
02/23/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump’s young presidency is his effort to position himself as the sole authority for truth. Since taking office, the Republican has urged Americans to not only follow his lead, but also to reject information from those who might get in his way.
Americans have been told, don’t trust the courts. Don’t trust pollsters. Don’t trust U.S. intelligence agencies. Don’t trust unemployment numbers. Don’t even trust election results.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t trust news organizations. The president has described himself as being in a “war” with American media, which he’s characterized as “the enemy” of the American public.
As the Washington Post noted, the people Trump is trying to convince don’t seem especially persuaded by the attacks.
What’s more, according the poll results, 61% of the public also disapproves of the way the president talks about the media.
Dem reminds Trump: LGBT doesn’t stand for ‘Let’s Go Back in Time’
02/23/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 02/23/17 08:07 AM
By Steve Benen
One of the 2016 campaign’s strangest strategies unfolded in the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, when Donald Trump and his allies insisted that LGBT voters, en masse, should move to the right and vote Republican.
The pitch was always a little convoluted, but as Trump saw it, a religious fanatic attacked an LGBT club; he’d target such extremists as president; so LGBT voters should like Trump. At one point, the Republican went so far as to say he, not Hillary Clinton, would be the “better friend” of the “LBGT” [sic] community because of his anti-immigration and anti-Muslim agenda. Just two days after the Orlando mass-shooting, Trump added, “Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.”
Some of his loyalists even believed it. Anthony Scaramucci, a Trump advisor and surrogate, declared earlier this month that Trump “is most pro-LGBTQ rights [president] in history. Why’s that story not written in mainstream media?”
Probably because it’s not true.
It fell to Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) to explain, “President Trump seems to think #LGBT stands for Let’s Go Back in Time. He’s wrong.”
Simple Minds: Why Cenk Uygur’s Justice Democrats Lack a Basic Understanding of Politics
Trevor LaFauci
February 22, 2017
There is no single gatekeeper for American progressivism.
Such was the idea set forth by Hillary Clinton during a February 2016 Democratic debate against Bernie Sanders. Clinton made the remark in reference to Sanders, who had recently gone on the offensive by proclaiming that Clinton wasn’t “progressive enough” to be the standard bearer for the Democratic Party. Clinton’s response addressed this charge by saying that progressive heroes such as Paul Wellstone, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama would not be considered progressive enough according to the definition set forth by Sanders. It was a telling moment, one where Clinton put Sanders on the defensive for his black-or-white stance on was an extremely complex matter. As the debates moved forward, Sanders continued to try and paint Clinton as not being progressive enough but for the vast majority of members of the Democratic Party, Sanders had irrevocably shot himself in the foot by giving the impression that Barack Obama had not done enough for the progressive movement.
Flash forward a year and this idea of not being progressive enough to represent the Democratic Party is again rearing its ugly head. It should be no surprise that this idea is being spearheaded by former Bernie Sanders supporters, in particular by the host of The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur. Uygur, in collaboration with fellow TYT host Kyle Kulinski as well as former Sanders campaign staffers Zack Exley and Saikat Chakrabarti, launched a new political movement called the Justice Democrats whose intent is “to seek social justice, economic justice, racial justice and plain old justice, justice.” Already, Uygur and his cohort have gone to work by identifying members of the Democratic Party they feel have sold out to corporate interests and have taken nominees to replace these members starting with the 2018 election cycle. According to the Justice Democrats website, Uygur and his team believe it is now “time to rebuild the Democratic Party from scratch to be a party that fights for a clear progressive vision.”
And they have anointed themselves as gatekeepers for this vision.
…………………………..
But history doesn’t matter to the Justice Democrats. Because the Cenk Uygurs of the world aren’t the ones who will be affected. Uygur himself is a political turncoat, a former Republican who suddenly “saw the light” during the George W. Bush years. He spent the last eight years criticizing the Obama Administration in an effort to boost ratings for The Young Turks after having failed as an MSNBC anchor. Despite openly supporting Bernie Sanders and establishing the Justice Democrats to combat big money in politics, Uygur himself was more than happy to accept $4 million from 2012 Republican presidential candidate Buddy Roemer to be used toward his own network. Uygur now has a net worth of over $5 million, comfortably granting him a place in the very same 1% of the population that his organization believes is incapable of truly representing the people.
The truth is that people like Cenk Uygur are intentionally trying to destroy the Democratic Party from within. The entire idea that there is one universal and accepted form of progressivism is downright absurd. Those of us who study political science know that all politics is local. That means that a Democrat in West Virginia will be voting much differently for his or her constituents than a Democrat in California. That does not make the California Democrat “more progressive” than his or her West Virgina colleague; all it means is that he or she has different expectations. Each vote must be taken carefully into consideration based upon that representative’s constituents. It’s easy for the California representative to vote in favor of legislation that provides more green jobs while it’s a lot more difficult for the West Virginia representative to vote for legislation that might potentially take away jobs related to the coal industry.
Never could stand Cenk. He’s just another GRIFTER
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 2/22/17
Montana GOP chair warns too much voter turnout favors Democrats
Rachel Maddow reports on a special election in Montana to happen in the likely event that Rep. Ryan Zinke becomes Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary, and the expressed concerns by the state Republican Party chairman that easier voting favors Democratic
When investigating, Chaffetz has an odd definition of ‘serious’
02/23/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Two weeks ago, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) faced a raucous crowd in his Republican-friendly congressional district, and the House Oversight Committee chairman is still complaining about it.
“I thought it was a bit over the top,” the GOP congressman said yesterday. “I thought it was intended to bully and intimidate.”
Chaffetz, however, seems eager to prove that he won’t be bullied or intimidated – and he can continue to ignore important issues like the political professional that he is, focusing instead on trivia.
………………
But when pressed to examine Donald Trump’s many conflicts of interest, Chaffetz has refused, and asked last week about the White House’s Russia scandal, the Oversight Committee chairman declared, “That situation has taken care of itself.”
The timing of a tweet from a national park, however, is “serious.”
RIP Mr. Olivas. This story is tragic.
The next DNC chair will have a huge opportunity — and a huge burden
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
The most striking aspect of the vast and swiftly organized movement against President Trump is how little it had to do with the Democratic Party. Whoever is elected to chair the Democratic National Committee this weekend should draw two conclusions from this, and they are in tension.
First, the anti-Trump effort, while broadly motivated by a progressive worldview, is diverse in both philosophy and experience. Trump incites antagonism from the center and the left. Those protesting him include citizens who have long been engaged in politics but also many recently drawn to activism by the sense of emergency this dreadful administration has created.
Second, Democratic leaders need to organize this discontent into a potent electoral force at a time when the very words “party” and “partisanship” are in disrepute, particularly among young Americans who are playing a key role in the insurrection. Democrats will not be up to what has become a historic responsibility if they indulge their tendencies toward heaping blame on the factions they oppose (“It’s Hillary’s fault” vs. “It’s Bernie’s fault”) or relishing the narcissism of small differences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-next-dnc-chair-will-have-a-huge-opportunity–and-a-huge-burden/2017/02/22/9d00c09c-f946-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.7ec1102cc075&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1
I thought that this was a joke, mocking Ivanka. That THIS is REAL…
WTF is wrong with these people 😠😠😠😠😠
https://mobile.twitter.com/AlexMLeo/status/830585151658803202?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This is just SO SO SAD.
Our deepest condolences to the family.
R. I. H.
Guadalupe Olivas Valencia
Heartbreaking. May God have mercy on his soul.
Good Morning,Everyone😐😐😐
Good morning
Good Morning, Julia. Welcome to 3 Chics.