Category: President Trump

Is what should be a “Trump Bump” at the polls already more like a “Trump Slump”?

~ jlpagano

On Tuesday, the Amercian people had their first chance to tell Donald Trump in a meaningful way what they thought of his overall performance so far.

He had appointed as director of the CIA Mike Pompeo, who had been a Republican member of the House of Repreasentives from the 4th district of the state of Kansas, and thus there needed to be a special election to fill his seat.

I’ll let the Kansas City Star tell you more…

Pompeo, a Republican who won by 31 percentage points in November, gave up his seat in the 4th Congressional District in January to serve as Trump’s director of the CIA.

GOP strategists warned in recent days that Democrat James Thompson, a civil rights attorney, was in striking distance against Estes, Kansas state treasurer from Wichita…

Trump made a personal push for Estes on his Twitter account Tuesday morning.

“Ron Estes is running TODAY for Congress in the Great State of Kansas,” Trump tweeted. “A wonderful guy, I need his help on Healthcare & Tax Cuts (Reform).”

In the end, Estes prevailed with 53 percent to Thompson’s 45 percent.

The fact that Trump got involved so late in the race (Pence did too…between them they did some “robo-calling“) shows how worried the GOP was.  And for a district that is so strongly Republican (Brits would call it a “safe seat”) to see a majority drop from 31 points to just 8 in the space of 5 months shows the fears were justified.

Many people ask me if there’s any point in bringing attention to all the crazy things that have happened in this administration…will there actually be any consequences?

Well if we’re hoping for impeachment then it’s only results like this that will help bring it about.  The Republicans currently control both the House and the Senate – the chances of either one flipping to the Democrats before the mid-terms in November 2018 are very slim.

BUT if enough results like this one in Kansas keep happening, there’s every chance a group of Republicans fearful of losing their own seats will see the benefit of speaking out against the sitting president.  And next week, there’s another special election which the Democrats might just win.

Tom Price was promoted from representing Georgia’s 6th district to being Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services despite numerous allegations of using his congressional office to personally profit from changes in legislation.  You may remember Price for standing beside the President as the Democrats were being blamed for the failure of Trumpcare.  Now his seat needs filling and the Democrats are confident they can overturn a 23-point deficit from last November.

Believe it or not, I’m not 100% excited by the prospect of the Democrats doing well right now.  Sure, anything that hurts Trump & the GOP is overall a good thing, but despite their having this much power, the Dems have done precious little to address their own failures in recent times.

It remains to be seen what changes will be made by new party chair Tom Perez but if more of these early special elections go his party’s way, he could be tempted to “sit tight” and do nothing, hoping the Repubicans implode so he won’t have to go the more “radical” (a word the MSM would probably use, I’d use “sensible”) route of giving more seats at the top table to the ever-growing Progressive wing.

We will still be following the events from “Georgia 6th” next week with much interest though.

#IANWAE

 

Trump probably won’t call media coverage of his Syrian air strikes “fake news”

~ jlpagano

As always, FAIR.org are on the ball to point out pro-establishment sentiment in the mainstream media.

The headline of the piece by Adam Johnson pretty much says it all – “Five Top Papers Run 18 Opinion Pieces Praising Syria Strikes–Zero Are Critical“…

No need to debate the morality or utility of the strikes, because the scene played out per usual: Dictator commits an alleged human rights violation, the media calls on those in power to “do something” and the ticking time bomb compels immediate action, lest we look “weak” on the “global stage.” Anything that deviates from this narrative is given token attention at best.

One thing the “failing” New York Times does point out, however, is the evolution of President Trump’s opinion on how to deal with Syria since 2013…

Of course the use of chemical weapons was disgusting.

But the failure to note the profound lack of sincerity in the president’s verbal response (which included him clearly forgetting the name of “Sarin” gas) demonstrates that when it comes to military matters at least, very little has changed in mainstream opinion , even with this administration.

Since the airstrike people seem a lot more interested in fawning over their knowledge of the hardware used to carry out the attack than they do remembering exactly what it was supposedly being done for.

It was bombs being dropped on children.  Children.  Never mind the gas for a moment.  Bombs being dropped on children.  If anything appears to be an afterthought in the media, it’s that. JLP

#IANWAE

A Week Of President Trump : Mar 18-24, 2017

~ jlpagano

Week 9

We really don’t need to summarize this week in Trump as Bill Maher has done it for us…

One of the amazing things about this Presidency is the amount of things he has on the go at one time.  Right now on Friday we’re all talking about Trumpcare yet just last Monday it was announced that Trump’s campaign is officially under investigation for collusion with the Russians, and is doing his best to deflect attention any way he can..

President Trump isn’t just lying to the American people; he’s saying, almost openly, that the truth just doesn’t matter either way.

…but here at FPP our attention was most drawn to the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and in particular the questioning of Senator Al Franken –

“It makes me question your judgment.”

…I’m pretty sure that’s the whole point of the proceedings in the first place, and in the case of that “frozen trucker” I most certainly agree with Senator Franken.  Gorsuch tried to defend himself by saying he has “ruled in favour of the little guy” in the past, but for me that’s like a robber offering a plea of “Why are you only judging me on this armed robbery – what about all the other times I went into a store and DIDN’T hold a gun to the cashier’s head?”

Then there’s Ivanka working in the White House.  That’s just plain weird on many levels.  Imagine Fox News if Chelsea Clinton did the same thing had Hillary won?

…ethics advocates express “deep concern about the highly unusual and inappropriate arrangement that is being proposed for Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter, to play a formalized role in the White House without being required to comply with the ethics and disclosure requirements that apply to White House employees,”

Finally this week we’re going to let Rachel Maddow have something of a victory lap after the grotesque failure of Trumpcare.  The battle is far from over but she’s had a rough ride and it’s good to see her so happy.

While the President has the cojones to blame the Democrats…

“We were very close … and had no Democratic support. They weren’t going to give us a single vote”

…Maddow has a slightly more realistic take.  JLP

#IANWAE

Click here for last week’s post.

A Week Of President Trump : Mar 11-17, 2017

~ jlpagano

awopt-logo

Week 8

In real political terms, the biggest news this week in Trump revolves around his first budget proposal.  It is disgusting for anyone who isn’t uber rich, if not all that surprising.

President Donald Trump’s first budget outline, calling for a security-heavy realignment of federal spending, drew resistance on Thursday from his fellow Republicans in the U.S. Congress as many balked at proposed deep cuts to diplomatic and foreign aid programs.

There is no way his proposals will be fully implemented…the President’s first drafts never are.  They must be approved by Congress so there is much haggling to do.  Still, it’s pretty clear where his priorities lie (cough! military industrial complex).

Meanwhile…Trumpcare.  The thing is being passed around like a hot potato.  Is it Paul Ryan’s bill?  Is it the GOP in general?  Well whatever anyone says, it’s always Trumpcare to me.  You said Obamacare was a disaster, so you take ownership of the replacement.  Once you can get one that actually can be implemented, of course.

In an interview with Fox News, the president tried to make it look like he has the general public in mind…

“We will take care of our people, or I’m not signing it,” Trump added. “If we’re not going to take care of the people, I’m not signing anything.”

But the question is…who does he see as “our people”?

Then there’s his “Muslim Ban 2.0”.  Also a shambles…

A federal judge in Hawaii has put President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban on hold, issuing an emergency halt to the order just hours before it was set to go into effect.

The President was not happy as he addressed an adoring throng in Nashville…

“The order blocked was a watered-down version of the first order. This ruling makes us look weak, which we no longer are.”

Next we have Trump’s mystical tax returns – Rachel Maddow was ridiculed for making too much of having just two pages “mysteriously” leaked to her show – we thought that was harsh on her, though she did a much better job making her case herself on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show…

Then there’s the wiretapping, as Trump doubles and triples down on his allegations via his mouthpiece…

In a remarkably combative exchange with reporters at his daily news briefing, Spicer was asked whether Trump still believes Obama ordered the alleged surveillance effort.

“He stands by it,” Spicer said, going on to assail journalists for the way they have reported on the controversy.

Finally, Enda.  I’m no fan of his.  But he had to go visit Trump. He had to be diplomatic. And he had to invite him here.  I’m not saying I’m happy about it, but that’s part of what statesmanship is all about.  It’s all too easy to cry foul from the left and more often than not it’s justified, just not here in my humble opinion.

Mr Kenny also congratulated Mr Trump on his electoral victory. “You beat them all, whatever they say,” he said, noting that he had contested 20 general elections himself.

I want to see the Irish Left keeping the issues that matter front and centre here.  Leave the Trump bashing to unelected bloggers like me.  😉

And that was the latest week of President Trump.  JLP

#IANWAE

Click here for last week’s edition

 

Media should put professional jealousy aside and listen to Rachel Maddow on Trump’s tax returns

~ jlpagano

Last night Rachel Maddow posted an attention-grabbing tweet ahead of her weeknightly 9pm slot on MSNBC.

She then proceeded to make her entire show about the issue.  Here’s a snippet.

Given how we had previously seen nothing of his tax returns up to this point, you’d think the media would be buzzing about this news?  Wrong.

Rachel Maddow Lands a Scoop, Then Makes Viewers Wait – said the New York Times

Rachel Maddow Just Trolled Us All For Ratings – said Mediaite

Rachel Maddow Turned a Scoop on Donald Trump’s Taxes Into a Cynical, Self-Defeating Spectacle – said Slate.com

And that’s just the so-called “left-wing” media….the likes of Drudge, Fox News & Breitbart also had a field day with it, but you can check those links yourself if you want.

I have already pointed out that I’m not wild about Rachel Maddow’s overall style of presentation…but I will say this – it’s a definitive style from which she does not deviate.  And if you put your prejudice aside and listen to what is being said, you will find she is making a relevant point way more often than not.

Were we meant to think that in having these tax returns she had a smoking gun that was guaranteed to bring down the President?  Well all I can say is that if we did, then we’ve only ourselves to blame.  Modern media is about grabbing your attention – I saw nothing in her original tweet that I haven’t seen in countless others from every outlet.

She had two pages of Trump’s returns from 2005, and she used here entire hour to explain in detail…

  1. what was in it,
  2. what WASN’T in it,
  3. why it’s important to speculate as to who leaked it,
  4. most crucially, why we should be concerned with the man’s tax returns in the first place.

On first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking we want to see his returns because we want to know if he paid his taxes.  And funnily enough, on this particular year 2005, he seems to have done so.  This is why I personally believe he leaked them himself.

But what Maddow does in her show is point out that there are many other important bits of information to be gleaned, and this can only be done by accessing ALL of his records, dating back as far as is humanly possible.

Does he owe anyone money who might be benefitting from his Presidency?

Does he really give as much money to charity as he claimed throughout the campaign?

How much does he stand to make personally if his proposed new tax plan takes effect?

The media should put petty jealousies aside and instead join Rachel in reminding the public as to the importance of asking such questions.   Otherwise, when she does other good reporting, like she did last Friday suggesting Mike Pence has been lying about what he knows about Michael Flynn, she will be ignored.

Actor Wil Wheaton put it best on twitter…

 

Hey – if we can listen to a reality-TV billion-heir, why not also listen to Wesley Crusher, right?  JLP

#IANWAE

And so #Trumpcare is born…let’s be sure and call it that

~ jlpagano

“Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated”

Of course the President was referring to the “royal nobody” when he made that incredible statement!

What say we at least agree with him, since we all know it to be true.  My knowledge of a healthcare system is even more limited than his.

However, that does not mean I can’t have an opinion on the general aims of a health service.  And mine is that it our government should do all it can to ensure that it is accessible to all citizens.

When it comes to the nitty gritty of the new plan, I’m happy to let sources like Time magazine break  it down for me, like in this article titled “5 Things to Know Now About the GOP’s Obamacare Replacement Plan” :

The bill drastically cuts tax credits for the oldest and poorest Americans, while giving the upper class a major tax break. It also rolls back the Medicaid expansion and nixes the individual mandate, which requires everyone to buy health insurance. Crucially, it has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, so overall impacts are tough to gauge at this early point.

But even before we delve too deeply into all of that, can we make sure one thing happens.  We need to stop referring to this as an “Obamacare replacement”.

Both Donald Trump personally and the Republicans generally have done nothing but attack The Affordable Care Act since its inception.  In fact, they were responsible for some of the tweaks to the original legislation that brought about it’s current flaws.

Now, after six years of whinging and moaning and calling it a ‘disaster’, they have to be given ownership of this new plan.  And I don’t even think the GOP Congressfolk will have too many problems with my suggestion of a new name : #Trumpcare.

(note – I’m not saying I’m the first to think of it, I’m merely suggesting we all start using it!)

Let me be clear…I WANT it to work!!!  The only thing is…my definition of “work” doesn’t mean sustained or increased profits for insurance and pharmaceutical companies, rather it means, like I said previously, affordable care for as many citizens as possible.

But as we assess whether or not it will work, let us at least be sure to call it something that signifies who now owns it.

 

 

A Week Of President Trump : Feb 25-Mar 3, 2017

~ jlpagano

awopt-logo

Week 6

The President would like this week, and indeed his entire first 100 days no doubt, to be defined by his speech to Congress on Tuesday…

Now whatever you might think of Trump, and if you are reading this site I’m guessing it’s “not much”, here at FPP we believe it to be important to keep track of what he says.  Yes, that means listening to ALL of the speech, no matter what kind of pain you may feel in the pit of your stomach throughout.

That said, the difficulty in watching does not stop there.   The fawning of the mainstream press afterwards was equally sickening.  “He shifted in tone”.  “He started to sound presidential.”  So he read almost exclusively from the teleprompter for once, BIG DEAL!!!

If a President comes across as a buffoon most of the time, he doesn’t deserve credit for suddenly behaving as he always should have done.

Besides…if he sounds “Presidential” then surely he must have sounded “like a politician”.  Wasn’t it a campaign promise for him to do anything BUT just that???

And finally, how many times during the Obama administration did we hear Republicans say something like “Well, sure, he gives a good speech, but it’s the substance that’s all wrong”?

It has to be all about the content.  So here are a couple of interesting viewpoints…first, from Bernie Sanders on what the President DIDN’T say…

…while The Young Turks highlight what had me yelling at the screen…

So the speech is what Trump WANTS you to remember from this week.  Does that make it the most memorable thing however?  How could it be, with THIS administration???

It turns out Mike Pence had his own private email server as governor of Indiana but seems to be unwilling to share all of the correspondence with us…wasn’t that considered by some a felony not so long ago?

Pence’s office said outside counsel was hired to review his private emails and make any necessary transfers to the state as he was leaving his job as governor.

Thirty pages of emails were released, and an unspecified amount were not released because of sensitive information.

Then we have Rachel Maddow claiming to have blown the lid on the botched Muslim Ban process…

The Rachel Maddow Show has obtained, exclusively, a Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment document. The document, from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, makes the case that most foreign-born, U.S.-based violent extremists are likely not radicalized when they come to the U.S., but rather become radicalized after living in the U.S. for a number of years.

Oh, and then there’s Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III…

Amid mounting calls for his resignation, Sessions told a press conference on Thursday that he decided not to participate in any investigations “related in any way to the campaign for president of the United States” after meeting with senior department officials.

And those three stories were just from Friday morning!!!

It’s going to take a whole lot more than a speech to help keep this fast-sinking Trump ship afloat. JLP

#IANWAE

Click here for last week’s post

Perez wins #DNCchair vote but Progressives should not turn their backs

~ jlpagano

One of the most telling questions in the aftermath of Trump’s victory last November was – how can the Democrats respond?

It was a crushing defeat, leaving them not only without the White House, but also ther Senate, the House and the vast majority of state governing bodies as well.

Well, the opening remarks from the party’s leading “establishment” figures did not bode well.  The likes of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi were a little too keen to focus on the involvement on the Russians in the election campaign while ignoring the fact that they both shut out the Sanders campaign in the primaries and also missed an open goal with the general election itself even with the alleged interference.

Now they need to regroup, and the first big test of this was the election of a new dhairperson of the Democratic National Committee.  This role is not that of “leader of the Party”, it is more one that is responsible for the overall brand of the party.  But this vote was significant in that the contest turned out to be a straight fight between Tom Perez, Labor Secretary under Obama and thus seen as leaning towards the “establishment”, and Keith Ellison, a Progressive congressman from Minnesota.

There can be little surprise that Progressives will be annoyed that Perez won, as this article on CommonDreams.org outlines…

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth Action, which supported Ellison, said the outcome showed “[t]he DNC is out of touch with the American public and their needs. Democratic leaders were at a crossroads and today they chose to continue the failed Clinton strategy of prioritizing wealthy donors over the activist base.”

…and even the President himself weighed in shourtly after the result was announced…

Personally, while I would have backed Ellison myself, I don’t believe this is the time to direct anger at the Democrat leadership, however frustratingly corporate-controlled they may seem.  Now is the time to show them how much they need Progressive support,  and having won the vote by just 235 to 200, Perez at least appointed Ellison as his vice chair.

Does that automatically mean the Minnesota congressman will be included?  Of course not.  But right now is not the time to show division in the party.  Instead, at least let the new leadership be given a chance to take shape because there is a much bigger orange fish to fry.

That said,  a keen eye needs to be kept on how the party moves forward because if the likes of Sanders, Warren & Ellison aren’t getting their voices heard, their sizeable following could pose “establishment” Democrats a lot of headaches the next time primaries come around for house and senate elections.  JLP

#IANWAE

“All Presidents complain about the press” : Interesting New Yorker article from 2004

~ jlpagano

Barring the press because you don’t like what they write is an act of cowardice. The current President of the US is a coward.

The above is what I posted on my personal Facebook account as soon as I heard that Trump had barred the NY Times, CNN & the BBC from a press briefing.   I was pretty angry.  But then I remembered that even President Obama had issues with the press at times, so I did a bit of research, and I came across this article in the New Yorker from 2004.

It comprises an interview with writer Ken Auletta on the relationship between then-President George W Bush and the media – remember, this was the era of “weapons of mass destruction” and the neo-cons’ determination to invade Iraq.

DANIEL CAPPELLO: All Presidents complain about the press. How is the Bush White House different?

KEN AULETTA: In two ways. They are more disciplined. They reject an assumption embraced by most reporters: that we are neutral and represent the public interest. Rather, they see the press as just another special interest. The discipline flows down from President Bush, who runs the White House like a C.E.O. and demands loyalty. This is a cohesive White House staff, dominated by people whose first loyalty is to Team Bush. When Bush leaves the White House, most of his aides will probably return to Texas. They are not Washington careerists, and thus they have less need to puff themselves up with the Washington press corps. In fact—and this leads to the second difference—from Bush on down, talking to the press off the record is generally frowned upon and equated with leaking, which is a deadly sin in the Bush White House (unless it is a leak manufactured to advance the President’s agenda).

So clearly a fractious relationship with the press is far from a novelty, but you can’t deny that Trump has brought it to a whole new level.

 

A Week Of President Trump : Feb 18-24, 2017

~ jlpagano

awopt-logo

Week 5

This week our snippets are all going to be from the same source, namely The Rachel Maddow Show.

Donald Trump is always going on about “Fake News” but of course he knows as well as the rest of us that he’s only saying that about the publications who are getting closest to the truth about him, when in fact in general they do actually endeavour to cover the news as it should be done, albeit with some influence from corporate advertisers.

Rachel Maddow is different.  Put simply, her show is the closest to an ideological mirror image of Fox News in that she seems to have a lot of her information handed to her directly by the Democrats.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I do like her style of presentation, where she not only covers a story but also takes you back through her reseatch process with some interesting information along the way.

However, I wonder if she is just a little bit too much…what’s the word, sneery?  I mean, let’s face it, Trump makes an ass of himself a LOT, but to sit there and laugh at him as you cover it, in my view anyway, is only going to strengthen the resolve of his supporters.

Anyway, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop following her show on a daily basis, and here are some links from the week just gone…

Judge’s e-mail order could move Pruitt from frying pan to fire

Trump’s for-profit enterprise isn’t the ‘Southern White House’

Administration adopts a ‘Never-Mind-What-Trump-Said’ foreign policy

New Trump NSA pick, McMaster, known for speaking truth to power

Disgusted by Donald Trump’s antics, CIA veteran resigns

Annoyed by pushback, Trump takes aim at progressive activism

Dem reminds Trump: LGBT doesn’t stand for ‘Let’s Go Back in Time’

Trump’s ‘military operation’ apparently isn’t a military operation

Is the Trump administration stupid or nefarious?