Running Trump File Day 7...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

How to Build an Autocracy

The preconditions are present in the U.S. today. Here’s the playbook Donald Trump could use to set the country down a path toward illiberalism.

Following is an audio version of a recent article by David Frum published in The Atlantic.

Given trump’s presidential campaign and the record of his first 11 days in office the scenario Frum lays out is entirely possible. If democrats, moderate republicans, and independents don’t join together to defeat this yuuuge abscess four years from now it is entirely likely.

Audio Version

Running Trump File Day 5...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

America is f**ked. We now have a certifiable lunatic as President of our once Great Nation. A man who is severely lacking in diplomatic skills, lacks a basic understanding of our constitution, has shown disdain for America’s most cherished tradition, sees himself as infallible, sows bigotry and hate, has ignited protests at home and across the globe - the result of his knee jerk executive travel ban, is a known to be a conspiracy theorist, travels in and spreads alternative facts – in other words lies frequently, and now what you see directly below.

WASHINGTON — The whirlwind first week of Donald J. Trump’s presidency had all the bravura hallmarks of a Stephen K. Bannon production.

It started with the doom-hued inauguration homily to “American carnage” in United States cities co-written by Mr. Bannon, followed a few days later by his “shut up” message to the news media. The week culminated with a blizzard of executive orders, mostly hatched by Mr. Bannon’s team and the White House policy adviser, Stephen Miller, aimed at disorienting the “enemy,” fulfilling campaign promises and distracting attention from Mr. Trump’s less than flawless debut.

But the defining moment for Mr. Bannon came Saturday night in the form of an executive order giving the rumpled right-wing agitator a full seat on the “principals committee” of the National Security Council — while downgrading the roles of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence, who will now attend only when the council is considering issues in their direct areas of responsibilities. It is a startling elevation of a political adviser, to a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president’s top military and intelligence advisers

Trump, now that he occupies the most powerful office in the world, is a very dangerous man. He is a threat to our domestic tranquility as well as s threat to our national security. Not to mention a threat to the freedom and civil liberties of each and every American.

Unless the congressional majority is flipped in 2018 and trump defeated in 2020 our nation may very well sustain irreversible damage both domestically and internationally.

A man-CHILD should never hold the reins of power and have his hands anywhere near the nuclear launch code. Yet this is what America did this past November.

Read the full article HERE.

So, What's True?...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

We’re hearing a great deal about alternative facts, fake news, that the media is the opposition party, as well as a steady stream of hyperbole and platitudes casting the other side as the side that a engages in undesirable and unethical behavior.  In fact neither the conservative or liberal media, conservative or liberal politicians are immune from bias.

 Bias is something all people are prone to. An individual’s environment, his upbringing, education, career path, and indeed the total of one’s life experiences shapes their biases. As a person ages and gains experience their biases can change.  Bias is a powerful driver on how we view reality and the world.

Another factor that often works in forming a person’s bias is their own self-interest. It is this writer’s contention that politicians are heavily affected by their own personal self-interests and as a result fail to serve their constituency honestly as they should.

To expect journalists as well as others in the media to be immune from bias is naïve. However, good journalists and newscasters are acutely aware of their own bias and are able to separate facts from bias and emotion. They fully understand their role is to honestly report facts that are supported by verifiable evidence.

Unfortunately not every journalist and newscaster, or news organization for that matter, holds themselves to the highest journalistic standards. For whatever reason (usually money or political agenda) they make the decision to play to their own biases as well as those of the American people and allow themselves to compromise the truth.

The graphics below illustrates the above I think. Truth is generally found at the center (middle) or somewhere near the center. The further you move from center in journalism and politics the more bias is at play. Extreme political ideologies are supported my extremely biased journalists and reporters and more often than not there is little truth in what either write or say.

Pay attention to both the X and Y axis.

Running Trump File Day 4 and More.

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


Today, just a few interesting links. Applied for Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare online today (easy but more time consuming than advertised), and now it is time to celebrate. First I'm putting up what I think are a few interesting articles and then off to Iron Duke Brewery for the best brews in Western Massachusetts. Of course the drinking will be responsible and the conversation lively.

The end of Sarah Palin is here

FINALLY!

Mexico's Vicente Fox to Trump: We are 'ready for the trade war'

Who could've guessed?

Trump and the Republicans Are on a Suicide Mission Together

REALLY?

Mikhail Gorbachev: ‘It All Looks as if the World Is Preparing for War’

It sure does look that way Mikhail. Throttle down with trump's foot on the gas pedal.

New U.S. U.N. envoy warns allies: back us or we'll take names

Here it comes, the bully threatens!

Have a great weekend all.

Bannon Tells Press To Shut Up...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

“I want you to quote this,” Bannon told the newspaper, “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

“You’re the opposition party, not the Democratic Party. You’re the opposition party. The media’s the opposition party.”

“The paper of record for our beloved republic, The New York Times, should be absolutely ashamed and humiliated. ... They got it 100 percent wrong.”

Americans should be concerned. Very concerned. Stephen Bannon, chief strategist for Donald Trump has just told the press to shut up. That they are the opposition party. It falls in line with the Trump administration’s narrative that the news media disseminates “fake news”, essentially saying that Trump and his administration have the “real news”.

Trump (we refuse to refer to him as president in our commentary) has a plan, a plan to turn documented truth into lies by a constant onslaught on the legitimacy and integrity of the press. As the press is, and always has been, the watchdog our democracy (democratic republic). One of our republic’s strength has always been the free and independent press. And now we have an administration that is openly showing us its hand. It wants the media to shut up or report events as Trump and his administration wants them reported. Using the administration’s alternative facts.

Running Trump File Day 3...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

Another day passes as Trump continues his flurry of executive orders (remember the hoopla over President Obama’s use of executive orders) and moving on his promises to reshape USA politics and government. He is not only shaking up this country he has the global community on pins and needles as well. Our hope is he doesn’t create a shell the size of which only we can fit in.

Then there is the danger that truth and our civil liberties will disappear under a Trump administration as we approach realizing a Orwellian dystopia. More on that later.

Trump press secretary says the administration is considering a 20% border tax on Mexican imports to help pay for the wall

Kellyanne Conway Defends Trump on Border Wall and Unsubstantiated Voter Fraud Claims

Mexican president cancels visit to Washington as tensions with Trump administration intensify

Trump: I have settled on my Supreme Court pick. Probably

Trump administration asks top State Department officials to leave

Americans Think Trump Will Be Worst President Since Nixon

The Doomsday Clock’s Most Dire Warning Since the Cold War

British Alignment With Trump Threatens European Order

Running Trump File Day 2...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

As we enter the era of Trump, or as we prefer to say here at Rational Nation USA, The Era of Trumpspeak, the new administration continues its unfounded claims of voter fraud, begins to make good on his border wall promise and cracking down on refugees entering the US, is preparing an executive order to re-open “black sites” where terrorist suspects were detained and tortured prior to President Obama closing them down, is preparing orders to reduce funding of the UN, and has given instructions to pull the page on climate change from the EPA website.

Read the full stories on all by clicking on the links below.

Trump’s voter fraud claims undermine the democratic process and his presidency

Trump Orders Mexican Border Wall to Be Built and Is Expected to Block Syrian Refugees
Trump Poised to Lift Ban on C.I.A. ‘Black Site’ Prisons
Trump Prepares Orders Aiming at Global Funding and Treaties
Trump administration tells EPA to cut climate page from website: sources

Our Running Trump File...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

President Trump is on a feverish pace to implement his personal agenda. From rolling back regulatory controls to repealing the ACA (ObamaCare), as well as his apparent desire to bring to life a government like Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, President Trump is digging into dismantling DC as we’ve known it. Just as he promised to do.

This weblog owner hasn’t the time or the desire to comment on the President’s efforts at changing America into something the majority of its citizens do not want. Going forward from today we will be simply posting the linked bylines of 3-8 articles we feel have merit for our readership to consider.

Trump hangs portrait of inauguration crowd in WH press hall 

Special Observances: National Day of Patriotic Devotion (Proc.  9570)

Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers

Trump Administration Imposes Freeze On EPA Grants and Contracts

Senate Democrats call Trump's bluff on infrastructure with a new $1 trillion plan

Federal Workers Told To Halt External Communication In First Week Under Trump 

Spicer defends Trump for claiming without evidence that millions voted illegally 

Posts will remain open for comment for three days at which time the post will revert to comment moderation. Comments that are off topic (not relevant to one of the linked articles), contains offensive language, personal attacks on other commenters or bloggers, or anything else the weblog owner deems inappropriate will be deleted upon detection.

President Trump, a man Who Knows No Humility...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


Our nation's new President is lacking in many qualities generally found in a President of the United States, and glaringly so. President Trump has been identified by many professionals as having traits unbecoming of a leader of the free world. He is seen as a narcissist, a misogynist, a xenophobe, a bigot, a con artist, and one without a clear vison for our country or a real plan as to how to guide over the next four years.

To a greater or lesser degree all of the above may be or may not be true. Our nation and its people are going to have to wait to see how President Trump performs in office before we as a nation can know for certain. All indications are it won't go well, but, we can always hope for the best. Really, that's all we can do for now.

Yesterday I ran across the following article in The New York Times that really hit home. It defines one of President Trump's weakest character traits. He lacks the capacity to be humble because he doesn't understand why it is important. Greater men and women do.

WASHINGTON — The word popped up in the opening sentence of Barack Obama’s first Inaugural Address and in the opening paragraphs of George W. Bush’s.

“Humbled,” each man said of himself, and while it was pure cliché, it was also what we wanted and needed: a sign, no matter how rote, that even someone self-assured enough to pursue the presidency was taking the measure of that responsibility and asking if he was worthy of it.
Does that question cross Donald Trump’s mind?

I don’t think so.

I certainly didn’t get that sense from his inaugural remarks, and not just because “humbled” went missing. As he stood just feet from four of the last six presidents, he trashed them, talking about a Washington establishment blind and deaf to the struggles of less fortunate Americans.

He characterized his election as part of “a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen.” Forget about his loss of the popular vote. Or his 40 percent favorability rating. Or the puny crowd at his inauguration in comparison with the throngs at Obama’s eight years ago. Trump remained a singular man on a singular mission — a legend in his own mind.

We’ve already become so accustomed to his egomania that we sometimes forget how remarkable it is. He’s a braggart beyond his predecessors in the Oval Office, and that says something sad and scary about the country that elected him and the kind of leader he’s likely to be. With Trump we enter a new age of arrogance. He’s the cock crowing at its dawn.

SKIP

It was a dark speech, bemoaning “this American carnage” of gangs and drugs. It was a mean speech, insulting every one of his new colleagues by describing politicians as “all talk and no action — constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.”

But mostly it was a flat speech, bereft of the poetry that this tense juncture called for. He used pared-down language, simple sentences and a sluggish delivery, as if he were reading to children. Call it the “Goodnight Moon” of Inaugural Addresses.

He does as he pleases, expectations be damned, and indeed the most striking aspect of Trump’s transition was an absence of humility. Although he owed his Electoral College win to just 77,000 votes in three states, and it was clouded by questions about James Comey and the Russians, he didn’t bother much with outreach to adversaries or appeals for unity.

He put together that high-I.Q. team of his with few of the usual courtesies and considerations. None of his cabinet nominees are Democrats. None is Latino. Only one, Ben Carson, his choice for housing secretary, is black.
Many are billionaires or bigmouths whose outsize vanity mirrors Trump’s.

SKIP

His campaign was an unprecedented orgy of self-congratulation. At the start of almost every rally, he trumpeted his poll numbers, and I don’t mean a few quick bleats — I mean a vulgar music that could go on for minutes. At the conclusion of almost every debate, he announced how brilliantly he’d done.

When he stepped up to a microphone to introduce Mike Pence as his running mate, he seemed to forget all about him, and instead paid tribute to himself in a rambling soliloquy more than 20 minutes long. He didn’t stick around onstage for Pence’s remarks.

At the Republican National Convention, warning of national decline, he thundered, “I alone can fix it.” And in the months before and after, he complimented himself out loud and lavishly on everything from the magnitude of his wealth to the majesty of his phallus. That might have disqualified him in another era, but Americans stomached it. More than that, they rewarded it, proving that ours is a different moment, with different mores.

SKIP

It’s staggering, and it’s endless. During his only real news conference as president-elect, he mused that he could master the management of the country and of his business simultaneously, noting that while the law bars other government officials from such double duty, there’s no such formal restriction on the president.

“I would be the only one that would be able to do that,” he said. “I could run the Trump Organization — great, great company — and I could run the country. I’d do a very good job.” It was like a Russian nesting doll of self-infatuation: boast within boast within boast.

SKIP

What does that bode for the coming months? We’ve seen hints in the past ones. Under fire, Trump rages, rails and frequently doubles down on his convictions and even his fictions. He rearranges reality to suit his self-regard, flinging accusations of “rigged” surveys and “fake news.”

A humbler man would doubt himself, extend an olive branch to his enemies, contemplate a middle ground. But then a humbler man wouldn’t have come down that escalator at Trump Tower and proceed to say what Trump said and do what he did. As I watched him flourish, I watched humility die. On Friday, our 45th president said its last rites.

There is much more in the article which cane be found HERE in full.

May PEOTUS Trump Reap That Which He Has Sowed...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


This weblog shares the sentiments of the author of the following open letter to PEOTUS Donald J. Trump. Bob Weidman expresses what nearly 63% of the American people are thinking tonight to one degree or another. Mr. Weidman’s open letter was published in The Huffington Post earlier this evening.

Dear Mr. Trump:

On the eve of your inauguration, and with all due respect to the office of the Presidency you are soon to hold, the deference you have earned, and the essential decency of the American people:

Fuck you, you fucking fuck.

I wish there were other words, but these are trying times, and trying times call for honesty, a concept with which you are clearly unacquainted. And I have to say what’s in my heart. So fuck you, you fucking fuck.

I am not going to pretend there is anything normal about your presidency. I am not going to pretend that you are entitled to respect. You are entitled to nothing. Not a chance to prove yourself, not an ounce of trust. Your actions since the election have destroyed whatever good will I may have been inclined to extend.

You are trying to divide the American people, and I will not have it. We are all Americans, regardless of whether we support you, or hate you, or belittle you, or are working to destroy you. You have a responsibility to build bridges and find common ground and act in the interest of the American people. All of the American people. And everything you have done since your election has betrayed this foundational American principle. You are an embarrassment and a disgrace to our country and everything it stands for. You are a clown, a laughingstock to the world, a pathetic
little man. And I will fight you.

I’m sick of seeing you on TV. I’m sick of looking at you and your tiny sausage fingers. I’m sick of reading about your golden showers. I’m sick of the bullshit and the lies and the corruption and the hate and the stupidity.


Through your actions over the course of the campaign and since the election, you have demonstrated clearly who you are:

You are fake news.
You are not legitimate.
You have sacrificed nothing.
You are a false celebrity.
You are a sufferer of micropenis.
You are all talk and no action.
You are a tiny fraction of the man John Lewis is.
You are the puppet.
You are crooked.
You are corrupt as the day is long.And tomorrow you will be President - start fucking acting like it.

By the time you read this, as President of the United States, you will be a public servant (a term I’m sure you despise). And that means you work for us. All of us: Muslim Americans and Hispanic Americans and Jewish Americans and African Americans and LGBTQ Americans and female Americans and Americans with disabilities and Native Americans and urban Americans and immigrant Americans and sick Americans and poor Americans. Whether we voted for you or not. And we will not be divided. Every day that you are working to divide us, I will be working to ensure that your agenda to destroy the America I love fails. I will be working to make America great again - like it was under President Obama. And I will be looking forward to the day when I can open the pages of the mainstream media you hate and read the headline in the largest possible type “YOU’RE FIRED.” I doubt it will take four years.

In the meantime, fuck you. Fuck Mike Pence. Fuck Steve Bannon. Fuck Rex Tillerson and Betsy DeVos and Scott Pruitt and the rest of the deplorables in your cabinet. Fuck your Supreme Court nominee preemptively. Fuck Donald Jr. and fuck Eric (especially Eric). And fuck everyone else who is helping you to eviscerate everything that makes this country great. All of you can go fuck yourselves, and then go fuck yourselves again, and fuck yourselves one last time for good measure.

Resistance is not a right. It is not a privilege. It is an obligation. It is a patriotic duty and a sacred oath we all share as Americans. And it has never been more needed than right now.

I will not fight for the crumbs you throw while you enrich yourself and the 1% at the expense of everyone else. I will not passively observe as you erode rights and freedoms that make us Americans. I will not be silent as you victimize the most vulnerable among us. I will not stand back while you destroy America.

Until you can demonstrate that you are working for everyone in this country, that you respect the American people, that you respect the constitution and our laws and shared history and decency and the truth, I will hold you in the contempt you so richly deserve. And I will say it loud for the world to hear:

Fuck you, you fucking fuck.

Now on to the business at hand. Tomorrow we march.

Regards,

Bob Weidman
Minneapolis

Indeed, until such time as Donald J. Trump puts the long term rational and best interests of the American people, and I mean ALL of the American people, ahead of his narcissism and his own special interests let the resistance begin.

13th - Trailer and Addendum

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

If you have not seen the Netflix documentary Thirteenth you should.

Maybe President Elect Trump will find time to correct the injustice.?










Wait. I guess not.






Until such time as America faces the complete truth of its past and truly corrects the systemic injustices we can expect more, rather than less division.

A Farewell From The Right...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

Skipping around the internet this day I happened to find this farewell poem to the First Family. I found it amusing and a bit perplexing. Maybe it's just me. Anyway here it is for your enjoyment.

  

For all the quips and jibes and taunts

And brutal castigation

This First Family's image haunts,

And begs new valuation.

Both elegant and wholesome 

This group radiates great charm

We should feel proud 
they reached a goal some 

Tell us did no harm.

Their image, lean and lissome, 

Does great credit to their race.

To know them might be bliss. Some

Might wish to kiss each face.

The father’s been a failure

Many say with unchecked bile.

Rated as the Holy Grail your 

Welfare class adored his style.

Conservatives despised him

And insisted he must fail,

While the the Left who idolized him,

Thinks the Right belongs in jail. 

And so we’re now divided

Many saying we’re at war

With those we have derided

Thus forgetting what Life’s for.

Although his leftist stance

Has been essentially perverse

We should not want to dance

Upon his grave. That make things worse 

By deepening the chasm 

That now between us yawns

We kill enthusiasm

Thus darkening all our dawns.

So please try to remember

Barrack with charity;

His legacy’s an ember

Now. Let’s pray Trump sets us free.

~ FreeThinke

Feel free to critique this literary work of art as you wish.

President Obama is, I believe, going to come to be missed in the VERY near future. By many. Including his detractors.

And now, we prepare for a new era...

PEOTUS Trump Holding On To The Most Unfavorabe Rating In 40 Years...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

A CNN/ORC poll published Tuesday morning shows Trump with a 40 percent approval rating. His approval rating is much lower than past presidents. Obama entered office in 2009 with an 84 percent approval rating, George W. Bush with a 61 percent approval rating, and Bill Clinton with a 67 percent approval rating, per CNN.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll published Tuesday morning also found that 40 percent of Americans approve of Trump

A Gallup poll released on Friday found that 44 percent of people approve of Trump, the lowest Gallup approval rating for a president-elect since 1993.

What was president elect Donald J. Trump's response to these consistent poll results? As you might have guessed . The polls are rigged.

Donald Trump, a man whose elephant size ego and uncontrollable narcissism, has responded to pre inaugural transitional polling with the same denial of facts that he did throughout his campaign. In this particular instance that he is a PEOTUS with an approval rating well below water. All data shows him with the most unfavorable approval rating going back 40 years. With his inability to recognize that he is viewed unfavorably and why, it is extremely unlikely that the man CHILD PEOTUS will do anything to change the perceptions a decided majority of the American people have of him.

It is going to be a very, very long four years.

With Trump Already Below Water His Run Is Going To Start Rough...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

President elect Donald J. Trump is 5 days out from his inauguration and he "enjoys" the lowest transitional rating of any recent president elect. With just a 44% approval rating, 6% under water before he assumes the office, he is likely to have a very rough road ahead.

Obama - 83% approval rating
Bush - 61% approval rating
Clinton - 68% rating

For more on this CLICK HERE .

Trump is so unliked by the majority of Americans he is even being compared to the Roman Emperor Caligula. We here at this weblog find the comparison quite apt in several ways.

Trump deserves every bit of criticism he receives and hopefully the ethical media and the American electorate will keep unbearable pressure on the man CHILD president when he takes over the reins from President Obama.

Trump's Dishonest Press Conference On 1/11/17 In Summary...

Rational Nation USA

Purveyor of Truth

Fact check on Trump's press conference 1/11/17. Excerpts from The Washington Post .

President-elect Donald Trump finally held a news conference, but as is typical, he often made claims that have been repeatedly debunked or discredited. Here’s a guide to 14 of his more notable statements, in the order in which he made them.

“It’s very familiar territory, news conferences, because we used to give them on an almost daily basis.”

Exaggeration. While on TV constantly he generally held news conferences only following primary contests.

“You saw yesterday Fiat Chrysler; big, big factory going to be built in this country as opposed to another country. Ford just announced that they stopped plans for a billion-dollar plant in Mexico and they’re going to be moving into Michigan and expanding, very substantially, an existing plant.”

False.

“When we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that. That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably China.”

China's hack of 22 million accounts at the Office of Personnel Management was front-page news.

“The Democratic National Committee was totally open to be hacked. They did a very poor job. … And they tried to hack the Republican National Committee, and they were unable to break through.”

Misleading. ... older Republican National Committee domains were also targeted but none of the information that may have been obtained was leaked. Comey said that the Russians “got far deeper and wider into the [DNC] than the RNC,” adding that “similar techniques were used in both cases.”

“Look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking. That Hillary Clinton got the questions to the debate and didn’t report it? That’s a horrible thing.”

There is no indication or confirmation this statement is true.

“This administration created ISIS by leaving at the wrong time. The void was created, ISIS was formed.”

Grossly simplified. ISIS was a response tp the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we’ve stayed away. And I have no loans with Russia.”

Misleading. Trump's own son, DJT Jr., contradicts this statement.

“I have a no-conflict situation because I’m president.”

Essentially true.

“The only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters. … You learn very little to a tax return.”

False on both counts. 60% of Americans believe Trump should release his tax returns.

Tax experts say returns provide info and insight into and individuals finances in many areas.

“We have hundreds of billions of dollars of losses on a yearly basis — hundreds of billions with China on trade and trade imbalance, with Japan, with Mexico, with just about everybody.”

A basic misunderstanding by Trump. Increasing tariffs and starting a trade war would increase costs of goods to American consumers but would not result in America gaining money that has ben lost.

“Some states have over a 100 percent [premium] increase.”

Gross exaggeration. ... the most common plans in the marketplace in 2017 experienced an average increase of 22 percent.  Oklahoma experience a 71% increase in health insurance premiums while Rhode Island saw only a 1.3% increase.

“I want to thank United Technologies which owns Carrier, but we saved close to a thousand jobs.”

Trump wrongly continues to count jobs that weren't leaving the USA for Mexico in the first place. False

“96 million really wanting a job and they can’t get. You know that story. The real number — that’s the real number.”

Bald face lie! Only 7.5 million are actively seeking employment. Trump counts retired folks and those under 16 in his quoted number.

“I think it’s a disgrace that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to the public.”

Pot calling kettle black. Trump was the leading purveyor of false “birther” claims, based on no evidence, that Obama was not born in the United States. He frequently claimed that Obama had spent $2 million to cover this up — a number he plucked out of World Net Daily, which promotes conservative-leaning conspiracy theories.

Trump has almost no credibility yet the conservative and GOP faithful seem blind to this truth. With just moderate effort spent in research Trump's basic dishonesty and lack of a normal ethical and moral compass is glaringly clear.

Read the complete Washington Post article HERE.

Interesting PIC(S) Of the President Elect...

We wonder if Trump forgot this picture is out there. Would love to hear Donnie stumble on this one.

Donald Trump has nothing but love for Saudi Arabia… in front of the Saudis… and nothing but hatred for Islam… in front of Republicans. Anyone else see a contradiction here?



More Where This Came From

Why Trump Failed To Receive Endorsement From A Singe Major Newspaper...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

The following article from a left coast publication, the Los Angeles Times,  it is well thought-out, well articulated, perfectly reasonable, and exactly correct. It is reprinted here with full attribution for your consideration.

Trump’s careless ignorance could make him the world’s most dangerous man

David Horsey

There is a good reason that Donald Trump failed to win the endorsement of a single serious newspaper (the Ku Klux Klan “Crusader” does not count). It is not because the press is uniformly liberal; there were plenty of traditionally Republican and conservative editorial boards that could not bring themselves to support Trump. It is because people who work on newspapers deal in facts, and the fact is that the president-elect is woefully unprepared for the office he has won.

That is the core reason I have been so critical of Trump and will continue to be.

This is not a knee-jerk aversion to any and all Republicans (I used to be one myself). If George H.W. Bush had beaten Bill Clinton back in 1992, I would not have worried that the country was in dangerous hands. Bush the elder, besides being a complete gentleman, was a seasoned practitioner of statecraft. If Sen. John McCain had won in 2008 or Mitt Romney in 2012, I would have been disappointed, but I would not have thought the election of either man would be perilous for us all (although having Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency would not have been reassuring).

It is Trump who is uniquely scary, not because he is a Republican and not because of his personal demerits. The nation can survive a president with a record of using women as sexual toys (Trump will not be the first). The nation can survive a president who is rude and bullying. The nation can even survive a con man. But it will be much harder to steer clear of harm with a president who seems to have no idea how little he really knows about very important things.

His fantastical promises to bring back jobs in the coal mines and manufacturing plants were further proof of his dim-bulbed grasp of economic realities. Yes, those promises raised hopes and won him votes in the Rust Belt states — and probably won him the election. But he was fooling those voters and probably fooling himself. Global competition is the force that diminished the old industries and no new trade deal will change that reality. Manufacturing may well rebound in this country, but it will be built on robots and automation. The high numbers of jobs that once provided a middle-class lifestyle for men without a college degree will never come back.

In the final days of the campaign, Trump repeatedly mocked U.S. military leaders for announcing in advance their plans to retake regions of Iraq held by Islamic State militants. “Whatever happened to the element of surprise?” Trump asked repeatedly, as if war were a game of hide-and-seek. Letting Islamic State leaders know the attack was coming gave them a chance to run away, Trump said. Military strategists responded by pointing out that Islamic State commanders on the run actually made much better targets and that was just one of several good reasons to broadcast intentions.

Trump is no military genius, although he has famously claimed to know more than the generals. If he carries that delusion with him into the White House, it could lead to catastrophe. So could his failure to understand the immense value of the NATO alliance. So could his simple-minded admiration of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Low-information voters have given us a low-information president. Trump’s lack of sophistication and his apparent disinterest in doing the hard work it takes to understand the complexities of economics, international relations and military strategy is the most alarming aspect of his looming presidency. His character flaws and reactionary tendencies are hardly insignificant, but his willful ignorance of vital knowledge is what may make him the world’s most dangerous man

H/T Progressive Eruptions

Here's Donnie! ...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

The Truth About Trump

Republican from New York
Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice."  Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of the Year. Born and raised in New York City, Trump is married to Melania Trump, a former model from Slovenia. Trump has five children and eight grandchildren. Three of his children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, serve as executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization.

THE ACTUAL FACTS

Tells truth - 4%

Tells partial truth - 26%

Tell mostly false to pants on fire - 69%

A president for conservatives and republicans to be proud of.

More Trump On Russian Hacking During Presidential Campaign

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Purveyor of Truth


Here we go again. President elect Trump with more of his clownish assertions. This in regard to Russian hacking during the presidential campaign.

The New York Times - President-elect Donald J. Trump said in an interview Friday morning that the storm surrounding Russian hacking during the presidential campaign is a political witch hunt being carried out by his adversaries, who he said were embarrassed by their loss to him in the election last year.

Mr. Trump spoke to The New York Times by telephone three hours before he was set to be briefed by the nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement officials about the Russian hacking of American political institutions. In the conversation, he repeatedly criticized the intense focus on Russia.

SKIP

Mr. Trump, who has consistently expressed doubts about the evidence of Russian hacking during the election, did so again on Friday. Asked why he thought there was so much attention being given to the Russian cyberattacks, the president-elect said the motivation was political.

“They got beaten very badly in the election. I won more counties in the election than Ronald Reagan,” Mr. Trump said during an eight-minute telephone conversation. “They are very embarrassed about it. To some extent, it’s a witch hunt. They just focus on this.”

SKIP

Mr. Trump said he was looking forward to his meeting Friday afternoon about the hacking by James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence; James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, and other intelligence officials. He said that Mr. Clapper “wrote me a beautiful letter a few weeks ago wishing me the best.”

But he said that “a lot of mistakes were made” by the intelligence community in the past, noting in particular the attacks on the World Trade Center and saying that “weapons of mass destruction was one of the great mistakes of all time.”

Of course the growing intelligence supports the likelihood of Russian tampering with the US election.

It's Called a Conflict of Interest...

Donald Trump stands to personally profit from the legislative agenda he is expected to push in his first 100 days, raising questions about whether he can separate his financial interest from his public office without totally cutting ties from his business empire.

The top items on the president-elect’s policy checklist — from rewriting the tax code to scrapping Wall Street regulations to repealing Obamacare — have for years been Republican orthodoxy. But Trump could see a direct benefit to muscling through broad tax cuts and eliminating regulations: billions of dollars in new savings for him and his family and fresh revenue for his business portfolio, according to a POLITICO analysis of Trump’s public statements and financial disclosures and interviews with tax experts.


“It’s kind of unprecedented that a president would be proposing tax and regulatory changes that have such a significant benefit to him and his family and presumably his business partners as well,” said Leslie Samuels, a tax attorney and former senior Clinton administration Treasury official. “It’s a combination of changes that have a potential for a material benefit of a large magnitude.”

The Republican tax code overhaul is expected to include across-the-board tax cuts, including one to the top business tax rate that would allow Trump’s companies to keep a greater share of their profits. Beyond the rate reduction, Trump could also benefit from several other provisions likely to be part of the GOP tax reform package, such as a proposed exemption on foreign income generated from overseas sales, from certain business interest deductions on debt-financed projects that are widely favored by real estate developers and from provisions allowing small-business owners to tap into a lower 15 percent rate when they file using their personal-income returns.

Click on the above excerpt for the full story.

The Rush To Repeal the ACA (Obamacare)...

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Purveyor f Truth

What follows is the letter sent to congressional leadership regarding efforts to reform the health care system. It is from the American Medical Association (AMA) and it make reasonable sense.

Without a doubt the majority of Americans very likely agree with the AMA's position. We are reprinting the letter in it's entirety, with proper attribution as well as linking to the AMA.

Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, Speaker Ryan and Leader Pelosi:

On behalf of the physician and medical student members of the American Medical Association (AMA), I am writing regarding our ongoing commitment to reform of the health care system and potential legislative actions during the first months of the 115th Congress.

The AMA has long advocated for health insurance coverage for all Americans, as well as pluralism, freedom of choice, freedom of practice, and universal access for patients. These policy positions are guided by the actions of the AMA House of Delegates, composed of representatives of more than 190 state and national specialty medical associations, and they form the basis for AMA consideration of reforms to our health care system.

Health system reform is an ongoing quest for improvement. The AMA supported passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) because it was a significant improvement on the status quo at that time. We continue to embrace the primary goal of that law—to make high quality, affordable health care coverage accessible to all Americans. We also recognize that the ACA is imperfect and there a number of issues that need to be addressed. As such, we welcome proposals, consistent with the policies of our House of Delegates, to make coverage more affordable, provide greater choice, and increase the number of those insured.

In considering opportunities to make coverage more affordable and accessible to all Americans, it is essential that gains in the number of Americans with health insurance coverage be maintained.

Consistent with this core principle, we believe that before any action is taken through reconciliation or other means that would potentially alter coverage, policymakers should lay out for the American people, in reasonable detail, what will replace current policies. Patients and other stakeholders should be able to clearly compare current policy to new proposals so they can make informed decisions about whether it represents a step forward in the ongoing process of health reform.

We stand ready to work with you to continue the process of improving our health care system and ensuring that all Americans have access to high quality, affordable health care coverage.

Sincerely,
James L. Madara, MD

We note here the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget states that a full repeal of the ACA would cost $350 billion through 2027 under conventional scoring and $150 billion under dynamic scoring.

For reasonable folks the only sensible course of action is for congress to adopt a go slow approach and finally pass legislation that accomplishes the core principals of the AMA.

Republicans Move To Gut Office Of Congresional Ethics...

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Purveyor of Truth


Republican congressional critters moving to gut the congressional ethics watchdog really should come as no surprise. Less oversight of their dubious activities is just what the authoritarians would desire, yes?

The move by Republicans in Congress to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics will cut down on “overzealousness,” incoming counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday morning, while leaving in place a “mechanism” with which to address ethical complaints.

Although Conway stopped short of saying the GOP move came with the blessing of the president-elect, she told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Republican majorities in the House and Senate mean “there's a mandate there for them to make significant change.” She said she had not spoken to President-elect Donald Trump about the move.

“Let's make clear that you're still going to have an Office of Complaint Review. In other words, it’s not like we’re taking away everything,” Conway told “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “Look, there's a very ambitious agenda to push forward. The Republicans have been given the majority in the House and the Senate, most of the governorships, they've won over 1,000 state legislative seats under President Obama's watch. So there's a mandate there for them to make significant change.”

House Republicans voted Monday night during a closed-door meeting to dramatically cut back the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which would put the currently-independent watchdog under the control of the very lawmakers it is supposed to police. The plan, proposed by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), would give the office a new name, the Office of Complaint Review, and would "provide protection against disclosures to the public or other government entities," essentially keeping secret any accusations against members of Congress. The proposal would also bar the restructured office from considering anonymous tips.

Then president elect Donald J. Trump weighed in with this.

With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!

Note Trump's criticism was really aimed at the timing of the GOP efforts to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, not that doing so was ill advised and should not be done. Typical Trump modus operandi. Note what The Washington Post had to say.

This statement is a neat little trick. It allows Trump to at once: (a) Claim that he was critical of the decision to rein in the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, and (b) Sympathize with the members who view themselves as having legitimate beefs with the office by allowing that it might be "unfair."

Some media outlets will cover it as Trump repudiating the move by House Republicans, but that's not really what he's saying. In fact, Trump isn't really saying much of anything here. He's not saying what House Republicans did was wrong; he's saying it was mis-prioritized. And he's not endorsing its actions either, but he's allowing that the office might have been unfair. It's choose your own adventure.

Update: And sure enough, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer says Trump's beef isn't with what House Republicans did, but rather the timing. "[Trump] says that their focus should be on tax reform, health care and so many other things of greater and far more importance," Spicer said on a conference call. "It's not a question of strengthening or weakening."

And now, if House Republicans reverse course, he can claim credit for making it happen. But if they don't, he's agreed with them that the office is unfair and they're not technically running afoul of him. Win-win.

Apparently ethics in government is not all that important to Trump. Winning IS, period.

Soon To Be The Next POTUS...

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Purveyor of Truth

Coming to America on January 20th 2017 in the person of the President of the United States of America. Xenophobia, misogyny, bigotry, white nationalism, sexual predator, narcissism, elevated demagoguery, conspiracy theories, constant stream of lies, in short... PURE EVIL

We're sure we left some things out, so, feel free to add your on to our list above.