Category: Government

When There Is Smoke It Usually Means Fire…

THE BIG STORY: “Repeal and replace” gave way to “recuse and resign.” “Witch hunt” declared President Trump – a sentiment quickly echoed by, yes, the Russians. The halting, contradictory, often inexplicable handling of Russia revelations by the Trump White House is either making the story more than it needs to be, or elevating it to exactly where it belongs. In either scenario, it won’t disappear with Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal announcement – a recusal from an investigation the White House has declared either non-existent or already concluded. The latest drips come just days after the president established what could have been a new tone for this phase. He’s back on Twitter now, calling Democrats “so pathetic” just this morning. This will be the week remembered for Donald Trump finding his presidential footing – only to lose it pretty quickly again.

Where there is smoke there is usually fire. When an administration and its head reacts like this one is reacting the chances are very good they have a lot to cover up. If they were indeed innocent of allegations they should be welcoming an investigation to prove there was no wrongdoing.

But this the Donald J, Trump administration and as we know anything and everything can happen. And it likely will.

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Two Issues Inextricably Intertwined…

President Trump certainly has a record of making statements that are false. Or put another way, statements for which there is no credible evidence in support of his support his statements in question. Does this mean he lied? It might, but only if he knew the actual facts relative to his statements and intentionally misrepresented the truth. Something we all know politicians of both parties do more than just occasionally.

Does Donald Trump lie? If you read the fact checks conducted by a growing number of major media outlets, you bet. Like, all the time. And not just little stretches of the truth.

 Just over half the Trump statements checked by Politifact’s Truth-o-Meter were classified as false or pants-on-fire false, for example, while The Washington Post’s fact checker gave a four Pinocchio rating (its highest falsehood) to nearly 65 percent of the Trump claims it checked.

But what if we can’t agree on the facts? How do you determine “truth?” And if there is no agreement, is it still OK for the mainstream media to call them lies? Chuck Todd asked Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker as much on “Meet the Press”, and Baker’s response sort of broke the Internet.

“I’d be careful about using the word ‘lie.’ ‘Lie’ implies much more than just saying something that’s false. It implies a deliberate intent to mislead. I think it’s perfectly — when Donald Trump says thousands of people were on the rooftops of New Jersey on 9/11 celebrating, thousands of Muslims were there celebrating, I think it’s right to investigate that claim, to report what we found, which is that nobody found any evidence of that whatsoever, and to say that.

“I think it’s then up to the reader to make up their own mind to say, ‘This is what Donald Trump says. This is what a reliable, trustworthy news organization reports. And you know what? I don’t think that’s true.’ I think if you start ascribing a moral intent, as it were, to someone by saying that they’ve lied, I think you run the risk that you look like you are, like you’re not being objective.”

Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent shot back that of course the media has an obligation to call out Trump’s lies – and use the word lies – because Trump continues to repeat falsehoods even after they have been debunked. He’s a new kind of political animal, Sargent argued, and the media is utterly unprepared to cover his presidency.

The takeaway? It’s going to be a long four years for the press, and this debate has only just begun. (MORE BELOW THE FOLD)

Our nation is now divided by starkly different political ideologies, With the exception of The War Between The States we have never been so divided. Right now our major political parties are, on most important issues affecting all Americans, 180 degrees apart. And it seems as though there exists no desire to find common ground.

Unless Americans start demanding from their congressional representatives and senators  a degree of bipartisanship, mutual cooperation, concern for America rather than party ideology, and putting the welfare of all Americans as their foremost responsibility we are doomed as a democratic republic.

A Different Trump Became President…

Last night on CNN Van Jones said that Trump became the President, the result of his address to the join session of Congress. The President’s tone was decidedly different. Trump did not use I, didn’t make the evening all about him. He talked about republicans and democrats working to move the country forward, together. Yes, there were a lot of platitudes, and, there were many less than accurate statements made by the President. It is fair to say nonetheless that last night Trump was presidential.  Van Jones even went so far as to state if President Trump maintained the tone last night’s performance going forward he would be there for four years.

Van Jones, as well as all other liberals/progressives, have deep differences with the President’s agenda and policies. And so they should. At the same time Van Jones recognizes why it is important to acknowledge what we witnessed last night. If Trump continues to comport himself as he did last night give him his dues on that, and then hammer away at those issues he is wrong on. Respectfully so. Work with him on issues where there is common ground. Because if liberals/progressives don’t they will be viewed as being no different than republicans were during Obama’s presidency. Trump and his handlers are smart enough to know this, and, they will exploit it.

Now on to some fact checking of last nights address.

5 Fact Checks From President Trump’ Joint Address

Fact Check: Trump’s First Address to Congress

Now, the public’s impressions.

Viewers strongly approve of Trump’s speech to Congress

7 in 10 Speech-Watchers Say Trump Boosted Optimism

President Trump has much to overcome as he cannot hide from his past statements and actions. Democrats will certainly and constantly remind. That and it is impossible for a leopard to change its spots. It may very well be almost as impossible for a 70 year old billionaire to change his.

 

 

A Big Idea…

THE BIG IDEA: As a House freshman, Jay Inslee lost reelection in 1994 because of voter frustration with Bill Clinton’s first two years as president. Tom Foley, who represented an adjacent district, became the first Speaker to lose reelection since the depths of the Civil War.

“I’ve personally experienced a 65-foot fall tsunami directed at a party whose president had caused a great backlash,” said Inslee, who returned to Congress four years later and is now in his second term as governor of Washington State. “So I know what blowback can look like, and I will tell you that the energy that now exists in the opposite direction is greater than existed in 1994.”

As the chairman-elect of the Democratic Governors Association, Inslee will quarterback his party’s efforts in next year’s gubernatorial contests. To say he’s bullish would be an understatement. “Democrats are going to crawl across broken glass on their knees to go vote in 2018, if the conditions exist as they do today,” Inslee said during an interview yesterday afternoon at the J.W. Marriott, before he headed to the White House for a black-tie gala hosted by President Trump.

Hm, not so fast. You see it’s like this. Folks vote their pocketbook. So, If Trump does deliver on bringing jobs back to America (unlikely), the economy continues to improve (we note the economy is stronger because of President Obama),  he builds that wall and makes Mexico pay for it (ain’t gonna happen), and defeats ISIS (we’re still waiting for that secret 30 day plan to of his), none of his bigotry, xenophobia, misogyny, legendary lying, or anything else will matter. Principals and values are trumped, pun intended, every time by the family’s financial and physical security.

We’re not saying Trump is going to succeed with his grandiose plan to Make America Great Again. In the first place America is already great, and for reasons Trump obviously doesn’t understand.  Just as important Trump has already shown his ineptness with an executive branch in disarray and his inability to give sound rational guidance. Even to his own party. If things  start to fall apart over the next 18 months, it is at least a 50/50 chance they will, then yes, 2018 may very well be the tsunami Inslee is talking about. Followed by sweeping an unprincipled and inept Trump out of office in 2020.

What is the bottom line here? Democrats had better not get cocky or too confident. Don’t forget what just happened in 2016. They also better forge solid relationships with the moderate wing of their own party, reach daily across the aisle to forge relationships with more reasonable and liberal republicans in congress, calm the nerves of the more progressive element in their party (because defeating Trump and his dangerously reactionary agenda in is job 1 for 2020), and they had better focus on governorships and state houses as well.

This writer has always been a fiscal conservative and generally believed the republican party was best equipped to handle both domestic and foreign affairs effectively. The last 16 years has taught me this is no longer true. Maybe it never was. At any rate the fight to defeat Trump, those supporting him, and his reactionary agenda is the most pressing concern and perhaps the most difficult challenge of the next four years.

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When A President Emboldens Haters…

It happened last week in St Louis and Saturday it happened again in New York. Are the incidents of anti-Semitism that have occurred with increasing regularity since Trump hit the political streets just coincidental. Or is it possible that his divisive rhetoric has actually giving impetus and cover for what we’ve seen happening since his announcement that he was running for president?

To think Trump’s rhetoric does not represent his true beliefs and feelings is naïve. To believe the millions who support and voted for Trump for the presidency don’t approve of his bigoted rhetoric is, to say the least, naïve as well.  When the leader of a nation speaks, his words have consequences. The consequence of Trump’s many bigoted, racist, and xenophobic words? To embolden and give rise to the bigotry and hatred we say in St Louis and New York just this past week.

Stacy Silver prayed as she drove with her husband to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia’s Wissinoming section Sunday: Please don’t let my mother and great-grandmother be among the victims.

When Silver, 50, of Cherry Hill, N.J., heard about the vandalism at the Jewish cemetery that occurred overnight Saturday, she rushed to her loved ones’ graves.

What she saw when she arrived was worse than she imagined — tombstone after tombstone, story after story, was toppled to the ground — including those belonging to her mother and great-grandmother.

“Your stomach just drops,” Silver said. “I mean it’s just horrible.”

Detectives canvassing the cemetery Sunday afternoon estimated that  75 to 100 headstones had been knocked over.

“It’s criminal. This is beyond vandalism,” said Northeast Detectives Capt. Shawn Thrush, as he walked the cemetery grounds. “It’s beyond belief.”

The vandalism, coming a week after a similar incident in St. Louis, prompted the Anne Frank Center to call for President Trump to make a forceful denunciation of anti-Semitic hate crimes.

“Mr. President, it’s time for you to deliver a prime-time nationally televised speech, live from the Oval Office, on how you intend to combat not only #Antisemitism but also Islamophobia and other rising forms of hate,” the organization posted Sunday on Twitter. “Whether or not your intention, your Presidency has given the oxygen of incitement to some of the most viciously hateful elements of our society.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center recorded 1,372 bias incidents between Trump’s inauguration and Feb. 7, the watchdog group reported. Among those, the group highlighted 57 incidents in 24 states of anonymous bomb threats being called in to Jewish Community Centers. The organization has also recorded that the number of hate groups in the U.S. grew in 2016 for the second straight year, with a threefold increase in the number of anti-Muslim hate groups.

The incident at Mount Carmel prompted support from the national Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA.

“We are deeply troubled by these rising and ongoing attacks on our Jewish sisters and brothers and members from our Philadelphia chapter are in route to assist in clean up,” said Nasim Rehmatullah, the organization’s national vice president. (emphasis mine)

Indeed Mr. Trump. Your words have had an impact. A very dark and sinister one. You can not change or take back your stream of bigoted words and xenophobic utterances. Just as a leopard is incapable of changing its spots your words have defined who and what you are. Simply put Trump, you have zero credibility and anything you say is therefore meaningless. Try as you might to cover your rancid character it will not work in the end.

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CNN UPDATE AT 10:25 AM WITH VIDEO.