NY Times: The tax plan has been marketed by President Trump and Republican leaders as a straightforward if enormous rebate for the masses, a $1.5 trillion package of cuts to spur hiring and economic growth. But as the bill has been rushed through Congress with scant debate, its far broader ramifications have come into focus, revealing a catchall legislative creation that could reshape major … Read More
White House Shake-up
“I’ll hire the best people, believe me” – Trump, many times on the campaign trail “Tensions escalate after Tillerson calls Trump ‘moron’” – CNN headline, October 5, 2017 The New York Times is reporting that the Trump Administration has developed a plan to force out Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, whose relationship with Trump has been strained, and replace him with Mike … Read More
Since It Is Sexual Harassment Day
Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor have joined the ranks of men getting fired for sexual harassment. That’s just TODAY… so far. So I thought I would up a recent Washington Post article about our President: President Trump and accusations of sexual misconduct: The complete list Here’s a list of 13 women who have publicly come forward with claims that Trump … Read More
Today Feels Like A Test
I don’t know. Everything really is awful. Matt Lauer, long-standing host of the Today Show, was abruptly fired last night, after execs at NBC received notice of a credible claim of sexual harassment. This #MeToo reckoning, as I’ve said before, but it really is disappointing to see otherwise good people go down. Perhaps even more disappointing is that the only … Read More
O’Keefe Creates Fake News In Order To Expose WaPo As A Purveyor Of Fake News And The Whole Thing Blows Up
Another lame gimmick, a HUGE PUBLIC bellyflop: James O’Keefe is a celebrated right-wing pseudo-journalist whose job consists largely of attempting to prove various conservative conspiracy theories but, instead, accidentally disproving them. O’Keefe’s most recent fail is an attempt to help alleged child molester Roy Moore by tarnishing the Washington Post. O’Keefe recruited a fake source, who attempted to lure the Post into reporting her false … Read More
Who Is In Charge Of The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau?
Richard Cordray. the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said that he would be leaving as head of the CFPB at the end of this month. Last Friday, November 24, he sent a letter to President Trump, declaring that he’s officially done leading the federal government’s controversial consumer watchdog agency once the clock strikes midnight. In a separate letter to … Read More
The Tax Bill Is An Attack On Higher Education
Trump is in hard core twitter world again, attacking the media for — well, not exactly sure. The news isn’t good for Trump with the net closing on the Mueller scandal. Trump is obviously concerned. But he did talk about the tax bill and how wonderful it supposedly is. I like how he calls the wealthy “job producers”, as if … Read More
Trump Finally Weighs In On Moore
As for the open Alabama seat, Trump has remained unusually quiet, ignoring questions from reporters. But today, he couldn’t help himself. BREAKING: Trump discounts allegations against Republican Roy Moore and says, ‘We don’t need a liberal person in there.’ — AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 21, 2017 This is worth noting because WH spokesperson Sarah Sanders had said on several occasions … Read More
FCC Announces End Of Net Neutrality
Very bad news: The Federal Communications Commission announced on Tuesday that it planned to dismantle landmark regulations that ensure equal access to the internet, clearing the way for companies to charge more and block access to some websites. The proposal, put forward by the F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, is a sweeping repeal of rules put in place by the Obama … Read More
The 8th Man In The June 2016 Trump Tower Meeting Was A Russian Money Launderer
Daily Beast gots it: An accused money launderer representing a Kremlin-friendly oligarch has been reportedly identified as the eighth person at a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. last June. Irakly Kaveladze was a guest of Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya when she visited Trump and other campaign members in Trump Tower last year, Trump’s lawyer told CNN. The meeting was proposed by billionaire Russian real-estate developer Aras Agalarov. … Read More
Trump Cabinet Cannot Decide If President Is A “Moron” Or An “Idiot”
In October, NBC News and other outlets reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the president a “moron” in a July meeting at the Pentagon. Today we learn this: National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster mocked President Trump’s intelligence at a private dinner with a powerful tech CEO, according to five sources with knowledge of the conversation. Over a July dinner with … Read More
And Now It’s…. Oh Dear… Senator Al Franken’s Turn?
The sexual harassment purge is getting ugly. WaPo: Broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden said Thursday that Al Franken “forcibly kissed” and groped her during a USO tour in 2006, two years before the Minnesota Democrat’s election to the U.S. Senate. “You knew exactly what you were doing,” Tweeden wrote in a blog post for Los Angeles radio station KABC, for which she works as … Read More
The Moore Accuser Count Is Up To 8
Via WaPo: Roy Moore. Born in 1947. He moved out of Gadsden, Ala., in 1954, returning after his service in Vietnam in 1977. He joined the office of the district attorney that year. In 1982, he again left Gadsden, returning in 1985, the year he married his wife, Kayla. She was 24, and he was 38. In 1992, he was … Read More
In Fairness, It Is Hard To Keep All These Mass Shootings Straight
This week saw another mass shooting, this time in Northern California (4 dead, shooter killed — UPDATE: 5 dead — they found his wife’s bodied hidden in his house). Trump, returning from his Asia stint, tweeted this in response late last night: Unfortunately, the Sutherland Springs Texas shooting was LAST week’s mass shooting. He deleted the above tweet, although it does … Read More
The Left And Language Orthodoxy
I got into a discussion recently about who gets to talk about what, and how to talk about them, when it comes to topics of racism, feminism, etc. That’s what came to mind when I read a certain part of an interview, excepted below, in The Atlantic. The writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the subject of that interview. She has firsthand experience … Read More