Why Donald Trump Pardoned Joe Arpaio - The New Yorker

Arpaio represents in miniature what President Trump would like to be more maximally - an authoritarian not constrained by the rule of law. 

Trump is likely a fan of Arpaio’s because Arapio is a fan of his—an early supporter who also went all in for birtherism, at one point sending members of a so-called Cold Case Posse to Hawaii to dig up something incriminating about Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

But more importantly, Arpaio represents in miniature what President Trump would like to be more maximally - an authoritarian not constrained by the rule of law.

Like Trump, Arpaio regards reporters, activists, and critics of his policies as personal enemies as well as enemies of the state. The Justice Department investigation found that his department had "engaged in a pattern or practice of retaliating against individuals for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech."

The DOJ investigation found that Arpaio had "arrested individuals without cause, filed meritless complaints against the political adversaries of Sheriff Arpaio, and initiated unfounded civil lawsuits and investigations against individuals critical of MCSO policies and practices."

As such, it is clear that Trump's pardon of Arpaio is an explicit endorsement of racial profiling and extralegal, vigilante policing.

The full article is available here

Gary Cohn, Trump’s Adviser, Said to Have Drafted Resignation Letter After Charlottesville - New York Times

The full article is available here

Historical Curator: Removing Confederate Statues Isn’t Erasing History - Sojourner's Magazine

Trump's line of reasoning is confused. It conflates history with commemoration and brackets the Founding Fathers with the Confederate leadership. And here, Trump is also prizing the aesthetics of public space over the duties of building a more perfect union.

Confederate symbols have become central to an increasingly ugly debate over what America is really about. That process — from The Dukes of Hazzard to David Duke — has made Confederate statues into idols in the biblical sense: objects of intense, cultic affection for those who worship the vision and prejudices they represent.

My own work as a curator and historical researcher has led me to realize what these statues truly represent to their communities - divisive symbols that mean as much to racists today as they did in the past. 

Many people who don’t study this sort of thing for a living may feel things are moving too quickly, and as such we can fall prey to common "straw man" arguments: “First Confederate statues, then what?” and “We shouldn’t erase history.”

Trump's tweets bemoaning the removal of Confederate monuments as "erasing history" are based on conflation and false equivalency. He — and this line of reasoning — is confused. It conflates history with commemoration and brackets the Founding Fathers with the Confederate leadership. 

And here, Trump is also prizing the aesthetics of public space over the duties of building a more perfect union. America’s parks and roundabouts will be just as pretty without Confederate monuments.

The full article is available here

I warned of right-wing violence in 2009. Republicans objected. I was right. - Daryl Johnson

Since 2008, the body count from numerous acts of violent right-wing terrorism continued to rise steadily with very little media interest, political discussion or concern from our national leaders. 

Eight years ago, I warned of a singular threat — the resurgence of right-wing extremist activity and associated violence in the United States as a result of the 2008 presidential election, the financial crisis and the stock market crash. My intelligence report, meant only for law enforcement, was leaked by conservative media.

A political backlash ensued because of an objection to the label “right-wing extremism.” The report also rightly pointed out that returning military veterans may be targeted for recruitment by extremists. Republican lawmakers demanded then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rescind my report. The American Legion formally requested an apology to veterans. Some in Congress called for me to be fired. Amid the turmoil, my warning went unheeded by Republicans and Democrats. Unfortunately, the Department of Homeland Security caved to the political pressure: Work related to violent right-wing extremism was halted. Law enforcement training also stopped. My unit was disbanded.

And since 2008, the body count from numerous acts of violent right-wing terrorism continued to rise steadily with very little media interest, political discussion or concern from our national leaders.

The mere existence of so many heavily armed citizens filled with hate and anger toward various elements of American society is troubling enough in its own right. They number in the hundreds of thousands. More troubling is the violent convergence now underway within right-wing extremist movements.

Largely under the media radar, disaffected extremist groups with long histories of squabbling have been independently pooling resources, some even infiltrating our government through the outreach efforts of right-wing extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Constitutional Sheriff’s and Peace Officers Association.

More recently, the renewed debates over Confederate monuments, same-sex marriage and Black Lives Matter has reinvigorated alt-right extremists to mobilize toward a more radical fringe element capable of violent action at any moment. Of further concern, a new generation of “charismatic leaders” within the white supremacist movement has emerged after Trump’s election, creating an opportunity for disparate groups to unite under one banner.

Trump’s endorsement of the border wall, the travel ban, mass deportations of illegal immigrants — these ideas were touted on white supremacist message boards merely 10 years ago. Now they’re being put forth as official U.S. policy. Such controversial plans have placated white supremacists and anti-government extremists and will draw still more sympathetic individuals toward these extremist causes along with the sort of violent acts that too often follow, like Charlottesville.

The full article is available here

Black Lives Matter Is Not A Hate Group - Southern Poverty Law Center

Black Lives Matter is not a hate group. The perception that it is racist illustrates the problem of our society as a whole still not accepting that racial injustice remains pervasive. And, unfortunately, the fact that surveys reveal that a majority of white people tend to see race as a zero-sum game may actually impede progress.

Generally speaking, hate groups are, by our definition, those that vilify entire groups of people based on immutable characteristics such as race or ethnicity. Federal law takes a similar approach.

There’s no doubt that some protesters who claim the mantle of Black Lives Matter have said offensive things, like the chant “pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon” that was heard at one rally.

However, we have heard nothing remotely comparable to bigotry from the founders and most prominent leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement and nothing at all to suggest that the bulk of the demonstrators hold supremacist or black separatist views.

Thousands of white people across America – indeed, people of all races – have marched in solidarity with African Americans during BLM marches, as is clear from the group’s website.

The movement’s leaders also have condemned violence.

Black Lives Matter is not a hate group. The perception that it is racist illustrates the problem of our society as a whole still not accepting that racial injustice remains pervasive. And, unfortunately, the fact that surveys reveal that a majority of white people tend to see race as a zero-sum game may actually impede progress.

The full article is available here

Amateur Online Vigilantism Is NOT How We Should Combat Right Wing Hate - Jeff Wiersma

Online vigilantism may temporarily satiate our need to feel like we've done something to combat forces of hate, but the object of vigilantism's threats and verbal abuse is still a human being. No human being should be subjected to threats and abuse. And aren't threats and verbal abuse precisely what right wing hate groups direct at minorities, those of different religion traditions, and those who stand against hateful rhetoric?

I heard this story on NPR last evening ...

"In the aftermath of the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Va., some people took to Twitter and shared photos of people who allegedly were at the march. The idea was to identify who they were and shame them. But identifying someone from a photo can be tricky — and people managed to make at least one mistake."

The victim of this mistake was Kyle Quinn, a University of Arkansas assistant professor. When someone incorrectly identified him as a participant in last weekend's right wing hate rally in Charlottesville, his email and Twitter account and were flooded with people cursing at him, threatening him and his wife.

On Saturday night, someone tweeted out the couple's home address. The couple immediately got law enforcement involved. This is reminiscent of the incident in 2013 when the New York Post falsely identified two men in a photograph as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing.

In our mass media age it's easier than ever for such mistakes to happen, and the consequences are exponentially broader in scope than a scarlet letter or the proverbial mob with pitch forks.

But let's think beyond the fact that these were instances of mistaken identity.

Even if self-appointed online vigilantes properly identify someone involved in something criminal or hateful, what productive result does threatening and verbally abusing them achieve? This kind of activity strays well beyond the bounds of valid criticism of someone for their policies or actions that is part of constructive democratic engagement. In short, it is bullying.

Online vigilantism may temporarily satiate our need to feel like we've done something to combat forces of hate, but the object of vigilantism's threats and verbal abuse is still a human being. No human being should be subjected to threats and abuse. And aren't threats and verbal abuse precisely what right wing hate groups direct at minorities, those of different religion traditions, and those who stand against hateful rhetoric?

How does dehumanizing someone work in any way to solve the problem of that person's dehumanization of the people they hate?

Trump's "Both Sides" Assessment of Charlottesville: Marginally Accurate, Mostly Wrong - Jeff Wiersma

Trump is for some reason reluctant to identify hate groups as being the causal agent of the problem, instead resorting to "What Aboutism."

At an impromptu press conference Tuesday at Trump Tower, President Trump suggested that white supremacists and counter demonstrators were both to blame for the deadly violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

Trump's not wrong that the violence committed by a small fraction of the counter-protesters is a problem. Any pacifist would agree and many have already cited such tactics as both unethical and ultimately counterproductive.

What was striking, however, was that he couldn't even articulate that clearly without throwing in a completely random "fake news" epithet at the reporters gathered at the press conference.

The press conference leaves 3 takeaways.

1. Trump is for some reason reluctant to identify hate groups as being the causal agent of the problem, instead resorting to "What Aboutism." He didn't mention that the torch-carrying neo-Nazis encircled a church where clergy were praying on Friday night. He didn't mention that on Saturday, the same clergy peacefully marched in direct, nonviolent protest against machine-gun toting neo-Nazis.

2. Trump's "What Aboutism" only reinforces the need for those protesting against neo-Nazi's to remain nonviolent.  Had the small fraction of counter-protesters that used violence in Charlottesville INSTEAD behaved like the rest of their compatriots who used nonviolent direct action, Trump wouldn't had have any incidents to use for his equivocation.

3. Trump once again looked inept as president. He appears unable to articulate basic statements about basic truths that are held about democratic society by a vast majority of U.S. citizens. He has thus far lacked the appropriate seriousness and care in his wording for crisis situations such as the death of a demonstrator in Charlottesville. He appears to have little impulse control and an inability to consistently act presidential.

This leaves one to seriously question whether he is at all qualified for the job and whether or not he is fundamentally ill-suited for what it requires. In this instance and others, he has appeared to be in way over his head.

Fighting Hate With Assertive Nonviolence - Jeff Wiersma

As a society, we've endured other times when the forces of hatred and violence have reared their heads.  We have emerged as a more just, progressive, and egalitarian society on the other side of those times due to the work of nonviolent activists. 

In response to the Neo-nazi/KKK/White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville last weekend, there has been a lot of justifiable, visceral anger from those who criticize and oppose hatred and racism.

Once news broke that a White Supremacist had intentionally driven his car into a crowd of anti-racism demonstrators - killing one person - the outrage heated up exponentially.

I will gladly count myself among those who feel righteous anger at those who advocate hatred and feel that the use of violent force in pursuit of their racist beliefs is justified. No one has ever had to guess what my opinion is about racism, demagogues who peddle it, and domestic right wing terrorists.

That being said, I've seen some responses that don't sit well with me. Among them would be statements like "punch nazis," "smash fascists," and "we need to treat fascists like we did in World War II," the implication of course being that we should kill them.

I too have the same instinctual, emotional reaction of "these domestic terrorists should get a taste of their own medicine."  But there are many reasons why I won't join the chorus of voices advocating retaliatory violence.

Some of those reasons are purely strategic.

If MLK's work in the Civil Rights Movement should have taught those of us who advocate for progressive reform anything, it should be that not retaliating violently gives your side the moral high ground. Ghandi, Cesar Chavez, and Desmond Tutu all similarly understood and utilized assertive nonviolent protest.

There are 3 practical reasons why nonviolent direction action is the only strategy worth pursuing.

1. Violent retaliation only plays into the dismissive caricatures of "thugs" and "terrorists" that those all-too-eager to smear protestors routinely attempt to utilize. This propaganda false flat when it is leveled against nonviolent protesters.
2. It may sound crass at first blush, but in the era of mass media, optics matter. In the 1960's when average US citizens saw peaceful civil rights activists being attacked with dogs, police batons, fire hoses, and bombs on the evening news, the Civil Rights Movement had effectively won the battle for the public's hearts and minds.
3. Not retaliating violently interrupts the cycle of violence and prevents the continued downward spiraling of society. If the desired result of opposing hate and violence is to prevent it from occurring in the future, nonviolent direction action is the tool of choice. The only purpose that retaliating violently serves is to vent frustration. Though seemingly cathartic in the short term, it serves no long term strategic purpose. 

Other reasons that I oppose retaliating in violence are ethical.

1. Two wrongs don't make a right. One of the reasons I am a pacifist is because I see the use of violence as necessarily immoral. How can one claim to have ethical integrity if one's response to violence that is clearly wrong is itself violent? How would one's actions be any different than those of the forces of hate?
2. Dehumanization is always wrong. Committing violence against someone else is only possible when a victim is seen as being something other than a co-equal member of the human race. Violence is necessarily the result of a victim first having been dehumanized in the eyes of their attacker. By retaliating violently, would not one be guilty of the exact same wrong that the forces of hatred and oppression are guilty of - namely seeing another person as being less than fully human?
   
   Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are 100% wrong in their beliefs and their rhetoric is divisive and dangerous.  At the same time, they are still human beings.  They are certainly hateful and abusive, but they are still humans - and therefore inherently deserving of a basic level of respect and decency.  

As a society, we've endured other times when the forces of hatred and violence have reared their heads.  We have emerged as more just, progressive, and egalitarian society on the other side of those times due to the work of nonviolent activists.  These ordinary people had the courage and moral fiber to directly and assertively oppose the forces of extraordinary evil and darkness.  Their's is the example we should look to and emulate.

Maybe Trump Isn't Lying? Washington Post Opinion Page

The key question with all of President Trump's inconsistencies and self-contradictions is this: Is he lying or is he unable to separate what he wants to believe and what exists, literally, in front of his eyes?

Instead of lying, what if Trump sincerely believes all of his unsubstantiated claims?

When he makes statements that are promptly and easily proven to be non-factual, could it be that he wasn't able to discern that they weren't true?

When he denies saying something, what if he honestly cannot recall statements that come back to haunt him?

This gives one pause when one considers the global consequences of the decisions that a president makes as commander in chief.

The key question with all of President Trump's inconsistencies and self-contradictions is this: Is he lying or is he unable to separate what he wants to believe and what exists, literally, in front of his eyes?

The 1st makes him morally unfit, and was the basis upon which many principled conservatives refused to vote for him. The 2nd means we have a constitutional crisis the likes of which we have never seen.

The full article is available here

Myopia in Western Media Covering Refugee Crisis’ - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Much of the serious reporting that does exist often presents refugees as the problem, rather than displacement and its drivers. The narrative is driven by the supposed inconvenience of Western citizens rather than the actual story of the refugees themselves. 

In scale and complexity, the crisis of the world’s displaced—65.9 million people, according to the UN Refugee Agency—is difficult to grasp. The need for a public reckoning, a working through of a societal response to this unprecedented circumstance, is clear.

Much of the serious reporting that does exist often presents refugees as the problem, rather than displacement and its drivers. The narrative is driven by the supposed inconvenience of Western citizens rather than the actual story of the refugees themselves.  We don’t get to hear the stories of why people leave, because it seems as if the public in the West is more invested in how to deal with the refugees than what their lives are about.

This leads one to wonder how much media help, not just in the fight to ensure that people’s humanity is respected, whatever their status, but in the effort to understand the roots of this global phenomenon and address it in a humane way.

The full article is available here.

Donald Trump's Behavior Is Abnormal - Chicago Tribune

I don't care what party Trump represents. If we were six months into a Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio administration, I'd have plenty of disagreements on policy, but I wouldn't be dropping other columns to highlight routine affronts to the basic decency of the office of the presidency.

What Trump said in Ohio on Tuesday night was not normal. What he said to the Boy Scouts was not normal. What he's doing to his attorney general is not normal.

The full article is available here

Trump Demonstrates He Is Unfit To Lead Our Troops - Washington Post

Trump’s impulsiveness and self-absorption make him incapable of thinking beyond his self-interest.

It is hard to think of any presidential act, before President Trump’s Twitter announcement Wednesday that he was banning transgender individuals from the military, that was so plainly designed to use the military as a pawn in a self-centered political stunt.

The act was among the most cynical and irresponsible of his presidency,  designed to save the president from his own scandals.

Never have we seen a president provoke such chaos in the military, acting with no regard for the welfare of the troops or the security of the nation, with no military justification whatsoever.  Trump’s impulsiveness and self-absorption make him incapable of thinking beyond his self-interest.

The incident reminds us that Trump’s impulsiveness and self-absorption make him incapable of thinking beyond his self-interest.  He would disrupt our military, create havoc among active service personnel and their families, and lie that this was all the military’s idea — just to create another issue to distract from his political woes.

The full article is available here

Trump Family Values - David Remnick in The New Yorker

The country is headed towards a constitutional crisis.  When will Republicans collectively say "enough?" Good question, however Republicans realize that Trump's base is still the core of the G.O.P. electorate, and they dare not antagonize it.

James Clapper, the former director of National Intelligence, said that the Donald Trump Jr Russia e-mails were probably “only one anecdote in a much larger story,” adding, “I can’t believe that this one exchange represents all there is, either involving the President’s son or others associated with the campaign.”

Now the country is headed toward a “constitutional crisis,” Clapper said, and the question has to be asked: “When will the Republicans collectively say ‘enough’?”

Good question. Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, business leaders such as Stephen Schwarzman and Carl Icahn, and a raft of White House advisers, including the bulk of the National Security Council, cannot fail to see the chaos, the incompetence, and the potential illegality in their midst, and yet they go on supporting, excusing, and deflecting attention from the President’s behavior in order to protect their own ambitions and fortunes.

However, they realize that Trump’s base is still the core of the G.O.P. electorate, and they dare not antagonize it.

The Republicans, the self-proclaimed party of family values, remain squarely behind a family and a Presidency whose most salient features are amorality, greed, demagoguery, deception, vulgarity, race-baiting, misogyny, and, potentially—only time and further investigation will tell—a murky relationship with a hostile foreign government.

The full article is available here

How To Sustain Perpetual War? Don't Let U.S. Public See The Bodies - Peter Van Buren

In 1969, Life magazine published a famous edition consisting entirely of portraits of the Americans who died in Vietnam that week. Many subscribers canceled, but many more looked for the first time outside the narrative. The war found its end.

Sustaining America’s state of post-9/11 perpetual war requires skillful manipulation of the public at home. The key tool used for this purpose is the bloodless narrative, a combination of policy, falsehoods and media manipulation that creates the impression that America’s wars have few consequences, at least for Americans.

The bloodless war narrative’s solution to the dead is a policy of don’t look, don’t tell.

Dick Cheney, as Secretary of Defense for George H. W. Bush, helped decide in 1991 the first Iraq War would play better if Americans did not see their fallen return home. He recalled the images of coffins from the 1989 invasion of Panama on television, transposed against the president speaking of victory, and banned media from Dover Air Force Base, where deceased American personnel would arrive from the Persian Gulf.

The ban at Dover lasted 18 years, past George Bush 2.0 and Iraq War 2.0, overturned only in 2009, well after the casualty counts dropped off. Even then, allowing cameras at Dover was left at the discretion of the families.

In 1969, Life magazine published a famous edition consisting entirely of portraits of the Americans who died in Vietnam that week. Many subscribers canceled, but many more looked for the first time outside the narrative. The war found its end.

We are no longer likely to see those nasty pictures. The military has become more skillful at manipulating the media.

The full article is available here

Please Stop Calling Donald Trump A Child - Ryan Stoller from Unfundamentalist Parenting

Children are better than the stereotypes we reduce them to in order to insult others.

The 45th president of America: a man who revels in selfishness, whines when he does not get his way, throws public fits when people anger him, tosses personal insults left and right, and boasts about his genitals.

For these reasons and many others, some people have taken to describing him as “childish,” “like a toddler,” or “like a child.”

This is unfortunate, because children deserve better. Children are better than the stereotypes we reduce them to in order to insult others. Comparing Donald Trump to children is unfair to children. I know many children who are more kind, respectful, and thoughtful than Trump has unfortunately been able to be thus far.

Additionally, when children act in negative ways that mirror Trump, such as throwing tantrums, they have legitimate excuses: they are still developing emotionally, physically, and psychologically.

They are children, which means they are still learning to regulate their emotions. They are still learning right from wrong. They are still adjusting to social mores and standards of communication.

The full article is available here

Republican Strategist Ana Navarro: Trump Is Disgusting, Fixated With "Women" and "Blood"

Trump’s Love Of Alex Jones Should Horrify Conservatives - Progressive American

There was a time when conservatives talked about “integrity,” “honesty,” and “personal responsibility” and may have truly meant it. That ship has now sailed.

Alex Jones is in the midst of a divorce. His wife calls him “unstable” and “violent” based on what he has said on his radio program. How did his lawyers respond?

Randall Wilhite told state District Judge Orlinda Naranjo that using his client Alex Jones’ on-air Infowars persona to evaluate Alex Jones as a father would be like judging Jack Nicholson in a custody dispute based on his performance as the Joker in “Batman.”

“He’s playing a character,” Wilhite said of Jones. “He is a performance artist.”

In short he is LYING to his conservative followers.

Apart from the fact that he is lying to you, one reason this should bother both his followers and others is that his now admitted lies influence Donald Trump. Trump has praised Jones and has actively pushed conspiracy theories that Jones originated.

This should be horrifying to conservatives. There was a time when conservatives talked about “integrity,” “honesty,” and “personal responsibility” and may have truly meant it. I think that ship has now sailed and we have long-ago established that conservatives are cool with lying and liars when they are on their side and they promise them a chance for political power.

In the light of conservative's decades-long pontificating about morality this still stuns me.

The full article is available here

Warmest year on record a hoax because of margin of error? That’s wrong - PolitiFact

A Fox News show co-host said that claims about warmest year are misleading due to the margin of error. Scientists say evidence proves he is wrong. Pants on Fire!

The full article is available here

Why Russia Investigation Matters & You Should Care - NPR

The assessment of 17 U.S. intelligence agencies is that Russia not only tried to influence the election by hacking and releasing emails, but engaged in a full-fledged influence campaign through propaganda to get Donald Trump elected.  Elections are the foundation stone of this country. That's why this matters.

"Please tell my constituents, my neighbors, why they should care — and not just in Washington, D.C., but in Washington state and Texas and Connecticut and points in between — and why should they care, and why do you care, sir?" - Congressman Denny Heck.

Former CIA Director John Brennan's response:

"The fact that the Russians tried to influence resources and authority and power - and the fact that the Russians tried to influence that election so that the will of the American people was not going to be realized by that election - I find outrageous and something that we need to, with every last ounce of devotion to this country, resist and try to act to prevent further instances of that.

And so, therefore, I believe, this is something that's critically important to every American. Certainly, it's very important for me, for my children and grandchildren to make sure that never again will a foreign country try to influence and interfere in the foundation stone of this country, which is electing our democratic leaders."

Russia is accused of not only trying to influence the election by hacking and releasing emails, but engaging in a full-fledged influence campaign through propaganda to get Donald Trump elected. That's the assessment of 17 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Americans should let the conclusions be guided by the facts and allow a rigorous effort to attain them, because there's nothing more fundamental to a free and fair democracy.

That's why this matters.

The full article is available here

AP Fact Check: Trump Tweets Contain Attacks, Not Facts

President Donald Trump can’t be counted on to give accurate information to Americans when violent acts are unfolding abroad.

The full article is available here

Trump's Dump of Ethics Waivers Should End "Drain the Swamp Illusion" - Common Dreams

Former lobbyists from some of the most contentious industries under Trump are given the freedom to influence policy making in those very same arenas.

The full article is available here

Pastors, Not Politicians, Turned Dixie Republican - Forbes

It was religious leaders in the South who solved the puzzle on Republicans’ behalf, converting white angst over lost cultural supremacy into a fresh language of piety and “religious liberty.”

Southern conservatives discovered that they could preserve white nationalism through a proxy fight for Christian Nationalism. They came to recognize that a weak, largely empty Republican grassroots structure in the South was ripe for takeover and colonization.

The full article is available here

Trump Wants Families On Food Stamps To Get Jobs. The Majority Already Work - NPR

When it comes to families on SNAP with kids, a majority — 55 percent – were bringing home wages, according to USDA. The problem is, those wages aren't enough to actually live on.

The full article is available here

 Rev. William Barber Bringing MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign Back - The Nation

Rev. William Barber II announced last week that he will step down as president of the North Carolina NAACP and lead a new national initiative that aims to end poverty and begin what Barber calls 'a national moral revival.'

This new Poor People’s Campaign will pick up where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. left off 50 years ago when he turned his focus to uniting poor people across lines of race and geography and pushing their priorities onto the federal agenda.

The full article is available here

Fact Check: Tim Allen Show Not Cancelled For Political Reasons - Snopes

"ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said on a press call with reporters that she canceled Last Man Standing for the same 'business and scheduling reasons' that led to the cancellation of other shows; including The Real O'Neals, Dr. Ken, The Catch, and American Crime.

The network will soon have another Trump supporter on the air. The network is reviving Roseanne, which will star Roseanne Barr, who said she became a Republican because of Donald Trump."

The full article is available here

Former FBI Director Mueller Appointed As Special Counsel To Oversee Russia Probe - WBUR

"The Justice Department is appointing former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the growing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties to associates of President Trump."

The full article is available here

Trump Reveals Highly Classified Info To Russians - Washington Post

"President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State."

The full article is available here

Trump: President Who Doesn't Know What It Is To Know - George Will

"It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about Donald Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability.

It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence."

The full article is available here

What Is In Trump Care Bill? - Washington Post

"The bill does not spell out either what sort of preexisting conditions insurers may take into account if states seek a waiver from the existing federal law.

But in the past, some insurers had identified domestic violence, sexual assault, Caesarean section and postpartum depression as grounds for either denying coverage or charging higher premiums."

The full article is available here

Trump: "I Thought Presidency Would Be Easier" - Politico

Gee, the most powerful position on earth; who would think that that wouldn't be a piece of cake? A big beautiful piece of cake!

The full article is available here

Donald Trump's File - Politifact Truth-O-Meter

Here's how Donald Trump fares on the Truth-O-Meter:

• Pants on Fire - 16% 
• False - 33% 
• Mostly False - 20% 
• Half True - 15% 
• Mostly True - 12% 
• True - 4%.

The full article is available here

Obama Criticized for $400K Speech To Wall Street - Common Dreams

"While Obama railed against 'fat cat bankers' on the campaign trail, during his tenure as president he oversaw the massive bailout for the firms responsible for the 2008 crisis, picked former Wall Street executives for his cabinet, and not a single banker went to jail."

The full article is available here

Trump's "Swamp Draining" Lags Behind Campaign Rhetoric - NPR

"If 'draining the swamp' means less lobbying, that isn't happening. Since Election Day, the number of new lobbyist registrations is up compared with a year ago."

The full article is available here

How Do Trump's First 100 Days Rate Historically - Politifact

Trump: "No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days."

Facts: "Trump's accomplishments are much less numerous and far-reaching than those of Roosevelt, the standard against whom all presidents are measured. In more recent years, other presidents, including Obama, have accomplished more in their first 100 days than Trump has."
The full article is available here

Trump's First 100 Days: An Entry Level Presidency - NPR

"There have been legislative stops and starts; hectic management in the White House, including infighting between family and advisers and the shortest tenure of any national security adviser in history; and many, many key positions in his administration remain unfilled."

The full article is available here

Nature's Healing - Gerald May at Shalem Institute

No matter how kindly we feel, we will never be able to participate in healing the world around us as long as we keep seeing Nature as something different from ourselves.

We have been fractured. We have been broken off from the nature of the world, broken away from the nature of one another, broken apart from our own nature.

The pain of this breach is so constant that we have become accustomed to it; it feels normal.

The pain is with us every day, when we judge ourselves and others, when we struggle for control, when we draw circles around ourselves that shut others out, when we long for a connectedness we cannot find, when we try to help one another and it’s never enough, and, perhaps most of all, when we go outdoors and feel that Nature is something different from us.

Before we can effectively heal the wounds we have inflicted upon the rest of Nature, we must allow ourselves to be healed. And we must allow the rest of Nature to help us.

I do not know exactly how the healing happens; I only know a little bit of what has happened to me. I am sure you, also, have had some experience of it. It can happen in very ordinary situations, like feeling your hands in the dirt of a garden or lying on your back in a field.

In part, it happens just through the physical touch of earth and sky and growing things. This physical, healing touch has to go deep within us to where we are truly broken. For me, the deep touching happens when my mind stops and my senses open and I am given willingness.

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Return of Dangerous ‘Obama Did Nothing’ Syria Narrative - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

One could make a very good argument that even before Trump’s missile strike, the Syrian civil war was suffering from far too much foreign intervention, rather than not enough.

One of great ironies of our over-saturated media environment is that, often, the biggest falsehoods and most transparent acts of political theater enjoy the most widespread acceptance and demonstrate the most stubborn popularity.

For years, the press has convinced itself—and, by extension, much of the public—that President Barack Obama refused to intervene in Syria after a ghastly sarin nerve agent attack in 2013 violated his “red line” warning about chemical weapons use to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Previously, FAIR (9/5/15) documented how this narrative was mere “fantasy” and that, in fact, “the US has been ‘intervening’ in the Syrian civil war, in measurable and significant ways, since at least 2012—most notably by arming, funding and training anti-Assad forces.”

The Washington Post (6/12/15) reported that the CIA was spending $1 billion a year, or about 1/15th of the agency’s budget, on efforts to train Syrian rebels; the Pentagon had a separate program that spent another half billion dollars on an almost completely useless rebel-training effort that a Foreign Policy analysis (3/18/16) bluntly called money “wasted.”

Several countries—among them the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Russia—have already been intervening in Syria for years, with untold numbers of military staff and materiel to the tune of billions of dollars. In fact, one could make a very good argument that even before Trump’s missile strike, the Syrian civil war was suffering from far too much foreign intervention, rather than not enough.

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Failed Health Care Bill: Republicans Not Ready To Govern - Vox

Paul Ryan spent the latter 1/2 of Barack Obama’s presidency promising to repair the Republican Party’s relationship with the poor (remember Ryan’s “poverty tour”?). He’s spent every day since the passage of Obamacare saying the Republicans could do better.

This is what he came up with? The GOP put their greatest policy mind in charge of the House of Representatives and they got ... this?

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Republicans Kill Health Care Vote as GOP Members Defect - OPB FM

This is what happens when a major political party is gripped by governmentphobia for 37 years - not only does it have no desire to actually govern, it also has no ability to actually govern.

After 7 years of obstructionism and opposition, the GOP doesn't yet have a bill that it can get passed even though it controls both the House and Senate.

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Trump Manipulated Religious Right & Returned It To Racist Roots - The New Republic

By openly embracing the racism of the alt-right, Trump effectively played to the religious right’s own roots in white supremacy, despite that history being something that many current Christian Conservatives are probably not aware of. 

Conservative Christians voted for Donald Trump in record numbers. He won 81% of the white evangelical vote.

As a result, the religious right has effectively become a subsidiary of the alt-right, yoked to Trump’s white nationalist agenda.

The overwhelming support for Trump heralds the religious right - a movement founded to maintain the South’s segregationist “way of life" - coming full circle to embrace its roots in racism, a history that many current Christian Conservatives are probably not aware of.

The religious right was actually galvanized in the 1970s and early ’80s, when the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University and other conservative Christian colleges that refused to admit bob-whites.

By openly embracing the racism of the alt-right, Trump effectively played to the religious right’s own roots in white supremacy.

The religious right, in its support for a thrice-married, self-confessed sexual predator, finally dispensed with the fiction that it was concerned about family values.

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Trump's Lack Of Credibility - The Wall Street Journal

President Trump’s falsehoods are eroding public trust, at home and abroad. However, the President clings to his false assertions like a drunk to an empty gin bottle.

2 months into his Presidency, Mr. Trump’s approval rating is 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.

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Trump May Have Committed Impeachable Offense - Politics USA

FBI Director James Comey debunked President Trump's claim that Obama wiretapped him by saying that the FBI has no evidence that Obama wiretapped him, and that presidents can't order surveillance, which raises the question, was Trump's lie an impeachable offense?

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Trump = I Learned Obama Tapped My Phones From NY Times - Politifact

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, President Trump said learned that Obama tapped his phones from The New York Times. False.

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Trump 'Hard Power' Budget Boosts Military Spending - NPR

President Trump released his budget blueprint, which calls for a boost in military spending, a 28% cut to the State Department, and deep cuts in the Environmental Protection Agency and other programs.

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Hawaiin Judge Halts Trump's 2nd Attempt At Travel Ban - Politico

"U.S. District Court Judge Derrick K. Watson has issued a nationwide temporary restraining order, preventing President Trump's revised travel ban from taking effect at midnight Wednesday."

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Trump's 'Muslim Ban 2.0': Same Flawed, Un-American Mess - Common Dreams

Trump is not fighting terrorism with this ban. He is feeding it.

Trump and his Muslim ban still have a huge uphill battle waiting for him simply because truth, reality, facts, his own quotes, and a country who yearns to uphold American values, are not on his side.

First and foremost, and incredibly damning, are the reports that intelligence analysts from Trump’s own DHS agency dispute Trump’s notion that these countries that are part of the ban pose a major threat to our national security. They found scant evidence that citizens from these countries are a danger to us.

Second, the arbitrary nature of the list of countries in the ban is underscored by the removal of Iraq from the original list. I am glad they removed Iraq and Trump realized they are our allies, but it lays bare that the Trump administration is simply using the “Obama list” of countries that it designated as needing more vetting, as an excuse and not a real reason based on national security measures.

And last but not least, the new “and improved” Muslim ban, just like the first Muslim ban, will not increase our national security. It will do exactly the opposite.

It puts us more at risk and makes us less safe, by allowing radical terrorist groups like ISIS to point to the Muslim ban as a reason Islam should be at war with the west.

Trump’s insistence on the ban gives these groups a powerful recruiting tool that increases the chances of radicalization that can come from anywhere, including (and most likely) from inside the United States.

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Rise Of The European Far Right: Republican Steven King Is A Fan - Pressman

Many Americans may be unaware the the far-right movement has direct ties to the Russian government, which is openly supportive of far-right anti-EU political parties.

A rallying cry of white nationalists like the KKK and the global neo-Nazi movement is that immigration should be restricted because immigrants will change the demographics and the culture of the US or Western European countries -- and immigrants breed.

Republican Representative Steve King, who has been one of Iowa's congressmen since 2003, echoed one of these talking points in Tweets that praised two far-right, anti-immigrant European politicians who are running for office, Geert Wilders from the Netherlands and from Germany Frauke Petry.

While King has tried to downplay the racial undertones to his statements, David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKKK (Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), tweeted out his own endorsement of King's sentiments.

Interestingly, many Americans may be unaware the the far-right movement has direct ties to the Russian government. In fact, the Russian government is openly supportive of far-right anti-EU political parties.

In particular, one of the fathers of contemporary nationalism, Alexander Dugin, has strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian war in Eastern Ukraine, and the American racist who coined the term "alt right" -- Richard Spencer.

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Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked - USA Today

Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues.

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Shell Knew About Climate Change in 1990's, Did Nothing - Bill McKibben

The early shock about global warming soon gave way, at Shell and other powerful institutions, to a more urgent fear: the fear that something might endanger next quarter’s profits.

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Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, didn't disclose - Washington Post

Jeff Sessions in 1998: “I have no doubt that perjury qualifies under the Constitution as a high crime. It goes to the heart of the judicial system.”

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