Trump is increasingly irrelevant

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...ly-irrelevant/

One of these things is not like the others....

National Security and Homeland Security Veterans:
Statement Endorsing Vice President Biden for President 2020

https://thesteadystate.org/

Donny’s new Mexico policy will slash US food supply during coronavirus crisis, farmers warn
“This threatens our ability to put food on Americans’ tables," the American Farm Bureau says

https://www.salon.com/2020/03/19/tru...-farmers-warn/

Because he’s such a stable genius. No doubt Fucker Carlson and the Faux “News” gang are praising this newest racist policy.

Fresh fruits and veggies will at least around here be a luxury for awhile.

They have eyes to see & ears to hear, but don't.
 

Seeing how some Americans steadfastly hold onto whatever tRump and his GOP cohorts tell them it mystified me. I really couldn't wrap my head around this. Then I began to think back to my history lessons where during WW2 when people on Japanese islands were told by the Japanese government that the evil Americans were coming to rape, torture and murder them. They were so convinced of this that they chose to commit mass suicide rather that submit to the "invading Americans".

Missed this alien invader this time!


BIG TIME!

Donny's Priority Is Making Sure Someone Else Takes the Blame If Things Go Bad
That's why he jumped on Fox "News" to say states have to take the lead in responding to a global pandemic, even though that is not possible.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politic...e-ventilators/

Piece of shit.

A Bonanza for Rich Real Estate Investors, Tucked Into Stimulus Package

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bonanza-r...122407900.html

So, despite provisions preventing the Trump Crime Family from benefiting, they will benefit. Bigly. :mad:

Jared Kushner’s company can’t collect rent from East Village building without proper paperwork, judge rules

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...7by-story.html

Awwwwwwwww.... :p

Fact check: Donny falsely denies saying two things he said last week

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/29/polit...ing/index.html

:rolleyes:

Donny blocks coronavirus bailout oversight even before it can start

https://www.latimes.com/business/sto...lout-oversight

But of course! He can't allow anyone to oversee his illegal skimming to family and friends!

Trump Organization, hit by virus, tries to delay loan payments

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-organiz...032815512.html

Hence the desire to hide how the $500B is doled out. Donny doesn’t want the Russian mafia breaking his legs...

Heather Cox Richardson
6 hrs ·
April 3, 2020 (Friday)

Quite the Friday night news dump today. At about ten o’clock tonight, Trump notified Congress he has fired the Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.

In September 2019, Atkinson made sure Congress knew that then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire was illegally withholding from the congressional intelligence committees a whistleblower complaint. Atkinson had examined the complaint, as required by law, and had determined it was “credible” and “urgent” and so sent it on to the acting DNI, who was supposed to send it to Congress. Instead, Maguire took it to the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Barr stopped the transmission by arguing that since it was a complaint about the president, and since the president was not a member of the intelligence community, the complaint shouldn’t go forward. And we know where it went from there.

Now Trump has fired Atkinson. The key paragraph in the letter informing Congress of his action reads as follows: “It is extremely important that we promote the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of Federal programs and activities. The Inspectors General have a critical role in the achievement of these goals. As is the case with regard to other positions where I, as President, have the power of appointment, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General.”

This paragraph is doing a lot of work. The reference to economy, efficiency, and effectiveness should be read with the knowledge that Trump fired Maguire, who was thought to be a Trump loyalist, in late February after the chief election security advisor in his Office of the Director of National Intelligence delivered a classified briefing to Congress warning that Russia was already interfering in the 2020 election to help Trump.

Trump replaced Maguire with a fierce partisan, another acting DNI because he will have trouble making it through the Senate because he has no experience in the intelligence sector, which the law requires the DNI have. This man, Richard A. Grenell, has not given up his other government position to take the DNI job; he is still the US Ambassador to Germany.

Grenell had been vocal about his belief that the idea of Russian interference in US elections is a hoax, and as soon as he took office, he requested intelligence information on Russia and began bringing in his own people, including a key staffer, Kashyap Patel, who had worked for Devin Nunes (R-CA) and insisted that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that had attacked our 2016 election. (The intelligence community says this is false, and is Russian propaganda.)

Grenell immediately froze hiring at the ODNI, prompting accusations that he was purging the agency of career professionals and replacing them with Trump loyalists. While Grenell denied it saying he was simply promoting efficiency, the accusation seemed supported by a tweet from Don Jr., who wrote that “4 internal studies in the past 2 years have said the DNI needs to be reformed. No one has done it. [Grenell] is now starting to do it.”

On March 10 Grenell’s people briefed Congress with an assessment that said the opposite of the earlier one, claiming there was no proof Putin was working on behalf of Trump.

So the statement that Trump is simply streamlining the intelligence community has a subtext.

The sentence reminding Congress that Trump has the right to fire Atkinson is also working hard. The law requires 30 days notice to the congressional intelligence committees of such a removal, but Trump fired Atkinson abruptly and then immediately put him on administrative leave, so he is effectively removed. Thus Trump is circumventing the guardrail put into the law to make sure we do not have an abrupt change in our national intelligence without congressional input. And, of course, Congress is not in session because of the coronavirus, permitting Trump to act with impunity.

This is especially problematic right now, as the Supreme Court announced today it will not hold oral arguments in April because of the coronavirus, so the pending cases concerning whether investigators can access Trump’s finances to investigate crimes and his insistence that none of his advisors can be compelled to testify before Congress are all on hold. He is clearly feeling free to flirt with lawbreaking while the court is inactive.

The sentence announcing that he no longer has “the fullest confidence” in Atkinson is also working hard. Why has his confidence faded? Why now? Is there something that was about to come out and he wants to keep it hidden? It was the intelligence community that repeatedly tried to get him to take the coronavirus seriously; perhaps there is a whistleblower complaint over that. In the chaos over supplies it seems likely that there is profiteering going on; perhaps someone knows something about that.

Or perhaps this is part of Grenell’s longer strategy to stop any investigation of Russian attacks on the 2020 election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not dropped his determination to end the US sanctions imposed on the country after Russia invaded Ukraine, sanctions that hit oligarchs, especially Putin, hard. These sanctions were at the heart of Putin preferring Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and have been key to much of our international affairs ever since.

One of the stories that has flown under the radar this week is that Russia is asking the United Nations to drop sanctions around the world to enable nations better to combat Covid-19. An initial resolution to that effect sponsored by Russia said “We are resolved to cooperate in addressing the disruptions to international trade and the market uncertainty due to the pandemic, mitigating the damage caused to the global economy by the spread of COVID-19, and promoting economic growth throughout the world, especially in developing countries.” The spokesman for Russia’s UN Mission, Fedor Strzhizhovskiy, said the Russian declaration was “result-oriented,” unlike the “general” one it sought to replace.

The European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Ukraine objected to the adoption of the Russian declaration, with Ukraine noting that the declaration was an attempt “to abuse humanitarian goals to plant a mine under international sanctions applied in response to gross violations of international law.”

But that is only Russia’s opening gambit. It is hard not to see the planeload of supplies Russia donated to New York this week after Trump and Putin spoke last Friday as an attempt to illustrate the benefits of lifting sanctions so Russia can work with other nations. The ventilators on the plane were produced by a company under US sanctions, meaning that US firms and people are barred from doing business with it; sending those ventilators to our eager hands was a propaganda victory for Putin. Further, it was unclear whether the payment for the supplies came from the US or from Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, also under sanction. A senior US official said that the United States had purchased the supplies outright, but also noted that sanctions did “not apply to transactions for the provision of medical equipment and supplies.”

The UN Security Council will meet to discuss the pandemic next week.

For me, the kicker of this entire post is that I already had a full list of things to write about before Trump fired Atkinson. While we are all focused on the pandemic, there is a lot going on.

Trump wrecking the intelligence agencies may be among the worst things he does. That and McConnell's judiciary will be gifts that keep on giving for a long time.

If he had the leadership qualities of an FDR or Winston Churchill, nobody would give a fuck what he looked like.
As a vainglorious lieing media clown troll, he begs for ridicule. Who'd think roughly 40% of the public would be gullible or vindictive enough to put him in the WH. I expect there will be considerable buyers remorse on the powers granted him by the "party of values" when his powers for vengeance end, the rest of the true believers can go fuck themselves for foisting their grossly incompetent vicious petty tyrant on the rest of us.

Donny removes independent watchdog for coronavirus funds, upending oversight panel
The move comes as Trump makes a broad push against inspectors general scrutinizing his actions.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...t-panel-171943

Of course he does. No doubt Fucker Carlson and the gang at Faux "News" are cheering him.

They figured out they can just fire these Inspector Generals if they make trouble.

This Is Trump’s Fault
The president is failing, and Americans are paying for his failures.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...ilures/609532/

Publisher of hydroxychloroquine study touted by Donny says the research didn't meet its standards

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/healt...udy/index.html

Sorry, Donny, you're full of shit, as always.

Donny's self-interest is at odds with safe coronavirus policy

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-ho...navirus-policy

Jon Meacham: Donny like a "churlish monarch".

https://youtu.be/Lp9I8wS3GqA

With Each Briefing, Donny Is Making Us Worse People
He is draining the last reserves of decency among us at a time when we need it most.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...people/609859/

As Hotels Offer Coronavirus Aid, Trump Properties Stay Quiet

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020...o-nothing.html

‘It Is the Decision of the President’: Donny Falsely Claims He Can Order Governors to End Coronavirus Lockdown

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/...irus-lockdown/

Is this from some "liberal" "fake news" outlet? Nope, it's from the often nutty, right-wing National Review...

Heather Cox Richardson
5 hrs ·
April 13, 2020 (Monday)

It might be fair to say that today’s events started on Saturday, when the New York Times published an in-depth examination of “Trump’s Failure on the Virus,” with the heading: “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming.” Six reporters dug into emails, interviews, documents, and reports to reveal that “the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic” beginning in January, “but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response.”

Also this weekend, Trump vowed to “reopen” the country, despite warnings from his public health advisors that ending measures to slow the rate of coronavirus infection could be deadly. He is eager to restart the economy, the health of which he sees as key to his reelection, by May 1. On Sunday night, he tweeted: "Governors, get your states testing programs & apparatus perfected. Be ready, big things are happening. No excuses! The Federal Government is there to help. We are testing. More than any country in the World. Also, gear up with Face Masks!" (We are not testing more than any country in the world.)

But while the president can order federal workers back to their jobs, decisions about state closures and public health belong to state governments, not the president, and state governors have been saying so. This morning, Trump tweeted: “For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect…. It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons.” He has said that he would announce his “Opening the Country” economic task force Tuesday.

Alarmed at Trump’s repeated insistence that the nation needs to end the physical distancing that has slowed Covid-19, state governors on both the east and west coasts announced today they have made pacts to work as a unit to manage the return to normalcy “in a safe, strategic, responsible way,” based on facts and science, as California Governor Gavin Newsom put it. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Connecticut in the East, and California, Washington, and Oregon in the West, have agreed to cooperate, and they have invited other states to join them.

This was a huge shot across Trump’s bow. He repeatedly told governors they were on their own to manage the coronavirus then set up a system in which the federal government often seized their supplies when they tried to do so. Last week, Newsom made it clear he was through trying to work with Trump. He referred to California as a nation-state and suggested he would work with other states to get medical supplies. Now states are organizing to operate without the president.

When he gave his briefing today, Trump was visibly angry at both the New York Times story and at the governors’ pact. He began by playing a video for the reporters that celebrated his handling of the coronavirus crisis and blamed the media for downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic in its early days. CBS News reporter Paula Reid pointed out “Your video had a complete gap. What did your administration do in February…?” She refused to let up. He called her fake. With 23,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus—that have been officially counted; many more are dying without an official diagnosis—Trump refused to admit he had made a single mistake. Instead, he blamed his predecessor, President Barack Obama, for the lack of masks in the strategic national stockpile and the lack of testing kits and insisted, “I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Then he took on the question of whether he or the governors got to reopen the states. Trump repeatedly asserted that right was his, and his alone. “When somebody is President of the United States,” Trump said, “the authority is total.” When a reporter asked what provisions of the Constitution gives the president the power to open or close state economies, he could not name one, but answered: “Numerous—numerous provisions. We can give you a legal brief if you want.” “The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I'll use that power -- we'll see ... I have the absolute right if I want to.” Trump's repeated assertion of dictatorial power actually sounded desperate to me, as if he were trying to regain control of the governors. Trump does not, in fact, have the power to do anything he is asserting, and his bluster will not hold up unless the governors relent. Trump repeatedly emphasized that he had a great relationship with the state governors, and was hoping to be able to work with them.

There were other bad signs for the president today, too. The evening before last week’s election in Wisconsin, the US Supreme Court ruled that the election must go forward despite the fact that many absentee ballots had not been delivered and that the virus had forced closures of the majority of polling places in Democratic districts. At stake was a contested seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which will be deciding a key voter suppression case before the 2020 election. Wisconsin Republicans had worked hard to tilt the playing field to throw the election to their candidate. They failed. The Republican incumbent Daniel Kelly, appointed by Republican Governor Scott Walker and endorsed by Trump, lost badly to Democratic challenger Jill Karofsky. While the court will keep its conservative majority, Karofsky will likely help to kill the voter suppression measure. The triumph of a Democrat in this election, despite all the efforts to rig it, should worry Trump.

So should the fact that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders today endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president. Sanders will have gotten concessions from Biden just as other candidates did, which should help the process of building a broad coalition for the Democrats in 2020. Also troublesome for the Republicans in 2020 is that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has signed laws to expand voting in his state. Higher voting numbers help Democrats. "Voting is a fundamental right, and these new laws strengthen our democracy by making it easier to cast a ballot, not harder," Northam said. "No matter who you are or where you live in Virginia, your voice deserves to be heard."

The Supreme Court announced today it will hear the cases concerning Trump’s finances after all. The justices were supposed to hear oral arguments in March on the question of whether the president and his financial advisors must obey subpoenas from the House of Representatives and a New York prosecutor. Trump is arguing that a president cannot be investigated for criminal activity while in office. The case got postponed by the pandemic, but it’s now back on the table.

And finally, today NPR followed up the New York Times article with an investigation of how successful Trump has been in fulfilling the promises he made a month ago when he declared a national emergency to fight the spreading infections. It concluded that those promises were largely unfilled. Tonight the White House responded to the story, saying that the president had taken “bold and decisive actions” to lead the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

This could get violent. Trump might try blockading 'rebellious' states. If he stopped food supply, that could not be tolerated....

US's global reputation hits rock-bottom over Trump's coronavirus response
International relations expert warns policy failure could do lasting damage as president insults allies and undermines alliances

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...mp-coronavirus

Amazon’s lawsuit over a $10 billion Pentagon contract lays out disturbing allegations against Trump

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazo...145924302.html

In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Donny's name printed on stimulus checks

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...2b7_story.html

Sick fuck.

Donny threatens to adjourn Congress to get his nominees

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...eed_story.html

I'm guessing even Moscow Mitch will block this attempted power grab.

Welcome to the Banana Republickan States of Amerikkka, Chicks. Maduro and his ilk have nothing on Trump.

Donny's move to strip $400 million from WHO amid the coronavirus is just the propaganda windfall Russia, China, and Iran have been hoping for

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...ing-cut-2020-4

Doh! F'ing moron.

Donny’s Next Propaganda War: Who Gets Counted in the Coronavirus Death Toll

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...-motality.html

Puerto Rico, was just a warmup for this.....:eek: