The President's Heart

In the confounding era of a Trump presidency I must wax clear my concerns as a Jewish woman where my sentiments about being a Jew lie, how strongly or not I support the Jewish state now, and my concerns about my Jewishness within a Trumpian administration that is unclear to me in its opaque verbosity against purposeful antiSemitic, anti-Muslim and other racist hate-filled acts that have become more plentiful as Trump's campaign and his assent to the presidency takes place.

I have been politically invariant through the decades. I have through my college years and beyond taken a decidedly left of center seat and remained in that chair ever since formed in part through an empathy with the "other." I was born three years after the most cerebrally indelible event that has been burned into the Jewish mind -- the Holocaust -- which erased from the face of the earth, through unspeakable horrors, 2/3rds of the Jews of Europe. At 10 years old I saw for the first time pictures of the liberation of Auschwitz shown in a Newsreel before the main show in theaters of that era. I became nauseated at the sight. I was thankful to be living in a nation where I thought that would not happen again and where the specter of antiSemitism was, I also thought, gone. My young eyes saw the vicious slings and arrows of Nazism but thought being a Jew in our nation meant I would not have to feel the fear of such a horrific thing happening to me.

In present time, however, and as a politically sophisticated adult the reality of ever present antiSemitism rings true and it is especially true now by the surprising Trump victory and its attendant racial overtones. We are seeing fires at mosques, desecration of Muslim graves as well as Nazi Swastikas painted on houses by thugs as the Trumpian fog of white nationalism hangs in the air of the White House.

Several things about Trump are worrisome. It is more than alarming to me that one of the main actors in the Trump administration is Steve Bannon who not only is in the president's administration with an office close to him but has been promoted to chief strategist and senior counselor. Bannon, the former head of Brietbart.com has been a trafficker in extremist right wing conspiracy theories, sexist beliefs and antiSemitic thought. According to Political Conundrum Forum Trump reorganized the National Security Council which now gives Bannon a regular seat on the principals committee — the meetings of the most senior national security officials, including the secretaries of defense and state.

What does this say about an administration that looks the other way as members of the so called Alt Right give the president a Nazi-like salute, where David Duke KKK arch racist and antiSemite praises the president while "understanding" why Trump cannot invite him in and when the president commemorates National Holocaust Remembrance Day by conspicuously omitting the word Jew or Jewish when mentioning it? It has been my experience that those who are less than sympathetic to the suffering of the Jew as the prime recipient of the Final Solution during the Holocaust often leave out that fact or tell us that there were more than simply Jews who were the recipients of Nazi madness.

It gives me no solace that Trump pays lip service to the support of the State of Israel while advocating for policies that would destroy the Jewish state not help it thrive. Those who think he is a friend
of the Jew because he has a Jewish son-in-law err in their naiveté. His friendship with Putin, no friend of the Jew, and his reliance on Bannon who according to his ex-wife did not want his children schooled with Jews speaks loud and clear as to what the president harbors in his heart if he, in fact, has a heart at all.

Ex-KGB Chief Who Leaked Incriminating Trump Info Found Dead In The Back Of A Car In Russia -- [The Man Who Knew Too Much]

 
By John Prager on January 28, 2017 5:07 pm ·

Trump and his allies expect us to dismiss the 35-page dossier that details Donald Trump and his team’s ties to the Russian government, but a lot of crazy stuff keeps happening that makes it impossible.

When it was just former MI6 agent and author of the report Christopher Steele, who is in hiding to protect himself from both Trump and Putin’s goons, saying that President Asterisk’s closet is overflowing with skeletons (and Russian hooker urine) it was one thing, but the existence of audio and even video of Trump engaging in incriminating acts was confirmed by at least four sources, including one in the American intelligence community. Israeli intelligence officials have also been warned about sharing intel with Trump’s administration for fear that it will be leaked to Vladimir Putin. And then there’s the little matter of what happened to a gentleman who helped Steele compile his incriminating yet not entirely verified report…

Oleg Erovinkin was a former general in the KGB and the FSB. He is suspected of feeding information to Steele, and he was found dead in his car on Boxing Day. Russian state-run media initially reported that foul play was involved when “Erovinkin’s body was “found in a black Lexus… [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin’s body was sent to the FSB morgue.” Since then, the cause of death has been downgraded to “heart attack.” The Telegraph reports:

Erovinkin was a key aide to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, who is repeatedly named in the dossier.

Erovinkin has been described as a key liaison between Sechin and Russian president Vladimir Putin. Mr Steele writes in an intelligence report dated July 19, 2016, he has a source close to Sechin, who had disclosed alleged links between Mr Trump’s supporters and Moscow.

The death of Erovinkin has prompted speculation it is linked to Mr Steele’s explosive dossier, which was made public earlier this month. Mr Trump has dismissed the dossier as “fake news” and no evidence has emerged to support its lurid claims.

The Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Erovinkin’s body was “found in a black Lexus… [and] a large-scale investigation has been commenced in the area. Erovinkin’s body was sent to the FSB morgue”.

No cause of death has been confirmed and the FSB continues to investigate. Media reports suggested his death was a result of foul play.

It was later claimed he died of a heart attack. Christo Grozev, an expert on Russia-related security threats, believes Erovinkin is the key source to whom Mr Steele refers in his dossier.

“Insiders have described Erovinkin to me alternately as ‘Sechin’s treasurer’ and ‘the go-between between Putin and Sechin’. One thing that everyone seems to agree – both in public and private sources – is that Erovinkin was Sechin’s closest associate,” Grozev says. “I have no doubt that at the time Erovinkin died, Mr Putin had Mr Steele’s Trump dossier on his desk. He would – arguably – have known whether the alleged… story is based on fact or fiction.”

“Whichever is true, he would have had a motive to seek – and find the mole,” he adds. “He would have had to conclude that Erovinkin was at least a person of interest.”

At this point, it will be difficult for our own intelligence agencies to get to the bottom of this situation. Recently, for example, Trump decided to retain James Comey — yes, the guy who interfered in the election on his behalf — as the head of the FBI. The Donald also has the power to fire Comey if the ongoing investigation is not positive for Trump. At around the same time as the announcement, the Bureau cleared Michael Flynn of any wrongdoing in his numerous, suspicious calls to the Russian ambassador.

Our country is in a bad place and we need more information to correctly determine what is going on with any of this — information the current administration and his despotic allies will go to any lengths to hide.

Was Erovinkin murdered because of his knowledge of information that could greatly hurt Trump and his BFF Putin? Maybe, maybe not. Putin is exactly the sort of person who has been known to leave a trail of dead journalists in his wake for reporting too much. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that he had a former KGB agent murdered for knowing too much.

Featured image via Getty Images (Drew Angerer)/Twitter

COURT STEPS IN DEPORTATIONS HALTED SOME GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE!!!

COURT STEPS IN DEPORTATIONS HALTED


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/court-blocks-trump-refugee-ban_us_588d4b53e4b0b065cbbc6a6f?xnlfqhm52qpioogvi&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

TRUMP SLAMS THE DOOR--PIC --- PLEASE LOOK AND SCROLL DOWN -- SHORT COMMENT

TRUMP SLAMS THE DOOR

Trump Targets Muslims, Refugees In New Executive Order Issued On Holocaust Remembrance Day

“We don’t want them here,” he said.

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE; TRUMP WILL KILL THIS NATION.  WAR WILL BREAK OUT ESPECIALLY

WHEN HE VOMITS THAT HE WANTS TO STEAL IRAQ'S OIL!!   THIS IS A PRESIDENCY

OUT OF CONTROL.  HE HAS CLOSED VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS, CLOSED THE WHITE HOUSE TELEPHONE LINES, FIRED LONG TERM NEUTRAL STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES AND AMBASSADORS WHO ARE DEDICATED CIVIL SERVANTS OVER MULTIPLE PRESIDENCIES KEEPING US SAFE!!!  HE HAS FIRED
EMPLOYEES OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY AND PLACED A GAG ORDER ON ANY WHO ARE THERE, ORDERED THE SCRUBBING OF
COMPUTERS.  HE IS ALIENATING ONE OF OUR CLOSEST ALLIES, MEXICO, ON OUR SOUTHERN BORDER; HE IS THREATENING TO WITHHOLD FUNDS FROM SANCTUARY CITIES INCLUDING BOSTON; THIS IS NO JOKE.  TRUMP MUST BE STOPPED.  CALL YOUR CONGRESS PERSONS AND TELL THEM EMPHATICALLY THAT THEY ARE DONE IN CONGRESS IF THEY DO NOT OPPOSE THIS -- ESPECIALLY REPUBLICANS BUT DEMOCRATS TOO!!  THIS CANNOT GO ON.  I AM NOT BEING OVER EMOTIONAL.  OUR LIVES TRULY ARE AT STAKE!

RESIST!

PRESSURE CONFERENCE

The "Press Conference" with British Prime Minister May was the shortest ever. Trump read from cards and took only two questions. Journalists on CNN and even MSNBC are going out of their way to put a positive spin on it for Trump.

In my opinion there is NOTHING positive about it as one cannot believe one thing Trump says. Now he says he is okay with torture and thinks it works. Trump says his Defense Secretary Maddis, the former general, says torture doesn't work so now he is going with him. Oh really? I would believe that like I would believe Chris Christie was doing a "traffic study" when he stopped dead the traffic on the GW Bridge.

No one but no one can trust this president as he has shown time and again he will say what he knows someone wants to hear and change his position from the beginning of a sentence to a different posture at the end.  All of a sudden he supports NATO 100%. I DON'T think so as that is NOT what Vladimir Putin wants to hear. Fool me once .... can't get fooled again.

The press is running scared. HOLD POWER'S FEET TO THE FIRE. The proof is not in what the mendacious president says but by what he does!!!

Stop the World I Want to Get Off

Trump in four days has done much to sink a nation. It will not happen today or even tomorrow but expect planetary destruction if not from permanent Middle East war then from the science of indisputable fact climate change.

I will, instead of creating an opus maximus that talks about the progression of egalitarian democracy to Trumpian tyranny list the planet obliterating democracy the killer Trump is winding up to pitch.

In DC land, Herr Trump is busy exercising his writing small fingers skill showing us his signature, the size of Mt. Everest, on every Executive Order he has signed so we can see how important he is.

The XL pipeline and the Dakota pipeline, stopped by the always thoughtful President Obama, are now in a go-ahead process signed by the stroke of a small finger I mean pen by a know nothing, allegedly mentally ill nincompoop who suffered a popular vote loss to a woman by the name of Hillary Clinton. She received, as we know, 3 million more popular votes that he. That FACT sticks in Trump's craw as the man behind the darkest of curtains, resurrected from death his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, to tell us the news media hater Herr Trump actually won because there are after all, she said, "alternative facts" otherwise known as lies that say the opposite. Statistically determined and certified by the Secretaries of State all over the nation conclude voter fraud was non-existent and that Herr Trump's "alternative facts" are incorrect. They are, of course, real to his Trumpian base who believe Trump when he says voter fraud accounts for the 3 million Clinton popular vote triumph. If he told his supporters Democrats conspiratorially knew about and planned for Democratic Martians to come down on a rocket ship from space to vote illegally for Secretary Clinton, Herr Trump's base would believe that too.

Back to the pipelines: There were, recently two big spills one or both in Canada because guess what? Over time pipes leak and like everything on the planet they succumb to age. Oil pipes can also leak even due to human error like our own biggest most catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf which spewed 210 million gallons of oil they could not contain. The effects of it are felt seven years later to this day. When pipes leak or when there is a spill they are hard and nearly impossible to contain with archaic containment booms or worse sprayed from the air with Corexit oil dispersant which poisons the water, fish and wild life further. According to the Government Accountable Project:

"Conclusions from the report strongly suggest that the dispersant Corexit was widely applied in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion because it caused the false impression that the oil disappeared. In reality, the oil/Corexit mixture became less visible, yet much more toxic than the oil alone."

The XL pipes will extend all the way from Canada to Louisiana crossing the nation's mid section. TransCanada's pipeline, carrying tar sands oil, some of the dirtiest oil in existence, is 1,200 miles of pipeline which is the final piece of a 3,800-mile pipeline network the GAO says. What could possibly go wrong? The pipeline in the beginning of its construction will create 42,000 jobs so says Trans Canada CEO, Russ Gerling but at the end will create permanently only 35 jobs. Other clean energy jobs are taking shape so why take the risk? Try on for size money for the industry and campaign contributions for the politicians that's why. I thought Herr Trump was draining the swamp. He can't he IS the swamp. Who needs the EPA anyway when we know private enterprise will never cover up their mistakes. Will they? Answer: YES, they will.

When pipes leak it fowls wildlife and drinking water killing the ecosystem and humans with it. Lets not honor a treaty with the Dakota Soux Native American tribe preserving their ancestral land. Why would be care about them? Andrew Jackson didn't. Despite Trump instructing his EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to shut down its dissemination of information information still gets out. Under Trump EPA regulations will be all but obliterated and certainly not transparent making the poisoning of our lakes, rivers and streams by toxic waste all but certain. Who did Herr Trump nominate for the cabinet position of the EPA? -- Scott Pruit the former AG of Oklahoma and climate change denier. Did I fail to mention Oklahoma is home to oil drilling and fracking for oil creating hundreds of environmentally impacting earthquakes but who cares about a little shaking? Answer: The earth. It HATES it and so should you!

Today, I can hardly wait to see, Herr Trump is going to start ordering the building the Great Wall of America (like China's 2000 year old one) only on our southwestern border to keep Mexicans and other "undesirables" out diverting funds from one thing to pay for another through executive order. Can he do that without Congress? I thought he said Mexico was going to pay for it.  Suggestion: Make a hefty contribution to the ACLU some of whom say they will be hammering him with lawsuits. Meanwhile the wall will have to wind its way through the courts. Herr Trump will soon be nominating an extremist right wingnut justice for SCOTUS. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, please stay healthy or things will not look good in Glocca Morra.

Some think all his cabinet picks will be approved; Senator Sessions from Alabama is a career confederate racist opposer of minority voting rights who never saw a voter suppression tactic he did not like. Betsy Devos for Education Secretary is a know nothing of education but a know everything about her billion buck business Amyway and a religious fanatic who hates public schools but loves for pay charter schools -- stick the public with the tab why doncha and make more billionaires? Trump's cabinet is a who's who of American billionaires.

Then there is Herr Trump blabbering at the CIA about how he won the election and that stealing Iraq's oil -- a war crime -- putting our soldiers on the ground at risk is such a dandy idea. Oh well, maybe the US will have another crack at it says our bone spur military deferment Commander in Chief. Our Iraqi partners WILL turn in an instant against the US soldier Herr Trump claims to love so much and they will bring I bet some choice extremist followers with them. The US will have exactly zero allies and eternal war or worse. Of course making Jerusalem the capital of Israel and returning the US embassy there will THRILL Palestinians--NOT!

There is always Herr Trump's entertaining bromance with Russia's leader Vladimir Putin who has, it seems, something over Trump. What could it be? Conflicts of interest or a cleverly placed sentence in his congratulatory statement to Herr Trump for his victory. He told us how wonderful Russian prostitutes are. Is this a warning across the Trumpian bow for Trump to play or pay -- dearly? Where is that sex tape when you need it? Expect NATO to be weakened with Trump's lovemaking to Putin letting Russia run roughshod over Ukraine and the Baltic states building back their lost empire once again to the ecstatic joy of Putin's people in his homophobic paradise of Russia.

Almost forgot, Herr Trump will let in no Middle East refugees from "terrorists nations" i.e. Muslims from wars this nation began and were snowballed in the Middle East. Destitute, shattered and demoralized there is no room for them in the Christian Inn of America even though the wars from which they are running have been in large part because of the Iraq (and elsewhere) US policy failure.

Yes, it will be a new day and America will be Great Again. Or in the alternative relegated to the ash bin of history. Meanwhile planet earth is warming much faster than scientists thought as an ice shelf in Antarctica is about to break off sending billion of gallons into our seas and at some point Mar a Largo, Herr Trumpf's Florida estate, will be under water -- hopefully with him in it. Can someone stop the world I want to get off before it ends?

The Implication of the wall and a bit more

If anyone thinks a mega expensive wall on the southwestern border is the answer to the alleged immigration issue they are dead wrong - emphasis on dead. Here are three opinions blogged on Facebook (including my own) about the wall, taxing goods coming into the country, taxing companies that send businesses/jobs to Mexico and what the ramifications of doing these things will be.

One more thing: To add to the chaos of American foreign policy vis a vis Mexico is the fact that Trump this weekend will speak with Putin, his beloved. It is rumored that the sanctions against Russia that Obama reimposed for hacking and other things will be removed or relieved improving the Russian economy leaving Russia the freedom, with Trump looking the other way, to move into at least the Ukraine and the Baltic states embracing a return or at least the beginning of a return to the old Soviet empire. As one American ambassador put it: Trump is moving the world to a "war footing!" Is it too fear-mongering to say Poland, Hungary, Romania, et als beware? Back to the wall:

Larry Brancato We are the ones going to pay for it [the wall], but Trump supporters are to stupid to see it, if he puts a 20% tax on imports we will be paying more for everything from Avacados, to kiwi, from strawberries to tomatoes, from machinery to medical equipment. The tubing my mother uses for her breathing machine come from Mexico. And the workers making products for export to Mexico will also get the shaft, because Mexico will tax imports. So while Trump says their paying for it in the end the American voter will be paying for it [and a trade war will begin.]

Natalie Rosen You are 100% CORRECT, Larry. Mexico will NOT pay for the wall. That is the issue or one of them in addition to the fact that if the Mexican economy is screwed by our action their economy just coming back from the doldrums will again be propelled into an economic downturn. So it means that Mexicans will again be desperate for jobs. Illegal immigration has already been curtailed by a Mexican economy that is improving. IF the US ruins that then it will jet propel more "undocumented" workers coming into this country and this gd wall that people think will work so swimmingly to keep them out WON'T! Life finds a way. This is a CRACKPOT "solution" by a CRACKPOT president to a NON problem that an immigration bill from Congress would fix but as usual Republicans care nothing about doing that or care nothing about anything that helps those in need period but they love their government health care/retirement options, love their government paychecks, and love all their billionaire lobbyists that fill their coffers with millions.

At the heart of Romney's con is tribalism pure and simple. The nationalists want to keep America white and not brown. In every way the American consumer is going to get the shaft! Trump is less than smart, understands nothing or just plain does not care and refuses to read and learn. He is an amoral man who has zero empathy or even curiosity as to what his policies will mean. It means a trade war will begin as Mexico will increase their tax on imports. Our once friendly neighbor to the south will NOT be so friendly and they will find other countries like Nicaragua, China or even Cuba from which to buy and sell their goods. America is NOT indispensable. Joy Reid said it best. It's NOT the Mexican worker that is the problem for the American worker it is and will be AUTOMATION and ROBOTICS that will kill American jobs!

The Damage Done

I was sent the following.  I went over each and every bullet point and believe this list is accurate.

The swift and aggressive actions are broad-reaching. Here's the latest comprehensive account.
"In only 6 days, look at the damage this repulsive person America elected has done and it is surely not over yet: To recap:
* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

  *On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

* On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy.

* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen.

* On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations.

* On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics.

* On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition.

* On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press.

* On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.”

* On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news.

* On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back.

* On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option.

* On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China.

* On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote.

* On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in.

* On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote.

* On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history.

* On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts.

* On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House.

* On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote.

* On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.”

* On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways.

* On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources.

And today: the wall and a Muslim ban.

HOW TO FIX CONGRESS!!

Someone who knows finance is asking everyone to forward this email to a minimum of 20 people, and to ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in the United States will have the message. This is an idea that should be passed around.

Let's see if these idiots understand what people pressure is all about.

Salary of retired US Presidents .. . . . .. . . . . .. . $180,000 FOR LIFE.

Salary of House/Senate members .. . . . .. . . . $174,000 FOR LIFE. This is stupid

Salary of Speaker of the House .. . . . .. . . . . $223,500 FOR LIFE. This is really stupid

Salary of Majority / Minority Leaders . . .. . . . . $193,400 FOR LIFE. Stupid

Average Salary of a teacher . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. .$40,065

Average Salary of a deployed Soldier . . .. . . .. $38,000

Here’s where the cuts should be made!

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in five minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election".

The 26th Amendment ( granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds ) took only three months and eight days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971 - before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took one (1) year or less to become the law of the land - all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffett is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2017

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman / woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.

2. Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 3/1/17. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women.

Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and go back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, then it will only take three days for most people in the U.S. to receive the message. It's time!

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

If you agree, pass it on.
Chat Conversation End
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HOPE AND CHANGE!

THIS PUTS A SMILE ON MY OTHERWISE SAD FACE! 
http://www.nbcnews.com/…/women-s-march-washington-echoed-ci…

'In this together': Women's March in D.C. echoed around the world

Armies of demonstrators, equipped with their convictions and voices, lined up by…

nbcnews.com|By NBC News

IMPEACH TRUMP!!  GOD KNOWS THERE IS ENOUGH TO IMPEACH HIM ON.

CALL YOUR LEGISLATOR EVEN REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS AND DEMAND MR. EVIL BE ACCOUNTABLE JUST LIKE ANY OTHER PERSON.  HE IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW!!!!

The Final Letter

Comment of Occupy Democrats: By Colin Taylor. I could not have said it better than this introductory thoughts by Colin. The president's letter below it, of course, speaks for itself. "Today, the hearts of millions of Americans are heavy with dread and loss as our beloved President Barack Obama prepares to step down and hand over the presidency to a serial sexual predator whose legitimacy is already in serious question, as greedy oligarchs plot to gut the social safety net and the controls of our nuclear weapons and public schools are placed in the hands of idiots."

But we can take heart and hope from President Obama’s parting letter to the American people; while it is a painful reminder of the graceful and compassionate leader we are about to lose, he promises to be with us every step of the way and to stay strong in the face of an increasingly dark future.

He also charges us with a sacred task – to throw ourselves into the “joyous work” of citizenship, of coming together to fight against hatred and greed, to uplift and embody the values that made American one of the greatest nations this world has ever seen, to work to better the lives of ourselves and our fellow citizens, no matter their race, gender, sexuality, creed, or ethnicity.

My fellow Americans,

It’s a long-standing tradition for the sitting president of the United States to leave a parting letter in the Oval Office for the American elected to take his or her place. It’s a letter meant to share what we know, what we’ve learned, and what small wisdom may help our successor bear the great responsibility that comes with the highest office in our land, and the leadership of the free world.

But before I leave my note for our 45th president, I wanted to say one final thank you for the honor of serving as your 44th. Because all that I’ve learned in my time in office, I’ve learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.

Throughout these eight years, you have been the source of goodness, resilience, and hope from which I’ve pulled strength. I’ve seen neighbors and communities take care of each other during the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes. I have mourned with grieving families searching for answers — and found grace in a Charleston church.

I’ve taken heart from the hope of young graduates and our newest military officers. I’ve seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and wounded warriors once given up for dead walk again. I’ve seen Americans whose lives have been saved because they finally have access to medical care, and families whose lives have been changed because their marriages are recognized as equal to our own. I’ve seen the youngest of children remind us through their actions and through their generosity of our obligations to care for refugees, or work for peace, and, above all, to look out for each other.

I’ve seen you, the American people, in all your decency, determination, good humor, and kindness. And in your daily acts of citizenship, I’ve seen our future unfolding.

All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into that work — the joyous work of citizenship. Not just when there’s an election, not just when our own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime.

I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.

And when the arc of progress seems slow, remember: America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We the People.’ ‘We shall overcome.’

Yes, we can.

Michael Moore 100 Days of resistance

Restores my faith!!!!
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/michael-moore-100-days-of-resistance-to-trump-starts-now-857912387545

Cartoon--Trump's Healthcare plan You will laugh and

then cry


http://www.dailykos.com/…/-Cartoon-Trump-s-health-care-plan…

A LETTER TO MY GAY FRIEND

I am reading over some of your messages and I must say you are NOT alone. I am along side you. Every day I get up is a day I know there will be more of the creature who is not my president, to hear and more to see. We will see him and hear about him for at least four more years. The ONLY thing that helps my significant anxiety and depression laid at the feet of this utter electoral debacle is the fact that we have known -- all of us of a certain age -- have known the life we were forced to lead when the revelation of our truth meant danger to us in so many ways. I survived that time and you did too and MOST of us I aver survived it as well.

We live now with the thought that rights gained with our blood, our sweat and our tears we had before will be taken away or maybe given to the states to decide. Even so, we STILL have more rights and will keep more rights than we did so many decades ago. The generations following us will see that remains so.

In whole -- and I believe this -- that while the courts surely can help us but may now reverse course we STILL remain truthful to our cause and to our spouses if we are lucky enough to have them. Some things they cannot no matter how many laws they pass or how many rancid excuses for human beings screaming against us from the pulpit they have, or how many court decisions may be handed down they STILL cannot take away what we think, what we feel and whom we love.

I believe, maybe I'm wrong I don't know, that Trump will not set his obliterating sites on us. We'll see. Maybe some of his Court appointees will not hurt us. It has happened before that a once conservative justice turns fair where human rights are concerned. 

Almost no one straight I know does not have a sibling, a friend, a cousin, a mother, a father, a teacher, a neighbor, even their own child or someone else they know and love who is gay. I have to believe we are better off now than we ever were before. Keep fighting!

Donald Trump is Going to be Impeached -- Mike Malloy UNCENSORED--PART 1, 2, and 3

Mike Malloy is a LOATHER of Trump as I am. He does, however, not spare the profanity that I personally would not use so continuously. I send it out because without the profanity Mike Malloy would not be Mike Malloy like the late Lenny Bruce would not have been Lenny Bruce. Malloy happens to be, on substance, in my opinion, more often than not correct. He also possesses the passion that I feel. I try not in my communiques to be profane but there are times when something is SO bad, SO objectionable and even life threatening that one should, as the great John Lewis says, SPEAK UP! If you are offended by his speech I urge to "delete." If not then I urge you to listen!

Mike Malloy on Trump Uncensored:


Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrjdLxRZ6o

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrjdLxRZ6o

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrjdLxRZ6o

Who's who in Trump's cabinet.  Feast your eyes but be sure to have a Rolaids or Tums as it could make you physically sick!   RESIST and never give in!

 
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/11/politics/new-cabinet/

Who’s in Trump’s Cabinet?

RESIST

https://youtu.be/FB14HbLmKf8
This is why we are so pissed off."Donald Trump isn’t “draining the swamp.” He’s inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters in the



 front door – turning them loose on our government and our economy. Donald Trump’s word – his promise to the American people – is worth nothing. Today I spoke on the Senate floor about Trump’s decision to hand over the government to the worst kind of DC insiders and special interests. Take a look."

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Senator Elizabeth Warren: President-Elect Trump Already Broke Promise to "Drain "Donald Trump isn’t “draining the swamp.” He’s inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters in the front door – turning them loose on our government and our economy. Donald Trump’s word – his promise to the American people – is worth nothing. Today I spoke on the Senate floor about Trump’s decision to hand over the government to the worst kind of DC insiders and special interests. Take a look."

 https://youtu.be/FB14HbLmKf8

To Tell the Truth

This is an interview of Matt Taibbi by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now conducted today. (See link below) I just Kindled the book Matt Taibbi wrote entitled "Insane Clown President -- Dispatches from the 2016 Circus." Taibbi is brilliant, knowledgeable, qualified and an eminently principled investigative journalist. I urge you to get his latest book and/or listen to this interview.

As guardians of our nation's policy both foreign and domestic, it is important that we tell truth to power and that especially good journalists tell truth to us. It is from them we acquire much of the knowledge we have since most of us cannot go behind the scenes to get it. We the people choose what we read and to whom we listen. I try to read and listen to the most knowledgeable, humane, intellectually credentialed persons I can find. It is sometimes hard ... I would say VERY hard ... to get all the facts right. Moreover, some things to me have been intuitive.

Trump is doing just what I thought he would--filling his cabinet with the apex of rich men (and one woman.) It is the richest cabinet in this history of our nation filled not only with oil magnates and alleged inside traders, right wing extremist attorneys but also with his own whipping boys, Goldman Sachs. How his minions cannot see the hypocrisy of this I will never know. What does that say as to how he will govern? It is no surprise to me. I knew the king of mendacity could never be believed nor trusted when he utters his seemingly populist faux message to his base. At the risk of redundancy, he lies ALL the time. He will not clean the swamp as I have said many times. He IS the swamp.

Investigative journalist, Matt Taibbi, will tell you honestly, cogently and I believe objectively what the Trump is really like as he chronicled it in 2016 . You would do well to listen and/or read what he has to say.


https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/17/insane_clown_president_matt_taibbi_chronicles

Thoughts of two authors

I remember as a youth seeing Thornton Wilder's "Our Town." It left me with its profundity but it also left me with a feeling of sad foreboding as the characters of "Our Town" leave it in death one by one. In other words, all that one loves and with which one is familiar cannot be taken for granted as it will, one day, be taken from us including ourselves. I walked out of the theater as a youth chilled convincing myself that play surely did not apply to me. But it does apply to me and to everyone who is blessed for a short time to see this planet. The play teaches and provides us with a rule to take nothing for granted. Tell those whom you love that you love them while you can; try to forgive those you do not love if you are able. Our life says the 16th/17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbs is short. It is no less true today than it was then. Carpe diem Latin for seize the day says the Roman poet Horace (thank you, Wikipedia, for his name) and "do not ask for whom the bell tolls" says Ernest Hemingway. "It tolls for thee."

Ernest Hemingway in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" has much to say about war. In this book the Spanish Civil War at first imbues a sense of excitement for those who want to and will fight it for the glory of the cause as some, especially in the south, felt about entering the Civil War. Soon they learn the awful reality of war. In our time we see and fear war and yet it is still fought by some with a great joy of purpose and even as General James "Mad Dog" Maddis, soon to be Trump's Defense Secretary, talks about a sense of the joy he has for killing. Yes, he really said that. Hemingway avers quite the opposite that those who came into the war with a sense of ebullience soon lose it. The ebullience withers on the vine of violence and all the devastation it brings. How many signed up for the Iraq War with joy and patriotism only to be returned broken in body and spirit some returning in coffins of the dead. I rather subscribe to our Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman's edict that "War is Hell" which admonishes me to fight against ugly policy that convinces us to fight it and use all the powers of the written word I have to stop it.

YNET: U.S. Intel Officials Tell Israel Not To Share Info With Trump Administration Haaretz

From the Forward -- (Haaretz) Israeli intelligence officials are concerned that the exposure of classified information to their American counterparts under a Trump administration could lead to their being leaked to Russia and onward to Iran, investigative journalist Ronen Bergman reported by Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on Thursday.

The intelligence concerns, which have been discussed in closed forums recently, are based on suspicions of unreported ties between President-elect Donald Trump, or his associates, and the government of Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

As Russian intelligence is associated with intelligence officials in Tehran, highly classified information, such as Israel’s clandestine methods of operation and intelligence sources, could potentially reach Iran. Such information has been shared with the United States in the past.

American intelligence officials expressed despair at the election of Trump during a recent meeting with their Israeli counterparts, Bergman reported. They said that they believed that Putin had “leverages of pressure” over Trump, though they did not elaborate. The American media reported on Wednesday that Russia has embarrassing intelligence about the president-elect.

According to Bergman, the American intelligence officials implied that Israel should “be careful” when transferring intelligence information to the White House and the National Security Council (NSC) following Trump’s inauguration – at least until it is clear that Trump does not have inappropriate connections with Russia.

Cooperation between the Israeli and U.S. intelligence communities has intensified over the past two decades, with most of the joint operations directed, according to reports, against Iran. Hezbollah and Hamas were also intelligence targets. An official agreement in 2008 for comprehensive cooperation, including the exposure of sources and methods of action, reportedly led to impressive results, including the disruption of the Iranian nuclear program.

A Note to the NYT-- Final Thoughts -- The Obama in whom I fell in love

The dignity of the president and his entire family cannot be overstated. I was with him politically from the beginning in 2008 and said so. The New York Times at that time printed my enthusiastic opinion of him from the start of his campaign because I was in awe of his brilliance and in love with his grace, charm and humanity.

I am more solidly enveloped in those Obama characteristics now than I was even then. I want to hang on to every moment there is left of his administration and hope he continues to spread his kindness, eloquence and warmth in the days ahead helping to breathe life into the Democratic Party once again.

His successor would do well to study the Obama legacy as Mr. Trump's modus operandi has been quite the opposite of President Obama's. Trump's crudity, rudeness, coarseness and mendacity is an embarrassment to the nation and the world.

I agree with John Lewis, Trump is an illegitimate president, in whose shadow team Trump cannot even walk. The start of Trump's presidency is marked with controversy dedicated, as the Republicans have been all along, to doing everything possible to thwart the humane legacy Barack Obama has bestowed upon this nation in the shadow of a treasonous alliance with a Russian butcher, Putin, to steal an election so Putin can run roughshod over Eastern and maybe even Western Europe. Trump refuses to show his tax filings and we know auditing is not the reason why. This shadow on Trump's presidency will NOT disappear into morning's light unless authoritative non partisan investigations take place and uncover buried business secrets perhaps on Russian soil and about which Russia knows something or a videotape of vile activity emerges. It would not shock me if it did as past is prelude.

I lament the passage of time allowing a crudeness of character to enter the White House. May our nation survive the onslaught of the next four years. Barack Obama, this Jewish woman loves you today and she will love you if she could live forever. Thank you, Michelle and your children for giving us the best that humanity has to offer. I will miss you all very much!

Obama Ends Exemption for Cubans Who Arrive Without Visas

According to the NYT-- LINK to the story below: "[The President] Thursday said that he was terminating the 22-year-old policy that has allowed Cubans who arrived on United States soil without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency, an unexpected move long sought by the Cuban government."

“Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with U.S. law and enforcement priorities,” By taking this step, we are treating Cuban migrants the same way we treat migrants from other countries.”

"The move places a finishing touch on Mr. Obama’s efforts as president to end a half-century of hostility between the United States and Cuba and to establish normalized relations and diplomatic ties with a government American presidents have long sought to isolate and punish."

MY COMMENT

I am not Christian BUT I love the humane side of the New Testament and also love the Beatitudes alleged to have been said by Christ. Again, born Jewish and matured into a significant agnostic my thoughts on this are NOT about religious dogma but they are about a standard I have set for myself many years ago. The Golden Rule is something I strive to live by as is Rabbi Hillel's teaching “That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah, The rest is commentary." Those two religious sages for me cement my humane ideological bent. I run into difficulty when my belief runs up against, on this issue, the pitfalls of reality. 

Can the US accept all those carte blanch who need to escape national brutality or the forces of nature? Half the world would want to come to our shores and what nation could support those millions who are desperately in need of help. I want to help everyone who needs it but to grant that just to Cubans fleeing a miserable dictatorship if nothing else is unfair to those millions in, for example, Haiti who are devastated by grinding poverty, natural disasters and dying from medical neglect. 

This is, of course, for Obama a political decision relaxing decades of US alienation toward the Cuban government which I support. I try always to walk in another's shoes to see how they fit but if the shoes do not fit I am sometimes prohibited by reality to change them. Cuba is changing. Life, I hope, for Cubans will improve in their own nation!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/world/americas/cuba-obama-wet-foot-dry-foot-policy.html?emc=edit_na_20170112&nlid=75028030&ref=headline&_r=0

The Trumpian Tunnel

In the evening when I am the most upset about all of the Trumpian madness I get into a nice warm flannel sheet bed with a microwaved warmer and just lie there feeling the enveloping heat and try to shed my uber sadness about things political and worries about things to come.  I throw off the 500 pound weights that sit on my shoulders letting go all of the fear sweeping my mind free of it.  It works ... for me. That's my way of dealing with this political nightmare and the rest of the international nightmares I feel hovering overhead from it.

I turn on the news in the a.m. to learn Republicons, with pieces of stone for hearts, began to repeal Obamacare.  My heart sinks and I want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.  20 MILLION will be kicked off healthcare and, of course, the rancid Trump said yesterday that he will have the "best plan" to replace it. He is the best of everything and those who help him manufacture his evil, of course, are the best and the most wonderful of everything the Midasman of hyperbole says he touches.  It is his usual hyperbolic exaggeration and, naturally, he never gives the details of policy.  His dogs swallow the Trump steaks whole.  They love it no matter how hurtful or odious it will be for the country.  Those clapping allegedly were members of his team and not a horde of average fawners of everything Trump. It was no surprise brilliantly staged like his emergence onto the political scene by riding down the escalator of Emerald City.  The Wizard of Oz employed his cronies working behind the curtain to pay those who knew nothing of him and the utter racist divisiveness he would bring.  They stood then in ignorance, clapping and carrying Trump signs not understanding the extremist right wing terror he would unleash.  There are no words angry enough I can use to indict him or hostile enough to spew my contempt for this Beelzebub curse invading our nation.

I get tired of fighting, I get tired of the constant opposition and anger, tired of listening to racist deplorables regurgitating constant lies and stupid things.  Laughing, if it were not so sad, Trump rails about fake news but, in fact, he began the fake news of lies when he told for years of Obama's non-citizenship and said he had investigators all over the world finding, of course what else, "amazing" things about it. It was ALL lies.  He lies ALL the time.  He spews a blizzard of lies making it a whiteout of impossibility to challenge him on any of it IF he will even let media, whom he deems unfriendly or critical of him, utter a question to him about anything.  Even when he does answer his cerebral robotic computer is in campaign mode flooding us with staged volcanic feel-good-to-his-base non-answers but now the difference is he soon will be president.

I actually feel bad for the press.  He wants to negate the truth-telling many do well.  Some of the reporters covering him look tired.  Yesterday, one Republican representative collapsed and Senator Diane Feinstein needed a pacemaker placed in her chest.  Many, covering this Republican lunacy of Trump and the non stop Senate consent hearings for his often unqualified cabinet posts, look sad and fatigued, perhaps, even scared, at least to me. But part of our electorate -- millions -- follow him no matter how hurtful and mendacious he is. Now we know how Hitler arose ... no he's not Hitler ... but the comparisons to Fascism's advance in Europe dispel the incredulity I always had for its emergence in Germany.  If one controls dissent one controls everything and the Nazi Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's henchman, stated just that and I quote: 

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Yes, it can happen here.

I am sitting here, between writing, staring into space because I do not know what to do or how best to resist but continuing to write more of the many opinions I have written since 2004.  The nation, I fear, is dying, and trying to save it from so many Trumpian lies and conflicts assaulting it by the Master of Mendacious is difficult to perfect.  Perfect it, though, we MUST by any and all means legally necessary.  I plod on hoping beyond hope that the fire Trump sparked to kill our nation will eat itself and burn out.  We MUST RESIST even when the end of this dark Trumpian tunnel seems so far away. 

The Latest Trumpian Vesuvian Eruption

The latest conflicts horror of the Trumpian Russia mess is pockmarked with salacious perverted details of a Russian set up of Trump for blackmail to achieve Russia's international ends. I cannot write about it .... yet. 1) We need proof and 2) The salacious details are too embarrassing to me. Buzzfeed has reported all 35 pages of it because that is what Buzzfeed does. It is easy enough to google but disgusting to read.

Below is the Huffington Post reporting which in my opinion is a more believable source without salacious details. Still we need to know the truth and there are 10 days until inauguration. If guilty of any of it the tragedy will become, in epic form, Shakespearian.


How To Understand The Bombshell Report On Trump And Russia... REPORT: FBI Sought Warrant To Monitor Trump Aides...

6 MORE SENATORS SAY SLOW DOWN ON OBAMACARE! -- WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP OTHER MADNESS

6 MORE SENATORS SAY SLOW DOWN ON OBAMACARE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/gop-senators-obamacare-repe…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/gop-senators-obamacare-repe…

Oh my god I think I'm going to faint. This is the first positive news (outside of the Ethics Office reversal) I have read in it seems years but let's say weeks since Drumpf won something he never should have won and to which he is unfit -- the presidency (See link above.) As the reversal of the shutdown of the Ethics Office by Republicons shows WE CAN SEE THAT RESISTANCE WORKS, CALLING WORKS, BECOMING INVOLVED WORKS!! Never give up, never give in, keep the pressure on this unethical rancid administration and the GOP controlled House and Senate who seem to fall in line and are frightened of Drumpf. Make sure they do NOT fall in line by making your opposition known, heard and felt!!!!! AND OH BY THE WAY JOIN THE MILLION WOMAN (AND MEN) MARCH IN WASHINGTON A DAY AFTER THE NOT-TO-BE-WATCHED-INAUGURATION OF THE WORST PRESIDENT IN POST CIVIL WAR AMERICA HISTORY.

Other insane, mean, ridiculous GOP bills that MUST be stopped: An end to the CFPB (Consumer Protection Financial Bureau), and The Reins Act:

The Reins Act By David Roberts of the Gist written in 2013 and oh so relevant today:

[REINS] would require that every “economically significant” federal regulation (one that has an annual impact of $100 million or more) be affirmatively approved by Congress. Again: no rule would go into effect until it has been voted through by both houses of Congress and signed by the president. If a regulation is not voted on within seventy legislative working days of being sent to Congress, it is “tabled.” That is, it dies.

It’s difficult to overstate how radical a change this would represent for U.S. government. It would subject fifty to a hundred regulations a year to the partisanship, rancor, and gridlock of Congress. Every rule would be a new opportunity for lobbying and industry influence. Worse, legal observers say the bill does not clearly prohibit a filibuster in the Senate, raising the possibility that a determined minority of forty senators could effectively shut down federal rule making. REINS would not overturn the Clean Air Act or shutter the EPA, but it would end forward momentum in environmental law, freezing it in place.

Obviously Republicans are FLOODING Democrats with a plethora of outrageous legislation to overwhelm us and try to force us into retreat. NEVER RETREAT, NEVER BACK DOWN, NEVER SURRENDER your life to legislation designed to hurt the middle class and the poor and hand even more outrageous power to Republicons. DO NOT LET THEM. KEEP CALLING, KEEP BLOGGING, KEEP WRITING AND KEEP PROTESTING THEIR disgusting attempt to hurt us and help the 1% billionaires to gargantuan sums of cash but who need no help. They occupy all the seats of tremendous power. They have entered the halls of power in overwhelming numbers by lying to the American public about what they intended to do. They are NOT here to help you. They are here to take all FROM you. 

There are no words for Republican mendacity and their planned eradication of the middle class while taking all we possess with them killing America and its American Dream!

Thank you for being you -- Sheer Poetry

http://www.dailykos.com/…/-Meryl-Streep-gives-anti-Trump-sp…

Meryl Streep gives astounding anti-Trump speech during Golden Globes—with note to media (Video)

"Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose." — Meryl Streep Always forthright, elegant and…

dailykos.com

The woman is GORGEOUS inside and out. She is a BRILLIANT genius in motion and her words at the Golden Globe, an indictment of Trump without stating the swamp creature's name, were STUNNING. I could have listened to her into the wee hours of the morning. She is a shining light of humanity. When we get down and think the world and those who own it make humane change impossible think of Meryl Streep. She buoyed my soul!! Thank you, Dame Streep, for being you! Click on the video link if you have not heard her magnificent words!

Poor Trump: TRUMP IS POOR AND PUTIN KNOWS IT + My Comment

Newsweek

The following report is a reprint from Daily Kos; My Comment is at the end

DAILY KOS

We tend to flag, or at least strongly resist speculation here, especially when one speculates as to facts that might support a theory. But, with respect to key aspects of Trump’s business status, and the potential conflicts with the Office of the President, we must speculate, because he simply won’t provide the facts to questions that must get asked.

So, I’m going to speculate, thus;

Trump is not only, “not a billionaire,” he carries so much debt that, relative to his hard assets, he’s poor, especially with respect to cash flow through cash intensive investments such as resorts, etc, where one has to pay large monthly bills to keep the lights on and the greens, well — green. In any given quarter, Trump faces situations where he doesn’t have the cash to keep up “appearances” and must borrow cash, at whatever rate, to maintain the cloak of worth, I mean wealth … I mean, the wealth that makes up his self-worth.

I’m not a CPA. I’m a lawyer, but not one with any business experience. This is truly a layman’s “speculation” and experts here can tell me that I’m wildly wrong – which would be good. I look forward to learning. But, let’s start putting some real easy facts all in one place, ones we all agree don’t even need citation at this point.

1. We know that he promised to “self-fund” his campaign, and yet not only did he not “self-fund” it, he charged HUGE fees to his campaign to use Trump property. We also know that he never had anywhere near enough campaign money. From the beginning, the “billionaire” had the “poorest” campaign.

2. He promised to donate all that money made in one evening to veterans groups, and had not done so when checked-in on, months later. (This is part of the larger pattern, a “Foundation” that he never paid money into, and hadn’t paid a lot of real money out of, one under criminal investigation. Most true billionaires have real foundations with real people who really help various causes because it helps business. It’s more polite to be worth billions if one can point to the appearance of “doing good” and yet Trump can’t even do that).

3. Upon winning the presidency, one of the first things he did was set up cash cow, meet/greets with his sons and various other tawdry behavior.

4. Even as President-%ucking-Elect he sells tickets to his New Years Eve party. Yet another potential conflict boil-up.

4. We know he took risks that could get a guy thrown in jail — paying off the Florida Attorney General $20,000 to drop the investigation into his Trump University and when he did it, he did so in yet another way that could get a guy thrown in jail — having his “charity” pay for it.

5. By the way, just what the %uck is a “billionaire international real estate developer” doing even setting up something as stupid as a “U” to begin with? Never mind “Trump Steaks” – Unless one simply needs easy cash?

My point is, at every single point where he could have simply made his life easier by “not charging” or “avoiding a conflict” or “staying out of jail,” he’s gone with the move that carried the most risk but picked up five figures, over and over. No, I don’t think it all can be blamed on being short-fingered.

Which leads to two relevant questions. Speculation: What if, the real reason that Trump can’t “divest” himself of his business interests is because “divestment” would leave bare that he still owes more money than he has? He’s insolvent. What if he’s willing to put up with dancing the “Presidents can’t have conflicts” line because the alternative is “My debts outweigh my assets. I’m not rich, once one has stripped away the 757 jet and gold toilet, and I’m not willing to do that.”

Of course, I’m speculating, and I’m not a CPA or CFP. And, of course, you can simply read what people who are, actually, CPAs and valuation experts, people at Bloomberg, and see what they think (they still think he’s rich, but note his debt doubled). But, Bloomberg basis its findings on something I’m not willing to trust — Trump’s reports, and specifically, they trust he’s accurately reported his debts. I find my lying eyes far more trustworthy. I scan the landscape and cannot escape one fact. Trump takes ruinous risks, monthly, to pick up $10K here or $20K there.

He has to. He’s poor.

And Putin knows it, and can prove it.

I’m speculating. Our President-Elect is free to “prove” me wrong.
_________

My Comment: What I have been talking -- no screaming -- about for weeks, the Daily Kos opinion basically sums up! There is a method to the Trump/Putin bromance. I'll make it easy: Trump is into Russia through Russian bank loans he desperately needs that US banks often will not loan to him. Beyond Russian banks he has business dealings with Russian oligarchs and allegedly, even, from what I have read the Russian Mafia whoever they may be. We need Trump's tax returns we will, of course, never get.

Putin wants sanctions lifted and he wants the Russian empire back as it was before the fall of Communism. Having a US president on Putin's side helps IMMENSELY to achieve his goal by first, the weakening if not destroying NATO. This would allow Russia a free hand to go anywhere it wants and usurp power especially in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia AND it could again annex the Ukraine all part of the old Soviet empire without worrying that the US backed by NATO would step in to save the day. With NO US interference it would, indeed, be so much easier to achieve at least one of Putin's goals while becoming a hero to his people as well. Moreover, with NATO weakened or extinct, the destabilizing of Western Europe possibly is in Putin's cross-hairs. He supports right wing Parties in western Europe fighting against Europe's left or center left he knows will weaken her. And what does Trump get? I am alleging he gets forgiveness of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt he owes to Russian banks, oligarchs and more. It will allow him free rein to operate his businesses without Russian interference anywhere. It's pay to play on a GRAND scale allowing for the expansion of Trump's many many conflicts of interest because no one has the fortitude or the power to stop him.

This is who the American electorate because of some know nothing voters in three states has unleashed upon the world. For good measure he will allowing corporations to keep drilling that oil in the Arctic and denying climate change. Watch sea temperatures rise some more. We will soon see what happens when part of the Antarctic ice shelf continues to break off ultimately raising sea levels that will someday soon drown coastal areas and take cities with it!! What Trump will do to avoid it all? Answer: NOTHING! What will we do? Answer: RESIST!