Trump Trainwreck - Ongoing diary of betrayal and evil

[pbrower2a]

People who voted for Donald Trump knowing what he is deserve the poverty of India and the repression of China. People fooled -- there's hope for them. I share their pain.

We may soon see some odd alliances   -- between liberals and small-government budget hawks who share a common contempt for crony capitalism, or between parts of the Religious Right with liberals on welfare, the environment, and economic equity. Trump is that bad.

[Eric the Green]

(04-05-2017, 11:12 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: Bannon has been demoted (but not fired .... yet).

Stephen Bannon removed from National Security Council

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post...9944304eb8

President Trump on Wednesday removed controversial White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon from the National Security Council, part of a sweeping staff reshuffling that elevated key military and intelligence officials to greater roles on the council and left Bannon far less involved in shaping the administration’s day-to-day national security policy.

The restructuring reflects the growing influence of national security adviser H.R. McMaster, an Army three-star general, who took over the post after retired general Michael Flynn was ousted in February and is increasingly asserting himself over the flow of national security information in the White House.

The new order establishing the structure of the council, which was published in the federal registry, puts McMaster in overall charge of the both the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council headed by homeland security adviser Tom Bossert. Trump’s original order had placed the NSC and HSC on equal footing, with McMaster and Bossert as coequals who could convene and chair meetings of principals and set agendas. Now, Bossert can call and chair meetings only “at the sole discretion” of McMaster, according to the order.

Even as Bannon has been removed from the list, invitees to principals and deputies meetings now also include the deputy national security adviser for strategy. The post is currently held by Dina Powell, an Egyptian-born former national security official in the Bush administration and a Goldman Sachs official whose influence within the West Wing has expanded rapidly.

McMaster has become a rising and blunt force within the White House who has made clear to several top officials and the president that he does not want the NSC to have any political elements and while he understood Bannon’s role, he believed it was not necessary for the president to have him there as the NSC was reorganized under McMaster's leadership.

The move followed days of discussions with top aides, including Bannon, about the scope of the adviser’s role moving forward and it reflects McMaster's more complete takeover of the council and its operations, according to five officials familiar with the decision.

Two senior White House officials said Bannon’s departure was in no way a demotion and that he had rarely attended meetings since being placed on the council..............

[Eric the Green]

Drump nominates yet another alligator to his swamp.

Senators battle over FDA nominee's financial ties
http://thehill.com/regulation/327469-sen...ncial-ties

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration faced repeated questions Wednesday over possible conflicts of interest related to his financial ties to an industry he would be tasked with regulating.

Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee peppered Scott Gottlieb with questions about whether he would be unable to separate himself from the interests of more than two-dozen drug and medical device companies he’s either invested in or consulted for.

“The worry here is that there will be industry-supported reforms that will find a voice inside of the agency because of your connection to the industry,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said.

Murphy brought up an article Gottlieb wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine in which he proposed creating a politically accountable board to decide which drugs get FDA approval.

“It seems like it would be a big gift to the drug industry, being able to use their political donations in order to ultimately put a group of friendlies on a process or commission that decides approval, rather than having that process sheltered from the political process,” he said.

Gottlieb said he believes the approval process has already become politicized and he was simply trying to find a way to make the process more transparent.

“I hope you see it as your role to depoliticize that process,” Murphy said.

Republicans countered with claims that it’s Gottlieb’s experience in the healthcare field as a former physician and consultant that makes him qualified to lead the agency.

“As to his work with companies that have to do with drugs and food, that’s not so unusual for someone who is going to be head of the FDA, and in my view, it helps to have somebody who knows something about the subject,” committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Gottlieb if he would ever let the profits of drug or medical device companies obscure his duty to safety and efficacy.

“Absolutely not, senator,” Gottlieb said.

“I think that’s important because that goes to character, and to me, your honor is on the line when you say that and we can argue back and forth but only you can say tell us that,” Paul said.

Gottlieb promised in an ethics agreement last month to recuse himself for one year from FDA matters that directly impact the more than two dozen companies he’s tied to and divest his financial interests, but he would not commit to Sen. Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) request Wednesday to recuse himself for two years.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), meanwhile, commended Gottlieb for his willingness to give up his financial interests in the private sector for a government job.

“How stupid can you be?” he asked jokingly, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) questioned Gottlieb about Trump’s motives in nominating him to the lead the FDA.

He noted that Trump supported the idea of allowing patients to buy prescription drugs from other countries to lower drug costs while on the campaign trail but nominated someone who wrote an op-ed in Forbes last year arguing against drug importation.

“I find it amazing that Trump says something during the campaign and then appoints people who have radically different ideas,” Sanders said.

Murphy, meanwhile, questioned Gottlieb about whether he would publicly oppose any calls from the Trump administration to create a political commission to look into the idea that vaccines cause autism.

While Trump has not said whether he believes the two are linked, he met with leading vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. just days before he took office.

Gottlieb said the question of whether vaccines cause autism has been exhaustively studied.

“I think we need to come to the point where we accept no for an answer on this question and come to a conclusion where there is no plausible link between vaccination and autism,” he said.

[Ragnarök_62]

Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

[Bob Butler 54]

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy ****, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

Me, I'll ask Powell's Questions again.  Assad just crossed the line drawn by Obama back in the day.  Trump criticized Obama for not backing his talk.  Now, Trump is saber rattling when the same line is crossed.

And Assad is being backed by Russia, by Trump's pal Putin.  I suspect Russia's backing is the major reason Assad is still in power, the major reason why Obama talked the talk but failed to find a good answer to Powell's questions, thus decided not to walk the walk.

I am more than a little curious as to whether Trump will step onto the soil of a Putin proxy when Putin has already got boots on the ground there.

I'm not thrilled standing by and watching civilians being gassed, but I'm with you in that escalating this without a clean resolution in sight would be a bad idea.

[pbrower2a]

(04-05-2017, 09:07 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy ****, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

Me, I'll ask Powell's Questions again.  Assad just crossed the line drawn by Obama back in the day.  Trump criticized Obama for not backing his talk.  Now, Trump is saber rattling when the same line is crossed.

And Assad is being backed by Russia, by Trump's pal Putin.  I suspect Russia's backing is the major reason Assad is still in power, the major reason why Obama talked the talk but failed to find a good answer to Powell's questions, thus decided not to walk the walk.

I am more than a little curious as to whether Trump will step onto the soil of a Putin proxy when Putin has already got boots on the ground there.

I'm not thrilled standing by and watching civilians being gassed, but I'm with you in that escalating this without a clean resolution in sight would be a bad idea.

That is a big bind. First, President Trump cozied up with Vladimir Putin, someone to be kept at best at arm's length. If President Trump does not call for the exit of Bashir Assad for gassing innocent people, then he becomes complicit in the crime.

[Eric the Green]

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

For the millionth time, Rags, the Free Syrian Army and its government arm would replace Assad.

Unless Russia and Iran just make it theirs, and do with it what they will.

We don't know what Drump is gonna do; he's mostly just bluster on everything. But if he does decide to whack something, he won't be polite and ask congress for permission, as Obama did. And then get knocked severely just for asking by the very people who wouldn't support him. Drump's proud that he, as an unconstitutional monarch, won't tell ANY of us what he's gonna do. Or so he says.

Personally, I hope Drump whacks Assad good and hard. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Of course, it could be dangerous if he whacks some Russians in the bargain. That might not sit too well with his puppet master. But, being a Putin puppet might help keep the Russians from attacking him; and us. Meanwhile, I have zero faith that whatever Drump does or doesn't do, will solve anything. And we're not going to war; it's not in the stars now. But a whack on the butt; why not?

""They did chemical attacks," he continued. "Barack Obama did worse than nothing. He said he was going to do something and then didn't. And that clearly gave Bashar Assad license to kill again."

But the comments from Trump and Haley were a shift from a week ago, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Syrian people would determine Assad's fate.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said Tillerson's remarks could have given Assad motivation to launch the latest attack.

"My belief that if you're Bashar al-Assad and you read that it is no longer a priority of the United States to have you removed from power, I believe that that is an incentive to act with impunity," Rubio said at a news conference."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html

This seems just like the worst scenario I saw and wrote here regarding Putin and Europe. Now it's being applied to Syria. Give carte blanche to the aggressor; then turn on him when he takes the bait.

[Galen]

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

I am curious about the deal Trump made with the deep state because this is what the establishment of both major parties have been wanting for years.  It could be about a proposed pipeline that Assad has opposed for years.

[Eric the Green]

Our resident fans of whatever Drump does, no doubt approve of the new Republican standard.

[Ragnarök_62]

(04-10-2017, 12:25 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(04-08-2017, 08:47 PM)Galen Wrote:

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

I am curious about the deal Trump made with the deep state because this is what the establishment of both major parties have been wanting for years.  It could be about a proposed pipeline that Assad has opposed for years.

Quote:Mahahaha! We drugged him, made him worship the secret Black Rock in the UN, forced him to do a Knights Templar blood oath, then, for good measure, we threatened to reveal the wee wee tape. Now ... he's our bitch!

/TheFrankfurtSchoolJewBankerConspiracy!

The pipeline access thingie is a good reason as other.

/The/

Actually, I was thinking of |Der TrumpenphFeeFer und Die SchnitzelPumphenUpfufenMouthenBlizen

macht Die BigbankieshieenShyster , Der DioStatzeburgWienerlschnitzel Frankenfutergblicen.

.sig Wrote:#Leach2020
#Pence2017
#ProsecuteTreason
#HUAC2.0
#RealNationalism
#NaziPunksFOf

Better change your .sig then.

[Eric the Green]

The war room:

[pbrower2a]

The first one went well. The second one? Spare us!

[Eric the Green]

Yeah; which is the kids table, now?

[Galen]

(04-10-2017, 12:25 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(04-08-2017, 08:47 PM)Galen Wrote:

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

I am curious about the deal Trump made with the deep state because this is what the establishment of both major parties have been wanting for years.  It could be about a proposed pipeline that Assad has opposed for years.

Mahahaha! We drugged him, made him worship the secret Black Rock in the UN, forced him to do a Knights Templar blood oath, then, for good measure, we threatened to reveal the wee wee tape. Now ... he's our bitch!

I am not saying anything like that but I think anybody looking at US history for the last hundred years would have to admit that there is a collection of financial and political interests that are pretty consistent and wield great power.  This is why no matter which party or even who is president seems to matter much.  Murray Rothbard used the term power elite to describe the much same thing.

[Ragnarök_62]

(04-12-2017, 03:56 PM)Galen Wrote:

(04-10-2017, 12:25 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(04-08-2017, 08:47 PM)Galen Wrote:

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

I am curious about the deal Trump made with the deep state because this is what the establishment of both major parties have been wanting for years.  It could be about a proposed pipeline that Assad has opposed for years.

Mahahaha! We drugged him, made him worship the secret Black Rock in the UN, forced him to do a Knights Templar blood oath, then, for good measure, we threatened to reveal the wee wee tape. Now ... he's our bitch!

I am not saying anything like that but I think anybody looking at US history for the last hundred years would have to admit that there is a collection of financial and political interests that are pretty consistent and wield great power.  This is why no matter which party or even who is president seems to matter much.  Murray Rothbard used the term power elite to describe the much same thing.

Well, I the term, "Deep State", is the military/intelligence agencies which enact the "power elites'" agendas.  Said Deep State is an unelected assemblage of agencies/private contractors/bought off elected officials who wield the power in the name of stuff like Black Rock,Martin Marietta, Boeing, CIA/NSA/DHS, etc.  There's $$$ to be made in whatever wars happen. "Humanitarian intervention" is just another trope, man.

[Eric the Green]

[Eric the Green]

(04-12-2017, 05:10 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(04-12-2017, 03:56 PM)Galen Wrote:

(04-10-2017, 12:25 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:

(04-08-2017, 08:47 PM)Galen Wrote:

(04-05-2017, 07:54 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote: Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/politics/c...index.html


Oh, holy fuck, both political parties have gone off the deep end.  So you warmongers, just exactly what do y'all expect to replace Assad?  IS, Al Qeada , anarchy? The US should stop this neo-crusade crap and just the hell out of there.  Blow-back's a bitch.

I am curious about the deal Trump made with the deep state because this is what the establishment of both major parties have been wanting for years.  It could be about a proposed pipeline that Assad has opposed for years.

Mahahaha! We drugged him, made him worship the secret Black Rock in the UN, forced him to do a Knights Templar blood oath, then, for good measure, we threatened to reveal the wee wee tape. Now ... he's our bitch!

I am not saying anything like that but I think anybody looking at US history for the last hundred years would have to admit that there is a collection of financial and political interests that are pretty consistent and wield great power.  This is why no matter which party or even who is president seems to matter much.  Murray Rothbard used the term power elite to describe the much same thing.

Well, I the term, "Deep State", is the military/intelligence agencies which enact the "power elites'" agendas.  Said Deep State is an unelected assemblage of agencies/private contractors/bought off elected officials who wield the power in the name of stuff like Black Rock,Martin Marietta, Boeing, CIA/NSA/DHS, etc.  There's $$$ to be made in whatever wars happen. "Humanitarian intervention" is just another trope, man.

You can define the Deep State that way, but overall it simply means career government employees (and contractors) who are long-term and not the recent political appointees.

[Eric the Green]

#7 on Trending
Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight

2,393,782 views

Published on May 7, 2017
Equal access to online information is once again under serious threat. John Oliver encourages internet commenters to voice their displeasure to the FCC by visiting http://www.gofccyourself.com and clicking "express" to file your comment.

Top comments
Joshua Hodson

Is there anyone that Trump has appointed who isn't a corporate sell out?
Reply 152

[Eric the Green]

The libertarians are out to destroy this country and our democracy. It is extremely pernicious. The libertarians mask their totalitarian intentions with deceiving slogans like "the government steals your money and gives it to others" and "businessmen are the creators of jobs." In the name of liberty, they are giving all the power to the bosses who are taking over the peoples' government.

Right now, a huge threat which so-called libertarians and so-called conservatives pose to us, is the destruction of our media. They want to turn the internet into another cable TV network, by destroying internet neutrality which allows us equal access, and also remove all regulations about how many stations that one corporate pig can control, even though the regulations were ALREADY extremely lax and enabling to media concentration. Only media like PBS and Pacifica are still able to tell us the truth, and so it's no wonder Trump and the other corporate stooges and libertarians also want to defund and destroy PBS, so that the only media we get are right-wing alternative-facts and fake news outfits like Sinclair, who virtually (along with Comey and Putin) put the demon Trump into the White House.

It's up to people to disabuse themselves of libertarian propaganda. That is the most important thing any one person can do: to either get disabused of this ideology, or help debunk it. Here is the goods on Sinclair and Trump's FCC and how they are destroying our media and our democracy.




Plus see my essay, one of the clearest essays out there on the free market ideology, which has captured our country now for 40 years: http://philosopherswheel.com/freemarket.html
It also has links to other sources and reports.

[pbrower2a]

This stuff makes me regret that I didn't take up chain smoking when I had the chance.

There's a SincLIAR TV station, a CBS affiliate (and the only CBS affiliate that I can get on local cable) -- and the news on that channel has gone to a n abyss of coverage. That's news reporting that almost goes to the story "the potato crop is coming in". It celebrates new jobs being created at fast-food places.

Tribune is big.