Tag Archives: Donald Trump

media news, national news, political news

Feuding in Trump White House? Go figure

No Drama Obama has given way to All Tumult Trump.

CNN is reporting that the president of the United States is unhappy with the performance of White House press secretary Sean Spicer. What’s more, there appears to be a turf war building within Donald J. Trump’s inner circle: The Reince Priebus wing vs. the Steve Bannon wing.

Who knew?

Does anyone really doubt any of this?

Trump himself has demonstrated an amazing capacity for stirring up controversy. He seems unable to control his own mouth, let alone anyone else’s.

This all occurs, of course, after Trump pledged to surround himself with the “smartest people” on Planet Earth.

The Priebus wing of the Trump team seems to be the more reasonable folks. Priebus is the former Republican National Committee chairman whom Trump hired as his chief of staff. Priebus is a party guy, well-connected to the GOP’s “establishment wing.” He’s always seemed reasonable to me … even if I have thought he was wrong.

Bannon? He’s of another stripe altogether. He was a flame-throwing editor of Breitbart.com, and a purveyor of white-nationalist rhetoric. Bannon strikes me as a dangerous individual who’s now on the “principals committee” of the National Security Council.

Ye, gads, man!

Trump administration officials dispute the CNN report about Trump’s supposed unhappiness with Spicer. Sure thing. Of course they would.

The rumors and innuendo persist. Ironic, yes? Trump won his party’s nomination largely on the basis of the innuendo he tossed around against his foes — and then he did the same thing to defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general election.

It’s coming full circle.

legal news, national news, political news

Trump vs. The Judges: Pulling for the folks in the robes

Donald J. Trump’s fight with the federal judiciary could be shaping up to be a donnybrook.

The president instituted a temporary restriction on travelers seeking to enter the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries; then U.S. District Judge James Robart in Washington state struck it down, prompting Trump to call Robart a “so-called judge” and said the nation should blame him if a terrorist sneaks into the country and does harm.

There’s more. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing the Trump administration’s appeal and the three-judge panel that heard the case is sounding skeptical of the president’s order.

The plot thickens. If the 9th Court rejects the appeal, then it goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, which at the moment stands at eight members. Suppose, then, that the high court deadlocks — with the four conservative justices voting in favor of the ban and the five liberals oppose it. The lower-court ruling stands.

There’s some chatter now about whether the Supreme Court will be affected in some manner by the untoward things the president has said about the federal judiciary.

Has Trump crossed a serious line? Some scholars believe the president’s Twitter tirades against Robart in particular and the federal bench in general crosses the separation of powers line between the judicial and executive branches of government.

Get a load of this from The Hill:

“The criticism extends beyond judicial scholars.

“Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) warned that Trump’s attacks, if they continue, threaten not only to undermine the separation of powers but also the president’s own policy agenda.

“’We’re a nation of laws and not men, and this idea of ‘follow me because I say so’ is completely at odds with the Founding Fathers’ intent,’ said Sanford, a Trump supporter who has also criticized the president on certain issues.

“’I learned a long time ago in politics [that] attacking the person or the group that will decide your fate on a given issue generally doesn’t work out that well,’ he added.”

This is yet another matter of governance that the brand new president just doesn’t seem to understand.

education news

Betsy DeVos for ed secretary? No way!

I know it’s still a long shot, but I am going to implore the U.S. Senate to “just say ‘no'” to “Billionaire Betsy” DeVos as the next secretary of education.

Just as I believe Donald J. Trump is still unfit for the presidency, he has chosen an equally unfit individual to lead the nation’s public education program.

I emphasize the word “public” for what I believe is a valid reason.

DeVos has zero direct exposure to public education.

She was educated in private schools. Her children have attended private schools. DeVos has talked openly about creating a voucher program for parents, allowing public tax money to subsidize the private education of their children.

Her Senate committee confirmation hearing revealed DeVos’s utter ignorance of public education policy. She believes we should arm teachers with firearms to supposedly deter gun violence in schools.

The president can do far better than to nominate someone other than DeVos, whose only “qualification” has been the large amounts of money she has raised for Republican politicians — including the president himself.

Two Senate Republicans — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — have said they won’t vote for DeVos. That puts the count at 50-50, assuming all Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them, vote against DeVos.

Will there be another Republican senator with a conscience who’ll realize that the president has made a mistake in nominating this know-nothing to run the Education Department.

I am hoping one can emerge.

Then the president can look for someone who knows something about the agency he or she would lead.

International news

How about that? Trump unifies Congress!

Donald Trump has done something his immediate predecessor as president, Barack Obama, couldn’t do: He has brought Republicans and Democrats together for a bipartisan resolution.

Members of Congress have introduced a resolution reaffirming this nation’s support of Australia. The bipartisan resolution comes in the wake of that ridiculous phone call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that reportedly ended when Trump hung up on the PM.

We have few stronger allies than the Australians.

Why the president chose to scold Turnbull is beyond most of us who pay any semblance of attention to such things. The Hill reported that Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., stated, “but I do know this, the people of the United States do not have better friends than the people of Australia. We’re more than friends.”

Trump reportedly lashed out at Turnbull during a phone call between Washington and Canberra.

Indeed, Australian military personnel have fallen on battlefields alongside Americans in every war going back to World War I. As Sen. Alexander noted, “We’re more than friends.”

And so the president continues to give Russian butcher/strongman/president Vladimir Putin a pass on his conduct while enraging our nation’s strongest allies and, in the case of Mexico, an important neighboring nation.

Hey, the president said he would “unify” the nation. He seems to have achieved a unity of sorts on Capitol Hill.

Go figure.

International news, military news, national news, political news

Trump implies media covering up for terrorists

Now he’s done it.

Donald “Smart Person” Trump has suggested that the media are covering up terrorist attacks that have occurred against innocent victims. The president went to Central Command headquarters today ostensibly to express his support for our fighting men and women.

So … what does this guy do? He tosses yet another lie onto the firestorm he is trying to stoke.

What’s more, he has actually impugned the patriotism and loyalty of the people who report the news to the public.

Isn’t that just grand?

Trump — as is his modus operandi — cited not a shred of evidence to back up his allegation. He just said it. Boom! That’s it.

According to CBS News: “The president began talking about how ‘radical Islamic terrorists are determined to strike our homeland’ as they did on 9/11, in the Boston bombings and in San Bernardino. He said it’s also happening ‘all over Europe’ like in Paris and Nice.

“’It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. In many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons and you understand that,’ Mr. Trump said.”

It’s not even being reported?

Their reasons? I’m all ears, Mr. President. I am waiting with bated breath to know what those reasons might be.

Is it because the media are actually terrorist sympathizers? Do they want the bad guys to succeed? Do they actually favor the death and misery being inflicted on innocent victims?

What in the name of all that is holy is this clown suggesting?

legal news, national news, political news

Trump draws bead on another federal judge

Let me see a show of hands: Has anyone out there ever seen or heard a president of the United States attack individual members of the federal judiciary?

I didn’t think so. Me neither.

Donald “Smart Person” Trump is setting a new — lower — standard for behavior.

A judge in western Washington state, James Robart, has stopped the president’s ban on refugees from certain countries. The Department of Justice is seeking an injunction against Robart’s ruling. That’s all normal reaction.

What is quite abnormal has been the president’s Twitter tantrum, calling Robart a “so-called judge” and saying if “anything happens” because a criminal sneaked into the country, we should blame the judiciary for it.

You’ll recall how as a candidate for president, Trump took on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel because of his Mexican heritage. Curiel is presiding over a case involving Trump University. Trump said the judge couldn’t adjudicate the matter fairly because “he’s a Mexican, OK?” Actually, the Indiana-born jurist is as American as Trump.

Trump needs lesson on presidential behavior.

Trump as a candidate behaved disgracefully. Now that he’s president, he is expected to conduct himself with dignity and decorum. He isn’t. Trump continues to launch into these Twitter-borne tirades against a duly appointed federal judge.

Indeed, it is reasonable to question whether the president is trying to coerce another member of a co-equal branch of government into doing his bidding.

I believe such activity — if it’s ever alleged — would be illegal. As in against the very laws the president took a solemn oath to defend and protect.

International news

The Wall won’t keep them out

A friend of ours who grew up in South Texas has some strong feelings about Donald J. Trump’s “big, beautiful wall.”

We had dinner with him and another friend this evening and we chatted about this and that — shared a few laughs along with a few groans.

Then our conversation turned to Trump’s wall. Our friend was blunt.

It won’t work.

It won’t keep out the criminals.

It is a foolish gesture meant only to appease those who voted for the president of the United States.

Our friend is a highly educated man. He has family still living in South Texas, not far from the Rio Grande River. Build a wall? Who’ll pay for it? The president says Mexico will foot the bill. How is that going to happen on a structure meant to be built on the American side of its lengthy border with Mexico.

This good buddy of ours has considerable knowledge of life along our border. I’ll accept what he knows and what he has seen.

He acknowledges that the bad guys — the drug dealers and human traffickers — already have carved out extensive tunnel networks all along our southern border that would enable such activity to continue.

Moreover, my pal has asked, how is the president going to stop illegal immigrants from entering from either end of the U.S-Mexico border — from splashing ashore from the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico?

Just think, Trump believes he can underwrite construction of the wall by levying a 20-percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico. Who pays the tariff? You and I do — when importers pass the increased cost of the imports to their American customers.

Yep, that’ll show them Mexicans.

International news

GOP wonders: Is the president really one of us?

Donald J. Trump’s doubling down over whether Russian strongman Vladimir Putin deserves his “respect” has drawn criticism from expected and — in the eyes of some — unexpected sources.

The surprise seems to be coming from congressional Republicans who are none too happy with the president’s equating U.S. and Russian behavior.

Some have called Trump’s seeming defense of Putin’s history of murder and mayhem an indefensible position.

According to Politico: “He’s a thug,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of Putin on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The Russians annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine and messed around in our elections. No, I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does.”

There’s also that issue of alleged murder of journalists and dissidents in Russia.

Trump’s interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly has been broadcast tonight and it appears to illustrate quite graphically the president’s misplaced priorities in our geopolitical relationships. Putin is a bad guy, but the president wants the United States to “get along with Russia.”

Politico reported further: “I’m not going to critique the president’s every utterance,” the Senate leader said. “But I do think America is exceptional, America is different. We don’t operate in any way the way the Russians do. I think there’s a clear distinction here that all Americans understand, and I would not have characterized it that way.”

Trump doesn’t get it. He isn’t going to acknowledge the United States’ continued status as the greatest nation on Earth. He has vowed to “make America great again.” I would submit that giving the Russian thugs who run things in the Kremlin a pass on their behavior is no way to restore a level of greatness that’s not been lost.

Are the Republicans in Congress finally going to start asking themselves: Is this what we really want in a commander in chief?

International news

Now it’s O’Reilly who’s sounding rational

Have you ever noticed how hell occasionally freezes over? It happens at the most unexpected times.

For an example: Fox News’s Bill “Blowhard” O’Reilly now sounds like the rational, reasonable one while talking to Donald J. Trump about Russian strongman/president Vladimir Putin.

O’Reilly interviewed the president and it will be broadcast tonight before the Super Bowl. In the interview, O’Reilly asks Trump if he respects Putin. Trump says he does; he adds that respect doesn’t mean necessarily that he likes him. O’Reilly then calls Putin a “killer,” to which the president responds that the world is “full of killers” and then asks, rhetorically I presume, “Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

Holy crap, Mr. President!

It’s one thing to say it while you’re running for president, sir. It’s quite another when you actually are the president, representing — despite what you might have said to the contrary — the “greatest nation on Earth.”

The president actually seems to equate the allegations that Russian government goons have killed journalists and political dissenters with activity that occurs on our side. Have our forces killed innocent people by mistake? No one denies that. Putin’s thugs, though, reportedly have engaged in some quite different behavior for many years. I cannot find a lick of symmetry here.

I hope to watch the entire interview tonight. But from what I’ve been able to glean from reporting on it, the president — yet again — has crossed another line that separates decorum from demagoguery.

national news, religious news, State news

They burned a mosque … where’s the outrage?

Someone torched a mosque in Victoria, Texas several days ago. No one was hurt but the house of worship is destroyed.

Did I miss the statement of outrage from Donald J. Trump? Did the president issue a statement of condolence for the families affected by the fire? Did he offer federal support to local law enforcement agencies as they investigate the cause of the fire?

I don’t recall hearing it. He must have been too  busy tweeting about other matters, the big stuff: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sagging ratings for “Celebrity Apprentice,” or the “so-called judge” ruling against his refugee ban.

We are living in hyper-contentious times relating to people’s faith. The president’s ban on refugees is aimed at seven countries that comprise a mostly Muslim population. He wants to invoke “extreme vetting” of all immigrants.

Then a mosque is burned to the ground.

Community rallies for unity

Granted, there has been support expressed by community members in the South Texas city. Victoria residents have rallied to help the families who worship at the Victoria Islamic Center. They deserve high praise for the rallying that has occurred.

As the Texas Tribune has reported, the support has been ecumenical in nature: “Just hours after the fire, Victoria’s Temple B’Nai Israel offered its synagogue for local Muslims’ five-times daily prayer needs. Similar proposals followed from three Christian churches and the owner of an empty building in town. After initially accepting some of those offers, the Islamic Center is preparing an adjacent building on its property — cramped, but unburned — for prayer. That move delays plans to open a free weekend medical clinic in that structure.”

But in this time of national angst over matters relating to religion and the president’s aim to target Muslims seeking refuge in the United States, a statement of condolence from the Oval Office would resonate loudly across the nation.

Wouldn’t it?