Trump Hit Squad Discrediting Legitmate Journalists deemed 'Hostile' To Him

Good Day World!

The assault on America's mainstream media has entered a scary new phase.

Trump operatives have formed an organization that is devoted to publicizing damaging information about journalists who write anything negative about Trump.

Arthur Schwartz, a combative 47-year old conservative consultant and informal adviser to Trump Jr., is one of the main players in the campaign against Trump's detractors. 

It's the latest step in a long-running effort by Trump and his minions to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting.

Trump's new hit squad has been busy compiling dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country's most prominent news organizations.

This hit squad of alt-right wackos has already released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The one thing the three outlets have in common is they have been publishing articles that the minions believe might harm Trump's re-election prospects.

The game plan is to intimidate journalists so much they're afraid to write news reports on Trump, or doing any commentaries that aren't praising the orange ape.

To that end this is what they've done thus far:

** Minions have closely examined more than a decade's worth of public posts and statements of targeted journalists.

** Thus far the hit squad has only released a fraction of what they claim to have compiled.

** The plan is to disclose more information as the 2020 election heats up.

** Now the really scary part; the minion's research was extended to members of the journalist's family who are active in politics, as well as liberal activists and other politically opponents of Trump.

This cowardly way of intimidating the press' 1st Amendment rights shows how far Trump's minions are willing to go with him.

As a retired journalist, I'm mad as hell about this increased attack on Americans 1st Amendment rights, which includes protecting the press.

Trump has proven no bar is too low for him to go in his quest for a second term. From Day One, he tried to delegitimize the free press with his "fake news" bullshit.

Not only do Americans have to be concerned about Russia, or other bad actors intervening again in our 2020 election, they also are going to have to sort out real news from the distractions created by Trump and his minions.

Footnote: Trump and WH staff claim they knew nothing about the hit squad (until an article on it appeared in the New York Times on 8/25) linking Trump Jr. to it. 

Anyone that believes that group of vipers in the WH must also believe Trump wrote The Art of the Deal.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Conservative Backlash: Trump's Troubles Just Got Worse

Trump at G-7 Conference-World Leaders Try To keep him from having a temper tantrum.

                                          Good Day World!

Trump is a man on an island, and some conservative vultures sensing his growing weaknesses, are circling overhead... ready to pounce.

True conservatives never liked Trump. Mainstream conservative writers and columnists like George Will, Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn, and Michelle Malkin are horrified by the ballooning national debt.

Thus far, disgruntled conservatives have complained but taken no action against the "great divider" in the Oval Office. That's changed.

Enter Joe Walsh, a conservative radio show host and former Tea Party congressman from Illinois. He's decided to challenge Trump for the Republican ticket even though he knows the odds are against him. A formal announcement is expected soon. 
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Update (8/25 9 a.m. PST): It's official - Joe Walsh Announces GOP Primary Challenge

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To make it real juicy, Walsh use to be a supporter of Trump. Unlike Bill Weld, who has already declared he's running against Trump, Walsh has the ammunition to rattle Trump and make his life harder.

Being a media-trained radio-show host has taught Walsh what it takes to get under a person's skin. To prove the point he's recruiting George Conway (husband of Kellyanne Conway and Trump's biggest supporter) to play a senior role in his campaign.

George Conway has become one of Trump's most vocal critics in the last couple of years, after initially supporting him. His attacks, alongside Walsh's, will be coming from a new direction against Trump... from the right.

To recap: Trump now has the world against him because of his tariff war with China, that could trigger a global recession. World leaders at the G-7 today are walking on eggshells trying to not trigger one of Trump's tantrums while attempting to solve global issues like climate warming.

At home, Trump's losing in every campaign poll against Democratic challengers - even in the Fox News polls, which really pisses him off.

Trump is facing a dozen investigations into everything from his finances to obstructing justice. Half of Congress is ready to begin an impeachment inquiry against him. 

This new challenge for Trump coming from a right-wing pundit with a big audience, might drive him over the deep end - after all, we're talking a thinning of his vaunted base.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

2020 Election: 6 States Give 'Faithless Electors' Power To Overrule Popular Vote

                                          Good Day World!

Thanks to a recent court ruling in Colorado the fate of 44 states popular vote is in jeopardy of giving one person the power to overturn the majority selection.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver opened Pandora's box four days ago by allowing state electors to vote anyway they want instead of backing the popular vote which has been commonplace in most states for over a century.

In essence the federal court gave the okay to create chaos by allowing a partisan elector to upend the majority of votes to favor the other party. 

It could also give that single elector the opportunity to decide a presidential election - if the popular vote results in an apparent Electoral College tie.

According to legal scholars the ruling was the first from a federal appeals court on the issue of faithless electors. It applies immediately to Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

I suspect there will be an appeal, but for now it's a done deal.

Right now there are 30 states which have laws that bind electors, requiring them to cast their votes for whichever candidate who won that state's popular vote.

The problem is the laws are weak, providing only nominal penalties for faithless electors who fail to conform to the popular vote.

After the 10th U.S. Circuit's decision, corrupt political operatives are going to have a new way to thwart the will of the people.

In conflict with Colorado's decision, Washington state's Supreme Court ruled electors have to go with the popular vote last May. 

But groups like "Equal Citizens" (who filed the case in Colorado) are encouraged by their initial success, and have already moved to challenge Washington state's recent ruling.

Depending on the push back from states, the whole issue might end up in the Supreme Court. If it does, there would still be time to make a ruling before the Electoral College meets in December 2020 to cast the formal vote for president.

Since when did Democracy mean the power of one - as opposed to the power of the majority? How can anyone seriously entertain the idea of giving one person that much power over our presidential elections?

We're getting closer every day to the most divisive election in American history. It could mean the end to our Constitution's guaranteed rights for citizens, and give rise to a totalitarian government under Trump if he wins.

Democracy as we've always known it, is at stake next year. Let's all hope the country survives the challenges ahead.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Trump May Be Crazy But He Stacked the Deck To Protect Himself

Good Day World!

To the most casual observer on the planet it's obvious that Trump's mental state has deteriorated rapidly in just the last week.

Even his most ardent supporters, Jared and Ivanka, have avoided the White House and reporters during his rant about American Jews being disloyal to Israel if they vote Democrat.

They know Trump is crazy and defending statements like that will take them down the rabbit hole with him. So they hide during times of crisis.

The Senate and the House are playing footsies with a demented narcissist to the determent of our Constitution and system of government. 

The scary thing is Trump keeps upping his game against our traditional allies, and cozying up to the dictators of the world.

After insulting Denmark - our longtime ally - when they weren't interested in selling their territory of Greenland to him, he turned around and spoke up for Russia suggesting they should be allowed to rejoin the G-7 (making it the G-8 again).

The odds of stopping Trump from creating crisis's here in America, and abroad, before next November are regrettably thin.

There's two options:

Enact the 25th Amendment, Section 4, which states; "The Vice President and either the Cabinet, or a body approved "by law" formed by Congress, to jointly agree that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

The Section 4 clause to the 25th Amendment was designed to deal with a situation where an incapacitated President couldn't tell Congress that the Vice President needed to act as president.

Being crazy would definitely qualify for being incapacitated. The problem is Trump has stacked the deck and there's no way his corrupt cabinet and vice president would consider defying him - even though they know he's not right in the head.

That just leaves impeachment. 

I suspect Democrats will open an inquiry into impeachment in September or October. The political tea leaves seem to be pointing that way as Pelosi is slowly giving in to pressure to endorse the move. 

I don't believe we have the luxury of waiting until next November to vote the Orange Anus out of office.

Who knows what he's going to do tomorrow? Or next week? Or next month? Will we be in a dirty war in the middle east? There's too many mind-boggling scenarios to even think about.

Trump has been like a tick in the nation's dark underbelly of White Supremacists and racists which he knows are his base.  

However, ticks can be extracted with a twist, and pulled out.

Time for me to walk on down the road... 

A Good Laugh and a Warning: Trump Claims to be 'The Chosen One'

Good Day World!

Being a king wasn't good enough for Trump. 

After nearly three years of royal decrees he's decided it's time to elevate his ambition and go for the "God thing." 

In a scrum with reporters yesterday he declared himself to be the "chosen one," and the only one who could bring China to it's knees economically. He believes that.

Egged on by hard-right Jewish activists in Israel, and conspiracy nuts lately, Trump is letting their praise for him go right to his tiny birdbrain. 

This latest act of idiocy was spawned by an alt-right organ called Newsmax which claimed that Israeli Jews see Trump as "the second coming of God" and that "American Jews who don't support him don't even know what they're doing."

The last thing you want to tell a narcissist like Trump is that he's God. The public has been witnessing his dissent into dementia with trepidation.

As his actions become increasingly erratic (saying one thing and doing another), no one is putting the breaks on his slide into irreversible madness. GOP senators who have been enabling him are starting to have second thoughts, but are too cowardly to act on them.

Trump has always claimed only he can fix things that others couldn't. He tells whoever listens that he's a stable genius and a very smart guy because he has an uncle who is a college professor and it's in his blood(?). 

Hard-line Jews in Israel have been comparing him to King David since he moved the American Embassy into Jerusalem. 

So have hard-right Evangelicals. So, I guess this next step - being God - was the natural follow-up for those loons who follow him.

Meanwhile, the majority of Americans aren't quite so gullible (I'm being nice here). The idea of Trump being God has brought out the pundits, editorial cartoonists, and memes in a flood of ridicule.

I doubt however, that the push back bothers Trump who has at least one foot in an alternate universe.

Time for me to walk down the road...

Black Death in Colorado, Launching of Space Force, and Trump Dumps

                                          Good Day World!

I'm having a hard time getting excited by Trump's Space Force. 

The biggest suck-up in the West Wing, Pence, and Pentagon officials announced that The U.S. Space Command officially starts Aug.29th, serving as a launching pad for Trump's Space Force.

How special. Allow me to point out one big reason why we don't need a Space Force before taking care of other business, like here on earth.

For starters, the U.S. military is no longer the primary force in Asia, and missiles from China's rapidly improving military could overwhelm its bases in hours, according to a report released yesterday.

It seems pretty obvious to me that the current priority here on earth is to avoid getting our asses kicked by Communist China, and not chasing UFO's to fight with in some distant future.

Black Death in Colorado

Authorities in Commerce County, Colorado are telling campers they can't camp there because of colonies of prairie dogs who are invested with fleas carrying the Black Plague.

That's right. The nasty shit that wiped out nearly 60 percent of Europe once. This Black Plague comes at a particularly bad time for Phish fans who are attending the group's concert at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, and who intended to camp out afterwards. Not possible now.

Trump Dumps

** Concerned about the troubling signs of possible recession while claiming the economy is the greatest it's ever been, the orange anus is suggesting having payroll tax deductions.

His staff has been quietly researching the possibility, but Trump dumped the news yesterday... to most everyone's surprise, including senior officials. Especially Larry Kudlow, who told CNN news the day before they weren't even considering the possibility at the time.

** If Trump dumps yet another nuclear pact, the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia it could deal a significant blow to U.S. security.

Not content with pulling out of two other important agreements; the 2015 Iran nuclear deal; and abandoning the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Trump is considering making it a trifecta of stupidity.

There's always more Trump dumps ahead as our foul-mouthed wannabe dictator flays about like a fish out-of-water every day he pollutes the Oval Office.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

UPDATED - Donny Thought the Danes Were Dummies

Good Day World!
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Update: 6:30 PST - 8/20/19
Trump Cancels Denmark Trip After PM Says Greenland Not For Sale
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Trump didn't seem to understand that Greenland was not for sale. The semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic has never been up for sale.

Related: 'Final Proof That he Has Gone Mad': Danish Politicians Reject Trump's Interest in Greenland

What Donny doesn't seem to understand is that the Danes aren't dummies. Why in the world would they ever sell such valuable real estate?

Trump's vision for Greenland was - a golf course and hotel - along with whatever valuable resources lie beneath a mile of ice.

It's just another visible sign of how delusional he is. He tweeted a photo of Greenland with a Trump Tower in the middle this morning. Here's how that went over...

Related: Greenland's Leader Rips Trump: Idea of Buying 'Territory Not Something To Joke About' 

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Which Reality Do You Believe In? Once There Was Only One

Good Day World!

When the president of the United States tells us not to believe what we see and hear - unless it has his sanction - there's a problem.

Americans are left with two choices; recognize reality, or agree to suspend it and believe what Trump and his minions are saying.

The result has been chaos. 

Trump's scorched earth policy of trying to reframe our government into a dictatorship has rocked our Constitution to it's core.

Our Liar in Chief has gathered loyal minions who are more than happy to defy reality on his behalf.

Take Larry Kudlow, WH Economic Adviser, and WH Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, for example. Listening to them both speak about the economy yesterday, I felt like a pretzel. 

I knew the reality, and what they were saying was the opposite of it. They were somewhere in the Trump Zone, also referred to as an alternate universe (thank you Kellyanne Conway). 

Both men have the ability to lie while looking you in the eye. Their version of what's happening with the tariff war with China, was a page out of Alice and Wonderland. 

While claiming tariffs don't hurt Americans, our farmers are suffering from the effects of Trump's economic madness. At the end of this month the government is going to pass out another bailout to them.

These bailouts, proof in themselves that tariffs aren't helping, are not the only sign of economic weakness that has experts looking at the odds of a possible recession next year.

Even when confronted with the fact that Trump held up adding more tariffs to keep from hurting the economy in the holiday season, Kudlow and Navarro did a dance of denial and diverted to other points.

The reality is easy to see. Trump took a foot off the tariff pedal temporarily because it would have had a devastating effect on the holidays (the biggest shopping bonanza of the year). 

My caution to readers is you have to go by what really happens. Not by what Trump and his minions are claiming will happen. 

Earlier this year Trump - during one of chopper interviews (a subject for another post) he told Americans not to believe what they see and hear. It's all fake news.

In essence, you have a choice to make. Trump followers have already made their choice. What's yours?

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Economic Stimulus: Go To A Political Rally and Get Paid

Good Day World!

These really are good times when you can get paid for watching a politician make an ass out of himself.

We're talking $15 an hour to wear a red hat and clap every time Trump moves his lips.
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Fun Fact: Congress just passed a law raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Of course, getting it through the senate is another question with Moscow Mitch in charge.

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Trump's propaganda department ran local ads on Craigslist days before his recent New Hampshire rally, hoping to fill the seats in the small arena (12,000 is relatively small as far as arenas go).

Long story made short; the arena was not filled to the delight of Democrats who showed numerous videos with empty seats. 

Pretty pathetic eh? We're not done yet showing how desperate Donny is to avoid empty seats.

Workers at a Pennsylvania petrochemical plant (Shell) where Trump was speaking last Tuesday had a choice of getting paid for attending (and supporting Trump), or take the day off with no pay.

The workers who didn't attend lost up to $700 that day. It was pure extortion, right down to telling paid protestors they were not allowed to show any signs of protest. 

Hashtag protest - #BoycottShell 

Trump's energy talk/rally isn't the first time Trump's minions have had to pay people to attend his rally/rants. It's a pattern that developed when he was running for president, and a tactic still dutifully used by his minions.

It's all about creating an alternate reality. Con man Don learned that years ago on his reality show The Apprentice.

I found a silver lining to these pathetic attempts to pack venues; look at them as an economic stimulus! 

Meanwhile, Congress is doing it's best to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 to catch up to what Trump's campaign is paying it's audiences. 

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Portland Rally: Domestic Terrorists From the Left and Right Converge

                                       
                                         Good Day World!

Todays much anticipated hate rally in Portland may be the biggest yet during the Trump regime.

The morons organizing it, the Proud Boys, are a domestic terrorist group which invited other anti-government groups like Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and neo-Nazis to attend their rally.

Standing in opposition of the far Right groups, is the Left's answer to them, the Rose City Antifa, one of the longest-standing anti-fascists groups in the country. The group made a call on the website for "the community to defend itself."

Antifa is also classified as a domestic terrorist group by DHS and the FBI. 

All of which brings us to the rally today.

Regardless of our political affliation, Democrat or Republican, it's up to us to stop these groups from dividing and terrorizing our country.

That means there's no need to jump aboard either bandwagon. The alt-right organizers won't be able to run through the streets and attack the public because the police won't let them.

Instead we all should be uniting on subjects like gun safety and health care... not enabling radicals on either side to distort the true vision of America.

To clarify my position: I'm 100 percent against all the Right- Wing terrorist groups, and 100 against any Far-Left terrorist groups. 

The Left's rhetoric of protecting the streets is a call to violence that's totally unnecessary. Like I said, we have police officers in America. It's their job to protect our streets and citizens from hate groups and criminals.

Slipping into anarchy - with armed bands of zealots - is the last thing America needs right now. Surviving under the Trump regime, which has given power to Far-Right wackos, has been challenging enough. 

Violence is not the answer to our problems in America. It's the dark underbelly of our society which we still haven't been able to reconcile after 250 years.

Fear is the unifying factor on both sides. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "There's nothing to fear, but fear itself."

Going to rallies with the purpose of seeking violence to make a political/ideological point is not only unproductive... it's a waste of your good time.

There are better ways to peacefully protesting politics than resorting to violence. One of them is voting.

Time for me to walk on down the road... 

Republicans Need to Stand Up To Trump's Anti-American Actions

Good Day World!

At this point in Trump's chaotic regime, the only thing that can slow him down is Republican lawmakers.

In particular, GOP senators. 

They hold the key to saving our American values and economy by standing up to Trump's anti-American actions. Only their votes and the Democrats can hold him accountable.

How long can GOP senators stand helplessly on the sidelines like a bunch of cheerleaders from hell?

For the sake of democracy, and everything Americans have traditionally held dear, they have to stop Trump's assault on our system of government and laws.

At what point does the emergency go beyond partisanship?

When Trump tells a country, Israel, that they shouldn't allow two American Congresswomen to visit because he doesn't like their politics... that's overboard. 

There's never been a president in our history that sought to demonize lawmakers who don't agree with him by suggesting they be banned from visiting a country, especially an ally.

It's not normal. Nothing in Trump's chaotic presidency has been normal. He's an unrepentant serial liar out to promote his brand - not America's.

GOP lawmakers have stood by and watched Trump destabilize the world and U.S. economy with his tariff war with China, and other countries. All the signs are pointing to a recession next year.

Trump's racist policies have torn this country apart, and he's busy dismantling all science-based environmental laws while denying global warming is a problem.

The Democrats could impeach him, but without the support of the majority of the senate, it wouldn't go anywhere.

If there's any real Republicans still in office, the country needs you to stop this slippery slide into America's end days.

Are their any real patriots left in the GOP? Let's see.

Time for me to walk on down the road...