Who Needs A Free Press?

Republican Logo (Shutterstock).

Republican Logo (Shutterstock).

President Donald Trump has made a habit of criticizing the media, calling both stories and news outlets he doesn’t like “fake news” and declaring the press the “enemy of the people.” While some bristle at the idea of the president of the United States attacking the fourth estate, it would appear that Trump’s base doesn’t actually think a free press is all that necessary.

In a new poll, only 49 percent of Republicans and people who lean Republican said it was very important for American democracy that “news organizations are free to criticize political leaders.” The poll, which was published Thursday by the Pew Research Center, found that 76 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning respondents said the free press was an important part of maintaining a strong democracy.

That’s a whole lot of people who think an independent press is simply not necessary, and in an age where ignorant celebrities can waltz into the highest office in the land, that’s disturbing. It’s an indicator of just how many people are openly willing to embrace a dictatorship.

Full story here.

Just One Question…

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Oh, the roiling turmoil, the ducking, the dodging, the calls for resignation, yada, yada, yada. Lots of headlines over Sessions right now. He lied. He committed perjury. Surely, I can’t be the only person not in the least bit surprised. What would surprise me is if any of the current cabinet didn’t lie during confirmation hearings. So, all the headlines:

Sessions lied to Congress about his contacts with Russia during the Trump campaign. Here’s the tape.

Jeff Sessions said that people who commit perjury must be removed from office.

Jeff Sessions’ shifting, deceptive explanations for his secret meetings with Russia.

48 Congressional Democrats call on Attorney General to resign.

US Attorney General Sessions says to recuse himself when ‘appropriate’.

Just one question, and this goes for every person, not just Sessions – why in the fuck were these people ever confirmed in the first place? It would have been nice if all the democrats had been busy doing their damn job then.

“Things Have Changed.”

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The Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) is a U.S.-based white supremacist group that was founded in 1985 as a spinoff of the White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s that fought school desegregation, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group’s mission states an opposition to “all efforts to mix the races of mankind,” and was described by the Atlantic as the “largest white-supremacist group in the nation.” The group has also been active in Canada and was cited in Dylann Roof’s manifesto, the white supremacist behind the 2015 Charleston church massacre.

This week, one of the buildings at Concordia that was targeted by the bomb threat is scheduled to hold an Islamic Awareness Week between Monday and Thursday.

The email from the Council of Conservative Citizens of Canada included threats to “detonate once per day, a small artisanal amateur explosive devices,” targeting two floors of the Hall building and one floor of the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts building, both of which were evacuated on Wednesday morning.

The specific locations were described in the email as “where Muslims hang out,” and the sender clarified that the bombs are “not meant to kill anybody. The only aim is to injure some Muslim students.” According to Global News, the email demands a halt of “religious activities of all kinds on campus.”

Full story here. I don’t have anything. At all. Just an enormous headache and desire to go to another universe entirely.

Segregation Is A Great Choice!

President Donald Trump, right, meets with leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday. CREDIT: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais.

President Donald Trump, right, meets with leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday. CREDIT: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais.

Too much stupid. Too much open hate. Too much bigotry. Too Much. DeVos, the secretary of education…yeah, just go read. Oh, and what are people upset about? That Kelly Whatsherface had her feetsies on a white house couch! Oh Fuckin’ My. I could not possibly express my scorn for this country and the people in it.

Following President Trump’s meeting with leaders of Historically Black Colleges and Universities on Monday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a statement applauding the schools as “real pioneers when it comes to school choice.”

“They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality,” she continued. “Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.”

[…]

One HBCU president who met with Trump and DeVos on Monday was frustrated with how things went.

In a blog post, Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University in New Orleans, wrote that plans for the day “blew up” after the HBCU leaders were taken to the Oval Office to meet with Trump.

The whole fucking mess is here.

She Didn’t Want to Stand Up.

Joint Chiefs of Staff attend President Donald Trump's speech to Congress (Fox News/Twitter/@WhileInTheWild).

Joint Chiefs of Staff attend President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress (Fox News/Twitter/@WhileInTheWild).

Former NSA analyst and columnist John Schindler reacted in horror on Tuesday after seeing Trump “exploit” Carryn Owens, the wife of slain Chief Petty Officer William (Ryan) Owens.

Mr. Schindler had a great deal to say about it on Twitter.

Has Stockholm Syndrome overtaken the whole country? That’s an excellent question. I’m starting to think so, because every day I fail to understand why people refuse to wake the fuck up.

You can see all the tweets here.

A “Normal” Moment.

Trump humps flag. Twitter.

Trump humps flag. Twitter.

It seems that a good deal of media and regular folks are falling all over themselves about how reasonable Trump’s speech was, it was all so gosh darn normal, oh my yes! Except it wasn’t. It was the same old shit, wrapped up in the flag and exceptional Americanism, with a white nationalist filling. Raw Story has a brief article about this, noting the White House surprise at how media pundits were won over by this speech.

President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night got glowing reviews from some pundits on cable news — and it turns out even the White House is surprised by how easily they were won over.

Washington Post reporter Robert Costa tweeted on Wednesday morning that some sources he’s talked with in the White House are “frankly surprised at how pundits are warming to the speech.”

This is particularly surprising to them, Costa writes, because “Trump has not changed” and there is “no big shift in policy coming.”

Think Progress has a longer piece about this piece of bullshit which too many people are swallowing whole. Interestingly, the white supremacist scum are thrilled about it, because instead of paying attention to the bits of trapping, they focused on actual content, which is a gift to Nazis everywhere.

Speaking to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump portrayed the United States as an island of civilization under siege from immigrant cartels and terrorists posing as refugees.

Trump touted a new Department of Homeland Security office that will target “criminal aliens.” He lied about immigration’s effect on the U.S. economy, boasted about sharp rollbacks to the regulatory state, renewed his call for eradicating the Affordable Care Act, hinted at further efforts to privatize the American education system, and offered a strident defense of his administration’s Muslim ban. At no point did he deviate from the “nationalist-populist” ideology his administration has adopted under top strategist Steve Bannon, former chairman of the white-nationalist website Breitbart.

On the other hand, Trump also read off a teleprompter, tossed off a cursory denunciation of “hate,” and wrapped up the speech with some pablum about how Americans should believe in themselves.

Those minor grace points were enough to earn Trump rapturous applause from the usual pundit gaggle, which is evidently willing to embrace a white-nationalist policy agenda if the presentation includes a few Hallmark aphorisms and leaves out any overt racial slurs.

CNN’s Van Jones said Trump “became President of the United States” when he acknowledged the widow of a fallen Navy SEAL, who was sitting in the audience.

Oh FFS, really? Trump acts like a normal person for 10 fucking seconds, and people are tripping over their tongues at how great he is? Jesus Fucking Christ, it’s not enough, it’s just not enough to say we are in trouble here. We are past trouble. There aren’t even words. We’re up to our neck in fascism, but it’s okay, because someone managed to get Trump to read some nice words from a teleprompter. Why didn’t anyone bother to note that Ms. Owens wouldn’t have been a grieving widow if it weren’t for Trump’s ego and need to play war? That Trump doesn’t want to go along with the investigation requested by Owen’s father? No, he’s so very presidential because he addressed a widow.

The vile Nazi scum were elated, but for reasons grounded in reality:

David Duke @DrDavidDuke

Hail to the Chief – No change on policy to deport illegals and on track to CUT major legal immigration necessary to take our country back!

Richard ? Spencer ✔ @RichardBSpencer

After the PC bullshit is out of the way, Trump is making a Trump speech.#trumpaddress

So, what’s it going to take for all the non-Nazi scum to see what’s actually being said and what’s actually going on?

Via Think Progress.

Also see:

Trump lied. Right-wing extremists — not foreigners — commit more terror attacks in the U.S.

Trump’s address to Congress was riddled with falsehoods about the energy industry.

Trump was so busy attacking immigrants he barely acknowledged hate crimes.

Trump draws a fake conclusion from a study that actually finds immigration is good for the economy.

Trump’s Blame Shifting: False Flag!

Tucker Viemeister.

Tucker Viemeister.

Trump is worse than a little sprog. Whenever something bad happens, he immediately looks for someone to blame, anyone except who is actually responsible, like white supremacist scum. In regard to the recent acts of anti-semitism, which are increasing, Trump decided to imply that while sad, they could, y’know, be a false flag operation, done to make someone else look bad. Apparently, the Tiny Tyrant hasn’t figured out that no one needs to make the current nazi infested government look bad, they are doing a fine job of that themselves. Not in the least bit surprising, various white supremacists are also spreading the false flag bullshit. Just in case this is needed: the false flag crap is just that, it’s a lie.

President Donald Trump received a lashing online after suggesting that his supporters were being framed for anti-Semitic bomb threats.

Trump on Tuesday suggested to attorneys generals that threats targeting Jewish community centers and attacks on Jewish cemeteries could be false flag operations. When speaking about the acts, which he called “reprehensible,” the president said “the reverse can be true,” according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. “Someone’s doing it to make others look bad,” Trump added.

“He just said, ‘sometimes it’s the reverse,’” Shapiro recalled. “‘It’s to make people or make others look bad.’ He used ‘reverse’ two to three times in his comments.”

The Anti-Defamation League quickly released a statement calling on the president to clarify his remarks.

You can see many of the responses here.

In case that wasn’t enough idiocy, Anthony Scaramucci is trying to pin the blame on democrats, citing Breitbart as his go to source for this claim. Seriously, can we stop the world, I want the fuck off.

A senior adviser to President Donald Trump suggested Democrats may be to blame for dozens of threats recently against Jewish community centers.

Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital hedge fund and a former employee at Goldman Sachs, sent out a pair of tweets questioning the possibility that Trump’s anti-Semitic supporters may be behind the threats, reported The Hill.

[…]

Scarmucci, a top Trump fundraiser tapped as White House public liaison to government agencies and businesses, linked to a Breitbart News article Tuesday morning on a Project Veritas investigation of “trained provocateurs” at GOP rallies.

“It’s not yet clear who the #JCC offenders are. Don’t forget @TheDemocrats effort to incite violence at Trump rallies,” Scaramucci tweeted.

A reporter called him out for his baseless claim, and Scarmucci doubled down.

Via Raw Story. Same response here: the only thing making Trump look bad is Trump and his crew of henchtoadies.

Tiny Rallies.

The Tiny Tyrant hasn’t been feeling validated enough lately, so he called for Trump fans to have rallies to make ‘merica great and all that shit, BIG HUGE MASSIVE MORE MASSIVE THAN EVER BEFORE rallies. The result was on the teeny tiny side.

Full story here.

Free People! God Given Liberty! No Healthcare!

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) wants to ensure that no part of Obamacare is “left behind.” CREDIT: CNN.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) wants to ensure that no part of Obamacare is “left behind.” CREDIT: CNN.

The shameful, craven republicans aren’t even attempting to hid behind their various cowardly excuses anymore. They simply want to repeal ACA, they don’t want to replace it at all. Of course, this is hardly news to people who have been paying attention.

Last week, CNN obtained a draft Congressional Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act with a plan that would replace subsidies with smaller tax credits, allow insurance to charge senior citizens more, decimate Medicaid, and cause millions of Americans to lose their coverage altogether.

On Monday and Tuesday, however, a trio of prominent House Republicans made it clear that even this bill was not conservative enough for them. While the bill would mean the loss of health insurance for millions of Americans, they object to provisions in the bill that would help some people remain covered.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), who chairs the House Freedom Caucus (a group of a few dozen of the most conservative Republicans in Congress), announced on Monday that he could not support that proposal because included refundable tax credits to help people pay for health insurance and some tax increases. “A new Republican president signs a new entitlement and a new tax increase as his first major piece of legislation? I don’t know how you support that — do you?” he asked, adding that many members of his caucus would be willing to vote against the leaked draft.

Rep. Mark Walker, another North Carolina Republican and chair of the Republican Study Committee (a group that calls itself the “conservative caucus of House Republicans” and includes more than 170 of the 238-member GOP majority), followed suit soon after.

“The draft legislation, which was leaked last week, risks continuing major Obamacare entitlement expansions and delays any reforms,” Walker said, adding that the proposal “kicks the can down the road in the hope that a future Congress will have the political will and fiscal discipline to reduce spending that this Congress apparently lacks.” He said he would urge colleagues to oppose the proposal.

On Tuesday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), joined the pile-on. He told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that he presumed the leaked plan did not include entirely “hard facts,” but said the he wants to see only “a full, 100% repeal of Obamacare.” “I don’t want any of it left behind,” he explained, because “a free people that are the recipients of God-given liberty… have had our health taken over by the federal government.”

Think Progress has the full story, and video, if you can stand to watch the smug and stupid King.

We Must Win Wars Again!

Reflections, Lee Teeter, 1988.

Reflections, Lee Teter, 1988.

War. We need more war. We must win those wars! Fuck people, fuck the environment, fuck the economy, fuck healthcare, all we want is cannon fodder – get your young asses over here so we can kill you for no reason! Jesus Fuck.

In a speech to American governors, President Donald Trump attacked the military, saying “We never win wars anymore. We never fight to win. We have to start winning wars again.’

The message was a preface to Trump’s budget announcement that he plans to increase military spending. The United States already spends more in defense than any other country in the industrial world by multitudes. Trump explained that when he was in high school they won wars with major tank battles. In the past he’s spoken out on the lack of battleships that the U.S. military has.

Trump received four draft deferments during the Vietnam War for bone spurs.

That useless, craven caitiff found a convenient, and monied way to get out of the draft. He’s all for other people dying though. I still remember the name of the Lieutenant on my POW MIA bracelet. No word of him was ever heard, or at least no information was ever released. All the government cared about was covering up the travesty of that so called war. I remember handing out those bracelets, a call to action, a mass remonstrance to our government for their shameful actions. Looks like it’s shameful action time again. Trump will start a war so he can feel like a big man. Any takers on whether or not this asshole will try to reinstate the draft?

Fuck. Fuck you, Trump, fuck every single goddamn person who brought us here.

Full story here.

“Power can be addictive and it can be corrosive.”

Former President George W. Bush leaves after the presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. CREDIT: Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP.

Former President George W. Bush leaves after the presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. CREDIT: Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP.

“Power can be addictive and it can be corrosive.” Normally, there wouldn’t be anything remarkable about that observation. In this case, there is – it was said by George W. Bush, about the Trump Regime. Colour me stunned.

During an interview on Today, former President George W. Bush responded to President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and recent criticisms of the media by speaking in support of religious freedom and the free press.

“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,” Bush told host Matt Lauer, weighing in on a question about whether the media should be considered “enemies of America,” as Trump said during his speech at CPAC last Friday.

“We need an independent media to hold people like me into account,” Bush said. “Power can be addictive and it can be corrosive. It’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”

[…]

When asked about Trump’s “Muslim ban,” an executive order that prohibits travel by immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, Bush alluded to the constitutional “bedrock of our freedom — a bedrock of our freedom is the right to worship freely.” Bush added that he supports an immigration policy that’s “welcoming and upholds the law.”

Bush also supported the call for a special prosecutor to look into alleged Trump campaign ties to the Russian government, saying that he was looking to Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to recommend a special prosecutor.

“I think we all need answers,” Bush noted. “I’m not sure the right avenue to take. I am sure, though, that that question needs to be answered.”

If Bush’s criticisms of Trump sound like they merely restate fundamental American principles, that’s because freedoms of worship and of the press are already part of this country’s constitutional guarantees.

Yet Bush’s statements are also oddly significant given Trump’s harsh criticisms of the press and Islamophobia. Trump rarely restrains himself from condemning Muslims in the aftermath of real or imagined terrorist attacks, but has yet to publicly condemn two deadly attacks perpetrated by Islamophobes since he took office.

Trump has also escalated tensions with the media by calling them the “enemy of the people,” sometimes claiming that major newspapers like the New York Times aren’t reputable simply because they criticize him. As a result, major news organizations like CNN, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, were denied access from the White House’s daily press briefing last week.

Via Think Progress. (There’s video at the link.)

Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one…

A one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills is displayed Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. CREDIT: AP /Rich Pedroncelli.

A one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills is displayed Friday, Aug. 26, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. CREDIT: AP /Rich Pedroncelli.

The Trump administration may weaken or eliminate the provision for full coverage of contraception in the Affordable Care Act, experts say, and it may not require any action from Republican allies in Congress.

The provision that allows women to receive full coverage for birth control — including insertion and removal of an IUD — could be eliminated or at least weakened through regulations, guidance, or law. Reproductive rights advocates are also waiting to see whether the Trump administration will continue to defend the mandate in the courts on Tuesday.

Newly minted Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price has a record of dismissing women’s need for full coverage of birth control. In an interview with Think Progress in 2012, Price said, “Bring me one woman who has been left behind. Bring me one. There’s not one … The fact of the matter is this is a trampling on religious freedom and religious liberty in this country.”

During his confirmation hearing, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asked Price about his 2012 statement on birth control because her constituents say birth control without a co-pay is essential to their health care. Price refused to commit to full coverage of birth control.

“There are avenues in the heath care system that doctors and hospitals take to make sure people can get the health care they need,” Price answered.

Price seems to think contraception is like having a doctor fill up a bag with pharmaceutical samples of something or other, to help out patients who can’t afford prescriptions. That sort of thing is usually done for a one time treatment. Contraception doesn’t work like that. As a former physician, I’m sure Mr. Price is aware of that, but that’s not as important as preventing people from having healthcare, especially those awful women. The way Price and his fellow travelers feel about it, contraception is a lifestyle choice, not a health issue.

Planned Parenthood clinics told NPR that, since the election of President Donald Trump, they have received more calls than usual from women interested in booking appointments for IUDs. An IUD is one of the most effective methods of birth control, since it is more than 99 percent effective. Without coverage provided by the mandate, a woman who works full time at minimum wage may have to pay a month’s salary for the cost of getting an IUD, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Women who use contraceptives consistently and correctly only account for 5 percent of all unintended pregnancies. But with financial barriers to access — especially access to effective but costly methods such as IUDs — women’s ability to prevent unintended pregnancies is significantly hampered.

41 years ago, I got an IUD through planned parenthood. At that time, I was a paid member, so it didn’t cost me a thing. I don’t remember the membership cost, but it was around 25 or 35 dollars. Way back then, people in general were favorable towards accessible, inexpensive birth control. There was still a very heavy stigma attached to single parenthood, and it was still considered to be shameful to be pregnant out of wedlock. The stigma was starting to fade in 1975, but it was still strong enough that the reasoning was contraception and pregnancy prevention was better than a bunch of single mothers. It was also easy  and hassle free to obtain an abortion back then. How things have changed.

In addition to what is happening in the courts, it is possible that an executive order could greatly expand exemptions for companies with religious or moral objections. A leaked draft of an executive order, first obtained by The Nation and Reveal earlier this month, would significantly weaken the contraception guarantee.

The order would appear to exempt any “closely held for-profit corporations” with moral or religious objections to meeting the requirements of the provision and lets them exclude coverage for contraception. Under the Obama administration’s religious accommodation, insurance companies have to provide separate coverage to women at no additional cost. Kinsey Hasstedt, senior policy manager for the Guttmacher Institute, said the draft is cause for concern, even though an official order has not been released.

“The leaked draft executive order would expand accommodations so it would be simpler for employers to reject some or all birth control options,” Hasstedt said. “It would be a dramatic expansion of exemptions.”

This draft uses broad terms to define religious freedom and requires the Department of Justice to defend “religious freedom.” It does specifically mention objections to abortion, contraception, and premarital sex, however.

The Religious Reich Republicans have been salivating for ages over the chance to kill off accessible, affordable contraception, and it looks like that chance has arrived. Think Progress has the in-depth coverage on this issue.

Back to the 1970s.

Burning Discarded Automobile Batteries, 07/1972.

Burning Discarded Automobile Batteries, 07/1972.

Trash and Old Tires Litter the Shore at the Middle Branch of Baltimore Harbor, 01/1973.

Trash and Old Tires Litter the Shore at the Middle Branch of Baltimore Harbor, 01/1973.

Clark Avenue and Clark Avenue Bridge. Looking East from West 13th Street, Are Obscured by Smoke from Heavy Industry, 07/1973.

Clark Avenue and Clark Avenue Bridge. Looking East from West 13th Street, Are Obscured by Smoke from Heavy Industry, 07/1973.

Something else people had to protest about, and fight tooth and nail to implement change – the utter disregard and damage being done, not only to our environments, but to all life. People fought like hell for change, and it took time, but change was effected. The photos? Life pre-EPA. It was wasn’t pretty. It was a choking stink. It was piles of garbage everywhere. Now the EPA has been gutted, and the Tiny Tyrant has been busy rolling back every single bit of fucking progress made in this area. A lot of people reading this weren’t born yet in the early ’70s. Unfortunately, you’re going to get a right taste of what it was like, and not in a good way.

More photos? See here. Feel like a bit of reading? See here.