Saturday, February 18, 2017

White House claims that allegation they planned to use National Guard to round up illegal immigrants was fake news. Media says, "What about this leaked draft proposal to do just that?"

Courtesy of AP: 

The White House distanced itself Friday from a Department of Homeland Security draft proposal to use the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants, but lawmakers said the document offers insight into the Trump administration's internal efforts to enact its promised crackdown on illegal immigration. 

Administration officials said the proposal, which called for mobilizing up to 100,000 troops in 11 states, was rejected, and would not be part of plans to carry out President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policy. 

If implemented, the National Guard idea, contained in an 11-page memo (http://apne.ws/2l1Dj0k ) obtained by The Associated Press, could have led to enforcement action against millions of immigrants living nowhere near the Mexican border. Four states that border on Mexico were included in the proposal — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — but it also encompassed seven states contiguous to those four — Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. 

Later White House spokes-liar Sean Spicer condemned this reporting.

Courtesy of Business Insider:

"It is false," the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said, according to a pool report. "It is irresponsible to be saying this. There is no effort at all to round up, to utilize the National Guard to round up illegal immigrants." 

"I wish you guys had asked before you tweeted," Spicer added.

Yeah reporters, why didn't you ask Spicy, instead of running with actual documentation?

Wait, you did?

An AP reporter, however, replied that the wire service had asked the White House for comment multiple times before publishing the report, which was based off of a leaked DHS draft memo. The original AP story notes that neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests for comment. 

"AP reached out to the White House repeatedly beginning 24 hours before publishing this story and also asked the Department of Homeland Security for comment prior to publication," the AP's director of media relations told Business Insider. "We stand by our reporting."

Oh and there was also this from the original AP article: 

However, DHS staffers said Thursday that they had been told by colleagues in two DHS departments that the proposal was still being considered as recently as Feb. 10. DHS spokeswoman Gillian Christensen declined to say who wrote the memo, how long it had been under consideration or when it had been rejected.

I think by now you guys know my baseline position on all of this "he said, she said" stuff. 

Since essentially EVERY SINGLE ONE of Trump's spokespeople, campaign staff, and advisers have been caught lying multiple times I simply do not believe a fucking word that comes out of that administration's various pie holes.

If I have to choose between respected news organizations and that bad Melissa McCarthy impersonator, I am going with respected news organizations every time.

So yeah, this administration most DEFINITELY considered using a military force to kick in doors and haul away undocumented workers in this country.

57 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:40 AM

    As someone posted here the other day, a National Guardsman said, "I won't do it." It isn't fake news, it's real.

    For those of the Vietnam era, CSNY:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68g76j9VBvM

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    1. Anonymous9:11 AM


      This leaked draft memo is the Trump administration’s starting point for a border crackdown
      It doesn't need the National Guard. It just needs to follow what Trump's already signed.

      Allowing some state governors to deputize the National Guard to help arrest and detain immigrants isn't the only step the Trump administration considered to carry out the president's executive order on immigration. The administration also sketched out plans for wide-scale, mandatory detention of asylum seekers; sending immigrants back to Mexico while their cases were still pending in immigration court; and making it much easier to deport unauthorized immigrants living in the US without a court hearing at all.

      The Trump administration forcefully denied reports (originally made by the Associated Press) on Friday that it was considering deputizing some National Guard units to enforce immigration law.

      But it didn’t deny that the memo that proposal came from — which lays out options for implementing an executive order President Trump signed, and which is dated January 25, the day he signed it — was real.

      The memo, obtained by Vox and posted here, appears to have been a starting point, as the Department of Homeland Security considered how to translate Trump’s executive order on border security into policy. And while the National Guard proposal got the initial round of attention, it’s far from the only suggestion in the memo that would represent a huge crackdown on immigrants trying to enter (and living in) the US.

      http://www.vox.com/2017/2/18/14651520/trump-border-wall-detention

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:45 AM

      https://newrepublic.com/article/140702/medical-theory-donald-trumps-bizarre-behavior

      "We know Trump was potentially exposed to syphilis based on his own statements that he was sexually promiscuous in the 1980s, a period when syphilis cases were rapidly increasing in the U.S. “I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world,” he told Howard Stern in 1997, referring to his dating life the decade prior. “It is a dangerous world out there—it’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave solider.”

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:54 AM

      First of all some of those states have Democratic governors and .amber ones in purple states could be intimidated into using the Guard, others like Jerry Brown would do the double bird salute. 4t could federalize the Guard in those states but I think even Republican governors would see that as overreach and oppose it.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous9:06 AM

    Snork!! Melissa McCarthy impersonator - bahahahaha!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:50 AM

      G. Did SCORE with that one!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:28 AM

      Subtle snark, lol.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous9:13 AM

    Trump Told Club Members To 'Come Along' To See Cabinet Interviewees

    ...“We’re doing a lot of interviews tomorrow— Generals, dictators, we have everything,” Trump tells the crowd of Bedminster members, adding later: “Tomorrow we’re here and Sunday we’re here. We’re going to be interviewing everybody. Treasury. We’re going to be interviewing Secretary of State. We have everybody coming in. And we’re going to have— And I don’t know if you want to come around, but if you want, it’s going to be unbelievable. It’s going to be an unbelievable day. So you might want to come along.”

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-club-members-come-along-bedminster-interviews

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous9:26 AM

    Trump-Russia deepens: Senate Intel Committee hauls in FBI’s James Comey for secret meeting

    https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/senate-intel-james-comey-trump-russia/1585/

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  5. Anonymous9:32 AM

    Busy promoting fake news.

    https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:53 AM

      "Check out Todd's patriotic snowmachine trailer!"
      then this>
      "All Christians are called to sacrifice. Jesus denied Himself to the point of death! God takes all of our old life"...<<<<<<WTF?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:43 AM

      HAH! Whatever, $arah, when you don't live it. We'll just see how team 20 does Iron Dog. God is not dressed in red white and blue as you think He is.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:44 PM

      I'm not surprised. The tiny peawit lives in a world of nonsensical RW BS. It's all she spouts. She is basically a brain stem minus a brain. Plebeian right wingers in general have very limited intellectual abilities. They need a wealthy or supernatural 'daddy' to tell them what to 'think'. Fools. The.whole. lot.of.them.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous9:33 AM

    Some very very evil humans lurking in Our White House and Congress. They are causing extremely dangerous harm to Americans. Who will remove them? And when?

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  7. Anonymous9:33 AM

    As a social worker of 20 years I have met hundreds, if not thousands of undocumented immigrants. Here are some things that I have learned. 1. They don't cross the border on foot. I have never met anyone who has. Not once. They all get tourist visas, take a bus, and don't leave. 2. If deported many plan to leave thier American born children behind. Our already overloaded foster care system will get much much worse. 3. They know that,if deported thier children can eventually sponsor them for Family Reunification visas so they won't be back in thier original countries to long. I wish that more people realized these things when they harp about the wall and mass deportations.

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    1. Thank you for your insight. I would imagine that if the National Guard is called up; at some point the soldiers will be called upon to gather their own relatives and family members.

      Immigration procedures and deportation measures have been working. This "emergency" was totally created to pave the way for militarization and a police state. The next compelling emergency will be aimed at the swelling crowds of protesters.

      Create a continual chaotic country while legislating under the radar. The premise is that the citizens will tire of the uncertainty and yield to authority.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:27 AM

      You obviously don't live anywhere near the southern border 9:33.

      You should go for a hike or a 4-wheel drive drive thru the desert washes and canyons near the border. You HAVE NO idea what you are talking about when you say people don't cross by foot. There are stretches where they are driven, and stretches where they walk, it is all about the routes around the border patrol.

      No idea. You are totally ignorant. Of course being a social worker is the first clue to that.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:46 PM

      10:27 - you are an idiot.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous1:52 PM

      Why 12:46, I'm an idiot because I am right and have seen all this firsthand?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous3:30 PM

      1:52 PM - you are an idiot because you are an idiot. It's not more complicated than that. The border is almost 2000 miles long and you have "seen all this firsthand." What a clueless and transparent troll you are. Go back to the alt-right sites and oil your guns you silly fool. What militia are you a member of you dimwitted clown? Is your camo always nicely pressed?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous5:55 PM

      Nope I'm smart and you are ignorant, just like at least 50% of the left.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:20 AM


    GOP Official Says ‘No Offense’ After Suggesting Women Should Be Paid Less
    James Green got so much backlash, he ultimately resigned.

    ...In his letter, Green claimed that men need to be paid more so they can support their families and “allow the Mother to remain in the home to raise and nurture the children.” He argued that if businesses have to pay men and women equally, they’ll have to dock the pay of men, meaning that mothers will be “forced” to work outside the home as well.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/james-green-equal-pay-women_us_58a86df6e4b07602ad55246f?1a4w8kt9&

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:23 AM


    Constituents Flood Another GOP Congressman’s Town Halls And Angrily Confront Him
    One woman shouted that Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) was spreading “misinformation.”

    Constituents of Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) flooded two town hall meetings on Saturday to confront and boo the congressman over the GOP’s vows to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and strip public funding from Planned Parenthood.

    One event was supposed to take place in a senior center, but it moved outside because so many people showed up.

    ...The constituents also booed loudly when Reed offered details on what a replacement for Obamacare could look like. They jeered when he called the Affordable Care Act a “failing system” and suggested that a new system would give more Americans health savings accounts. Most Americans can’t afford to put aside the money required for these accounts.

    The crowd chanted in unison, “How can the poor get savings accounts?”

    When Reed said this could be fixed simply by growing the economy, the crowd booed loudly again.

    At a second town hall meeting later in the day, Reed said Americans would get tax credits to pay for health insurance, according to the Buffalo News. When the audience asked how those credits would be used, Reed replied, “That is something we’re still working on.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-reed-town-hall_us_58a889e4e4b07602ad55317d?u1jbgz1ymcff20529&

    This Is What Obamacare’s Critics Won’t Admit Or Simply Don’t Understand

    Real people with serious medical issues are finally getting the help they need.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-what-went-right-critics_us_58a725dce4b045cd34c11b4c?f01pxf6bkdftotj4i&

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10:26 AM


    A Mild-Mannered Woman From Washington Is The Democrats’ Deadliest Weapon

    President Trump’s nominees have not fared well going through Sen. Patty Murray’s HELP Committee. Andrew Puzder never made it.

    A few weeks after the 2013 government shutdown, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) compared the Republicans in the House to the preschoolers she once taught. To deal with a bunch of fractious, obstreperous 4-year-olds, she said, you need a plan.

    When Murray made her comparison, she was about to sit down with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in what turned out to be the only significant successful bipartisan budget negotiation Congress has managed since the shutdown.

    Four years later, the House is still roiled by a crowd of sharp-elbowed and feuding Republican lawmakers who can’t agree even on how to do the one thing they all say they want ― repeal Obamacare. But now, there’s a new alpha boy atop their playground monkey bars.

    President Donald Trump outdid them all, belittling, bullying and insulting his way to the Oval Office.

    Murray is familiar with the personality type.

    “There is a bully in every classroom,” Murray said this week. “And the best way to teach other children in your preschool class that it’s not OK is to make it not OK.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-mild-mannered-woman-from-washington-is-the-democrats-deadliest-weapon_us_58a77653e4b037d17d27d494?i0uvy851s241b57b9&

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous10:52 AM

      VERY proud of my Senator!

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:28 AM

    "So yeah, this administration most DEFINITELY considered using a military force to kick in doors and haul away undocumented workers in this country. "

    You are an idiot pushing bullshit... but what else is new?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:43 AM

      So why are you here?

      Delete
    2. Leland10:47 AM

      So? Prove him wrong. Just SAYING something does NOT make it true.

      And before you try to claim that is what Gryphen did with this posting, at least HE has some evidence!

      Show us yours. Please?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:47 AM

      @ 10:28. It's bullshit to you because (correct me if I'm wrong), you're white and fake Christian. AmIright?? You don't have a clue!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:31 PM

      10:28 (and earlier) is a dope. It's as clueless as the 'lol' troll who pops up here occasionally. I suspect it's an ammmosexual alt-right ninny, or a Palin/Heath ... dumb as a stump.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous1:52 PM

      Leland: "So? Prove him wrong. Just SAYING something does NOT make it true."

      Well dumdum, the onus is on the accuser, who has no evidence, just a finger to point and an accusation to make. Dumdum.

      "So yeah, this administration most DEFINITELY considered using a military force to kick in doors and haul away undocumented workers in this country." haha. okaaaay.

      Delete
    6. Leland4:44 PM

      @1:52.

      Merely repeating what you stated earlier is not doing anything to prove your claim. Gryphen at least has articles and copies of documents with which to work.

      All we have from you is your completely open-ended claim it is false. I ask again: Prove your statement.

      Oh, and calling people names usually just makes those on the receiving end believe more firmly that the caller is someone with nothing to back their statement.

      Again. Prove what you claim. The seeming certainty with which you made your statement should make it easy for you to do so - unless you're just like that idiot in the WH who keeps trying to bluster his way along claiming everything is "fake news".

      Just remember: violence and anger are the last resort of the incompetent.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous5:54 PM

      Leland you are a world class moron. Thanks for the laughs limpy.

      Delete
    8. Leland2:13 AM

      @5:54

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

      See? Still with the insults and the lack of an answer. So witty and erudite! NOT!

      Delete
  12. Anonymous10:35 AM

    U.S. inquiries into Russian election hacking include three FBI probes

    The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is pursuing at least three separate probes relating to alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential elections, according to five current and former government officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

    While the fact that the FBI is investigating had been reported previously by the New York Times and other media, these officials shed new light on both the precise number of inquires and their focus.

    The FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, which runs many cyber security investigations, is trying to identify the people behind breaches of the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems, the officials said. Those breaches, in 2015 and the first half of 2016, exposed the internal communications of party officials as the Democratic nominating convention got underway and helped undermine support for Hillary Clinton.

    The Pittsburgh case has progressed furthest, but Justice Department officials in Washington believe there is not enough clear evidence yet for an indictment, two of the sources said.

    Meanwhile the bureau’s San Francisco office is trying to identify the people who called themselves “Guccifer 2” and posted emails stolen from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s account, the sources said. Those emails contained details about fundraising by the Clinton Foundation and other topics.

    Beyond the two FBI field offices, FBI counterintelligence agents based in Washington are pursuing leads from informants and foreign communications intercepts, two of the people said.

    This counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said...

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/18/u-s-inquiries-russian-election-hacking-include-fbi-probes.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous10:37 AM

    Trump’s Florida Vacations Have Cost Taxpayers Almost As Much In A Month As Obama Spent In A Year

    The Independent reported, The US President’s three visits to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida since his presidential inauguration, combined with his sons’ business trips, reportedly cost $11.3m (£9.1m).Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch estimated Mr. Obama’s travel expenses totaled an average $12.1m in each of his eight years in the White House.”

    Back in 2012, Trump expressed outrage over the cost of Obama’s vacations:

    ...Not only does Trump cost the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in travel costs, but he is also doing millions of dollars in damage to the local Florida economy when he visits.

    As PoliticusUSA reported on Friday, “The head of the Lantana airport warned that if Trump keeps visiting, he is going to kill the airport by costing tenants more that $1 million in lost revenue during his first year in office. Trump’s golf outing with Japanese Prime Minister Abe last weekend cost the airport a combined $250,000 due to flight restrictions. The local government is asking Washington for reimbursement for their own increased security costs, and by reimbursement, they mean you, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer are going to foot the bill.”

    These numbers don’t include the number of local businesses that are hurt by road closures and loss of business that is caused by the security restrictions due to Trump’s visits.

    Fiscally responsible Americans from all sides of the political spectrum understand that what President Trump is doing is an unnecessary waste of taxpayer money...

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/18/trumps-florida-vacations-cost-taxpayers-month-obama-spent-year.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10:39 AM

    Kellyanne Conway trashes graduates of her alma mater after school president calls her out for lying

    ...“Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trinity Class of 1989, has played a large role in facilitating the manipulation of facts and encouraging the grave injustice being perpetrated by the Trump Administration’s war on immigrants among many other issues. She is one of President Trump’s primary spokespersons, an almost daily figure on cable news shows,” McGuire wrote. ” Some people admire her staunch advocacy for her client’s positions, and others applaud the fact that she was the first woman to manage a successful presidential campaign. But in fact, as is true of many of President Trump’s statements, her advocacy on his behalf is often at variance with the truth.”

    “Ms. Conway invented the now-infamous phrase ‘alternative fact,’ to defend Trump’s claims about the size of crowds at his inauguration, a thinly-veiled autocratic scheme to try to claim that the Trump inauguration drew the biggest crowd in history when, in fact, it was on the smaller side,” she continued. “Ms. Conway has been part of a team that thinks nothing of shaping and spreading a skein of lies as a means to secure power. Perhaps the ‘Bowling Green Massacre’ comment was truly a mistake, as she claims, but she repeated that canard on three different occasions as an explanation for why the travel ban, an executive order that clearly discriminates against Muslims, was necessary.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/kellyanne-conway-trashes-graduates-of-her-alma-mater-after-school-president-calls-her-out-for-lying/

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:45 AM

    Sounds like a Bannon proposal. That means a dRUMPf prpoposal since bannon's hand is up dRUMPf's ass so far, he makes the jaws move.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous11:02 AM

    WATCH: Joy Reid boots ex-Congressman off her show for ‘incredibly offensive’ racist rant on immigrants

    ...That was when Reid pulled the plug.

    “Can I just tell me something,” a furious Reid told him. “We’re going to end here, but sir, you’ve talked about strawmen twice, you’ve answered questions with non sequiturs that have some sort of ethnic base to them. Now you’ve gone after Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage. I think we’re done with this segment. You literally answered with a non sequitur and that is incredibly offensive.”

    Watch the video below via MSNBC:

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/watch-joy-reid-boots-ex-congressman-off-her-show-for-incredibly-offensive-racist-rant-on-immigrants/

    Joy rocks!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous11:04 AM

    Presidential historian predicts Trump’s term will last less than 200 days — the second shortest ever

    ...In any case, it seems likely that Donald Trump will be leaving the Presidency at some point, likely between the 31 days of William Henry Harrison in 1841 (dying of pneumonia) and the 199 days of James A. Garfield in 1881 (dying of an assassin’s bullet after 79 days of terrible suffering and medical malpractice). At the most, it certainly seems likely, even if dragged out, that Trump will not last 16 months and 5 days, as occurred with Zachary Taylor in 1850 (dying of a digestive ailment). The Pence Presidency seems inevitable.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/presidential-historian-predicts-trumps-term-will-last-less-than-200-days-the-second-shortest-ever/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:42 PM

      He hasn't even been in 30 days and it has been too long!!!

      I don't know how we will stand 200 days of this mental abuse unless they tranquilize him 24/7.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous11:11 AM

    A late-night CNN panel went off the rails fast when conservative Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany slammed New York Times writer Charles Blow right off the bat.

    “Don’t do that,” Blow began after McEnany touched his arm and claimed her liberal friends were being unfair. “Don’t touch me and say that’s your ‘sinister motivations.’ That’s not going to happen tonight.”

    McEnany said that she would gladly scoot away from him. “You can scoot until you fall off that ledge,” Blow replied. “What I’m telling you is don’t touch me and while you’re saying I’m sinister.”

    McEnany tried to play the tune: “we’re all Americans” and should play nice unless he doesn’t want to be that way.

    “You are about to turn it from a civil conversation into me telling you — that is a very personal attack to say I don’t believe I’m an American. Don’t do that,” Blow replied.

    McEnany said that Blow told her that she wasn’t even allowed to touch him.

    “You’re not,” Blow replied.

    McEnany tried to say that it was sad and Blow replied that it was only sad because she wanted it to be sad.

    Watch the full exchange below:

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/dont-touch-me-cnn-panel-goes-off-the-rails-when-kayleigh-mcenany-accuses-charles-blow-of-sinister-motivations/?comments=disqus

    ---That was a brilliant way of taking the control our of her hands. She really tried to play the victim in this. Her body language was very apparent. Using her hand to "hold him down" and then say something against him is an old tactic. She may have unconsciously have done it and have done this so many times in the past that even she wasn't aware of what she was doing. He wasn't going to stand for her little game and stopped it right from the beginning and every time she tried a new iteration of it afterwards. Good on him!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous11:13 AM

    ‘What stories are phony?’: Don Lemon nails GOP pundits when they can’t give ‘fake news’ examples

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/what-stories-are-phony-don-lemon-nails-gop-pundits-when-they-cant-give-fake-news-examples/

    ReplyDelete
  20. I'll go a step further.

    I think it's STILL under consideration.

    That was just a draft.

    I think it's still active and they'll revise it.

    Trump will be using his first year in office to dismantle and control the media. Once Fox News is firmly in place as the state news outlet and ONLY "reliable" source of information, he'll move on to consolidating his power on other fronts. Probably judiciary next. (I wonder if he'd go so far as to assassinate Supreme Court justices so he could put more of his people on the courts. Putin would.) Then there's plenty of time to turn the state National Guards into his own private SS. Plenty of time to do spot round up and deports until they push an all out assault to realize their "Final Solution."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:51 PM

      11:18
      that bullshit happens and i'm taking up arms along with thousands of other like minded folks ..

      Delete
  21. Anonymous11:25 AM

    Trump MEANS what he is $hitGibbon Babbling, believe him.
    Question everything!

    http://www.stonekettle.com/2017/02/petulance.html

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous11:32 AM

    Russians Are Turning on Donald Trump

    One month in, the new White House is looking chaotic and weak -- the opposite of what Russia respects in a politician.

    Early setbacks leave Russians wondering if ‘f*ggot’ Trump is the tough leader they once believed

    ...As Foreign Policy notes, the tone against Trump has shifted over the past week, as many Russian politicians are questioning whether he really has the will to take on his political opposition, both in terms of his rivals in the Democratic Party and within the intelligence community.

    In fact, one popular picture that’s making rounds on Russian social media this week is a photograph of graffiti sprayed on the side of a garbage depot that reads, “Trump is a f*ggot.”

    Moscow-based photographer Sergey Sukhorukov was among the Russians who shared the photo on his Facebook page this week, where he also wrote that Trump had “betrayed” Russia despite the fact that the country had “believed” in him. In particular, he ranted against a statement from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer this week saying that Russia should give Crimea back to Ukraine.

    Elsewhere, Foreign Policy reports that right-wing politician Nikolai Travkin was deeply unhappy with Trump’s decision to fire former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, and he said that Trump’s decision to ax the Russian-friendly adviser meant that he was now “close to failure.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/early-setbacks-leave-russians-wondering-if-fggot-trump-is-the-tough-leader-they-once-believed/

    MOSCOW – Several months ago, on the outskirts of Moscow, someone took white paint and scrawled a short statement of political protest onto the side of a garbage depot. “Trump is a faggot,” the graffiti read.

    This small act of defiance in then-Donald Trump-loving Russia went largely unnoticed, however — until this week. Now, the photo, which journalists say was taken in November, is making the rounds on Russian social media, where it’s being greeted with mockery. “We believed in you! And your despicable self betrayed us!” the Moscow-based photographer Sergey Sukhorukov wrote this week, in a poem he shared with the picture.

    ...The disappointment in the fledgling U.S.-Russian rapprochement seems to have been cemented, both in the Kremlin and among ordinary Russians, earlier this week with the Trump administration unexpectedly declaring that Crimea was taken forcefully by Russia and should be returned to Ukraine. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014, the largest land-grab in Europe in decades. In a press conference on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that Trump had made it “very clear” that he expected Russia to return Crimea, and urged Russia to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine, which has recently experienced an uptick in fighting.

    Russia’s reaction to the Trump administration’s seeming U-turn was swift and straightforward: “We do not return our territories,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a routine media briefing. “Crimea is a territory of the Russian Federation. That’s it.” The Kremlin also ordered state media to cut back on their overly positive coverage of Trump, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

    http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/17/russians-are-turning-on-donald-trump/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They thought Trump was a "tough leader?"

      I thought their intel was better than that.

      Delete
  23. Anonymous11:38 AM

    I think it was "leaked" directly by the White House to test the waters about using Nat. Guard troops to round people up (almost too 1930's-1940's to imagine) while at the same time criticizing the media for "fake news." If Trump supporters see the plan as a good one, fine with the administration. it won't matter what the rest of us think. And they've trashed the media at the same time. A real twofer for Trump and his evil cohorts at the White House.
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
  24. When it comes to fighting Trump's lies and attacks on the media, you really need a linguist in your ranks.

    https://georgelakoff.com/2017/02/18/protectthetruth/

    "Case in point: Trump has labeled journalists as “enemies.” So, journalists have responded by labeling themselves “#NotTheEnemy.” This hashtag is currently trending on Twitter, which is unfortunate. Adopting this slogan is a big mistake that helps Trump."

    "For those new to political framing and messaging, I’ll explain briefly here.

    Quick: Don’t think of an elephant!

    Now, what do you see? The bulkiness, the grayness, the trunkiness of an elephant. You can’t block the picture – the frame – from being accessed by your unconscious mind. As a professor in the cognitive and brain sciences, this is the first lesson in framing I have given my students for decades. It’s also the title of my book on the science of framing political debates.

    The key lesson: when we negate a frame, we evoke the frame.

    When President Richard Nixon addressed the country during Watergate and used the phrase “I am not a crook,” he coupled his image with that of a crook.

    He established what he was denying by repeating his opponents’ message.

    This illustrates a key principle of framing: avoid the language of the attacker because it evokes their frame and helps make their case."

    "The important frame here is Truth. Donald Trump despises journalists because the duty of a good journalist is to tell the truth and inform the public. Trump doesn’t like the truth – or an informed public – because the success of his anti-democratic agenda depends on lies and distractions.

    This is why he has labeled journalists as “enemies.” Because Trump is an enemy of truth, and you can’t have democracy without truth.

    Journalists are the courageous people we trust to #ProtectTheTruth."

    I encourage all to subscribe to George Lakoff. He has some really great essays regarding our current political state.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous12:30 PM

    Democratic countries absolutely require free press. HOWEVER, that doesn't give amoral journalists and bloggers moral right to attack, slander, bully, and act like boils on satan's ass. e.g. it doesn't excuse the sexist attacks and libelous lies about Sarah Palin and family. Attacks that led to Levi getting his ass handed to him in court because he wasn't raised to know better than to associate with abusive liberals who care about NO ONE and who put childrens safety at risk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:03 PM

      Shove it up your ass, troll.

      Delete
    2. This lunatic has been sending these crazy ass comments non-stop today.

      I blocked most of them, but this one sneaked through.

      I think the lack of Palin coverage has started to cause her to completely lose touch with reality and now she is just randomly posting comments defending her queen anywhere she can.

      If ever you wanted to know what a psychotic break looked like, it looks like this.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous3:47 PM

      HA HA after 8 years still doesn't know difference between slander and libel.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous2:01 PM

    Yeah, have to watch out for this tactic. The admin and dept heads will completely stonewall the reporter rather than comment on veracity of story, then when the story comes out they claim fake news.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous3:50 PM

    Dictator Donnie does not command the National Guard, the governors do.

    He might know this if he had joined the National Guard during the Vietnam War instead of getting a foot deferment.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Randall5:35 AM

    Using the military to "control the population"?
    What could possibly go wrong?

    ReplyDelete

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