Courtesy of Vox:
The first few months of the Trump administration have been a goldmine for late-night comedians and political satirists. Shows like Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, Saturday Night Live, and Late Night With Seth Meyers have enjoyed ratings boosts thanks to their regular lampooning of the Trump White House.
But beyond the jokes and sight gags, political satirists have done an excellent job of seriously covering the Trump administration — sometimes even better than major TV news networks. And that’s because while traditional journalists feel compelled to take President Trump’s often absurd statements and conspiracy theories seriously, political satirists have demonstrated an extremely low tolerance for bullshit.
I'm actually a little bit late in sharing this article.
I missed it when it first came out, but when I saw it on You Tube I knew it was worth sharing.
As I pointed out last night, it is getting harder and harder to find the humor in the Trump presidency.
However it is important to our mental health that we continue to do so.
Let's face it, most of us currently feel as is if our emotions are constantly under attack, and the only way to help alleviate the depression that accompanies such a feeling is to be able to mock and ridicule the individual responsible.
Donald Trump IS a giant joke, and being reminded of that, and that his presidency will likely be seen as illegitimate, is perhaps the best survival tool that we possess.
Personally I still wish that Jon Stewart had remained at the Daily Show, but Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver are doing a great job of taking up the slack.
I appreciate these comedians on multiple fronts. First, they are making me laugh when there is little to laugh or smile about nowadays. Second, they are poking the very fragile egos of both Trump and his supporters. Sometimes Trump gets poked enough that he shows his true (immature) colors. I have to believe that at least one Trump supporter out there becomes disgusted every time he sends an immature tweet. I truly believe these comedians are providing an important service to the country and I appreciate them for it. I am disappointed that SNL didn't do a skit about Kellyanne Conway's surveillance through the microwave comment. I bet that the producers were crying that they were on hiatus when that came out.
ReplyDeleteColbert made up for it. His microwave bit was priceless and a hoot to boot.
DeleteCongressman asks Trump if Syria attack was a “head fake” to provide cover for Russian sanctions relief
ReplyDeleteMr. President, you’re learning the hard way that navigating difficult policy issues from healthcare to foreign policy is actually complicated. That’s especially true with the myriad of conflicts and crises we face on the world stage.
But you cannot lead the free world by being impulsive, unilateral, and unpredictable. You have signaled for months that the US doesn’t care about humanitarian and moral issues. You’ve completely ignored a massive humanitarian crisis in east Africa that threatens starvation and death for 20 million people – in fact, you’ve proposed deep cuts to humanitarian aid that would make it worse. You’ve turned your back on desperate refugees fleeing Assad’s war crimes in Syria. You’ve signaled that Russia and Assad are free to do whatever they want because it’s not our fight – almost inviting more atrocities in Syria and beyond. And now you suddenly change your mind — but it’s not clear if it’s just this once, or something more.
Was it the images of dying Syrian babies, even though you ignored prior images of dying Syrian babies and all of the dying African babies? Was it politics – perhaps your historically low poll numbers and complete lack of accomplishment in your first 11 weeks as President? Was it the fact that oil prices will now magically go up, a boon to your fossil fuel cronies? Or was it something else – a head fake vis-à-vis Russia in advance of Tillerson’s trip, to provide cover for the sanctions relief your team has been pursuing ever since before the election?
We shouldn’t have to ask these questions about our President, but with this President, I’m afraid we do. We have far more questions than answers after last night’s airstrikes. And it underscores, among other things, why Congress must reassert its authority over war decisions as called for by our Constitution.
The congressman is right, of course. We should not have to ask these questions of our president. But Trump is no ordinary president. His constant lying, his refusal to offer evidence for outrageous claims, and the growing evidence of his campaign’s collusion with Russia to affect the outcome of the 2016 election all leave us no choice but to ask these questions — and demand real answers.
http://shareblue.com/congressman-asks-trump-if-syria-attack-was-a-head-fake-to-provide-cover-for-russian-sanctions-relief/
Muslim student who has dedicated life to fighting religious extremism is banned from returning to US
ReplyDeleteA Fulbright scholar at the University of Chicago went home to visit his parents in Pakistan for the winter holidays. In an interview with The Independent, he describes how he tried to go back and resume his studies but was told he was no longer welcome
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/muslim-student-dedicated-life-usa-extremism-religion-banned-a7677186.html
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/04/10/michele-bachmann-leads-religious-rights-unholy-chorus-support-donald-trump.html
DeleteEPA staff ‘openly mocking’ Trump’s ‘arrogant and callous’ policies, says retiree
ReplyDelete30-year veteran compares EPA chief’s climate denial to lies tobacco executives told Congress
“I have worked under six administrations with political appointees leading EPA from both parties,” Cox wrote on his last day on the job. “This is the first time I remember staff openly dismissing and mocking the environmental policies of an administration and by extension you.”
https://thinkprogress.org/epa-staff-openly-mocking-trump-s-arrogant-and-callous-policies-says-retiree-eaa63948cc25
Hope the staff in the other departments are doing the same. Especially to Betsy De Vos. That bitch deserves defiance to her face.
DeleteVoters’ support is slipping for congressional GOP – even among Republicans
ReplyDeleteRepublicans have had a tough month on Capitol Hill, and their poll numbers show it.
Sixty-two percent of voters disapprove of GOP lawmakers in Congress, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll, more than double the 27 percent who said they approve.
That’s a 10-point swing from last month, when 57 percent of voters disapproved and 32 percent approved.
The biggest drop in support came from the GOP’s electoral base: Fifty-seven percent of Republican voters now approve of their congressional lawmakers, a 12-point drop from February.
The damage was most glaring with self-identified “soft Republicans.” In this group, a plurality of voters – 43 percent -- now disapprove of Congressional Republicans, compared to 40 percent who approve.
The drop in support came during the week that the American Health Care Act, the Republican Party’s health care bill, failed to pass in the House, a stunning setback for GOP lawmakers that laid bare their internal divisions between moderate and conservative factions. The poll was taken March 22 to 27. The bill was pulled March 24.
In the days since the bill’s collapse, President Donald Trump has castigated on Twitter members of the Freedom Caucus for blocking a deal, prompting a rebuttal from many of them that it was moderate Republicans who were more responsible for its inability to pass.
The dip in poll numbers was “quite illuminating,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article142030304.html#storylink=cpy
It's not just Syria. Trump is ratcheting up wars across the world
ReplyDeleteFrom the expansion of official US war zones in Yemen and Somalia to a spike in drone strikes, conflicts are heating up on several fronts
Donald Trump’s missile strikes on Syria have attracted worldwide attention (and disgraceful plaudits) in recent days. But much less airtime is being given to his administration’s risky and increasingly barbaric military escalations on several other fronts across the world.
Let’s put aside, for the time being, that the Trump administration openly admits it has no clue what it is going to do in Syria next. Or that key members of Congress and in the administration are clearly eager for “regime change” in Syria with no plan for the aftermath. And the fact that hardly anyone seems to care that Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev said over the weekend that Syrian strikes put the US “on the verge of a military clash with Russia” – a nuclear power with thousands of warheads.
As troubling as these developments are, we should be just as concerned about the explosion of civilian deaths – more than 1,000 in March alone – that have come directly as the result of the Trump administration’s other reckless military campaigns across the Middle East over the past few weeks.
Recently, US airstrikes have claimed the lives of 200 civilians in Iraq, dozens were killed in separate strikes supposedly aimed at Islamic State in Syria and several more women and children died in a raid gone awry in Yemen. Those are just a few examples of the many attacks – launched under the pretext of defeating Isis – that wreaked havoc on civilian populations as the US military ramps up its bombing campaigns in multiple counties.
At the same time, the Trump administration has been expanding official US “war zones” in Somalia and Yemen, while working to “make it easier for the Pentagon to launch counterterrorism strikes anywhere in the world” and loosening restrictions on preventing civilian deaths that were put in place by the Obama administration, as the Washington Post reported a few weeks ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/10/not-just-syria-trump-ratcheting-up-wars-world
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/sam-harris-a-reichstag-fire-moment-is-inevitable-with-trump/
That was the danger of Brian Williams and Fareed Zakari praising Trump as "presidential" for bombing the empty airfield.
DeleteNow Trump will do it again, any time he needs his ego assuaged.
At some point a target is going to get pissy and fire back.
Then we'll have WWIII.
Leave it to Trump to antagonize or even attack North Korea. Then we can look forward to a glowing West Coast, because Trump doesn't give a shit as long as they don't bomb New York or Florida.
One of the happiest moments in my life was the day in 1999 when I became an American citizen. Studying for the citizenship test, I had learned to appreciate the Bill of Rights, including the 4th Amendment, which guarantees the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
ReplyDeleteMore recently I was made to wonder: Does the 4th Amendment apply to Muslim citizens at LAX?
On Feb. 23, I arrived at LAX to begin a long trip to Gaziantep, Turkey, where my aged mother and two brothers are living as refugees from the Syrian wars. At the security checkpoint, I was sent to a separate line, where my purse and carry-on were emptied out, and where I was required to remove my back brace and undergo the usual full-body scan, twice, and an aggressive body search, again twice.
The first body-searcher reached between my legs and groped under my hijab. When I asked the second one to please be gentle with my injured back, she gave me a sharp jab instead. I cried out, lurched forward in pain and demanded to speak to her supervisor. The supervisor released me, but my problems were only beginning.
At the gate, I heard a voice over the loudspeaker: “Lubana Adi, come to the counter!” Several armed men and a woman were waiting for me. I was required yet again to undergo a body search and to have my purse and carry-on emptied. This time, my hands and feet were checked with a paper device that, as was explained, would reveal whether I had recently worked with explosives.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-adi-fourth-amendment-airport-cellphone-search-20170407-story.html
Donald Trump's approval rating didn’t change after his Syria airstrikes
ReplyDeletehttps://www.indy100.com/article/donald-trump-syria-airstrikes-7676211
One of President Donald Trump's favorite businesses will go the way of Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Airlines, and Trump Magazine: his embattled New York modeling firm, Trump Model Management, has officially told its business associates around the world to prepare for its closure, according to an email obtained by Mother Jones.
Deletehttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/leaked-email-trump-models-will-officially-shut-down
Why Is Trump Losing So Much?
ReplyDeleteAfter a headline-grabbing strike in Syria, let's not forget that the president has failed to advance most of his agenda.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/why-is-trump-losing-so-much
Since there's nothing going on 😜😜😜why don't we speculate how Bristol found that San Antonio Texas internship she worked in June 2008.
ReplyDeleteSocial Security Advocates Sound The Alarm About The Latest Trump Tax Plan
ReplyDeleteFollowing reports that President Donald Trump is dumping the tax plan he campaigned on and exploring a host of other options, advocates for Social Security are sounding the alarm, pointing to a proposal to eliminate the program's primary source of funding: payroll taxes.
Though it is not yet known how far along the White House proposal has progressed, those who want to protect Social Security say they are taking the news "extremely seriously."
"Even if this is just a trial balloon, we want to puncture it as quickly as we can,” said Nancy Altman, the president of the advocacy group Social Security Works.
According to the Associated Press, lobbyists aligned with the Trump administration are pushing for the elimination of the 12.4 percent payroll tax, which is the overwhelming source of revenue for the Social Security trust funds, which provide benefits to the elderly and the disabled. The report published Monday details how they plan to sell the idea to lawmakers and the public:
This approach would give a worker earning $60,000 a year an additional $3,720 in take-home pay, a possible win that lawmakers could highlight back in their districts even though it would involve changing the funding mechanism for Social Security, according to the lobbyist, who asked for anonymity to discuss the proposal without disrupting early negotiations.
Altman, who told TPM that she only found out about this plan from press reports, called it a Trojan Horse.
"They will sell it as a tax cut for the middle class, but really this is undermining middle class economic security, and the ability to retire," she said. "They’ll say they're 'saving' Social Security, but basically they want to scale back or get rid of the program."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/social-security-tax-program-cuts
And they'll still be taxes for that added income and probably at a higher level since they'll have to make up for the tax cuts on the wealthy.
DeleteIt's a shell game.
Hey peeps, there's a Twitter poll on who is a greater word salad spinner, Spicer or Palin. I say Spicer. He used a fun new word today! IMers are die hard Anti-Palinists (see, I can do it too!) but Sean Spicer has been slinging some serious crap...
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/justin_kanew/status/851561087136927744
Sorry, but in the end Spicer still has a better command of grammar, syntax and the basics of the English Language.
DeletePalin's speeches are what you get when you dump a Scrabble game in a blender.
https://www.facebook.com/ezraklein/videos/674048392782766/?autoplay_reason=user_settings&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=0&app_id=273465416184080&live_video_guests=0
ReplyDelete"A New Documentary About Mississippi in the 60s Suddenly Seems Frighteningly of the Moment - See more at:
ReplyDeletehttp://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165568#sthash.5G0W0yYZ.dpuf
BLM
http://abc7chicago.com/science/nasa-puts-earth-up-for-adoption/1857081/
ReplyDeleteWhatever Trump touches eventually shuts down. What's next? America?
ReplyDelete-----------
Leaked Email: President Trump's Modeling Agency Is Shutting Down
Business partners are told it's over for one of Trump's most prized businesses.
One of President Donald Trump's favorite businesses will go the way ofTrump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Airlines, and Trump Magazine: his embattled New York modeling firm, Trump Model Management, has officially told its business associates around the world to prepare for its closure, according to an email obtained by Mother Jones.....
Mother Jones reported last week that the firm was on the brink of collapse, and the New York Post confirmed on Friday that Trump's agency was indeed shutting down....