January 11, 2017

Fact-checking President-elect Trumps news conference

President-elect Trump finally held a news conference, but as is typical, he often made claims that have been repeatedly debunked or discredited. Here’s a guide to 15 of his more notable statements, in the order in which he made them.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/11/fact-checking-president-elect-trumps-news-conference/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_fact-checker-3pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.3dfdf611051c

January 11, 2017

Trump Just Shot Jim Acosta In The Middle Of Fifth Avenue And The Press Didnt Blink

On the campaign trail last January, President-elect Donald Trump bragged that he “could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters.”

Today during his press conference, Trump did the rhetorical equivalent to CNN reporter Jim Acosta, and the assembled reporters did nothing.

After Trump attacked CNN’s report that top U.S. intelligence officials believe Russian operatives may have compromising information about him, Acosta yelled out, “Since you are attacking us, can you give us a question?” In an extended back and forth, Trump lashed out at Acosta’s “terrible” news outlet.

“I’m not going to give you a question,” Trump said. “I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news!”

Acosta was left to say that Trump was being “inappropriate” and sink back in his chair as Trump’s supporters clapped.

And the rest of the press apparently did nothing at all. They watched it happen, then moved on to ask their own questions. Rather than deferring to their CNN colleagues until they had an opportunity to speak or trying to ask Acosta’s question themselves or pushing back against Trump’s attack on a media outlet or even walking out, they acted like it hadn’t happened.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/11/trump-just-shot-jim-acosta-middle-fifth-avenue-and-press-didn-t-blink/214978

January 11, 2017

What really stands out is how the media handled Obama & Clinton Press Conferences with lots of

yelling, questioning them hard on what they said; didn't say & all the questions asked.

Were there any media there? Was it them applauding when he walked into the room, don't remember seeing that before.

If this is what his press conferences are going to be like, what a waste of time unless the media actually shows up.

January 11, 2017

The Curious World of Donald Trumps Private Russian Connections

Did the American people really know they were putting such a “well-connected” guy in the White House?


Throughout Donald Trump’s presidential campaign he expressed glowing admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Many of Trump’s adoring comments were utterly gratuitous. After his Electoral College victory, Trump continued praising the former head of the KGB while dismissing the findings of all 17 American national security agencies that Putin directed Russian government interference to help Trump in the 2016 American presidential election.

As veteran investigative economist and journalist Jim Henry shows below, a robust public record helps explain the fealty of Trump and his family to this murderous autocrat and the network of Russian oligarchs. Putin and his billionaire friends have plundered the wealth of their own people. They have also run numerous schemes to defraud governments and investors in the United States and Europe. From public records, using his renowned analytical skills, Henry shows what the mainstream news media in the United States have failed to report in any meaningful way: For three decades Donald Trump has profited from his connections to the Russian oligarchs, whose own fortunes depend on their continued fealty to Putin.
We don’t know the full relationship between Donald Trump, the Trump family and their enterprises with the network of world-class criminals known as the Russian oligarchs. Henry acknowledges that his article poses more questions than answers, establishes more connections than full explanations. But what Henry does show should prompt every American to rise up in defense of their country to demand a thorough, out-in-the-open congressional investigation with no holds barred. The national security of the United States of America and of peace around the world, especially in Europe, may well depend on how thoroughly we understand the rich network of relationships between the 45th President and the Russian oligarchy. When Donald Trump chooses to exercise, or not exercise, his power to restrain Putin’s drive to invade independent countries and seize their wealth, as well as loot countries beyond his control, Americans need to know in whose interest the President is acting or looking the other way.
—David Cay Johnston,

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of Donald Trump


“I’ve always been blessed with a kind of intuition about people that allows me to sense who the sleazy guys are, and I stay far away.”
—Donald Trump, Surviving at the Top


Finally, the long-run consequence of careless interventions in other countries is that they often come back to haunt us. In Russia’s case, it just has.


http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/12/19/the-curious-world-of-donald-trumps-private-russian-connections/

January 11, 2017

The 15 warnings signs of tyranny

BY ROBERT B. REICH
Tribune Content Agency

As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically:

1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern — claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote.

2. Repeatedly claim massive voter fraud in the absence of any evidence, in order to restrict voting in subsequent elections.

3. Call anyone who opposes them “enemies.”

4. Turn the public against journalists or media outlets that criticize them, calling them “deceitful” and “scum.”

5. Hold few press conferences, preferring to communicate with the public directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements.

6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.

7. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and foment public bias and even violence against them.

8. Attribute acts of domestic violence to “enemies within,” and use such events as excuses to beef up internal security and limit civil liberties.

9. Threaten mass deportations, registries of a religious minority, and the banning of refugees with particular religious beliefs.

10. Seek to eliminate or reduce the influence of competing centers of power, such as labor unions and opposition parties.

11. Appoint family members to high positions of authority and power.

12. Surround themselves with their own personal security force rather than a security detail accountable to the public.

13. Put generals into top civilian posts.

14. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators.

15. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from their public office.

These warning signs should be of concern to everyone, regardless of political party. In fact, historically, conservatives have been especially vigilant against potential threats to our constitutional rights.

All Americans must join together to protect American democracy against tyranny.

Consider yourself warned.

http://bit.ly/2j7vlCI

January 9, 2017

ACLU Head on Bracing for Trump and America's 'Enormous Civil Liberties Crisis'

Anthony Romero discusses his group's plan to limit the damage of a president who's openly hostile to essential liberties


As Donald Trump rises to the presidency, backed by a Republican Congress with little appetite for oversight, millions of Americans are looking to the judicial branch to prevent American democracy from jumping the rails.
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The American Civil Liberties Union is eager to leverage the courts and the Constitution to block the most dangerous parts of Trump's agenda. The group is meeting this moment of crisis with swagger: Hours after Trump won the election, it began circulating an image of the president-elect's face superimposed with the message "SEE YOU IN COURT."
Anthony Romero is the ACLU's 51-year-old executive director, a post he's held since shortly before the 9/11 attacks. The civil liberties crisis that followed under President Bush caught the progressive universe flat-footed – it would take years of litigation by the ACLU and others to expose, and begin to roll back, unconstitutional abuses like the CIA's torture program and NSA's warrantless mass surveillance.
Under Trump, the ACLU is braced and ready from day one, anticipating an onslaught of illegal and unconstitutional orders and policies. The group has been using the transition period to staff up and to prepare legal strategies that Romero believes can block many Trump abuses before they begin. It's also sounding the alarm about Trump cabinet picks: The ACLU's national legal director will be testifying at the confirmation hearing of attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions this Wednesday, highlighting the Alabama senator's "hostility to civil rights and civil liberties."


Entire Rolliing Stone Article @ Link: http://rol.st/2jmFPdK

January 9, 2017

Facebooks New Head of News Partnerships, Campbell Brown, Has Deep Ties to Trump Nominee

FACEBOOK ANNOUNCED FRIDAY that former CNN host and education reform activist Campbell Brown will be leading its news partnership team.

Brown wrote in a statement on her Facebook page that she will “help news organizations and journalists work more closely and more effectively with Facebook. I will be working directly with our partners to help them understand how Facebook can expand the reach of their journalism, and contribute value to their businesses.”

Brown’s hiring should raise eyebrows given her close ties to Betsy DeVos, the president-elect’s nominee to lead the Education Department. DeVos is a Michigan-based billionaire heiress who has poured millions of dollars into organizations supporting school vouchers and charter schools.

One of the organizations DeVos funds is The 74, an education reporting website Brown founded to, among other things, push for education reform. Brown also sits on the board of the DeVos-backed group American Federation for Children, a nonprofit that advocates for the expansion of school vouchers and whose electoral arm spends heavily in state legislative elections.

The former CNN host is hardly shy about her relationship to DeVos. In late November, shortly after Trump announce the pick, Brown wrote a post defending her on The 74. Calling DeVos a “friend,” Brown said she is a “decision-maker, thick-skinned, never long discouraged by setbacks and impervious to hostile criticism.”

Link to article: https://theintercept.com/2017/01/06/facebooks-new-head-of-news-partnerships-campbell-brown-has-deep-ties-to-trump-nominee/

January 8, 2017

Manchin should be kicked out of the Dem Party/Dem Manchin lauds Trumps EPA pick

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) lauded President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Thursday, saying he “has the right experience for the position.”

The assessment came in a rare joint statement put out by Trump’s transition team and the Democrat after he met with Scott Pruitt, the current Republican attorney general of Oklahoma.

Pruitt is unlikely to need Manchin’s support in order to win confirmation in the Senate, since none of the upper chamber's 52 Republicans has said they would not vote for him.

But Manchin is running for reelection in 2018 and is under pressure to show that he can represent one of the most Republican states in the country.

“Attorney General Pruitt and I had a very productive conversation today about his plans for the Environmental Protection Agency and ways we can work together,” Manchin said in the statement. “We both come from energy producing states and have a great deal in common.”

Manchin said Pruitt agreed to visit West Virginia cities with recent drinking water problems.

Pruitt called the meeting “very good and productive.” He lauded Manchin’s work on energy policy and said he would work closely with Manchin and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) on the issues the state cares about.

Manchin breaks with Democrats on many major energy policy questions and has opposed most Democratic policies to fight climate change, like President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

In 2010, when Manchin was running in a special election for the Senate seat, he ran an advertisement in which he shot the proposed cap-and-trade bill with a rifle.

Trump has promised to undo the Clean Power Plan and more of Obama’s rules, and Pruitt has led lawsuits by conservative states to challenge the policies.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican who may run against Manchin in 2018, publicly pushed him to endorse Pruitt in December. Manchin responded to that call by saying Pruitt has an “impressive resume,” among other compliments.

Pruitt is facing strong opposition from Democrats and environmentalists, who say he doesn’t agree with the EPA’s missions and would be a dangerous administrator.

Manchin’s attempts to distance himself from other Democrats led him Wednesday to meet individually with Vice President-elect Mike Pence to discuss how to repeal and replace ObamaCare, instead of meeting with Obama and other Democrats to strategize how to preserve the law.

Trump won West Virginia in the presidential election with a higher percentage of the vote than any other state he won.


http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/312954-sen-manchin-lauds-trumps-epa-pick

January 8, 2017

Breitbart Story About Mob Of 1,000 Muslims Attacking A German Church Reportedly Dissolves

Breitbart.com appears to have falsely reported that “a mob of more than 1,000 men chanted ‘Allahu Akhbar’” while attacking police and setting a church on fire during New Year’s Eve festivities in Dortmund, Germany. Breitbart is engaged in an ongoing effort to amplify anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe in order to support the rise of xenophobic, far-right political parties and movements.

Breitbart reported on January 3 that “At New Year’s Eve celebrations in Dortmund a mob of more than 1,000 men chanted ‘Allahu Akhbar’, launched fireworks at police, and set fire to a historic church.” The article cites “a livewire published by the Ruhr Nachrichten.”






http://mm4a.org/2j5M3zv

January 7, 2017

The 1987 TV Miniseries That Predicted a Russian Takeover of America

Long since forgotten, ‘Amerika’ was a commercial and artistic flop. Watching it today makes for uncomfortable viewing.


the election of an American president abetted by Russian interference seems stranger than fiction, you're almost right. Exactly 30 years ago, in the midst of the Cold War, ABC aired a seven-night, 14-and-a-half-hour miniseries depicting life 10 years after the Soviet Union manipulates the presidential election as meek and deflated Americans shrug. “Amerika,” was heavily criticized at the time for peddling the histrionic premise of a bloodless coup. And while much of the production remains implausible, its core message is more relevant today than ever: They did it because we let them.

In the alternate universe of “Amerika,” (available only in VHS, though it can be found on YouTube) a puppet government was installed in 1988, after a sham election in which both major party candidates were Soviet stooges. By 1997, the 50 states had been replaced by 12 “administrative areas.” Communication systems had been taken out – no Internet or cell phones in this version of 1997 – cutting Americans off from each other. The mighty U.S. military is no more; the areas are patrolled by Soviet-controlled “United Nations Special Service Units.” Dissidents, if not simply exiled to desolate parts of the country, are brainwashed at the “People’s Acceptance Hospital.” Older Americans grumble about food shortages and a lost way of life, but are resigned to their fate. Kids are taught their “ancestors” were “bullies” who only killed Indians, exploited workers and dumped those who couldn’t work into “slums” to die. (Lincoln is still revered, but his image now gets paired with Lenin.)


Full Politico Article @ Link: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/the-1987-tv-miniseries-that-predicted-a-russian-takeover-of-america-214609