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Trump continues to terrorize Americans by starting off the week threatening to shut down government if he does not get funding for the Wall. This is the wall he of course he said Mexico was going to pay for. He blames Democrats, but many of his own party don’t want to fund this either.
Trump tweets more lies this time about a meeting with the publisher of the New York Times that was off the record, until Trump disclosed it. Later in a week Trump fires up in a Florida rally the hatred of the free press, calling them the enemy of the people. His followers dutifully turn on the press in the rally with jaunts and verbal attacks. Can physical violence be far behind? In the only good news, first daughter Ivanka comes out and says that the press is not the enemy of the people. This after Trump’s secretary of propaganda and press secretary refuses to distance herself from the President’s attack on the media.
Reports surface this week that North Korea continues to build missiles as well as producing fissile material for nuclear arms, in defiance of Trump who proclaimed (lied) that NK was no longer a nuclear threat.
Trump continues to beat up his AG and tweets that he wants the Russian investigation stopped. How can this not be obstruction of justice when the boss over the justice department demands that they drop their work? Now Trump pundits start saying that even if there was collusion, that collusion is not a crime.
This occurred nearly simultaneously with Trump’s national security heads saying the Russian threat to interfere and disrupt our elections past and present is real.
Trump and China exchange a series of threats in the escalating trade war. Trump doubles down and threatens to tariff another $200B worth of Chinese imports.
Trump administration proposed rolling back gas mileage standards from the Obama presidency as well as restrict states from enacting their own fuel economy standards.
How did we end up in this hellish nightmare of the American president attacking the press, attacking the justice department, long time allies of America, immigrant families, the environment, norms, the electoral process, his political opponents, celebrities, athletes, foreign leaders, health care, his own cabinet, the tenets of democracy… and of course the truth.
Trump likes getting out of Washington for rallies among his often rabid followers. He attacks political rivals with fervor, insults sports stars like Labron James, and Don Lemon who he calls the dumbest man on television, and always the press. it is no wonder that conspirators show up as his supporters, such as those believing in “Q”.
Trump once again changes his story of the meeting between Donald Jr. and Russian operatives offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. He has lied so many times about this meeting it must challenge him to keep the lies straight. Trump now says of course the meeting was about getting dirt on a political opponent, and why should anyone be shocked, as if it is normal behavior to use a foreign sources of countries that are a foe of America to win and influence elections. He goes on to say that this is not illegal. But it is if it involves foreign nationals or amounts to a campaign donation or value in kind transaction.
This week Trump continues fighting with Iran, China, and now Turkey over a broad range of tariff retaliation and economic sanctions. Americans are exhausted with all the international chaos one man has created. Turk strongman Erdogan uses Trump’s attack to shore up his own nationalistic support in Turkey, just like Trump is doing in America. This of course if how countries stumble the way into wars or creating failed states that only invite terrorists to take refuge in.
Puerto Rico finally admits what everyone knew, that the death total from Hurricane Maria was nearly 1,500 people. Trump’s Katrina.
First Lady Melania’s parents, former communist party members from Slovenia, obtained U.S. Citizenship this week under the chained migration provision of immigration. This is the same immigration policy that Trump rails against time and time again at rallies, throwing red meat out to the uninformed or misinformed masses. Melania of course entered the country under the Einstein Visa which awards visas for persons of extraordinary ability. In this case it was because she was a model.
A federal judge threatens to hold AG Jeff Sessions himself in contempt of justice for deporting a pair of asylum seeking mother and daughter out of the country while their case was being held. Justice can work fast as the plane returned to the US with the pair on-board.
Another Trump ex-associate and adviser Roger Stone was held in contempt of court for not appearing before Special Investigator Mueller’s Grand Jury.
The trial of Trump’s ex-campaign manager Manafort continued this week with damning testimony from finance manager Gates who detailed Manafort’s hiding money away in foreign bank accounts, that was earned from Russian-friendly Ukraine consulting deals, to live a lavish lifestyle in the U.S.
This week the cost of global warming and changing climates was felt by people all over the planet with record summer heat, devastating fires, extreme flash flood events, and more deaths. This year is on track to be the 4th hottest year on record, following the previous three years which also took the record. The Trump administration is MIA in protecting Americans from this real and present danger.
The Trump administration continued to launch the plans for a 6th defense force or space force. We don’t have money for health care for all, improve our infrastructure, or protect the planet from climate change. But they have money and enthusiasm for yet another billion-dollar military adventure that takes war making into space.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka makes a trip to a welding facility in Illinois to talk about work force development and training. Yes, the glamorous wealthy first daughter was there to help workers learn new trades. If we could only be that lucky with the whole Trump family learning how to become something besides liars, leeches, hypocrites, frauds, and con artists preying on the American public
Republican congressman Devin Nunes demonstrates their commitment to justice and democracy by telling donors in a closed-door meeting that they must do everything to protect Trump at all costs. Nunes of course heads up the House Intelligence Committee responsible for investigating the Trump / Russian connection.
Reality TV Apprentice star and fired White House aide Omarosa Newman comes out swinging in her book “Unhinged” about Trump. In the book, interviews, and secret audio recordings she makes available she details a totally corrupt administration offering jobs and hush money to keep her and others quiet along with more instances of Trump’s bigotry and use of the N-word. Trump officials requiring NDAs be signed to muzzle public government employees in the White House is another low point, as if he was running a private business or organized crime ring. Trump responds in his totally un-Presidential manner by calling her a dog, wacky, and lowlife, She previously was someone Trump had hired multiple times and raved about.
The President signs a record $716B defense spending bill that was named for American war hero John McCain. But Trump, the little petty selfish brooding man-child he is, can’t even mention the name of ailing Senator John McCain, a fellow Republican, during the signing and dishonors yet another proud American who served the country.
In another fit of adolescent temper Trump rescinds the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan who has spoken against the policies of this administration. Brennan has said the Trump clearly worked with Russians and claims that there was no collusion with Russia are hogwash. Trump goes on to threaten, demean, and bully other Americans and ex-intelligence heads who have served the country, often defending citizen rights to freedom of expression, with revocation of their security credentials. This is how aspiring fascists act to silence opposition which should come as no surprise since he called for locking up Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile Trump’s Citizenship and Immigration services continues to seek once rare and unbelievable acts of denaturalizing U.S. Citizens who were previous immigrants.
Under increasing pressure from the Russia collusion investigation, the President blames the press for being in collusion to discredit him. He continues to call the probe a witch hunt and the press the enemy of the people and the fake news media the opposition party. Reports surface that even White House Counsel Don McGahn has met with and cooperated with special prosecutor Mueller.
The news media finally begins fighting back with hundreds of newspapers from across the country running editorials addressing Trump’s attack on truth, journalism, assault on free speech, and the foundations of a democracy.
The deconstruction of protections for the American public continue, this week with Trump asking the SEC to reduce the frequency of earnings reports they must release to investors. More loss of transparency to protect American institutions like financial markets.
Trump’s request for the best and biggest military parade ever has been axed. The DoD projected a cost of nearly $100M for such an extravaganza worthy of the world’s finest despots, autocrats, dictators, and fascist.
How we dream of the old days of August in politics when nothing happened. Trump’s administration continues to drain Americans even during our vacation month.
The corruption of this man and his once-confidants has no bounds. All on the same day Trump’s ex-Campaign Manager Paul Manafort was found guilty of 8 charges. Trump’s ex personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to also 8 charges of banking, tax, and campaign laws. And in doing so he states in court that he was directed by candidate Trump to make hush money payments to a Trump’s ex lovers while he was married to the present first lady; one a porn star and the other a playboy playmate, and cover it up using a chain of fake companies to avoid campaign finance laws. Now there is no doubt that laws were broken and a conspiracy took place to cover up the crimes.
Trump and his apologists have used so many different stories and lies over the past year to explain these payments. The first of which he said was he didn’t even know about the payments. And yet Trump, a man seemingly without morals, ethics, and now few friends, continues to attack his ex-confidants, the justice department, his Attorney General, the special investigator, the press, the democrats, and the list goes on and on. And when it seems he is going to burst, he goes out on the road to hold a campaign rally to throw out red meat to his crowds while he plays the sad little victim of a witch hunt. How much more disgraced can we be by one President?
Later in the week he hands his rabid supporters and white supremacists more race baiting claims that black South Africans are evicting white farmer from their lands. He goes on to say there is widespread large-scale killing going on there as well.
Trump’s newer attorney, Rudy Giuliani, not to miss an opportunity to add more chaos and distrust, claimed that “truth is not truth” in a network news interview.
And still hardly a word from the Republican Party which has sold its soul to the power and greed of being in power, even when their leader is Trump. How will history judge them for not doing their job and calling for a congressional investigation or impeachment. What will they do when Trump truly goes off the deep end by concocting some military drama to thwart the criminal investigation of the Special Counsel and rally America around the flag.
And sadly many Democrats seem scared of their own shadow to call out Trump for what he is and is doing to our country. Can we just imagine what the Republicans would be doing if a Democrat had behaved like Trump? Maybe the Republicans are right; Democrats are too coward to fight for our country and preserve democracy and our way of life.
Trumps’ Secretary of State Pompeo was a day from leaving for North Korea to try to resurrect the “big successful summit” his boss had a few months ago with Kim when Trump called it off saying there had not been enough progress on denuclearization. Not even Trump’s lies and deceit can hide that his previous meeting with Kim was just another made for TV con job on the American public.
The same morning that First Lady Melania Trump speaks about the harmful and destructive effects of cyberbullying, her husband was busy attacking his own justice department and ex-CIA head Brennan who led the effort to find Osama Bin Laden. The next day the President continues to scold, attach, demean, disgrace, and bully his own Attorney General.
Trump’s head of education is evaluating whether to help pay for guns for teaches to have in the classroom. She considers tapping a program that was to help with education for the poorest of all schools. That’s right, don’t give students more books or teachers in the classroom, but guns.
It was announced this week that Trump’s Foundation is under state criminal investigation in NY and Michael Cohen has been subpoenaed to testify. Why should we be surprised? Everything Trump has ever done appears to be corrupt.
More bad news for the planet as Trump’s administration proposed to roll back carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. A rollback is expected to result in the additional deaths of thousands of Americans from diseases due to increased pollution. And of course climate change and extreme weather events continues to take their toll on the world’s population, especially the poor.
The true impact of Trump’s tax cuts that blow up the deficit are now more clear. It was reported that American businesses have used 70% of their tax breaks in stock buybacks and shareholder dividends. Less than 10% went to increasing employee wages, which further explains why the incomes of most Americans continue to trail inflation and are so slow to recover from the great recession. Of course the majority of this income goes to the top 10% of American families. Tax cuts for the rich have fueled income and wealth gains for the rich, and what we know is coming, cuts on social services and programs like Social Security and Medicare for the poor and middle class. What dupes the American voters have been.
The nation mourns this week for the loss of a true patriot who understood there was a much greater cause to serve than his own; Senator John McCain. Members of all faiths and political parties gather to honor the Senator in one of the largest displays of shared values that truly make America great. How different of a man and a legacy he leaves than the likes of a Trump.
Not to miss an opportunity to show how little he is, Trump belatedly has the White House flag flown at half-staff, then raises it prematurely the next day, only to be scorned by veterans to return it to its lowered state.
The corruption of the Trump businesses and family continues on. The Kushner Company was fined $200K in NYC for falsifying its statements about public housing projects.
Departures continue from the Trump administration. This week it was the chief ombudsman of the US student loan program. He resigned in protest that the federal agency was more interested in serving and protecting banks than students and their families. Then Trump’s White House Counsel Donald McGahn announces he will be leaving after the Senate confirms the next Supreme Court Justice. McGahn had been the one to meet for hours with special prosecutor Mueller. Like every other Trump staffer, Trump blames him for his troubles. In particular allowing AG Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation.
Washington is abuzz this week with more speculation after months of badgering Sessions and normalizing the thought that a sitting President would fire the AG during an investigation, that Trump would actually go through with it and people would just shrug.
Trump expands his attacks of the media to now include Google and Facebook who he warns to be careful in their coverage of his administration which he calls rigged, biased and unfair. Of course, Trump loves to bully, demean, and threaten, then play the victim.
In meeting with evangelical leaders at the White House Trump warns that if the Democrats win the house in the Fall midterm elections that they will overturn everything he has done and do so with violence. He calls the Democrats the antifa and adds they are very violent groups.
A DOJ lawyer is reported to have heard a British spy claim that the Russians had Trump over a barrel. How else can we explain the actions and words of a man who has attacked nearly everyone at one time or the other, except for Russia and Putin?
Then this same week, the administration urges for the rollback of the Johnson Amendment which prevents tax- exempt organizations like churches from politicking in favor of candidates.
U.S. citizens of Hispanic ancestry are now finding when the attempt to renew their passports that their citizenship is being challenged. Even those with U.S. birth certificates are now being jailed in immigration detention centers. Another sad chapter to our national nightmare.
Trump told Congress this week that he was freezing the pay of federal workers. They would get no increases next year. Trump cited a ballooning budget deficit. Let me see, where might that have come from? Perhaps massive tax cuts? What a petty little excuse of a vindictive little man he is. But of course this is just another step in his plan to dissemble the federal government. Today, it’s pay for federal workers. Tomorrow it will likely be Medicare and Social Security for the elderly.
The above news has been taken from a number of international, national, regional, and local news media sources, both print and digital. Additional editorial opinions and comments about these news items are those of this author.
Bearing + Witness + Heartland 