President Donald Trump's Final Days...

[tsunamiSD]

being for 'little guy' or 'common man' or 'making America great again'...

FCC to Scrap net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission released a plan on Tuesday to dismantle landmark regulations that ensure equal access to the internet, clearing the way for internet service companies to charge users more to see certain content and to curb access to some websites.
The proposal, made by the F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, is a sweeping repeal of rules put in place by the Obama administration. The rules prohibit high-speed internet service providers, or I.S.P.s, from stopping or slowing down the delivery of websites. They also prevent the companies from charging customers extra fees for high-quality streaming and other services.
The announcement set off a fight over free speech and the control of the internet, pitting telecom titans like AT&T and Verizon against internet giants like Google and Amazon. The internet companies warned that rolling back the rules could make the telecom companies powerful gatekeepers to information and entertainment.

Small online companies believe the proposal would hurt innovation, because telecom companies could force them to pay more for the faster connections. Only the largest companies, they say, would be able to afford the expense of making sure their sites received preferred treatment. Companies like Etsy and Pinterest, for example, credit their start to the promise of free and open access on the internet.
And consumers, the online companies say, may see their costs go up if, for example, they want high-quality access to popular websites like Netflix, a company that depends on fast connections for its streaming videos. Netflix said on Tuesday that it opposed Mr. Pai’s proposal.

Mr. Pai, who was appointed chairman by President Trump in January, has eliminated numerous regulations during his first year.
The agency has stripped down rules governing television broadcasters, newspapers and telecom companies that were meant to protect the public interest. On Tuesday, in addition to the net neutrality rollback, Mr. Pai announced a plan to eliminate a rule limiting any corporation from controlling broadcasts that can reach more than 39 percent of American homes.

[tsunamiSD]

U.S. diplomats accuse Tillerson of breaking child soldiers law

A group of about a dozen U.S. State Department officials have taken the unusual step of formally accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of violating a federal law designed to stop foreign militaries from enlisting child soldiers, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters.
A confidential State Department “dissent” memo, which Reuters was first to report on, said Tillerson breached the Child Soldiers Prevention Act when he decided in June to exclude Iraq, Myanmar, and Afghanistan from a U.S. list of offenders in the use of child soldiers. This was despite the department publicly acknowledging that children were being conscripted in those countries.

How Trump’s Hands-Off Approach to Policing Is Frustrating Some Chiefs

SPOKANE, Wash. — Six years ago, a police officer in this city in eastern Washington was convicted of beating a disabled man to death and trying to cover it up. After other alarming episodes involving Spokane officers came to light, the city asked federal officials to suggest changes to the police department as part of an Obama-era policing program.
Ever since, use of force by officers has declined, as have complaints from residents.
“It is a great program,” said Craig Meidl, the Spokane police chief. “As a C.E.O. of a law enforcement organization, you’ll appreciate having an outsider come in and give you advice.”
But in September, the Justice Department announced it would significantly scale back the program, known as the collaborative reform initiative, and reorient it toward more hands-off “technical assistance.” The decision to soften what was already a voluntary program was aligned with the Trump administration’s general approach to law enforcement — cracking down on violent crime, not regulating the police departments that fight it.

Diane Hobley-Burney, the chief of police in Fort Pierce, Fla., in another pro-Trump county, signed up for collaborative reform after an officer killed an unarmed black motorist in 2016. After the Trump administration reined in collaborative reform this September, ending her chance at receiving a report recommending improvements for her police force, Chief Hobley-Burney sent a letter to the Justice Department seeking to remain in the program while expressing how “disappointed” she was in the program’s reduced ambitions.
“We were working together for the common good,” she said in an interview. “I did not see it as being heavy-handed in any way.”

[AmateurEmale]

I have noticed that Trump continues with his penchant for name-calling: He called Jeff Flake "Flakey" and Al Franken "Frankenstein"... I suppose these insults can be added to his list of straw men such as "Mr. High Energy", "Rocket Man" or "Little Rocket Man", "Lyin' Ted Cruz", and "Crooked Hillary". But we are only about a year into Trump's presidency; it will probably continue for another three years until (possibly) Americans elect someone else in 2020.

His apparent racial slur of "Pocahontas" in front of Native American veterans of WW2 is just as wrong.

[Jack Tripper]

New reality show:

We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!

Actual Tweet from the President. (I can't post the link because the Twitter url seems to be censored here.)

[tsunamiSD]

the title of this first one says it all...

Donald Trump Is Yet Again Screwing the Folks Who Voted For Him

The Republican plan to kill off Obamacare’s individual mandate would affect the entire country, but its biggest effect would likely be in sparsely-populated rural areas. According to an LA Times analysis, insurers there would either pull out entirely or else raise rates drastically because the pool of customers is so small:
That could leave consumers in these regions — including most or all of Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming, as well as parts of many other states — with either no options for coverage or health plans that are prohibitively expensive. There are 454 counties nationwide with only one health insurer on the marketplace in 2018 and where the cheapest plan available to a 40-year-old consumer costs at least $500 a month. Markets in these places risk collapsing if Congress scraps the individual insurance mandate.

I hope that they get nothing done at all - at least there are a few Republican senators that aren't willing to completely see their people down the river.

How December Could Make or Break the Trump Presidency

Donald Trump is unique among modern Presidents in that he has no significant legislative accomplishments to show for ten months after taking office. Year one is when Presidents usually make their mark, especially if they came into office with unified control of the government, as Trump and his party did. Presidents in the first year of their first term are often at the peak of their popularity, have the biggest margins in Congress, and are free from the scandals and intense partisanship that start to gather around them later and make governing ever more difficult. By the second year, a President’s legislative agenda becomes complicated by the hesitancy of members of Congress to take risky votes as midterm elections approach, particularly if a President is unpopular. The math is stark: on average, modern Presidents have historically lost thirty House seats and four Senate seats in their first midterm elections.

There is an ever-widening list of actions by people who originally said they didn't happen but now say that 'they mis-remembered.'

A visual guide to the key events in the Trump-Russia scandal

Trying to follow the Trump-Russia scandal can feel intimidating, if not impossible. The key events take place over the course of about an entire year, and include dozens of different players and secret meetings. Figuring out which dates and events are genuinely important, and which are likely to be red herrings, can be a struggle. What follows is a timeline that pares down the saga to its most vital moments and explains how each one fits into the fundamental question looming over them all: whether team Trump colluded with Moscow to swing the 2016 election.

The thing to add to this one is that there is a lawsuit out now asking the courts to stop the Budge Director from taking over.


While You Were Shopping, Trump Set Off a Civil War at a Consumer Protection Agency

Washington remains fairly quiet over the Thanksgiving weekend,but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—the financial watchdog agency championed by Wall Street critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and loathed by some Republicans—is in the middle of a major power struggle triggered by President Trump.


Friday, the Trump administration appointed its own acting director anyway. The administration announced that one of the CFPB’smostvocal foes, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, will serve as the acting head of the CFPB until a permanent replacement is found and confirmed by the Senate. (When Mulvaney’s name was first floated, Warren described the possibility in a tweet as a “giant middle finger to consumers.”) Mulvaney will also keep his job as White House budget director.

If Mulvaney does have the authority to run the CFPB, his past criticisms offer a glimpse of the reforms he may try to implement while in charge. And efforts to kneecap the agency would likely see support from his fellow Republicans, who have long sought to weaken the CFPB. In October, Republicans voted to undo a landmark CFPB rule that gave consumers the right to sue banks and credit card companies in regular court. The president signed the rule into law earlier this month.
When Mulvaney’s name was floated last week as a possible acting director choice, Democrats were quick to criticize the appointment—expressing concern about the seriousness of deregulation efforts should he head the agency, and also about what sort of permanent director Trump will install as his successor.
Consumer protection advocates insist that Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney runs afoul of the law.
“Leandra English is the rightful Acting Director of the Bureau. The Wall Street reform law, which passed in 2010, clearly states that if there’s a CFPB Director vacancy, the Deputy Director becomes Acting Director,” said Center for Responsible Lending President Mike Calhoun, in an emailed statement. “Naming Mick Mulvaney—someone who’s adamantly anti-consumer—rewards financial predators and fails to put consumers first.”

President Trump Now Says That Wasn’t Him on Access Hollywood Tape

Like Moore, Trump has been accused of sexual assault by several women, and like Moore, he has refused to budge an inch on the question of his innocence. As the Times reveals, though, Trump has gone way beyond mere denials. He has taken to contesting objective reality itself:

But something deeper has been consuming Mr. Trump. He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. (In the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)

[steamjon]

Originally Posted by AmateurEmale

I have noticed that Trump continues with his penchant for name-calling: He called Jeff Flake "Flakey" and Al Franken "Frankenstein"... I suppose these insults can be added to his list of straw men such as "Mr. High Energy", "Rocket Man" or "Little Rocket Man", "Lyin' Ted Cruz", and "Crooked Hillary". But we are only about a year into Trump's presidency; it will probably continue for another three years until (possibly) Americans elect someone else in 2020.

Maybe that is how he remembers the names of people!

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by tsunamiSD

I hope that they get nothing done at all - at least there are a few Republican senators that aren't willing to completely see their people down the river.

How December Could Make or Break the Trump Presidency

The thing to add to this one is that there is a lawsuit out now asking the courts to stop the Budge Director from taking over.


While You Were Shopping, Trump Set Off a Civil War at a Consumer Protection Agency


President Trump Now Says That Wasn’t Him on Access Hollywood Tape


[/INDENT][/INDENT]

The courts are so stacked with Republican ideologues that the delaying action at the CFPB is probably doomed.

It is very hard to deny the authenticity of the Access Hollywood tape when both Trump and Billy Bush verified it in 2016. Denying it now either makes Trump seem a fool or a person with totalitarian designs.

Regardless of the lack of legislative accomplishments, the Trump Administration is wreaking enormous damage on the State Department, CIA, EPA, Interior, and Energy Departments. Scrapping NAFTA, halting immigration, and deporting hundreds of thousands of workers at a time of full employment will cripple our economy and erode our security. The TPP had its problems, but by walking away from it Trump has greatly increased China's influence in Asia and South America.

If climate change does not end civilization altogether and there are historians in the future, the "End of the American Century" and the "Rise of the Chinese Hegemony" will be placed in the Trump Administration.

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

If climate change does not end civilization altogether and there are historians in the future, the "End of the American Century" and the "Rise of the Chinese Hegemony" will be placed in the Trump Administration.

Do we only have to hope that one day (asap) Democrats will declare a civil war to the Republicans... with the help of the rest of the World?

I just listen to Noam Chomsky who described Paul Ryan and the Republicans.
These people are huge believers and do not use their brain to analyse the stupidity of a huge part of their acts. They think that God will not allow troubles against them on Earth.

[tsunamiSD]

Trump's 'Pocahontas' jab stuns families of Navajo war vets

Families of Navajo war veterans who were honored at the White House say they were dumbfounded that President Donald Trump used the event to take a political jab at a Massachusetts senator, demeaning their work with an unbreakable code that helped the U.S. win World War II.Trump turned to a nickname he often deployed for Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the 2016 presidential campaign: Pocahontas. He then told the three Navajo Code Talkers on stage Monday that he had affection for them that he doesn't have for Warren.
"It was uncalled for," said Marty Thompson, whose great-uncle was a Navajo Code Talker. "He can say what he wants when he's out doing his presidential business among his people, but when it comes to honoring veterans or any kind of people, he needs to grow up and quit saying things like that."

Trump made the comment as he stood near a portrait of President Andrew Jackson, which he hung in the Oval Office in January. Trump admires Jackson's populism. But Jackson is an unpopular figure in Indian Country because he oversaw the forced removal of American Indians from their southern homelands.
The Navajo Nation suggested Trump's remark was an example of "cultural insensitivity," and they resolved to stay out of the "ongoing feud between the senator and President Trump."

Michael Smith, a Marine whose father was a Code Talker, said most of the Code Talkers would be skeptical about going to the White House because it could be construed to mean they support a political cause.
"So, why did they go? Why were they there? He's putting them in the Oval Office to say 'You did a good job, and say hi to Pocahontas?'" Smith said. "They should be taken care of as heroes, not as pawns."
Michael Nez, whose father helped develop the code based on the Navajo language, said his father would have been upset to hear Trump's Pocahontas comment. But, as other Code Talker relatives said, his father was taught to respect the president as the commander in chief.

[Devius]

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile, South Korea's military chiefs say.

South Korea's military said it had responded with a "precision strike" missile exercise.

The US Pentagon said it was still assessing the "probable" launch, which happened at approximately 03:30 local time (18:30 GMT).

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the missile flew eastward from Pyongsong, South Pyongan province.

It is not clear how far it went or whether it flew over Japan as other missiles did earlier this year.

Details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42160227