9 Feb 2017 – Federal appeals court rules 3 to 0 against Trump on travel ban

Trump’s response:

“SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”

–

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-appeals-court-maintains-suspension-of-trumps-immigration-order/2017/02/09/e8526e70-ed47-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_trumpban-625pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.381bb121b073

09 Feb 2017 – Kellyanne Conway encourages Americans to ‘go buy Ivanka’s stuff,’ potentially violating ethics rules

§ 2635.702 Use of public office for private gain.

An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity, including nonprofit organizations of which the employee is an officer or member, and persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment or business relations. The specific prohibitions set forth in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section apply this general standard, but are not intended to be exclusive or to limit the application of this section.

Peter Schweizer, who has worked closely with Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon and wrote the book “Clinton Cash,” which was critical of donations to the Clinton Foundation: “They’ve crossed a very, very important bright line, and it’s not good. To encourage Americans to buy goods from companies owned by the first family is totally out of bounds and needs to stop.

“Clearly, the Trumps feel some of this is related to politics. But whether that’s true or not, these marketing battles need to be fought by Ivanka and her company. They cannot and should not be fought by government employees and the White House,” Schweizer said. “It’s time to move beyond the mind-set and the role of a businessman and assume the mantle of commander of chief.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/conway-may-have-broken-key-ethics-rule-by-touting-ivanka-trumps-products-experts-say/2017/02/09/fd1cc64a-eeda-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html?utm_term=.c80466feccf6

—–/u/Zahninator

–

http://www.businessinsider.com/kellyanne-conway-go-buy-ivankas-stuff-2017-2

07 Feb 2017 – Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary; Pence Breaks Tie

“These are the Senators who voted for DeVos and their term ends in 2018:

•Flake – Arizona

•Wicker – Mississippi

•Fischer – Nebraska

•Heller – Nevada

•Corker – Tennessee

•Cruz – Texas

•Hatch – Utah

•Barrasso – Wyoming”

—-/u/empecabel

–

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/politics/betsy-devos-education-secretary-confirmed.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=64887255&pgtype=Homepage

07 Feb 2017 – Marco Rubio took almost $100,000 from Betsy Devos’ family before confirming her today.

The ultimate goal here was to create a new “value school” model in the state, delivering schooling at a per-student cost of roughly $5000, over $2000 less than the average reimbursement provided by the state for each child enrolled in a district’s schools–with “edupreneurs” pocketing the balance. For Snyder and DeVos, the purpose of education is not to help develop a more informed and educated citizenry, or to help children to become more fully human by providing a comprehensive, high quality curriculum, including music, art, and physical education in addition to the rest of the disciplines. The purpose of education under Snyder and DeVos is to turn the state’s once excellent system of public schools into an educational WalMart, boasting “low, low prices” in place of quality instruction.

–

http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/11/trump-names-betsy-devos-as-secretary-of-education-its-game-set-match-for-public-education.html

06 Feb 2017 – President Trump is now speculating that the media is covering up terrorist attacks

“You’ve seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,” he said to the assembled military leaders. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

–

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/02/06/president-trump-is-now-speculating-that-the-media-is-covering-up-terrorist-attacks/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.991e594f207b

06 Feb 2017 – Donald Trump may not be allowed to address Parliament on UK state visit, Speaker says

John Bercow, the Speaker, said he was “strongly opposed” to Mr Trump speaking in the Commons and that being invited was “not an automatic right” but “an earned honour”.

“Before the imposition of the migrant ban I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by president trump in Westminster Hall,” he told MPs in response to a point of order by an MP.

“After the imposition of the Migrant ban by President Trump I am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall.”

Parts of the Commons erupted into rare spontaneous applause in support of Mr Bercow’s statement.

–

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-britain-speaker-idUSKBN15L20R

06 Feb 2017 – Trump Is Attacking Any Institution That Challenges Him

Having lost a series of decisions that blunted, at least temporarily, the impact of his immigration order, he lashed out at a federal judge in Washington state who ordered a nationwide suspension, tweeting on Saturday:

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”

He followed that up Sunday, with a tweet that laid a predicate for blaming not just the judge but the American judicial system for a future terrorist attack:

“Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and our court system. People pouring in. Bad!”

–

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/trump-is-attacking-any-institution-that-challenges-him/515727/

03 Feb 2017 – Kellyanne Conway Appears to Invent Fake Bowling Green Massacre

What Conway was likely referring to was an incident in 2011 in which two Iraqi nationals were indicted for allegedly having ties to IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq. According to a 2013 release from the Department of Justice pertaining to their sentencing for terrorist activities, “Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 25, a former resident of Iraq, was sentenced to life in federal prison, and Waad Ramadan Alwan, 31, a former resident of Iraq, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.” The two men lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky and according to the release “admitted using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and who attempted to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) for the purpose of killing U.S. soldiers.”

There is no information about the men having committed violent offenses in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

–

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/02/kellyanne-conway-appears-to-invent-fake-bowling-green-massacre.html

03 Feb 2017 – Trump Says He Cut Wall Street Reform Because His “Friends” Need Money

“There is nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than [JP Morgan C.E.O.] Jamie [Dimon]. So he has to tell me about it, but we expect to be cutting a lot from Dodd-Frank because, frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine, that have nice businesses, they can’t borrow money,” Trump said Friday morning, shortly before signing the executive orders. “They just can’t get any money because the banks just won’t let them borrow because of the rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.”

–

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/02/trump-says-he-cut-wall-street-reform-because-his-friends-need-money?mbid=social_twitter

02 Feb 2017 – Leaked Draft Of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination

“It would permit organizations receiving federal grants or contracts to provide child welfare services not only to refuse necessary care but to refuse even to “refer the child to another agency or setting that would be protective and affirming and instead place the child in an environment that is aggressively hostile to who that child is, on religious grounds.””

–

https://www.thenation.com/article/leaked-draft-of-trumps-religious-freedom-order-reveals-sweeping-plans-to-legalize-discrimination/

02 Feb 2017 – Donald Trump threatens to withdraw federal funds from Berkeley University after Breitbart editor talk cancelled

Around 1,500 people gathered to peacefully protest Mr Yiannopoulos’ visit before a smaller group of people dressed in black started a wave of vandalism. “This was a group of agitators who were masked up, throwing rocks, commercial grade fireworks and Molotov cocktails at officers,” said UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennet.

–

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/donald-trump-threatens-to-stop-uc-berkeley-funding-after-riots-shut-down-breitbart-editors-speech/news-story/40fe3c814a39eb522e455cf3cb774e3d

01 Feb 2017 – Republicans change rules so Democrats can’t block controversial Trump Cabinet picks

Unbelievable. For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, Price and Mnuchin perjured themselves and refused to present themselves to the committee to explain.

The Democrats refused to vote until they presented themselves to explain.

They didn’t, so apparently, the GOP changed the rules so they could approve the nominees anyway without the Dems even present.

This is the letter the Dems on the Finance Committee sent to Orrin Hatch, asking for more answers from Price and Mnuchin about their false testimony. Orrin Hatch ignored it and changed the rules to rubberstamp them.

https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/020117%20FinanceDemlettertoChairmanHatch%20on%20nominations.pdf

——-/u/AbstractTeserract

–

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/republicans-change-rules-so-trump-cabinet-pick-cant-be-blocked-a7557391.html

31 Jan 2017 – After meeting with pharma lobbyists, Trump drops promise to negotiate drug prices

“Today, after a meeting with pharmaceutical industry lobbyists and executives, he abandoned that pledge, referring to an idea he supported as recently as three weeks ago as a form of “price fixing” that would hurt “smaller, younger companies.” Instead of getting tough, Trump’s new plan is that he’s “going to be lowering taxes” and “getting rid of regulations.”

–

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14453740/trump-medicare-prescription-drugs

30 Jan 2017 – Donald Trump’s first US military raid ‘kills 30 civilians, including 10 women and children

“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families” – Donald Trump
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/politics/donald-trump-terrorists-families/
–
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/world/middleeast/american-commando-killed-in-yemen-in-trumps-first-counterterror-operation.html

28 Jan 2017 – President Trump’s Muslim ban excludes countries linked to his sprawling business empire

During a campaign rally in Alabama last year, Trump expressed his admiration for the Saudis. “They buy apartment from me,” he said. “They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.” Those comments could cock a few eyebrows, since most of the 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia.

–

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-muslim-ban-excludes-countries-linked-businesses-article-1.2957956

26 Jan 2017 – The State Department’s entire senior management team resigns.

‘Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, followed him (undersecretary for management Patrick Kennedy) out the door. All are career foreign service officers who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations’.

*Conflicting reports, a minority of sources state they were fired.

–
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/26/the-state-departments-entire-senior-management-team-just-resigned/?utm_term=.00f2d7200d7b

25 Jan 2017 – Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private RNC Email Accounts

 

  • “Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private RNC Email Accounts”
  • “Trump still uses unsecured Android phone”

Let’s take a trip down memory lane:

  • From Breitbart: “Emails: Hillary Clinton Knew Her Blackberry Was Non-Secure by Feb. 2009”: “Clinton’s knowledge of the Blackberry problem — and her apparent disregard for its implications — marks a crucial point in any potential criminal case that could be made against her by the Department of Justice.”
  • Also from Breitbart: “Obama Knew About Hillary Clinton’s Private Email” of which the first sentence starts “President Barack Obama did know that Hillary Clinton was using a private email address, despite his assertion that he learned about it ‘through news reports.'”

——/u/regina_george_victim

–

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-emails-rnc-reince-priebus-white-house-server-548191

24 Jan 2017 – A Rogue National Park Is Tweeting Out Climate Change Facts in Defiance of Donald Trump

Badlands National Park posted several facts about climate change on its official Twitter account Tuesday afternoon, sharing statistics that might contradict the beliefs of President Donald Trump’s new administration.

“Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. #climate,” the park tweeted on Tuesday.

–

http://time.com/4645927/badlands-national-park-climate-change-tweets/

23 Jan 2017 – Trump issues executive order freezing hiring for federal workforce

In 1982, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined hiring freezes imposed by former presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and determined that was not an effective strategy.

Hiring freezes have “little effect on Federal employment levels,” the GAO said. The report said the freezes “disrupted agency operations, and in some cases, increased costs to the Government.”

–

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/23/trump-freezes-federal-hiring/

 

23 Jan 2017 – After ethics review, Senate postpones committee vote for Betsy DeVos

“Here’s some bullet points and a basic timeline:

•Each senator present was given 5 minutes to address DeVos. (there were maybe 20 senators present, i didn’t count).


•Democrats realized immediately they would not have enough time to ask all their questions and began asking about the committee leader about the opportunity of a second round of questions. Committee chair Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) stated that no second round of questions would be allowed because it would be “unfair treatment because Obama’s 2 picks before didn’t have a second round of questions”.


•Multiple Democratic senators then cited that all previous committee reviews were given the option of a second round of questions. I believe it was Warren that quoted Committee chair Alexander from previous sessions on the record directly asking if anyone wanted a second round of questions, then she provided counts of the number of senators that had stayed to participate in a second round of questions in multiple previous occurrences. Alexander dismissed that sticking by his statement that having a second round of questions for DeVos would be unprecedented, would be unfair, and would not be allowed.


•Democrats pointed out that all previous appointees had submitted their ethics review documents prior to the hearing so that the senators could review it in advance, and that DeVos had not done that. They wanted to wait until she had provided those documents before asking more questions, and chair Alexander basically said it doesn’t matter, its not a law that she has to do the ethics survey, and she won’t be required to if she doesn’t want to.


•Democrats had a litany of really eye-opening facts and questions that she either flatly denied, refused to answer, or evaded. When presented with a question like “do you think all schools that get federal funding, whether they are public/private/charter, should be subject to the same accountability and performance requirements, she said “I’d leave that to the states” and when repeated the question making emphasis on “federal” she just said “i support accountability” and then refused to say anything else.


•Franken (D-MN) asked specific questions about her thoughts on rating schools and students based on progress/improvement versus arbitrary proficiency standards, and she didn’t understand the difference.


•DeVos’s whole campaign stance is that “parents need to have options to send their kids to the school that is right for their student”. However there was no mention of distance, cost, funding, ability, performance, etc. It was a very similar attitude as “states rights”, basically that the federal government obviously can’t run public schools properly, so as the public schools are shown to be failing, strip their funding so that other forms of school (charter/private) obviously need to be strengthened, and that the states would know what’s best for their schools. It was then pointed out that Michigan charter schools (where she was republican chairwoman) have 17% proficiency rates, so how could she be trusted with the whole nation? she evaded and blamed poverty in Detroit as the reason.


•DeVos has never attended a public school, and none of her kids of family has either. She has never worked at a public school either. She has never led or been involved with an entity with even 1/1000th the budget of the education department.


•Republicans of course praised her, didn’t really ask any questions, except a few generic slow pitch questions like “are you a good pick?” or “do you support equal education opportunities for all students?” of which she of course thanked them for the question, smiled, and said yes. It was oddly creepy, the circlejerking the republicans were doing.


•DeVos never ONCE mentioned anything about what she would do for public schools, other than ensure they were held to accountability standards so that if they fail, they are closed/stripped of funding. ”  ——/u/elislider

–

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/20/the-ethics-review-for-trumps-education-pick-betsy-devos-is-complete-clearing-the-way-for-a-confirmation-vote/

16 Jan 2017 – Trump’s cabinet pick invested in company, then introduced a bill to help it

Rep. Tom Price last year purchased shares in a medical device manufacturer days before introducing legislation that would have directly benefited the company, raising new ethics concerns for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary.

…

After Price offered his bill to provide Zimmer Biomet and other companies relief from the CMS regulation, the company’s political action committee donated to the congressman’s reelection campaign, records show.
–
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/16/politics/tom-price-bill-aiding-company/

14 Jan 2017 – Donald Trump kicks off MLK weekend by slandering Civil Rights hero John Lewis

@realDonaldTrump: Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart…

John Lewis represents Georgia’s 5th district, which includes 3/4 of Atlanta. While I don’t have statistics for the 5th district exclusively, the Atlanta metro area is America’s 8th largest economy, and contains America’s third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies.

@realDonaldTrump: …not to mention crime infection…

While crime in Atlanta is a problem, between 2001 and 2009, Atlanta’s crime rate dropped 40%, with homicides down 57%, rape down 72%, and violent crime overall down 55%.

@realDonaldTrump: All talk, talk, talk – no action or results.

Lewis’ civil rights activism during the 60’s resulted in him being beaten multiple times and even had his group’s bus fire-bombed by the KKK. He was quoted as saying, “We were determined not to let any act of violence keep us from our goal. We knew our lives could be threatened, but we had made up our minds not to turn back.”

—–/u/mwl987

–

http://shareblue.com/donald-trump-kicks-off-mlk-weekend-by-slandering-civil-rights-hero-john-lewis/

13 Jan 2017 – Trump aide in frequent contact with Russian envoy

“This was previously posted by [removed], but it was deleted despite being a top comment and being gilded four times. I found it useful, so I’m posting it again.
EDIT: I removed the reference to the OP’s user name at their request”

“

1.Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, was one of the operatives working in Ukraine to install a pro-Russian government.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/paul-manafort-ukraine-104263


2.Paul Manafort and Roger stone worked close together for years, and ran a “pro-torture” lobby in DC. They own a mutual lobbying firm – one of the most powerful in Washington.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black,_Manafort,_Stone_and_Kelly


3.Manafort went missing for several weeks in 2010 (as well as 2014)

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/paul-manafort-ukraine-104263

– same year the documents allege that Trump began to be cultivated by Moscow. – Roger Stone openly joked he was kidnapped by the Russians.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/30/top-dems-to-fbi-spill-on-trump-s-russia-ties.html


4.Trump began birthirism in 2011.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html

5.Cory Lewandowski was fired from Trump’s campaign and Paul Manafort put in.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/corey-lewandowski-paul-manafort-trump-winning-227198

6.Immediately, Trump’s stance on Russia changed –

http://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488876597/how-the-trump-campaign-weakened-the-republican-platform-on-aid-to-ukraine

pledged to remove sanctions on Russia full-stop.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-russia-sanctions-response-2016-12


7.Manafort was found to receive an off-the-books 12-million dollar payment in Ukraine.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html


8.Manafort’s ties were discovered and resigned,

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/paul-manafort-resigns-from-trump-campaign-227197

but CONTINUED TO LIVE IN TRUMP TOWER AND ADVISE DONALD TRUMP.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/01/politics/paul-manafort-donald-trump-transition/


9.Simultaneously – DNC is hacked by Russia.

https://www.wired.com/2016/08/security-news-week-dnc-hack-worse-thought/


10.Mysteriously, Roger Stone tweets that he knows of Podesta leaks before ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THEM IS RELEASED

https://twitter.com/rogerjstonejr/status/767366825743097856?lang=en


11.Trump hires Steve Bannon – also known well by Roger Stone.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/17/dirty-trickster-roger-stone-said-he-advised-trump-hiring-very-good-friend-stephen-bannon-and-debates/212465


12.General Flynn and Carter Page – two men with deep ties to Russia –

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/08/15/trump-adviser-michael-t-flynn-on-his-dinner-with-putin-and-why-russia-today-is-just-like-cnn/
also join the campaign.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/the-mystery-of-trumps-man-in-moscow-214283

13.Russians accused of Podesta and DNC hacks formally in October –

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/will-congress-investigate-russian-interference-2016-campaign

Trump denies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/opinion/donald-trumps-denial-about-russia.html

14.Trump wins – continues to be soft on Russia
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37981770

– Intel Community formally declares it was Russia.

https://icontherecord.tumblr.com/post/155494946443/odni-statement-on-declassified-intelligence


15.Russian spies and spy agencies inside US shut down, people kicked … out.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1383415/Obama-kicks-35-Russian-spies-closes-two-compounds.html


16.General Michael Flynn found to be illegally contacting the Russian ambassador before-and-during this time. He contacted the same day as sanctions from Obama for hacking.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ba462d64c12d4692b8381cb7076d34ab/ap-source-trump-aide-frequent-contact-russia-envoy?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics


17.Trump appoints an extremely pro-Russian SoS Rex Tillerson.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-picks-exxonmobil-ceo-rex-tillerson-for-secretary-of-state/2016/12/12/23ce9c80-c0e3-11e6-897f-918837dae0ae_story.html


18.Trump is briefed on 35-page dossier.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-briefed-russian-hacking-intelligence-report/story?id=44585850


19.Trump mocks the intelligence agencies in the United States, and then proceeds to praised Wikileaks and Julian Assange

http://www.chicagotribune.com/g00/news/nationworld/ct-trump-tweet-russian-hacking-intelligence-briefing-20170104-story.html?i10c.referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F


20.Trump admits it was Russia,

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/us/politics/donald-trump-press-conference.html

but promises better relations and that Putin will “not hack the US again with him there.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-admits-to-russian-hacking-even-as-he-attacks-us-intelligence-community/2017/01/11/40941a34-d817-11e6-b8b2-cb5164beba6b_story.html “
————-/u/Mersues”
–
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ba462d64c12d4692b8381cb7076d34ab/ap-source-trump-aide-frequent-contact-russia-envoy?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics