CAN JOHN KELLY STABILIZE THE WHITE HOUSE?

THAT IS THE QUESTION OF THE HOUR

CAN HE STABILIZE THE 

KREMLIN 

WHITE HOUSE 

CLOWN CAR STAFF?

BUT
 CHUCKLEHEAD McTWITTERWIT HIMSELF?

NOT A CHANCE

Chucklehead will behave as he's probably scared of the stern, half dead looking John Kelly, for a couple of weeks tops. Then it's over. Kelly will stick it out for 4 to 6 months after Chucklehead's lies send him into orbit because he's a military man and he's disciplined. 

But Kelly has met his match in Chucklehead. And the nonsense has already begun. And a full 48 hours hasn't passed yet.

Kelly was announced as replacing Preibus on Friday.

Kelly was sworn in Monday.  He fired Scaramucci hours later

But Scaramucci may have served his only purpose which was to raise enough of a ruckus (by starting a fight with Priebus) that nobody paid a lot of attention to testimony Bill Browder gave last Wednesday. 

And that was important.

On Tuesday we find (officially) find out Kelly is going to have to try to do damage control regarding Trump Sr. having told Trump Jr to say he went to see Putin's point-woman on getting rid of the Magnitsky Act about "adoptions" instead of telling the truth -- which was that he went there to get dirt on Hillary.

The only thing I find shocking about Trump having told Trump Jr to "be misleading" is that the mainstream media behaving like everybody on the planet didn't know that already.

headline

Trump discussed adoption policy with Putin one day before 'dictating' son's statement about 'adoptions'

http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-jr-statement-adoptions-putin-meeting-2017-8

UNSTABLE ABLE v UNSTABLE MABLE AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

a repost

ON BOMBING SYRIA

In theory, almost nobody would have a problem with taking it to Assad...if we lived in a vacuum where no other countries exist. In reality, we've already seen the consequences of executing an entrance strategy while having no exit strategy; Iraq was/ is/ always-will-be a U.S. foreign policy disaster.

And I don't care what anybody says, breaking Iraq helped break Syria.

Arab Spring or no Arab Spring ISIS is made up of the Iraqi soldiers left Iraq unemployed after the U.S attempted regime change in Iraq. Saddam Hussein may have been an evil dictator, but he was holding Iraq together. If Iraqis were ready and willing to kill and die to throw Hussein off their backs, they would have set it off themselves. We shouldn't have done it on their behalf (<-- a="" font="" lie="" was="" which=""> 

Bush Jr. was capitalize on the panic of 9/11 and get white people to actually believe Iraq had something to do with 9/11...so we could get to the second largest oil reserves in the world a little more easily.

Iraq wound up being a

You Break It, You Bought It

Scenario

Syria could wind up being a

"You Break It Some More. You're Gonna Wind Up Buying It

Cause

You're The One That Got Caught Holding The Bag

Scenario

But, regardless of what was right and what was wrong in this particular action, what scares me is that Mean Tangerine is more than a little stupid. ("Nobody knew healthcare could be" soooo "complicated.") It scares me that Trump is capable of seeing dead children in Syria at 4:02 PM and ordering a military strike at 4:05 PM. Think about it. Trump saw some half-baked story on Obama and wiretapping, and he's tweeting it x-minutes later. More than one news outlet has linked what he's watching on television and what he says he believes in a tweet the next day.

This time, instead of just tweeting after he saw dead children in Syria on television, he ordered 59 bombs dropped on an airbase halfway around the world

...as if have never been children dying horribly in every war the U.S. has ever had a hand in.

It actually scares me that we aren't really talking about the decision making behind a huge, SUDDEN flipflop that involved bombing another country -- regardless of what "the right move" actually was in the moment with Syria. Mean Tangerine might have gotten lucky THIS TIME. But the next television info-tainment quasi-news show might prompt him to bomb something that gets us into something we can't back out of.

And I'm actually having a problem being confident the intelligence is accurate this fast.

* * * *

LET US VISIT THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

WHERE HILLARY WON JUST FOR A MOMENT

Imagine, for a moment, that Hillary's stance on foreign policy was isolationist all through her presidential campaign-- like Trump's actually was. Imagine she said Syria's internal problems were Syria's. Too bad, so sad for them. To be more specific, imagine that she did not want to bomb multiple military targets in Syria --as she did in reality-- and instead wanted to put "America First" just like Donald Trump said during his campaign and repeated not three days before bombing Syria.

Pretend Hillary said, just three days before dropping bombs in somebody else's civil war, "I'm not and I don't want to be president of the world. I'm president of the United States, and from now on its going to be America First"

By any stretch of your imagination can you envision Hillary Clinton NOT being called unstable and emotional if she did an about face based on a picture of a man holding two infant sons that just died of a chemical attack?

Can you, instead, imagine the unstable memes and genuine worry on the faces of white men on news shows everywhere?

I can.

All we're getting from the white, mostly male, talking heads right now is "What an about face for Trump? Is this an actual policy change? Is this a one-off?"

And I'm not talking about sexism in regards to being "fair" here. I'm talking about the male dominated press complete failure to even discuss Mean Tangerine's emotional and mental fitness to be president. If someone without a penis had done this, every news outlet you can name would whispering about women and emotional responses compromising logic.

And in my opinion, this is actually a legit concern in his case. Trump's complete turn around based on a photograph of children dying and deciding to bomb Syria makes him about as stable as a teenage boy who just found his girlfriend kissing another guy --a whole four weeks after he became captain of the high school football team.

• Did he actually think about how Russia and Iran would respond?

• Did he care about any responses anywhere?

• Did somebody do that part of the thinking for him?

• Did this man just up and decide he wanted to look like a bad ass while the president of China was sitting next to him?

* * * * *

There may be some upside to this bombing. There really may be. But if there is, Trump isn't the one who thought it out. He's not capable. So if the military is the one pumping him up, we need to be worried. Because when you're a hammer (the military) everything looks like a nail (bomb the crap out of X)

A leader who can't think and lead on his own is something to worry about.

I've been damn glad to hear that some are seeing smoke signals over D.C. that seem to saying that the White Nationalist Bannon, lost his seat on the National Security Counsel and is losing favor after having embarrassed Trump twice with the Muslim Ban and Healthcare. But who's the main puppet master of the "leader of the free world" right now? His son-in-law? (<---i ask="" believe="" can="" font="" have="" i="" t="" that.="" to="">

There's also the possibility that Trump is thinking, that he's thinking about polishing his image same as always.

ME, MYSELF, and MINE is all he really thinks about consistently. So this time, let's assume that this has NOT changed. That would mean the bombing is communication and self-promotion of some kind.

Attacking Syria puts an easy victory in his cap during his first 100 days -- that's otherwise been dismal. His NSA choice had to resign, FBI director called him a liar to congress, his Muslim Bans have been stopped twice, and Repeal and Replace flamed out spectacularly.

Making himself look good while not doing much may be all he has left. Making himself look good while sending a few messages might be even better.

POSSIBLY SYRIA BOMBING MESSAGES:

I. TO CHINA (with the Chinese President sitting right there)

"Take care of North Korea or we will"

"See this is what we'll do in your backyard if you don't lean on North Korea as hard as you can."

(That bombing in Syria happening during the meeting with China's President must have seemed sent directly from hyper-masculinity heaven.)

II. TO N. KOREA

"This is what might happen to you. Keep it up with the missile testing."

C. TO S. KOREA

"Shaking in your boots aren't ya? Don't worry. I'm your friend. You need to act like you're more grateful though. You better pay your fair share of .....something." (wink wink)

D. TO RUSSIA With Love

"I hit a practically valueless target except for the optics. Let's just cool this bro-mance off a little. We can play kissy-face again after the FBI and CIA probes are over."

E. TO ISRAEL

"See, I'm on your side."

F. TO IRAN

"Bring it b*tches."

G. TO UNITED STATES VOTERS

"See, I'm not in Russia's pocket. See! No reason to investigate me.

H. TO IRAQ

"I'm just over here rattling your cage. Don't worry, I'm sending more troops into Iraq again."

SYRIA BOMBING OUTCOME

If only 6 or 7 Syrian army personnel were killed, and planes were still taking off from the airfield today, what was the bombing other than a message?

Only time will tell if the action is going to be worth the reaction that we have yet to see.

But one thing seems certain: Trump can't do this again in Syria without serious consequences. 1) He's made Putin look stupid

Russia signed agreements with president Obama that were supposed to reduce/elminate aggression. Trump violated that (after Russia already did in my opinion)  

Russia also told the United Nations(?) there weren't chemical weapons and Russian troops were SUPPOSEDLY sitting on a base where the chemical weapons were launched from -- if our intelligence is correct. Trump's United Nations Ambassador called the Russians incompetent or "played for fools"

2) Russia's reaction may be to refuse to communicate and coordinate where their troops will be in Syria at any given moment...which kept Russia and U.S. Troops from accidentally blowing each other up in Syria for months.

This agreement/ open line of communication to coordinate military aircraft movement was the method by which Trump was able to tell Russia about bombing the airbase before it began. Russia was able to move their personnel out of the way

So now the U.S. cannot bomb Syria again without the risk of hitting Russian troops, right?

All this for 6 or 7 dead at a bombed Syrian Airport that can still launch planes?

Sooo...um...How many of our troops are over there right now? I don't know. But I know it's a number a hell of a lot larger than 6 or 7.

I think bombs as messages is a reckless maneuver . I think making a move sans any big picture or a plan is stupid (Republican Marco Rubio, while cheering Trump on admitted there's no overall plan.) I think you should only drop bombs when you're going to war to win.

However, I also wonder if Trump looking unstable might give our enemies pause.

His being seen as Unstable Able might not be the worst strategy in the world ...if whoever is holding the puppet strings right now actually knows what he's* doing

UNCLE SAM, ISIS, and SYRIA: THE RELATIONSHIP IN A SINGLE CARTOON

SECRET SERVICE ASKS FOR 60 MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET INCREASE TO PROTECT TRUMP AND MELANIA

The agency recently requested an additional $60 million in spending for fiscal year 2018, according to a Washington Post report on Tuesday. Nearly $27 million of that was to be earmarked for security at the president’s private residence at Trump Tower in New York, where first lady Melania Trump lives with their 11-year-old son.

The Secret Service also said it needed another $33 million to cover travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state.”  

It appears the White House refused the request

Read More:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/secret-service-funding-trump-family_us_58d2b5ede4b02d33b747ca5f 


BlackChickRocked.Blogspot.Com

TO LET TRUMP DESTROY PBS IS TO LET HIM DESTROY ONE OF THE FEW MIRRORS AMERICA HAS

Trump's budget communicates his desire to reduce or destroy Meals On Wheels, after school programs that feed poor kids, Pell grants for poor college students,  Planned Parent Hood, PBS and the National Endowment For The Arts.

This post is about the cut that seems like it's the least important: The cuts to PBS and the National Endowments for the Arts.

* * * * *
I started learning about my place in this country before I even went to kindergarten. By the time, I went to kindergarten, I knew the policeman was not MY friend from my parents and catching glimpses of the regular evening news.

Learning words and how to spell and count on Sesame Street aside, by the time I was in 5th or 6th grade I was watching black history segments on PBS. Even when I was in junior high school, I knew PBS News went into more depth on a story than any network television news show was going to go into.
PBS NEWS is almost the anti-thesis of FOX NEWS. There is an attempt to be objective and present both sides of an issue. News as education is presented on PBS. And, nowadays, teachers use PBS shows to actually teach in their classrooms....for free

PBS would bring EYES ON THE PRIZE into my living room...for free.

This multi-episode documentary was an extensive free education on THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. I recorded that show and watched in on my VCR every single February for years. Mamie Till, Emmett's mother, became more than just a name for me because I used what I learned in that documentary to do more reading.

PBS filled my head and set my curiosity on fire and sent me searching for books to read more than once.

PBS telling the truth about white supremacy in this country, every now and again, is PBS providing America a reflection it cannot do without -- that white America, in particular cannot do without.



As an adult I fell in love with Ken Burn's documentaries. 

I watched hours and hours about black contributions to this country that I didn't have that much interest in to begin with. I painted my living room and decorated a new home while listening to Ken Burn's JAZZ. 

Years later, I would watch Ken Burn's THE WAR. 

• It was infinitely interesting and educational to hear about what was going on at home during WWII, for various ethnic groups including blacks.  

• I was surprised to find out that the United States, being inexperienced at waging war, would accidentally killed dozens of its own soldiers. I would listen to a man talk about hiding in a fox hole in the dark, praying that some wounded man that was moaning  somewhere  off in the distance, crying for his mother, would just go ahead and die and stop torturing him and the rest of the men -- only to find out the moaning man that finally did die was his best friend.

This documentary would confirm for me just how separate the military's job is from the job of the voter and/or the citizens that remain at home. It is the military's job to fight who the politicians say fight. It is voter's job to make sure we elect politicians that won't send the troops into danger unnecessarily nor for greed and profit.

PBS provides America a reflection it cannot do without.

Gwen Ifill of PBS
 In 1999, she became
the first African American woman 
to host a nationally televised
U.S. public affairs program with
Washington Week in Review.

In addition to seeing content from around the world, PBS has helped me to know who I am as a black person and as an American. There hasn't been nearly enough black content on PBS. But the small amount of black history that has been on PBS has been nearly 1000% better than what I learned in grade school. 

Actually, what I learned about what it is to be an American is nearly 1000% more clear than what's taught in grade school as well. That probably says more about how bad our school curriculums are than how good PBS is -- because I was lucky enough to go to highly rated public schools. But this still says that PBS is absolutely necessary.

White supremacy and ignorance have put unqualified person in charge of the United States. To allow the nationalistic white supremacist Ignoramus of the Century and his budget to destroy PBS is to spread more ignorance than the America can sustain.

PBS provides America a reflection that it cannot do without.

Sometimes I think that more outlets like PBS would mean less room on the airwaves for news programs like that mess that is Fox News  --even the white supremacists would be less virulent due to being less ignorant. 

  

KELLYANNE'S THOUGHT PROCESS

"During an interview with the Bergen County Record on Sunday, Conway talked about President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that his predecessor, Barack Obama, ordered wiretapping of his communications during the campaign.

“Do you know if Trump Tower was wiretapped?” the interviewer asks Conway in the video above.

In response, Trump’s counselor says, without evidence:

“What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately. There was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, through their — certainly through their television sets, any number of different ways, and microwaves that turn into cameras, etc., so we know that that is just a fact of modern life.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/twitter-responds-kellyanne-conway-microwave-camera-comment_us_58c6ce27e4b0d1078ca86b60

BWAAAAAAA HA HA HA

Oooh these twit-wits of Chump's. Will it never stop? Woman, if I was living in another country, I'd be laughing so hard I'd be peeing on myself every time I thought about this.

We're supposed to believe Obama hacked a microwave to spy on Chump, then did absolutely nothing with the information but let Chump win. Yeah. Okay.


KELLYANNE'S THOUGHT PROCESS

• Chump tweets something else stupid
• Open mouth
• Defend him
• Think Later
• Insert Foot, Leg, and Ass into own mouth
• Look even dumber than Chump, be a human deflection

BWAAAAAAA HA HA HA

By the way, this is what happens when a extra stupid white racist goes crazy. Every time something makes this Alt-Right New KKK Wanna-Be Grand Dragon uncomfortable in the slightest way, the most competent black person Chump can think of comes to mind as "the" [ n-word ] that's doing him in.

And you know it's pure racism too.

Hillary was his arch-nemesis. But it's Obama he accuses of wiretapping, revving up the protesters, energizing the townhall meetings against him. 

I bet Chump sees Obama's face in his nightmares every night.

And I'll bet Obama smiles knowing Chump's driving himself insane with his own racism. Or maybe he's not that petty. But I promise you I would be.

I would send Cheeto Satan a tweet every night that said, "BWAAAAAAA HA HA HA"  I pay somebody else to do it, every single night. Hell, if Obama would pose for a picture with me, I'd do it every night for 7 months (the length of time I think it'll take for Trump to get bored with NOT being King and go home)

THIS FIRST TRUMPCARE BILL IS A 600 BILLION DOLLAR TAX CUT FOR THE WEALTHY

Feeling Rebloggy

To pay for its spending, Obamacare included several taxes on couples making more than $250,000, like a 3.8 percent surtax on investment income and a 0.9 percent surtax on wages. Last year, those levies brought in about $27 billion, according to Wall Street Journal analysis of IRS data.  

Repealing them would cost about $275 billion over the next decade; which is to say, it would transfer $275 billion from public-health spending to the richest 1 or 2 percent....

That’s not all. Many companies can deduct employee salaries as a business expense when they pay taxes. Obamacare included a provision ***that prevented insurance companies from deducting more than $500,000 of their top executives' salaries***, as a way of raising a little bit of revenue and discouraging ever-rising compensation for insurance executives.

Paul Ryan and the Original Gangstas

But the Republican [ TRUMPCARE ] scraps that provision, so that large insurance companies like Cigna and Aetna, which pay their CEOs more than $15 million, would find new tax savings.

Republicans have railed against many problems with the new health care law. But nobody is complaining about cutting taxes, because cutting taxes is the fundamental objective of Republican economics. This is not an explosively accusatory claim, but an objective description of policy...

~THE ATLANTIC

Read More:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/03/acha-tax-cut/518889/?utm_source=atlfb

SOUNDS LIKE AMERICA'S NEW TOP COP LIED VIA THE SIN OF OMISSION DURING HIS CONFIRMATION HEARINGS

Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

• One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.

The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html?pushid=breaking-news_1488431057&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.e7c1dd545e9f


It seems so incredibly redundant to say, "I knew it. They were lying....again."

Getting rid of Sessions could be a big break since Trump, for the moment, is trying to pretend to NOT BE the racist S.O.B. he's always been. He might NOT replace him with somebody that's also a card carrying racist, identified as such by Coretta Scott King.

Trump's White House is falling apart

Feeling Rebloggy

Losing a national security adviser to scandal within the first month of a new presidency, with Michael Flynn resigning late Monday, isn't just unprecedented; it's one of those events that would have Spock telling Kirk that the readings are off the charts and make no sense.

Which is also the case with Donald Trump's approval ratings — they're not just the worst ever at this point, but in territory that's unimaginable had any previous major party nominee won election. Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, Walter Mondale — odds are that had some weird fluke happened and they had won, they would still have been doing much better by that measure than Trump.

The president himself is beset by up to three separate scandals: One about Russian interference in the U.S. election along with contacts between his campaign and transition team with the Kremlin; one about conflicts of interest and "emoluments"; and perhaps one about the president himself as a security risk...

Jonathan Bernstein
Chicago Tribune

Read More
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-trump-russia-scandals-white-house-leaks-20170215-story.html

I love it when nerds make relevant comparisons in my language

DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA from A FORMER DIE-HARD REPUBLICAN

Feeling Rebloggy

Dear President Obama,

Seven years ago, I met my husband, and seven years ago, I met his Obama shirt. As a card-carrying, registered Democrat, it was a shirt he wore with both pride and honor. 

I hated it. 

See, I had grown up in a Republican family and had been bred to despise all candidates and platforms blue. So when he would ask me to wear his shirt from time to time, I vehemently denied. I wouldn’t be caught dead. 

But then something funny happened. 

You. 

As I graduated from school and began to spread my wings, I learned to separate my political viewpoints from those of my parents. I started to examine my world, both political and otherwise, with fresh eyes and an open mind. I gave myself a clean slate. And you made that bare tapestry your own. 

Throughout the next seven years, I would watch you log achievement after achievement, despite steady opposition and a dearth of proper acknowledgment. I’ve seen people call you the worst president of all time, despite objective measures that indicate the contrary. After all, this presidency has been one for the history books. The Dow Jones has hit unprecedented highs. The automotive industry has set all-time sales records. We recorded the longest streak of overall job growth in United States history. And I can actually fill up the tank of my environment-killing SUV without filing for bankruptcy. 

Were things perfect? No, of course not. But they seldom ever are. And why should the standard be perfection anyway? You’re only human, after all. Your turkey pardon jokes prove as much. 

No, for me, the standard is improvement; and by that measure, you’re every bit the success you set out to be. Unemployment is down. Wages are back on the rise. And while one could point to an increase in debt, that’s only one side of the coin, as our deficit has shrunk considerably. The main attack on your performance has been the underwhelming GDP growth, but such a criticism rings a bit hollow to me when, before you took office, we were migrating in the opposite (read: negative) direction. 

Call me crazy (and I’m sure many reading this will), but criticizing a man for only marginally improving the economy when we’re coming out of the second greatest recession of all time would be like criticizing a homeless man for only finding a way to move into a studio apartment and not a mansion. To me, context matters... 

Read More: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5880ce91e4b09d73ca3373cc?timestamp=1484845009661