On July 13th The New Republic ran an extensive and detailed article of nearly 6,000 words by noted investigative journalist Craig Unger on President Trump's extensive historic business dealings with Russian organized crime figures. As an editor, I have no reason to doubt Craig Unger's facts.
Turning Point USA has been clawing it's way to the top of the campus conservative movement in the United States over the last year. As a an allegedly national “student” group it claims “We believe in free markets, limited government, and fiscal responsibility.” In reality, it seems more like a vehicle for political control of student life, a vehicle for a rising wave of Neo-McCarthyism, and increasingly a portal for training members of this country's growing neo-nazi movement. The group is having their statewide conference tomorrow, April 15th, at the downtown Crowne Plaza Hotel.
A ton of noise has been made about Trump's non-acceptance of the reality of his popular vote defeat. While estimating three million “illegal votes” for his opposition based on numbers seemingly existent in his own mind, he has promised an investigation. Quietly on the side, Mike Pence has also said he would look into it. Should they deliver on their promises, which after a fashion they have so far, Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions will be the man doing the investigation. This could very well spell massive voter disenfranchisement nationally.
On January 29th over 1000 people descended on the Columbus International Airport to protest Donald Trump's ban on immigration and travel from seven countries. The brief protest was organized on a few hours notice and mirrored similar actions in New York, DC, LA, Denver, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Detroit and other cities. It set the stage for the largest protest in recent Columbus history.
The Foundations of Trump's wall go back over a decade to 2001. The 2001 fence was conceived to keep Islamic terrorists out of the United States because George W. Bush's infinite wisdom assured him that they must be coming from Catholic Mexico where they would surely blend in. It was an extension of the fence that Bill Clinton instituted near Sand Diego in 1994 to coincide with an expansion in free trade with Mexico and the Zapatista uprising against NAFTA. Congressional wrangling over Bush's border fence landed it partial funding in 2006 and the funded part is still incomplete.
When an enemy comes from multiple directions, the target is where their lines of attack intersect. In the case of current round of executive orders causing grant freezes and gag orders the attacks from multiple directions take multiple lines and thus have multiple intersections. One intersection makes a cross-hair on the forehead of government sponsored science in the public interest. Another targets non-profit profit science in the public service sector and directly threatens the lhealth of low income communities and the livelihood of the people who work to improve that health.
In the beginning of the Obama Administration, there was a retreat from what Sarah Palin called “that hopey-changing thing” into a continuation and expansion of Bush era policies and norms. Bush's extraordinary rendition became Obama's normal drone strike, a weekly chore done on “Terror Tuesday.” As the revolving door spins at the entrance to the Oval office, Obama's tenure set the cornerstone of Trump's energy and economic policy.
The first press briefing by the new White House spokes person was bizarre and devoid of facts as the least popular administration in history lurched through it's first full day in office.
The idea that Russian security services hacked the Democratic National Committee's emails and released them to Wikileaks in order to cause the election of Donald Trump has bounced off the walls of the beltway's echo chamber so many times it is as deafening as one would imagine the four trumpets in the book o
The elites that run the country will tolerate all manner of personality flaws from members of their inner circles. There are certain things that are core foundation policies of America. Those foundation policies predate the Declaration of Independence. They find different names, different slogans, and different expressions over the centuries, but without them the nation, as defined by the people who own it, has no reason to exist.