TRUMP 8

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</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1019 SEE TRUMP 9</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">est 619 with launch of 2020 campaign</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see impeach
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">orlando? paper usually endorse gop, said no to djt bak 919 capt 1019</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">OMFG</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div>
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</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/that-1970s-scourge-acid-rain-is-back/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/that-1970s-scourge-acid-rain-is-back/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/that-1970s-scourge-acid-rain-is-back/" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">1970s scourge acid rain is back</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/sarah-okeson/" title="Posts by Sarah Okeson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Sarah Okeson</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/dc-report/" title="Posts by DC Report" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">DC Report</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Starting in the 1970s acid rain turned hundreds of lakes and streams in Adirondack Park in upstate New York so acidic that fish could not survive. Acid rain can be…</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">That 1970s scourge acid rain is back</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Written by Sarah Okeson / <b>DC Report </b>October 26, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Starting in the 1970s acid rain turned hundreds of lakes and streams in Adirondack Park in upstate New York so acidic that fish could not survive. Acid rain can be so toxic that it etches paint off cars.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The good news: some naturally reproducing trout were recently found in one body of water in the Adirondacks. Lake Colden had been without such naturally grown fish for 32 years. This revival comes after decades of government work to reduce the toxic air emissions that cause acid rain.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The bad news: Team Trump seems determined to create a comeback for acid rain. That would mean 500 other Adirondack ponds and lakes would continue without naturally breeding fish. Worse, some of the sprawling park’s 2,300 other bodies of water might also become too toxic for other wildlife such as crayfish, salamanders and frogs. And because acid rain leaches aluminum in the soil it also kills trees.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">For people in the Northeast, it would also mean more asthma and heart disease as people breathe in air laced with greater amounts of sulfur dioxide, a toxic gas that causes acid rain.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The Trump EPA wants to squash Obama era rules that would force owners of electric power plants to clean up their toxic wastes.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">To understand how Team Trump helps polluters and hurts everyone else, consider the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <b>coal-burning Martin Lake Power Plant in east Texas. It spews more sulfur dioxide than any other power plant in America. Last year it spit out 56,198 tons of sulfur dioxide, a 54% increase over 2017.</b></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Acid rain, then and now.(From Environmental Defense Fund)]</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Now the Trump EPA wants to squash Obama era rules that would force owners of this and other power plants to clean up their toxic wastes</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Owners who escape these clean-up costs reap bigger profits. The rest of us pay the price: more sickness, shorter lives for some and hundreds of lakes with no fish surrounded by dying forests.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>To help polluters escape those costs the Trump administration puts executives, lawyers and lobbyists for polluting companies in charge of various units of the Environmental Protection Agency and other regulatory bodies.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Instead of enforcement of clean air laws, <font color="#ff0000">Team Trump runs a protection racket for polluters.</font></span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Plant Owners Identified</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Texas power plant is owned by<b> Luminant Generation Co., part of Vistra Energy. One of Vistra’s lobbying firms once employed a lawyer who was hired to head the Trump EPA air office. Vistra is one of nine politically connected polluters being scrutinized by Congressional investigators. In 2018 alone it gave more than $101,000 to members of Congress at a three-to-one ratio favoring Republicans</b>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>The lawyer was Bill Wehrum, who oversaw the Trump EPA’s air policy office until he resigned in June during a federal ethics investigation. </b>Previously Wehrum was a partner at <b>Hunton & Williams where he made $2.1 million</b>. That law <b>firm is now known as Hunton Andrews Kurth.</b> <b>A Congressional report dubbed the law firm “industry’s secret pipeline to EPA.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Vistra Energy paid $140,000 in<b> lobbying fees </b>last year to Hunton Andrews Kurth.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Wehrum was accused of repeatedly violating his ethics pledge and legal duty to refrain from EPA matters involving his former clients</b>. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, in May filed a detailed<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> 14-page complaint against Wehrum with the EPA’s acting inspector general.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Other big sulfur dioxide polluters include DTE Energy Co., represented by<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Hunton</span> Andrews Kurth in a long battle with the EPA over pollution from its coal-fired power plant in Monroe</b>, Mich. <b>David Harlow, attorney for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, previously represented DTE for Hunton Andrews Kurth.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Lobbyists As Regulators</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Soon after Harlow and Wehrum joined the EPA, the agency changed its position on a core issue in DTE’s case, adopting the company’s view.</font></p></div></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">overview 1019 AN</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/how-turkey-scored-the-trumps-green-light-to-occupy-a-massive-region-in-syria/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/how-turkey-scored-the-trumps-green-light-to-occupy-a-massive-region-in-syria/</a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mick co-signs quid pro quo, get over it</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trump-makes-baffling-claim-weve-taken-control-of-the-oil-in-the-middle-east/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump makes baffling claim: ‘We’ve taken control of the oil in the Middle East’</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump made a startling statement Friday afternoon while boasting about how he believes he handled his widely-condemned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Northern Syria – a move that…</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg next g7 trump doral, no agw 1019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/furious-former-white-house-official-blasts-trump-video-of-church-slaughter-mass-shootings-are-not-jokes/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">former White House official blasts Trump video of church slaughter: ’Mass shootings are not jokes!’ </font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/tom-boggioni/" title="Posts by Tom Boggioni" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Tom Boggioni</a><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><span style="text-align: right;">/</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story/" title="Posts by Raw Story" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Raw Story</a></font></h3></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1019</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/manufacturing-slump-undercuts-trump-claims-of-economic-strength/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/manufacturing-slump-undercuts-trump-claims-of-economic-strength/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Manufacturing slump undercuts Trump claims of economic strength</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Of all the ridiculous arguments Donald Trump makes for his reelection, perhaps none is repeated more often than his claim that the U.S. economy is “the greatest economy in the history of our country.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The claim is gibberish, of course, which is why the claim (or some variation thereof) continually rates three out of four Pinocchios from The Washington Post’s Fact Checker. And one of the reasons the claim is wrong is that the nation’s manufacturing sector is in a downward spiral.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index dropped to 47.8 in September, down from 49.1 the previous month, the lowest number in more than a decade. Any number above 50 indicates manufacturing expansion. A number below 50 indicates that manufacturing is in recession territory.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Companies are blaming the slowdown on Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods,</b> which have escalated into a full-blown trade war with China as that country retaliates with tariffs of its own. According to The Washington Post, “Manufacturing fell into a technical recession in the first half of the year, and the latest ISM data indicates the situation appears to be getting worse. Concerns are rising that the contraction in manufacturing could spill over into the rest of the U.S. economy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Even worse than a technical number from the index, numbers for manufacturing employment, new orders, backlogs, and production all fell in the Institute of Supply Management report.</b> Because of Trump’s tariffs, parts cost more, so companies are ordering fewer of them, which also affects suppliers. In some cases, manufacturers worried about the future are laying off employees. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the manufacturing unemployment rate went up six-tenths of a percentage point just since June, and the manufacturing sector lost 2,000 jobs in September. The official September numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that U.S. employers added only 136,000 jobs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And guess where manufacturing job numbers are bad? In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, three states Trump won narrowly in 2016. Republican losses in those three states could very well tip the election to a Democratic challenger in 2020.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A Bloomberg opinion piece points out that Trump’s trade policies are hurting both the farming and the manufacturing sectors.</b> A 2016 manufacturing recession may have contributed to Trump’s slim win in those three states that Democrats were counting on as a “blue wall.”</font></div></div></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mirror BS</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/reckless-and-dishonest-senior-white-house-official-shoots-down-trumps-claim-that-kurds-released-isis-prisoners/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/reckless-and-dishonest-senior-white-house-official-shoots-down-trumps-claim-that-kurds-released-isis-prisoners/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/white-house-plans-to-retaliate-against-diplomats-who-dont-cover-for-trump-during-testimony-report/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/white-house-plans-to-retaliate-against-diplomats-who-dont-cover-for-trump-during-testimony-report/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trump-unleashes-his-twisted-2020-strategy-of-grievance-and-racism/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trump-unleashes-his-twisted-2020-strategy-of-grievance-and-racism/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump unleashes his twisted 2020 strategy of grievance and racism</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly October 11, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">36</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Having only lost Minnesota by 1.5 percentage points in 2016, the Trump campaign has made it clear that they think they can win the state in 2020. That’s what Thursday night’s rally in Minneapolis was all about. Peter Nichols wrote about the strategy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One Republican operative close to the White House, speaking anonymously to discuss campaign strategy, told me that Trump is convinced of the old political adage “The <b>race will hinge on turnout.</b>” If he can mobilize and excite his base voters, they’ll show up in force, much as they did in 2016, impeachment be damned…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“His message is so edgy, and his core support is so intense and enthusiastic, and the rallies are so unlike anything we’ve seen in the modern era,” the strategist told me. “Arithmetically speaking, this election is about jacking up turnout of your own supporters on the theory that no one on their side of the ball excites them the way Trump excites us,” he said, referring to the Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If that’s the plan, then we can look at Thursday night’s speech to see how Trump plans to excite his supporters in order to get them to show up in force.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Nichols pointed out, the first half of Trump’s speech was all about his personal grievances. He mocked FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, said that Joe Biden was “only considered a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass,” called<b> Ilhan Omar an “American-hating socialist</b>,” and referred to congressional Democrats as “sick” for pursuing an impeachment inquiry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then Trump engaged in his second strategy for exciting his voters: racism. Because Minnesota is home to the largest concentration of Somalis in the country, they became his target.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Same old playbook: racism https://t.co/4OuUA1Hvya</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Nancy LeTourneau (@Smartypants60) October 11, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He then went on to say that “we will always protect American families first” and that hadn’t happened in Minnesota. He said that he would not “allow a violent ideology to take root in our country on our shores” like had happened in Europe. Equating the Somali community in Minnesota with a “violent ideology” is not only a racist lie, it is the same kind of rhetoric that inspired the gunman in El Paso.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is, however, merely a repeat of what Trump did in 2016 when he visited Minnesota two days before the election and told the crowd that they had “suffered enough” as a result of “filthy refugee vetting” that had allowed an influx of Somalis into the state.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When it comes to this part of Trump’s strategy, Elad Nehorai, who describes himself as a “proud progressive Orthodox Jew,” put it best. He wrote that “This is the kind of hate rally seen in authoritarian and fascist countries. We Jews have seen this before, as have countless other minorities. This is the powerful hurting the vulnerable to empower themselves.” Senator Amy Klobuchar echoed that statement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The President just attacked Somali Americans in his rally in Minnesota. Immigrants and refugees have helped make our state a wonderful place to live and work — which is far more than this President has done. Stop using immigrants and refugees as political pawns!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) October 11, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I have often been proud to point out that, when it comes to the economy, my home state of Minnesota consistently performs better than the national average. One of the reasons why is because of the very immigrant community the president attacked. Here is the data from the Federal Reserve Board of Minneapolis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With high levels of labor force participation and employment, African immigrants brought in $2.5 billion in earnings during 2015. These households paid $419 million in federal taxes and $222 million in state and local taxes, leaving African immigrants an estimated $1.8 billion in spending power. Despite its relatively small size, the African immigrant population makes significant contributions to the Minnesota economy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the end of his speech on Thursday night, Trump threw out a couple of lines about health care and a promise to end childhood cancer. But as Nichols wrote, “he read those parts without any particular vocal affect, perhaps because he doesn’t truly believe they’re the way to win.</span>” It could also be because he doesn’t really give a shit about things like health care. In the end, the plan is to excite his base of supporters with a combination of grievance and racism, because that is exactly what excites him. But the truth is, that’s all he’s got.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/another-betrayal-trump-promised-to-bring-offshore-profits-home-but-hes-doing-the-opposite/" style="font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" color="color" transition="transition" all="all" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" display="display" inline="inline" important="important" font-size="font-size" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" line-height="line-height">Another betrayal’: Trump promised to bring offshore profits home — but he’s doing the opposite</a></font></div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/igor-derysh/" title="Posts by Igor Derysh" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Igor Derysh</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration is considering a rule change that would make it easier for American companies to stash money offshore to avoid U.S. taxes, despite the president’s repeated campaign promises…</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/pollution-anxiety-and-death-how-trump-is-poisoning-the-country-and-literally-making-us-sick/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/pollution-anxiety-and-death-how-trump-is-poisoning-the-country-and-literally-making-us-sick/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[stress, anxiety]...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To combat the overwhelming compassion fatigue generated by this administration</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dixon says, some things you can do are registering to vote, disengaging from social media and getting out and walking into an open-air green space at least 20 minutes a day </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">—</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> if you can find one.</span></font></div><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s15" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dirty Busines</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></font></strong></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s16" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As of this writing, there are </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">8</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">5</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> environmental protection rules meant to guard our health and environment that this administration is trying to undo, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">listed here by the New York Times</a><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For example, </span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">federal regulations designed to lower pollutants in the air helped dramatically decrease air pollution-related deaths, dropping them 47 percent between 1990-2010, </span><a href="https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/18/15003/2018/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">according to a study in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry</a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s18" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In June the </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">current administration</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s EPA </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">relaxed </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">those regulations in regard to coal plants</span> <span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">giving states more latitude in regard to requiring </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">limited efficiency upgrades</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">at coal-fired power plants.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In a </span><a href="https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/climate-and-health-showdown-in-the-courts.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">report </a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">released by New York University Law Schools State Energy and Environmental Impact Center this rollback of the Obama administration era Clean Power Plan to the proposed new plan would, by 2030, cause </span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1,630 more incidences of premature deaths, 120,000 additional asthma attacks, and 140,000 missed school days and 48,000 lost work days.</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">From the </span><a href="https://www.apnews.com/d48562a8d7ee4df1bceec0990205e5b3" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Associated Press:</a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> “</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The EPA move comes </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="s20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">despite the agency</span><span class="s20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s20" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s own analysis </span></em><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[emphasis mine] </span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">that it would result in the deaths of an extra 300 to 1,500 people each year by 2030, owing to additional air pollution.</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/22-states-sue-the-trump-administration-over-coal-fired-power-plant-rules" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Twenty-one states are suing </a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">to stop the relaxing of coal regulations, saying the new law violates the </span><a href="https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Clean Air Act</a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For environmental scientists, who </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">live in a world of wounds most of the time,</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and for the public who care about breathing, it</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s a confounding time, says </span><a href="https://ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people/steven-beissinger" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Steve Beissinger</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, professor of conservation biology at the University of California at Berkeley.</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This kind of deregulation is a </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">last gasp attempt</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">to squeeze every kilowatt out of non-renewable energy </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">that they can to benefit a few people,</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Beissinger says. </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s going to have tremendous long term costs to our atmosphere and to our climate which we all share.</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s exhausting </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">to fight for things that are common sense public health measures.</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">says Beissinger.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The General Welfare</font></strong></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It seems like common sense to want a healthier population. Healthy people are more energetic, happy and productive. Public health and people</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s ability to afford it was at the heart of President Obama</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s Affordable Care Act, which took effect in 2014.</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Last year, though, </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/number-of-americans-without-insurance-shows-first-increase-since2008-11568128381" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><span class="s19" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">fewer Americans – 27.5 million of us </span><span class="s19" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">— </span><span class="s19" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">did not have health insurance</span></a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, more than at any time since the ACA</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s inception. Health care advocates blame the current administration</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s consistent attempts to weaken a law meant to safeguard our health, and by extension, our lives</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It also seems like common sense not to noodle with a law that has worked for the past 130 years, like the </span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">public charge</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">rule, which says </span><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/12/new-rules-can-deny-green-cards-for-immigrants-on-food-stamps.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">immigrants can access public programs like Medicaid and food stamps</a><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> if they won</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">t be long-term dependents of the state.</span><span class="s21" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/trump-family-wealth.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">current president, who received millions and millions of dollars throughout his life from his successful father</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> thinks people should be more self-sufficient than this. A proposed new rule set to go into effect on October 15, says that if you</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">re a newcomer going through legal </span><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/16/california-action-against-trump-administration-immigration-public-charge/2029734001/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">channels to gain citizenship accessing these programs you could be deported or denied a visa</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Doctors representing nearly 600,000 physicians and students signed a joint statement opposing the rule and</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> it is currently the target of </span><a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20191008.70483/full/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">eight lawsuits.</a></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hannah Critchfield writes in the </span><a href="https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/doctors-new-trump-immigration-rule-public-charge-health-migrants-11345058" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Phoenix New Times </a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">that family physician Dr. Natasha Bhuyan predicted a </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">public health crisis</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">because people won</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">t access preventive care — </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">but will likely end up in the emergency room and that</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s far more expensive than prevention</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.apple.com/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Leighton Ku writing in the Health Affairs Journal blog</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> cites a shocking litany of new estimates of likely losses, to people and to the U.S., like this one: </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><a href="https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/29762136/Make_the_Road_New_York_et_al_v_Cuccinelli_et_al" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Diane Schanzenbach</a><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, an economist at Northwestern University, estimated that about 1.8 million fewer individuals, many of whom are citizens, would receive SNAP benefits, reducing food assistance payments by $2 billion per year. By itself, this would lower economic activity in the United States by $3.2 billion annually.</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The stress of anti-immigrant rhetoric can affect pregnant women as well. A study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health</span> <span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">found that in the nine months after the 2016 election there was a </span><a href="https://hub.jhu.edu/2019/07/22/donald-trump-election-increased-preterm-births-latinas/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">significant increase in preterm births among Latina women living in the U.S.</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, up to 3.5 percent. Preterm births come with problems including a higher risk of death in infancy. Threats of deportation of your friends or family could easily cause stress, one of the causes of pre-term births.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For some </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">babies</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, some small, some bigger,</span> <span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">on the border, there</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s the stress being wrenched away from mom and dad in a strange country and left in shameful conditions.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44303556" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">family separation policy of the current administration ended but they are responsible for it</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and thousands of children are still separated there in conditions of squalor. There are </span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-trump-administrations-sustained-attack-on-flores-agreement-rights-of-immigrant-children" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reports</a><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> of children suffering from lack of adequate food, hygiene and medical care, filthy conditions, outbreaks of lice and flu – this on top of being alone in a scary new place.</span> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faces-of-family-separation-cbsn-originals/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Faces of Family Separation</a><span class="s18" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> a CBS News documentary talks to families suffered through the nightmare, courtesy of America</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s Family Values party.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What could it mean for their future?</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Attachment is how babies </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">— </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">anyone under 18 </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">— </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">feel about their parents, Dixon says. Such separation destroys the blueprint for how they will relate to others in the future.  </span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Taking</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> babies away from their parents </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">disrupts</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> attachment,</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dixon says, and the blueprint is </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">fundamentally changed</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, leaving them more vulnerable to </span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">drug use, anxiety, depression, suicide,</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> in the future.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We, as a society, are going to have to reckon with the fact </span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">that we</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">re willingly and knowingly hurting kids and creating future traumatized adults.</span><span class="s2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Don</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">t hurt children,</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">” </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dixon says. </span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s not that complicated.</span><span class="s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">And this is all if they even have a future. </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/why-are-migrant-children-dying-u-s-custody-n1010316" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Seven children died in U.S. immigration custody</a><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> – no children had died there in the previous decade. Three died of flu.</span></font></p><p class="s3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">So, pollution, anxiety and death? Let</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span><span class="s13" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s call it Trumpcare.</span></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trumps-brazen-criminality-has-proven-the-corruption-of-the-republican-party-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/trumps-brazen-criminality-has-proven-the-corruption-of-the-republican-party-beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2x?</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fox poll 51% pro impeach, trump sez their pollster sux and i'm prez</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">syria kurd david webb talk radio</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/fox-news-pundit-hurls-insults-after-getting-laughed-at-for-absurd-defense-of-trumps-syria-withdrawal/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/fox-news-pundit-hurls-insults-after-getting-laughed-at-for-absurd-defense-of-trumps-syria-withdrawal/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/russian-embassy-in-london-says-trump-exonerated-them-of-skripal-poisoning"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/russian-embassy-in-london-says-trump-exonerated-them-of-skripal-poisoning</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/russian-witness-thrown-from-a-window-after-his-name-was-exposed-by-trump-tower-lobbyist-emails"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/russian-witness-thrown-from-a-window-after-his-name-was-exposed-by-trump-tower-lobbyist-emails</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Trump asked British Prime Minister Johnson to help him discredit Mueller’s report and the Russia investigation</div><div>Alex Henderson</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/gop-congressman-blasts-trump-for-quoting-evangelical-pastors-civil-war-threat-this-is-beyond-repugnant/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/gop-congressman-blasts-trump-for-quoting-evangelical-pastors-civil-war-threat-this-is-beyond-repugnant/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kinziger jeffress</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 919</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Who fed Donald Trump his bogus Ukraine conspiracy theories?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Atkins / Washington Monthly September 30, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the more bizarre elements of Donald Trump’s self-inflicted Ukraine scandal is his seemingly genuine belief that some nefarious Democratic scheme is hidden on Ukrainian computers. And one of the most important questions we should be asking is where he got that information.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First, some context: while most of attention has focused on the White House’s hamfisted attempt to gather dirt on the Biden family and its apparently widespread (and illegal) misuse of classification to hide politically damaging and legally incriminating information, there is also<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> another sideplot: his conspiracy theory that Clinton’s missing emails, and perhaps other nefarious things, are somehow being stored on Ukrainian servers. This is a reference to what is known as the “Crowdstrike” conspiracy theory, a very fringe right-wing conspiracy theory so bizarre it barely makes it way onto onto Fox News. </span>Rachel Sandler breaks it down at Forbes thus:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Silicon Valley-based CrowdStrike was hired in 2016 by the DNC to investigate the origins of the hack. The company didn’t give the DNC’s physical server to the FBI, which has been seized on by conspiracy theorists as evidence of a cover up.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the theory, which has been prominent on right-wing blogs and news websites and repeated by Trump and former campaign consultant<b> Roger Stone,</b>Democrats and CrowdStrike concocted evidence to frame Russia for the hack in order to discredit Trump’s win in 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The supposed evidence of Russia’s innocence relies on the belief that a DNC server has been hidden in Ukraine, possibly by CrowdStrike’s cofounder Dmitri Alperovitch.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That belief may stem from a statement by President Trump in a 2017 interview with the Associated Press, in which he questioned why the FBI didn’t look at the DNC server, that CrowdStrike is owned by “a very rich Ukrainian.” <b>Alperovitch is actually a Russian-born American citizen.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The theory is, of course, totally bogus. It’s also an attempt to absolve Russia of its culpability in the hacking of the DNC:</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ultimately, the president seems to be alluding to an idea that alt-right commentators and pro-Russia sympathizers have pushed for years: that CrowdStrike was wrong about Russia hacking the DNC—and, moreover, that CrowdStrike intentionally blamed Russia for political reasons. CrowdStrike’s findings have, of course, been repeatedly affirmed by the intelligence community, the Justice Department, members of Congress, and the office of Robert Mueller. Last year the government indicted a dozen Russian intelligence officers for their role in the hacking plot…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>These straw-grasping claims and distortions of fact are fuel for the fire of disinformation.</b> Further, the notion that there is some missing “server,” and that the server might exist somewhere—like in Ukraine—has no basis in reality. The DNC’s network consisted of many servers and computers which either had be put out to pasture, rebooted, or rebuilt to rid them of malware and intruders. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the DNC explained in a 2018 lawsuit filed against the Russian government, it had to “decommission more than 140 servers, remove and reinstall all software, including the operating systems, for more than 180 computers, and rebuild at least 11 servers” as a result of the hacking.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The unanswered question in all this is how Donald Trump came to believe in this nonsense, and why he continues to believe it. His own employees and administration official tried again and again to disabuse him of these notions, but he refused to give them up:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump was repeatedly warned by his own staff that the Ukraine conspiracy theory that he and his lawyer were pursuing was “completely debunked” long before the president pressed Ukraine this summer to investigate his Democratic rivals, a former top adviser said on Sunday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Thomas P. Bossert, who served as Mr. Trump’s first homeland security adviser, said he told the president there was no basis to the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, intervened in the 2016 election</b> and did so on behalf of the Democrats. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Bossert said he was “deeply disturbed” that Mr. Trump nonetheless tried to get Ukraine’s president to produce damaging information about Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rudy Giuliani has been significantly involved in the obsession over Ukraine, as his bizarre spiels on cable news networks have amply demonstrated. </b>Most recently he claimed to have been attempting to prove that Donald Trump (and, by extension, the Russians) was “framed by the Democrats”–a notion that Trump recently promoted on twitter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it seems unlikely Giuliani has been Donald Trump’s primary conspiracy theory conduit. Rather, he seems to have been roped into it by Trump, and enjoys the cable news limelight.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One might think that Trump got the information from random corners of the internet. But the problem there is that the president barely knows how to use a computer, and has to have articles printed out for him and put on his desk.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So who was feeding him these conspiracies? Why did he continue to believe them even as his own intelligence services and White House staff were attempting to disabuse him of them?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We still don’t know. But we deserve to find out.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David Atkins is a writer, activist and research professional living in Santa Barbara. He is a contributor to the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal and president of The Pollux Group, a qualitative research firm.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">threat execute whistleblower</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><p class="yiv5987854003headline3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/phldlrvwvsfbflkkbyjvvbvkkybkwmcgdsvfjhrqjjcy_owlztqmqdtwlqmwjzzt.html?a=&b=1586&c=21989&d=2" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump issues ugly threat to arrest Adam Schiff for treason as impeachment gains momentum</font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Rep. Adam Schiff…</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/rights-groups-urge-senate-to-reject-nomination-of-torture-advocate-to-top-human-rights-post/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Rights groups urge Senate to reject nomination of torture advocate to top human rights post</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/brettwilkins/" title="Posts by Brett Wilkins" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Brett Wilkins</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Billingslea’s nomination has alarmed human rights advocates due to his unapologetic embrace of torturing suspected terrorists during the George W. Bush administration.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">rump later mocked the now world-renowned activist on Twitter, writing, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”</span></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/24/headlines/greta_thunberg_and_youth_activists_take_on_world_leaders_at_un_climate_action_summit"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/24/headlines/greta_thunberg_and_youth_activists_take_on_world_leaders_at_un_climate_action_summit</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">un sued for not uphold rights of children</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/nyts-paul-krugman-explains-exactly-why-trump-is-targeting-california/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/nyts-paul-krugman-explains-exactly-why-trump-is-targeting-california/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trumps-new-argument-hes-immune-from-all-criminal-investigation-in-new-tax-return-lawsuit/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trumps-new-argument-hes-immune-from-all-criminal-investigation-in-new-tax-return-lawsuit/</a></font></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-threatens-to-punish-california-over-homelessness-after-denying-funds-to-fight-homelessness/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-threatens-to-punish-california-over-homelessness-after-denying-funds-to-fight-homelessness/</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump threatens to punish California over homelessness — after denying funds to house people</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Igor Derysh / Salon September 19, 2019</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">President Trump threatened to use the Environmental Protection Agency to punish San Francisco over its homelessness crisis — on the same day that his administration denied California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for housing vouchers to help fight homelessness.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There’s tremendous pollution being put into the ocean … there are needles, there are other things,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Wednesday while returning from a two-day fundraising trip in California. “We’re going to be giving San Francisco — they’re in total violation — we’re going to be giving them the notice very soon. The EPA is going to be putting out a notice and you know they’re in serious violation and this is environmental, very environmental.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[THE JUNGLE!]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“And they have to clean it up,” he added. “We can’t have our cities going to hell.”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">San Francisco Mayor London Breed called Trump’s comments “ridiculous assertions” and explained that the city’s sewer system “ensures that all debris that flow into storm drains are filtered out at the city’s wastewater treatment plants.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If the president wants to talk about homelessness, we are committed to working with our state and federal partners on actual solutions,” she said in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s newfound concern for the environment came just days after his administration stripped California of the power to set auto emissions standards in a bid to reduce air pollution and overturned clean water regulations nationwide.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump’s threat to sic the EPA on San Francisco came on the same day that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson denied a request from Newsom for help fighting homelessness.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newsom and the mayors of California’s 13 largest cities asked the Trump administration to expand programs like housing vouchers to help get people off the street.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In California, state and local governments have ramped up action to lift families out of poverty by investing in behavioral health, affordable housing, and other homeless programs,” the lawmakers wrote. “In contrast, your Administration has proposed significant cuts to public housing and programs like the Community Development Block Grant.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carson rejected the request in a letter, which he said he wrote at Trump’s request.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">“Your letter seeks federal dollars for California from hardworking American taxpayers but fails to admit that your State and local policies have played a major role in the current crisis,” Carson wrote, blaming lawmakers for creating an “over-regulated housing market” and “policies that have weakened law enforcement.”[sanct cities?]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Carson also accused California lawmakers of undercutting the ability of police to tear down homeless camps and creating sanctuary policies, arguing that <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">undocumented immigrants</span> have caused housing prices to spike while “draining resources.”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Courts have limited California’s ability to remove homeless people from the streets. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to support a motion to challenge a federal court decision barring police from arresting people for sleeping on sidewalks when there are not enough shelter beds, NBC News reported.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has increasingly focused on homelessness in California ever since he assured Fox News host Tucker Carlson in July that he may “do something to get that whole thing cleaned up.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>During his California fundraising trip, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump assured foreign real estate investors</span> that he would protect them from California’s homeless population.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“We have people living in our … best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings … where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige,” he complained, according to CNN.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump administration officials have considered using federal resources to tear down homeless camps in the state and relocate homeless people en masse to abandoned federal facilities, The Washington Post reported last week.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s California trip came after his Council of Economic Advisers released a report alleging that the homelessness problem was caused by overregulation of housing. The administration report offered a deregulation fix, calling for changing zoning restrictions and slashing environmental regulations that restrict where homes can be built.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democratic state Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, who represents the Skid Row section of downtown Los Angeles, and has already authored a bill to limit environmental laws that block the building of housing and shelters, told The Los Angeles Times that it was difficult to take Trump seriously when the administration has called for cutting housing funding and proposed a ban on housing aid to any household where even one resident is living in the country illegally.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I think it’s politics at its worst where he is going to pick on a vulnerable community — no different than when he picked on immigrants,” he told the Times. “I think it’s a little cynical for someone who has done everything in their right mind to make it worse on the working poor.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tom Phillipson, the acting head of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters on Monday that “policing may be an important tool to help them get off the street” as well.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said that criminalizing homelessness was the exact wrong approach to the issue.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The White House report on homelessness treats this crisis like fodder for a cable news debate,” Garcetti told The Los Angeles Times. “We don’t have time for that. If the president really cares about solving this crisis, he wouldn’t be talking about criminalization over housing. He’d be making dramatic increases in funding for this country’s housing safety net.”</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">cf trms on odd russia timeline, myst phone call promise</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/impeachment-resignation-treason-federal-charges-reaction-to-the-stunning-trump-ukraine-news/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/impeachment-resignation-treason-federal-charges-reaction-to-the-stunning-trump-ukraine-news/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">hursday ended with the absolutely bombshell news that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani allegedly schemed to withhold military and financial aid to Ukraine—unless the newly elected prime minister found some kind of dirt on Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who has done work in Ukraine. You could and should read more about this scandal from my colleague, Mark Sumner, who</span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/19/1886645/-Trump-has-been-extorting-U-S-ally-Ukraine-and-we-ve-known-it-for-months" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"> </a></strong><a title="" href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/19/1886645/-Trump-has-been-extorting-U-S-ally-Ukraine-and-we-ve-known-it-for-months" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has a great summary of the situation and a complete timeline of the scandal. </a></font></div><div class="p1_46" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For what it’s worth, we aren’t talking small funds here. We are talking $250 million in aid that the <a title="" href="https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/09/19/ukraine-military-aid-extension-passes-us-house-after-white-house-delay/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">White House blocked this summer</a>, which was, coincidentally, released <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/09/19/ukraine-military-aid-extension-passes-us-house-after-white-house-delay/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">on Thursday</a>.</font></p><div class="p2_46" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teads-adCall" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 15px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost immediately after the news skyrocketed to the top trending topic on social media, Rudy Giuliani appeared on CNN where he <a title="" href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/19/1886646/-Rudy-Giuliani-lost-his-mind-on-CNN-and-admitted-he-was-a-co-conspirator-in-Ukraine-deal" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">lost his mind and admitted he was a co-conspirator in a Ukraine deal</a>. More incredibly, Giuliani then ran to Twitter to not just affirm his role; he also directly implicated Donald Trump.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/is-trump-a-master-of-3-d-chess-expert-says-nope/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Is Trump a master of ‘3-D chess’? Expert says nope</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/chauncey-devega/" title="Posts by Chauncey DeVega" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Chauncey DeVega</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NYU game-theory scholar Steven Brams says Trump's unpredictability would work better in poker than in politics.</font></p></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trumps-most-reliable-and-obsequious-sycophants/"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trumps-most-reliable-and-obsequious-sycophants/</font></a></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/will-americans-let-trump-trigger-world-war-iii-for-saudi-arabia-and-israel/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Americans let Trump trigger World War III for Saudi Arabia and Israel?</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/medea-benjamin/" title="Posts by Medea Benjamin" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Medea Benjamin</a>, <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/nicolas-j-s-davies/" title="Posts by Nicolas J. S. Davies" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Nicolas J. S. Davies</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/independent-media-institute/" title="Posts by Independent Media Institute" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Independent Media Institute</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Saturday, September 14, two oil refineries and other oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia were hit and set ablaze by 18 drones and 7 cruise missiles</font></p></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">biz w/ $ 35 trillion in assets say they want trump to tke diff approach (green?) on economy? kpfa 9/19/19</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">i'm mostly ignoring AN wishful trump slump but</font></div><div style=""><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/big-time-capital-is-losing-its-faith-in-trump-as-ceo-confidence-saw-its-biggest-quarterly-drop-in-seven-years/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Big-time capital is losing its faith in Trump as CEO confidence saw its biggest quarterly drop in seven years</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/igor-derysh/" title="Posts by Igor Derysh" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Igor Derysh</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon </a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 19, 2019</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big-time capital is losing its faith in Trump, as CEO confidence saw its biggest quarterly drop in seven years.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">..."This quarter’s survey shows American businesses now have their foot poised above the brake, and they’re tapping the brake periodically,” said Business Roundtable President Joshua Bolten. “Uncertainty is preventing the full potential of the economy from being unleashed, limiting growth and investment here in the U.S.”</font></p><div class="p6_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The survey was conducted between Aug. 23 and Sept. 9, sampling 138 CEOs. On the first day of the survey, China announced new tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. products. Trump responded by announcing he would raise existing and forthcoming tariffs on China by 5 percent across the board. The escalation prompted the Dow Jones to <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-closes-down-more-than-600-points-after-trump-orders-us-companies-to-leave-china-2019-08-23" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">plummet by more than 600 points</a> in a single day.</font></p><div class="p7_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another survey of the nation’s top 225 chief financial officers also showed a stark drop in economic optimism, with many predicting a recession to hit in the near future.</font></p><div class="p8_17" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.cfosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019-Q3-US-Key-Numbers-1.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook</a> survey showed that 55 percent of CFOs are more pessimistic about the economy compared to the previous quarter. Fifty-three percent of the CFOs predicted a recession would hit by the third quarter of next year and 67 percent predicted a recession would begin by the end of 2020....</font></p></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gop authoritarian, so dump trump  not enuf</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/nobel-prize-winning-economist-republicans-show-a-total-contempt-for-democracy-and-constitutional-government/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/nobel-prize-winning-economist-republicans-show-a-total-contempt-for-democracy-and-constitutional-government/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">transactional, unintended conseq; the has no policy process, many seats empty or acting, rule by tweet/whim knee-jerk reaction (obama bad, int'l bad, any deal i did not do bad]</font></span></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/fears-of-collateral-damage-to-democracy-swell-as-trump-weighs-withdrawing-from-global-postal-pact/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/fears-of-collateral-damage-to-democracy-swell-as-trump-weighs-withdrawing-from-global-postal-pact/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fears of ‘collateral damage to democracy’ swell as Trump weighs withdrawing from global postal pact</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Julia Conley / Common Dreams September 17, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Thousands of absentee ballots could be uncounted in upcoming elections thanks to President Donald Trump’s objection to a treaty which governs the international mail exchange for nearly 200 countries.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Citing disapproval of shipping rates it says unfairly favor China,</b> the White House is weighing a potential withdrawal next month from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency which allows for global postal service.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Without U.S. membership in the UPU, overseas voters could face high shipping rates for mailing their ballots as well as mass confusion, which could leave thousands of votes uncounted in 2019 and 2020.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Military and overseas citizens already face enormous hurdles casting their votes,” Matthew Weil, director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project, told The Washington Post. “These citizens may be forced to pay up to $70 to return their ballots via private shipping companies, and it’s not clear all states will accept ballots delivered this way.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The White House’s latest gamble with the economy is a quintessentially Trumpian move.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">—Brian Klaas, Washington PostOriginally formed in 1874 to support the international mail exchange, the UPU will gather for a summit this month in Geneva, where the 192 member states will discuss changing shipping rates. The U.S. plans to withdraw from the union if new rates can’t be negotiated—a move which could have a cascading effect on U.S. democracy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If the United States withdraws, the country in which you are located may not deliver the mail ballot packet that we send, or timely return your voted ballot to our office,” Colorado election officials wrote recently to absentee voters who cast ballots in the state. Officials advised voters to update their voter registration to ensure their ballots are delivered electronically in November’s election.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The UPU keeps shipping rates low for developing countries. It has allowed China to ship internationally at low rates for five decades, even as the country has emerged as an economic superpower.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Geneva, the White House plans to push a proposal allowing countries to set their own rates, in which case it may raise shipping rates for China, setting off “a new front in the trade war using the postal system,” wrote Brian Klaas at the Post last Friday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If the measure fails, Trump reportedly plans to back out of the treaty. The administration has been planning the move since last October.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Election officials have begun warning voters of the possible change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Leaving the Universal Postal Union could have disastrous consequences for American voters overseas,” tweeted Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos on Monday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leaving the Universal Postal Union could have disasterous consequences for American voters overseas. This includes our active duty military service members stationed abroad, who already face challenging barriers accessing their right to cast their ballots. https://t.co/rqHfBNTdfY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— VT Sec. of State (@VermontSOS) September 16, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In some states the deadline for sending absentee ballots overseas for the 2019 election will have passed by the time the UPU meets beginning on September 24. If the U.S. pulls out of the union after the meeting, thousands of voters may have incorrect information when they mail their ballots.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The White House’s latest gamble with the economy is a quintessentially Trumpian move: a bold threat to walk away from a multilateral agreement that works pretty well, while ignoring the unintended consequences that could hurt American business, alienate allies, and cause collateral damage to democracy,</b>” wrote Klaas.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More than 350,000 Americans voted via absentee ballot in the 2018 midterms, mostly with postal ballots.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/most-of-the-world-hates-trump-but-these-3-countries-love-him"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/most-of-the-world-hates-trump-but-these-3-countries-love-him</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">authori nigeria, so korea aND israel</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">..<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That same month, after </span><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-keeps-promise-open-u-s-embassy-jerusalem-israel/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump pledged to move the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, Netanyahu compared Trump to </span><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/who-is-king-cyrus-and-why-is-netanyahu-comparing-him-to-trump/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">King Cyrus the Great</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, from 2,500 years ago, who “proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could come back and rebuild our Temple in Jerusalem.”</span></font></div><div class="p32_37" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As in the case of Nigeria and South Korea, Trump’s popularity in Israel </b>seems to be a reversal of his predecessor. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-barack-obama.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Frosty personal relations</a> plagued Obama and Netanyahu, beginning with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Obama’s first major foreign policy address to the Arab world</a> in Cairo in 2009. This culminated in <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/netanyahu-address-congress-transcript-read" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Netanyahu’s visit to Congress</a> in 2015, when he urged Congress to oppose the Iran nuclear agreement.</font></p><div class="p33_37" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2016, prior to the rise of Trump, <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israeli-opinion-of-u-s-president-barack-obama" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Israelis ranked Obama as the worst U.S. president</a> for Israel in the last 30 years....</font></p><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 919 by </font></div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/by-letting-trump-constantly-lie-about-9-11-the-press-proves-it-will-let-him-lie-about-anything/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"> letting Trump constantly lie about 9/11, the press proves it will let him lie about anything</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/eric-boehlert/" title="Posts by Eric Boehlert" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Eric Boehlert</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/daily-kos/" title="Posts by Daily Kos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Kos</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 15, 2019</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sometimes it feels like the press has just completely surrendered to Donald Trump’s relentless lies.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/the-divine-right-presidency-trump-has-identified-the-usa-with-himself-made-the-government-into-his-personal-servants-and-claimed-unprecedented-powers-to-do-whatever-he-wants/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/the-divine-right-presidency-trump-has-identified-the-usa-with-himself-made-the-government-into-his-personal-servants-and-claimed-unprecedented-powers-to-do-whatever-he-wants/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">king g iii</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/the-trump-administration-is-sabotaging-veterans-access-to-health-care/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/the-trump-administration-is-sabotaging-veterans-access-to-health-care/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/some-of-trumps-allies-and-officials-must-face-federal-prosecution-to-save-the-republic/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/some-of-trumps-allies-and-officials-must-face-federal-prosecution-to-save-the-republic/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">thom h</font></div><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-seizes-on-homelessness-for-divide-and-conquer-tactics-led-by-fox-news/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-seizes-on-homelessness-for-divide-and-conquer-tactics-led-by-fox-news/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump seizes on homelessness for divide-and-conquer tactics — led by Fox News</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Laura Clawson / Daily Kos<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>September 11, 2019</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Donald Trump is apparently so pleased with the reception his migrant detention centers are getting that he’s looking into forcing homeless people into federal hands, too. Trump is specifically targeting homelessness in California, because Fox News has been harping on it and because portraying a heavily Democratic state as hopelessly dirty and in need of federal intervention is likely to appeal to his base.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Administration officials have discussed using the federal government to get homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles and other cities and into new government-backed facilities, according to two officials briefed on the planning,” The Washington Post reports, adding that “it is unclear how they could accomplish this and what legal authority they would use.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s the Trump administration. Lack of legal authority has never been an issue for them—and Trump’s pet Supreme Court justices would doubtless discover sweeping new federal powers to imprison people should he demand it. But it’s likely that the goal here is less to accomplish anything than to spread the message that liberals are dirty. As a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">White House spokesman put it, “Like many Americans, the president has taken notice of the homelessness crisis, particularly in cities and states where the liberal policies are combining to dramatically increase poverty and<b> public health risks.”</b></span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Most of the states with the highest poverty rates are red, but you don’t hear Trump aides talking about what Mississippi and Louisiana are doing to “dramatically increase poverty.” And California ranks just outside the top 10 on public health measures. Details, details. There’s a blue state to be smeared through association with homelessness.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So no, Donald Trump is unlikely to succeed at <b>forcing California’s homeless population into federal camps</b> anytime soon. But the fact that he’s talking about it shows where his 2020 campaign is going to take the nation.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div style=""><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bolton fired as scapegoat or roadblock? couple time djt was going to do the right thing until tucker etc base cheer/mob leaders make him 180?</font></p><ul helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" text-align="text-align" center="center" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="hidden-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/9/headlines/trump_calls_off_secret_afghanistan_meeting_putting_fate_of_possible_peace_deal_in_question" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;">Trump Calls Off Secret Afghanistan Meeting, Putting Fate of Possible Peace Deal in Question</a></font></li><li class="hidden-xs" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">resident Trump announced on Twitter Saturday he was calling off a “secret” meeting between himself, the Afghan president and Taliban leaders that may have led to the withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from Afghanistan — although reports raise questions about the meeting’s details and who exactly was to take part. Trump said his decision was due to a Taliban car bomb last Thursday that killed 12 people, including a U.S. soldier, in Kabul. Trump also said all further negotiations were being called off.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top; font-weight: 400;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. and Taliban had appeared close to an agreement after holding nine rounds of talks in Doha, even though the Afghan government had not taken part in those meetings. The New York Times reports Trump wanted the deal to be announced at the Camp David meeting so he would be perceived as the dealmaker who pulled the peace deal together. But according to the Times, Taliban negotiators had agreed to come to the United States only after a deal was announced and only to meet with the American side. There are also questions about why Trump canceled the secret meeting. We’ll have more on this story after headlines.</font></p></li></ul><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">omg fascism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/the-entire-us-federal-government-is-becoming-trumps-glorified-fixer/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/the-entire-us-federal-government-is-becoming-trumps-glorified-fixer/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The entire US federal government is becoming Trump’s glorified ‘fixer’</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>September 10, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department had opened an anti-trust investigation into four automakers. The issue wasn’t that the companies were colluding to fix prices or eliminate competition, it was that they had all agreed to abide by the fuel efficiency standards imposed by the state of California.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Trump administration has been attempting to write a new rule to roll back the fuel efficiency standards adopted by Obama’s EPA. However, Coral Davenport and Hiroko Tabuchi reported that those efforts were running into problems.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the Trump administration, three senior political officials working on the rollback, a complex legal and scientific process, have all left the administration recently. A senior career official with years of experience on vehicle pollution policy was transferred to another office.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That means the process is now being run by <b>Francis Brooke, a 29-year-old White House aide with limited experience in climate change policy before moving over from Vice President Mike Pence’s office last year.</b> Given the lack of experienced senior staff members, people working on the plan say it is unlikely to be completed before October.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>They went on to write that, during White House meetings on the topic, Trump was prepared to drop the roll back of Obama’s fuel efficiency standards and had shifted his focus to coming up with ways to retaliate against both the automakers and the state of California.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to a more recent report from Davenport, the rollback now appears to have been put on hold, but retaliation efforts are going full steam ahead. <b>The anti-trust investigation appears to be the way the administration is taking on the automakers, which is why the editorial board of the New York Times issued this stinging rebuke.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump’s Justice Department — for it is increasingly clear that the department has been reduced to an arm of the White House — has opened an antitrust investigation of four auto companies that had the temerity to defy the president by voluntarily agreeing to reduce auto emissions below the level required by current federal law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The investigation is an act of bullying, plain and simple: a nakedly political abuse of authority…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The investigation is particularly striking because the department has shown little interest in preventing corporations from engaging in actual anticompetitive behavior. This summer, for example, the department blessed T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint, a deal likely to harm mobile phone consumers and workers, and to impede innovation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>If the Justice Department wants to get serious about antitrust enforcement, there are plenty of places to get started. This investigation is an embarrassment</b>. It might as well wheel out the statue of Lady Justice and replace it with a bronze marionette.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the WSJ, the state of California also received a letter that threatened legal action.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Friday, top lawyers at the Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to California’s top air regulator, Mary Nichols. It urged her to dissociate the state from the four auto makers, saying the commitment may result in undefined legal consequences.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The purpose of this letter is to put California on notice </b>that this framework agreement appears to be inconsistent with Federal law,” the letter states. “Congress has squarely vested the authority to set fuel economy standards for new motor vehicles, and nationwide standards for (greenhouse-gas) vehicle emissions, with the Federal government, not with California or any other State.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That last sentence is the kicker, because it’s not true. Robinson Meyer provides some historical background.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Congress amended the Clean Air Act in 1970, it empowered the EPA to set new national standards on air pollution from cars and factories. It was the federal government’s most aggressive attempt ever to address the dangers of smog and toxic air pollution.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this was old hat for California, which had already been dealing with smog for two decades…When Congress began drafting the 1970 Clean Air Act, the state fought to maintain its ongoing regulatory scheme. It argued that its program should be left alone, since it was successful, and that its air problems were naturally worse than other states’…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">California succeeded—and dramatically so. California is written into the Clean Air Act by name: At any time, it can ask the EPA administrator for a waiver to restrict tailpipe pollution more stringently than the federal government. If its proposed rules are “at least as protective of public health and welfare” as the EPA’s, then the administrator must grant the waiver…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Under the same provision, any other state can choose to adopt California’s more stringent standards. Fifteen states currently opt for the tougher rules, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and the entire New York metro area. This means that California’s rules actually cover 135 million people, more than 40 percent of the U.S. population.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>So what the lawyers at the Transportation Department and the EPA should have said in that letter to Mary Nichols  is that they are preparing a plan to revoke California’s authority to set its own vehicle greenhouse gas standards. But I suppose that wouldn’t have sounded as threatening.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What we are seeing in all of this is that the Justice Department, as well as the Transportation Department and the EPA, are being used to retaliate against institutions on behalf of the president. This is the same kind of corruption of the federal government we’ve seen recently on everything from the NOAA’s defense of “sharpie gate,” to the Air Force being used to prop up a failing Trump business, and the State Department withholding funds from Ukraine in order to pressure that country into investigating a potential Trump opponent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Jonathan Chait notes:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is the story of 2019, as Trump has replaced institutionalists attempting to curtail his grossest instincts with loyalists happy to indulge them. It is playing out across multiple dimensions. This is the through-line between several seemingly disconnected episodes from the last several days…Trump’s stench is slowly seeping into every corner of government.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, the entire federal government has been corralled into being nothing more than a glorified “fixer” for Donald Trump.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/us-scrambled-to-get-a-top-spy-out-of-russia-after-trump-revealed-highly-classified-info-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/us-scrambled-to-get-a-top-spy-out-of-russia-after-trump-revealed-highly-classified-info-report/</a></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>US scrambled to get a top spy out of Russia after Trump revealed highly classified info: report</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Matthew Chapman / Raw Story<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>September 9, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, CNN reported that the United States extracted a top spy from Russia in 2017.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This secret mission was undertaken, in part, due to concerns about President Donald Trump and the risk that his actions as president might be compromising vitally important national security secrets, due to his improper and unusual friendliness with Russian officials.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one famous example, Trump revealed code-word intelligence information about Israeli Mossad operations to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trump-tweets-from-his-alternate-universe-about-a-windfall-for-famers-as-farm-loan-delinquencies-surge-in-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump tweets from his alternate universe about a windfall for famers as farm loan delinquencies surge in Wisconsin</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/kerry-eleveld/" title="Posts by Kerry Eleveld" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Kerry Eleveld</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/daily-kos/" title="Posts by Daily Kos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Kos</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As reports surface of farm loan delinquencies surging in Wisconsin, Donald Trump dispatched some news for farm country from his alternate universe. “Billions pouring into USA,” Trump tweeted Friday morning in defense of his trade</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump tweets from his alternate universe about a windfall for famers as farm loan delinquencies surge in Wisconsin</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Kerry Eleveld / Daily Kos<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>September 6, 2019</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As reports surface of farm loan delinquencies surging in Wisconsin, Donald Trump dispatched some news for farm country from his alternate universe.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Billions pouring into USA,” Trump tweeted Friday morning in defense of his trade war. “Targeted Patriot Farmers getting massive Dollars from the incoming Tariffs!”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, back on Earth, U.S. News & World Report notes that Wisconsin’s community banks saw a record high number of delinquencies on farm loans in June. The percentage of past-due loans at community banks hit 2.9% in June, reaching rates that are comparable to those back in 2001.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rate of Wisconsin farm loan delinquencies has doubled since Trump took office, soaring higher than in any of the other top-producing farm states. Nationwide, June saw some 1.5% of farm loans at FDIC-insured banks that were either 90 days past due on their payments or no longer accruing interest due to doubts of repayment.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wisconsin farmers have been hit particularly hard because their crops had found markets in multiple countries impacted by Trump’s trade standoffs, including China, Canada, and Mexico.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by a narrow margin of less than one percentage point. Democrats are aiming to win it back in 2020.</b></font></p></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/confirmed-trump-lies-to-reporters-more-often-than-he-lies-to-any-other-group"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/confirmed-trump-lies-to-reporters-more-often-than-he-lies-to-any-other-group</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Confirmed: Trump lies to reporters more often than he lies to any other group</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Eric Boehlert / Daily Kos<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>September 6, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Press advocates scored an important legal victory this week when a U.S. District Court judge ordered the White House to reinstate media credentials to reporter Brian Karem, whose access had been stripped away by Donald Trump’s team after a dust-up during a Rose Garden ceremony in July. There, former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka called Karem a “punk.” Announcing that the White House hadn’t provided Karem with due process when it stripped him of his credentials, the ruling marked the second time the White House has tried and failed to give a reporter the boot. (CNN’s Jim Acosta was the previous target.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s the good news. The bad news? Karem is returning to what has largely become a useless White House beat. Permanently stuck in reactive mode as they respond to Trump’s catalog of bizarre and untrue pronouncements, journalists have largely become spectators at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s left for the White House press corps to do often resembles a journalistic joke. The daily press briefings have been effectively cancelled, which means White House reporters have extremely limited access to officials who are willing to answer even the simplest questions about the administration’s policies and agenda. Meanwhile, the so-called White House sprays, where reporters are marched into a room and encouraged to shout questions at Trump (who then lies about everything), are relatively pointless. And that goes for the ritual of yelling questions at Trump while he stands near the whirling blades of a Marine One helicopter on the White House grounds as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In both cases, Trump simply uses reporters as props so they’ll record his avalanche of lies and then air those lies on a televised loop all day.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The so-called<b> Chopper Talk sessions in particular allow Trump to simply bluster and ramble through questions that clearly stump him</b>. And because the sessions are strangely covered as breaking news, Trump’s lies are instantly amplified by the press, often without reporters providing proper context for them. The Marine One shoutfests “are terrible for reporters,” one White House reporter recently conceded to Politico. “It is impossible to hear, have a substantive dialogue, ask a follow-up question or do any serious pressing of the president. It is a fucking circus.”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now comes confirmation that Trump spends more time lying to reporters in those gaggle settings than he does to any other group of people that he regularly interacts with in public. And yes, there’s something deeply ironic and disturbing about the fact that Trump lies to reporters more than anyone else, yet they’re the one group that won’t accurately label him a liar. The truth is that the press has never figured out how to cover a president who’s a pathological liar, and I suspect they never will. And when I say “figured out,” I’m really saying the press has never summoned the institutional courage necessary for the task.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Tracking every lie (aka “falsehood”) that Trump told between July 8 and Aug. 18, CNN concluded that he<b> averaged nearly eight fabrications every day</b>. The biggest whoppers during that period were that China is paying for the trade war tariffs (they’re not), which Trump repeated 10 times, and that Democrats want to eliminate all immigration laws concerning America’s borders (they don’t), which Trump claimed 14 different times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What was especially telling from the CNN research was the forum where Trump told the most lies during that six-week stretch. “The top venue, with 94 false claims, was his exchanges with reporters,” CNN reported. The venue that featured the second-highest number of Trump lies was the political rallies that he holds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Why so many lies told directly to the faces of reporters? Because Trump in recent weeks has spent lots of time talking to journalists, hosting various Chopper Talk sessions that ranged from 17 minutes to 33 minutes in duration. And when Trump talks a lot, he lies a lot—period. “There is a strong correlation between how much Trump talks and how many false claims he makes,” CNN noted diplomatically.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN’s findings confirm recently released research that showed Trump much prefers granting reporters “access” while questions are yelled in a chaotic setting. According to the data compiled by Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project at Towson University, the shouting sessions make up 60% of Trump’s interactions with reporters, compared to just 17% of Barack Obama’s. To date, Trump has stopped more than 80 times for Q&A shout sessions while departing from or returning to the White House aboard Marine One, or on the tarmac before getting on or off Air Force One.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The White House has pointed to these shout sessions as proof that Trump’s delivering all kinds of access. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham recently bragged that Trump is “so accessible” that she doesn’t “know what any of the press could complain about.” It turns out what they could complain about is Trump using access he grants to the press to lie to them nonstop.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CNN confirmation of Trump lying most often to reporters arrived the same week he unveiled perhaps the most ridiculous and moronic lie of his presidency—or least of the past month. That’s when Trump’s White House took a Sharpie marker to an official government map of the projected course of Hurricane Dorian, and enlarged the path’s possible cone to include Alabama. It was a pathetic and childish attempt to bolster his earlier, reckless assertion that Alabama was ever in danger from the storm, a claim that the National Weather Service aggressively debunked.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump lies about everything. Always. And that’s especially true when he grants access to reporters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">matt t RS</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Al<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">most everyone in line is wearing<b> 45 merch.</b> Trump is the most T-shirtable president in history, and it’s not even close. Trumpinator tees are big (“2020: I’LL BE BACK”), but you’ll also see Trump as Rambo (complete with headband, ammo belt, and phallic rocket-launcher), Trump as the Punisher (a Trump pompadour atop the famous skull), even Trump as Superman (pulling his suit open to reveal a giant T).</span></font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slogans include “Trump 2020: Grab ’em by the Pussy Again!” and the ubiquitous “Trump 2020: Fuck Your Feelings.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One merch hawker — an African American man with a visor, wraparound sunglasses, and spiked, dyed-white hair — is snaking through the crowd, pushing a T-shirt: “Donald Fuckin’ Trump.” On the back, the shirt reads “Bitch I’m the President!” “Five bucks for hats, 10 for tees!” he yells. “ ‘Bitch, I’m the president!’ ‘Make America great again!’ ”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9375rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Four more years!” someone in the crowd yells back, to cheers.</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-moves-to-accelerate-climate-change-and-its-even-more-evil-than-it-first-appears/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-moves-to-accelerate-climate-change-and-its-even-more-evil-than-it-first-appears/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump moves to accelerate climate change — and it’s even more evil than it first appears</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Martin Longman / Washington Monthly<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>August 29, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Methane levels in the environment have been rising sharply since 2008, and there is probably more than one contributing factor. A lot of methane is trapped under ice sheets which are melting at a rapid pace. But some researchers see the new popularity of fracking as a prime culprit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The boom in the US shale gas and oil may have ignited a significant global spike in methane emissions blamed for accelerating the pace of the climate crisis, according to research.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scientists at Cornell University have found the “chemical fingerprints” of the rising global methane levels point to shale oil and shale gas as the probable source…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…Robert Howarth, the author of the paper published in the journal Biogeosciences, said the proportion of methane with a “carbon signature” linked to traditional fossil fuels was falling relative to the rise of methane with a slightly different carbon make-up…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…“This recent increase in methane is massive,” Howarth said. “It’s globally significant. It’s contributed to some of the increase in global warming we’ve seen and shale gas is a major player.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but it exists in smaller quantities and dissipates more quickly in the atmosphere. It’s actually easier to make headway against climate change by reducing methane rather than carbon dioxide emissions, but that requires strict regulation of the shale gas fields where methane is released both intentionally and unintentionally during the hydraulic fracturing process. In 2016, the Obama administration sought to do this by announcing new rules.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new rules are part of the Obama administration’s goal to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by up to 45 percent by 2025. They affect newly-drilled hydraulically fractured oil wells, which studies show are significant sources of leaking methane. At least one-third of human-caused methane emissions in the U.S. come from the oil and gas industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The regulations require companies to find and contain leaks with the goal of reducing methane pollution by the equivalent of 11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2025, or roughly the same as the emissions from 2.34 million passenger cars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA is beginning work on regulating methane leaks from existing oil and gas wells by requiring energy companies to provide data to the agency under an “information collection request.” The request will require the companies to inform the EPA about their emissions and technology they could use to stop methane leaks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2016, climate scientists have been revising their estimates of the pace and severity of climate change, and the problem today looks more severe than their worst-case scenarios from three years ago. This would support revisiting the Obama administration’s rules on methane and fracking to see if they should be strengthened. But that’s not what the Trump administration is doing:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil and gas companies would face looser controls on emissions of potent climate-changing methane gas under a proposal expected from the Trump administration as soon as Thursday, oil industry and environmental groups say.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The government’s plan would ease requirements on oil and gas sites to monitor for methane leaks and plug them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This plan is actually even more evil than it might first appear, as the Washington Post reports:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just as important, according to an EPA document obtained by The Washington Post, the proposal will challenge the agency’s earlier position that the federal government has the authority to regulate methane without first making a determination that it qualifies as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The Trump administration has taken several steps to limit the government’s ability to regulate climate pollutants in the future, including in a recently-finalized rule curbing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They want to free up frackers to release as much methane into the environment as they want, but they also want to make it harder for any future administration to reverse their decision. To get an idea of how truly egregious this step is, consider that the oil and gas industry isn’t uniformly behind it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The [EPA] estimates the proposed changes, which will be subject to public comment for 60 days after they are published, would save the oil and natural gas industry between $17 million and $19 million a year.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But several of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, including Exxon, Shell and BP, have opposed the rollback and urged the Trump administration to keep the current standards in place. Collectively, these firms account for 11 percent of America’s natural gas output.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the industry has already adapted to the Obama Era rules, there’s really no reason to eviscerate them. But it seems that this administration will pursue almost anything if it’s a bad enough idea.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kid killer</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/a-death-sentence-trump-reportedly-moving-to-deport-kids-with-cancer-hiv-and-other-deadly-illnesses/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/a-death-sentence-trump-reportedly-moving-to-deport-kids-with-cancer-hiv-and-other-deadly-illnesses/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/with-amazon-in-flames-trump-moves-to-open-16-7-million-acre-alaskan-rainforest-to-corporate-exploitation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">With Amazon in flames, Trump moves to open 16.7 million-acre Alaskan Rainforest to corporate exploitation</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/jake-johnson/" title="Posts by Jake Johnson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jake Johnson</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If the planet could talk, it would be screaming in agony or weeping in despair. Maybe both.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; font-style: italic;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/it-is-a-fking-circus-trump-is-running-a-media-access-con-game-and-winning/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/it-is-a-fking-circus-trump-is-running-a-media-access-con-game-and-winning/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...T<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">he media’s supposed overflowing access to Trump comes from the useless sessions that regularly take place on the White House lawn, as a scrum of reporters shout questions at Trump as he prepares to board the Marine One helicopter.</span></font></div><div class="p3_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According <a title="" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/14/president-trump-eclipses-his-predecessors-media-availability/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">to research</a> compiled by Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project at Towson University, Trump surpasses his predecessors in holding these short Q&A sessions with reporters. According to Kumar, the shouting sessions make up 60% of Trump’s interactions with reporters, compared to just 17% of Barack Obama’s. To date, Trump has stopped more than 80 times for question-and-answer sessions while departing or returning to the White House aboard Marine One or on the tarmac before getting on or off Air Force One. But note that at this juncture of his presidency, Obama had given 24 solo press conferences, compared to just eight from Trump.</font></p><div class="p4_14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s wrong with the outdoor shoutfests that Trump prefers? He’s answering questions from reporters, so that’s a good thing, right? Wrong. The controlled chaos, where reporters yell simplistic questions, allows Trump to pick and choose reporters at random, and to simply ignore questions he doesn’t like. He’s also immune from follow-up queries and is free once again to lie indiscriminately, without being held accountable.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/russian-oligarch-bombshell-would-make-impeachment-proceedings-absolutely-inevitable-nbc-analyst/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/russian-oligarch-bombshell-would-make-impeachment-proceedings-absolutely-inevitable-nbc-analyst/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Russian oligarch bombshell would ‘make impeachment proceedings absolutely inevitable’: NBC analyst</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Bob Brigham / Raw Story<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>August 28, 2019</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fast-tracked impeachment hearings will occur this fall if the bombshell report is true that President Donald Trump had loans with Deutsche Bank co-signed by Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The source close to Deutsche Bank says that the co-signers of Donald Trump’s Deutsche Bank loans are Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin,” MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell reported Tuesday.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Got to stress ‘if true,’ but if true, the reporting that you have your source, it’s the skeleton key, right, that opens -— picks the lock on so many fundamental mysteries of the Trump era, the ones we thought Robert Mueller was going to answer and we now know the reason that Robert Mueller didn’t answer them, all the connections, the nexus with Russia on a million levels, political, financial, security, everything else, criminal potentially, was because he was basically told he couldn’t look at this stuff,” Heilemann explained. “This was the stuff he wasn’t allowed to go for. He couldn’t go looking for the skeleton key.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“So now if we have the skeleton key, it picks a lot of locks and answers a lot of questions and also puts Trump in a very difficult place politically, partly because we’re barrelling towards a re-election campaign and we’re also on the clock for the impeachment hearings. We also know it’s almost Labor Day. We know decisions have to get made,” he continued.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“And in this narrative, this moment, if the skeleton key suddenly were to emerge, it would, I think, make impeachment proceedings absolutely inevitable starting this fall,” he added.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch:</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trumps-g-7-achievements-no-trade-deal-no-military-deal-no-climate-deal-and-yes-on-helping-himself/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s G-7 achievements: No trade deal, no military deal, no climate deal — and ‘yes’ on helping himself</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/mark-sumner/" title="Posts by Mark Sumner" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Mark Sumner</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/daily-kos/" title="Posts by Daily Kos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Kos</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">August 26, 2019</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost from the moment he stepped into the White House, Donald Trump has been conducting trade negotiations with China. Unsuccessful trade negotiations with China.</font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-might-actually-get-a-serious-challenger-from-the-right-wing/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-might-actually-get-a-serious-challenger-from-the-right-wing/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">weld chafee and sanford app trail; joe walsh tp libtard flank</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-administrations-attacks-on-science-already-surpass-two-george-bush-terms/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-administrations-attacks-on-science-already-surpass-two-george-bush-terms/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">amazing news about corruption of lapierre had no effect; must be that guns are fundamental to base? tho big %even of NRA rank and file ok w/ bkgd checks?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/cnns-anderson-cooper-rips-trump-for-cowering-in-fear-of-the-nra-after-he-slammed-republicans-for-doing-exactly-that/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">CNN’s Anderson Cooper rips Trump for cowering in fear of the NRA — after he slammed Republicans for doing exactly that</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/cody-fenwick/" title="Posts by Cody Fenwick" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cody Fenwick</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump is backing down from his support of bulked-up firearm background check legislation, clearly fearful of backlash from the National Rifle Association. And according to The Atlantic, Trump…</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-has-broken-at-least-8-huge-promises-he-made-to-his-base-and-is-blaming-others">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-has-broken-at-least-8-huge-promises-he-made-to-his-base-and-is-blaming-others</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...O<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">n the one hand, Trump threw out a number of Obama-era regulations, appointed two ultra-conservative Supreme Court justices, dramatically harshened U.S. immigration policy, imposed tariffs on China, withdrew or began the process of withdrawing from a number of international agreements, and passed a major tax cut.</span></font></div><div class="p3_6" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the other hand, he has failed to build the wall — let alone make Mexico pay for it. He has dramatically grown the national debt and trade deficits instead of reducing them. He has not replaced the Affordable Care Act (at least, assuming legal experts are correct that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/11/20688993/affordable-care-act-lawsuit-fifth-circuit" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Texas lawsuit</a> will fail). He has not withdrawn the United States from foreign military engagements, even if he has been less hawkish than <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/443978-trump-frustrated-with-advisors-over-iran-wants-to-speak-to-iranian" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">some of his advisers</a> would have wanted. He has not overhauled the nation’s infrastructure. And in light of the cavalcade of corruption scandals and resignations within his Cabinet, he has certainly not drained the swamp.</font></p><div class="p4_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The upshot is that Trump knows he has little to show for his presidency — and he is already trying to <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/trump-insists-our-economy-is-sooo-strong-then-blames-lamestream-media-if-it-tanks/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">deflect blame onto the media</a>.</font></p><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">n v peale -ism?</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-declares-war-on-fed-dead-then-falsely-claims-selfish-democrats-can-will-a-bad-economy-into-existence/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-declares-war-on-fed-dead-then-falsely-claims-selfish-democrats-can-will-a-bad-economy-into-existence/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The President blasted what he called Powell’s “horrendous lack of vision,” while claiming Democrats are trying to (as if it were even possible) “will” the economy into recession.</font></p><div class="p12_38" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump also called for the Fed to massively cut interest rates, which would steal a critical tool the Fed uses when facing dire economic crises.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// Jews by nazi, incrementally rolls back rights/access</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-white-house-tried-to-stop-immigrant-kids-from-attending-public-schools-their-racist-anti-immigration-crusade-knows-no-bounds/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-white-house-tried-to-stop-immigrant-kids-from-attending-public-schools-their-racist-anti-immigration-crusade-knows-no-bounds/</a> </font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/why-trump-tweeted-a-conspiracy-smear-against-hillary-clinton-and-why-it-wont-work/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/why-trump-tweeted-a-conspiracy-smear-against-hillary-clinton-and-why-it-wont-work/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">deflect his assoc jeff epstein</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">700 ppl arrested 1st day school, several plants had tried to unionize</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">day of el paso hosp visit thumbs up w/ orphan baby</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">patents died shielding</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>cooch evil b/c aid weaponized</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>note lang god term self-sufficiency</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">snap or other help lose green card/path to citizen? 8/13/19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style=""><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aug 12, 2019</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON — <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would <b>change the way the Endangered Species Act is applied</b>, significantly weakening the nation’s bedrock conservation law credited with rescuing the bald eagle, the grizzly bear and the American alligator from extinction.</span></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The changes will make it harder to consider the effects of climate change on wildlife when deciding whether a given species warrants protection. They would most likely shrink critical habitats and, for the first time, would allow economic assessments to be conducted when making determinations.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rules also make it easier to remove a species from the endangered species list and weaken protections for threatened species, a designation that means they are at risk of becoming endangered.</font></b></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Overall, the new rules would very likely clear the way for new mining, oil and gas drilling, and development in areas where protected species live.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Interior Secretary David Bernhardt</b> said the new rules would modernize the Endangered Species Act and increase transparency in its application. “The act’s effectiveness rests on clear, consistent and efficient implementation,” he said in a statement Monday.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement the revisions “fit squarely within the president’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals.”</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new rules are expected to appear in the Federal Register this week and will go into effect 30 days after that.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental groups denounced the changes as a disaster for imperiled wildlife. A recent United Nations assessment, they noted, has warned that human pressures are poised to drive one million species into extinction and that protecting land and biodiversity is critical to keep greenhouse gas emissions in check.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate change, a lack of environmental stewardship and mass industrialization have all contributed to the enormous expected global nature loss, the United Nations report said.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Ever since President Richard M. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law 1973, it has been the main United States legislation for protecting fish, plants and wildlife, and acted as a safety net for species on the brink of extinction. The peregrine falcon, the humpback whale, the Tennessee purple coneflower and the Florida manatee all would very likely have disappeared without it, scientists say.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republicans have long sought to narrow the scope of the law, saying that it burdens landowners, hampers industry and hinders economic growth. Mr. Bernhardt wrote in an op-ed last summer that the act places an “unnecessary regulatory burden” on companies.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They also make the case that the law is not reasonable because species are rarely removed from the list. Since the law was passed, more than 1,650 have been listed as threatened or endangered, while just 47 have been delisted because their populations rebounded.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the past two years Republicans made a major legislative push to overhaul the law. Despite holding a majority in both houses of Congress, though, the proposals were never taken up in the Senate. With Democrats now in control of the House, there is little chance of those bills passing.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration’s revisions to the regulations that guide the implementation of the law, however, mean opponents of the Endangered Species Act are still poised to claim their biggest victory in decades.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the most controversial changes removes longstanding language that prohibits the consideration of economic factors when deciding whether a species should be protected.</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under the current law, such determinations must be made solely based on science, “without reference to possible economic or other impacts of determination.”</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gary Frazer, the assistant director for endangered species with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, said that phrase had been removed for reasons of “transparency.” He said the change leaves open the possibility of conducting economic analyses for informational purposes, but that decisions about listing species would still be based exclusively on science.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental groups saw a danger in that. “There can be economic costs to protecting endangered species,” said Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans at Earthjustice, an environmental law organization. But, he said, “If we make decisions based on short-term economic costs, we’re going to have a whole lot more extinct species.”</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new rules also give the government significant discretion in deciding what is meant by the term “foreseeable future.” That’s a semantic change with far-reaching implications, because it enables regulators to disregard the effects of extreme heat, drought, rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change that may occur several decades from now.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When questioned about that change and its implications in the era of climate change, Mr. Frazer said the agency wanted to avoid making “speculative” decisions far into the future.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the animals at risk from this change, Mr. Caputo listed a few: Polar bears and seals that are losing crucial sea ice; whooping cranes whose migration patterns are shifting because of temperature changes; and beluga whales that will have to dive deeper and longer to find food in a warmer Arctic.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jonathan Wood, a lawyer at the Pacific Legal Foundation,</b> a conservative group that has represented landowners in opposing endangered species designations, said he believed the changes would improve the law by simplifying the regulatory process and making the law less punitive.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s a shift away from conflict in favor of more collaboration and cooperation,” he said.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/climate/biodiversity-extinction-united-nations.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/climate/biodiversity-extinction-united-nations.html</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-retweets-conspiracy-theory-claiming-bill-clinton-killed-jeffrey-epstei">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-retweets-conspiracy-theory-claiming-bill-clinton-killed-jeffrey-epstei</a>n</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...President Donald Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory on Saturday evening alleging without evidence that former President Bill Clinton was connected to the death of wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, hours after Epstein was found dead by apparent suicide in his federal prison cell.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Died of SUICIDE on 24/7 SUICIDE WATCH ? Yeah right! How does that happen,” wrote Terrence K. Williams, a conservative commentator and comedian, in the message retweeted by Trump. “#JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he’s dead. I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this!”....</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/leaked-draft-of-trump-executive-order-to-censor-the-internet-denounced-as-unconstitutional-edict/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/leaked-draft-of-trump-executive-order-to-censor-the-internet-denounced-as-unconstitutional-edict/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><b>Leaked draft of Trump executive order to ‘censor the internet’ denounced as unconstitutional edict</b></div><div>
</div><div>Written by Jon Queally / Common Dreams<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>August 11, 2019</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Civil liberties groups are warning of a major threat to online freedoms and First Amendment rights if a leaked draft of a Trump administration edict—dubbed by critics as a “Censor the Internet” executive order that would give powerful federal agencies far-reaching powers to pick and choose which kind of Internet material is and is not acceptable—is allowed to go into effect.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to CNN, which obtained a copy of the draft, the new rule “calls for the <b>FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms</b>. Although still in its early stages and subject to change,<b> the Trump administration’s draft order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies.”</b></span></div><div> </div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While Politico was the first to report how the draft was being circulated by the White House, CNN notes that if put into effect, “the order would reflect a significant escalation by President Trump in his frequent attacks against social media companies over an alleged but unproven systemic bias against conservatives by technology platforms. And it could lead to a significant reinterpretation of a law that, its authors have insisted, was meant to give tech companies broad freedom to handle content as they see fit.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Following reporting on the leaked draft, free speech and online advocacy groups raised alarm about the troubling and far-reaching implications of the Trump plan if it was put into effect by executive decree.</div><div>
</div><div>The ¦¦¦¦¦¦ White House just ¦¦¦¦¦¦ leaked a draft executive order ¦¦¦¦¦¦ that would ¦¦¦¦¦¦ give the government the power ¦¦¦¦¦¦ to censor the Internet. ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ We have to stop it before it’s ¦¦¦¦¦¦. https://t.co/mQCoL86ifA</div><div>
</div><div>— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) August 11, 2019</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s hard to put into words how mind bogglingly absurd this executive order is,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, in a tweet. “<b>In the name of</b> defending free speech it would allow mass government censorship of online content. In practice, it means whichever party is in power can decide what speech is allowed on the internet.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>PEN America, which defends the free expression for writers, journalists, and others, warned that any executive order based on this draft rule would be an unconstitutional “anti-American edict.”</div><div>
</div><div>If this accurately reflects resulting EO, it’s an anti-American edict that would empower FCC & FTC to be viewpoint-based arbiters of online speech. Thankfully, 1st Amendment forbids that. It’s regrettable that this Administration doesn’t seem to know that. https://t.co/uKNqE6UKD4</div><div>
</div><div>— PEN America (@PENamerica) August 9, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>As detailed in an action alert put out by Fight for the Future over the weekend:</div><div>
</div><div>[The] leaked documents show that the Trump administration is drafting an executive order that, if upheld by the courts, could essentially end free speech on the Internet. The draft order would put the FTC and the FCC, headed by its<b> notoriously corrupt chairman Ajit Pai,</b> in charge of monitoring and policing online speech on social media platforms, online forums, and more.</div><div>
</div><div>It would give these bureaucratic government agencies unprecedented control over how Internet platforms moderate speech by allowing them to revoke the essential protections Congress laid out in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). CDA 230 is the basic law that makes it possible for online platforms to let users post our own content, and to make basic decisions about what types of content they as private entities want to host. Every meme, every social media post, every blog and user-created video on the Internet has been made possible by this crucial free speech protection.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>In practice, this executive order would mean that whichever political party is in power could dictate what speech is allowed on the Internet. If the government doesn’t like the way a private company is moderating content, they can shut their entire website down.</b></div><div>
</div><div>“These leaks about a potential Executive Order from the White House are troubling on many levels, from the order’s potential to violate the First Amendment, to its apparent disregard for the independence of agencies like the FCC and the FTC, to its intent to unilaterally limit Section 230 which promotes moderated online communities free of hate speech and misinformation,” said Chris Lewis, president and CEO of Public Knowledge.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“If these reports are a trial balloon from the White House,” Lewis added, “then it’s time to pop it.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>While the Trump administration has tried to argue the new order is a tool to keep web platforms from censoring online speech, Fight for the Future warns “this plan would create terrifying new censorship powers for the government to do just that.”</div><div>
</div><div>While Fight for the Future acknowledged the serious and legitimate concerns about the behavior and outsized power of the major tech giants, it said the draft rule is a simply unacceptable way to address those issues:</div><div>
</div><div>Look, we’re also concerned about the growing power that mega-platforms like Facebook and Twitter have to control online speech.</div><div>
</div><div>But this draft Executive Order would make that situation SO much worse, by opening a pandora’s box of government censorship.https://t.co/mQCoL86ifA</div><div>
</div><div>— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) August 11, 2019</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite loud and continued claims from right-wing forces that platforms like Facebook and Twitter are biased against them, Public Knowledge’s Lewis said the new White House proposal is yet another reason to push back against this unfounded mantra that Trump himself has helped proliferate.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Political bias by digital platforms remains unproven. In fact, an independent study by The Economist points towards search platforms having a bias towards virality and attention, not political ideology,” said Lewis. “This matches reports from books like <b>Tim Wu’s “The Attention Merchants”</b> and others that study social media addiction. It is this sort of algorithmic bias towards virality that foreign adversaries use to sow disinformation and mistrust in our country.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Given how much power the proposed would place in the hands of the FCC and FTC, Lewis said it is crucial for the heads of those agencies—including FCC chair Ajit Pai, a former telecom industry lobbyist and Trump appointee—to come forward and make clear their commitment to First Amendment protections.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It is all the more important to hear from FCC commissioners given Chairman Pai’s strong condemnation of public positions taken by past administrations on net neutrality violating the independence of the FCC,” said Lewis. “If these reports are true, this Executive Order serves as a direct order to the FCC that if left unchallenged, could threaten the independence of these agencies altogether.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>As part of its effort to halt such an executive order in its track, Fight for the Future people urged people—”regardless of your politics”—to oppose the measure.</div><div>
</div><div>“Regardless of how you feel about the president,” the group said, “this is a terrible idea that will have the exact opposite impact of its stated purpose of protecting free speech.”</div><div>
</div></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><nobr style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</nobr></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><nobr style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>newest version/ incarnation of myth of libral press is social media bias:</b></nobr></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><nobr style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</nobr></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-preps-order-forcing-social-media-sites-to-give-conservatives-special-rights-as-sons-attack-twitter/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-preps-order-forcing-social-media-sites-to-give-conservatives-special-rights-as-sons-attack-twitter/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump preps order forcing social media sites to give conservatives special rights as sons attack Twitter</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>August 8, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One Trump Son Starts Following Alt-Right Social Media Site Popular With Extremists</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are attacking the social media site their father says helped put him in the White House, as President Donald Trump appears to be following through on a promise to go after social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. That promise is based on false and debunked claims that “Big Tech,” from Google to social media sites, are biased against conservatives.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Politico reports the <b>Trump White House is circulating several different drafts of what would become an executive order that would somehow regulate free speech on social media platforms, which are publicly-traded private companies. Trump last month promised conservatives he would explore “all regulatory and legislative solutions” to try to control social media companies and other Silicon Valley “Big Tech” corporations, like Google.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“If the internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and <b>most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom,</b> then at least the president wants some fairness in the system,” a White House official told Politico.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What the White House and President Donald Trump are ignoring is conservative extremists are the ones more often engaging in politically motivated and white supremacist domestic terror attacks, like the one in El Paso this weekend that left 22 people dead. Just recently FBI Director Christopher Wray told a U.S. Senate committee that the “majority of the domestic terrorism cases we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Any claims of anti-conservative bias also are not taking into account the offensive behavior by some conservatives, including violating the social media platforms’ terms of service, which apparently lead to them being suspended or removed from those sites.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As for Twitter being a “liberal cesspool,” as the White House called it, the fact is the President has an extremely low approval rating.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, both Trump sons in what appears to be thinly-veiled support for their father’s impending executive order, blasted Twitter this week, while <b>Eric Trump started following the alt-right and far right social media platform Gab</b>. Gab is known to be more friendly to extremists, the alt-right, anti-Semitism, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and white supremacists</span>, as NBC News’ Ben Collins noted Thursday morning:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ben Collins</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Great. https://twitter.com/trumpsalert/status/1159454232082206720 …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Alert</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@TrumpsAlert</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EricTrump appears to be following @getongab. (This bot cannot tell if it was a new follow or the result of the account being reactivated.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ben Collins</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@oneunderscore</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A reminder that Gab is where the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter posted mountains of anti-Semitic screeds, convinced the “migrant caravan” was an “invasion” plotted by a Jewish cabal, before writing “Screw the optics, I’m going in.”https://twitter.com/trumpsalert/status/1159454232082206720?s=21 …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Alert</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@TrumpsAlert</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EricTrump appears to be following @getongab. (This bot cannot tell if it was a new follow or the result of the account being reactivated.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Eric Trump does not appear to have joined Gab, at least not under his name, although there are several parody accounts that appear when searching the site. He did, however take to Twitter to call the popular social media site “an absolute mess.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Days earlier Eric shared an article from Breitbart, which is known as a home to the alt-right, titled “Former Google Engineer: Google Will Try to Prevent Trump from Being Re-elected.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is just one of several tweets Donald Trump Jr. has posted or retweeted in recent days:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump Jr.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@DonaldJTrumpJr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Yea, no bias at all from big tech and the social media masters. Truly sick. https://twitter.com/chuckrossdc/status/1159220292906078209 …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chuck Ross</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ChuckRossDC</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NEW: Twitter says it locked @Team_Mitch's account for violating its "violent threats policy" by posting a video of protesters calling for violence against McConnell. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McConnell campaign manager notes that Twitter allowed "Massacre Mitch" to trend. https://<b>dailycaller.com/</b>2019/08/07/twitter-suspends-mitch-mcconnell-account-protest-video/ …</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
=</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">perfunctory telepromptrer speech ~ mass shooter, does have one mntion of white supremacy [kpfa expert worries about how hatred might be distorted/weaponized?]</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no victims in hosp wd meet, tho families did el paso</font></div><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=5eeb6d3e16ab6e84fe729db7bd186d969c04c008cd732131f0104f7c8451b73c2d5c6a471efef14687c39267bd67a19dc3c92f79ddc1f967" title="in a recent document" style="">in a recent document</a> listed “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists” associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory as a “domestic terror threat.” Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory have already been linked to multiple threats, attempted acts of violence, and even murders.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Twitter, President Donald Trump <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=5eeb6d3e16ab6e84114b318740df6bd56b2a24a839ffdb8d9deac791450826b103c3d20280255d0e9b8807792eb53e7e2780340da4799e8b" title="has amplified" style="">has amplified</a> supporters of the conspiracy theory more than 20 times. Trump has also met with multiple supporters of the conspiracy theory at the White House, and a supporter of the conspiracy theory is co-chair of a coalition group for his reelection campaign.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/fbi-calls-qanon-domestic-terror-threat-trump-has-amplified-qanon-supporters-twitter-more-20"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/fbi-calls-qanon-domestic-terror-threat-trump-has-amplified-qanon-supporters-twitter-more-20</font></a></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI calls QAnon a domestic terror threat. Trump has amplified QAnon supporters on Twitter more than 20 times.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WRITTEN BY ALEX KAPLAN</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLISHED 08/01/19 4:18 PM EDT</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI in a recent document listed “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists” associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory as a “domestic terror threat.” Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory have already been linked to multiple threats, attempted acts of violence, and even murders. On Twitter, President Donald Trump has amplified supporters of the conspiracy theory more than 20 times. Trump has also met with multiple supporters of the conspiracy theory at the White House, and a supporter of the conspiracy theory is co-chair of a coalition group for his reelection campaign.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sarah Wasko / Media Matters</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FBI cites QAnon as a domestic terror threat</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FBI lists QAnon conspiracy theory as a domestic terrorism threat. In May, the FBI released a memo which “for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat,” according to Yahoo News. The memo “specifically mentions QAnon.” From the August 1 article:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement).</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump is mentioned by name briefly in the latest FBI document, which notes that the origins of QAnon is the conspiratorial belief that “Q,” allegedly a government official, “posts classified information online to reveal a covert effort, led by President Trump, to dismantle a conspiracy involving ‘deep state’ actors and global elites allegedly engaged in an international child sex trafficking ring.” [Yahoo News, 8/1/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The conspiracy theory has been growing online since October 2017. As reported by Media Matters in August 2018, “the unhinged conspiracy theory known as ‘QAnon,’ or ‘The Storm,’ has been gaining traction online among President Donald Trump’s supporters since October 2017,” but “it finally jumped to the mainstream in the form of shirts and signs that were prominently visible at a Trump campaign rally in Tampa, FL”:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the theory has its murky origins on 4chan and 8chan -- message boards best known for serving as the source of hoaxes and organized harassment campaigns -- many prominent right-wing figures, websites, and social media accounts have helped amplify QAnon. [Media Matters, 8/2/18]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">QAnon supporters have been linked to multiple acts and threats of violence. Supporters of the conspiracy theory have been linked to multiple violent incidents and threats of violence, including a man accused of murdering his brother with a sword, a man who reportedly threatened to kill YouTube employees, a man accused of murdering an alleged crime boss, an armed man who blocked the Hoover Dam with an armored vehicle, and a man who threatened to assassinate Trump. Supporters of the conspiracy theory have even terrorized a charter school and forced it to cancel its annual fundraiser. [The Daily Beast, 8/11/18, 9/27/18, 1/9/19; BuzzFeed, 6/17/18; The New York Times, 7/21/19; The Daily Dot, 5/10/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has amplified QAnon-supporting Twitter accounts more than 20 times</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Twitter, Trump has repeatedly retweeted, quote tweeted, tagged, and shared content from QAnon supporters. Since 2017, Trump has repeatedly amplified Twitter accounts supporting the conspiracy theory.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From November 25, 2017:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Travis View</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@travis_view</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Question: When will Trump retweet a Q-Anon account and promote a Q-Anon website?</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Answer: Trick question. He already has. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Nov. 25, 2017 Trump quote tweeted @MAGAPILL, which included a link to their website. The site has been promoting Q-Anon since before Trump's quote tweet.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">27</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7:37 AM - Aug 1, 2018</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See Travis View's other Tweets</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From March 17:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> · Mar 17, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @atrupar</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The account Trump retweeted (@Lrihendry) to indicate he hates John McCain is a bigoted pizzagate conspiracy theorist who suggested Obama is a pedophile</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump retweeted a Qanon account (@vmbb12) whose avatar is Q with a MAGA hat. I’d tell you more about this account but it has me blocked, even though we’ve never interacted.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">171</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4:02 PM - Mar 17, 2019 · Minnesota, USA</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">96 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From March 20:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From a QAnon conspiracy theorist to actor James Woods to comedian Larry the Cable Guy to the leader of the free world. Thus travels information in the age of Twitter and President Trump, who took a late-night swing at a familiar punching bag — the Transportation Security Administration — via a nearly two-year-old video spread by a character on the far fringes of the Internet.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The video was reshared on Monday by a Twitter account called Deep State Exposed, which is operated by Jeremy Stone, a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Stone’s twitter bio includes the phrase “WWG1WGA,” shorthand for “Where We Go One We Go All,” a rallying cry for the bizarre theory that ties together the Pizzagate conspiracy and a supposed “deep state” plot to control American politics. Stone soon added a follow-up tweet to the viral video claiming that “TSA goes out of their way to hire high school dropouts with an inclination for sexual perversion. It’s mind control!!!” [The Washington Post, 3/20/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On May 1, Trump retweeted six accounts that had pushed the conspiracy theory:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Multiple accounts that Trump retweeted this morning appear to have pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">23</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5:15 AM - May 1, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">20 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From May 4:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Josh Russell</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@josh_emerson</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Big day for the murderous death cult known as Qanon. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is one of the biggest Q accounts.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter could have done something about this, Reddit did. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But they refuse too and they won't, until a few more people get killed by these nutcases.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">57</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5:47 AM - May 4, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">29 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From May 12:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Crowley in March called the New Zealand shootings a false flag and pushed the conspiracy theory that John Podesta was involved with the attacks.https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/uploader/image/2019/03/18/Lisa_Mei_Crowley_Podesta.png …https://twitter.com/travis_view/status/1127706781952512000?s=19 …</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Travis View</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@travis_view</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today Trump retweeted an old tweet from Lisa Mei Crowley, a QAnon pusher who has screenshots of Q drops in her Twitter header image.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is the sixth or so time that Trump has retweeted a QAnon account. I stopped keeping track tbh.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">46</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4:54 PM - May 12, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">47 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On June 9, Trump retweeted Bill Mitchell, a conservative radio host who has boosted the conspiracy theory:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Media Matters, 7/9/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From July 4:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> · May 1, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Multiple accounts that Trump retweeted this morning appear to have pushed the QAnon conspiracy theory.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It appears that Trump tonight retweeted another QAnon believer.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">21</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6:49 PM - Jul 4, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From July 11 and July 12:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> · Jul 4, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It appears that Trump tonight retweeted another QAnon believer.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An account Trump quote tweeted last night had pushed QAnon, Pizzagate, & a debunked hoax known as "Frazzledrip" about Hillary Clinton & Huma Abedin mutilating a child. Trump since then has also retweeted two other QAnon accounts.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">45</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4:59 AM - Jul 12, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">38 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On July 12, Trump again retweeted Mitchell:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From July 14:</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> · Jul 12, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An account Trump quote tweeted last night had pushed QAnon, Pizzagate, & a debunked hoax known as "Frazzledrip" about Hillary Clinton & Huma Abedin mutilating a child. Trump since then has also retweeted two other QAnon accounts.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least two of the accounts Trump retweeted this morning appear to be QAnon accounts.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7:36 AM - Jul 14, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See Alex Kaplan's other Tweets</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a July 30 tweet, Trump tagged a QAnon supporter with the QAnon slogan in its profile. He also retweeted another QAnon account.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> · Jul 30, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This afternoon, Trump tagged in a tweet a QAnon account.https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1156246319868129280 …</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Josh Dawsey</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@jdawsey1</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The account potus just tagged for voter ID https://twitter.com/voteridplease/status/1112189035554983936 …</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Kaplan</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AlKapDC</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump also quote tweeted and retweeted another QAnon account this afternoon.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on TwitterView image on Twitter</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">22</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10:51 AM - Jul 30, 2019</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See Alex Kaplan's other Tweets</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Right Wing Watch, 7/30/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has met with multiple QAnon supporters at the White House and even has a QAnon supporter as a campaign surrogate</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has hosted multiple QAnon supporters. In August 2018, Trump met with radio host and QAnon supporter Michael Lebron in the Oval Office. This July, Trump’s White House social media summit hosted Mitchell, singer Joy Villa, who wore “Q” earrings at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, and Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit, which has criticized media outlets that tried to “mischaracterize and discredit” the conspiracy theory. Another booster of the conspiracy theory, cartoonist Ben Garrison, was originally invited to the summit, but his invitation was later rescinded. [CNN, 8/25/18; Media Matters, 7/9/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A QAnon supporter is co-chair of a Trump campaign coalition group. Actor and QAnon supporter Stacey Dash is a co-chair of Women for Trump, a coalition group for Trump’s reelection campaign. [women.donaldjtrump.com, accessed 7/23/19; Twitter, 1/28/19, 7/23/19]</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">is this about macho? mr dealmaker? never give up a possible edge?</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/the-us-just-terminated-the-intermediate-range-nuclear-forces-treaty-and-plans-to-test-new-missiles/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">US just terminated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and plans to test new missiles</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/mark-sumner/" title="Posts by Mark Sumner" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Mark Sumner</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/daily-kos/" title="Posts by Daily Kos" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Kos</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">August 2, 2019</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Donald Trump stated he would do back in January, he has withdrawn the United States from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This action follows another failure of Trump’s vaunted negotiation…</font></p></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trumps-2016-america-first-energy-speech-was-edited-and-preapproved-by-saudi-arabia-and-uae/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trumps-2016-america-first-energy-speech-was-edited-and-preapproved-by-saudi-arabia-and-uae/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s 2016 ‘America First’ energy speech was edited and pre-approved by Saudi Arabia and UAE</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> President Donald Trump walks with Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, along the West Colonnade of the White House, Tuesday, March 14, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Mark Sumner / Daily Kos<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>July 30, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump was set to do a speech on energy in which he was going to start pitching the phrase “America First,” but before he went onstage to talk about his plans for American energy production, one of Trump’s advisers ran the speech past officials from the United Arab Emirates. And then copies were sent to Saudi Arabia. So it was America first—so long as the UAE and Saudis are okay with that. When he finally got around to sharing the speech with Americans, some of the language in Trump’s “America First” speech actually came from the UAE.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to ABC News, it was Trump adviser Thomas Barrack who arranged to give representatives from the UAE a preview of the speech two weeks before Trump delivered it. An associate of Barrack’s provided the speech to both Saudi and UAE representatives, still before Trump had delivered it to Americans. Finally, <b>Barrack worked with Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort to insert revisions made by the UAE into the speech that Trump actually delivered</b>. Manafort wrote back to Barrack confirming that the final version of the speech included the language requested by the UAE.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Why is this coming to light now? Because investigators for the<b> House Oversight Committee—the committee chaired by Rep. Elijah Cummings—</b>have unearthed a trove of communications featuring Manafort, Barrack, and representatives from the UAE and Saudi Arabia</span>. Though Trump’s attack on Rep. Cummings appears to have been tied to a Fox News hit piece, the idea of going after the Oversight Committee chair might very much have already been on Trump’s mind.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The recommended language from Barrack’s UAE contact at one point included suggesting that Trump directly mention Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, but that apparently didn’t mesh too well with the screw-the-world tone of the speech that included Trump’s declaration that he would withdraw from the Paris agreement. The final speech included a toned-down version of the text requested by the UAE that said that Trump wanted to “work with our Gulf allies to develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism strategy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Barrack seemed to realize that this communication between the Trump campaign and a foreign government over the future of U.S. energy policy was problematic at best. In an exchange with Manafort, he noted that the language he was proposing to add to the speech was “probably as close as I can get without crossing a lot of lines.” Whether he’s concerned about crossing U.S. law, or crossing Mohammed bin Salman, isn’t clear.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Investigators for the Oversight Committee have collected more than 60,000 documents showing “intermingling of private interests and public policy decisions” by Trump both before and after the election. Some of this information was released in a report on Monday, and follows similar information released by the House in February after whistleblowers discussed these connections between the Trump White House and foreign governments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The request to mention Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, along with the crown prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is of great interest. At the time of Trump’s speech, Mohammed bin Salman was not the crown prince. He wouldn’t assume that position until an internal “mini-coup” in 2017, immediately following Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia</b>. Since then, Jared Kushner has made multiple trips to visit him, delivering to him classified information to use against his enemies. Trump has issued two vetoes of bills designed to halt arms sales used in Mohammed bin Salman’s expansive war in Yemen.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/maga-hats-are-just-the-beginning-the-sinister-world-of-trump-merchandise-is-a-peak-into-the-bizarre-minds-of-his-fans"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/maga-hats-are-just-the-beginning-the-sinister-world-of-trump-merchandise-is-a-peak-into-the-bizarre-minds-of-his-fans</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No piece of Trump campaign merchandise is more symbolic of his quest for reelection — or more infamous — than red Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats, which presently sell for $25 on his 2020 campaign website. But MAGA hats are only one of the many types of merchandise that President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign is selling, and a report by Alex Isenstadt for Politico describes the ways in which merchandising is bringing in millions of dollars for the campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Much of the merchandise, Isenstadt reports, is meant to “stoke and validate the grievances of Trump’s base — and then, turn them into hard cash.” </b>And such items range from t-shirts mocking Rep. Adam Schiff (the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee) as a “pencil neck” to Trump-themed plastic straws. The Trump campaign’s online store is selling the straws as a right-wing alternative to “liberal paper straws” that “don’t work,” and they’ve been profitable: Isenstadt reports that since they became available on July 19, the <b>plastic straws (which are recyclable) have generated “more than $456,000 in sales.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tara McGowan, a Democratic strategist, told Politico that the Trump campaign’s ability to bring in so much money exploiting disdain for paper straws is “both brilliant and sinister.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McGowan explained, “I think something Trump has always understood very clearly is how to tap into a cultural moment or zeitgeist and leverage it to his advantage. So for him, taking a relatively new thing in the world that most people hate and leveraging it to both make a political statement and raise (hundreds of thousands) of dollars by selling plastic straws is both brilliant and sinister.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s 2020 campaign, according to Isenstadt, has also been selling merchandise attacking former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation — for example, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Collusion Delusion” t-shirts, “Witch Hunt” coffee mugs, and “No Collusion” beverage coolers. “Pencil Neck Adam Schiff” t-shirts, Isenstadt reports, have brought in “around $250,000” for the campaign. And not surprisingly, MAGA hats are still a big seller.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GOP strategist Eric Wilson, who served as digital director for Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, commented that all this merchandising shows how well Trump’s campaign knows its audience.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“It’s almost guerilla marketing,” Wilson told Politico. “What you’re seeing is the president using his bully pulpit and then, the campaign being nimble enough to capitalize on it.”</b></font></div></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trump faLLOUT:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-deforestation-unrecoverable-tipping-point-2639358982.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-deforestation-unrecoverable-tipping-point-2639358982.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is being clear cut so rapidly — a rate of three football fields per minute — that it is approaching a "tipping point" from which it will not recover, </b>according to <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span>.lnx]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As trees are lost, researchers said there is a <b>risk that large areas could transition from rainforest to savannah as they lose the ability to make their own rainfall from evaporation and from plants giving off water </b>vapor, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/brazil-bolsonaro-illegal-deforestation-amazon-rainforest-tipping-point-1451270" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Newsweek</a>.</font></p><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A transition on that scale could have significant implications for global warming since the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rainforests" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">rainforest</a> absorbs vast amounts of atmospheric carbon. Recent <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/76?hwshib2=authn%253A1562396078%253A20190704%253Ac3ad5971-c185-4942-9acd-92aa24c51c06%253A0%253A0%253A0%253AS1lvoYPtq07c7tMzRommqA%253D%253D" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">research</a> has shown the potential for massive tree plantings to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's very important to keep repeating these concerns. There are a number of tipping points which are not far away," said Philip Fearnside, a professor at Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research, as <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span> reported. "We can't see exactly where they are, but we know they are very close. It means we have to do things right away. Unfortunately that is not what is happening. There are people denying we even have a problem."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The alarming rate of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">deforestation</a> and its acceleration confirms suspicions that new president <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/jair-bolsonaro" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Jair Bolsonaro</a> has allowed illegal land invasion, logging and burning. Bolsonaro has called his <a href="http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/dashboard/alerts/legal/amazon/aggregated/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">own government's satellite data</a> lies. </b>The president's comments followed preliminary satellite data that showed more than 400 square miles of the rainforest had been cleared in the first half of July — an increase of 68 percent from the entire month of July last year, according to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49052360" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">BBC</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bolsonaro, the far right politician who has said he is fulfilling a mission from God, dismissed concerns expressed by European Union members and called it hypocritical since so many European forests have been wiped out.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You have to understand that the Amazon is Brazil's, not yours," Bolsonaro said, as <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span> reported. "If all this devastation you accuse us of doing was done in the past the Amazon would have stopped existing, it would be a big desert."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The DETER-B satellite system that the Brazilian government started to use in 2015 to track deforestation has shown that the record setting July deforestation is on pace to clear enough forest to fit New York City twice by the end of the month.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The DETER satellite data is considered preliminary. Detailed figures are released at the end of the year when data from other satellites and observatories is also collected, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/brazil-bolsonaro-illegal-deforestation-amazon-rainforest-tipping-point-1451270" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Newsweek</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Unfortunately, it is absurd, but it should not catch anyone by surprise. President Jair Bolsonaro and minister Ricardo Salles are dismantling our socio-environmental policies," said Carlos Rittl, the executive secretary of the <a href="http://www.observatoriodoclima.eco.br/en/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Climate Observatory</a>, an NGO formed by a coalition of environmental groups, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/amazonian-rainforest-near-unrecoverable-tipping-point" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</a> reported.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After years of conservation, Brazil's environmental track record has nose-dived in the first seven months of Bolsonaro's administration</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He has given environmental oversight to the agriculture minister, who is the leader of a farming lobby. <b>His foreign minister called climate science a part of a global Marxist plot. </b>The government has invited businesses to register land counter-claims in areas that are protected nature reserves, indigenous territories and areas dedicated to sustainable production by native forest people, according to <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span>.</span></font></p></div></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> months after Donald Trump was sworn in as President, a drawing of the nascent American president was featured on the cover of a top German magazine. Trump was painted as draped in the American flag, and giving a Nazi salute. That chilling August 2017 edition of the German weekly magazine, Stern, received tremendous international attention.</font></p><div class="p1_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“His fight! Neo-Nazis, KU-Klux Klan, racism: How Donald Trump is protecting hate in America,” is a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stern/photos/a.113788409651/10155225817744652" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Facebook</a>-generated translation of the cover story’s title.</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trumps-base-is-a-cult-that-may-never-be-deprogrammed-report/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trumps-base-is-a-cult-that-may-never-be-deprogrammed-report/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s base is a ‘cult’ that may never be deprogrammed: report</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Matthew Chapman<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>July 20, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Saturday, The Daily Beast’s Kelly Weill posted an analysis of President Donald Trump’s base, and what their recent behavior, which “experts say resembles a cult or totalitarianism,” says about the country’s political health.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Trump has long stoked bigoted grievances among his followers, but the Greenville rally saw him act as a more overt radicalizer than ever before,” wrote Weill. “And with a portion of Trump’s fanbase now openly clamoring for the physical removal of several prominent Democrats of color, experts are questioning whether the country can repair the damage — even if Trump loses in 2020.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is an open question how many people who chanted “Send her back” about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) are true believers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Some people might be there because they genuinely believe in this ideology,” New York University professor Mary Beth Altier was quoted as saying. “Some may be questioning those beliefs. They’re toying with them, and they go because a friend brought them or they think it’d be cool to go. They go and get swept up. People start chanting, are you going to be the only one standing there not chanting?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nonetheless, it is clear that at least some of the president’s fans will defend whatever behavior he engages in reflexively, as the CNN panel of “Trumpettes” demonstrated vividly. And even worse, Trump’s behavior appears to be sparking violence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“During a March 2016 rally, Trump asked fans to eject protesters, calling on them to ‘get ‘em out of here,'” wrote Weill. “Matt Heimbach, a neo-Nazi who was later instrumental in 2017’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlotteville, complied, assaulting a black protester. In October, a Florida man sent 16 pipe bombs to politicians, news outlets, and public figures who have been critical of Trump. The bomber had attended Trump rallies and described them as ‘like a new found drug.’ Trump’s election has coincided with a marked spike in hate crimes, and a rise in overt white supremacist action.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Part of the problem, noted Weill, is that in today’s<b> media environment, it is possible to entirely filter out people with opposing political viewpoints </b>and build more and more insular networks of like-minded supporters to reinforce one’s views.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Altier warned, deprogramming them will be especially difficult because the very thing that appears to be radicalizing them — Trump’s rallies — might also be the only thing containing their radicalization.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“While people saying these things is awful and they may radicalize other people, if we quash their ability to say them, my research shows they may become more violent because they can’t express those grievances,” she said. “It’s a catch-22.”</font></div></div><div style=""><p class="print-title"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p class="print-title"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">not so much suppressed as ignored</font></p><p class="print-title"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">trump epa fail</font></p><p class="print-title"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/a-total-disgrace-outrage-as-trump-epa-says-it-wont-ban-pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/a-total-disgrace-outrage-as-trump-epa-says-it-wont-ban-pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children</font></a></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>' A total disgrace’: Outrage as Trump EPA says it won’t ban pesticide linked to brain damage in children</b></font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>July 19, 2019</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a move environmentalists denounced as yet another case of the Trump administration putting industry profits over public health, the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday that it will not ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to brain damage in children.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“By allowing chlorpyrifos to stay in our fruits and vegetables, Trump’s EPA is breaking the law and neglecting the overwhelming scientific evidence that this pesticide harms children’s brains,” Patti Goldman, attorney with Earthjustice said in a statement. “It is a tragedy that this administration sides with corporations instead of children’s health.”</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">EPA chief Andrew Wheeler’s decision to reject a petition by environmental groups calling for a ban on the neurotoxic chemical ignores the assessments of his agency’s own scientists, said Tiffany Finck-Haynes, pesticides and pollinators program manager for Friends of the Earth.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The EPA’s refusal to ban chlorpyrifos ignores decades of science showing that this pesticide has irrevocable effects on human health and the environment,” said Finck-Haynes. “The EPA is endangering the lives of children to protect pesticide industry profits.”</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Friends of the Earth</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@foe_us</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Today Trump's @EPA announced that it will not #BanChlorpyrifos — a brain-damaging pesticide that EPA's own scientists have deemed unsafe at any level.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The EPA is endangering the lives of children to protect pesticide industry profits."https://foe.org/news/trumps-epa-continues-delay-federal-ban-brain-damaging-pesticide-chlorpyrifos-leaving-states-take-action/ …</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s EPA continues to delay federal ban on the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos, leaving...</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will not ban the neurotoxic, brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos<b>. Last summer, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals...</b></font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">foe.org</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Chlorpyrifos has been banned for household use since 2000, but the pesticide is still used by farmers on “more than 50 fruit, nut, cereal, and vegetable crops,” according to the New York Times.</b></font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“In 2016,” the Times reported, “more than 640,000 acres were treated with chlorpyrifos in California alone.”</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Obama administration in 2015 proposed banning use of the pesticide on food crops, but former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt authorized its continued use in 2017.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“This is a total disgrace,” Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) tweeted in response to the EPA’s decision on Thursday.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finck-Haynes of<b> Friends of the Earth </b>said that as the federal government continues to work on behalf of chemical interests, states must take immediate action to protect the public and the environment.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“While the federal government refuses to act, we urge states to step in, ban chlorpyrifos, and demonstrate that they will safeguard public health and the environment,” said Finck-Haynes. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“We call on [New York] Governor [Andrew] Cuomo to sign the chlorpyrifos ban bill sitting on his desk and protect New Yorkers from this toxic pesticide.”</span></font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a statement on Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) highlighted the Trump administration’s ties to Dow Chemical, the largest producer of chlorpyrifos in the United States.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The relationship between President Trump and Dow Chemical… has been called into question,” the group said. “Among other things, the chemical manufacturing giant <b>reportedly donated $1 million for Trump’s inauguration, and its CEO previously played a chief advisory role to the president, heading up his now defunct American Manufacturing Council.”</b></font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Erik Olson, senior director of health and food at <b>NRDC, </b>said the effort to achieve a ban on chlorpyrifos will continue.</font></p><p class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Until EPA gets this stuff out of our fields and off our food,” said Olson, “this fight is not over.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/heres-how-donald-trump-embodies-the-incoherence-of-the-modern-digital-age/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/heres-how-donald-trump-embodies-the-incoherence-of-the-modern-digital-age/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see hedges</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://yyy.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/08/trump-environment-rules-roll-back-dangerous-attacks-climate-change</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">guk no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump is set to hail his administration’s “environmental leadership” on Monday in a speech in which he is expected to declare the US a world leader on the issue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But since taking office two and a half years ago, the US president has been at the helm of an administration that has pursued numerous cuts in environmental protections and last year saw a rise in greenhouse gases of 3.4% – the biggest rise in emissions since 2010.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has also regularly publicly aired his doubts over the existence of climate change – previously calling it a “hoax”, suggesting that the climate could “change back again” and falsely claiming it was a phenomenon invented by China.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A report by the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at New York University’s school of law published in March said the Trump administration had “set its sights on watering down or outright repealing a half-dozen health and environmental rules critical to the health and welfare of all Americans as well as the planet”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are five of the biggest environmental setbacks under Trump:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1) Departure from the Paris climate agreement</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In June 2017, less than five months after his inauguration, Trump announced his plan to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement. He told an audience outside the White House: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris”. He claimed the agreement, signed by the US and nearly 200 countries in 2015, promising to cut greenhouse gas emissions to keep global heating below 2C, unfairly disadvantaged the US and negatively impacted jobs and factories.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2) Shrinking national monuments and animal protections</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump attracted broad criticism in December 2017 when he announced plans to slash the size of two national monuments in Utah. Bears Ears was cut from 1.5m acres to 228,784 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante almost halved from approximately 2m acres to 1,006,341 acres – marking the biggest elimination of public lands protection in America’s history. In August 2018 officials announced plans to allow more mining on the land and to sell some of it off – despite previously vowing not to. The following month, the administration announced plans to remove key provisions from the Endangered Species Act – prompting conservationists to warn it could put vulnerable plant and animal species in more danger.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Emissions spew from a coal-fired generating station in Newburg, Maryland on 10 October 2017.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Emissions spew from a coal-fired generating station in Newburg, Maryland, on 10 October 2017. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3) Rollback of the Clean Power Plan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of finalizing plans to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era rule intended to cut emissions from power plants and encourage them to move towards natural gas and renewable power. The regulations, which were announced in 2015 and had the backing of hundreds of businesses, were billed at the time as the “biggest step that any single president has made to curb the carbon pollution that is fueling climate change”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4) Cuts to clean water protections</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration plans to remove protections from thousands of America’s streams and millions of acres of wetlands, which is feared will harm wildlife and enable pollution to enter drinking water. Under the proposal, fewer waterways would require permits to pollute – including agricultural runoff and industry waste. Currently, protected waterways provide drinking water to approximately 117 million people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5) More methane</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In September 2018, the Trump administration announced its plans to repeal rules that aim to restrict methane leaks on public and tribal lands. The Obama administration tried to cut leaks by forcing oil and gas companies to capture methane (a key gas involved in global heating), update technology and arrange to monitor leaked gas. But the Department of the Interior has branded the rule “flawed” and “unnecessarily burdensome on the private sector”.</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trump-says-the-reporting-of-the-mainstream-media-should-not-be-considered-free-speech/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trump-says-the-reporting-of-the-mainstream-media-should-not-be-considered-free-speech/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cody f</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At a White House event ostensibly organized to celebrate the value of free speech, President Donald Trump declared that one of the central pillars of the First Amendment should not actually be covered by the Constitution’s protections.</font></div><div class="p1_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Social Media Summit was convened, it seems, to gather some of the most absurd right-wing trolls who claim they are victims of companies like Facebook and Twitter who undermine free speech. These private companies, in fact, have no legal obligation to follow the principles of free speech, and many of the claims that conservatives are being suppressed on social media are baseless or patently false.</font></p><div class="p2_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5155643920455169" data-ad-slot="8080761699" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true" data-adsbygoogle-status="done" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: block; height: 75px;"><ins id="aswift_0_expand" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-table; border: none; height: 75px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 630px; background-color: transparent;"><ins id="aswift_0_anchor" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: block; border: none; height: 75px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 630px; background-color: transparent; overflow: hidden;" /></ins></ins></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But in comments that couldn’t have been better scripted to reveal the utter hypocrisy of the right-wing on the topic of free speech, Trump said that the mainstream media coverage isn’t protected by the concept.</b></font></p><div class="p3_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“They’re not using that brilliance and they’re not using what we gave them fairly,” he said of the social media companies. “And they have to do that. And we don’t want to stifle anything — we don’t want to stifle free speech —<b> but that’s no longer free speech. See, I don’t think that the mainstream media is free speech, either. Because it’s so crooked, so dishonest. So to me, free speech is not when you see something good and then you write something bad. To me, that’s very dangerous speech. And you become very angry at it</b>. But that’s not free speech.”</font></p><div class="p4_8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, protections for the media are embedded in the fundamental right to free speech as outlined in the Constitution. The First Amendment prevents the government from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” The principle of free speech doesn’t just cover the press when the president likes what reporters say. Indeed, reporting that public figures and government officials don’t like is the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">paradigmatic</em> example of protected free speech in the United States.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// old blogger summit?</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump administration is welcoming right-wing media stars to the White House today for a forum billed as a “social media summit.” Among those invited to attend are Bill Mitchell, a self-described member of the “Trump Train” who’s embraced the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and Ali Alexander, a far-right activist whose recent tweet smearing Senator Kamala Harris as “not an American Black” was retweeted—then deleted—by Donald Trump Jr. Also joining will be James O’Keefe, a discredited right-wing activist known for targeting Planned Parenthood and </span><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: top;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">ACORN</span><span style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. O’Keefe was infamously arrested for trying to wiretap the office of the former U.S. senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu.</span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/08/trump-environmental-leadership-speech-climate-disasters-rollbacks"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/08/trump-environmental-leadership-speech-climate-disasters-rollbacks</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no twt</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prez <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Donald Trump</a> spoke to “America’s environmental leadership” in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XrHi1ldxso" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">address today</a>, where he<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/trump-to-claim-us-is-an-environmental-leader-despite-many-rollbacks" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> lived up to predictions and described</a> the country’s air and water as clean (“crystal clean” even).</font></div><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The speech started late, and with a reference to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/07/08/flash-floods-close-some-area-roads/?utm_term=.b2b0f74a8247" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">heavy rains</a> that have flooded Washington, D.C., which today's Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/07/08/washington-dc-flash-flood-how-why-area-was-deluged-by-months-worth-rain-an-hour-monday/?utm_term=.0ac61932bcde" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">noted</a> were unusual and consistent with the changes predicted by climate scientists.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rest of the world may be forgiven some skepticism about America’s environmental leadership — particularly under Trump. Within six months of taking office, Donald Trump had announced that he <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/01/trump-paris-climate-leave-fossil-fuels" style="text-decoration-line: none;">planned to pull the <span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span> out of the Paris Agreement</a>, the world’s framework for coordinating the international response to climate change, which scientists and world leaders have described as the most consequential environmental issue of our time.</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disaster Politics</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s time in office has also seen <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/28/year-deadly-climate-disasters-ear-splitting-wake-call-scientists" style="text-decoration-line: none;">scores of disasters</a>, both at home and abroad, linked to a changing climate:</b></font></p><ul style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2017 brought a trio of hurricanes to the U.S., including <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/08/homes-refineries-finding-pollution-and-loss-hurricane-harvey-path" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Harvey</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/21/why-hurricanes-harvey-and-irma-wont-lead-action-climate-change" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Irma</a>, and Maria, which as of January 2018 were <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2018/01/30/2017-s-three-monster-hurricanes-harvey-irma-and-maria-among-five-costliest-ever/1078930001/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">listed</a> by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as in the top five costliest hurricanes in <span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span> history. Nearly 3,000 died in Puerto Rico alone from Hurricane Maria — and the federal response has remained underwhelming. “Only a fraction of the money approved by Congress through <span class="caps" style="">FEMA</span> has been delivered, just $380 million of permanent recovery work, a failure that belies President Trump's complaints that the territory and its 3.2 million <span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span> citizens have received too much money,” The Washington Examiner <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/its-all-stuck-fema-struggling-to-pay-out-disaster-aid-in-puerto-rico" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> in June.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2018’s wildfire season was the deadliest in California’s history, decimating the town of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/us/california-fires-camp-fire.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Paradise</a> — and also causing economic losses tallied <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/accuweather-predicts-2018-wildfires-will-cost-california-total-economic-losses-of-400-billion/70006691" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">by AccuWeather</a> at $400 billion. Trump made international headlines when he visited and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-paradise-pleasure-california-wildfires-malibu-woolsey-fire-a8640656.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mistakenly called</a> the town, where at the time 71 were known dead and 1,000 remained unaccounted for, Pleasure instead of Paradise.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This year, historic flooding along the Mississippi River, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060287345" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">made worse</a> by climate change, has <a href="https://fox2now.com/2019/07/01/mississippi-river-smashes-record-for-consecutive-days-at-flood-stage/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">shattered records</a> set by flooding in 1993. Cleanup costs are estimated at <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-mississippi-river-flooding-20190625-2otvodasrrg6vcbarnutcc2eza-story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">more than $2 billion</a> and farmers have <a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/manufacturing/corn-train-wreck-may-be-even-worse-forecast-farmers-warn" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">warned</a> of a “train wreck” growing season, citing the floods and Trump's trade war with China.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The impacts from each of those disasters can linger for years or decades. In June, Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/02/paradise-california-wildfire-health-care-1349430" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">described</a> Paradise, California, where 14,000 homes burned as “little more than a large charred debris removal site,” adding that federal disaster assistance had been long-delayed.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ignoring the death toll and the impact on the lives of those whose homes and neighborhoods burned, Trump today recalled his personal reaction to the catastrophe in cartoonish terms. “I went to the fires in California,” Trump said, “and I said, 'it's also management, it's a lot happening, but it's management. You can't have dirty floors.'” He added that he'd spoken to the governor of California and “the process of cleaning is now really taking place” and claimed that other countries don't have forest fires because of their forest cleaning methods — an extended callback to his own earlier remarks about raking that were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/make-america-rake-again-finland-trump-forest-fire" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">mocked</a> as both nonsensical and tone-deaf.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time, Trump had also denied that the Paradise fires were impacted by climate change. “Research shows that climate change is making California’s wildfires worse,” a Washington Post fact check <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/11/27/trump-thinks-climate-change-had-no-role-californias-fires-here-are-facts/?utm_term=.e0f9f59b373c" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">found</a>. “If it continues unabated, scientists say, disasters like the Camp Fire will happen again.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The economic impact from climate change is growing as well — though that toll drew no attention in Trump's environmental leadership speech.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Each year, extreme natural disasters drive 26 million people worldwide into poverty and shave $520 billion from the world's economy, according to a 2017 World Bank<a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/25335/211003ovEN.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> report</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The world's 10 worst climate-linked diasters in 2018 caused $84.7 billion in damages, not counting uninsured losses and the impacts on economic productivity, a <a href="https://www.christianaid.org.uk/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">report</a> by Christian Aid found. “Despite the severity of the extreme weather that struck the world, 2018 is unlikely to be exceptional,” that report said. “In fact, it may soon seem a mild year.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate-linked disasters are now occurring once a week, United Nations officials warn, the Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/07/one-climate-crisis-disaster-happening-every-week-un-warns" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported yesterday</a>.</font></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Touts Lowering U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions … Which Are Rising</font></h3><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During his speech today, Trump instead touted the country's record on greenhouse gas emissions during his time in office.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Every single one of the signatories to the Paris climate accord lags behind America in overall emissions reductions,” Trump claimed. “For this reason, I withdrew the United States from the unfair, ineffective, and very, very expensive Paris climate accord.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The claim on emissions reductions is similar to a note previously hit by top Trump administration officials. “Thanks to President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda, the economy is booming, energy production is surging, and we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sources,” said (then-acting) Environmental Protection Agency Administrator <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/andrew-wheeler" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Andrew Wheeler</a> in a<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/data-shows-decrease-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-during-trumps-first-year-office" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> statement</a> last year. “The Trump administration has proven that federal regulations are not necessary to drive <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> reductions.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But, Vox reported in January 2019, that’s old news. </font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The <a href="https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-estimates-for-2018/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Rhodium Group</a> on Tuesday reported that <span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span> energy-related greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2018 by 3.4 percent, the second-largest margin in 20 years, reversing a three-year decline,” Vox <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/1/8/18174082/us-carbon-emissions-2018" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>. “Even though <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/28/18136795/climate-change-2018-100-percent-renewable-energy-green-new-deal" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cleaner energy sources</a>like wind and solar are expanding rapidly, it’s not enough to keep emissions overall from rising: Power sector emissions still grew by 1.9 percent last year. That increase came even though the United States retired 16 gigawatts of<a href="https://about.bnef.com/blog/u-s-coal-plant-retirements-near-all-time-high/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> coal-fired power capacity</a> and saw<a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37692" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> coal consumption</a> dip to its lowest levels in 39 years."</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span> Is Number One?</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump was joined at today's address by a parade of lower-ranking officials who praised Trump and his environmental record — but at times flubbed their facts.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“We're seeing, on your watch, America becoming the number one producer of oil and gas in the world,” said Energy Secretary <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/rick-perry" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Rick Perry</a> as he took the podium beside Trump. “We're seeing emissions being reduced around the world,” he continued.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sec. Perry's first statement checks out as true (at least for <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/12/investing/us-oil-production-russia-saudi-arabia/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">late 2018 into 2019</a>) — but the second is flat wrong</span>. Last year, the world's climate emissions rose to an all-time high of 37.1 billion tons of <span class="caps" style="">CO2</span> air pollution. “Almost all countries are contributing to the rise,” The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/05/brutal-news-global-carbon-emissions-jump-to-all-time-high-in-2018" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>, “with emissions in China up 4.7 percent, in the <span class="caps" style="">U.S.</span> by 2.5 percent, and in India by 6.3 percent in 2018.” Global energy demand was also up, by 2.3 percent, in 2018, <a href="https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2019/march/global-energy-demand-rose-by-23-in-2018-its-fastest-pace-in-the-last-decade.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">according to</a> the International Energy Agency, which adds that 70 percent of that energy came from fossil fuels, and that those fossil fuels were the cause of 2018's record-shattering greenhoues gas emissions.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's speech also called attention to the issue of the red tide in Florida, which in 2018 <a href="https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/20181004/beaches-remain-closed-in-palm-beach-for-red-tide-threat" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">closed beaches</a> in Palm Beach where Trump's Mar-a-Lago is located. DeSmog's Julie Dermansky <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/08/02/pollution-policies-toxic-algae-red-tide-cyanobacteria-florida-lake-okeechobee" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> on the toxic algae blooms that struck Florida that year, noting their connection to climate change. “While both types of toxin-producing algae are normal parts of their environments, the crisis is not,” she wrote in a photo essay on the blooms. “Water pollution and climate change are fueling this supersized toxic algae mess.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s speech also touted the country's clean air and water — while offering little to no acknowledgement of the many Americans who still breathe <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/louisiana-cancer-alley-communities-gulf-petrochemical-pollution" style="text-decoration-line: none;">polluted air</a> and have little-to-no access to clean tap water.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And that, for the record, is no small slice of the country. In March, Business Insider listed<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-worst-tap-water-us-2019-3" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> 11 American cities</a>, home to millions, that have been affected by unsafe drinking water, including not only Flint, Michigan (where prosecutors this month dropped criminal charges), but also Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and even Washington, <span class="caps" style="">D.C.</span> Rural areas have also <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/147011/rural-americas-drinking-water-crisis" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">faced struggles</a>with clean drinking water. In many places, these problems began long before Trump was elected — but Trump campaigned heavily on rolling back regulations designed to protect the environment, workers, and anything that industry might find objectionable.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The New York Times tallies <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">83 environmental rules</a> currently facing cuts under Trump’s leadership.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>It's fitting that President Trump is promoting his awful environmental record on the same day that the White House is flooding after a historic storm,” said Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee, who is running on a platform centered on combating climate change. “Trump has rolled back critical environmental regulations, repeatedly denied that climate change even exists, all while subsidizing the fossil fuel industry.”</font></p><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dereg nation 719</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx twt</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Scheduling a White House policy event for the Monday after a four-day holiday weekend is just one shovelful away from burying it completely.  </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">That may explain why Team Trump chose July 8 to hold a showcase on what it termed “America’s environmental leadership” under the Trump presidency, and only lightly publicized it in advance. </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But word did get out, thanks to a number of well-sourced journalists in the D.C.-based press corps. So I knew to tune in to the live-stream on Monday afternoon, fingers at the ready to live-Tweet whatever would happen.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Waiting for DJT's "Remarks on America's Environmental Leadership" to start. From the title alone we're already off to a disingenuous start, given Trump's dedication to dismantling Obama's most innovative #climate policies, along with many other environmental protections.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">When it comes to keeping campaign promises, President Trump has largely delivered on his environmental and energy vows: The New York Times is tracking 83 federal rules that the administration has targeted for elimination. </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But at this event, the president was low-energy about his deregulatory successes. In between his delivery of campaign-ready stock phrases — such as “reducing carbon emissions” (while never mentioning climate change), “crystal clean water,” and “good stewards of our public land” — administration officials and other guests came to the mic to laud Trump warmly for conservation and anti-pollution progress achieved by past presidents, sometimes dating back to the 1970s.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This whole event seems to be mostly about people standing up and praising Trump to his face for environmental protections that he's largely opposed.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">1 Retweet1 Like</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As regular readers of this newsletter know, Trump’s actual environmental policy accomplishments are of a different order. Just a few: Opening millions of acres of public lands to drilling and coal mining. Gutting rules that would reduce carbon emissions and other air pollution, and help preserve clean water. Sidelining scientific experts at environment-related agencies. Ignoring the growing national security risks of climate change. Rewriting freedom-of-information rules meant to help the public hold environment-related agencies and appointees accountable.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DJT touting commitment to "crystal-clean" air and water. Facts are that most such gains came many years ago. His policies are already making U.S. meh air quality a good deal worse.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Amy Harder@AmyAHarder</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump is set to tout today how America’s air pollution has decreased 74% since 1970. Yes, but those reductions occurred long before he became president. https://t.co/yTAgL8Sw0G Some emissions have actually increased under Trump, per @EPA data out today ? https://t.co/KIRSdffZWO</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">1 Retweet</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Now @EPA chief Andrew Wheeler lists Superfund, brownfield cleanup efforts, water infrastructure improvement loans. "Equally committed" cleaning up marine litter. Wheeler has lately turned to touting ocean litter to distract from EPA's disastrous climate policies.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2 Retweets</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Wheeler: Nations all over the world turn to the US for technical help cleaning up pollution, "not China, not Russia." Those are extremely low bars for pollution rules, technology, assistance.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">1 Like</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">David Bernhardt, chief of @Interior, delivers praises of Trump in re: wilderness conservation. But @Interior is pushing to drill in the most ecologically critical area of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest wildlife wilderness in the country.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">5 Retweets4 Likes</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As an environment journalist, I’ve borne witness to some energetic twisting of environmental facts by presidents, other elected officials, and their allies and appointees. But I was dizzied by the spin attempted at this event.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Emily J Gertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@ejgertz</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Genesis of today's bizarro-world Trump environmental speech, which was largely showcase of misdirection (ranging from outright lies to truth out of context), alternating with abundant praise for DJT.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Michael Tackett@tackettdc</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"It started with consultants on his re-election campaign who have discovered that his environmental record is a definite turnoff for two key demographics — millennials and suburban women, according to two people familiar with the plans" @katierogers https://t.co/NASViNZo9f</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">July 8th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">1 Retweet1 Like</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“By now, we are used to Trump’s big-lie technique,” writes Bill McKibben in The New Yorker. “Even by that standard, however, the claim that ‘we are working harder than many previous Administrations, maybe almost all of them,’ on environmental protection will be believed by exactly no one for whom words have not yet lost their common-sense meaning.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Yesterday, Trump and his officials wrung the facts by the neck, and hung them out to dry.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But after two and a half years of this White House’s love affair with disinformation and distraction, that’s not much of a shock.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The real question is, why did they do it?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Onward:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bad: Trump lies about its environmental record by omission and distortion</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The New York Times compared what Trump said at Monday’s event to the administration’s actual de-regulatory direction</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CNN also has a pretty comprehensive fact-check of the false or misleading claims Trump and his officials made during the event.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump’s speech was a “Javanka Special,” according to sources who spoke to Axios, “a phrase some conservative administration officials use to describe liberal moves they blame on Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">But Trump’s re-election anxieties were a bigger factor. </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">better: Voters are turned off by Trump’s environment and climate policies</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Both Axios and The Times report that the White House mounted Monday’s event to try and placate two voter groups important to Trump’s re-election: suburban women (who jumped onto the blue wave in the 2018 midterms) and millennials.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As Vox reported in June, the Republican Party is spooked by recent polling on attitudes towards climate change.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Veteran conservative pollster Frank Luntz found, among other things, that 58 percent of Republican voters under 40 “are more concerned about climate change now than they were only one year ago.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Steve Silberman</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@stevesilberman</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">One of the most excruciating things about Trump mocking climate science for adopting the phrase "climate change" over "global warming" is that change was a strategy by GOP pollster Frank Luntz to make it sound less alarming. Here's Luntz's memo.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">washingtonpost.com/world/europe/t…</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">June 5th 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">31 Retweets52 Likes</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Trump’s big-man folly—withdrawing from the Paris climate accords, for instance, when it would have been easy enough to sabotage progress more quietly—has decisively discomforted the suburban voters that he must retain for reëlection,” writes McKibben in his New Yorker piece.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Even in reliably-red Florida, the electoral ground may be shifting around climate and environment issues, the Miami Herald reports.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“It’s been a winning strategy for Republicans in Florida for over a decade. The basic tactic is to address specific, pressing policy challenges facing Florida communities — algal blooms , coastal flooding , threats to the Everglades — without discussing the climatic forces driving change,” writes the Herald.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">(Coincidentally, algal blooms and threats to the Everglades both came up on Monday.)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“But environmental politics in Florida have shifted since Trump’s first run for the presidency in 2016,” it goes on. “Republicans in Florida who as recently as last year ran successful campaigns void of any mention of climate change now acknowledge the phenomenon as a threat…[T]he Trump campaign has yet to follow their lead.”</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">timing is odd? clearly about 2020? he's boxed himself in by boast/dog whistle and can't postpone any more w/o losing manly cred? cf facial recog?!</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Trump’s acting citizenship and immigration director says he’s ready to deport ‘approximately one million people’</b></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> Image via Screengrab.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">written by Matthew Rozsa / Salon July 8, 2019</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>President Donald Trump’s acting citizenship and immigration services director, Ken Cuccinelli, announced on Sunday that the president is planning roughly 1 million deportations of undocumented immigrants in the near future</b></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Well, essentially at this point it’s been<b> put in Matt Albence’s hand, the acting director at ICE,</b>” Cuccinelli told Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation” about Trump’s plan for undocumented immigrants after Congress failed to overhaul asylum laws after a two week deadline. “He’s a career ICE officer, came up through the ranks and they’re ready to just perform their mission which is to go and find and detain and then<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders. They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders. Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort, or not, is really just information kept within ICE at this point.”</span></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">After Brennan suggested that this meant the removals would be much larger than previously indicated, when the number suggested was merely “in the thousands,” Cuccinelli insisted that he was simply drawing from a larger pool of people.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“No, no I’m just pointing out that the pool of those with final removal orders is enormous,” Cuccinelli explained. “And, you know, it’s important to note, here we are talking about ICE doing its job as if it’s special.<b> And really this should be going on on a rolling basis for ICE and they’ve been interfered with effectively and held up by the politics of Washington to a certain extent they’re looking forward to just getting back to doing their job.”</b></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cuccinelli also answered a question by Brennan about whether census data is being used for political purposes.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The census is intended to gather an awful lot of information the way it’s used now,” Cuccinelli told Brennan. “However, if your question is, ‘Will my agency or other agencies see a person who says, ‘no I’m not a citizen and their name and address and so forth,” that’s taken on an aggregated basis. That’s not individualized data that comes to us.”</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">During an interview with Dana Perino on “Fox News Sunday,”<b> Cuccinelli also blamed Congress for not doing enough to “fix the problem”</b> of undocumented immigration in the United States.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“People in the House come down and complain about them while not helping fix the problem. It’s the height of hypocrisy,” Cuccinelli told Perino.</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He later added, “It was being run well, it was run safely, and so forth, but once you’re over those capacity points, you encounter problems.” After insisting that Congress change asylum laws in order to limit how people can enter the United States, Cuccinelli struck a pessimistic note, telling Perino that Democrats in Congress “just want to politicize it. They don’t actually want to solve the problem.”</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He also explained that the reason ICE will have to conduct operations to remove roughly 1 million undocumented immigrants who were ordered to leave the United States by the courts proves that “we’ve fallen to the point where we’re talking about it like it’s news.” He added that this demonstrates “how far that we have fallen in the enforcement side. It is the most violated federal court order in America.”</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nb guk links</font></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-america-environmental-leader-2639096425.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-america-environmental-leader-2639096425.html</font></a></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2639096425" style="margin-top: -15px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Despite <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">cutting more than 80 environmental regulations</span>, appointing a <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">climate change</span> denier to the National Security Council and giving senior administration roles to people who worked for the fossil fuel industry, President Donald Trump will deliver a speech Monday that a White House spokesman said will "recognize his administration's environmental leadership and America's role in leading the world," as <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span> was the first to report.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump intends to tout the country's clean air and water. Although, he often boasts that the U.S. has the cleanest air in the world, statistics show otherwise. The nonprofit Health Effects Institute's State of Global Air 2019 report ranked the <b>United States 37th dirtiest out of 195 countries for ozone, also known as smog.</b></font></font></font></p><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1" style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Furthermore, a report published last month showed that the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> U.S. had more days with unhealthy air during the first two years of Trump's term than in the previous four years, as the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/d3515b79af1246d08f7978f026c9092b" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Associated Press</a> reported.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of his policies and rollbacks will threaten the air, land and water in the U.S. for years to come, experts say. In boasting about his environmental record, Trump could discuss marine debris cleanup efforts or he could discuss funds earmarked to restore the Florida Everglades, but he has little else to go on, according to <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span>.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet, in an off-the-record conference call on Wednesday, the White House asked key supporting groups to spread the message that the U.S. under Trump continues to be an environmental leader.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump's environment officials, including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, interior Sec. David Bernhardt and council on environmental quality Chief Mary Neumayr will be at the White House on Monday for the event titled Presidential Remarks on America's Environmental Leadership, according to <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span>.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2" style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jonathan Watts, who did not report the story but is the global environment editor for the Guardian, <a href="https://twitter.com/jonathanwatts/status/1146687697223860225?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw%257Ctwcamp%255Etweetembed%257Ctwterm%255E1146687697223860225&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.commondreams.org%252Fnews%252F2019%252F07%252F04%252Fstraight-out-orwell-while-slashing-climate-regulations-trump-plans-speech-touting" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">wrote on Twitter</a> that Trump's speech is "straight out of Orwell."
</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the president has denied that the climate crisis exists and even wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385?lang=enCanada" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Twitter</a> that the concept was created by the Chinese to make American manufacturing non-competitive, some Republicans want him to acknowledge the problem while others want him to continue to deny its reality.</font></font></font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">The Guardian</span> reported on how several conservative groups would like Tump to address the environment. Sarah Hunt, of the cross-partisan Rainey Center, said Trump should use the opportunity to endorse America's emissions cuts so far.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"American energy innovation allows our nation to lead the world in greenhouse gas emissions reductions – we've cut our emissions over 10 percent since 2005," Hunt said to <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span>. "The president should be proud that American natural gas, wind and solar energy are creating jobs and fighting climate change. I would love to see him announce an initiative that will help our great American clean energy companies export their zero-carbon energy technology to the rest of the world."</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump could also make the case that cheap energy will lift up the poor, even if that energy is fueled by coal, oil and gas.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Myron Ebell</b>, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to <span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the Guardian</span> he wants to hear the president say, "the alternative to the Green New Deal is not carbon taxes and making people poorer. It's the Trump energy agenda, which makes people wealthier. Wealthier is healthier, the wealthier we are, the higher our environmental quality."</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Analysis from academics, medical experts like the American Lung Association, and environmental experts suggests otherwise. Trump's policies, delivered at the behest of the fossil fuel industry will threaten the health of Americans, could significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions, and lead to thousands of deaths from hazardous air quality, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">the New York Times</a>.</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div><div class="post-pager js-listicle-pager" data-async_load_parameters="platform=desktop&display_ads=1&settings=%7B%22enter_url%22%3A+false%2C+%22no_post_section%22%3A+false%2C+%22ads_breaks%22%3A+null%2C+%22prevent_last_break_repetition%22%3A+false%2C+%22use_numeration%22%3A+false%2C+%22ads_order%22%3A+%5B%5D%2C+%22pagination_order%22%3A+%5B%5D%2C+%22list_breaks%22%3A+null%2C+%22reorder_voting%22%3A+false%2C+%22cooldown_in_seconds%22%3A+null%2C+%22source%22%3A+%22post_listicle_settings%22%2C+%22next_post_url%22%3A+null%2C+%22up_down_voting%22%3A+false%2C+%22show_columns_on_mobile%22%3A+false%2C+%22numeration_sort%22%3A+-1%2C+%22use_pagination%22%3A+false%2C+%22body_text_above%22%3A+false%2C+%22use_ads%22%3A+false%2C+%22items_as_posts%22%3A+false%2C+%22multiple_answers%22%3A+false%2C+%22no_redirect%22%3A+false%2C+%22is_guest_voting_allowed%22%3A+true%2C+%22layout_type%22%3A+1%7D" data-listicle-style="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: table; width: 780px;"><div class="around-the-web"><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></font></font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/04/straight-out-orwell-while-slashing-climate-regulations-trump-plans-speech-touting" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; display: inline-block; margin-top: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'Straight Out of Orwell': While Slashing Climate Regulations, Trump ... ›</font></a></font></font></li><li class="around-the-webitem" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/03/trump-to-claim-us-is-an-environmental-leader-despite-many-rollbacks" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; display: inline-block; margin-top: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump to claim US is environmental leader in spite of ripping up ... ›</font></a></font></font></li></ul><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;" /></div></div></div><div class="tags" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 20px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">trump administration</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/politics" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">politics</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">climate crisis</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">climate change</a></font></font></font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4 july militarism</font></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Why bother? Because, as Eric Vuillard writes of World War II in The Order of the Day, “Great catastrophes often creep up on us in tiny steps.” Because on the same day </span><a href="https://www.inquisitr.com/5513662/donald-trump-dropped-fireworks-tariff-the-same-day-company-donated-750k-in-fireworks-for-his-show/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a company donated $750,000 worth of free fireworks</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for Trump’s Fourth of July party, he dropped a tariff on imported Chinese fireworks that same company had been lobbying against. Because every bit of graft like that, every small indignity inflicted, each gesture and symbol of disdain, are reflective of a greater, potentially fatal insult to democracy and a degradation of the greater good that was idealized by the men who signed the Declaration.</span></font></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.inquisitr.com/5513662/donald-trump-dropped-fireworks-tariff-the-same-day-company-donated-750k-in-fireworks-for-his-show/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.inquisitr.com/5513662/donald-trump-dropped-fireworks-tariff-the-same-day-company-donated-750k-in-fireworks-for-his-show/</font></a></font></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A company called Phantom Fireworks had been lobbying the Trump administration to drop a plan to institute new Chinese tariffs that would have slapped 25 percent tariffs on imported fireworks</b>.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Donald Trump would later decide to scrap the plan to impose the tariffs — on the same day Phantom Fireworks donated $750,000 worth of sparklers and bottle rockets for Trump’s Fourth of July celebration. The coincidence has not been lost on Trump’s critics.</font></font></font></p><div id="ld-6682-9063" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/july-4th-fireworks-donor-lobbied-president-trump-tariffs/story?id=64108794" target="blank" rel="noopener" class="external" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.9;">ABC News</a></em> reported, Phantom Fireworks is the nation’s largest retailer of consumer-friendly fireworks, and was quite active in pushing the Trump administration away from new Chinese tariffs. Some of the company’s top leadership are on the board for the American Pyrotechnics Association, which wrote an open letter calling for the Trump administration to remove tariffs on Chinese goods that would have included a hike on fireworks.</font></font></font></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: flex; justify-content: space-between; text-align: center; flex-wrap: wrap; clear: both;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The company’s CEO, Bruce Zoldan, even met directly with Trump in the Oval Office in May, but he told <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ABC News</em> that they did not discuss fireworks. Phantom Fireworks later announced its $750,000 donation of fireworks for Trump’s Fourth of July celebration in Washington, D.C.</font></font></font></p><div data-outstream="inarticle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The donation has come under fire from some watchdog groups.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is another example of how private companies attempt use their money to influence the government by stroking the president’s ego,” Jordan Libowitz with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ABC News</em>.</font></font></font></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: flex; justify-content: space-between; text-align: center; flex-wrap: wrap; clear: both;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phantom Fireworks said that the fireworks donation had already been planned for months and that there was no political motivation behind the gift.</font></font></font></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pro p</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">W<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">e have obtained a list of 95 new Trump administration appointees made over the past six months. Following a pattern we’ve </span><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/what-we-found-in-trump-administration-drained-swamp-hundreds-of-ex-lobbyists-and-washington-dc-insiders" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" font-weight="font-weight" bold="bold" color="color" outline="outline" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" transition="transition" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer">detailed before</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">, many of the hires previously worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign or at conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation. In other cases, appointees seem to have little work experience at all.</span></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="p1_5" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We compiled the information from Freedom of Information Act requests and have added the appointees to our <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump Town</a> app, which lets you search the disclosures of nearly 3,000 of them.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are a few of the recent appointments:</font></font></font></p><div class="p3_5" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/lynn-dekleva" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Lynn DeKleva</a>, who worked for decades at chemical giant <b>DuPont, </b>was appointed to a job as an environmental engineer in the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical safety and pollution prevention office in October. Typically, environmental engineering positions are not political appointments. DeKleva did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comments. The EPA said in a statement that DeKleva “brings considerable product stewardship experience and knowledge with her to assist” the agency.</font></font></font></li><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/ileana-ydolia-garcia" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Ileana Garcia</a>, a co-founder of the campaign’s Latinas for Trump, was appointed in October as deputy press secretary in the Department of Homeland Security.</font></font></font></li><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/todd-matthew-thurman" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Todd Thurman</a>, a Heritage Foundation staffer who used to write for the <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/author/tthurman/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Daily Signal</a> and <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/author/todd-thurman/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Breitbart</a>, was appointed as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s digital strategy specialist in September.</font></font></font></li><li style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/antonin-scalia" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Antonin Scalia</a>, the namesake grandson of the late Supreme Court justice, was appointed in September as a temporary assistant in the State Department. Scalia graduated <a href="https://rhodeslynx.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=4761" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">from college</a> last year. Scalia and the State Department did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comments.</font></font></font></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div></div><div style=""><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">thank god trump can learn from  history if someone tells him about it on fox:</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump ‘spooked’ out of Iran airstrike after watching retired general on Fox News</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">written by Travis Gettys / Raw Story<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>July 2, 2019</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump changed his mind on attacking Iran last month after watching one of his pals argue against military action on Fox News.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Retired four-star Army general Jack Keane — who Trump twice asked to serve as defense secretary — appeared twice on the president’s favorite TV network on June 20 to make the case that Iran had mistakenly shot down a U.S. drone, reported Politico</b>.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump had speculated earlier in the day that the action might have been a fluke, rather than a deliberate provocation, and Keane went on Fox News to state his agreement — and remind viewers of a horrific incident when Ronald Reagan was president.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Our viewers may have forgotten, but during the tanker war in the late ‘80s when Reagan did take some action, we actually made a mistake,” Keane told viewers. “We had a USS warship shoot down an Iranian airliner in Iranian airspace — 290 people killed, 66 of them were children — and we took that for a Tomahawk F-14. That was clearly a mistake by the ship’s crew in doing that, and we acknowledged that we made a horrific mistake.”</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two sources told Politico that Keane’s reference to the 1988 incident profoundly “spooked” the president, who made repeated references to the tragedy that evening as he wrestled with his doubts about taking military action.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump had also spoken multiple times before calling off the airstrikes with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who tried to steer the president away from military conflict with Iran.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Keane, who retired from military service in 2003, helped plan the Iraq surge as an advisor to the George W. Bush administration, and he has also advised former secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mike Pompeo, who leads the State Department for Trump.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Trump values his advice because he often sees Keane defend his policies on television.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump offered the Pentagon’s top job to Keane shortly after his election, on the recommendation of the late Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, but the retired general declined because his wife had passed away just months earlier.</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trump-spooked-out-of-iran-airstrike-after-watching-retired-general-on-fox-news/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/trump-spooked-out-of-iran-airstrike-after-watching-retired-general-on-fox-news/</font></a></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></strong></font></font></p></div><div style=""><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/how-southern-white-women-drove-the-gop-to-donald-trump/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/how-southern-white-women-drove-the-gop-to-donald-trump/</font></a></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How southern white women drove the GOP to Donald Trump</b></font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">written by Paul Rosenberg / Salon July 1, 2019</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Long Southern Strategy,” a new book by political scientists Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields, first caught my eye because there’s a long history of denialism surrounding the “Southern strategy.” People sometimes claim that it’s a liberal myth or that it’s ancient history, or that wasn’t the real reason for the Southern realignment in American politics. That denialism has only intensified and grown more significant since the election of Donald Trump.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Maxwell and Shields’ book turns out to be more than just well-timed, as its subtitle suggests: “How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics.” Rather than simply showing that the Southern strategy was a long-term phenomenon, the book shows that it was a continuously reshaped and evolving strategy, that it was multifaceted — involving gender and religion as crucially as race — and that in remaking the Republican Party and the South, it remade American politics as well. “The Long Southern Strategy” explains this reshaping process remaking better than anything else I’ve read, and does so via a compelling multi-disciplinary combination of history, cultural criticism and social science.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In “The Reactionary Mind” (Salon review here), political theorist Corey Robin argued that conservative politics “speak to and for people who have lost something. It may be a landed estate or the privileges of white skin, the unquestioned authority of a husband or the untrammeled rights of a factory owner.” Conservatives may have balked at Robin’s argument, but “The Long Southern Strategy” convincingly describes the specific combination of such losses on which Republicans have played, and the specific form of conservatism that resulted.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The building blocks aren’t old-fashioned racism, sexism and religious fundamentalism — all have been reshaped into new forms, making new arguments for halting progress and turning back the clock, which is also a part of the book’s story. For example, as co-author Angie Maxwell told me, “Modern sexism describes feelings of resentment and distrust towards feminists and working women. Rather than believing that a woman cannot do a particular job, folks who express Modern sexism resents a woman for wanting to do that job.”</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Long Southern Strategy” also explains why Donald Trump is not such an anomaly after all, but rather the culmination of where the GOP has been headed for the past 50-plus years. “I gave a series of lectures the year before the election, called ‘The Inevitability of Donald Trump,'” Maxwell told me — but even she thought Trump would make it no further than the Republican nomination. She was concerned, however, about how close the election was going to be, because she had applied “modern sexism measures” to national polling in 2012, and found alarmingly high numbers. “I was worried we were not accounting for that effect,” she said. Perhaps not.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So I thought Maxwell would be a perfect interview subject as the 2020 campaign begins in earnest. It’s an invaluable guide for making sense of what’s about to unfold, as well as how we got here. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First I want to ask about the need to understand the <b>Southern strategy as something long-term and continuing or evolving, not just a one-time event. </b></font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, with the Southern strategy, the story we tell is that after the Civil Rights Act, first Barry Goldwater and then Richard Nixon really played to white racial angst, and the South flipped to red. But when you start looking at not just the electoral map, but voting trends, the South goes pretty heavily back to Jimmy Carter in 1976. And most Southern politicians don’t change their party IDs during that period of time. You see from archival work and other scholarship how worried the GOP was post-Watergate that the inroads they made in the South they were going to lose. And sure enough, they do.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, if they were so adamant on a backlash to civil rights, then why pick Carter? But there this notion that Carter’s one of them — he shares their Southern identity, they understand him, he’s a born-again Christian. So the South kind of goes back [to the Democrats]. <b>Then the Reagan folks in 1980 dropped the Equal Rights Amendment</b> from their platform. This to me is the bridge. In 1980, the Republicans are trying again to win those Southern voters back, because they’ve really based their electoral map on that. They took that fork in the road in the late ’60s, and it’s kind of hard, once you set your strategy, to say, “Oh, let’s just pick a new one.” So they dropped the ERA.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was a radical thing to do because the Equal Rights Amendment — and second-wave feminism in general — was a completely bipartisan effort. There were legions of Republican women feminists. In fact, they were some of the leaders in the movement. At the 1977 National Women’s Convention, the only national women’s convention we’ve ever had, every living first lady of both parties was there.. All the major congresswomen from both parties were there. What happened then was Phyllis <b>Schlafly’</b>s effort — she had written the book [A Choice, Not An Echo] that kind of inspired Goldwater to run years before — she started an anti-feminism counter rally, also in Houston, and had massive attendance at that, and their slogan was “family values.”</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The GOP took notice. Schlafly was hoping it would get her a cabinet position, which it didn’t.</b> But then the Reagan administration polls 40,000 women, an effort headed up by Richard Wirthlin, with Elizabeth Dole, and they classified American women into 64 types. They called them Nancys, Bettys — they give them names —and they realized that there were a whole lot more antifeminists out there than they realized, people who really wanted these traditional gender roles. I call them “antifeminist” because that is what they were calling themselves, a lot of times. Particularly in the South, among white women. And so that move [dropping the ERA] helped Reagan to secure a lot of those Southern white women. And that’s when you actually see people start changing their voter ID.</font></font></font></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/29/im-not-willing-do-trump-says-he-wont-take-climate-action-because-it-would-threaten"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/29/im-not-willing-do-trump-says-he-wont-take-climate-action-because-it-would-threaten</font></a></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Atmospheric carbon dioxide is at a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/05/single-most-important-stat-planet-alarm-atmospheric-co2-soars-legit-scary-record" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">record high</a>, Europe is in the midst of a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/coming-europe-alert-heatwave-intensifies-190627074914756.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">hellish heat wave</a>, and extreme weather is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/world/cyclone-vayu-india/index.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">ravaging</a> large <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/25/florida-burning-midwest-flooding-why-arent-democrats-debating-climate" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">swaths</a> of the globe, but President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-news-latest-g20-climate-change-global-warming-us-japan-a8980156.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">dismissed</a> the need for climate action during the G20 summit in Japan on Saturday and falsely claimed that air and water in the U.S. are the "cleanest" they have ever been.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump told reporters during a press conference Saturday morning that he is not ignoring the threat of the climate crisis, but he doesn't want to take action to confront the emergency because such a move would threaten corporate profits.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"So we have the best numbers that we've ever had recently," Trump said. "I'm not looking to put our companies out of business."</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm not looking to create a standard that is so high that we're going to lose 20-25 percent of our production. I'm not willing to do that," Trump continued. "We have the cleanest water we've ever had, we have the cleanest air—you saw the reports come out recently. We have the cleanest air we've ever had. But I'm not willing to sacrifice the tremendous power of what we've built up over a long period of time, and what I've enhanced and revived."</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Associated Press</em> <a href="https://www.apnews.com/a2e7024d43c9409087ec8d5245534092" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> after Trump claimed earlier this month that the U.S. is "setting records environmentally" with its air and water quality, the "U.S. does not have the cleanest air, and it hasn't gotten better under the Trump administration."</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The U.S. ranks poorly on smog pollution,which kills 24,000 Americans per year," according to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">AP</em>. "On a scale from the cleanest to the dirtiest, the U.S. is at 123 out of 195 countries measured."</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><div class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Furthermore, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2018/02/12/tens-millions-americans-exposed-unsafe-drinking-water-each-year/330516002/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">according to a study</a> published last year in the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, tens of millions of Americans are exposed to unsafe drinking water each year.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch Trump's remarks:</font></font></font></p></div><div style=""><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wow</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">will boost impeachment efforts? momentum?</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/jimmy-carter-flatly-says-trump-is-not-a-legitimate-president-he-was-put-into-office-because-the-russians-interfered/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/jimmy-carter-flatly-says-trump-is-not-a-legitimate-president-he-was-put-into-office-because-the-russians-interfered/</font></a></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tells press his talks w/ putin "none of your business"</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">jokes to vlad stop mess in our elections</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style=""><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump came in for the opening group photo of the G-20 meeting in Japan walking along with Vladimir Putin. However, he couldn’t get next to Putin in the shot, so instead he<b> snuggled up next to noted bone-saw fan Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman.</b> But if that seemed disrespectful to those who are actually concerned about the dismemberment and murder of <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Washington Post</em> columnist Jamal Khashoggi … it was only a warm-up.</font></font></font></p><div class="p1_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the public part of his get-together with Vladimir Putin, Trump was apparently miffed that a reporter dared to ask about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Following his snickering response to that question, Trump <a title="" href="https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1144523828921372672" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">gestured to the assembled </a>press.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Get rid of them,” said Trump. “Fake news is a great term, isn’t it? You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do.”</font></font></font></p><div class="p3_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We also have,” Putin replied. “It’s the same.”</font></font></font></p><div class="p4_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s hilarious because over 200 journalists have been murdered in Russia under Putin, while dozens more have simply disappeared. And yes, <a title="" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia#Under_Putin(incl.2nd_Chechen_conflict)" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">they do have names</a>. In 2018 alone, that includes a journalist who died after being hurled from an apartment window after reporting on corruption in the Russian government; a television journalist stabbed in the street after a commentary; a newspaper reporter missing for two weeks before his body was left for his friends; and an evening news host who mysteriously fell in a river and drowned on his way home from work.</font></font></font></p><div class="p5_6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not clear if Trump shared his same concerns about pesky journalists with Mohammed bin Salman. But considering the level of the jokes he delivered in the opening day of the G-20, it seems entirely possible. On Monday, <a title="" href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/24/1866862/-Trump-says-Middle-East-is-a-hostile-vicious-place-no-point-in-investigating-murder-of-journalist" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump declared</a> that the Middle East is a “hostile, vicious place” and announced that he would not ask the FBI to investigate the murder of Khashoggi, while touting his relationship with MBS.</font></font></font></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/trump-tells-the-journalist-murdering-putin-that-they-should-get-rid-of-the-press/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/trump-tells-the-journalist-murdering-putin-that-they-should-get-rid-of-the-press/</font></a></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/the-evidence-of-trumps-crimes-against-humanity-is-piling-up/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/the-evidence-of-trumps-crimes-against-humanity-is-piling-up/</font></a></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">what about-ism/ both sides new rhet scam:</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">well, not that new, also infamouslt charlottlesville</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">619 see larger concepts mirror and false balance (which refers in part to blancing norms in journalism that led to dueling sound bites, empowering hacks)</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a bit of disambiguation here</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">this is triggered by djt saying he would take oppo from foreign country (non-state actors) b/c info is good and listening is good (polite/kind/sensitive?)</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2nd iran war threat good to get both side; bolton would take on the whole world at once [he's one of the the tough guys on my side, with bikers and cops [don't worry about hitting head in car]; he did not specify who the dove in admin is.</font></div></div></div><div><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[iowa caucus?]</font></span></font></font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left: 4px solid rgb(139, 196, 74); padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; margin: 1em 0px;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>The leading industry association for oil refineries</strong> has sued EPA to stop it from lifting an Obama-era summertime ban on selling gasoline that is blended to contain 15 percent <b>ethanol </b>(called E15). <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump lifted the ban to help corn farmers wilting under his trade war with China</span>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ethanol-lawsuit/u-s-refiner-group-sues-trump-epa-over-high-ethanol-gasoline-idUSKCN1TB2HP" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">as Reuters reports</a>. Burning high-ethanol E15 in the hottest months can increase smog, while creating the blends increases refiners’ costs.</font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1123472_automakers-lay-out-mpg-concerns-for-trump-talk-to-california-pleaseupdate" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">According to Green Car Reports</a>, <strong>17 automakers have asked EPA</strong> and the Department of Transportation to negotiate with California on the administration’s proposed rollback of Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, and its vow to rescind California’s decades-long right to set its own standards.</font></font></font></p><ul style="margin: 1em 0px;"><li style="margin: 7.5px 0px 7.5px 15px;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These moves, as the automakers and many other observers besides have noted, will divide the U.S. auto market and bring on years of of litigation, creating a great deal of instability for the auto industry.</font></font></font></p></li><li style="margin: 7.5px 0px 7.5px 15px;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/06/730485234/carmakers-to-white-house-work-with-california-on-rules-for-greenhouse-gases" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Responding to a request for comment from NPR</a>, a White House spokesperson said, in so many words, that the administration is committed to both the rollback and eliminating California’s auto emissions power.</font></font></font></p></li></ul></blockquote><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" /></font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></font></font></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/here-are-7-wild-bizarre-and-pathetic-moments-from-trumps-campaign-launch/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/here-are-7-wild-bizarre-and-pathetic-moments-from-trumps-campaign-launch/</font></a></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are 7 wild, bizarre and pathetic moments from Trump’s ‘campaign launch’</font></b></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">written by Cody Fenwick<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1.1K</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump held a rally that was billed as the official launch his re-election campaign — though he has never really stopped holding campaign rallies.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As expected, the president ranted, lied, and engaged in the raucous attacks that are central to his connection with Republican voters. Some of it was actually just sad, such as his continued obsession with Hillary Clinton.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here are seven of the wildest, disturbing and pathetic moments from the rally:</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">1. He said Democrats “want to destroy our country as we know it.”</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump casually accuses Democrats of “want[ing] to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it.” pic.twitter.com/4K79KlbEeR</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">2. If Democrats win in 2020, “they would shut down your free speech,” Trump said.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Lindsay Graham and Marco Rubio look uncomfortable listening</b> on while Trump makes insane accusations about Democrats pic.twitter.com/kfJwEnxAhK</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats have proposed nothing along these lines at all. Trump, on the other hand, has repeatedly talked about overhauling libel laws to make it easier to go after his critics, and multiple reports suggest he has tried to use the power of the presidency to punish media outlets who give him unfavorable coverage.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">3. He continued to make up lies about and attack Hillary Clinton — who isn’t running.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump accuses Clinton of not only deleting emails but having “acid washed” them. He says “acid washed” repeatedly.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Acid-washing emails is not a thing. Her team used a free software program called BleachBit, which does not involve bleach, nor acid, nor washing.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump taking shots at Hillary Clinton still now almost three years after they faced off. He says while her calling his supporters “deplorable” was bad he thought her saying his supporters were “irredeemable” was worse.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>4. After saying Democrats would go after their enemies with the law, Trump suggested Attorney General Bill Barr might still go after Hillary Clinton.</b></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump insinuates that William Barr may still prosecute Hillary Clinton for her emails pic.twitter.com/rkb50ZVANa</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5. Trump continued to deny that the tariffs he imposes, which are just import taxes, are actually taxes on Americans.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that the tariffs cost the typical American household $414 in 2018. That is estimated to increase to $831 per household this year. https://t.co/QjN6z1XRrI</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They just are. This isn’t even slightly controversial.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6. Trump claimed he was “officially” launching his campaign, and much of the media bought into this lie. But it made no sense.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">President Trump tells crowd he is officially launching campaign.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Note: Trump filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission the day he was inaugurated to run for president in 2020.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">7. Trump rolled out one of his favorite and most absurd lies: that he was responsible for legislation that was passed under President Barack Obama.</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“We passed VA Choice,” Trump says twice</b>. “They’d been trying to get that passed, also, for…44 years.” It was a McCain-Sanders bill passed under Obama in 2014. #FactsFirst</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 19, 2019</font></font></font></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/6/18/18683676/trump-campaign-reelection-speech-orlando-polls"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.vox.com/2019/6/18/18683676/trump-campaign-reelection-speech-orlando-polls</font></a></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/18/18684463/trump-2020-reelection-speech-rally-keep-america-great" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; outline: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> Trump’s speech</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: inherit;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: inherit;">kicking off his reelection campaign Tuesday made clear how he thinks he can win: through scorched-earth negativity and the politics of resentment.</span></font></font></font></div><p id="5b2b6H" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Speaking in Orlando, Florida — and mostly reading from prepared remarks rather than improvising — <b>Trump launched attack after attack on familiar hate figures: Democrats, the “fake news,” the Mueller investigators, and, of course, Hillary Clinton.</b></font></font></font></p><p id="1Wh4Fi" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage and want to destroy you, and they want to destroy our country as we know it,” Trump said.</font></font></font></p><p id="M5MoPZ" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The speech actually opened on a positive note. Trump thanked his supporters, said he’s restored “government by and for the people,” and bragged about the economy’s performance.</font></font></font></p><p id="LwWOSG" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then, just about five minutes in, things took a turn.</font></font></font></p><p id="YprXWL" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“2016 was not nearly another four-year election. This was a defining moment in American history,” Trump said. Then in a mocking tone, he gestured toward the members of the media present and said: “Ask them, right there.” In case anyone missed his meaning, he added: “By the way, that is a lot of fake news back there.”</font></font></font></p><p id="ohsCtV" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chants of “CNN sucks” resounded among the crowd.</font></font></font></p><p id="o9Lu6E" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Soon afterward, Trump trashed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation (“an illegal attempt to overturn the results of the election”), “crooked” Hillary, and the Democrats <b>(“depraved,</b>” “unhinged,” “radical,” “extreme,” “dangerous”).[GINGRICH ?]</font></font></font></p><p id="ynNl19" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Democratic win in 2020, in Trump’s telling, wouldn’t be an ordinary political outcome. It would be the end of the world.</font></font></font></p><p id="gRil3B" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They would shut down your free speech and use the power of the law to punish their opponents,” he asserted. “They would strip Americans of their constitutional rights while flooding the country with illegal immigrants.”</font></font></font></p><h3 id="253M1q" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has not been polling well</font></font></font></h3><p id="9cqzhm" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The context is that Trump began his presidency in a tenuous political position, elected quite narrowly and likely needing to at least equal if not improve his support to win in 2020 — and has seen his popularity worsen since.</font></font></font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem 0.6rem; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.2rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li id="l4NXbo" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.1 percentage points (she got 48.2 percent of the vote, he got 46.1 percent).</font></font></font></li><li id="2xJJHs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His narrow Electoral College majority hinged on margins of less than 1 percent in three states: Wisconsin (0.77 percent), Pennsylvania (0.72 percent), and Michigan (0.23 percent).</font></font></font></li><li id="AZY8T0" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the past year, more than 50 percent of respondents in national polls have <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">consistently said</a> they disapprove of Trump’s presidency, and his approval rating has been down in the low 40s.</font></font></font></li><li id="iUgL7o" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And in 2020 polling, he has <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/general_election/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">consistently trailed</a> several leading Democratic candidates both nationally and in swing states.</font></font></font></li></ul><p id="GsL3js" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All this is hardly a surprise given Trump’s longtime preference for retaining the support of his “base” through polarization and division, rather than trying to unite the country or reaching out to people who don’t already support him.</font></font></font></p><p id="c2VXlG" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, this is more or less how Trump beat Clinton in 2016. Polls showed he was the most unpopular major-party presidential nominee ever, as measured by favorability ratings. But Clinton became the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/197231/trump-clinton-finish-historically-poor-images.aspx" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">second most unpopular</a>, and it turned out that just enough people in the key swing states ended up turning out for Trump rather than Clinton.</font></font></font></p><p id="HbyWN1" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So this points to Trump’s likely best hope for reelection. He is too toxic to hope for a landslide. But it’s certainly conceivable that he could make the eventual Democratic nominee toxic to enough voters that he can squeak through with another narrow win.</font></font></font></p><p id="SGXMFV" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Broadening his support would be nice — but he seems more focused on making sure Democrats don’t broaden theirs.</font></font></font></p><p id="ceRM0e" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, some parts of the speech came off as rather old hat.</font></font></font></p><p id="PJFdcA" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In particular, Trump returned again and again to attacking Hillary Clinton, weaving together her email scandal, her campaign’s funding of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/6/14/18677631/trump-campaign-finance-law-fec-illegal-fbi" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Steele dossier</a>, and her use of the word “deplorables” to describe some of Trump’s supporters. He mentioned her eight times in about 80 minutes.</font></font></font></p><p id="JsFe5H" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clinton, of course, will not be on the ballot in 2020. So though Trump did his best to demonize “Democrats” generally and the media, he is still lacking the personal foil on which he usually prefers to rely. He gave brief mentions to “Sleepy Joe” Biden and “crazy” Bernie Sanders but didn’t dwell much on them just yet.</font></font></font></p><p id="mT3jt0" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To truly make his reelection case, that’s what he’ll have to do: figure out how to destroy the Democratic nominee.</font></font></font></p><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></font></font></div><div style=""><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><li class="hidden-xs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/18/headlines/us_cuts_aid_to_central_american_countries_over_immigration" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">U.S. Cuts Aid to Central American Countries over Immigration</font></a></font></font></li><li class="hidden-xs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></font></font></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></font></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>