State Department – Extreme Blonde Moments

Trump Presidency Day 6: It’s a good thing I ate a light breakfast this morning, because these headlines made me want to throw up.

“President Trump intends to move forward with a major investigation of voter fraud that he says cost him the popular vote, White House officials said Wednesday, despite bipartisan condemnation of his allegations and the conclusion of Mr. Trump’s own lawyers that the election was ‘not tainted.'” The New York Times

Part of that investigation is to include weeding out and punishing those who are registered, and supposedly voted, in multiple states. Do you think he can comprehend that most of his cabinet, his son-in-law, and his youngest daughter are registered in 2 states?

We all remember how appalled Trump was that Secretary Clinton used a private email server, right? Remember the chants of, “Lock her up!”? Take a look at this verified headline: Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private Email Server Um, Pot Meet Kettle!

First he pisses off the scientific community by “disagreeing” with their lifes’ works, then he erases all mentions of global warming/climate change from the White House and other government websites, he freezes all grants and contracts to the scientific community AND imposes a gag order on all employees of the National Parks, EPA, USDA, US Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies so that they cannot Tweet, send Emails nor comment publicly in their capacity as government employees. In some cases, via a memo that’s circulating on The Hill, that gag order extends to restrictions on communicating with Congress! After pubic outcry the USDA lifted their ban on public communications, but as of today, all other departments are still gagged. Thank God for the rabble rousers over at the National Park Service who started non-government owned Twitter accounts that cannot be shut down! Other agencies quickly followed suit.

Donald Trump has proven that vengeance is his main focus, and this Biggest F You yet to “The Donald” could very well result in mass firings, but I applaud the efforts of those who refuse to be silenced by the Mad Man occupying the Oval Office!

Mass exodus from the State Department: “the emptying of leadership in the management bureaus” is “disruptive because those offices need to be led by people who know the department and have experience running its complicated bureaucracies.” And, of course, now #TeamTrump are using state run media (Fox News) 😉 to declare that he “Fired them.” Yeah, I call Bullshit. They needed them to teach the morons how to run things. UG!

A little levity for the morning

Since Donald Trump has a habit of using the songs of artists who absolutely don’t want their music associated with him, let’s pick one that actually fits him (as much as The Rolling Stones‘ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” does)

Do you think the Trump administration’s theme song should be:

“Lies” by Thompson Twins; or
“Highway to Hell” by AC/DC?

Both are far more appropriate choices than “Hail to the Chief.” Hmmm

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To say Donald Trump brings out extreme emotions, anger, hostility, really bad language, and wildly differing opinions is a gross understatement. Because I know this, I am never this political on my blog. Alright, I’ll scale that back to, rarely. I’m rarely this political on my blog and most certainly not 3 days in a row. But into the muck I am going to slog because some of what I talked about and wished for yesterday (Cooler Heads May Still Prevail) started to happen today!

While old school (and by old, I mean those with an average age of 81) Republican Senators began the first day of confirmation hearings for Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, there was a very important piece of bi-partisan legislation introduced on the Hill: “Countering Russian Hostilities Act of 2017.”

russiasanctions

“We have been attacked by Russia. That’s no longer up to any debate,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), one of the co-sponsors of the bill. “It cannot be business as usual.”

The measure would:

Impose Visa bans and freeze the assets of “those who undermine the cyber security of public or private infrastructure and democratic institutions”
Impose sanctions on transactions with the Russian defense and intelligence sectors, potentially making it harder for banks to do business with the Russian military and spy agencies
Solidify Obama-era sanctions on Russia, imposed in response to the country’s election meddling and its 2014 annexation of Crimea – meaning, no action could be taken that implies recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
Authorize $100 million for the State Department and other U.S. agencies to fight Russian propaganda, including by supporting programs to counter “fake news”

sanctions-1 Because all sanctions bills typically contain a “national security waiver,” even if the measure receives enough votes to become law, there is little Congress could do to force the Trump administration to implement the new sanctions.

According to the Legal Information Institute, in order for the President to enact a national security waiver of application of sanctions with respect to a foreign financial institution:

The President must declare that he has determined that the waiver is in the national security interest of the United States; and
He must submit to the appropriate Congressional Committees a report on the determination and the reasons for the determination.

What gives me hope is that, in a Senate comprised of 52 Republicans and 48 Democrats, 4 of the 5 Republican Senators I named yesterday, as imperative to keeping the GOP and Trump’s agenda in check:

Senator John McCain (R) Arizona
Senator Lindsey Graham (R) South Carolina
Senator Marco Rubio (R) Florida
Senator Ben Sasse (R) Nebraska

stepped across the aisle before the inauguration to serve notice that:

The laws of our country are to be followed by all, especially the President of the United States and those he appoints or nominates to serve in his administration;
That countries that act against the United States are going to be served with sanctions by Congress;
That the President of the United States is bound by honor and oath to uphold and enforce those sanctions.