I wanted to wish everyone as wonderful and safe Fourth of July. I love this holiday for how it brings together Americans of different political and cultural values. We celebrate our common article of faith in not just our Declaration of Independence but our Constitution. In our current poisonous political environment, this is a day where we can transcend the anger and vitriol for just a day to remember what we have in common as opposed to what we have in conflict. Perhaps we could even recollect what it was like to have civil discourse over our future and our leaders. It is not nearly as implausible as it may seem. After all, we celebrate today the most implausible of events: a small ragtag collection of colonies defeating the most powerful nation on Earth. So, perhaps on this day we can all strive a bit harder to have a civil and respectful dialogue with those holding opposing views. Americans love politics and today is a great day to debate the future of our country. However, it is also a day to remember what binds us rather than divides us as a nation. Ok, enough preaching. Now for the fun.
There is an old axiom that “Generals always fight the last war.” Such was the case in World War I with the failure to anticipate the impact of machine guns or, in World War II, the image of Polish cavalry charging German Panzer tanks with lances. Politicians can often fall victim to the same strategic blindness. This week, President Trump again declared that he would not stop tweeting and specifically noted that tweeting was key to his winning the election. In other words, the last war. Yet, the issue is not really Twitter but tactics.
In his latest Tweet storm, Trump insisted that his use of social media “is not Presidential—it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!” He also told his followers that “the FAKE & FRAUDLENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media—but remember, I won … the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media. I had to beat #FakeNews, and did. We will continue to WIN!” He later followed the tweet with a disturbing altered video clip of his physically attacking a CNN figure.
The fact is that Trump may have changed modern politics but not necessarily the modern presidency. There is a difference and that lesson can be found in the presidency of none other than Bill Clinton.
Continue reading “FIGHTING THE LAST WAR: TRUMP NEEDS TO CHANGE HIS MESSAGE NOT HIS MEDIUM”
One would think that, after Cedric Jelks accidentally shot himself in the penis, most police and prosecutors would consider the act to be punishment enough. However, the 38-year-old Jacksonville man is a convicted felon and was not allowed to possess a gun. He may now be criminally charged on top of his self-inflicted injury.
Continue reading “Adding Insult To Injury: Man Who Shot Himself May Face Criminal Charges”
It must be challenging to be a columnist in an authoritarian Kingdom where you are expected to heap praise on the King while avoiding the line that divides utter fawning and divine worship. It appears that Ramadan al-Anzi crossed that line and is now suspended for using praise reserved to the Almighty as opposed to the merely magnificent.
Continue reading “Saudi Government Suspends Columnist For Praising King With Words Reserved For God”
We have previously discussed how employees are now routinely fired for acting inappropriately in their private lives. Such is the case with Ken Pagan who decided that it was a good idea to throw a beer at a Baltimore Orioles player in the seventh inning in the wild card game last year. Pagan was fired by Postmedia Network Inc. once his name emerged in the subsequent coverage. Now Pagan has pleaded guilty to mischief in a plea bargain.
Continue reading “Blue Jays Fan Pleads Guilty To Being Beer Can Tosser”
As discussed yesterday, President Donald Trump has said the he will not yield in his continuing tweets with personal or insulting attacks on the media, political opponents, and journalists. To drive that point vividly home, he re-posted a video showing him punching a man with the CNN logo on his head during a wrestling match. It seems a posting designed to virtually taunt his aides and allies on the Hill who have tried to convey to him that these tweets are alienating allies and costing the GOP critical time and energy.
Continue reading “Trump Posts Video Showing Him Physically Attacking CNN Figure”
Yesterday, Republicans lined up to denounce the insulting tweets posted by President Donald Trump as degrading for the Office of the President and damaging to the GOP agenda. However, this morning Trump was again on Twitter calling Joe Scarborough “Crazy” and Mika Brzezinski “dumb as a rock.” He also unleashed attacks on CNN and the media. GOP leaders and 71 percent of the public have said that these tweets are harming his presidency, but Trump continues unabated. The fact that the President would resume name-calling after his own party leaders begged him to stop is a matter a considerable concern among Republicans.
Continue reading “Trump Resumes Tweets With Personal Attacks Despite Bipartisan Criticism”
By: Cara L. Gallagher, weekend contributor
It was back to the Supreme Court for me this week. An unusually sleepy end of the October 2016 term, except for gossip of a potential retirement (Kennedy, not Ginsburg, this time), came to a dramatic end when the Chief Justice announced in the final minutes of the Court’s last day that they would hear the travel ban/pause cases next term.
There were two clear victories on Monday with this announcement that the Justices would hear the government’s cases defending President Trump’s two executive orders. One was for an imam named Dr. Ismail Elshikh, whose mother-in-law in Syria will now be able to travel to the United States. The other went to John Doe, an anonymous lawful resident who has been trying to get his wife home from Iran. Their victories came in the form of exceptions to the orders which allow their families to be reunited.
The rest of the Court’s 13-page order largely holds onto the spirit of the executive orders issued by the President, with some caveats.
Using the text of the decision, below is what the Supreme Court said in the grant, followed by the potential effects of those decisions, what all this means, and what happens next.
Background and the previous cases
Continue reading “The real winners in SCOTUS’s decision on the travel ban orders”
Alex Jones has been repeatedly accused of running false stories on his InfoWars program. However, this week one guest caused jaws to drop and prompted a NASA spokesman to deny that it has kidnapped children and worked them as slaves on a Mars colony. Of course, that is exactly what National Aeronautics and Slaves Administration (NASA) would say if it was kidnapping children and working them slaves on a Mars colony.
Continue reading “Martian Slave Babies! Alex Jones Airs Theory On Kidnapped Children Raised On Mars”
In the aftermath of the vicious tweets against MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, there was an intriguing allegation that three top Trump Administration officials called Joe Scarborough and threatened that, if he did not call Trump to apologize for his negative comments, the National Enquirer would run a hit piece on the hosts. The allegation is deeply troubling and, while it would not necessarily constitute a crime, it would raise a serious question of abuse of office in the use of staff to convey such an alleged threat. With all of the understandable passion following the tweets. this is a very significant allegation and one that was not previously disclosed. It has not appeared in both print and on air by the hosts, who are obviously sticking by this chilling account of what they say was a campaign to intimidate them. The White House has denied the allegations and said that Scarborough has misrepresented his call to the White House.
Without fanfare, the Justice Department dropped the long fight over stripping the trademark protections from the Washington Redskins football team as an offensive term. I have long been a critic of the action taken by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and said at the time that the action was flagrantly unconstitutional. Now millions have been spent but the case is withdrawn in light of the recent decision in Matal v. Tam.
Continue reading “Sacked: Justice Department Drops Fight To Strip Redskins of Trademark Protections”
A letter from fifty-eight Republican lawmakers calls upon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to recuse herself in the travel ban case scheduled to be argued in October. While there is a fair chance that the case could be moot by October as I previously discussed, a recusal is highly unlikely despite that fact that Ginsburg’s comments were highly inappropriate and troubling. I have been a long critic of Ginsburg’s public speeches and comments as raising serious ethical issues and undermining the integrity of the Court. However, the Court has long declared itself outside of the enforcement of the Code of Judicial Ethics. The result is a dreadful record of self-regulation and Ginsburg is only the latest disturbing example. Ironically, while the media has rightfully raised inappropriate public comments about Trump, it has shown little interest in the inappropriate comments of Ginsburg.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 37, is a leading Vietnamese blogger known as “Mother Mushroom” has been writing for years to expose the torture and oppression of the one-party state. This week Vietnam showed the world that, despite its portrayal as one of the world’s emerging economies, it remains an authoritarian warmed-over Communist regime. It convicted Quynh and sentenced her to 10 years in jail. For telling people the truth about their government.
Continue reading “Blogger Sentenced To Ten Years In Jail In Vietnam”
A new shocking study has found that 1 in every 5 of the 230,000 in Los Angeles Community College District are homeless and another two-thirds cannot afford food costs. It is a chilling statistic that offers an insight into economic strata in the country and the marginal economic conditions for so many people.
Continue reading “Study: Twenty Percent Of LA Community College Students Are Homeless”
This morning began with what has become a Washington ritual. We all wake by the chirp of a morning presidential tweet and brace ourselves for what follows. Even with past tweet controversies, this morning’s missive was breathtaking. President Donald Trump attacked the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe show in a pair of tweets that included a highly disturbing attack on co-host Mika Brzezinski. The tweet was not simply unpresidential, it was unhinged and inexcusable.Continue reading “Trump Unleashes Personal Attack On The Hosts Of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe””