The
Drumpfster Fire
chronicles Week
6
The
Drumpfster Fire
chronicles Week
6
A Talbot‑‑Heindl Experience LLC Zine By: Chris Talbot‑‑Heindl
February
25 2017
he Mayor of Paris and the President of France responded to Drumpf’s story about his friend Jim (no last name) who hasn’t gone to Paris because “Paris is no longer Paris” due to rampant terrorism according to Drumpf. Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted, “To @realDonaldTrump and his friend Jim, in @LaTourEiffel we celebrate the dynamism and the spirit of openness of #Paris with Mickey & Minnie” with a picture with the two characters.
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rumpf announced that he would not attend the White House Correspondence Dinner via twitter. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders expanded, “You know, one of the things we say in the south, ‘If a Girl Scout egged your house, would you buy cookies from her?’ I think that this is a pretty similar scenario. There’s no reason for him to go in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another Saturday night.”
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February
26 2017
study put out by the Refugee Processing Center found that despite Press Secretary’s rhetoric that it was business as usual, during the week when Drumpf’s Muslim Ban was in effect, only 15% of the 843 refugees admitted were Muslim, compared to a weekly average of 45% in 2016. Only two refugees were allowed in from the banned country, compared to a weekly average of 1,800 in 2016.
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story was leaked about the leaks of the White House. Press Secretary Sean Spicer scoured his aides government-issued and personal cell phones so that he could check for communications with journalists. He told them that using encrypted texting apps was a violation. He also demanded that the details of what he did not be shared with the press. It was, of course, leaked.
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shgar Farhadi won an Oscar, but decided not to attend the event due to Drumpf’s Muslim Ban. In his place, he sent a statement and two Iranian-Americans, Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space traveler, and Firouz Naderi, a former director at NASA. In his statement, he wrote, “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear. A deceitful justification for aggression and war…”
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second vandalism at a Jewish cemetery occurred in Philadelphia. At least 75 headstones at Mount Carmel Cemetery were knocked over and several headstones were broken. Since 2017 started, there have been 89 threats at 72 Jewish community centers and day schools in 30 states and Canada.
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February
26 2017
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he father of Chief Owens, who died on January 29 during the botched Yemen raid, said that he refused to meet with Drumpf on the day his son’s body was returned. “I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him. Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen – everything was missiles and drones – because there was not a target worth one American life. Now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?”
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t the 2017 Governors Ball, Drumpf thanked the governors for attending, “and your families and wives…I mean, I’ve seen daughters come tonight. I’ve seen wives,” betraying his gender bias that he doesn’t actually realize that some governors are straight women who don’t actually have wives.
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he story of Juan Carlos Hernandez Pacheco, a local pillar in an overwhelmingly Drumpf town, being targeted and arrested for deportation due to Drumpf’s expanded immigration laws came out. Pacheco was the manager of La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant, for a decade. He was part of the Rotary Club, cancer fundraisers, clean ups, scholarships for the local sports teams, fed firefighters, hosted a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, and much more for his town. Tom Jordan, mayor of the 70% Drumpf town, wrote Pachecho was a “great asset” to the city who “doesn’t ask for anything in return.”
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February
27 2017
rumpf said on Fox and Friends that Obama is “behind” the protests at GOP lawmakers’ town halls and leaks coming from the White House. “No, I think that President Obama is behind it, because his people are certainly behind it and some of the leaks, possibly come from that group, some of the leaks – which are really very serious leaks because they’re very bad in terms of national security.”
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rumpf’s adminstration is no longer challenging the strict Texas voter ID law since Attorney General Jeff Sessions took charge. The Federal courts have ruled that the 2011 law, which requires seven forms of photo ID to cast a ballot, discriminates against black and Hispanic Americans. The Justice Department under Obama had joined the civil rights groups, but under Sessions’ leadership, the voter suppression law will not be challenged.
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rumpf announced, “We are going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people.” He stated that the $54 billion increase in defense spending would be covered by equal cuts to domestic programs. He claimed that no cuts would be made to “entitlement” programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which put him at odds with all of his Republican colleagues.
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asically Drumpf’s entire budget centers on avoiding hard decisions. He’s looking at making astronomical cuts to programs with tiny budgets, devastating for the people who depend on those programs but will make such a tiny dent in the overall budget. He’s promised to make huge cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Legal Services Corporations. The three of these combined account for 0.03% of the budget.
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February
27 2017
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espite Drumpf’s continuous shit fits about unnamed sources, White House budget officials insisted on anonymity as they detailed Drumpf’s spending plans to reporters on a conference call. They also refused to put the briefing on the record.
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rumpf met with health insurance CEOs to slam Obamacare for a while rather than talking to actual constituents. Drumpf stated that together they had to “save Americans from Obamacare.” Of course, the insurers present were 100% male, because “women at the table” is reserved for his daughter or when the topic is women at the table.
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n his listening session with Health Insurance CEOs, he continued his #altfacts about how disastrous Obamacare is. “Since it has gone into effect, premiums are up by almost 100 percent in many areas…And you just take a look at what’s happening in various states like Arizona – I believe it was up 116 percent; it’s going to be worse this year.” What he failed to mention is that the increases are pre-tax credit. In Arizona, the cost before tax credit has jumped 145%, but after the tax credit, there is a $0 change from 2016. The tax credit takes care of the increase. 72% of current marketplace enrollees can find a plan for $75 or less in premiums per month after tax credits. No one with employerbased, or government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, or the Department of Veterans Affairs will see an increase.
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rumpf told another #altfact to the Health Insurance CEOs, claiming that “It has gotten so bad that nearly 20 million Americans have chosen to pay the penalty, or received an exemption rather than buy insurance.” The truth is that 7.5 million chose to pay the penalty. That is 2% of the population, which is statistically insignificant. The 20 million number he’s likely referencing is actually the number of Americans who didn’t have health insurance pre-Obamacare that now do. But Drumpf has claimed the law covered “very few people.”
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rumpf slammed Democrats to the Health Insurance CEOs saying that they needed to stop obstructing him. “And that’s what they have – in fact, they have a sign, ‘resist, resist.” They want to resist everything…It’s called obstruct and resist. Hope I didn’t give them a new phrase, because their real phrase is ‘resist.’ I think I just gave them another word. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m good at branding.”
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ormer president George W. Bush critiqued Drumpf’s statements against the press in an interview on the Today show. “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. We need an independent media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse power…”
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ush responded to Drumpf’s Muslim Ban by offering a defense of religious freedom, “I think it’s very important for all of us to recognize one of our great strengths is for people to be able to workshop the way they want to or to not worship at all…I understood right off the bat that this was an ideological conflict and people who murder the innocent are not religious people – they want to advance an ideology and we have faced those kinds of ideologues in the past.”
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rumpf lied again. When asked, “Do you support a special prosecutor on Russia?” Drumpf responded, “I haven’t called Russia in 10 years.” This despite the Saturday phone call with Putin on January 29, 2017 and that he held Miss Universe in Moscow in 2013 and talked deals there. His tweet from November 10, 2013: “I just got back from Russia-learned lots & lots. Moscow is a very interesting and amazing place! U.S. MUST BE VERY SMART AND VERY STRATEGIC.”
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February
27 2017
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couple of cities held pro-Drumpf rallies. Drumpf recently tweeted “Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!” Each had about a handful of supporters; less than the lines at a Denver bus stop. Raleigh, Atlanta each had a couple dozen people. St. Augustine had about 100. Denver had around 100 people. As a comparison, the smallest anti-Drumpf rally in Denver, which has seen at least one every week, brought about 700 people.
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n his speech to the National Governors Association, Drumpf slammed environmental laws and pesky environmental rules saying, “I know many of you…have many projects that are – I mean, just literally tied up because of environmental concerns, and it’s been in for years and years and years the project your state wants, great for employment – everybody wants them – and they couldn’t get them out of environmental protection. And we will get them out.”
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uring his speech, Drumpf confirmed he didn’t know how government worked. “So we can’t get our people through Cabinet, but he went through – was it 95 to nothing?” Secretary Shulkin had to inform him that there are actually 100 Senators, not 95.
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rumpf repeated the #altfact that his anti-immigration stance was about focusing on “the bad ones” despite all the stories of upstanding citizens being deported, who have committed no crime other than being undocumented. “We’re getting some very, very bad players out of this country – drug lords, gang members, heads of gangs, killers, murderers - we’re getting them out.” He then complained that the press isn’t covering it.
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lso in his speech to the National Governors Association, Drumpf finally realized that health care was hard. “I have to tell you it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” This of course made Bernie Sanders laugh, as well as likely everyone who’s ever sat in a meeting about it. Drumpf then disregarded opinion polls stating, “People hat it. But now they see that the end is coming and they’re saying, ‘Oh, maybe we love it.’ There’s nothing to love. It’s a disaster, folks.”
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he Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney discussed Drumpf’s budget during the press briefing. The top line defense discretionary number is $603 billion; the top line non-defense number (everything else) is $462 billion. This includes increasing our nuclear capacity.
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hen asked how such a cut will be put to the non-defense budget, Director Mulvaney stated that it would be a process. “Each agency will get its top line number along with recommendations from OMB as to how we think they can hit that number.” When pressed as to how, “But we’re not talking about 2 or 3 percent – we’re talking about double-digit reductions, and that’s a lot,” Director Mulvaney didn’t have anything specific.
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ress Secretary Sean Spicer reiterated the #altfacts about the increases in silver plans in the states. “…for standard silver plans in the states, 63% increase in Tennessee, 69% increase in Oklahoma, and a staggering 116% increase in Arizona. With the tax credits, the change for Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Arizona would be 0%.
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February
27 2017
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lthough many reports corroborate that the Drumpf adminstration has not responded to questions or requests for comments from reporters, Press Secretary Sean Spicer claimed that reporters were not asking any. When pressed about the news article that he and Drumpf called “fake,” he claimed that the FBI deputy director told them to hold back and not respond. He later claimed that the administration had been responsive and that the allegation that showed up in The New York Times article had been debunked before it went live.
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reporter then asked if there was “something odd about the White House Press Secretary getting the CIA director on the phone to knock down a story about an investigation?” He again passed the buck and reiterated that US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Nunes has seen nothing that corroborates the story.
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nother reporter asked if there was going to be an investigation into Russian interference. Spicer indicated that the House and Senate have looked at it, the intelligence community has looked at it. “I think that Russia’s involvement in activity has been investigated up and down. So the question becomes at some point, if there’s nothing to further investigate, what are you asking people to investigate.” The reporter then asked, “Can you not categorically deny there were no contacts between the Russians and anybody on the campaign?” Spicer responded, “I can’t deny – I can’t – I guess my question is – “ to which the reporter concluded, “That’s what the investigation would look at.”
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reporter repeated Nancy Pelosi’s statement “Five weeks into his administration, President Trump has not introduced a single jobs bill,” and asked for a reaction. Press Secretary Spicer claimed that “he’s created a lot of jobs.” He claimed that working with Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare and getting rid of regulation on businesses would lead to job creation.
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picer was asked if there would be an investigation into Chief Owens’ death. As his father stated, “The government owes my son an investigation.” Spicer answered by enumerating the standard reviews in a case like this – loss of life, civilian involvement, and hardware damage. The reporter followed up, “As you said, that is standard procedure. Is there anything the President is particularly curious about with this mission, in that it was brought to him, he authorized it quickly?” Spicer reiterated that it was an Obama mission that had to wait for a moonless night and added, “But it’s something that, as a SEAL and as somebody who deployed 12 times, he knew that this was part of the job and he knew what we was doing…”
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hen asked why Drumpf continues to try and defend his first Muslim Ban in court when he is writing up a new one. Spicer interrupted to state “I mean, because we were right the first time.” The reporter asked if the Drumpf administration was trying to prove a point. Spicer claimed it wasn’t to prove a point, but because they were right. “…we believe that the law is very clear about giving the President the authority that he needs to protect the country. So just dropping that is not necessarily the most prudent thing.”
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picer was asked to respond to the growing concern that it costs $60,000 per day in overtime pay every time Drumpf travels to Mar-a-Lago. “Is the President taking any steps to ensure that taxpayers aren’t saddled with tremendous costs in his travel habits, considering he was so critical of his predecessor on that matter?” Spicer simply responded that the Secret Service has to protect the President and First Family and swiftly ended the press conference.
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February
27 2017
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ice President Pence had a listening session with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The listening session was not much of one. HBCU presidents were given two minutes each that was then cut to one minute, and only 7 out of the 15 speakers were able to do even that. It makes you wonder if the event was really about the black community or just a photo op to show that Drumpf cares about the black community.
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ecretary of Education Betsy DeVos used the HBCU listening session to amplify her own agenda, namely having vouchers so that people don’t have to get a public education. She compared her school voucher program to HBCUs founding, “They started rom the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education…HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater equality.” What her color blind and tone-deaf message missed was that HBCUs rose up through Jim Crow laws, when public schools refused black students. It wasn’t about have more choices; it was about having any education at all.
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February
28 2017
rumpf suggested that the anti-Semitic threats, attacks, and vandalism across the US were actually done by the Jewish community. He told a group of state of attorneys general that “sometimes it’s the reverse, to make people, or to make others, look bad.” He may have gotten that idea from tweets from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, white nationalist Mike Cernovich.
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rumpf blamed his generals for the botched raid in Yemen in an interview with Fox News. “This was something that was, you know, just – they wanted to do. And they came to see me and they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected…And they lost Ryan.”
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ormer President George W. Bush said in an interview with People Magazine that he hadn’t spoken up previously because he didn’t want to complicate the job for Drumpf, “However, at the Bush Center we are speaking up.” The Bush Center focuses on leadership training for Muslim women from the Middle East.
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n the interview, Bush accused Drumpf of alienating people. “I don’t like the racism and I don’t like the name-calling and I don’t like the people feeling alienated. Nobody likes that.” He also stated that Drumpf’s Muslim Ban would not stop his Center from doing its work. “We’ll figure out how to bring them over.”
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ttorney General Jeff Sessions said in an address to the National Association of Attorneys General that the Department of Justice would back away from monitoring police departments that had civil rights abuses. “We need to, so far as we can, in my view, help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness... So we’re going to try and pull back on this, and I don’t think it’s wrong or mean or insensitive to civil rights or human rights.”
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February
28 2017
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uring the press gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, she passed off just about every question with “But until I’ve had a chance to have a conversation with the President, I’m not going to speak to that any further.” When different reporters tried to get a clear response by asking related questions, she condescendingly stated, “I love that if we keep asking the same question we think we might get a different answer. I know. I appreciate the effort; I think you guys get As for effort.”
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eputy Press Secretary Sanders was asked to comment on Drumpf’s accusations that Obama was being the protests. “What tangible evidence is President Trump basing this on?” Sanders replied, “I’ll let the President’s comments on that stand for itself.” When pressed, she said, “Look, I think the bottom line here is that we’ve all condemned the protests. I think that’s the bigger story here. And the focus that we should be talking about is that this isn’t something that helps and moves us forward.”
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rumpf started his remarks to the Joint Congress by asking Congress to work with him. “The time for trivial fights is over,” he said. This from the man who spent weeks talking about the size of his inauguration crowd, calling news that disagreed with him “fake,” chiding Democrats and slandering specific members of Congress, etc, etc, etc.
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rumpf also finally acknowledged the shooting in Kansas City, where a white supremacist shot at two and killed one Indian man shouting, “Get out of my country!” “Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.” Kudos to whoever wrote that and for Drumpf for finally just staying on script.
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uring Drumpf’s remarks to the Joint Congress, he repeated the #altfacts about Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed, Intel, and Walmart staying in the US and not taking their business overseas. (See Week 3). He also repeated the #altfact that the Pipelines he green lit will create tens of thousands of jobs. (See Week 5).
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rumpf claimed that he ended a regulation that threatened “the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners.” What he actually did was remove regulations that protect our clean air and water. There’s no correlation between the removal of any regulation and an increase in jobs. In fact, there are only 70,000 coal mining jobs in the US because of increased mechanization and because of the shift to cheaper natural gas.
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rumpf, in a list of his accomplishments included, “We are removing gang members, drug dealers, and criminals…the bad ones” in reference to his immigration policy. Obama had been doing that, and had actually removed more than all other previous administrations. However, Drumpf has called for all undocumented immigrants to be deported and has not focused on “the bad ones.”
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rumpf claimed that according to data from the Department of Justice, “the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside our country.” The claim is a complete #altfact. Even if you reduce the terrorists to just a pool of Muslim terrorists, only 8 out of 399 were illegal immigrants and 16 were refugees or asylum seekers. Drumpf is citing a report from the newly appointed AG, Jeff Sessions, and it’s a flat out lie.
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February
28 2017
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hile Drumpf’s claim that “Ninety-four million Americans are out of the labor force,” he’s including high school students, college students, people with disabilities, those that have chosen to stay at home as parents or homemakers, and retirees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 7.6 million people were unemployed but wanted to be employed. He also implied that the amount of people on food stamps were high, and while his number was true, it is actually down 3.5 million from the previous year, so it is getting better due to Obama’s policies.
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rumpf went on to blame NAFTA for the lost of one-fourth of the US’s manufacturing jobs. While it’s true that the US has lost one-fourth of those jobs, the reason is mechanization of jobs that used to be done by workers, not foreign companies. America’s manufacturing output is the largest it’s ever been, but the jobs have gone to machines, not people.
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rumpf reiterated the partial, but misleading fact of “triple digit” premium increases. The only triple digit increase is Arizona, but the tax credit brings the increase back down to $0. He continued that those in Congress need to “work with us to save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster.” The fact is that millions of Americans with lower incomes have obtained coverage for the first time with federal subsidies, have reduced premiums and outof-pocket costs. The GOPs attacks on Obamacare have so far only destabilized the markets more.
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rumpf claimed that “my administration wants to work with members of both parties…to promote clean air and clean water.” This just hours after he signed an Executive Order to begin overturning a water regulation aimed at protecting rivers, streams, and wetlands. Everything he’s done since he began has shown that he values his friends’ businesses more than clean air and clean water.
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rumpf spoke about VOICE – Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement – a new officer in the Department of Homeland Security. He claimed it would provide “a voice to those who have been ignored by our media and silenced by special interests” although there is no evidence that it happening. What he failed to mention was that, according to a memo, it would be funded by money that would normally go toward defending undocumented immigrants. He then paraded victims of crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants. Statistically, undocumented immigrants commit crimes at an overwhelmingly lower rate than non-immigrants.
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March
1 2017
epresentative Ryan Zinke was confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of the Department of the Interior. As a Congressman, Zinke repeatedly sold out public lands to corporations and has a 4% lifetime rating on the League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard.
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espite Drumpf’s speech to the Joint Congress yesterday claiming that his administration wanted to work together and come together as one, Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s press gaggle was as divisive as ever. He slammed specific Democrats, talking about how they were ruining Drumpf’s olive branch and making snide remarks about “I’m glad to see that he has finally found one area that he’s willing to work with the President on.”
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espite Drumpf’s speech to the Joint Congress yesterday claiming “Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies,” in front of Chief Owens’ crying widow, the Pentagon and multiple US officials have acknowledged that none of the intelligence from the raid has proven “actionable or vital.”
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ew information came to light that Attorney General Jeff Sessions (then Senator Sessions) spoke twice last year with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, information he did not inform Senators during his hearings, even when asked point blank by Senator Al Franken. One of those calls was in September, during the height of the Russian meddling concern. Sessions has not recused himself from overseeing an investigation at the Department of Justice of the Trump-Russia connection.
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irst Lady, Melania Trump visited the Children’s Hospital in Washington D.C. while her husband worked to strip health care from 13 million children. Her solution, “the gift of nature and the beauties of the outdoors” would heal the children.
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he President of The Morehouse Community College (one of the HBCUs to visit the White House) published a scathing statement on his visit. “since President Trump pledged to ‘do more for HBCUs than any other president has done before,’ we could have reasonably expected him to get started by announcing at least an additional $500 million to HBCUs...this year!” He went on to call out DeVos’ “discordant note” with her post.
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March
2 2017
he Senate voted 58-41 to confirm retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He didn't receive the kind of pushback that other appointees did, presumably because, although he had no experience whatsoever, he also didn't have horrible violations like all the others. Although he grew up receiving food stamps and other support, he personally believes the Republican standard that government assistance leads to dependence.
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he Senate also voted 62-37 to confirm Rick Perry as the head of the Energy Department, despite the fact that Perry couldn't remember the Department's name not to long ago and once pledged to eliminate the Department altogether. The confirmation could have something to do with his recent backpedaling on the Energy Department being useless and his backpedaling on climate change being a hoax.
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22-year-old Dreamer who came to this country when she was 7, was arrested by ICE after speaking to the media about her family’s detention. She spoke about her father and brother who were both arrested by ICE on their way to work. She was arrested after leaving the press conference. She had this to say: “I mean I can’t help that I was brought here but I don’t know anything else besides being here and I didn’t realize that until I was in a holding cell last night for 5 hours.”
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ouse Intelligence Committee Chairman Representative Devin Nunes in a press gaggle threatened the press about pursuing the Trump-Russia connections. “Do you want us to conduct an investigation on you or other Americans because you were talking to the Russian embassy?”
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n his first day in office, Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke revoked Obama’s phase out of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on national wildlife refuges. Nearly 500 scientific papers show that lead ammunition causes lead poisoning in 130 species of birds and animals. I guess Zinke wants his prey to be sick from lead poisoning when he goes to shoot it, being such an avid huntsman.
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fter letting it linger for a bit, Attorney General Jeff Sessions finally recused himself from the Russia investigation. “In retrospect,” Mr. Sessions told reporters, “I should have slowed down and said, ‘But I did meet one Russian official a couple of times, and that would be the ambassador.’ ”
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OP controlled states across the nation began filing and signing bills to limit protests and punish protesters. At least 16 states have filed bills like one in Tennessee that would relieve drivers who hit someone deliberately blocking a street in protest. This particular law came after a Nashville driver hit safety workers who were escorting anti-Trump protesters at a crosswalk.
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ost Republican Senators came to Attorney General Jeff Session's defense and held to the rhetoric that the Russian leak was no big deal and that an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election was unnecessary, even as Sessions recused himself. In fact, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah's concern isn't whether or not the election was hacked, but rather, “My concern is why are our Democratic senators so doggone rude?"
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ew information came to light that Jared Kuschner, Drumpf’s sonin-law and current senior advisor, was in the meetings with Flynn and Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador in December, but didn’t disclose it.
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2 2017
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espite having to vote on the measure in one week, Democrats and one Republican, Rand Paul, attempted and failed to see the Obamacare replacement bill. Paul tweeted: “I have been told that the House Obamacare bill is under lock & key, in a secure location, & not available for me or the public to view.”
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rumpf gave a little speech aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, where he talked about how he’s going to help the military win wars. “We’re going to start winning again... Our Navy is now the smallest it’s been since, believe it or not, World War I. Don’t worry, it’s going to soon be the largest it’s been. Don’t worry. Think of that. Think of that.”
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leaked report reiterated that there was no credible national security rationale for Drumpf’s Muslim Ban. The internal Department of Homeland Security document reads: “We assess that most foreignborn, US-based violent extremists likely radicalized several years after their entry to the United States, limiting the ability of screening and vetting officials to prevent their entry because of national security concerns.”
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March
3 2017
rumpf’s pledge that the new pipeline projects need to be made with American steel will not apply to Keystone apparently despite his assistance that it would. Michael Brune, executive director of Sierra Club had this to say: “Donald Trump has sought to portray himself as some sort of master negotiator, but he clearly needs to spend more time in an apprenticeship. Just days ago, Trump pledged before the country and Congress that the Keystone XL pipeline that he was forcing on this country would be made with American steel, but instead, he was outmaneuvered by a foreign company that wants to use imported steel.”
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rumpf recovered from his prepared speech and began delivering more twitter gems, like: “It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet.” This is of course his own fault for nominating folks that didn’t want the job and folks who were grossly unqualified. If he’d pick better candidates, they would have been approved, as the Senate has a Republican majority and they changed the rules so that no Democrat even need be present.
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ttorney General Jeff Sessions didn’t want to be out of the #altfact game, so he went on Fox News and said that he didn’t know whether Russia wanted to Drumpf to win over Clinton. “People are bringing forth evidence, and there are congressional committees that are investigating that, and I believe the truth will come out. It usually does,” he said.
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