Trump comes away empty-handed at Singapore summit

Donald Trump was sucked into a situation that was way over his head since the man has no capacity for diplomacy. N. Korea's Kim Jong-un walked away with precisely what he went there for, to make Trump look like the idiot he is. Past presidents had the gumption to realize what had to precede a meeting of this nature, an honest compliance in denuclearization. Instead, the Oval Office lunatic settled for "little else than the release of three U.S. hostages in May." He even boasted that he, Donald Trump, didn't even need to prepare for the meeting, that he would wing it. Well, he did and failed.

As far as an agreement on denuclearization is concerned, The Daily Beast described it as "complete pablum"...

“Reaffirming the April 27, 2018, Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

All T-rump was able to accomplish, basically, was to get Kim Jong to commit to the same thing he has agreed to for years, to...

 "something like total global nuclear disarmament or bilateral arms reductions with the United States. And all North Korea will do, per the declaration, is work 'towards' this objective."

A third-grader could probably have done better.

Read more: Trump’s Singapore Summit Was a Bust—for the U.S.
                    South Korea Blindsided By Trump War Games Agreement

Trump/aides insult U.S.good friend Canada

Trudeau/Trump G-7-The man never smiles 

Following the G-7 Conference in Quebec, Donald Trump lambasted Canada's Justin Trudeau with the comment that he was "very dishonest and weak." This was in response to Trudeau's announcement of Canada's retaliatory measures it would take next month in response to the US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. But that wasn't enough when White House Director of Trade Policy Peter Navarro said...

"There is a "special place in hell" for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because of his decision to slam the U.S. in a post-G7 press conference."

And then it was top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow's turn who said, Trudeau "stabbed us in the back" with a "double cross." This was all followed by Canadian foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland's comment, "Canada does not believe that ad hominem attacks are a particularly appropriate or useful way to conduct our relations with other countries." A monumental put-down of Donald Trump, his administration and the United States. Trudeau added after the conference, “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”

I feel sure the U.S. has been taken advantage of over the years due to its wealth and generosity, but to constantly alienate allies like Canada, France and Germany, and with non-stop insults from the U.S. president himself, is sheer stupidity for a nation that has always prided itself in being a world-class peacemaker. Here's another post-conference tweet by Trump...

"Based on Justin's false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!"

Perhaps this the reason for Donald Trump's latest bullying tactics...

"Kim must not see American weakness," Kudlow said. "[Trudeau] can't put Trump in a position of being weak going into the North Korean talks with Kim. He can't do that."

There is no doubt the world sees our weakness. The U.S. President is operating without a brain.

Read more: Canada Responds After White House Says Trudeau 'Stabbed Us In The Back'
                    President Trump Blasts Canadian PM Trudeau, Calls Him “Very Dishonest And Weak”
                    There's a 'special place in hell' for Trudeau after his G7 'stunt,' top WH Trade Adviser      Peter Navarro says

More guns adds up to more suicides

According to the CDC, "Suicide rates have increased in nearly every state over the past two decades, and half of the states have seen suicide rates go up more than 30 percent." And based on "A study by the Harvard School of Public Health of all 50 U.S. states," there is "a powerful link between rates of firearm ownership and suicides." Who would have thought? The Harvard study proclaims, "Guns and suicide: A fatal link" The CDC's "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" found that...

"Guns were the most common method used for suicide, accounting for almost half of the people who died."

These are the kind of facts that have been hidden at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta due to the National Rifle Assn.'s success in ramming legislation through a paid off Congress that has made the information unavailable until now. And "54 percent of the people who killed themselves didn't have a previously known mental health issue, but 50 percent of these did have a gun. The Harvard study also found...

"that in states where guns were prevalent—as in Wyoming, where 63 percent of households reported owning guns—rates of suicide were higher. The inverse was also true: where gun ownership was less common, suicide rates were also lower."

...proving that, in spite of the NRA's proclamation that "guns don't kill, people do," guns do kill, simply because of their availability. The CDC study asserts, "American suicide is predominantly a firearm issue. Anytime we want to resolve something that involves firearms, we've need to talk about firearms explicitly." But that has been impossible up to now due to the fact that the NRA's head gun nut. Wayne LaPierre, will talk of nothing that restricts gun ownership in any way. You have to understand this radical thug actually reps gun manufacturers right to sell as many guns as possible.

The Harvard study adds...

"The lesson? Many lives would likely be saved if people disposed of their firearms, kept them locked away, or stored them outside the home. Says HSPH Professor of Health Policy David Hemenway, the ICRC’s director: 'Studies show that most attempters act on impulse, in moments of panic or despair. Once the acute feelings ease, 90 percent do not go on to die by suicide.'”

Read more: CDC: U.S. Suicide Rates Have Climbed Dramatically
                   Guns and suicide: A fatal link
                 

Suicide rates are up 30 percent since 1999, CDC says

Donald Trump has 1,655 false statements...so far

This is my new series focusing on the lies and misstatements Donald Trump has made since entering office.

His presidency has been one consisting of a common denominator...lies. The Oval office lunatic has made 1,655 false statements to date. And, we are still counting. The Toronto Star is keeping track of every false claim because...

"We think dishonesty should be challenged. We think inaccurate information should be corrected. And we think the sheer frequency of Trump’s inaccuracy is a central story of his presidency."

And so far, it hasn't been grounds for impeachment by a U.S. Congress that doesn't have a clue how much damage this idiot is doing to our country. It is as if T-rump is seriously on a rampage to sabotage America. But, back to the lies and misstatements now, starting with Canada...

"We lose a lot with Canada. People don't know it. Canada is very smooth. They have you believe that it's wonderful. And it is -- for them. Not wonderful for us; it's wonderful for them."     But...

"The U.S. has a trade surplus with Canada when trade in goods and trade in services are both counted. Trump's own Council of Economic Advisers said as much in its annual report."

Re. guns...

T-rump said, "But when the press covered it, the headline was, 'Trump wants all teachers to have guns.'"

Not true! "in fact: No major news outlet, and possibly no news outlet at all, ran a headline saying Trump wanted "all" teachers to have guns. Media outlets correctly reported that he wants some teachers to have guns."

Re. Barack Obama...

"The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls."

"in fact: No part of this claim is fully accurate. There is no indication that people involved with the probe (Robert Mueller) will be nefariously "meddling" with the midterms. Republicans do not lead in a single one of the credible "generic ballot" polls of midterm voting intentions. They briefly led in one, but it promptly bounced back to a Democratic lead."

Re. immigration...

"So they go. And they take this man (Sayfullo Saipov), right? And he got here and he's got 22 people that came in -- his mother, his father, his grandmother, his uncle, his brother, his sister. He got -- 22 people come in for this one guy. That's called chain migration -- 22 people."

This is completely false. "in fact: There is no indication that Saipov, the alleged perpetrator of the terror attack in 2017 on Manhattan's West Side Highway, brought 22 relatives into the U.S. Even Trump's own aides have declined to endorse this claim, and even anti-immigration advocates say it is wildly improbable that one man with a green card could have sponsored 22 people."

Folks, there are over 1,600 of these and some of the best are yet to come. For the first time in the history of the United States, there is someone in the White House that has based his entire presidency on dishonesty and misleading the American public. Stay tuned.

Mick Mulvaney insists on dismantling your consumer protection

Mick Mulvaney, the destroyer

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was originally proposed in 2007 by Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren. In July 2010 Congress made it official and President Barack Obama announced the appointment of then Richard Cordray as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to set up the new agency. After repeated GOP objections, Richard Cordray was eventually named acting Director; that was nixed but he would eventually become CFPB's first Director.

Through the years Republicans have done everything in their power to thwart the agency, and then Donald Trump on Nov. 25th of his first year as President described the CFPB as “a total disaster.” After repeated efforts to dismantle CFPB, he did the next best thing by nominating Mick Mulvaney as the interim director after Richard Cordray stepped down. True to form, Mulvaney has now dissolved the agency's Consumer Advisory Board. 

"It's quite clear that we've been fired," said Kathleen Engel, a law professor at Suffolk University and a member of the CFPB's Consumer Advisory Board.

NPR describes the group as, " The board is designed to help consumer groups work with the CFPB to identify problems facing Americans who are treated unfairly by financial firms." In other words, Mulvaney completely did away with the people who bring consumer problems to the forefront to be considered. It should also be noted here, "when he was in Congress, Mulvaney sponsored legislation to abolish the bureau." If Republicans had it their way the consuming public would have no avenue available on which to lodge a complaint against big business.

Here's what Ann Baddour, who chaired the board said...

"Firing the current CAPB members is another move indicating Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is only interested in obtaining views from his inner circle, and has no interest in hearing the perspectives of those who work with struggling American families."

The American public's rights could be in ruins if we don't get rid of the Oval Office lunatic soon.

Read more: Mick Mulvaney Effectively Fires CFPB Advisory Council
                 
                   Trump Wants to Dismantle Elizabeth Warren's Agency. Good Luck With That.

Government's largest conglomeration of idiots ever led by Betsy Voss

In a comparison to Sarah Palin, I don't think Betsy DeVos knows just how stupid she is. Ill prepared in most every confrontation with Congress, the general consensus is that she is just, well, stupid. Now she told the Senate appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that the Federal Commission on School Safety, which she chairs, "will not look at the role of guns in a recent spate of school shootings." OK, let's step back and look at that statement; Betsy DeVos says she refuses to explore the very component that has school children so scared they are afraid to go to school.

Brilliant!

I might remind you here that it is Betsy DeVos who also wants to get rid of the public school system. That should have been the clue that this person is not fit to be head of education in this country. But wait, Republicans are in control of the government so keeping her around makes perfect sense. The day after this ludicrous performance before Congress by DeVos, "A school shooting survivor and several students urged a White House school safety commission on Wednesday to include guns in its discussions." Once again, it is the young people who display the brains.

Donald Trump wants to arm school employes, which, according to former Sandy Hook teacher, Abbey Clements, it “sends the message that adults can’t solve the problem of gun violence in America.” Well, the problem here a firm WE CAN'T, and that is due to the interference of the National Rifle Assn. blocking the passage of reasonable gun control legislation. Here's what Clements said about arming school employees...

“I would like to make something perfectly clear — had school employees been carrying guns at Sandy Hook, it wouldn’t have made us safer. It very well might’ve made things worse.”

To compound DeVoss' stupidity, this commission she heads up for school safety was "formed after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla." And yet Betsy DeVos exclaims the commission "Won’t Look At Role Of Guns In School Shootings," adding, "The secretary of education is not charged with focusing on firearms." Where the hell do we get these people?

Read more: Betsy DeVos Says School Safety Commission Won’t Look At Role Of Guns In School Shootings

                   ‘You must understand how fast shootings happen’

Robert Kennedy shooting pulled NRA's chain

Typical NRA gun nut

Robert Kennedy was assassinated on June 5, 1968, and, while some have raised doubts recently about who the assassin was, Sirhan Sirhan is still the choice of most historians. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King had been killed in 1963, all by guns. Bobby Kennedy had just won the California primary in the 1968 presidential election. Reactions were quick...

"President Lyndon B. Johnson called for a sweeping gun control law. Anti-gun protesters picketed the Washington headquarters of the National Rifle Association as public sentiment zeroed in on guns as a major problem."

Sirhan was 24 at the time and in the passageway through the kitchen, he shot Kennedy numerous times from a snub-nosed revolver. The presidential candidate was hit in his brain, his neck, and one shot grazed his forehead. Conspiracy theorists were abundant in a copycat of John Kennedy's killing. Journalist Jules Witcover, who was there with Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador...

“His hour of political triumph became another hour of mindless tragedy in a nation that cannot or will not keep weapons of death from the hands of madmen who walk its streets.”

It was four months after Robert Kennedy's assassination and, having waning powers with Congress, primarily due to the Vietnam War, Johnson was able to pass a watered-down gun control bill. Key provisions like national registration of guns and licensing of owners was missing, thanks to the National Rifle Assn. lobbying. And then it happened...

"The 1968 bill marked the beginning of the NRA’s transformation from a gun enthusiast organization focused on marksmanship and gun safety to a political lobbying group focused on opposing gun control."

The gun nuts stumbled along for several years until Wayne LaPierre joined the NRA in 1977, becoming the head gun nut in 1991. It is LaPierre who has championed the 2nd Amendment crusade with success in convincing his gun hugging membership that the government wants to take away all their guns. The organization is responsible for keeping assault weapons on the street, which makes the NRA culpable for the 346 mass shootings in 2017 alone. Worse, there have been 23 school shootings in 2018, one a week, again thanks to LaPierre's proliferation of guns.

So, it was a combination of Bobby Kennedy's assassination and President Lyndon Johnson's determination to pass meaningful gun control legislation that prompted the bizarre demands of Wayne LaPierre's National Rifle Assn. today, an insistence that has caused the loss of thousands of innocent lives. With so much blood on their hands, you would think the NRA would be a leader in some form of responsible gun control. But it's not going to happen, and I am coming to the conclusion the only answer is to take away all guns and start over again.

Read more: The Shooting of Robert Kennedy and the Transformation of the NRA
                    The Biography of NRA Director Wayne LaPierre
                    Mass shootings in the U.S.: 346 mass shootings occurred in 2017
                    There has been, on average, 1 school shooting every week this year