Donald Trump is getting more and more irrational every day

August 19, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET NEWS BYTES...Where Liberals Walk

Just how "worst president" is Donald Trump  

Donald Trump even worse than GWB

It's a no-brainer that Donald Trump could not come up with anything substantive on his own to run this country, so he relies on Barack Obama accomplishments to steal acclaim for. Like "claiming credit for the opening of a Shell plant in Pennsylvania this week, despite the fact that construction for the plant was first announced by the Obama administration in 2012." Others include "everything from Ford plants to jobs at Charter Communications and SoftBank.”

CNN’s John Avlon provides a litany of things T-rump had supposedly done, although in reality they were done before he even became president. Here's another...

"Trump blatantly lied when he took credit [80 times] for the VA Choice bill that expanded U.S. veterans’ options for receiving health care. The law, it turns out, was cosponsored by the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and signed into law by Obama in 2014."

 It's a given that Donald Trump will go down in history as the worst president this country has ever had--yes, worse even than George W. Bush--but the question is if and when the United states can recover from his stupidity.

Donald Trump ranks solidly last in U.S. presidents...

Next up, Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post says Donald Trump is getting more and more irrational every day. She mentions his baseless conspiracy theory about the death of Jeffrey Epstein having been caused by Bill and Hillary Clinton. In my opinion that was a move to take the attention away from the Oval Office lunatic, perhaps something we are yet to learn. She adds...

"Yet his party is willing to allow an impulsive and irrational commander in chief remain in office."

But even more worrisome than this is T-rump's loyal supporter base of double-digits who follow him no matter where he goes. The last figure I remember was around 30%, and it is a frightening fact that that many Americans stand for the same deplorable things Donald Trump stands for. Rubin leaves us with her assessment of Trump...

"that the 45th president is a reckless buffoon; a conspiratorial, racist moron, whose weird comments should be disregarded by sensible people.”

And WP's Jennifer Rubin follows her piece above with, "The king of insults can’t handle the truth about himself."  She addresses #45...

"President Trump has made more than 12,000 false or misleading statements during fewer than 1,000 days in office and has insulted hundreds of people, entire countries and our collective intelligence."

Strike-through above my own. Continuing, "When confronted with unpleasant truths about himself, however, he wigs out, according to The Post’s reporting." She is referring to the fact that Trump can't seem to shake the label of racist, a recognition that he has certainly earned honestly. If you Google "Donald Trump racist" you get 167 million hits. Finally, Rubin mentions, "taking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s word over that of the U.S. intelligence community."

That borders on treason.

White Supremacist Evangelical Republican Party loves Donald Trump

August 16, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET...News Bytes where Liberals Walk

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist who muses over how Donald Trump openly and without restraint, spouts his perpetual bigotry...  

Donald Trump in his environment

"how prominent Republicans had failed to link President Donald Trump’s incitements to violence to a rise in hate crimes following the weekend’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, that was carried out by a gunman suspected of holding white supremacist views."

He continues...

“So the party remains in lockstep behind a man who has arguably done more to promote racial violence than any American since Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization if there ever was one.”

As have other critics of Donald Trump commented, this pretty much puts T-rump on the same level as Adolph Hitler. Harking back to the atrocities of Nazi Germany, and considering the Oval Office lunatic is in charge of the most powerful country in the world--at least currently--just very simply...how can this be? Krugman told us, because of an inept and cowardly Congress. And it is something the American public will have to deal with in 2020.

Trump insider on his racism...

What is even more terrifying is the White (Supremacist) Evangelical Republican Party is solidly behind Donald Trump and will not be swayed by his white nationalism and blatant racism. I left the organized church years ago and this kind of realization makes me understand why. Here's another extremely alarming statement...

"No matter what Donald Trump does or says, most Republicans and white evangelicals are not going to criticize or break from him in 2020. It is also a fantasy that his racist rhetoric and policies will turn off most Republicans and white evangelicals."

And here's the reason from David Schultz of Counterpunch...

"What Trump has achieved is the merger and consolidation of white supremacy, white evangelicalism and Republicanism into a party that simply is about racial identity. This is the new Republican Party."

That's about as scary as it gets, at the very least when you consider the Ten Commandments. People of God are supposed to be giving and forgiving, not raging racists who hate anyone who doesn't look like them. "Recent Pew Research Centerpolls puts Trump’s approval among evangelicals at 69%, although down from a high of 78%, but still overwhelming." Schultz adds...

"The Republican Party today of Donald Trump is the product of three political movements that have consolidated to a core set of principles that focus mostly on race, but also on guns, abortion, and gay rights."

This is chilling.

Evangelicals still support Donald Trump, regardless...

Here's advice from Trump's evangelical adviser Robert Jeffress : "Make kids scared of Jesus again and stop teaching evolution to end mass shootings." This article goes on to discuss the part religion plays in ending gun violence. Matthew Chapman of Raw Story comments, "Trump is the end result of 40 years of right-wing radio hate-mongering," as Chapman quotes CNN’s Michael Smerconish...

“That’s the day [August 1, 1980] that Rush Limbaugh takes to the radio,” said journalism expert Brian Rosenwald. “And people tune in, what they hear every day is calls for action. It doesn’t make for good radio to say, hey, nuance, compromise, that stuff is boring. But fighting, that’s good radio. And Donald Trump captured that.”

Agreed, white supremacy, racism and particularly hate, could not be discussed without mentioning Russ Limbaugh, perhaps one of Donald Trump's biggest mentors. 

Donald Trump meltdown imminent

August 15, 2019: NEWS BYTES ON PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk

Four stories this morning that indicate that Donald Trump's bubble is about to burst.

The Donald Trump meltdown is here

The first is the "massive, nonsensical tweetstorm" he let out after his prior booster Fox News reported his disapproval numbers tanked and "are almost the worst they’ve ever been." Further...

"his China trade war is destroying markets worldwide. The DOW dropped 800 points Wednesday, and DOW futures are swinging “wildly.” Reports from inside the White House say aides are terrified that the economic numbers will be the end of his presidency."

In the second story, Nancy LeTourneau in the Washington Monthly said, with his presidency at risk, Trump would go to war with the world to keep it...

"We should know by now that there is no bottom to the depths Trump will go in a battle like this. To lose means obliteration, so he’ll pull out every ugly trick he can concoct. Given his positional power, that could be dangerous, so buckle up for a very bumpy ride with an overgrown toddler, who also happens to occupy the Oval Office."

And based on T-rump's approval ratings, Matt Rogers demonstrated what their findings would mean in the electoral college: If the election were held today, Democrats 419, Republicans 119. Abysmal! But, then, the election is more than a year away and a lot can happen before then, like a Democratic Party that can't get its act together and come up with the ultimate strategy to beat the GOP in 2020. Right now with some 20 candidates in play, the optimism is guarded.

MSNBC evaluates past Trump tweets...

And in the third story, AlterNet points out that, "Trump’s promise of an economic boom is proving to be a failure." To back that up...

"The GOP’s 2017 tax cut bill appears to have been a dud. The trade war with China is spooking investors. There’s little sign that the administration’s deregulatory fever is doing anything other than allowing businesses to screw consumers over and pollute more. And on top of all that, economists are increasingly worried that we may be on the brink of recession. And on Wednesday, the stock markets closed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average having dropped 800 points."

So, what does the Oval Office lunatic do, he blames Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who recently raised the interest rate for an unknown reason since there were no signs of inflation. Janet Yellen had everything under control, but Trump had to have his own man. And now the Dow is taking a nosedive and the trade war with China threatens to have more repercussions around the world. It is so tragic this country must suffer from such an incompetent moron.

Donald Trump tax cut fails...

Then finally the opinion of Alex Henderson that Donald Trump's presidency will "end in disgrace. Trump will eventually be abandoned by his biggest fans." Trump's tenure in the White House is already a disgrace and it is just unbelievable that his supporters can't see this. It would indicate to me that my past assessment of their double-digit IQs is right on. Here's the parting shot by The Week, journalist Windsor Mann ...

“It’s too soon to say when Donald Trump’s presidency will end, but it’s not too soon to say how it will end. It will end in disgrace. And when it does, Trump’s defenders will turn on him.”

It can't happen too soon for this country and the world. 

Donald Trump turns conspiracy theories into an "art"

August 15, 2019: DAILY NEWS BYTES

PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where Liberals Walk

  

The minute the Oval Office lunatic took on the mantle of white supremacy, thinking it would please many of his followers, he started diving in the polls, and it doesn't look like this trend is abating. As an example, a new poll from Quinnipiac University cites the fact that "Most Americans think Trump is racist." Although that may appeal to some of his supporters, most don't accept it.

And harking back to his 2016 win in the Electoral College--not the popular vote--2020 doesn't look good. In "six NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls spanning January-July 2019. And in all but one of them, Trump’s approval is 'underwater among suburban residents.'” 

Conspiracy theories have been with us in U.S. politics for years; remember JFK's death? But it has taken a moron like Donald Trump to move this "art" into, well, the 22nd century. In 2018, yes, even a year ago, Simon Maloy of Media Matters has compiled some of T-rump's best. Like when Trump pressured DOJ to "start an investigation into their own department’s investigation of Trump’s campaign." MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said...

“The president has now crossed one of the brightest red lines in the American rule of law: demanding the Department of Justice open a politically motivated investigation designed to sabotage the criminal and counterintelligence probe into the president’s own campaign. ”

CNN's Anderson Cooper takes on Trump conspiracy theories...

Here's a headline for ya, "White Nationalist Terrorism Is a Problem. Trump Is a Bigger One." This a statement from the Intelligencer's Eric Levitz. And then...

"Four days after a white nationalist targeted Latinos in a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso — and three weeks after the director of the FBI confirmed that white supremacist ideology is the leading driver of domestic terrorism in the U.S. — the Fox News host assured his viewers that white supremacy was a 'hoax.'”

That was one of Fox's mentally challenged reporters, Tucker Carlson. But the network says his job is safe for now. Why not, as long as he comes up with disinformation like this, he is right at home.

 Raw Story says that there are 20 different ways Donald Trump mirrors Hitler. A new book, "When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic" by Burt Neuborne, he "describes how America’s constitutional checks and balances are being pushed to the brink by a president who is consciously following Adolf Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s—when the Nazis took power in Germany."

Here's its focus...

"how America’s constitutional foundation in 2019—an unrepresentative Congress, the Electoral College and a right-wing Supreme Court majority—is not positioned to withstand Trump’s extreme polarization and GOP power grabs."

There's more...looks like the book is worth reading.

Even back to 2016 election, Trump compared to Hitler...

Is Donald Trump trying to provoke a recession? Salon's Bob Cesca had hoped for an embargo on the Republican Party after the George W. Bush years but instead, laments...we got something much worse...

"Eight years later, 62 million voters recklessly ignored the lessons of 2001 to 2009 by installing an even more incompetent, dangerous and unstable Republican administration in the White House."

Added to that, the lies and misinformation spewing from Fox News convinced Trump's base of double-digits that "the steadily improving economy of the Barack Obama administration was 'American carnage.'” Thus initiating a return to...

"the stewardship of Republicans who had been responsible for a $1.4 trillion deficit, the collapse of the stock market, more than 800,000 jobs lost in a single month and the near disintegration of both the housing market and America’s auto industry."

Donald Trump's contribution...

He "deregulated everything, weakening the post-Great Recession laws meant to curb Wall Street abuses, and punctuated his Bush-era linkage by also authorizing a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans without paying for a goddamn cent of it."

But just how much is Donald trump doing to enrich himself and his family, using the American economy to do it? Read this article to find out.

READ MORE: "Wall Street panicking: There’s a 1-in-3 chance of a recession by 2020 thanks to Trump’s trade meddling."

Repeal of the 2nd Amendment is imminent

August 14, 2019: PROGRESSIVE STREET...Where liberals Walk

Let's get rid of the 2nd Amendment...NOW  

Time to dump the 2nd Amendment

Joel Mathis of The Week says it has in his commentary that starts simply, "Enough. No more. Stop." He refers, of course, to the Garlic Festival, El Paso and the Dayton gun massacres. And all those collective incidents in the past where innocent people have died because there are too damn many guns on the street in the U.S. 393 million guns for 326 million people. Absolutely preposterous for a nation with the best military and police forces in the world.

And don't give me the bullshit about protecting yourself from a tyrannical government. That doesn't fly anymore. After 87 years on this earth, I have never had the need to use a gun, except on Shore Patrol in the Navy. Mathis relates to the killings at the Garlic Festival and El Paso, each carried out by a white supremacist with rhetoric much too familiar with that we have heard from Donald Trump before and since his election.

El Paso shooter's anti-immigrant manifesto...

Just before T-rump took off for El Paso after the shooting, in the press pool he "did not repudiate the shooter's manifesto of anti-immigration hatred and instead agreed with it." A reporter asked, “You and the shooter in El Paso used that same language. Do you regret that?” Here is the reporter's reaction to Trump...

"Instead of denying there was any connection with the mass murderer's views or repudiate the reporter for asking that question in particular, Trump instead agreed with parts of the killer's crazed manifesto."

Completely amazed, the reporter commented further...

"This is crazy. We have a mass murderer who name dropped Trump in his manifesto and used Donald's vile rhetoric and views as a linchpin for his insane manifesto and what does Trump do? 

Trump cosigns it."

Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan was a favorite of the NRA, an "A" rating, until he realized from the Las Vegas massacre that the group would never change, and would continue putting as many guns on the street as possible. To reiterate, there are 393 million guns in the U.S. for 326 million people. These two figures themselves illustrate a gun culture completely out of control, with a further realization that nothing may ever be done about it.

NBC reports...

"The entire 2020 Democratic presidential field now supports basic gun safety policies such as universal background checks, “red flag” laws that allow law enforcement to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed a threat, and banning assault weapons. On the stump, they all preach strident and urgent opposition to the NRA."

Wayne LaPierre causes NRA turmoil...

The NRA. It is and always has been the problem. With the turmoil it is currently going through, one can only hope that in a short period of time the head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre, and his minions will be a forgotten part of America's gun culture. Unfortunately, we will never be able to put the gun violence the NRA has given us out of our minds.

Guns don't kill, people do outdated and boring

August 14, 2019: Commentary on gun violence

393 million guns for 326 million people - Why guns kill  

Is this what gun rights people mean?
Makes as much sense, duh!

The time has come to look at America's gun culture and realize that we are a country of gun violence simply because of our gun laws which stem primarily from the Republican Party with the regular incitement of Wayne LaPierre and his National Rifle Assn. (NRA). We are a nation of gun nuts, defined as follows...

You are a gun nut if... 

You think assault weapons should be legal...
You object to universal background checks...
If you favor weapons straw purchases...
You oppose red flag gun laws
You think you should be able to carry your gun anywhere...
You are afraid of a national gun registry

There's more, but this is the essence of the gun rights movement that has been instilled in the minds of gun owners since Wayne LaPierre took over the NRA. The years outdated 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct, and no one must question its meaning or validity, according to these gun nuts. But 70% to 80% of NRA members want universal background checks, plus other changes, meaning the gun nuts are in the minority. They're just the ones with the loudest mouths.

NRA in turmoil...

Elie Mystal from The Nation says, "It’s Time to Repeal—and Replace—the Second Amendment," an article that no doubt makes LaPierre shudder to think anyone would attack his fabricated piece of outdated ideology. She says...

"The meaning of the amendment has been so badly mangled that our only choice is to start over with something that allows for real gun control."

Yes, and the mangled interpretations of the 2nd Amendment clearly come from the propaganda spewing of the National Rifle Assn. and its minions promoting gun violence. But lately NRA board members are dropping like flies with Julie Golob, a professional sport shooter and a strong public advocate for gun rights resigning before her tenure was up. The fourth member in the past two weeks to desert the sinking ship.

Three other board members, Esther Schneider of Texas, Sean Maloney of Ohio and Timothy Knight of Tennessee left when...

"they were stripped of their committee assignments after they asked questions about allegations of lavish spending by NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and other financial excesses."

Former SCOTUS Justice Stevens wanted to repeal 2nd Amendment...



Newsweek reports that the NRA's tax-exempt status is in danger as donors revolt with the most recent development the New York State Department of Financial Services investigation of "the NRA's now-defunct Carry Guard insurance product, which purported to insure gun owners when they kill another individual." The inquiry reportedly involves...

"kickbacks that the NRA is alleged to have received for facilitating the purchase of insurance policies. The NRA is not licensed to provide or market insurance policies and their involvement in the development of insurance services could run afoul of state law."

The NRA is in a shambles and most of it can likely be traced back to head gun nut, Wayne LaPierre. In a former post, I blogged former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens made a push recently to repeal the 2nd Amendment, following the Parkland, Florida shooting massacre. Another recent post, Big time NRA donor, David Dell’Aquila, wants Wayne LaPierre dumped, calling him radioactive. Just now realizing Wayne LaPierre has been threatening for years.

Pathetic!

Ken Cuccinelli's an idiot like all Trump appointees

August 13, 2019: TODAY'S BREAKING NEWS

This Donald Trump rant shows even more volatility  

Get this. Today...

Donald Trump coming off the spool

"US Citizenship and Immigration Services director Ken Cuccinelli revised the iconic poem adorning the Statue of Liberty. The poem, written by Emma Lazarus, welcomes the world’s 'tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'”

Cuccinelli's version...

“Give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge.”

T-rump, of course, fully approved spouting off...

“I don’t think it’s fair to have the American tax payer … you know, it’s about America first,” the president said. “I don’t think it’s fair to have the American taxpayer pay for people to come into the United States,” he added. “I am tired of seeing our taxpayer pay for people to come into the country that immediately go onto welfare and various other things.”

Here's an example of the White House mental case going berserk...

There's more, like an Epstein conspiracy tweet, calls Chris Cuomo an animal and wants to know if Bill Clinton went to Jeffrey Epstein’s island. He did this all today at a natural gas plant in Pennsylvania. Is there any correlation between this and the Oval Office lunatic's gasbag rhetoric? Back in April Vox said Trump's tweets are becoming more unhinged. Several psychologists have said that keeping pressure on Donald Trump will make him eventually break.

But when?