US in the middle of a coup by Donald Trump, warns Michael Moore, Yonatan Zunger

The US is in the middle of a coup and hasn't realized it, according to Michael Moore.

The filmmaker and journalist, who was one of the few famous people to publicly predict that Donald Trump would become President, has warned that the US state is being overthrown by Mr Trump and the people he has appointed to govern alongside him.

Linking to a New York Times piece about the role of senior advisor Steve Bannon, he posted on Twitter: "If you're still trying to convince yourself that a 21st century coup is not underway, please, please snap out of it".

More here.

A Google engineer had made the same argument in a viral blog post just hours before, arguing that the institution of the Muslim ban could be seen as a "trial balloon for a coup".

Ominously, "...the administration is testing the extent to which the DHS (and other executive agencies) can act and ignore orders from the other branches of government. This is as serious as it can possibly get: all of the arguments about whether order X or Y is unconstitutional mean nothing if elements of the government are executing them and the courts are being ignored."

More here.

All this immigrant banning is a smoke screen....

From Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College:
"I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history is my job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important non-partisan point to make today.

What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating what is known as a "shock event."

Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order.

When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.

Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.

My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won't like.

I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is.

If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal.

But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event.

A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union.

If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power.

Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it."
COPY AND PASTE. DON'T "SHARE"

http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/history/people/faculty/alphabetical/richardson_heather.html

https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/

‘American values are at stake’: Barack Obama ‘heartened’ by resistance to Donald Trump

“President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day.

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”

Why people are calling the acting attorney general's firing the 'Monday Night Massacre'

On Monday evening, the White House released a statement saying acting Atty. Gen. Sally Yates had been fired for instructing Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Trump's travel ban.

Yates has "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States," the White House said .

"Monday Night Massacre" was trending on Twitter within the hour.

In 1973, President Nixon ordered the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox because he wouldn't obey Nixon's order to stop looking into Watergate. Two of the Justice Department's top leaders resigned in protest rather than following Nixon's directive to fire Cox. It became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," an instance of the president using his power to punish political enemies within the Justice Department.

Though the Justice Department is part of the executive branch, it istraditionally largely independent from the office of the president in order to ensure the integrity of law enforcement and its investigations.

LA Times

Trump's 'Muslim Ban' Hurts the Fight Against ISIS, Say U.S. Diplomats in Iraq

President Trump's sweeping ban on travelers from seven majority Muslim countries (including Iraq) from entering the United States was intended to protect the homeland from a vanishingly small threat of terrorism. But U.S. diplomats stationed on the front lines in the battle against arguably the world's most notoriously violent and sadistic group of Islamist extremists—ISIS—say the president's plan is both morally and strategically misguided.

According to a memo sent by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to the State Department, the travel ban risks the U.S. losing critical support from the Iraqi government, military, and the militias which the U.S. continues to support as they collectively try to retake territory occupied by ISIS for the past three years. The Wall Street Journal reports the memo reveals the diplomats in Baghdad were "blindsided" by Trump's executive order and are worried that the fallout could irreparably damage relations between the two countries, which are nominally "close allies."

The memo cited examples of unforeseen consequences of Trump's order, including an Iraqi army general who has worked closely with U.S. forces now being unable to visit his family in the U.S., a scheduled meeting in the U.S. between Iraqi officials and General Electric over a multi-billion-dollar energy investment now may not take place, and perhaps most crucially, the fate of approximately 60,000 Iraqis who risked their lives to aid the U.S. in Iraq now hangs in the balance. These Iraqis had applied for Special Immigrant Visas and if they were to be abandoned by the U.S., securing the cooperation of the locals in any U.S. military theater could be imperiled, but especially in Iraq, which has been war-torn since the U.S.-led war to depose Saddam Hussein began in 2003.

Reason Magazine

So, what was the reaction to this by the Administration? Spokesman Sean Sphincter said that these experts in their field (known to Republicans as "bureaucrats") can either get with the program or get out. FFS.

White House warns Prince Charles against ‘lecturing’ on climate change

President* Chump, please shaddup!!!

President Trump is being a royal pain to Prince Charles’ climate-change agenda.

Members of Trump’s inner circle have warned British officials that it would be counterproductive for Charles to “lecture” Trump on green issues during the president’s June visit to Britain, and that the president will “erupt” if pushed, the Sunday Times of London reported.

Trump has called climate change “a hoax.” Hours after he took office, references to the issue were removed from the White House Web site. By contrast, Charles has called climate change “the wolf at the door.”

A source close to Trump told the newspaper the president “won’t put up with being lectured by anyone.”

NYP

Priebus: Immigration Order ‘Doesn’t Include’ Green Card Holders (But It Do)

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus muddied the waters on President Donald Trump's new executive order barring immigration from select countries, saying Sunday it "doesn't include green card holders going forward" but adding that anyone traveling back and forth from the countries in question will be subject to further screening, including U.S. citizens.

In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Priebus was asked about reports that the executive order affected green card holders, contrary to recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security.

"We didn't overrule the Department of Homeland Security, as far as green card holders moving forward, it doesn't affect them," Priebus first said. But when pressed by host Chuck Todd on whether it impacts green card holders, Priebus reversed himself, saying, "Well, of course it does. If you're traveling back and forth, you're going to be subjected to further screening."

More here.

This adminny is nothing but a bunch of amateur neonazis.

The way Trump/Bannon are treating the media matches the anti-press behavior of Putin in Russia and Erdoğan in Turkey. Autocrats marginalize critical, free media in order to consolidate power.

We also see a Trump/Fox News feedback loop, where Trump tweets stuff within minutes of it appearing on the network. Fox has become a mouthpiece of the Trump Administration, promoting positive stories to its audience.

There's no surprise when I see Fox viewers supporting the Trump madness. This near-dictatorial strategery has been highly successful in the past, and we're seeing it again.

Fox is fulfilling the role of trumpeting the party line while the rest of the media are providing traditional fact checking and truly fair and balanced reporting.

We are on the brink of becoming the most recent example of a fearful nation falling into the depths of fascism. A free press is our only hope of preserving our freedom.

Steve Bannon personally overruled DHS decision not to include green card holders in travel ban: CNN

Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, personally overruled a decision by the Department of Homeland Security not to include green card holders in the president’s temporary ban on travel from Muslim countries.

Protests erupted at airports across the country over the weekend after DHS agents began enforcing an executive order signed by Trump by detaining legal permanent residents who were returning from abroad. On Saturday, a federal judge stayed the detentions and ordered the green card holders to be released, but CNN reported that the mayhem could have been avoided if the White House had listened to the guidance of DHS lawyers in the first place.

Documents obtained by CNN showed that DHS initially determined that “lawful permanent residents are not included and may continue to travel to the USA.”

But Bannon personally intervened to counter the guidance from DHS lawyers.

“The White House overruled that guidance overnight, according to officials familiar with the rollout,” the CNN report said. “That order came from the President’s inner circle, led by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. Their decision held that, on a case by case basis, DHS could allow green card holders to enter the US.”

The decision led Mother Jones columnist Kevin Drum to conclude that the chaos caused by Trump’s executive order had been part of the White House plan.

“Whatever else he is, Steve Bannon is a smart guy, and he had to know that this would produce turmoil at airports around the country and widespread condemnation from the press,” Drum wrote. “In cases like this, the smart money is usually on incompetence, not malice. But this looks more like deliberate malice to me. Bannon wanted turmoil and condemnation. He wanted this executive order to get as much publicity as possible. He wanted the ACLU involved. He thinks this will be a PR win.”

More here.

Trump is unable to tell the truth.

Donald Trump is still bitter about losing the popular vote, so he’s doubling down on his claims that millions of illegal immigrants went to the polls and cast a vote for Hillary Clinton, thereby costing Trump the popular vote. This claim has no basis in reality, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from repeating it over and over again.

~The Ring of Fire

According to Trump’s statistics, undocumented immigrants committed 25,000 homicides and cost the country $113 billion. The problem is that those statistics are false and misleading. Here are the facts:

1. "Undocumented immigrants were arrested for 25,000 homicides."

As ThinkProgress previously reported, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that 25,000 foreign nationals — or immigrants — were arrested for homicides, but for over a 55-year period between August 1955 and April 2010. In comparison, there were 11,200 arrests for homicides in 2010 alone among the general American population, according to the U.S. Department of Justice statistics.

A 2007 study found that immigrants have lower incarceration rates than native-born Americans, according to the immigration organization American Immigration Council. Another similar 2013 study found that first-generation immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than second-generation immigrants and native-born, non-Hispanic whites.

2. "Immigrants cost the economy $113 billion."

According to Trump, undocumented immigrants are a billion-dollar burden on the economy, costing $113 billion in local, state, and federal taxes. The same statistic can be found at the Federation for American Immigration Reform website, an anti-immigrant organization founded by white nationalist John Tanton.

In reality, undocumented immigrants are a net positive to the economy, contributing $11.64 billion into local and state taxes, according to a 2016 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report. What’s more, undocumented immigrants also contributed $35.1 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund between 2000 and 2011, according to a 2015 Journal of General Internal Medicine study. Even Alex Nowrasteh, the immigration policy expert at the Libertarian think tank CATO Institute, called Trump’s claim “nonsense.”

~ThinkProgress

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
― Adolf Hitler

Immigration Ban Is Unlikely to Reduce Terrorist Threat, Experts Say

Rarely does an executive order announce a more straightforward and laudable purpose than the one President Trump signed on Friday: “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.” But the president’s directive is unlikely to significantly reduce the terrorist threat in the United States, which has been a minuscule part of the overall toll of violence since 2001.

Many experts believe the order’s unintended consequences will make the threat worse.

While the order requires the Department of Homeland Security to issue a report within 180 days providing detailed statistics on foreign nationals who commit acts of violence, terrorism researchers have already produced rich and revealing data. For instance, since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, no one has been killed in the United States in a terrorist attack by anyone who emigrated from or whose parents emigrated from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, the seven countries targeted in the order’s 120-day visa ban, according to Charles Kurzman, a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina.

There was a random quality to the list of countries: It excluded Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the founders of Al Qaeda and many other jihadist groups have originated. Also excluded are Pakistan and Afghanistan, where persistent extremism and decades of war have produced militants who have occasionally reached the United States. Notably, perhaps, the list avoided Muslim countries where Mr. Trump has major business ventures.

More here.

9 Terrible Things Trump Has Done in Just a Week

There are four more years of this to come.

It’s been just seven days since Donald Trump took office. While the media spent most of that time spilling digital ink over inauguration numbers, the new administration was diminishing women’s health and safety around the world, chipping away at health care for millions of Americans and pouring money that could feed and insure children into a useless garbage heap along the border. It was a bad week for politics and decency, which have always been on frigid terms, but are now dead to each other.

There were other things, too. Trump threatened Chicago with martial law on what he thought was a double-dog dare from fellow racist Bill O’Reilly. He promised to install monitors—glorified tattletales, really—to oversee federal agencies and report back to brass at the White House. After again trotting out the lie about immigrants and dead people voting, Trump promised an investigation into the widely debunked issue of election fraud (though not into Russian election meddling), which should start with his own family and staff. Speaking of Steve Bannon, the grand wizard of the so-called alt-right and White House senior adviser continued the Trump team’s cynical campaign to keep their base paranoid, uninformed and stupid by pretending their boss is a victim of the press. Newsweek discovered Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer and Jared Kushner all have email accounts on a private system. And as the final, delusional cherry on the poisonous cake, Trump compared himself to Abraham Lincoln.

He also signed a bunch of executive orders. Far more important than all the background noise is the authoritarian craziness that Trump is codifying into law. These plans and policies will wreak irreparable havoc and damage, causing suffering and pain to millions in the U.S. and beyond. Remember—this is just seven days' worth of destruction. We've got four more years of this.

To read the 9 Terrible Things, go here.

LAWMAKERS IN TEN STATES HAVE PROPOSED LEGISLATION CRIMINALIZING PEACEFUL PROTEST

OVER THE WEEKEND, millions of demonstrators took to streets across the country to mobilize against the new president and his agenda, assembling in a national turnout that organizers call the beginning of a reinvigorated protest movement. But in states home to dozens of Saturday’s demonstrations, Republican lawmakers are moving to criminalize and increase penalties on peaceful protesting.

Last week, I reported that such efforts were afoot in five states: In Minnesota, Washington state, Michigan, and Iowa, Republican lawmakers have proposed an array of anti-protesting laws that center on stiffening penalties for demonstrators who block traffic; in North Dakota, conservatives are even pushing a bill that would allow motorists to run over and kill protesters so long as the collision was accidental. Similarly, Republicans in Indiana last week prompted uproar over a proposed law that would instruct police to use “any means necessary” to clear protesters off a roadway.

Over the weekend, readers alerted me to two additional anti-protesting bills, both introduced by Republicans, that are pending in Virginia and Colorado. This brings the number of states that have in recent weeks floated such proposals to at least eight.

In Colorado, Republican state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg has introduced a bill that would greatly increase penalties for environmental protesters. Under the proposed law, obstructing or tampering with oil and gas equipment would be reclassified from a misdemeanor to a “class 6” felony, a category of crime that reportedly can be punished by up to 18 months behind bars and a fine of up to $100,000.

The Intercept

Johns Hopkins’ Top Psychotherapist Releases Terrifying Diagnosis Of President Trump

If there’s one thing we can say about Donald Trump, it’s that he’s unlike any other world leader we’ve seen to date. The problem, however, is that his differences fail to set him apart in a positive manner.

Almost daily, Trump tweets about the “biased media,” “fake news,” or a world leader who has suddenly done something so terrible that he must take to Twitter to publicly berate them. Notice, however, that it’s always someone else with the problem. It’s never him.

However, John D. Gartner, a registered psychotherapist from the renowned Johns Hopkins University Medical School seems to think Trump may, in fact, be the one with the problem. Gartner, who teaches psychiatric residents at Hopkins, decided to break the ethical code known as the “Goldwater Rule” in order to warn the American public about the dangerousness of our new commander-in-chief’s mental state.

According to USNews, Gartner unofficially diagnosed Trump with “malignant narcissism.” Although he himself has not personally examined Trump, Gartner claims it’s obvious from watching even a little of his behavior that he meets the diagnostic criteria for the disorder. Some of the characteristics include:

Anti-social behavior
Sadism
Aggressiveness
Paranoia
Grandiosity
Entitled
Regressed
Manipulative
Destructive
Egocentric
Use of projection
Lack of conscience
Narcissistic

Gartner says that individuals with malignant narcissism often lack impulse control and empathy. He also says many who suffer from this disorder believe that others around them don’t recognize their greatness.

HERE.

Right Wingers' Fear

Apparently, right wingers are so afraid of The Terrors that all thoughts of compassion get throwed out the winder.

The Keepers of the Doomsday Clock Are Really, Really Worried About Donald Trump

The Doomsday Clock, a metaphorical measure of how close humanity is to imminent disaster, jumped to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight today, the closest it's ever been since the height of the Cold War. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the anti-nuclear weapons group that first set the clock in 1947, said that the reason for the time change is simple: Donald Trump.

Explaining its members' reasoning, the Bulletin cited the continued threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change as well as a new one that could make them worse: "a rise in strident nationalism worldwide in 2016, including in a US presidential campaign during which the eventual victor, Donald Trump, made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change."

Prior to today's change, the Doomsday Clock was set at three minutes to midnight.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/donald-trump-doomsday-clock-atomic-scientists

OMG!

Killing The Walmart Economy

Trump Tariffs on Chinese and Mexican goods will hurt consumers, especially poor consumers who shop at Walmart. 

Here. And Here.

The New Fascism

Only a few days into the new Presidency*, and it appears we have a fascist leader. I fear for our Nation.

Here.

“The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile,” Stephen Bannon said in the interview with the Times published on Thursday.

Bannon said the media still fails to understand how Trump rose to victory.

“I want you to quote this,” Bannon told the newspaper, “The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

Bannon defended White House press secretary Sean Spicer and his controversial, fiery performance over the weekend in which he accused the media of dishonest inauguration coverage.

TomDispatch

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer -- a writer I admire -- on the possible return of torture and black sites in the Trump era. Here's the first half of her latest piece. Tom

"In an interview with his biographer Michael D’Antonio, Donald Trump explained that although he received a medical deferment rather than serving in the war in Vietnam, “I always felt that I was in the military.” This was, as D’Antonio reported in “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success,” because he spent his high-school years at a military-themed boarding school, not far from West Point.

"Last Saturday, President Trump trumpeted his military expertise during a visit to the C.I.A.’s headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, where he praised his nominee to direct the C.I.A., Michael Pompeo, for being first in his class at West Point. Then he digressed, noting, “I know a lot about West Point. . . . Trust me, I’m, like, a smart person.”

"One difference between serving in the military and being a pretend soldier at the New York Military Academy, where Trump proudly led mock drills in snappy faux military uniforms, is that, in the real thing, officers are drilled not just in marching formations but also in the laws of war. These include the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture, which impose absolute, unconditional bans on torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment of enemy combatants, categorizing such conduct, under any and all circumstances, as a war crime."

Read it here.

 On Teh Twitters...

Worry 'O Teh Day™

Trump ceding economic power to China and threatening war in the South China Sea isn't too smart in my book. Economic decline and war with China. Hot diggety!

China manoeuvres to fill US free-trade role
Xi Jinping courts regional support as election of Donald Trump clouds future

https://www.ft.com/content/c3840120-aee1-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1

Mr Obama’s “pivot” to Asia, and the now-stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that was supposed to be its economic backbone, have for years given the US a leadership role at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But the election of Donald Trump, who campaigned on a protectionist platform and against Mr Obama’s TPP, has rewritten that formula. On Mr Obama’s last official trip overseas, the real star at this year’s Lima summit was Chinese president Xi Jinping, who courted other APEC members with a rival to the TPP. Mr Xi offered Beijing as an alternative to what many US allies fear will be a more bellicose America under Mr Trump. “China will not shut the door to the outside world but will open it even wider,” Mr Xi told business leaders on Saturday.

Is Trump ready for war in the South China Sea, or is his team just not being clear?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/01/24/is-trump-ready-for-war-in-the-south-china-sea-or-is-his-team-just-not-being-clear/?utm_term=.afd01aa90c9a

On Monday, new White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the United States would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea.

His comments were widely interpreted as doubling down on remarks by Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, on Jan. 11 that the United States would not allow China access to islands it has built in the South China Sea, and upon which it has installed weapons systems and built military-length airstrips.

Experts had initially thought Tillerson might have misspoken, but Spicer's remarks appeared to raise the likelihood that the administration was indeed considering blocking China's access to its new islands in the Spratlys.

Nationalist tabloid the Global Times warned that any move to blockade the islands could provoke a “large-scale war.”

That is an assessment broadly shared by many foreign policy experts.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, a South China Sea expert at the Center for a New American Security, called the threats to bar China's access in the South China Sea “incredible” and told Reuters it had no basis in international law.

“A blockade — which is what would be required to actually bar access — is an act of war,” she added.

How Can We Describe Donald Trump’s Bidness Dealings?

A while back, Donald Trump gave a speech in South Carolina where he mentioned he’d made a big investment in their state. He wouldn’t tell ‘em at the time what that investment was, other than it was “interesting”.

Recently, that investment became known to the public in South Carolina, and to say the least, it is indeed interesting.

A company in South Carolina was in dire financial straits. Donald Trump bought that company and rescued it, or perhaps rather, rescued its owner from financial collapse. Unfortunately, now a large building owned by that company sits empty. Rain seeping in a leaky roof. Full of toxic stuff in drums. Trump wants to sell the building, but the State of South Carolina says it can’t be sold until the toxic mess is cleaned up. That cleanup will cost millions of dollars.

Trump refuses to foot the bill to clean up the toxic mess at his building. He wants the taxpayers of South Carolina to clean it up. He says his company has no relations with the previous owner of the building. South Carolina has a quandary. Dare they go against the powerful soon-to-be President*, fight to make him pay for the cleanup of his toxic waste site and incur lord knows what kind of wrath from him? Or should the taxpayers in South Carolina foot the bill?

Who was the previous owner of the building that Donald Trump says he has no relations with? His son. Yep. He bailed out his son’s failing bidness and now wants to sell an asset of that bidness. Without being responsible for cleaning up the toxic mess first. An asset originally owned by his son. Who he has no relations with.

I just figured out the word to describe Trump’s bidness dealings. Smarmy.

*Trump lost the election in a landslide and is going to hold the Presidency due to interference by Russia, ill-considered public statements by the FBI Chief, and the vote of the outdated Electoral College.