Last Commented Politics Blogs (943)

Mile Flynn Jr. was able to resign from the Trump Transition Team only seconds before the word came down from the boss himself that he was to be fired.

The reason? It had been discovered Flynn Jr. had been the originator and spreader of utterly false social media stories linking Hillary Clinton with a ring of pedaphiles. The fairy tale is jnown as pizzagate and was the cause of a shooting in Washington, DC this weekend.

Of concern to many is that M Flynn Sr, who is Trump's National Security Advisor seems to have also been the originator of multiple false stories about Mrs. Clinton.

Irish Media In A Trump Meltdown
It appears Trump has affected the Irish media...

Trump sends Irish media into meltdown
John Spain @IrishCentral

Some of the most fraught reaction to Trump has come from the more "intellectual" end of the media spectrum in Ireland, with several writers almost having nervous breakdowns in print. To these emotionally incontinent scribes all we can say is calm down, it's not going to be that bad.Some of the most fraught reaction to Trump has come from the more "intellectual" end of the media spectrum in Ireland, with several writers almost having nervous breakdowns in print. To these emotionally incontinent scribes all we can say is calm down, it's not going to be that bad.GAGE SKIDMORE / FLICKR

Let's all take a very deep breath. Certainly a lot of people in Ireland need to.

The Donald Trump triumph has seen an unprecedented outpouring of disgust, despair and fury from media commentators in Ireland over the past week. This has included predictions that America is doomed, that human rights there have been set back 50 years, that global security is in peril ... and that's just the start of it. It's the end of civilized society, it seems.

Some of the most fraught reaction has come from the more "intellectual" end of the media spectrum here, with several writers almost having nervous breakdowns in print. To these emotionally incontinent scribes all we can say is calm down, it's not going to be that bad.

We're all horrified, but ridiculing Trump and, even worse, patronizing his supporters (they're not "college educated" like us) is not going to get us anywhere.

The media in America are equally aghast, but at least some of them have been trying to figure out how they got it so wrong, instead of just having a whinge-fest. Here, it's simply been an orgy of superiority and derision, with each writer trying to sound more nauseated and outraged than the next.

Of course some of this is understandable. The crude, offensive language used by Trump during the campaign, the name calling, the simplistic slogans (Build the Wall, Lock Her Up, Drain the Swamp, etc.) lowered the election to a depth never before plumbed in a presidential race.

But some of the commentators here who have been most horrified by the Trump victory are now playing the same reductionist game, using simplistic labels instead of a thorough analysis of what was being said.

So they refer to Trump as racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and half a dozen other unacceptable characteristics, often listed in a single sentence. But, despite what he said at various times on the stump, that is a simplistic reduction of what he was trying to articulate.

A big part of the problem with Trump is that, compared to someone like Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, he is barely articulate. He expresses himself clumsily in disjointed phrases instead of in polished, nuanced sentences like a skillful politician.

Let's take the two most quoted examples. He thinks Mexicans are rapists and murderers and he wants to ban Muslims, so that makes him a racist twice over, right? Except that is not exactly what he said. He said some Mexicans who get into the U.S. turn out to be criminal, including rapists and murderers, and there has been a problem trying to remove them and keep them out, which is true. So he wants to build a wall (in other words have a secure southern border).

He said that banning Muslims from entering the country might be necessary "until we can figure out what the hell is going on," referring to an immigration system that has failed to identify radicalized individuals from a Muslim background who might pose a threat to Americans.

Continue reading... very interesting article

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishvoice/trump-sends-irish-media-into-meltdown?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_130932

Today US President elect talked on the phone for about a half with the President of Taiwan This wad the first direct contact with Taiwann in 30 years. It is not known if President Trump intends to replicate President Eisenhower's visit to the Formosan Straits.

of recount effort in PA. Her 15 minutes of lame or over!

Looks like much of the rest of the world is doing the same. Suck it down, liberal nincompoops. Aa.

Trump continues to set himself up for impeachment over his businesses and business connections... how bullish can a person be to disdain known rules and regulation of the Constitution in highest office as President, As I've said many times, Trump is about money in his own pockets and trying to make himself world known...

Bahrain to host event at Trump's D.C. hotel, raising ethical concerns
Ethical dilemmas existed even before Trump was elected. But the president-elect hasn’t taken any actions to ease concerns.
By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL and MADELINE CONWAY 11/29/16 01:52 PM EST Updated 11/29/16 03:37 PM EST

Bahrain has just booked at Donald Trump's new Washington hotel.

As ethics lawyers warn about potential conflicts of interest facing the billionaire businessman's presidential administration, the kingdom reserved space for a reception at the president-elect's flagship property less than a mile from the White House, according to an invitation from the country's embassy obtained by POLITICO on Tuesday.

“On the occasion of the forty fifth national day of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the seventeenth anniversary of his majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s accession to the throne,” the invitation begins, “Ambassador Abdulla Al Khalifa cordially invites you to a national day reception on Wednesday, December 07, 2016 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM.”

A Trump International Hotel representative declined to confirm the details of the event. “It’s always been a policy of Trump that we never ever discuss individual guests or groups in the hotel,” the sales and marketing official told POLITICO.

News of the reception drew an immediate rebuke from Richard Painter, one of several legal experts who has been sounding alarms over the possible conflicts presented by the unprecedented scope and scale of the incoming president's business interests.

Painter, President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer, said a foreign government making payments to Trump’s businesses while he is president would violate a provision of the Constitution called the foreign Emoluments Clause.

The clause bars officials from accepting gifts from foreign powers without congressional approval, Painter said, adding that a diplomat staying at a Trump hotel to get in his good graces would qualify as one.

Whether the Bahrain reception, set to take place a month before Trump’s inauguration, would violate the Constitution depends on whether the payments are made before or after Jan. 20, Painter argued. Regardless, he maintained that it raises serious concerns, and the only solution is for Trump to sell the hotel — either to his children or another buyer.

“The point is, this is not where we want to go,” Painter said. “This is a concern. This is not where we want to go.”

Next week’s event won’t be the first example of the blurred lines between the president-elect and the businessman who has yet to relinquish his business empire, though.

Roughly 100 foreign diplomats drank Trump-branded champagne at Trump International Hotel earlier this month as they took in a sales pitch about the hotel, according to a Washington Post report published Nov. 18.

But the ethical dilemmas existed even before he was elected president. And Trump — who still hasn’t released his tax returns and is the target of Democrats in Congress who are requesting a review of his financial arrangements for possible conflicts of interest before he’s sworn in as president — hasn’t taken any actions to ease such concerns.

Read more... very interesting article

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/trump-bahrain-hotel-dc-231941

Meaning either what she did is acceptable or perhaps Trump is getting soft.



I hope that there's a good reason why she's not going to be tried.

I'm disappointed if she's left unaccountable for those blunders and incompetence. Wouldn't you?

The Green Party claims to have raised over $3 million to fund a recount in Wisconsin to challenge Donald Trump's victory.
They claim to have discovered voting anomalies in locations that used electronic voting.

YOUTUBE BREAKING: THE RECOUNT IS HAPPENING - Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania Media News

The vid poster does quite a bit of 'editorializing'.
But the vid does lay out what's being reported.

I empathise with those who are sick of political blogs.
I get it!
I'm just bringing it up here. I did NOT request the recounts.
Don't kill the messenger!

Hillary And Jillary sat on THE wall built by Trump if you recall.
Hillary and Jillary tried for a recount and still had a great fall.
All of Hillary's horses and all of Jillary's men
Couldn't win the election again.

He lived a long life. May his family and countrymen be comforted during this time of their loss

Cuba's Fidel Castro, who defied U.S. for 50 years, has died
By ASSOCIATED PRESS 11/26/16 12:44 AM EST

HAVANA — Former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule, has died at age 90.

Castro's reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to his younger brother Raul, who announced his death late Friday on state television.

Castro overcame imprisonment at the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista, exile in Mexico and a disastrous start to his rebellion before triumphantly riding into Havana in January 1959 to become, at age 32, the youngest leader in Latin America. For decades, he served as an inspiration and source of support to revolutionaries from Latin America to Africa.

His commitment to socialism was unwavering, though his power finally began to fade in mid-2006 when a gastrointestinal ailment forced him to hand over the presidency to Raul in 2008, provisionally at first and then permanently. His defiant image lingered long after he gave up his trademark Cohiba cigars for health reasons and his tall frame grew stooped.

"Socialism or death" remained Castro's rallying cry even as Western-style democracy swept the globe and other communist regimes in China and Vietnam embraced capitalism, leaving this island of 11 million people an economically crippled Marxist curiosity.

He survived long enough to see Raul Castro negotiate an opening with U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 17, 2014, when Washington and Havana announced they would move to restore diplomatic ties for the first time since they were severed in 1961. He cautiously blessed the historic deal with his lifelong enemy in a letter published after a month-long silence.

Fidel Castro Ruz was born Aug. 13, 1926, in eastern Cuba's sugar country, where his Spanish immigrant father worked first recruiting labor for U.S. sugar companies and later built up a prosperous plantation of his own.

Castro attended Jesuit schools, then the University of Havana, where he received law and social science degrees. His life as a rebel began in 1953 with a reckless attack on the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. Most of his comrades were killed and Fidel and his brother Raul went to prison.

Fidel turned his trial defense into a manifesto that he smuggled out of jail, famously declaring, "History will absolve me."

Freed under a pardon, Castro fled to Mexico and organized a rebel band that returned in 1956, sailing across the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba on a yacht named Granma. After losing most of his group in a bungled landing, he rallied support in Cuba's eastern Sierra Maestra mountains.

Three years later, tens of thousands spilled into the streets of Havana to celebrate Batista's downfall and catch a glimpse of Castro as his rebel caravan arrived in the capital on Jan. 8, 1959.

The U.S. was among the first to formally recognize his government, cautiously trusting Castro's early assurances he merely wanted to restore democracy, not install socialism.

Read more

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/fidel-castro-dies-cuba-231845