– Senate Democrats Introduce $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan, Offer Trump Support If He Backs It:
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Trump administration
Mike Pompeo Is Confirmed To Lead CIA
– Mike Pompeo Is Confirmed To Lead CIA:
Just a day after President Trump visited Langley, 53-year-old Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo has been confirmed by the Senate as CIA Director amidst its most contentious relationship with the White House in decades. As voting continued, there were 67 “yes” votes, more than enough to confirm Pompeo, and 30 voted against. Almost all the opposition was from Democrats, but perhaps most notably Rand Paul voted against him.
As The Hill reports, White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday downplayed any friction between the CIA and the president.
Trump Signs 3 Executive Orders: Withdraws From TPP, Freezes Federal Hiring, Limits Overseas Abortion Funding
As we previewed and was widely expected, President Trump has just signed 3 executive orders: one officially withdrawing the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership, a second one instituting a federal hiring freeze except for the military, and a 3rd executive order limiting abortion funding overseas.
Pres Trump signs 3 Exec Orders including federal hiring freeze “except for the military” and withdrawing US from Trans-Pacific Partnership. pic.twitter.com/XYxMFi8QDj
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 23, 2017
“It’s a great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump said on Monday after signing an order withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership accord with 11 other nations. He didn’t sign any actions to direct a renegotiation of the Nafta accord with Mexico and Canada, yet he said on Sunday he would begin talks with the two leaders on modifying the accord, BBG reported. “We’ve been talking about this a long time,” Trump said.
Trump ‘Wins’ The Unions: Teamsters Praise TPP Withdrawal, Labor Chiefs Describe “Incredible” Meeting With Trump
FYI.
Shortly after Donald Trump made good on one of his core campaign promises on Monday morning by signing an executive order formally withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade deal, Trump told labor union leaders that he would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement “at the appropriate time.”
The remarks came at the start of a meeting at the White House with leaders of construction, carpenters, plumbers and sheet metal unions, during which Trump pledged to stop trade deals that harmed American workers.
WikiLeaks Slams Trump, Urges Hackers To Reveal His Tax Returns
Hmmh.
FYI.
– WikiLeaks Slams Trump, Urges Hackers To Reveal His Tax Returns:
Perhaps in an attempt to demonstrate its impartiality, on Sunday WikiLeaks tweeted a request to worldwide hackers to release President Donald Trump’s tax returns after counselor Kellyanne Conway told ABC Trump will not be releasing the controversial files after all. The whistleblower site, which was blasted during the US election campaign for only releasing material damaging to the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, tweeted the request with a link to its submission page.
Trump Counselor Kellyanne Conway stated today that Trump will not release his tax returns. Send them to: https://t.co/cLRcuIiQXz so we can.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 22, 2017
Curiously, in a second tweet, Wikileaks risked further antagonizing the president many have said it was instrumental in helping him get elected in the first place, when it compared the newly inaugurated president’s breach of promise to release his tax returns comparable to Clinton hiding her Goldman Sachs speech transcripts.
Read moreWikiLeaks Slams Trump, Urges Hackers To Reveal His Tax Returns
It’s Trump’s First Monday and He’s Already Being Sued for Violating the Constitution
– It’s Trump’s First Monday and He’s Already Being Sued for Violating the Constitution:
Sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays. President Donald Trump’s first business day in his new office included being sued by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Their complaint, filed in federal court, accuses Trump of violating the “Emoluments Clause” of the U.S. constitution.
According to the suit, which was filed with New York’s Southern District federal court in Manhattan on Monday, Trump is “submerged in conflicts of interest,” which “can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders, and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic,” the lawsuit contends.
Read moreIt’s Trump’s First Monday and He’s Already Being Sued for Violating the Constitution
Upholding Tradition: Suspected Drone Strikes Continue as Trump Takes Office
– Upholding Tradition: Suspected Drone Strikes Continue as Trump Takes Office:
Just hours into Trump’s presidency, suspected U.S. drone strikes killed three alleged al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen’s southwestern Bayda province.
According to anonymous security and tribal officials, two strikes killed an area field commander by the name of Abu Anis al-Abi, along with two others. Considering the two others are identified merely as “alleged al-Qaeda operatives,” it seems more than apparent that Trump will continue Obama’s longstanding practice of classifying any military-age male in the strike zone as a combatant, whether or not they were actually al-Qaeda militants.
Read moreUpholding Tradition: Suspected Drone Strikes Continue as Trump Takes Office
Donald Trump BATTERS Brussels with order to STOP EU Army plans or lose US Nato support
FYI.
– Donald Trump BATTERS Brussels with order to STOP EU Army plans or lose US Nato support:
PRESIDENT TRUMP will demand Brussels abandons plans for an EU Army if it wants the US is to continue its support for Nato.
Senior British officers serving at the Pentagon have been briefed that one of the new administration’s top priorities will be to “sweep away” plans championed by Germany and France. ”We have been told quite clearly that, in an environment in which the political temperature in Eastern Europe is high and fiscal pressure on budgets is increasing, there can only be one joint force and that is Nato,” he said.
Read moreDonald Trump BATTERS Brussels with order to STOP EU Army plans or lose US Nato support
In Blistering Interview, Conway Tells Chuck Todd “We Are Going To Have To Rethink Our Relationship With The Press” (Video)
To members of the mainstream media, it would appears ‘size matters’, as the Inauguration crowd-gate debacle continues following Sean Spicer’s unusual press conference yesterday. During a combative interview this morning with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Trump top advisor Kellyanne Conway blasted media “falsehoods,” crushing Todd’s ‘size’ issues by noting that “Presidents aren’t judged by crowd sizes at their inauguration, they’re judged by their accomplishments.”
But Conway was not done with the “Meet The Press” anchor yet, as she cornered him, noting this was just more evidence of the unfair and biased treatment of the Trump administration by the media:
White House Spokesman Slams Media Over “Crowd Size Comparisons” In Bizarre First Briefing
FYI.
– White House Spokesman Slams Media Over “Crowd Size Comparisons” In Bizarre First Briefing:
In a bizarre first briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday unloaded a blistering attack on the media and accused it of false reporting about the otherwise irrelevant question of why Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly smaller than that of Obama’s.
Spicer used up virtually all the time in his first official appearance in the Press Briefing Room to denounce news organizations’ focus on the inaugural crowd size, saying “these attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”
Read moreWhite House Spokesman Slams Media Over “Crowd Size Comparisons” In Bizarre First Briefing
German Press: “That Was No Presidential Speech; That Was A Declaration Of War”
– German Press: “That Was No Presidential Speech; That Was A Declaration Of War”:
Following yesterday’s openly confrontational, deliberately protectionist presidential address by president Trump, which in various circles has been dubbed the “American carnage” speech for obvious reasons, some of Obama’s closest foreign friends are scrambling to find a role in a world that has drastically changed in less than 24 hours. One of them is the foreign leader whom Obama spoke to last before vacating the White House, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who vowed on Saturday to seek compromises on issues like trade and military spending with Trump, adding she would work on preserving the important relationship between Europe and the United States.
“He made his convictions clear in his inauguration speech,” Merkel said in remarks broadcast live, a day after Trump vowed to put ‘America first’.
Read moreGerman Press: “That Was No Presidential Speech; That Was A Declaration Of War”
Doug Casey Warns “Every American Needs To Be Concerned Right Now”
– Doug Casey Warns “Every American Needs To Be Concerned Right Now”:
Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,
Editor’s Note: This weekend, we’re sharing a must-read essay from Casey Research founder Doug Casey.
Doug says the odds are high that the U.S. is going into a time of troubles “at least as bad as any experienced in any advanced country in the last century.”
In short, every American needs to be concerned right now. Today and tomorrow, Doug will share his thoughts on this coming crisis… and explain why it will be much worse—and last much longer—than people expect…
Making The Chicken Run, Part 1
“Making the chicken run” is what Rhodesians used to say about neighbors who packed up and got out during the ’60s and ’70s, before the place became Zimbabwe. It was considered “unpatriotic” to leave Rhodesia. But it was genuinely idiotic not to.
I’ve written many times about the importance of internationalizing your assets, your mode of living, and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers have treated those articles as they might a travelogue to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of little immediate personal relevance.
Read moreDoug Casey Warns “Every American Needs To Be Concerned Right Now”
500,000 Women Swamp Washington For Anti-Trump Protest March – Live Feed
– 500,000 Women Swamp Washington For Anti-Trump Protest March – Live Feed:
Hundreds of thousands crowds of women, many wearing bright pink knit hats and carrying Starbucks lattes, swamped into downtown Washington, arriving by bus, train and car on Saturday for a march in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump one day after the Republican took office.
Cited by AP, a city official in Washington said the turnout estimate for the Women’s March on the National Mall now stands at 500,000 people, more than double the initial predictions. Kevin Donahue is Washington’s deputy mayor for public safety and justice. He says on Twitter that organizers of the march are increasing the turnout estimate to half a million.
Read more500,000 Women Swamp Washington For Anti-Trump Protest March – Live Feed
Madonna: “I Have Thought An Awful Lot About Blowing Up The White House” (Video)
FYI.
– Madonna: “I Have Thought An Awful Lot About Blowing Up The White House”:
Today’s Women’s March in D.C., where allegedly over 500,000 women turned out to protest the Trump presidency, turned awkward on Saturday afternoon when Madonna took the stage and first dropped three f-bombs during her address, sending cable stations including C-Span, CNN and MSNBC scrambling to cut audio, before the singer casually admitted she had thought about blowing up the white house.
The prominent anti-Trump performer addressed the crowd saying “welcome to the revolution of love, to the rebellion, to our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny, where not just women are in danger but all marginalized people, where being uniquely different right now might truly be considered a crime. It took this horrific moment of darkness to wake us the fuck up.” The 58 year old singer then said, “to our detractors that insist that this march will never add up to anything, fuck you.” For good measure, she then said “fuck” again.
Read moreMadonna: “I Have Thought An Awful Lot About Blowing Up The White House” (Video)
One Hour After Taking Office, Trump Suspends FHA Mortgage Fee Cut
– One Hour After Taking Office, Trump Suspends FHA Mortgage Fee Cut:
In a move that has sparked controversy among some economists, within an hour of being sworn in, Trump undid one of Barack Obama’s last-minute actions, a mortgage-fee cut under a government program catering to first-time home buyers and low-income borrowers. The cut, which would become effective on January 27, would have reduced the annual premium for someone borrowing $200,000 by $500 in the first year, however exposing taxpayers to further losses in case of a spike in defaults.
Last week, as part of a scramble of 11th hour actions by the outgoing president, Obama’s Housing and Urban Development secretary, Julian Castro, said the FHA would cut its fees. In addition to the morgage-fee cut, in the last days of Obama’s administration, the White House announced new Russia sanctions, a ban on drilling in parts of the Arctic and many other regulations. The administration didn’t consult Trump’s team before any of these announcements.
Read moreOne Hour After Taking Office, Trump Suspends FHA Mortgage Fee Cut
Donald Trump wants to play golf with the Queen at Balmoral during his first state visit
Balmoral … of all places.
– Donald Trump wants to play golf with the Queen at Balmoral for first state visit:
THE new US President wants to play golf with the Queen at Balmoral during his first state visit this summer.
Donald Trump’s team are hoping he can play at least one hole with her on the Scottish estate’s nine-hole course as he seeks to create a photo opportunity to rival the images of Ronald Reagan riding with the Queen at Windsor Castle in 1982.The plans were discussed at a meeting last week with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and his deputy Sir Alan Duncan in Downing Street. Read moreDonald Trump wants to play golf with the Queen at Balmoral during his first state visit
Trump Signs First Executive Order To “Ease The Burden Of Obamacare”
– Trump Signs First Executive Order To “Ease The Burden Of Obamacare”:
Wasting precious little time, Trump returned from the evening’s inaugural ceremonies and got straight to work in the Oval Office signing his first executive order to roll back portions of Obamacare. While details are scarce, per CNN, press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters the action was meant “to ease the burden of Obamacare as we transition from repeal and replace.”
JUST IN: Pres. Trump signs documents allowing retired Generals Mattis and Kelly to be sworn into Cabinet and an executive order on Obamacare pic.twitter.com/yNUQe9vuJe
— ABC News (@ABC) January 21, 2017
Executive order just signed by @POTUS relates to #Obamacare. pic.twitter.com/dTaX6QEZBS
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 21, 2017
Meanwhile, Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, has also sent a memo to all federal agencies to initiate an immediate freeze on all new regulations.
Read moreTrump Signs First Executive Order To “Ease The Burden Of Obamacare”