Trump Administration

As I first wrote about this last weekend, the nuclear accident occurring offshore in northern Russia’s Nenoska test site last Thursday continues to raise troubling questions for Western analysts. The death toll has risen to seven from the weekend report of five, according to a new New York Times report today. The offshore accident was followed by what local officials reported to be a spike in radioactivity in the area. The official Russian explanation continues to involve “small scale sources of energy with the use of fissile materials. But, those explanations ring hollow to many American officials: United States intelligence officials have said they suspect the blast involved a prototype of what NATO calls the SSC-X-9 Skyfall. That is a cruise missile that Mr. Putin has boasted can reach any corner of the earth because it is partially powered by a small nuclear reactor, eliminating the usual distance limitations of conventionally fueled missiles. The accident would be the largest nuclear accident in Russia since Chernobyl, but all agree it would – in a worst case scenario – still be several magnitudes of severity lower than the Chernobyl incident . The Russians purportedly developed the “Sky Fall” missiles in an attempt to evade North America’s nuclear missile defense shield. In several recent Pentagon and other government reports, the prospect of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missiles has been frequently cited as a potential new kind of threat. They are launched into the air and able to weave an unpredictable path at relatively low altitudes. But even with the news surrounding the new threat, tests on the actual missile delivery system continued to be plagued by accidents even prior to last week’s more severe event. Meanwhile, Russia’s explanation for the accident continues to change as the death toll rises. Without regard to the official explanation, the accident may inform American specialists. Beyond the human toll, American intelligence officials are questioning whether Mr. Putin’s grand dream of a revived arsenal evaporated in that mysterious explosion, or whether it was just an embarrassing setback in Moscow’s effort to build a new class of long-range and undersea weapons that the United States cannot intercept. Increased candor and cooperation with Russia, perhaps leading to quicker and more truthful explanations, actually would be a benefit of having a president with prior good relations with Russia. However, as always, the “good relationship” Trump has with President Putin appears largely one-sided. Indeed, the two nations’ decision to rip up the former IBM restrictions signed decades ago by Ronald Reagan seems more indicative of two nations accelerating toward new and more dangerous weapons, weapons pointed at each other. Meanwhile, American scientists are left largely guessing at the severity of the nuclear accident, and the radioactivity unleashed in the Russian Arctic. I will continue to follow the story as information warrants. **** Peace, y’all. Jason jmiciak@yahoo.com  

No surprise, but it’s official now: The Republican Party is running on repealing the health care of millions of Americans in 2020. The Hill reports, “’If we can get the House back and keep our majority...

— Reporter’s Question:  If Republicans are so quick to blame Mass Shootings on Mental Illness — WHY then have they been trying to cut Mental Health coverage guarantees from the ACA? Huh, Mr Republican — Why do you hate...

Yet another pathologically strange image from the Trump regime, and perhaps more tragic that there’s a claim that the dead parents were Trump supporters. From the First Lady’s twitter account, this appears to be the...

On Thursday, former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe filed a lawsuit against the FBI and Justice Department for improperly terminating him. His lawsuit asks that he be reinstated as the deputy director of the...

There is a straight-up white nationalist working at the State Department, a Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch investigation reveals. Matthew Q. Gebert is not dabbling or flirting. He is all in as a chapter...

In the wake of still more mass murders, one of which came with a white nationalist manifesto attached, Donald Trump's staff is desperately attempting to portray their narcissist in chief as a man who...

I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear that Donald Trump reported an “amazing day” where there was “so much respect for the office of the president,” which is good, since virtually nobody respects him personally — and that he was “treated like a rock star.” Ain’t it grand? Next he’ll be saying that the people told him that they were glad to have gotten shot, just so they could meet him. ..The President was treated like a Rock Star inside the hospital, which was all caught on video. They all loved seeing their great President! — Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸 (@Scavino45) August 7, 2019 Now, RawStory quotes both Brown and Whaley as saying nothing negative, quite the contrary. “He was received well by the patients, as you’d expect,” Brown said. “They were hurting, he was comforting. He did the right things, Melania did the right things.” Whaley herself said: “I think the victims and the first responders were grateful that the President of the United States came to Dayton.” So, where’s the beef? But clearly there is one. Go to the second tweet where he disses Brown and Whaley. Trump blames Dems for fact he spent day he visited mass shooting sites launching attacks against them on Twitter, alludes to how popular he was at hospitals where victims are being treated. This is not a normal guy. pic.twitter.com/UvXEZ9k5ok — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2019 Then Trump got into it on Twitter. ….misrepresenting what took place inside of the hospital. Their news conference after I left for El Paso was a fraud. It bore no resemblance to what took place with those incredible people that I was so lucky to meet and spend time with. They were all amazing!o — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019 Sherrod Brown is not a “failed presidential candidate.” He considered running but didn’t. Your guess is as good as anybody’s about what set off Trump and his aides. Here’s the bottom line: all that the tragedies in Ohio and Texas meant to Trump, was an opportunity to do a campaign commercial and talk about how loved he was and how nobody had “ever seen anything like it” — a president going to a hospital. No, in the history of the world, this is surely the first and only time that that has happened. Don’t believe historical accounts to the contrary. Trump channeled Florence Nightingale, and became the orange blossom of mercy. People lie dead and injured but sound bites and photo ops were obtained by the Trump cabal, so all is well in Trumpworld and screw the rest of us. One can only speculate that the railing back against Brown and Whaley was simply a ploy to go on record saying that the Democrats had done something wrong. Whether they had or not is immaterial. This group in power now gives new meaning to the word “corrupt.” Maybe we should coin a new word, “trumprupt,” because these people defy description.  

This is getting ridiculous. On Sunday, Governor Matt Dewine of Ohio was pretty much chanted off of the stage at an address to a crow of mourners in Dayton to a chorus of Do DO SOMETHING! DO SOMETHNG! And within 48 hours, Dewine had propposed a package of sensible gun reform measures for Ohio state legislators to take up upon their return. Today, two GOP representatives from Ohio also came out in favor of universal background checks, downsizing clip capacity, and even banning some forms of assault weapons. And even a scattering of GOP Senators are starting to make goo-goo moises about the wisdom of offering something just a wee more substantial than “thoughts and prayers” this time around. And for this transformation, what is their reward in media heaven? Unfortunately, it’s exactly what you’d expect. On CNN and MSNBC they’re being excoriated by panel host and gusts after panel hosts and guests for the extreme length of time that it took them to come to their drunken moment of clarity. What is up with this shit? If I’m not mistaken, these are the same people who have been telling guys like me that we can’t start calling Trump supporters cro-magnons or knuckle draggers if we want to lure them back into the Democratic fold. We’ll only hurt their ever so sensitive fee-fee’s, when they feel guilty enough already. And now they’re dumping a ration of shit all over the heads of Republican lawmakers, for the tardiness of their come-to-Jesus moment on gun control. ex GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert once gave his own interpretation to the vaunted “Hastert Rule,” which was interpreted to mean that you never brought a bill to the floor for a vote woth majority support from the majority party. Hasterts interpretation? “The Hastert Rule? That’s simple, get to 218! I don’t care how many Republicans or Democrats there are, as long as it comes out to 218 at the end.” Something that the goddamned media may want to remember, since I can guarantee you that both Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell remember it clearly. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is fortunate enough to be married to COnnie Schultz, whom I consider to be one of the premier columnists of our generation. And Ms Schultz was most succinct in her interview with Rachel Maddow last night. “I don’t care how they got there, or how long it took them to get there, I tell them ;Welcome’ at the door.” And then she went on to issue a very prescient warning that the media would do well to heed, “If you make people feel guilty for coming to the right decision, even if belatedly, what effect do you think that it will have on them the next time they consider changing their point of view?” Yeah Connie, I know. Gee, I wonder if it’ll help? Look, these Republicans are already going to be catching some serious heat from the blathering nitwits over at FOX for their apostasy against Emperor Nubus Nuttus, the least we can do is to give them a welcoming embrace. Isn’t there an old saying, something like better late than never? If the media sstops being such dicks, it may not take so long the next time. Imaging that?

Rep. Joaquin Castro tweeted out publicly available information on Monday night and Republicans are outraged. The publicly available information in question was max-out donors to Donald Trump who live in Castro’s hometown of San Antonio, and apparently...