Saturday, January 5th, 2019
Jessica McDonald, - Factcheck.org
Stephan: All historians who study authoritarian governments will tell you that one of the hallmarks of such regimes is that nothing they say, particularly if they assert facts, can be trusted. Lying and false facts are the MO of authoritarianism, and the Trump administration is true to form.
Recently I have been looking at surveys focused on how Americans trust their government, and the data is appalling. In the two years, he has been in office Trump has managed to seriously degrade the trust Americans have in government. You really can't trust anything asserted by this administration, and that is a serious threat to our democracy.
Since the National Climate Assessment dropped on Black Friday, members of the Trump administration have inaccurately attacked the report for lacking transparency and factual basis, and for focusing on an “extreme” climate scenario. The EPA has also suggested — without evidence — that the Obama administration “pushed” the “worst-case scenario.”
The report — which is the product of 13 federal agencies and more than 300 governmental and non-governmental experts — is legally required to be produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, or USGCRP, which issued its first assessment in 2000. It details how climate change is already affecting the country, from increased temperatures and flooding to more frequent hurricanes and large wildfires. It also looks at potential future consequences on the environment, infrastructure, human health and the economy.
President Donald Trump has largely dismissed the report. When asked about the assessment, the president has minimized the impact of human activity on climate change and made unrelated claims regarding the cleanliness of U.S. air and water, as we’ve written previously.
But more specific critiques came from administration officials and White House representatives.
For example, White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters […]
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Saturday, January 5th, 2019
REBEKAH ENTRALGO, - Think Progress
Stephan: It isn't just that Trump lies, it's that he expects people who work for him to lie as well. it is the hallmark of his administration. Everything he touches is either a lie, or a grift, always to his personal benefit. Which tells you a lot about the nature of people willing to work for such a man.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirsten Nielsen
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty
One day after President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats failed to strike a deal on funding for Trump’s border wall and reopen the federal government, the White House released the PowerPoint presentation Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen prepared to brief Democratic leadership on border security.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), however, reportedly interrupted the presentation, titled “A Border Security and Humanitarian Crisis,” after they objected to what was being discussed.
Nielsen tweeted that she was “disappointed” Democrats did not want hear from DHS about the “security and humanitarian crisis” of “criminal aliens” at the border.
40% of women younger than 30 would like to leave the U.S.
