Stephan: In my estimation history is going to conclude that Donald Trump's unhinged repeated attacks on the military, which I think stem from his time in a high school military academy as well as his draft dodging -- he is a physical coward -- are going to turn out to be turning points in the 2020 election. So on balance, I see this as good news.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley
President Donald Trump launched an unprecedented public attack against the leadership of the US military on Monday, accusing them of waging wars to boost the profits of defense manufacturing companies.”I’m not saying the military’s in love with me — the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy,” Trump told reporters at a White House news conference.Trump’s extraordinary comments come as several defense officials tell CNN relations between the President and Pentagon leadership are becoming increasingly strained.They also followed efforts by Trump to convince the public that he had not made a series of reported disparaging remarks about US military personnel and veterans, which were first reported by The Atlantic magazine.Trump referred to Marines buried at cemetery in France in crude and derogatory terms, a former senior official saysA former senior administration official
Stephan: White Christians and the institutional churches they support have come to a point where they have to make a decision. Are they going to be spiritual organizations promoting the teachings of Jesus, or are they going to become a racist sexist minority cult? Within the next 25 years America is going to become a majority-minority society and the choices being made now are going to determine how this trend plays out.
Trump’s evangelical cabal are behind Republican attacks on women’s reproductive rights. Credit: Google Images
Early on in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” the first of three autobiographies Douglass wrote over his lifetime, he recounts what happened—or, perhaps more accurately, what didn’t happen—after his master, Thomas Auld, became a Christian believer at a Methodist camp meeting. Douglass had harbored the hope that Auld’s conversion, in August, 1832, might lead him to emancipate his slaves, or at least “make him more kind and humane.” Instead, Douglass writes, “If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways.” Auld was ostentatious about his piety—praying “morning, noon, and night,” participating in revivals, and opening his home to travelling preachers—but he used his faith as license to inflict pain and suffering upon his slaves. “I have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, […]
Stephan: Let me just say it: These are acts of evil.
Projects Trump administration believes could be fast-tracked include gas leasing development plan in the Arctic national wildlife refuge in Alaska. Credit: Al Grillo/AP
The Trump administration has identified dozens of major fossil fuel, energy and water projects that could be fast-tracked by expediting environmental reviews amid the pandemic, according to internal government documents.
At least 19 of the projects are from companies that have spent a total of $16m lobbying the interior department since early 2017, according to an analysis by the conservation group the Center for Western Priorities. ConocoPhillips spent $11.2m of that amount lobbying the department, including on plans to drill for oil and gas within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, the group said.
Three of the companies that could potentially benefit have met with the interior secretary, David Bernhardt, personally. Another is the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District, which Bernhardt represented as a lawyer at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. The district is seeking to divert water from the Missouri River to supply the Red River Valley in North Dakota, a project environmental advocates oppose.
Stephan: Here is Tuesday's Republican Scum Report. If you donated to support Trump there is a good chance it went to pay his legal bills. Everything about Trump is a grift designed to benefit him and his family.
President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump, official White House Credit: Joyce N. Boghosian.
According to a report from the New York Times, some Republican officials are casting a skeptical eye at both the millions of dollars in donations that Donald Trump is spending on legal fees as well as the reasons for some of the expenditures.
The report notes that the president “… and his affiliated political entities have spent at least $58.4 million in donations on legal and compliance work since 2015,” which is raising some eyebrows.
For comparison’s sake, the Times reports that former President Barack Obama spent $10.7 million on legal fees during the equivalent period starting in 2007 and that former President George Bush spent even less — which included his legal battle over his election that went all the way to the Supreme Court.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
What has some Republicans concerned is funds that should be used for political purposes appear to be going out to pay for some of Trump’s personal legal […]
Stephan: The stock market is an artificial world; its economy is not the nation's functional economy. The reality is the U.S. faces the largest endebtedness in 8 decades. and the trade deficit, well, here are the facts on the trade deficit. Trump's incompetence could hardly be made clearer. Biden is going to inherit an economy akin to that of the Geat Depression of the 1930s. It will be an excellent time to do what Roosevelt did and try completely new approaches; ones whose first priority is fostering wellbeing instead of maximizing profit. Countries like New Zealand are showing the way. Trump is like Nero, a historical grotesque whose very being makes the principle clear, by being the extreme antipode
Photo: Getty Motage: Salon
Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail in 2016 that, if elected president, he would bring about a rapid and unprecedented decline in the U.S. trade deficit.
But new figures released by the Commerce Department on Thursday—nearly four years after Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election—show that the trade deficit soared to a 12-year high in July due in large part to a surge in imports, bringing the total negative trade balance in the first seven months of 2020 to $340 billion.
“Trump pledged to eliminate the trade deficit and end job outsourcing, but the overall 2020 deficit is on track to be larger than when he took office, and his Labor Department has certified more than 300,000 American jobs were lost to outsourcing and imports during his presidency,” Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, said in a statement.
Wallach noted that the 300,000 job-loss number is likely an underestimate given that it only “reflects the number of workers whose trade-related job losses were approved for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) retraining and other […]
