Category Archives: Donald Trump

The ethics/morality of war was a theme that cropped up in the dispiriting second season of Serial and is evident in The Line, an ongoing six-part series from Apple TV/Jigsaw Productions.

It focuses on a US Navy SEALs team led by special operations chief Eddie Gallagher, who was convicted in July 2019 of posing for a photograph with the corpse of a 17-year-old Isis fighter in Iraq. Gallagher was subsequently acquitted of having killed him.

Former US president Donald Trump pardoned Gallagher, and they were later pictured together, with their wives, at Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago resort. None of this is a spoiler for The Line, which rather seeks to explore the sheep/wolves/sheepdogs moralities of the commando units (the SEALs mostly think they're the good sheepdogs; some call themselves lions, out to get any bad guys). It's a series that Call of Duty gamers might well savour.

Gallagher's conduct in Iraq was reported by former members of his unit - their testimony was published by the New York Times, the audio of which is played in The Line alongside interviews of various soldiers. Among those we hear is Gallagher, who posits in episode three that it was all a conspiracy by his team, who set him up by deleting the video.

The Line is narrated by Dan Taberski (Missing Richard Simmons), who's got an idiosyncratic, humorous interviewing and presenting style that includes references to Charlie Sheen in the 1990s film Navy SEALs, and prodding the grudge between a journalist and scholar over who coined the term "forever war".

An interesting note about The Line is that it's not just a podcast - a four-part limited documentary series will premiere on Apple TV in the autumn. The podcast is stimulating in itself; with two more episodes to come, will the TV series just be going over the same material or will the podcast leave us on a cliffhanger?

The BBC did a similar audio/visual tie-in recently with I'm Not a Monster, a 10-part podcast series/Panorama documentary. Apple TV also had a bonus 'official podcast' for its series For All Mankind. Expect more such companion series to follow in the years to come.

LOOKING AT CATASTROPHE

Slow Burn has returned for its fifth season. After focusing variously on David Duke, Watergate, Tupac vs Biggie, and the Bill Clinton scandal of the 1990s, the acclaimed Slate show is turning to the Iraq War, asking how did "the catastrophe" happen, and what was it like to watch the US make "one of its most consequential mistakes".

It's hosted by award-winning reporter Noreen Malone and available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Podcast Corner: The Line looks at the actions in Iraq of Donald Trump's favourite Navy Seal - Irish Examiner

Rachel Maddow was still gobsmacked on Friday remembering that bonkers day when Lysol had to clue the world in on then-President Donald Trump.

That was the day, a year ago, when he suggested people inject disinfectant (and light ... somehow) to cure COVID-19.

I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in ... one minute, Trump said at the time. Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?

The poor Lysol people, recalled Maddow. They had to step up and ... insist to the people of all the world that no one should listen to the president of the United States about COVID.

Trump claimed later that he was just being sarcastic, but everyone could see he wasnt.

Is that what it sounded like? It sounded like he was joking there?asked the smirking Maddow.

The Lysol people ... are like, you know, we have a lot of challenges in our business. Telling people not to inject Lysol or bleach has never been one of our problems before, but, turns out, presidencies matter, Maddow noted.

Choose wisely when you choose somebody for that particular gig, she noted.

Trumps incredibly bad advice is still having repercussions, Maddow noted. The Justice Department announced Friday that it had just indicted a Florida family for selling industrial bleach as a COVID-19 cure. The Food and Drug Administration reported that people who ingested the bleach required hospitalizations, developed life-threatening conditions and even died.

Elections matter, people, Maddow emphasized again.

And one other thing: Do not inject bleach, ever.

Happy Bleachaversary, she said. Has it only been one year? (Big sigh.)

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Rachel Maddow Can't Believe Even Lysol Had To Set The World Straight On Donald Trump - HuffPost

ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich A GOP committee in Southwest Michigan ousted their treasurer after he said he didn't vote for former President Donald Trump and was publicly critical of the lack of COVID-19 precautions at a recent district meeting.

It's become a cult of personality, where it's fealty above all else, Jason Watts tells FOX 17.

Watts has been involved in Republican politics for more than two decades, most recently serving as an Allegan County election official and until this weekend as a treasurer for the GOPs 6th Congressional District Committee.

The committee held a vote Saturday to remove him from his position.

They ousted me unanimously, 26 to nothing, Watts said.

Watts believes he was removed in part because of his comments in a February New York Times article, where he was critical of Trump and admitted he never voted for him. In the article, he says he cast his ballot for independent candidate Evan McMullin in 2016 and Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen in 2020.

But I did a lot of things to secure Donald Trump's election in the district, Watts added. I felt I could separate those two. People in the district did not, they felt betrayed, Watts added.

Watts was recently hospitalized with COVID-19 after attending a district meeting in Portage. He believes publicly talking about the lack of COVID-precautions in a story with The Detroit News, also led to committee members wanting him out.

You had very few people wearing masks, and at least six people contracted COVID, Watts explained.

In a document provided to FOX 17, the committee says Watts violated bylaws by Providing false information to the committee during the past convention. Providing false information to the chairman of the committee. Serving as the unofficial spokesperson for the committee and attacking it publicly, and engaging in behavior harmful to the party.

6th District GOP Chair Scott McGraw did not provide comment for our story.

Watts refutes the charges and says its simply because hes not a Trump loyalist, adding that his removal will set a bad precedent for the district moving forward.

All my hard work, all my devotion to the district doesn't matter one iota. It was all about whether I could prove this blood loyalty to Trump, Watts said.

I feel strongly in the big-tent. In the big-tent you could disagree on candidates even in the general election and it didn't really matter because 90% of the time you're agreeing to the platform of low taxes. limited government, individual responsibility, and strong national defense. And that's what mattered, it was our ideas that matter, Watts explained. Now, it's making sure you have loyalty to an individual who lost the election, which the majority there do not believe he lost the election."

Watts still considers himself a Republican, but told the NYT he feels like a man without a party."

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GOP committee ousts treasurer after he admitted to not voting for Trump - Fox17

ThePosts push to get New Yorkers to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated against the coronavirus is drawing a big thumbs-up from Donald Trump. The former president is on board with the campaign to get more people immunized so the city can get up and running at full speed.

Im all in favor of the vaccine, Trump said Thursday. Its one of the great achievements, a true miracle, and not only for the United States. Were saving tens of millions of lives throughout the world. Were saving entire countries.

Speaking by telephone to Post columnist Michael Goodwin, Trump said he got his first shot before leaving the White House in January, and his second in Florida, where he now lives. Former First Lady Melania Trump also has been vaccinated, and neither had any adverse reactions.

Not even a bit of arm soreness, he said. Its pretty amazing stuff.

Trump remains understandably proud of Operation Warp Speed, the program he commanded that dramatically reduced the time for vaccine research, development and human trials. No previous vaccine had come to market in fewer than five years, while this one went from start to finish in about nine months. The first doses were shipped to the states in the middle of December.

Trump and his successor, Joe Biden, dont agree on much else, but both believe this vaccine saves lives.

If we didnt have a vaccine, it would have been just like the 1918 Spanish flu, Trump said of the pandemic that took as many 100 million lives around the world.

Globally, some 141 million people have contracted COVID-19, with more than 3 million deaths.

Nearly 570,000 of the fatalities have been in the United States.

The vaccine is a great thing and people should take advantage of it Trump said, before quickly adding that nobody should be forced, we have our freedoms. But I strongly recommend it because its a real lifesaver.

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Trump gives thumbs up on Posts push for lifesaving COVID vaccine - New York Post

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Will Donald Trump run for president again, win in 2024? Bet on it - Las Vegas Review-Journal

The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set newsroom policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or onbangordailynews.com.

Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University.

President Joe Bidens bid to retool the U.S. economy has me thinking about the parallels with earlier transformational presidents: FDR and Reagan. One of the most interesting aspects of these previous administrations was that the big changes they implemented actually began under their predecessors of the opposite party. Just as Ronald Reagan expanded on Jimmy Carters accomplishments, and Franklin D. Roosevelt got a running start from Herbert Hoover, Biden is benefiting from a change in momentum that began under Donald Trump.

Reagans economic program consisted of three main pillars: tax cuts, deregulation and tight money. But the latter two were actually hallmarks of the Carter administration.

Libertarians were no fans of Carter when he was president, but theyve come to realize that he was actually a very vigorous deregulator in many ways, more so than Reagan himself. The economic double threat of stagnation and inflation in the 1970s created a general consensus that the government needed to reduce its control over prices and participation in specific sectors of the economy, particularly transportation and energy.

A little of this happened under Gerald Ford, but mostly it happened under Carter. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 removed all kinds of federal controls over what routes airlines were allowed to fly and what prices they were allowed to charge and how easy it was to start a new airline. The Staggers Rail Act and the Motor Carrier Act did similar things for rail and trucking. Carter also removed many of the price controls on oil and natural gas implemented during the Nixon administration. Reagan also did some deregulation, but he was mostly just continuing down the path that Carter had already laid out.

The high inflation of the 1970s also created a general consensus that monetary policy needed to be tightened up. This was done by Paul Volcker, whom Carter appointed in 1979 as chair of the Federal Reserve. Volckers interest rate increases began under Carter (and the recession they caused probably contributed to Carters 1980 electoral defeat).

So a lot of what we tend to think of as the Reagan Revolution began under Carter. This echoes another historical episode: the New Deal. Though Herbert Hoover eventually became a bitter opponent of Roosevelts programs, as president he was widely hailed as a champion of policy activism. An engineer by trade, Hoover tried to encourage cooperation between government and industry. When the Great Depression hit, he responded with a flurry of programs that boosted spending by almost 50 percent and increased regulation of agriculture; he created laws to prop up wages and signed a pro-union bill. All of these represented unprecedented levels of government intervention in the economy, and foreshadowed actions FDR would eventually take under the New Deal.

Thus, its very normal throughout history for economic policy revolutions to start under presidents from the opposite party of the one who eventually gets the credit. A similar progression looks likely to play out with Trump and Biden.

Trumps economic policies were, generally speaking, shambolic and unfocused. He didnt appear to be following any intellectual paradigm or school of thought; instead, he lashed out at whoever annoyed him in the moment, be it China, U.S. allies or American companies that shipped factories overseas. But by doing that, he broke with the most important and powerful consensus in elite policy circles: free trade.

This consensus, which was shared by almost all economists, was so strong that perhaps only a maverick like Trump could smash through it. Below the level of elite opinion, dissatisfaction with free trade had been boiling for years. Though worries over competition from Japan and Europe in the 1980s turned out to be overblown, China had proved to be the real thing. In the 2000s, substantial numbers of American workers lost their careers to Chinese competition and never recovered. Meanwhile, the U.S. industrial commons eroded, calling the entire nations competitiveness into question:

Though Biden is suspending tariffs on U.S. allies, hes keeping the ones on China. In fact, Bidens entire China policy essentially continues in the direction that Trump laid out. Bidens economic program, though it doesnt involve the president yelling at companies to put jobs in America, revolves around industrial policy and the reshoring of supply chains; in this sense it shares a basic goal with Trump.

Trumps break with orthodoxy wasnt complete, of course. In many ways he governed as a typical Republican, cutting taxes and regulation and increasing work requirements for welfare programs. But on trade and industrial policy, he blazed a trail by neutering his own partys opposition to change. On these topics, a fair number of conservative think tanks and politicians are joining the bandwagon.

Perhaps thats how big policy changes ultimately happen. Carter wont go down in history as the great champion of deregulation, nor Hoover of big government. And if Biden ultimately succeeds in reorienting American economic policy away from free trade in a systematic and effective manner, hell likely be the one who gets associated with that shift by future generations. But it was Trumps stumbling, erratic approach that paved the way.

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Opinion: Donald Trump blazed a trail that clears the way for Joe Biden - Bangor Daily News

The former US President became the subject of fresh controversy last week after MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski revisited the time Mr Trump allegedly claimed his wife had never undergone a cosmetic intervention.Following the purported remarks, Mr Trump claimed Ms Brzezinski was "bleeding badly from a face lift, something that the journalist branded as face shaming.

Ms Brzezinski addressed the infamous remarks, which Mr Trump issued on his now-defunct Twitter account, in a new interview for the New Abnormal podcast.

According to the presenter, the woman to woman conversation took place in the couples bedroom about eight weeks after Mr Trump had won the election.

She said: Melania was very curious about [the procedure].

"I'm talking to Melania about it, woman to woman, then Donald came up and said, 'you know, Melania has had no work done. She's perfect.'

Im like, 'that's great.

In response to the podcast interview, Twitter users took to the social media platform to voice their opinion about the claims, with some accusing Mr Trump of lying.

One Twitter user wrote: You knew Trump was lying because he was breathing.

Another person added: She looks like a whole new person!!

Come on now, please. Shes beginning to look like an old cat now.

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Donald Trump savagely mocked on Twitter over claims Melania had no work done Lying - Daily Express

John Boehner, a Republican predecessor, concedes that Nancy Pelosi may be the most powerful House speaker in history. Pelosi provided George W Bush with the votes he needed to prevent a depression, as Republicans balked. She helped make Obamacare the law of the land.

Pelosi repeatedly humbled Donald Trump. Already this year, she has outlasted his acolytes invasion of the Capitol and helped jam Joe Bidens Covid relief through Congress. Hers is an iron fist wrapped in a Gucci glove, in the words of Susan Page and John Bresnahan of Punchbowl.

This latest Pelosi biography traces her trajectory from Baltimore to DC. Geographically circuitous, Pelosis ascent was neither plodding nor meteoric.

Page delivers a worthwhile and documented read, a running interview with her subject together with quotes from friends and foes. Andy Card, chief of staff to Bush, and Newt Gingrich, a disgraced House speaker, both pay grudging tribute to the congresswoman from San Francisco.

In the same spirit, Steve Bannon, Trumps pardoned White House counselor, is caught calling Pelosi an assassin. He meant it as a compliment.

Page is Washington bureau chief for USA Today. She has covered seven presidencies and moderated last falls vice-presidential debate. She also wrote Matriarch, a biography of Barbara Bush.

Madam Speaker makes clear that the speakership was not a job Pelosi spent a lifetime craving but it is definitely a role she wanted and, more importantly, mastered. She understood that no one relinquishes power for the asking. Rather, it must be taken.

Pelosi took on the boys club and won. Ask Steny Hoyer, the No2 House Democrat. Her tire tracks cover his back. As fate would have it, their younger selves worked together in the same office for the same boss.

Catholicism and the New Deal were foundational and formational. Thomas DAlesandro Jr, Pelosis father, served in Congress and as mayor of Baltimore, a position later held by her brother. Pelosi is a liberal, albeit one with an eye toward the practical. Utopia can wait. AOC is not her cup of tea.

As a novice congressional candidate, Pelosi was not built for the stump. She chaired the California Democratic party and the finance committee of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Her specialty was the inside game. No matter. In a spring of 1987 special election, Pelosi reached out to Bay area Republicans. They provided her margin of victory.

Once in Congress, Pelosi became the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee and climbed to join the party leadership. Fundraising skills and attention to detail helped.

Pelosi also made common cause with unusual suspects. Page records her friendship with the late John Murtha, a gruff ex-marine and congressman from western Pennsylvania God and Guns country.

Murtha furnished Pelosi with ammo and cover in opposing the Iraq war. He also managed her quest for the speakership. After Murtha lost to Hoyer in an intra-party contest in 2006, the Pennsylvanian announced his retirement.

Among Murthas notes found by Page was one that read: More liberal than I but she has ability to get things done and shes given a tremendous service to our Congress and country. Another one: Able to come to a practical solution.

Pages book chronicles Pelosis capacity to judge talent. She took an early shine to a young Adam Schiff, another east coast transplant, but held a dimmer view of Jerrold Nadler, a long-in-the-tooth congressman from Manhattans Upper West Side and chair of the judiciary committee.

A former federal prosecutor, Schiff wrested his California seat from James Rogan, a Republican. Nadler could not control his own committee. After a raucous hearing in September 2019, the die was set. Schiff, not Nadler, would be riding herd in Trumps first impeachment. Seniority and tradition took a back seat to competence.

Context mattered as well. Pelosis relationship with Bush was fraught, yet she squashed Democratic moves to impeach him over Iraq a move Trump actually advocated. She had witnessed Bill Clintons impeachment and concluded that harsh political judgments were generally best left to the electorate. Impeachment was not politics as usual. Or another tool in the kit.

Trump was different. Practically speaking, draining the swamp translated into trampling norms and the law. Bill Barr, his second attorney general, had an expansive view of executive power and a disdain for truth and Democrats. His presence emboldened Trump.

For more than two years, Pelosi resisted impeachment efforts by firebrands in her party. She acceded when Trumps Ukraine gambit became public. He had frozen military aid to Russias embattled neighbor, seeking to prod the country into investigating Joe and Hunter Biden.

Trump made the personal political and vice versa. Pelosi had a long memory and kept grudges. But this was different. After Bidens election victory, Pelosi called Trump a psychopathic nut. A mother of five and grandmother to nine, she knew something about unruly children.

Pelosi is not clairvoyant. She predicted a Hillary Clinton win in 2016 and Democratic triumphs down-ballot four years later. Instead, Clinton watches the Biden presidency from the sidelines, the Senate is split 50-50 and Pelosis margin in the House is down to a handful of votes.

To her credit, Pelosi quickly internalized that Trump was a would-be authoritarian whose respect for electoral outcomes was purely situational: heads I win, tails I still win. Populism was only for the part of the populace that embraced him.

Hours after the Capitol insurrection, at 3.42am on 7 January 2021, the rioters were spent, the challenges done, the election certified.

To those who strove to deter us from our responsibility, Pelosi declared: You have failed.

Biden sits behind the Resolute desk. Pelosi wields her gavel.

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Madam Speaker review: how Nancy Pelosi bested Bush and Trump - The Guardian

People are using $5 ladders to climb over sections of the $15 billion southern border wall built under former President Donald Trump's administration, Texas Monthly reported.

US Border Patrol officials who monitor the wall, which has been built along parts of the US-Mexico border, frequently find discarded ladders left by unauthorized migrants crossing into southern Texas along certain parts of the wall, the report said.

The Texas Monthly report cited Scott Nicol, an activist and Texas resident, who said, "These ladders are probably $5 worth of hardware, and they're defeating a wall that cost $12 million a mile in that location."

He added: "Unlike the wall, these ladders are functional."

Trump's pledge to build a wall was one of his central campaign promises in 2016. There have been multiple reports since then that migrants are able to climb parts of the wall and scale down the other side.

A viral video published in 2019 showed a person who had scaled the wall using a ladder then sliding down the other side.

The ladders, often made from scrap lumber, are reportedly common along the stretch of the wall between the Texas cities of Granjeno and Hidalgo, whereas rope ladders are more commonly used farther up the Rio Grande river.

Border Patrol agents reportedly drive their vehicles over the ladders to destroy them, tossing them into piles that have to be hauled off to landfills, Texas Monthly reported.

The stretch between Hidalgo and Granjeno was partially constructed under Trump and partially during Barack Obama's administration, Texas Monthly reported, with the cost of the Trump section of the wall reaching $27 million a mile.

Trump's pledge to build a complete 1,000-mile wall along the US-Mexico border was never finished, Insider's Tom Porter reported.

He built 80 extra miles of wall during his presidency and much of his presidency was spent reinforcing 400 miles of fences and barriers that had been installed during previous administrations.

He had pledged that Mexico would fund the work, but the estimated $15 billion in fundinginstead came from federal taxes.

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People are climbing over Trumps $15 billion border wall with $5 ladders - Business Insider

Donald Trump Jr has value. No, really. Its the same sort of value a nuclear accident has. Toxic waste spewing out of a badly run power plant has a horrific impact but it sometimes leads to safety improvements. Maybe the same could be true of the toxic waste spilling out of Donnies social media feeds on the subject of the police.

His crass response to the conviction of Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd was to cheer a right-wing websites post of a Die Hard meme (he says its his favourite Christmas movie) alluding to calls for police reform.

Large Turnout At Memorial For Hans Gruber Who Was Thrown From A Building By A Police Officer, said the post, referencing the baddie played by the late Alan Rickman, who is thrown from the Nakatomi Plaza by police officer John McClane.

For the uninitiated, McClane is the super cop who manages to keep encountering groups of crazed criminals while hes off duty and has to wage a lonely struggle to foil their dastardly plots while rescuing groups of scared hostages.

McClane is a walking, talking trope. Hes someone weve seen in a million and one cop shows and movies. Hes world-weary, has a messy personal life, and has to battle not just the bad guys but also myopic and uncaring officialdom along the way (the films, at least the early ones, work because of their execution).

What Don Jr inadvertently demonstrated with his post was the power of this messaging. Enough power to play a role in the marked reluctance of previous juries to convict cops when they commit criminal offences while on duty? Maybe so.

Ask yourself why companies spend billions of pounds/dollars on TV ads. The reason is: because it works. A friend of mine working in that sphere once described advertising as a science.

It involves repeatedly pumping the same message into peoples homes so that it sinks in and shapes their thinking. This is why certain drinks brands seem young, attractive and the sort of thing you chug after playing sports in the sun, even though they patently arent healthy.

Certain fast foods will make your kids smile, and the burgers always look scrumdiddlyumptious. You see the ad and you want to buy one. And why on earth would you want to be seen with a cheaper phone that might work better when all cool kids have the same brand?

When the commercial break is over its back to the world-weary cops who bend, even break, the rules in their fight against both the criminals and a system designed to protect the bad guys.

Seriously, the only cops like Derek Chauvin you typically see on screen are those from the Office of International Affairs (known as complaints investigation in the UK).

Theyre all snakes, determined to fit up our heroes for the most minor infractions. To properly protect you and your family the cops need to be left alone with the power of judge, jury, and executioner. Even if you live in nice suburbs with white picket fences and manicured lawns where your chances of an encounter with violent crime are about as great as witnessing a member of the Trump family saying you know what, maybe I was wrong about that.

I know people are mostly aware that what theyre seeing is fiction when they tune into a cop show or movie. But when those dramas ram home the same message again and again its bound to have an impact as Don Jr, whose political antennae are quite sharp despite the buffoonery he indulges in, demonstrated by calling upon that Die Hard reference.

Its true that these days we do sometimes get to see the very different experience of policing black people have on screen. Thereve been awards winners like if Beale Street Could Talk, more action-packed affairs such as the Queen & Slim, or even Black & Blue. In Britain, weve had Steve McQueens Red, White and Blue, part of the Small Axe anthology on the BBC, but lets not kid ourselves that all is sweetness and light on these shores. Just ask any black teenager who takes a walk to the shops while wearing a hoodie.

Netflix has Two Distant Strangers, a hot tip for the best short film Oscar, which warps the premise of Groundhog Day to devastating effect, showing its protagonist unable to escape getting killed by a police officer again and again when he just wants to get home to his dog.

Its doesnt make for easy viewing. Don Jr and his acolytes are probably never going to watch it. The same may sadly be true of middle America. I had to hunt around for it. Despite its Oscar nod, the algorithm didnt cough it up on my home screen.

These perspectives really need to find their way into the crime dramas people consume daily, because if the entertainment industry were to reform its messaging to give a more nuanced view of policing, it might help to further the goal of the police reform thats clearly badly needed.

Perhaps its time for an Internal Affairs series focussing on the people who police the police? But do the real-life versions deserve it? Or perhaps the question is: If the Internal Affairs cops were doing their jobs well in the first place, would we even be here?

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Could Donald Trump Jrs crass Die Hard meme on policing inadvertently encourage reform? - The Independent