Trump Has Trouble Understanding Basic Concepts

In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017

Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017

In the span of a mere 13 hours President Trump has made it clear that he doesn't understand two basic concepts: climate change and economics.   He is a well-known climate change denier which makes perfect sense for his ill-advised weather tweet, but the one he made this morning about the US Post Office is even more bewildering.  Let's get down to the facts, shall we?

How US Leaders Responded to Charlottesville

Before we get to the formal article tonight concerning the clash between alt-right neo-Nazis and counter-protesters today in Charlottesville, Virginia I wanted to show you the difference between a dignified response and an undignified response.  This would also be known as "How everyone but Trump responded today."

Trump's Downward Spiral

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

I went on vacation the Saturday before last and although I quite enjoyed being away from home I just couldn't stay away from writing for TMB.  As many of you that follow politics know, quite a lot has happened in the past two weeks involving President Trump, so much that it would take at least twenty pages to write!  With that said I think this calls for a simple timeline by using tweets and commentary. Let's go!

Let's Get to the Skinny of it...

Is anyone actually even bothering to bring up the notion to fix the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?  All we hear is repeal and replace, but not "lets get together and fix it to our liking."    I watched the debate at Capitol Hill about the "Skinny" repeal on the ACA.  The Senator from Wyoming, Mike Enzi, operated an "anti-filibuster" in which he is rambling on about the ACA with no real significance, taking long pauses, and not yielding any questions from Democrats (if you remember, the GOP has all but shut out the Democrats from reading the healthcare bill).   Enzi knows he has 40-plus minutes to the Democrats) to speak on the floor and all he is doing purposely making sure that the Democrats will have barely any time to read the bill.  He even ran out of things to say about the ACA and proceeded with other nonsense.

Enzi--as nation's health care system is on line--now discussing Segways. And how a guy got to a cocktail party on a wheelchair

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) July 28, 2017

Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Tr...ump

I couldn't stay away while on vacation while this bombshell dropped today.  Remember when Trump posted this during his campaign:

Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2016

Well today The Donald has withered away another campaign promise as he rolled out the following three tweets:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

How the News Reacted: Huckabee Sanders v Karem

This is a new segment in which I look at various news agencies as well as the people involved in the topic and how that topic played out across the political spectrum via Twitter.  Today's topic is yesterday's exchange between Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Brian Karem.

So, when we are wrong we correct ourselves but when has POTUS ever done that? We are not FAKE news.

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) June 27, 2017

Sarah Huckabee Sanders rips CNN, media at heated briefing https://t.co/toqujwnBrF via @foxnewspolitics

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 28, 2017

Trump team declares all Russia stories fake news https://t.co/XPsm9AdiC2 pic.twitter.com/puidmWYREb

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 28, 2017

Fake News Brigade

Earlier today there was an interesting moment during the White House Press Briefing.  In a recently rare briefing that allowed cameras Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders goes after the media by telling them how dishonest they are.  This is based on one story published by CNN about Trump friend Anthony Scaramucci and a disputable anonymous source.  The people involved in the soft-story were fired and the heads of CNN issued a statement saying that any articles relating to the Trump-Russia investigation will need clearance before publishing.  During her speech Brian Karem, columnist for Playboy and the Montgomery County Sentinel, interrupts her to let her know how most of the press feel about this barrage.

Democracy, Not Democracy

This little article of mine is aimed towards those hardcore, hardnosed, far-right Trump supporters who are perfectly fine accusing the Democrats of corruption while ignoring Trumps web of deceit.

I saw this tweet the other day and it made me grunt in annoyance:

" Our Fake Democracy " 😂 We are a Constitutional Republic pic.twitter.com/kJpFJqBo77

— Mr. Redcap 🇺🇸 (@Ghastly_Grinner) June 23, 2017

Let's clear some things up about why that caption is completely wrong (and ignorant).

Trump Monitor Podcast Episode 1: Obstruction of Justice

The first episode of the TMB Podcast is out now!  Check it out below:

Total Not Recall

For the Sessions testimony you can watch it here.

I know this is Thursday and the Jeff Sessions hearing was on Tuesday, but there was a lot to process and go over both visually and mentally.  For one thing I was right that Sessions would be the guy that would take the "bullet" for Trump in this hearing.  He wasn't going to answer a lot of questions, but the way he tried to dodge the questions actually made it worse for Trump instead of saving his face.  Let's get down to the big parts of the hearing....

A Long Absence Explained

Hello all!  I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a revamp of the blog as soon as priorities change in two weeks.  The job that I have and the amount of time and stress that comes with it puts this site on the back burner despite how much there is to commentate on!  The crazy roller coaster of the Trump Administration is not over yet and neither is this blog!  See you soon...

The Budget

To look at the proposed budget click here.

Chances are, if you are a social studies teachers like myself you probably have read most of the proposed budget brought forth by President Trump.  There are considerable changes to the budget compared to previous years of course, but what makes Trump's budget stand out is the high amount of reductions to most departments and the dramatic increases to others.

If you want to check out the Vlogbrothers' video explaining the budget check it out here!

Go to the Dinner!

Here is my take on the recent news that Trump has decided to skip the Correspondents' Dinner: change your course and go to it!

Quick Muse: Flynn in the Bin

The hammer came down yesterday on the now former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.  Flynn resigned after news came to light that he was discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office.  This is a matter that puts Trump in a serious spot because he has constantly denied having any communication with Russia and now his NSA man was caught with the goods.

The timing of everything: Flynn's contacts, Trump's increase of praise towards Putin, and the hacking of DNC emails make this a potentially wide open case that could shake the Trump administration to its core. How wide per se?  The fact that Dan Rather thinks this could be worse than Watergate should ring alarm bells.

Another issue to point out is that the Trump camp knew of this weeks ago and only waited until it was in full blown view to go for the sack.  Now it's known that they were going to sweep this under the rug and hope no one would bat an eye.  It didn't work and now you have politicians on both sides of the aisle calling for a more thorough investigation.  Will it be granted and how far-reaching will this go?

It's only MONTH ONE of the Trump presidency and it could be over before the first year is up...

Puppet Strings

Unless you are someone who has absolutely zero interest in politics you probably have noticed the tight control of responses coming from the Trump administration within his first month in control.  Whether it is Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, or Stephen Miller there is an unwavering theme that goes through the visible representatives of the Trump truck and that is the irrational concept that the media (with the exceptions of Fox News and Breitbart) are fake/wrong/un-American and that the President's authority and "wisdom" is trustworthy to the point that we shouldn't question his motives.

The Immigration Game

When thinking about this ban of refugees from seven Middle Eastern countries you have to take into account different factors in concerns to the legalities as well as the impact that it will have on the United States as well as the world.

Before any person that slams this article for thinking that Trump is the only President that is doing something like this, just let it be known that further down in the article there will be other examples.

The biggest concern about this piece of executive legislation is what it can lead to, but at the current moment it is two sides of the same coin; one of optimism and one of serious concern.

Has History Taught Us Nothing?

I can not easily put into words the way I feel about the things our President has done in the last week. Hearing that he wants to ban refugees and Muslims makes me want to cry. My grandparents were immigrants, my boyfriend is an immigrant and nearly every person in this country can trace their ancestry back to the generation that came to this country. Not only is trying to do this severely un-American and not in keeping with a long tradition of immigrants coming to our country, it is just down right wrong!

Alternative Facts

Yesterday Press Secretary Sean Spicer lashed out at the media for it's report of the attendance numbers at Trump's inauguration Friday.  To put the numbers in perspective let's do this:

• 1993 (Clinton): 800,000
• 1997 (Clinton): 250,000
• 2001 (Bush): 300,000
• 2005 (Bush): 400,000
• 2009 (Obama): 1.8 Million
• 2013 (Obama): 1 Million
• 2017 (Trump): 250,000 (estimated)

Women's March 2017

My Facebook this morning was flooded with pictures of women dressed in pink and messages to friends saying "be careful as you march"! All across the country, and apparently across all 7 continents (yes even Antartica) women are marching in support of women's rights, LBGTQIA rights, reproductive rights, and a host of other important issues of which this new administration is working to reverse the major steps we have taken in moving forward. In my family, I was raised to know that people are people, it does not matter what skin tone they have, what religion they practice or who they love. I pride myself on being a person who does not see a person for their differences from me, I see them for who they are because that is what is right. So I can not understand any person be it President of the United States or not who says things that spread messages of hate.

It's Official: Trump is #45

IT happened...

IT will be burned into my memory forever...

IT was 12:15...

For every IT I am talking about I am referring about the Inauguration.  At 12:15 while my third class of the day was winding down I had the Inauguration on my laptop and I witnessed Donald Trump on my little video window get sworn in to become the 45th President of the United States of America.