Fox News apparently killed a story that was filed by its reporter, Diana Falzone, that Donald Trump had a sexual relationship with adult-film star, Stephanie Clifford -- stage name of Stormy Daniels, which will be used throughout this piece. Falzone has an on-the-record statement from Daniel's manager at the time, Gina Rodriquez, confirmation from three other people, and had even seen e-mails about a settlement. Slate's Jacob Weisberg said Daniels had the personal phone number of Trump's long-time personal assistant, Rhona Graff, and his bodyguard, Keith Schiller. Weisberg spoke to three of Daniel's friends, all of whom confirmed the outlines of the story.
Besides the two reporters referenced above, on January 18, the Wall Street Journal published a story that Trump's personal long-time lawyer, Steven Cohen, made a $130,000 payment to Daniels, hiding it by setting up a company named Essential Consultants, LLC in Delaware. Although Daniels now denies receiving the money, friends of hers say she did receive it . Besides this hush money paid to Daniels, the "National Enquirer," whose owner is a good friend of Trump's, paid $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Although McDougal was presumably being paid to be a writer for the "Enquirer," she only produced three articles, and it is virtually certain that the payment was to buy her silence about a sexual affair with Trump.
The sources for the sexual relationship between Donald Trump and Stormy don't end with the three above. "In Touch" magazine published an interview with Stormy in 2011, in which Stormy gave a detailed account of a sexual relationship with Trump that was more than a one-night stand -- Stormy said Trump called her about once every ten days. Besides that, Megyn Kelly interviewed another porn-star performer, Alana Evans, a neighbor of Stormy's, who described a chance meeting in which Stormy told her that she had just met Donald Trump. Later that evening, Stormy made calls to Alana from Trump's hotel room, inviting her to come to the room to join in a party. Alana claimed that Donald even came on the phone to invite her to his room. Since Alana was with a friend and didn't want to leave her by herself, she declined the invitation. The next morning, however, Stormy filled her in on what happened in the room.
This story of the affair between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump wasn't a one-night stand; has many sources; and hangs together very well, yet, there is no indication that "family values" white evangelists will drop their overwhelming support for Trump. It appears that the hope that Trump will advance the United States toward becoming a theocracy trumps any pretension that they are people who actually believe in family values.
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Friday, January 19, 2018
GOP Vote-Blocking Tactics
One - Tougher Voter ID Requirements
Some time ago, only Georgia and Indiana required photo IDs. Since then, 34 states have introduced photo ID laws, five enacted them; governors vetoed five; and other states are considering them. A 2006 Brennan Center study found nearly one in five citizens over 65 -- 8 million -- lack a current, government-issued photo-ID. Some people over age 65 were born before recording births was standard practice. 3.2 million voters in Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin would find voting more difficult.
Two - Create Hurdles to Get Required ID -- Even Charge For It.
Three - Intimidate Voter Registration Groups
Seven states tried to add restrictions on voter registration groups and such laws passed in Florida and Texas. Florida has a rigorous schedule for turning in applications and errors result in fines.
Four - Try to Eliminate Same-Day Registration
The citizens of Maine shot down an attempt and Ohio had a referendum on it.
Five - Curtail Early Voting
This is done mostly by reducing the number of days.
Six - Ban Felons From Voting
Florida is notorious for erroneous lists. Iowa has joined Florida. A total of at least 5.3 million ex-felons are denied the vote across the nation.
Seven - Bleed Election Administrators' Budgets
Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin have limited the operating hours of, or closed state offices where residents can get required photo IDs. In the three states above there are a total of 34 counties with no Department of Public Safety offices, including four where the Hispanic population is more than 75 percent. Alabama closed Motor Vehicle Division offices in counties with heavy concentrations of minority voters.
CAUTION: The listing above may be as much as six years old, so it should be taken as more of the ways that voting can be restricted, rather than relying on the number of states and counties that restrict voting in some way. The Alabama action is a more recent one.
ADDENDUMS:
*States adopted 63 new abortion restrictions in 2017. The number goes up to 71 if restrictions on family planning, like defunding Planned Parenthood are included.
*The Pennsylvania state House and Senate sent $1 million to anti-choice efforts like "crisis pregnancy centers." Crisis pregnancy centers also got funding in North Carolina.
*Minnesota state legislators passed a bill to place licensing requirements on abortion providers. The bill was similar to Texas's HB2.
*Three quarters of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service abruptly quit, frustrated that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year.
*In a Reuters interview on January 17, President Trump said the bipartisan DACA deal was "horrible" on border security and "very, very weak."
Some time ago, only Georgia and Indiana required photo IDs. Since then, 34 states have introduced photo ID laws, five enacted them; governors vetoed five; and other states are considering them. A 2006 Brennan Center study found nearly one in five citizens over 65 -- 8 million -- lack a current, government-issued photo-ID. Some people over age 65 were born before recording births was standard practice. 3.2 million voters in Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin would find voting more difficult.
Two - Create Hurdles to Get Required ID -- Even Charge For It.
Three - Intimidate Voter Registration Groups
Seven states tried to add restrictions on voter registration groups and such laws passed in Florida and Texas. Florida has a rigorous schedule for turning in applications and errors result in fines.
Four - Try to Eliminate Same-Day Registration
The citizens of Maine shot down an attempt and Ohio had a referendum on it.
Five - Curtail Early Voting
This is done mostly by reducing the number of days.
Six - Ban Felons From Voting
Florida is notorious for erroneous lists. Iowa has joined Florida. A total of at least 5.3 million ex-felons are denied the vote across the nation.
Seven - Bleed Election Administrators' Budgets
Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin have limited the operating hours of, or closed state offices where residents can get required photo IDs. In the three states above there are a total of 34 counties with no Department of Public Safety offices, including four where the Hispanic population is more than 75 percent. Alabama closed Motor Vehicle Division offices in counties with heavy concentrations of minority voters.
CAUTION: The listing above may be as much as six years old, so it should be taken as more of the ways that voting can be restricted, rather than relying on the number of states and counties that restrict voting in some way. The Alabama action is a more recent one.
ADDENDUMS:
*States adopted 63 new abortion restrictions in 2017. The number goes up to 71 if restrictions on family planning, like defunding Planned Parenthood are included.
*The Pennsylvania state House and Senate sent $1 million to anti-choice efforts like "crisis pregnancy centers." Crisis pregnancy centers also got funding in North Carolina.
*Minnesota state legislators passed a bill to place licensing requirements on abortion providers. The bill was similar to Texas's HB2.
*Three quarters of a federally chartered board advising the National Park Service abruptly quit, frustrated that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has refused to meet with them or convene a single meeting last year.
*In a Reuters interview on January 17, President Trump said the bipartisan DACA deal was "horrible" on border security and "very, very weak."
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Cluster Bomb and Gun Facts; SNAP Snapped
Cluster Bomb Stats
In November, the Pentagon announced that it would reverse a 2008 policy prohibiting the use of cluster bombs, which release deadly submunitions that scatter indiscriminately across a target area.
119 - Number of countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a global ban on the weapons' use; the United States is not among them.
270M - Approximate number of submunitions dropped by the U.S on Laos during the Vietnam War; about 80 million remain unexploded.
20,000 - Estimated number of civilians killed or maimed by unexploded ordinance since the end of the Vietnam War.
44 - Civilians killed the last time the U.S. used cluster bombs, in a 2009 cruise-missile strike in Yemen. (Source: The Nation, January 1/8, 2018.)
Gun Stats
93 - Average number of Americans killed with guns every day.
50 - Women shot dead by an intimate partner in the U.S. in a typical month.
12M - Estimated number of AR-15 assault rifles in the U.S.
50% - Percentage of the world's guns owned by Americans, who make up 5 percent of the world's population.
$8B - Size of the U.S. firearms industry. (Source: The Nation, October 23, 2017.)
SNAP in Trump's Crosshairs
"The Trump administration appears to be taking aim at a food aid program that helps keep one in four U.S. children and millions of disabled people adequately fed. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, has been in President Donald Trump's crosshairs since May, when his administration released a budget proposal calling for a 25 percent spending cut."
"Rather than serving as a substitute for work, the food stamps program 'increasingly serves the working poor,' as the USDA itself noted in a March release. More than half of SNAP families with children include an adult who works, the report states. A 2015 study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that among working-age adults receiving SNAP benefits, 57 percent are 'either working or are unemployed and looking for work,' and 22 percent are 'exempt from work due to disability.' "
"The USDA's presser also implies that many people take advantage of food stamps: 'We will not tolerate waste, fraud,or abuse from those who seek to undermine our mission or who do not take their responsibility seriously,' it reads, echoing overheated accounts of hustlers getting rich off of SNAP fraud. In reality, SNAP fraud is pretty rare -- affecting just 1.5 percent of benefits, according to the USDA." (Source: Tom Philpott, "Reading Between the Lines of the USDA's Bizarre Food Stamps Memo," Mother Jones, December 20, 2017.)
President Trump has said that when he and his Congressional allies succeed in slashing taxes, they'll pivot to "welfare reform" -- which seems to be code for SNAP cuts.
In November, the Pentagon announced that it would reverse a 2008 policy prohibiting the use of cluster bombs, which release deadly submunitions that scatter indiscriminately across a target area.
119 - Number of countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, a global ban on the weapons' use; the United States is not among them.
270M - Approximate number of submunitions dropped by the U.S on Laos during the Vietnam War; about 80 million remain unexploded.
20,000 - Estimated number of civilians killed or maimed by unexploded ordinance since the end of the Vietnam War.
44 - Civilians killed the last time the U.S. used cluster bombs, in a 2009 cruise-missile strike in Yemen. (Source: The Nation, January 1/8, 2018.)
Gun Stats
93 - Average number of Americans killed with guns every day.
50 - Women shot dead by an intimate partner in the U.S. in a typical month.
12M - Estimated number of AR-15 assault rifles in the U.S.
50% - Percentage of the world's guns owned by Americans, who make up 5 percent of the world's population.
$8B - Size of the U.S. firearms industry. (Source: The Nation, October 23, 2017.)
SNAP in Trump's Crosshairs
"The Trump administration appears to be taking aim at a food aid program that helps keep one in four U.S. children and millions of disabled people adequately fed. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, has been in President Donald Trump's crosshairs since May, when his administration released a budget proposal calling for a 25 percent spending cut."
"Rather than serving as a substitute for work, the food stamps program 'increasingly serves the working poor,' as the USDA itself noted in a March release. More than half of SNAP families with children include an adult who works, the report states. A 2015 study by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that among working-age adults receiving SNAP benefits, 57 percent are 'either working or are unemployed and looking for work,' and 22 percent are 'exempt from work due to disability.' "
"The USDA's presser also implies that many people take advantage of food stamps: 'We will not tolerate waste, fraud,or abuse from those who seek to undermine our mission or who do not take their responsibility seriously,' it reads, echoing overheated accounts of hustlers getting rich off of SNAP fraud. In reality, SNAP fraud is pretty rare -- affecting just 1.5 percent of benefits, according to the USDA." (Source: Tom Philpott, "Reading Between the Lines of the USDA's Bizarre Food Stamps Memo," Mother Jones, December 20, 2017.)
President Trump has said that when he and his Congressional allies succeed in slashing taxes, they'll pivot to "welfare reform" -- which seems to be code for SNAP cuts.
Monday, January 8, 2018
Killing Regulations and Other Observations From My Writer's Notebook
Exaggerations on Killing Regulations
Recently, President Trump scheduled a media photo opportunity in which he had his aides stack a very impressive pile of regulations which Trump was taking credit for eliminating. The reality was far less impressive than the appearance. Trump boasted that he had eliminated "nearly 1,000 regulations." Of 469 regulations claimed to be "withdrawn," 42 percent were as good as dead already. Some 180 were not listed on Obama's final agenda of upcoming rules. On some, there had been no activity for years. Some had already been eliminated by Obama. Many of the regulations Trump included as being eliminated were listed as "reclassified." Only 15 had been overturned by Congress. Thus, the great majority of what Trump claimed had been killed, were done by executive order, a form of executive branch legislating that the GOP had harshly condemned when it was done by President Obama.
President Trump's dictum that two regulations must be eliminated for every new one imposed is devoid of reason, because he has very rarely given any explanation of why eliminated regulations were bad for business, the nation or the world.
Discrimination on FEMA Applications
A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation found that in applying for FEMA assistance, 34 percent of white applicants had their applications approved, versus 13 percent of black applicants. Despite Trump administration bragging of how well it has responded to hurricane damage, many people in Harvey-damaged coastal Texas are saying they still face major hurdles before their lives return to normal. The situation in Puerto Rico remains dire, with a large percentage of the population still without electricity.
More Babies the Solution
During a brief presser, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that the working population is increasing at a 19 percent rate and the retirement population is increasing by 90 percent. His solution is that to save popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, women must have more babies.
Rebooting For-Profit Colleges
PROSPER, a rewrite of the Higher Education Act, will reboot floundering for-profit colleges.
Real Estate "Pass-Through" in New Tax Law
CNBC says roughly four dozen GOP House and Senate members who voted for the new tax law stand to reap a windfall thanks to the loophole inserted at the last minute that reduces the tax rate on income derived from real estate. Trump will also benefit from the provision due to his heavy investment in real estate. As a candidate, Trump boasted that he would eliminate the "carried interest loophole" as an indication that he would not hesitate to end a big tax break for the very wealthy. The loophole is in the new law.
Heritage Foundation Warning on Tax Manipulation
The Heritage Foundation has issued a warning about the "pass-through provisions in The Tax and Jobs Act of 2017. "The discrepancy in top rates between individual income and small and pass-through business income will increase the incentive to treat income from wages artificially as business income. This new tax provision have no consistent policy rationale, and arbitrarily favors certain types of businesses over others, introduces new complexity, and will provide new opportunities for unproductive tax planning." Heritage also charges that too many special-interest subsidies remain.
Recently, President Trump scheduled a media photo opportunity in which he had his aides stack a very impressive pile of regulations which Trump was taking credit for eliminating. The reality was far less impressive than the appearance. Trump boasted that he had eliminated "nearly 1,000 regulations." Of 469 regulations claimed to be "withdrawn," 42 percent were as good as dead already. Some 180 were not listed on Obama's final agenda of upcoming rules. On some, there had been no activity for years. Some had already been eliminated by Obama. Many of the regulations Trump included as being eliminated were listed as "reclassified." Only 15 had been overturned by Congress. Thus, the great majority of what Trump claimed had been killed, were done by executive order, a form of executive branch legislating that the GOP had harshly condemned when it was done by President Obama.
President Trump's dictum that two regulations must be eliminated for every new one imposed is devoid of reason, because he has very rarely given any explanation of why eliminated regulations were bad for business, the nation or the world.
Discrimination on FEMA Applications
A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation found that in applying for FEMA assistance, 34 percent of white applicants had their applications approved, versus 13 percent of black applicants. Despite Trump administration bragging of how well it has responded to hurricane damage, many people in Harvey-damaged coastal Texas are saying they still face major hurdles before their lives return to normal. The situation in Puerto Rico remains dire, with a large percentage of the population still without electricity.
More Babies the Solution
During a brief presser, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that the working population is increasing at a 19 percent rate and the retirement population is increasing by 90 percent. His solution is that to save popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, women must have more babies.
Rebooting For-Profit Colleges
PROSPER, a rewrite of the Higher Education Act, will reboot floundering for-profit colleges.
Real Estate "Pass-Through" in New Tax Law
CNBC says roughly four dozen GOP House and Senate members who voted for the new tax law stand to reap a windfall thanks to the loophole inserted at the last minute that reduces the tax rate on income derived from real estate. Trump will also benefit from the provision due to his heavy investment in real estate. As a candidate, Trump boasted that he would eliminate the "carried interest loophole" as an indication that he would not hesitate to end a big tax break for the very wealthy. The loophole is in the new law.
Heritage Foundation Warning on Tax Manipulation
The Heritage Foundation has issued a warning about the "pass-through provisions in The Tax and Jobs Act of 2017. "The discrepancy in top rates between individual income and small and pass-through business income will increase the incentive to treat income from wages artificially as business income. This new tax provision have no consistent policy rationale, and arbitrarily favors certain types of businesses over others, introduces new complexity, and will provide new opportunities for unproductive tax planning." Heritage also charges that too many special-interest subsidies remain.
Friday, January 5, 2018
Roundup's Mass Exposure
"Today, Roundup is the most popular herbicide in the world, generating more than $4 billion in annual income for Monsanto." "Today, over 90 percent of domestic soy, corn, and cotton crops are genetically engineered to be glyphosate-resistant, accounting for more than 168 million acres. "
"In 2015, an international science committee ruled that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, countering previous determinations by regulatory agencies in the United States and other countries. "
"Glyphosate-resistant 'superweeds' like pigweeds, which can grow three inches a day, reaching heights up to seven feet, have already invaded some 90 million acres of American cropland, forcing farmers to use more powerful chemicals in larger doses. Since 1970, Americans have sprayed 1.8 million tons of glyphosate on their crops, lawns and gardens; globally, the figure stands at 9.4 million tons." "The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate should be categorized in Group 2A, meaning 'probably carcinogenic to humans,' alongside DDT, the insecticide malathion, and strains of human papillonavirus." [1]
An April 2015 email from Jess Rowland, deputy director of the EPA's pesticide division, indicated that he would try to kill a planned review of glyphosate by the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. "The EPA has often been criticized for its chemical-screening processes, in large part because it relies on research funded or conducted by the chemical companies themselves. In 2015, the agency determined that there was 'no convincing evidence' that glyphosate disrupts the human endocrine system -- a determination based almost entirely on studies funded by Monsanto, other chemical companies, and industry groups." "Monsanto is following a familiar playbook: have scientists produce friendly results, fund front groups -- Monsanto has contributed to the American Council on Science and Health, which defends glyphosate and other chemicals from 'junk science' -- and use the media to sway public opinion." [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*Each year, about five thousand people kill someone and don't get caught, and a percentage of these men and women have undoubtedly killed more than once." "According to the database, American serial killers are ten times more likely to be male than female." "In 2016, the number (arrest rate) was slightly less than sixty per cent, which was the lowest rate since records started being kept." [3]
*Sen. Bernie Sanders says: "At last, Trump is telling the truth about his tax bill." Trump reportedly told his friends at Mar-a-Largo that they all "just got a lot richer" after he signed the tax bill.
*Rep. Francis Rooney (R- FL) has called for a "purge of the FBI" to get rid of of "deep state" officials. "Deep state" is a term I have heard used in regard to Turkey.
Footnotes
[1] Rene Ebersole, "Mass Exposure," The Nation, October 30, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Alec Wilkinson, "The Serial Killer Detector," The New Yorker, November 27, 2017.
"In 2015, an international science committee ruled that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, countering previous determinations by regulatory agencies in the United States and other countries. "
"Glyphosate-resistant 'superweeds' like pigweeds, which can grow three inches a day, reaching heights up to seven feet, have already invaded some 90 million acres of American cropland, forcing farmers to use more powerful chemicals in larger doses. Since 1970, Americans have sprayed 1.8 million tons of glyphosate on their crops, lawns and gardens; globally, the figure stands at 9.4 million tons." "The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that glyphosate should be categorized in Group 2A, meaning 'probably carcinogenic to humans,' alongside DDT, the insecticide malathion, and strains of human papillonavirus." [1]
An April 2015 email from Jess Rowland, deputy director of the EPA's pesticide division, indicated that he would try to kill a planned review of glyphosate by the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. "The EPA has often been criticized for its chemical-screening processes, in large part because it relies on research funded or conducted by the chemical companies themselves. In 2015, the agency determined that there was 'no convincing evidence' that glyphosate disrupts the human endocrine system -- a determination based almost entirely on studies funded by Monsanto, other chemical companies, and industry groups." "Monsanto is following a familiar playbook: have scientists produce friendly results, fund front groups -- Monsanto has contributed to the American Council on Science and Health, which defends glyphosate and other chemicals from 'junk science' -- and use the media to sway public opinion." [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*Each year, about five thousand people kill someone and don't get caught, and a percentage of these men and women have undoubtedly killed more than once." "According to the database, American serial killers are ten times more likely to be male than female." "In 2016, the number (arrest rate) was slightly less than sixty per cent, which was the lowest rate since records started being kept." [3]
*Sen. Bernie Sanders says: "At last, Trump is telling the truth about his tax bill." Trump reportedly told his friends at Mar-a-Largo that they all "just got a lot richer" after he signed the tax bill.
*Rep. Francis Rooney (R- FL) has called for a "purge of the FBI" to get rid of of "deep state" officials. "Deep state" is a term I have heard used in regard to Turkey.
Footnotes
[1] Rene Ebersole, "Mass Exposure," The Nation, October 30, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Alec Wilkinson, "The Serial Killer Detector," The New Yorker, November 27, 2017.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
2018: 2017 All Over Again
A guest on Fox and Friends said that President Trump has spent 2017 learning the ropes, and that knowledge, coupled with his business expertise, will produce a totally different president in 2018. A minister appearing on the same program said that with the guidance of God, Trump will learn how to properly run the government. We have had plenty of knowledge of Donald Trump's prior life, how he performed in the presidential campaign, and his performance in office to learn that Trump has many traits that are detrimental to being the president of the United States. Moreover, being a business person is not necessarily conducive to being a good governmental leader, since business persons are primarily focused on making a profit. Many government programs are not expected to pay for themselves. Do we expect the Pentagon to pay for its keep?
We are just three days into a new year and already we have had evidence of how the Trump of 2017 will be no better, and maybe even worse, in 2018. His tweets on Pakistan, the Justice Department, the nuclear buttons in North Korea and the U.S., and on Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's most trusted staffer, have already submerged Trump in controversy. Trump slammed prior administrations for spending billions of dollars to Pakistan and getting no return on the dollar. He has claimed that Pakistan has not helped the U.S. with conducting the war on error, especially not eliminating the terrorist camps near the Afghan border. The Pakistan defense minister has fired back that Pakistan has shared information on terrorism with the U.S. and has allowed the use of Pakistani military bases for U.S. warplanes.
When North Korea's leader, Kim Jung-un, made a statement that he had a nuclear weapons button on his desk, Trump tweeted back that he had a bigger button on his desk, and it was more powerful. So when Kim Jung-un said North Korea might send athletes to the Olympics being held in South Korea and may even make use of a hot line to South Korea, Trump took no advantage of the opening. Instead, Trump re-ignited the fear that he might launch a nuclear weapons attack on North Korea without a direct attack on the United States.
President Trump's statement that there is a "Deep State" element in the Justice Department that is committed to his destruction, drew a pair of questions to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about how extensive was this element -- did it, for instance, involve all the employees. Sanders answered that the Deep State existed, it didn't involve all of the employees, and beyond that she couldn't define the element. Given the seriousness of the claim, the Trump administration should be duty-bound to describe the Deep State it claims exists.
It doesn't take much gray matter to understand that Trump is denigrating the FBI and the Justice Department to discredit them in the event that the Mueller investigation results in criminal charges against him. The more people Trump can convince that the investigation is a "witch hunt," the better chance he has to reduce the adverse consequences to himself.
When Trump claims the Justice Department is "his," he overturns the long historical precedent that of all governmental departments, the Justice Department must be the one that is most independent of the presidential office, as the president, including other employees in the executive branch, may become subject to criminal investigations.
President Trump has tweeted that the Justice Department open an investigation of Huma Abedin for the use of classified information in her emails. There is no evidence that Abedin's emails provided classified classified information to foreign adversaries, none the less, it is unseemly for a president to be advocating criminal investigations of those in the opposing political camp. If he can't "lock up" Hillary Clinton, he will try to do the same to Hillary's most trusted adviser.
We are just three days into a new year and already we have had evidence of how the Trump of 2017 will be no better, and maybe even worse, in 2018. His tweets on Pakistan, the Justice Department, the nuclear buttons in North Korea and the U.S., and on Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's most trusted staffer, have already submerged Trump in controversy. Trump slammed prior administrations for spending billions of dollars to Pakistan and getting no return on the dollar. He has claimed that Pakistan has not helped the U.S. with conducting the war on error, especially not eliminating the terrorist camps near the Afghan border. The Pakistan defense minister has fired back that Pakistan has shared information on terrorism with the U.S. and has allowed the use of Pakistani military bases for U.S. warplanes.
When North Korea's leader, Kim Jung-un, made a statement that he had a nuclear weapons button on his desk, Trump tweeted back that he had a bigger button on his desk, and it was more powerful. So when Kim Jung-un said North Korea might send athletes to the Olympics being held in South Korea and may even make use of a hot line to South Korea, Trump took no advantage of the opening. Instead, Trump re-ignited the fear that he might launch a nuclear weapons attack on North Korea without a direct attack on the United States.
President Trump's statement that there is a "Deep State" element in the Justice Department that is committed to his destruction, drew a pair of questions to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about how extensive was this element -- did it, for instance, involve all the employees. Sanders answered that the Deep State existed, it didn't involve all of the employees, and beyond that she couldn't define the element. Given the seriousness of the claim, the Trump administration should be duty-bound to describe the Deep State it claims exists.
It doesn't take much gray matter to understand that Trump is denigrating the FBI and the Justice Department to discredit them in the event that the Mueller investigation results in criminal charges against him. The more people Trump can convince that the investigation is a "witch hunt," the better chance he has to reduce the adverse consequences to himself.
When Trump claims the Justice Department is "his," he overturns the long historical precedent that of all governmental departments, the Justice Department must be the one that is most independent of the presidential office, as the president, including other employees in the executive branch, may become subject to criminal investigations.
President Trump has tweeted that the Justice Department open an investigation of Huma Abedin for the use of classified information in her emails. There is no evidence that Abedin's emails provided classified classified information to foreign adversaries, none the less, it is unseemly for a president to be advocating criminal investigations of those in the opposing political camp. If he can't "lock up" Hillary Clinton, he will try to do the same to Hillary's most trusted adviser.
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