THE DAILY DONALD: Egregious displays, effective bans, and "everything we hold dear as Americans"

FILED IN: PRESIDENT TRUMP, ADDITIONAL REMARKS, "GOD BLESS HIM"

This morning, on Twitter, the President of the United States retweeted:

• a Fox News story reporting that he is "seriously considering" pardoning ex-Sheriff Joe Arapaio, who was recently found guilty of criminal contempt for ignoring a judge’s court order to refrain from racially profiling Latinos during patrols.

• Jack Posobiec (a leading voice of the alt-right movement and the man behind a "disinformation campaign ... to paint the anti-Trump rallies as violent and out of control"), who'd written: "Meanwhile: 39 shootings in Chicago this weekend, 9 deaths. No national media outrage. Why is that?"

• a meme of a 'Trump train' running over the CNN logo...and a person. (since deleted)

The Commander in Chief's obvious lack of enthusiasm in having to deliver the remarks was soon confirmed by the man himself, when he tweeted, "Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied...truly bad people!" However, one only need look at the reaction of Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, to get a sense of how Trump's second attempt at condemnation was received: "He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us ... No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him."

* Watch this space: "Undeterred by the violence over the planned removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, municipal leaders in cities across the United States said they would step up efforts to pull such monuments from public spaces. The mayors of Baltimore and Lexington, Kentucky, said they would push ahead with plans to remove statues ... Officials in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jacksonville, Florida, announced new initiatives on Monday aimed at taking down Confederate monuments. And Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, urged lawmakers to rid the state's Capitol of a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and early member of the Ku Klux Klan."


The North Korea Quandary:
On the same day that China's Commerce Ministry issued a ban, effective today, on major imports from North Korea, Kim Jong-Un tiptoed back his threats to launch missiles into waters near Guam, with the country's state-run news agency announcing this morning that their leader would be delaying his decision on whether or not to "wring the windpipes of the Yankees" in order to give President Trump the opportunity to "think reasonably and judge properly."

Nevertheless, the president still decided to authorize a controversial inquiry into China's alleged theft of intellectual property yesterday; the first direct trade measure by his administration against Beijing, and one which gives U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer a year to look into whether to launch a formal investigation of China’s hardline intellectual property and cybersecurity laws (e.g. "requir[ing] US tech giants like Amazon and Apple doing business in China to share sensitive codes and encryption with the government"). President Trump reportedly called the inquiry "a very big move."

 * Watch this space, too: "North Korea tried six years ago to steal missile secrets from [a] Ukrainian complex. Two North Koreans were caught, and a U.N. report said the information they tried to steal was focused on advanced 'missile systems, liquid-propellant engines, spacecraft and missile fuel supply systems.' Investigators now believe that, amid the chaos of post-revolutionary Ukraine, Pyongyang tried again."


Oh, and:

• "The FBI has arrested an Oklahoma man on charges that he tried to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb, acting out of a hatred for the U.S. government and an admiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy Mc­Veigh, according to court papers ... According to the complaint, over the course of a months-long undercover investigation by the FBI, Varnell made repeated statements about the extent of his hatred of the federal government. In one conversation he said he believed in the 'Three Percenter' ideology — a form of anti-government activism that pledges resistance against the United States government on the belief it has infringed on the Constitution, according to court papers. Those who subscribe to the ideology incorrectly believe that only 3 percent of the colonial population participated in the American Revolution, and they see themselves as their heirs."

• "The Obama administration received multiple warnings from national security officials between 2014 and 2016 that the Kremlin was ramping up its intelligence operations and building disinformation networks it could use to disrupt the U.S. political system, according to more than half a dozen current and former officials. As early as 2014, the administration received a report that quoted a well-connected Russian source as saying that the Kremlin was building a disinformation arm that could be used to interfere in Western democracies. The report, according to an official familiar with it, included a quote from the Russian source telling U.S. officials in Moscow, 'You have no idea how extensive these networks are in Europe ... and in the U.S., Russia has penetrated media organizations, lobbying firms, political parties, governments and militaries in all of these places.'"

• "Hundreds of people were confirmed dead in Sierra Leone after a torrent of fast-moving floods and mudslides swept through neighborhoods, burying dozens of unsuspecting residents alive. At least 312 people have been confirmed dead so far, and authorities expect the death toll to soar as the body count continues."

• "Iran could abandon its nuclear agreement with world powers 'within hours' if the United States imposes any more new sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday. 'If America wants to go back to the experience (of imposing sanctions), Iran would certainly return in a short time — not a week or a month but within hours — to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations,' Rouhani told a session of parliament broadcast live on state television."

• "Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced he will conduct military drills later this month in response to potential threats by President Donald Trump. Trump said last week that he would consider military intervention in the country, where widespread protests have left at least 120 Venezuelans dead since April. The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Venezuela and called Maduro a dictator."

• "The Department of Justice has requested information on visitors to a website used to organize protests against President Trump, the Los Angeles-based Dreamhost said in a blog post published on Monday ... DreamHost claimed that the complying with the request from the Justice Department would amount to handing over roughly 1.3 million visitor IP addresses to the government, in addition to contact information, email content and photos of thousands of visitors to the website, which was involved in organizing protests against Trump on Inauguration Day. 'That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment,' DreamHost wrote in the blog post on Monday. 'That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.'"

• "The Congressional Budget Office is expected to release a report Tuesday afternoon on the impact of halting key payments to insurance companies, which President Trump has threatened to do, CBO announced Monday. The nonpartisan agency will analyze the effects stopping these payments would have on the federal budget, health coverage, marketplace stability and premiums."

• "California sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday over federal restrictions on some law enforcement grants to so-called sanctuary cities, continuing a legal counterattack by Democrats against President Donald Trump's administration."

• "President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday 'establishing discipline and accountability in the environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects,' the White House said in a statement on Monday."

• "Alabama Sen. Luther Strange on Tuesday looked to support from President Donald Trump to help carry him to the victory - or at least a runoff - in the Alabama Senate Republican primary, while his GOP rivals continued to batter him as the candidate of the so-called Washington establishment. Alabama voters go to the polls Tuesday to select party nominees in the closely watched Senate race for the seat that belonged to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The race will test both the reach of Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after a super political action committee tied to McConnell spent millions of dollars in advertising to try to clear the way for Strange."

• "Shaken by Trump's victory and motivated by the potential undoing of what they worked to help Obama accomplish, roughly a dozen former White House and agency staffers have moved home to run for Congress ... Some House races have even drawn multiple former Obama hands into the arena. In Texas, former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough and ex-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew have lined up behind Ed Meier, a former State Department official, while ex-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro is backing his former employee, Colin Allred, who was also an Obama White House intern and professional football player."

• "Organizers of Saturday's deadly white nationalist rally say they are planning to return to Charlottesville for a future rally and to file lawsuits against city and state authorities for allegedly failing to protect their gathering. But first, they must cope with a psychic shock: feeling betrayed by government authorities they believed would always protect them. Before this weekend's events, the alt-right had been a bastion of pro-police sentiment — especially when it came to police shootings of unarmed black victims and clashes with the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, the alt-right's leaders are grappling with the realities of being identifiable members of an unpopular minority group in public."

READ MORE ❯

• "Here’s What Really Happened In Charlottesville"  by Blake Montgomery

• "The key difference between ‘nationalists’ and ‘supremacists’"  by Merrill Perlman

• "Trump and the Allies"  by Gideon Rose

WHILE LISTENING TO ❯

• "War Is Coming (If You Want It)" - Car Seat Headrest