Thursday, February 16, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-16

Dear White, Christian Trump Supporters: We Need To Talk: I’m afraid that what you want is a nation that conforms to your interpretation of the Bible.

‘This is really unprecedented’: ICE detains woman seeking domestic abuse protection at Tex. courthouse

Trump looking at New York billionaire to lead review of U.S. spy agencies

The simple reason that Trump is holding a rally in Florida this weekend

Why do smart people in the White House do stupid things? Because Trump tells them to.

Trump’s claim that there’s ‘tremendous amount of increase’ in autism cases

The strange link between the human mind and quantum physics: Nobody understands what consciousness is or how it works. Nobody understands quantum mechanics either. Could that be more than coincidence?

Earthships, the Ultimate in Off-Grid Architecture: A new spin on a ‘70s sustainability movement.

FBI releases files on Trump apartments' race discrimination probe in '70s

Americans Express Increasingly Warm Feelings Toward Religious Groups: Jews, Catholics continue to receive warmest ratings, atheists and Muslims move from cool to neutral

James Comey’s behavior looks worse and worse

Admit it: Trump is unfit to serve

Russia Deploys Missile, Violating Treaty and Challenging Trump

Flynn in FBI interview denied discussing sanctions with Russian ambassador

You’re about to see a big change to the sell-by dates on food

Congress Says, Let the Mentally Ill Buy Guns

‘They friends of yours?’: Trump asks black reporter to set up meeting with Black Caucus

Donald Trump delivers a series of raw and personal attacks on the media in a news conference for the ages

Trump says ‘I inherited a mess,’ blasts media and detractors at combative news conference

Editorial: Pascrell shows the way to Trump’s tax returns

Trump’s pick to replace Michael Flynn as national security adviser turns down offer, people familiar with decision say

White House dismisses 6 over failed background checks

Trump 2020 is off to a great start

The rise of Trump has led to an unexpected twist in Germany’s election: A resurgent left

Trump family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense

Pentagon: No records of Flynn's 2015 Russia trip

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-15

Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

'FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN' IS A RAVISHING, BRUTAL REMINDER OF HOW HOLLYWOOD TREATS AGING WOMEN

American Institutions Are Pushing Back Against Trump: The bureaucracy, the press, the judiciary, and the public are not only pushing back, they’re having some success.

The Nationalist Right Is Coming for Reince Priebus: Furious over the ouster of Mike Flynn, Trump loyalists in the right-wing media are blaming the former RNC chair for the administration's setbacks.

The Missing Pieces in the Flynn Story

Flynn Is Exactly What Trump Deserves

Rand Paul on Flynn: 'Makes no sense' to investigate fellow Republicans

Graham: Connection between Trump campaign, Russian intelligence would be 'game changer'

Flynn puts FBI director back in spotlight

One afternoon, 3 investigations? The Trump White House’s ominous day.

Two explosive reports on Trump and Russia. Zero on-the-record sources.

Donald Trump actually loves anonymous sources — unless they’re talking about him

Donald Trump’s White House is on the verge of a raging fire over Russia allegations

Social Justice Must Be Complicated, Because Oppression Is Never Simple

More trouble for Andrew Puzder, Trump’s embattled nominee for secretary of labor

The high school speech by Stephen Miller that offended students, and got him thrown off stage

Michael Flynn is gone and everything is fine, just fine, great

Democrats finally claim a scalp: Andrew Puzder. It’s only a consolation prize.

Senate Democrats unify around congressional probe of Trump ties to Russia

Influential conservative group: Trump, DeVos should dismantle Education Department and bring God into classrooms

These 23 Republicans Passed on a Chance to Get Trump's Tax Returns: Congress has a duty to make sure President Trump isn’t selling out the United States. These legislators are in more active dereliction of that duty than most.

LeBron: The Sequel: LeBron James' first act, becoming one of the greatest basketball players in history, is all but settled as a success. His second act -- to become a global entertainment icon -- is just beginning.

The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins: Intelligence Community pushes back against a White House it considers leaky, untruthful and penetrated by the Kremlin

Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign

Sikhs opened their temple doors to Oroville Dam evacuees — and strangers came pouring in

Drip, Drip, Drip

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-14

As Trump stumbles, Hill Republicans find it harder to defend him

The timeline of Michael Flynn’s resignation just looks bad for the Trump White House

‘Nuclear football’ photo taken at Trump’s golf resort puts the Pentagon in an awkward position

A White House where no one is in charge

Upheaval is now standard operating procedure inside the White House

At least four GOP senators are on the fence about Labor Dept. nominee Andrew Puzder

The strange tale of how a false 2009 Obamacare claim ended up in a viral 2017 video

GOP senator calls for exhaustive investigation into Trump-Russia connections

Flynn sets record with only 24 days as national security adviser. The average tenure is about 2.6 years.

<THREAD> I’m now hearing this meme that says Obama, Clinton, et al. are doing nothing, just gave up. Guys. It’s time for some game theory.

After Flynn’s resignation, Trump says the ‘real story’ is ‘illegal leaks’

GOP chairman: Oversight won't investigate Flynn

Stephen Colbert’s anti-Trump experiment is starting to work

Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer have their own ‘alternative facts’ on Flynn’s resignation

Senate Republicans want to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia

WHY FEW PEOPLE DARE EAT THE BOSS’S M&MS: The sweet psychology behind the office candy jar, including why no one wants to be caught taking the last piece.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-11 through 2017-02-13

A black man accused French police of raping him. Police claim it was an accident.

Anger erupts at Republican town halls

Election commissioner to Trump: Show evidence of voter fraud

Charles Schumer: Judge Gorsuch, We Won’t Be Fooled Again

Stephen Miller’s bushels of Pinocchios for false voter-fraud claims

Thoughts on a Strange Day—and a Very Strange Presidential Tweet

As Flynn falls under growing pressure over Russia contacts, Trump remains silent

Turmoil at the National Security Council, From the Top Down

The role an old case about ritual goat sacrifices played in blocking Trump’s travel ban

Bernie Sanders calls Trump a ‘pathological liar’; Al Franken says ‘a few’ Republicans think Trump is mentally ill

Clinton’s Ground Game Didn’t Cost Her The Election Reporters gave Clinton’s field operation too much credit before. Now it’s getting too much blame.

Sears, Kmart join other retailers in dropping Trump brands: Sears and its wholly owned subsidiary, Kmart, said that their stores are discontinuing online sales of 31 Trump Home items.

Police Officers: “We Didn’t Vote Republican To Get Stabbed In The Back”

We’ve never seen anything like Trump’s rough treatment of his White House staff

Hillary Clinton should absolutely not run for president in 2020. And Democrats should stop her if she tries.

Trump turns Mar-a-Lago Club terrace into open-air situation room

Trump ran a campaign based on intelligence security. That’s not how he’s governing.

Where does the Ivanka Trump brand go from here?

Joe Scarborough really doesn’t like Stephen Miller

#GrammysSoWhite Came to Life. Will the Awards Face Its Race Problem?

Adele bests Beyoncé and the Grammys reach peak irrelevance

Adele really, really thinks Beyoncé should have won album of the year

The very risky bet congressional Republicans are making on President Trump

G.O.P. Lawmakers Like What They See in Trump. They Just Have to Squint.

Trump Criticized Obama for Golfing. Now He Spends Weekends on the Links.

A new, liberal tea party is forming. Can it last without turning against Democrats?

Trump’s two-year presidency

The African, Hindu and Roman goddesses who inspired Beyoncé’s stunning Grammy performance

Trump, Putin and the Hidden History of How Russia Interfered in the U.S. Presidential Election

Justice Department warned White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, officials say

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-07

Ordinary Americans carried out inhumane acts for Trump

Sam Waterston: The danger of Trump’s constant lying

Trump is a boy’s idea of a man

Why You Need Less Noise for Work and Your Health

Republican lawmakers face rising anger at town halls

GOP gets bolder in breaking with Trump

Bannon flies close to the sun

New Documents Show Trump Retains Direct Tie to Businesses

Trump’s loose talk about Muslims gets weaponized in court against travel ban

How to Build an Autocracy: The preconditions are present in the U.S. today. Here’s the playbook Donald Trump could use to set the country down a path toward illiberalism. - Over the past generation, we have seen ominous indicators of a breakdown of the American political system: the willingness of congressional Republicans to push the United States to the brink of a default on its national obligations in 2013 in order to score a point in budget negotiations; Barack Obama’s assertion of a unilateral executive power to confer legal status upon millions of people illegally present in the United States—despite his own prior acknowledgment that no such power existed.

Donald Trump, however, represents something much more radical. A president who plausibly owes his office at least in part to a clandestine intervention by a hostile foreign intelligence service? Who uses the bully pulpit to target individual critics? Who creates blind trusts that are not blind, invites his children to commingle private and public business, and somehow gets the unhappy members of his own political party either to endorse his choices or shrug them off? If this were happening in Honduras, we’d know what to call it. It’s happening here instead, and so we are baffled.

The popular uprising that threatens the Betsy DeVos nomination

The provocative faith of Lady Gaga

‘I shot dad’: The tragic case of a child who killed his abusive, neo-Nazi father

Monday, February 6, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-06

Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles

Donald Trump Says ‘Negative Polls Are Fake News’

As a conservative Twitter user sleeps, his account is hard at work

Why Melissa McCarthy Had to Play Sean Spicer

Sean Spicer Must Be Taking His Suit Advice From Donald Trump: Specifically, from Trump’s 2005 book “Think Like a Billionaire.”

ADDITIONS TO THE FIVE JOURNALISTIC “W”S

Conway used 'Bowling Green massacre' days before MSNBC interview

Cancel dinner plans. Send ‘nerd prom’ to the history books.

Obama got the Pentagon’s medal for distinguished public service, and Sarah Palin didn’t like it

George Will on leaving Fox News: ‘It’s their toy’

The Trump administration has sprung a leak. Many of them, in fact.

Hundreds of people showed up for a town hall with California's Rep. Tom McClintock, and things got intense

Mike Pence’s awkward — and telling — response to whether the U.S. is ‘morally superior’ to Russia

President Trump is now speculating that the media is covering up terrorist attacks

How to be an American: Syrian refugees find a home in Trump country

Former top diplomats, tech giants blast immigration order as court showdown looms

President Trump’s simplistic, illogical worldview, in one tweet

The White House and Fox join forces to undermine anti-Trump protests as violent and fake

We’re having the wrong argument about GMOs

Friday, February 3, 2017

Reading archive 2017-02-03

The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence: He's trampled on the rights of women, LGBTQ folks and the poor. Then there's the incompetence. Meet, quite possibly, the next president - During my travels across the self-proclaimed Crossroads of America, I learned that Mike Pence had once paid his mortgage with campaign funds, dragged his feet during an HIV epidemic and a lead-poisoning outbreak, signed an anti-gay-rights bill that nearly cost Indiana millions of dollars, lost his mind on national TV with George Stephanopoulos, and turned away Syrian refugees in an unconstitutional ploy laughed out of federal court. And he ended his gubernatorial term unpopular enough that his re-election bid in a Republican state seemed dicey at best.

How to #StayOutraged Without Losing Your Mind: Self-Care Lessons for the Resistance

Trump's 'Voter-Fraud' Investigation Targets States That Opposed Him: The White House says an inquiry into baseless claims of illegal voting will spare states that voted for the president.

America’s Leading Authoritarian Intellectual Is Working for Trump

Donald Trump’s Excuse for Gutting Wall Street Regulations Is Hilariously Flimsy

What CEOs say happened in Trump’s closed-door meeting with big pharma

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner worked to sink LGBT order: Members of the religious right with ties to the Trump administration say they have been led to believe that some changes will still be coming.

Trump’s Enemies Within: The president has awakened the slumbering beast that felled presidents before him: the federal bureaucracy.

Will This Man Take Down Donald Trump?: They’ve been squaring off for years. Now New York’s attorney general is emerging as the leader of the Trump resistance.

A special warfare unit was spotted flying a Trump flag in public. Now the Navy is investigating.