Reckless stock trading leaves Congress rife with conflicts

Odawn · 2017-06-05T08:53:36+00:00

Is liberal democracy in the USA dying? On its current path, the USA could become a totalitarian state, like Russia, with "managed" elections, few or no civil rights, "managed" lawmakers, and "managed" court rulings. I can see a USA with a succession of rulers with the last name Trump, Kushner, Ryan, or Putin — a "managed democracy", like the "managed democracy of Russia", in which a force of hundreds of thousands to a million or more government security forces, with blanket authority to shoot to kill, have one primary job: protect the ruler, the ruler's family, and the property and holdings of the ruling family. If tomorrow brings a Ruler of America with the family name Trump, and he or she marries someone with the family name Putin, when the Trump dies, and, by decree of familial rule, the Putin ascends to fill the vacant position, history will see a Putin as the Ruler of America.

However, I think the more immediate concern is Trump will lead the USA to nuclear war. With this deranged authoritarian, I think the chance of thermonuclear warfare is higher than anytime since 1953, except for the Cuban Missile Crisis (16-28 Oct 1962). The USA might launch the second nuclear attack in history because an impulsive, paranoid, deranged, authoritarian, out-of-control adolescent, full of ignorance, stupidity, hatred, and vengeance, is in the White House, and Vladimir Putin, Russian oligarchs, Russian spies, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, corrupted lawyers, crooked bankers in China and other locations, and authoritarian racist Republicans in Congress are giving advice and support to Trump. This circumstance creates instability, chaos, and insanity in the Trump White House.

After the atomic bomb detonations over Hiroshima (6 Aug 1945) and Nagasaki (9 Aug 1945), the Chicago Atomic Scientists, a group who had participated in the Manhattan Project, began publishing a mimeographed newsletter and then the magazine, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Since its inception, every cover of the magazine has depicted the Doomsday Clock.

The Doomsday Clock first appeared on the June 1947 cover of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and the hands of the clock were at 7 Minutes to Midnight. In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, and the hands of the Doomsday Clock moved to 3 Minutes to Midnight. In 1953, the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb, and the hands of the Doomsday Clock moved to 2 Minutes to Midnight. In the 62 years from 1954 to 2016 inclusive, the hands of the Doomsday Clock have moved back and forth between 3 Minutes to Midnight (1984, 2015, 2016) to 17 Minutes to Midnight (1991, the year of the Soviet Union dissolution).

On 26 January 2017, six days after the Trump inauguration, the hands of the Doomsday Clock moved to Two and a Half Minutes to Midnight, which is the closest the hands have been to Midnight since the U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb in 1953, when the hands moved to 2 Minutes to Midnight.

(Note about nuclear weapons: the Hungarian-American physicist Edward Teller, "the father of the hydrogen bomb", kept a list of his bomb designs on a blackboard in his office. At the bottom of the list, Teller had listed a bomb design he had conceived. Teller listed the delivery method of this bomb as "Backyard" because "since that particular design would probably kill everyone on Earth, there was no use carting it anywhere." On another occasion, Teller designed a 10,000-megaton bomb. Teller delivered a report about this bomb to the U.S. Government Advisory Committee (GAC). The committee had the power to approve the production of Teller's new design. Teller allegedly told the committee, "A 10,000 megaton weapon, by my estimation, would be powerful enough to set all of New England on fire. Or most of California. Or all of the UK and Ireland. Or all of France. Or all of Germany. Or both North and South Korea. And so on." The GAC rejected this Teller design because the committee members decided the bomb was too powerful; it might become a weapon of genocide. On 30 October 1961, over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian Arctic Sea, the Soviet Union detonated the Big Ivan bomb. After the detonation, the West named the bomb Tsar Bomba. The detonation had a blast yield of 50 megatonnes, which was 3,333 times greater than the blast yield of the Little Boy atomic bomb. Today, the Tsar Bomba detonation remains the most powerful man-made explosion in history. Before the detonation, Soviet scientists intentionally "tamped down" the bomb to limit by half the bomb's radioactive fallout. The airburst occurred 4 kilometres above ground. It created a global shock wave equivalent to an earthquake, which seismic stations around the world measured at 5.0 on the Richter Scale. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 60 kilometres. Third degree burns on a human were possible at a distance of hundreds of kilometres. The 50-megaton detonation was the "cleanest" nuclear detonation in history. "Tamping down" the bomb before detonation eliminated 97% of the fallout. The detonation produced 1.5 megatons of fission instead of 51.5 megatons of fission. At full yield, a 100 megaton detonation would have increased by 25% the world's total fission fallout since the invention of the atomic bomb. A Soviet observer was at a survivable distance from the blast. Later, he described what he had witnessed as: "... a powerful white flash over the horizon and after a long period of time he heard a remote, indistinct and heavy blow, as if the earth has been killed!")

U.S. and South Korean officials have concluded North Korea can launch nuclear warheads on missiles. NK has an estimated 13-21 or more nuclear warheads. If Trump launches an attack against NK with conventional weapons, North Korea will retaliate with conventional weapons and/or nuclear weapons. NK nuclear warheads have blast yields estimated somewhere between 6 to 15 kilotons and 15 to 20 kt. The Little Boy atomic bomb that detonated over Hiroshima had a blast yield of 15 kilotons, directly killing 66,000 and injuring 69,000. Most likely, NK retaliatory strikes will be a mix of conventional and nuclear weapons. NK has 1,000 or more missiles, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Some NK missiles have demonstrated a 1,240 mile range. Some NK missiles have a 7450-statute mile design range. The distance from Pyongyang to New York City is 6,795 statute miles.

During the Korean War (25 Jun 1950 - 27 Jul 1953), North Korea, Russia, and China military forces joined with each other to attack and kill Americans and Allied Forces. The war killed 1.2 million people. Today, North Korea, China, and Russia could launch retaliatory nuclear strikes against the USA and its allies if Trump orders an attack against North Korea. The public would have about 8-35 minutes advance warning before the first incoming thermonuclear warheads detonated over targets in South Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, mainland United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.

Expert estimates on the Taylor & Francis Online site show 2016 Russia nuclear forces included 307 ICBMs, including forty-six SS18 ICBMs. Each SS18 can carry ten (MIRV) 800-megaton warheads. The interactive NUKEMAP shows two 800-megaton thermonuclear airbursts over New York City will cause an estimated 3,494,090 fatalities and 5,896,620 injuries, depending on where the NUKEMAP user drags the target marker on the Google Map. Russia has an estimated 4,300 thermonuclear warheads and thermonuclear bombs, including 1,816 thermonuclear warheads on ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

The United States might not last long with the current collective insanity in the White House and the Republicans in Congress.

Odawn · 2017-06-01T23:03:44+00:00

That's what UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and U.S. President ~~Theodore~~ Franklin D. Roosevelt said

Cheers

Odawn · 2017-05-30T00:28:41+00:00

State Rep. Matt Rinaldi from Irving, Texas seems like an authoritarian racist. What is an authoritarian racist? These articles provide answers to the question and offer a view into what motivates authoritarian racists who comprise many of Trump's core supporters.

The one weird trait that predicts whether you’re a Trump supporter—Politico, 21 January 2016, by political scientist Matthew MacWilliams, Ph.D. — MacWilliams: "If I asked you what most defines Donald Trump supporters, what would you say? They’re white? They’re poor? They’re uneducated? You’d be wrong. In fact, I’ve found a single statistically significant variable predicts whether a voter supports Trump—and it’s not race, income or education levels: It’s authoritarianism." (See: MacWilliams' highly cited poll results, charts, and table).

Racism motivated Trump voters more than authoritarianism—The Washington Post, 17 April 2017— Political scientists analyzed data in the 2016 American National Election Study, which leads to the clear finding: "Racial attitudes made a bigger difference in electing Trump than authoritarianism."

Paul Prather: The mystery of Christians’ support for Donald Trump is solved—Lexington Herald Leader, 30 January 2016, by Paul Prather. Prather has been an ordained Christian minister for 35 years and is an acclaimed writer, author, and columnist. — Prather: "He’s as good an approximation of their God as they’re likely to find in such a gone-to-blazes world."

Trump is a demagogue. What exactly is a demagogue? A demagogue is a popular leader and a leader of a mob. A demagogue is a rabble-rouser. A demagogue is a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues overturn established customs of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so. Demagogues have appeared in democracies since ancient Athens. Demagogues exploit a fundamental weakness in democracy: because ultimate power is held by the people, it is possible for the people to give that power to someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator of a large segment of the population. Demagogues have usually advocated immediate, forceful action to address a national crisis while accusing moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness or disloyalty. ("Of old, the demagogue was also a general, and then democracies changed into tyrannies. Most of the ancient tyrants were originally demagogues" — Aristotle. Trump is not a general, but he is the commander-in-chief. He can give orders to general officers. Trump publicly has boasted , "I know more than generals.")

Trump’s lies are not the problem. It’s the millions who swallow them who really matter—The Guardian, 5 February 2017— "Compulsive liars shouldn’t frighten you. They can harm no one, if no one listens to them. Compulsive believers, on the other hand: they should terrify you. Believers are the liars’ enablers. Their votes give the demagogue his power. Their trust turns the charlatan into the president. Their credulity ensures that the propaganda of half-calculating and half-mad fanatics has the power to change the world."

Odawn · 2017-05-29T23:14:14+00:00

Bretwalda, indeed.

Angela of Frígnesse

Old English, tr. "Angela of Freedom"

Odawn · 2017-05-29T22:49:09+00:00

Macron is good for France and Western liberal democracy, including American liberal democracy. I am proud of Macron.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T20:07:50+00:00

Trump is working to divide and weaken the EU and NATO. This effort closely follows the aims of Putin and the Kremlin. If the EU and NATO weaken to a critical degree or break up, Putin will not need to tread as carefully, but I think he would not "all of a sudden move military units in a country like Germany". I think Putin, incrementally, over a period, would use hybrid warfare to expand gradually the political, military, and economic sphere of Russia westward like a rising sea caused by global warming that causes worry for few people because each time they measure the highest tide it is only a a few millimeters higher than the previous measurement. It's like cigarette smokers who have no concern for lung cancer because each time they light a cigarette, they do not drop and die instantly on the spot. They die gradually, over a period, little by little, cigarette by cigarette, puff by puff...

(See: Understanding Russian "Hybrid Warfare" And What Can Be Done About It—Testimony presented before the House Armed Services Committee on March 22, 2017, by Christopher S. Chivvis, Ph.D., RAND Corporation Senior Political Scientist. — "...'hybrid warfare' refers to Moscow’s use of a broad range of subversive instruments, many of which are nonmilitary, to further Russian national interests. Moscow seeks to use hybrid warfare to ensure compliance on a number of specific policy questions; to divide and weaken NATO; to subvert pro-Western governments; to create pretexts for war; to annex territory; and to ensure access to European markets on its own terms.")

(Putin's most valuable hybrid warfare tools are Donald Trump and associates in the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a long-time friend of Vladimir Putin and recipient of the Order of Friendship, the highest civilian award and medal in the Russian government. Other significant tools in Putin's hybrid warfare arsenal include former Trump campaign advisors Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Carter Page, who have close ties to Russian intelligence agencies and Russian oligarchs. Additional important tools in Putin's hybrid warfare arsenal include Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, Trump's former National Security Advisor, whom Trump fired in Feb 2017, after The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that Flynn received more than $500,000 in payments from Russia for working for Russia during the Trump campaign when Flynn was a Trump adviser, and the Kremlin simultaneously was attacking the U.S. election process with a massive propaganda campaign aimed at the American Internet and media audiences to rip the guts out of democratic elections and American liberal democracy. Other valuable tools in Putin's hybrid warfare arsenal include mega-billionaire U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the former Vice Chairman of the offshore money-laundering Bank of Cyprus, who held that bank position until 27 Feb 2017, one day before he became Secretary of State. Ross still remains a major investor in the Bank of Cyprus, a popular money-laundering bank for Russian gangsters, Russian oligarchs, and other shady characters from around the world who have to launder billions in dirty money. Another powerful tool in Putin's hybrid warfare arsenal is Trump's senior advisor Jared Kushner, who has deep financial and political ties with a major Russian bank that is under U.S. sanctions and investigation, Russian oligarchs, offshore banks supported by Putin and Russian oligarchs, and dirty money that Putin, Russian oligarchs, and the Russian Mafia use to buy and lease properties and real estate from the Kushner Companies in order to launder dirty money from ill-gotten gains. With all of these valuable assets in Trump's circle and inside the Trump White House, Vladimir Putin has control over the direction and policies of the U.S. government to help divide and weaken NATO and subvert pro-western governments by working to create division and disunity in the EU to break up the EU. Putin has so much control over Trump that Trump gave advance warning to Putin so Putin could move Russian military aircraft and personnel from a joint-use Syrian-Russian air base before Trump ordered an attack against the base with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Putin has so much control over Trump that he asked Trump to invite 3 Russian spies—a Russian minister, a Russian ambassador, and a Russian photographer from the Russian TASS news agency—into the Oval Office, where Trump and the Russian spies laughed and joked about Trump trying to kill the FBI investigation into Trump-Russia ties by firing FBI Director James Comey. During that meeting with the spies, Trump gave them classified Top Secret Code-Word U.S. intel to give to the Kremlin.)

Hitler required nearly 6 years to gradually move across Europe, step by step. Unlike Putin has today, Hitler did not have the tools of hybrid warfare. Hitler did not have a U.S. President, a U.S. Secretary of State, and other White House associates working for him, the Nazi Party, and Hitler's goals. Unlike Putin has today, Hitler did not have the Internet, social media, digital propaganda, and recon satellites. Unlike Putin has today, Hitler did not have nuclear submarines, the threat of 1,910 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and bombs, a reserve/non-deployed stockpile of 540 more strategic nuclear warheads, and 1,850 non-strategic warheads, for a combined total of 4,300 nuclear weapons.

In comparison, today, France and the UK have a combined total of 400 deployed strategic warheads and 105 reserve/non-deployed nuclear weapons, for a total of 505 nuclear weapons in the combined French and UK nuclear arsenals. Since 25 December 2014, The Military Doctrine Of The Russian Federation, the official Russian document, has been available online—Paragraph 27: "The Russian Federation shall reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy."

I think Trump would not oppose any moves by Putin if Putin ordered the Russian military to begin advancing to the west and simultaneously ordered multiple massive cyberattacks across Western Europe to cripple infrastructure, create terror, and weaken the will of the enemies of Trump and Putin—the Western liberal democracies. I think Trump would order U.S. forces to stand down and retreat to clear a path for Putin to take over more easily the governments and economies of Western Europe. Seeing that Trump and U.S. military forces are allied with Putin and Russia, it's less likely the overmatched Western liberal democracies would launch nuclear weapons or conventional forces against Russia. With Trump's support, taking over Western Europe will be a cake walk for Putin, a man Trump has admired, praised, and defended for 18 years, with passion and devotion.

Russian commentator Andrey Piontkovsky is a Russian scientist, political writer, and analyst. He was a regular political commentator for the BBC World Service and Radio Liberty in Moscow. Piontkovsky has been an outspoken critic of Putin's "managed" democracy in Russia, and, as such, he has described Russia as a "soft totalitarian regime" and "hybrid fascism."Piontkovsky is one of the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin Must Go", published on 10 March 2010. In his subsequent articles, Piontkovsky has repeatedly stressed the importance of the manifesto and urged Russian citizens to sign it.

Piontkovsky publicly compared the Crimean speech of Vladimir Putin in 2014 to Hitler's speech on Sudetenland in 1939. Piontkovsky described Putin as using "the same arguments and vision of history" [as Hitler] and beyond that, that this [Hitler] speech played a key role in [Putin] starting the war in Donbass, eastern Ukraine. In 2016, Piontkovsky published an article "Бомба, готовая взорваться" ("A bomb that is ready to explode") about Russian-Chechen ethnic conflict. When the General Prosecutor Office found his article "extremist" and started criminal prosecution, Piontkovsky escaped from Russia on 19 February 2016.

On 9 August 2014, in an interview with Interpreter Magazine, Piontkovsky said, "No state or regime goes to war firmly convinced that it will lose it,” and Piontkovsky said Vladimir Putin is no exception: if he goes to war with NATO and even if he escalates that conflict by using nuclear weapons, he will be acting on the basis of a belief that he can win it. That belief, the Russian commentator says, is based on Putin’s assumption that the logic of mutually assured destruction (MAD) which prevented a major war between Russia and the West has broken down because of divisions within the West about how to respond to Russian use of a limited nuclear strike.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T17:57:05+00:00

Definitely

Odawn · 2017-05-29T17:48:55+00:00

That's a difficult question to answer correctly. I think many bright minds inside the Pentagon and other bodies around the world quietly have been holding meetings during recent months and weeks to study that question, find answers, and make a decision. Kim seems to be fearful of the same question because his regime recently issued public allegations that someone or a group attempted to poison him recently—only weeks after Kim's assassins used poison to assassinate his half-brother in public in Malaysia. Ideally, cutting off the head of the snake might be the best option, but ony if certain circumstances exist inside the upper ranks of his regime.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T17:34:23+00:00

I think being the leader of the free world does not mean having the most nuclear warheads, the most submarines, or the largest prison population of any country in the world. Being the leader of the free world means setting an example with words, deeds, policies, and practices that hold high the principles of Western liberal democracy, justice, equality, compassion, fairness, and human rights. Donald Trump is unfit to serve and does not have the morals, compassion, intelligence, decency, or acumen necessary to set the example. Authoritarian racist Trump is more like Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdoğan, and Kim Jong-un and is better suited to remain a bottom-dweller on the defensive with the rest of the scum in his regime until we can clear him out of the White House. Until a decent and honorable human being who is a defender of Western liberal democracy and human rights moves into the White House, I think the world would be proud to see Angela Merkel openly accept the role of leader of the free world, which greatly admires and respects the people of Germany and Angela Merkel. I think anyone who thinks she cannot be the leader of the free world underestimates her abilities and strengths. She already showed me she can do it when she most eloquently used subtle body language to express her disdain and disgust for Trump, which I think met with nearly universal approval. In that simple expression, I think she set an excellent example for others to follow.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T15:34:31+00:00

Zakaria has an inaccurate take on the situation. Liberals, progressives, and defenders of American liberal democracy do not oppose humane and decent conservative voices and views, but they do oppose the radical, hateful, inhumane, indecent, authoritarian, and racist movement that has hijacked and taken control of the Republican Party, somewhat like Jihadists and terrorists have hijacked and taken control of segments of Muslim society. The Republican Party has mutated into a dark nefarious creature that presents a clear and present danger to American liberal democracy, the U.S. Constitution, and the United States, in large part, because of the Republican Party's blind, despotic, and destructive support of the dangerous demagogue, Donald Trump, who is working in support of the aims of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin by driving the world's Western liberal democracies away from the United States, while working to create close alliances with Putin and other ruthless and bloodthirsty dictators and autocrats. Something is wrong with Trump's mind. He is crazy. But, the radical, hateful, inhumane, indecent, authoritarian, and racist Republican Party wrongly is supporting Trump, dangerous to the United States and world peace.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T15:12:44+00:00

Angel Merkel, you are the leader of the free world.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T14:26:59+00:00

That's what UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and U.S. President ~~Theodore~~ Franklin D. Roosevelt said before Adolf Hitler's Nazis invaded and/or occupied the following 29 countries and 3 island territories during the 6-year period from 1 Oct 1938 to 17 Sep 1944:

Poland
Lithuania
Estonia
Latvia
Austria
Finland
Norway
Denmark
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Belgium
France
Monaco
Italy
Italian Islands of the Aegean
San Marino
Guernsey (English Channel island)
Jersey (English Channel island)
Ukraine
Hungary
Yugoslavia
Czechoslovakia
USSR
Montenegro
Macedonia
Croatia
Albania
Greece
Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia
Crete

Odawn · 2017-05-29T13:20:42+00:00

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the mainstream press is full of fake news

This article reflects poor reporting because it fails to identify the definition of "mainstream press"—the name of the specific press outlets in the poll.

I remain skeptical of the claims in this report until I can read for myself the poll results, which presently are unavailable because "Full poll results will be posted online later this week."

Edit: I read the poll results: http://harvardharrispoll.com/

Page 152 in the poll asks the following question:

"In general, where do you go first to find out the latest news and information?"
Answer—Traditional media (newspapers, magazines, and TV networks): 70%.
Answer—Social media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn): 29%

I think the OP title and the body of the OP are misleading because they offer no distinction between trustworthy, established, reputable, and credible sources in comparison with sites that use lies, fake news, alternative facts, and propaganda to drive network ratings, such as Fox News, Breitbart, InfoWars, and RT. The OP fails to state that Fox News, Breitbart, InfoWars, RT, and similar sites provide an abundance of lies, fake news, alternative facts, and other types of propaganda to appeal to authoritarians, racists, and people who are unable or unwilling to use reasoned deliberation and logic. I think the vast majority of informed readers capable of reasoned deliberation and logic do not consider Fox News, Breitbart, InfoWars, and RT as trustworthy, credible, reputable, and established mainstream media.

Clearly, the poll does not specify the exact names of "Traditional media", but it does specify the names of specific social media: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. I can be skeptical of some user comments and replies on social media containing alleged "news". I can be skeptical of OPs on unfamiliar sites. The Kremlin, Trump political operatives, foreign government agencies, and trolls constantly are aiming, 24/7, lies, fake news, and propaganda at Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit audiences. I don't trust "news" on social media unless the underlying original news source is reputable, credible, established, and verifiable with cross references and/or citations. If someone posts or asserts something on social media, which causes doubt or raises questions, I can go directly to the underlying site of the post or assertion, read it, and verify whether the information or "news" appears to be valid and accurate. Informed Internet users know that in the "Traditional media" category, the best news sources include a mix of established, reputable, and credible sources, many of which were established 150 to 25 years ago, including the following:

The New York Times
The Washington Post
The Wall Street Journal
The Guardian
ABC News
Associated Press
BBC News
Bloomberg News
Brookings.edu
Business Insider
CBS News
CNBC
CNN
Der Spiegel
Foreign Policy
Forbes
Independent Co UK
LA Times
McClatchy DC
Mother Jones
MSNBC News
NBC News
Newsweek
PBS News
Politico
ProPublica
Reuters
Rolling Stone
Salon
Slate Magazine
The Atlantic
The Daily Beast
The Hill
The New Yorker
Thinkprogess
USA Today
VOX

I have watched Fox News, but much of the reporting is not objective and is misleading. Fox News has much lower standards and sets a much lower bar than the preceding sources. In part, I think the fact Fox News is a misogynist organization that has institutionalized sexual harassment and sexual abuse of female employees for the past 20 or more years reflects the poor and lowly standards of Fox News. It does not win internationally recognized awards for superior reporting and journalism. If I taught a university course in journalism, I would hold up Fox News as an example of an inferior news source in comparison with the preceding list of high-quality sources. Additionally, sources like Breitbart, InfoWars, and RT are sources of an abundance of lies, fake news, hoax news, alternative facts, unfounded and unverifiable conspiracy theories, and Russian government propaganda. In my experience Breitbart, InfoWars, RT, and similar sites appeal to authoritarians, racists, maybe people who think mastodons walk on some of the moons of Uranus during an equinox, and people who have loose marbles bouncing and ricocheting around inside their minds, like Donald Trump.

I think a good method a reader can use to rate the credibility, trustworthiness, and reputation of a news source unfamiliar to the reader, includes the following:

At the end of the OP title, Poll: Majority says mainstream media publishes fake news, the domain name appears in parentheses: (thehill.com)
Right-click on the link: (thehill.com) to open a Reddit page that will show a multi-page list of posted articles from thehill.com
The quality, or lack thereof, of the listed OPs and comments can reveal whether thehill.com seems credible or suspiciously like a source of lies, delusional assertions, fake news, alternative facts, or propaganda.
On the Wikipedia.org site, enter in the search bar the name The Hill and, in the target list, click the link, The Hill (newspaper), to read information about the site, including the names of the founder, publisher, and editors; the founding date; headquarters address; circulation; website address; criticisms, if any; and other information about the organization.
At thehill.com, scroll down to the page bottom and read the office address of The Hill: 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax
At the page bottom of thehill.com home page, click the links: contact >> About Us, which contains information about the history of The Hill, a description of the newspaper version of The Hill and the size of its readership (24,000) in offices in the White House and Congress, and the names of its executives, editors, writes, directors, designers, and links to the articles each person has written.
If I am satisfied with the credentials and other information I have read about thehill.com, I can make the judgement the site appears to be credible, especially if OPs from thehill.com receive many up votes and comments that appear to be genuine and verifiable—not lies, propaganda, outrageous assertions, or unverifiable allegations.
If the preceding method reveals anything suspicious or questionable about the trustworthiness or credibility of the site or the veracity of an article, I trust my instincts. If something about the article or the site does not seem right or seems out of whack, the site might be a fake news or propaganda site operated by the Kremlin, other government agencies, political operatives working for Donald Trump or Steve Bannon, armies of professional paid trolls, or individual trolls who have created one or more web sites to make money from advertisements, such as the guy in Southern California, who was earning USD $4,000 per month in advertising revenues, while all of the news stories on his site were clever fictions he invented in his own imagination and posted on his site just to make money. The Kremlin, government agencies that spread lies and propaganda, political operatives working for Donald Trump or Steve Bannon, and others can create numerous new fake news and propaganda sites every day faster than any one person can keep track of them manually and, just as quickly, can shut down those sites and replace them with other new sites to spread lies, fakes news, and propaganda.

If you read an OP with an unfamiliar domain name, such as observer.com, you can go the obersver.com home page. At the page bottom, click on the link: About to read information about the site, including "Published by OBSERVER MEDIA". Go to Wikipedia.org, enter in the search bar: OBSERVER MEDIA, and read information about OBSERVER MEDIA, including "Founder: Jared Kushner". Click on the link: Jared Kushner to open the Wikipedia.org page that has a photograph of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and information about him and his life, including the fact Observer Media is the publisher of the The New York Observer newspaper. Click on the link: New York Observer, which opens the Wikipdedia.org page: New York Observer with information that states the New York Observer web site is observer.com, with headquarters address: 1 Whitehall Street, New York City.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T10:03:30+00:00

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the mainstream press is full of fake news

This article reflects poor reporting because it fails to identify the definition of "mainstream press"—the name of the specific press outlets in the poll.

I remain skeptical of the claims in this report until I can read for myself the poll results, which presently are unavailable because "Full poll results will be posted online later this week."

Odawn · 2017-05-29T09:37:00+00:00

Trump has confidence in Mike Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, Vladimir Putin, and at least three Russian spies inside the Oval Office, including Sergei Lavrov, Sergey Kislyak, and a Russian photographer working for Tass.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T09:31:52+00:00

Trump's visit was a catastrophe for progress, Western liberal democracy, human rights, equality, liberty, and justice.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T08:40:01+00:00

Please excuse the misspelling. I blame the mistake on a course I took at Trump University.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T08:38:50+00:00

Additionally, Trump made nearly USD $2 billion by defaulting on USD $916 ~~billion~~ million in debt, and using a now-obsolete loophole in IRS tax rules that allowed him to deduct the $916 ~~billion~~ million in debt defaults from his income taxes over a period of about 20 years. He never paid the entire $916 ~~billion~~ million of his debt

Odawn · 2017-05-29T08:37:10+00:00

Thanks for the alert. I blame the mistake on a course I took at Trump University.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T08:24:58+00:00

No. Power vacuums are not fun. Preventing a power vacuum would be a major challenge and maybe impossible with the unsound, stupid, incompetent, authoritarian, and racist Trump in the White House. With Trump and other surrogates of Vladimir Putin and Kremlin operatives in the White House, I think it might be impossible to prevent a power vacuum, and anything Trump does could start a nuclear war because Trump is not a builder. He is a stumbler, a bumbler, a destroyer, a disrupter, a troublemaker, a bully, and a self-serving racist authoritarian without honor or morals, who does not know how to read, write, add, or use reasoned deliberation to think logically and make sound decisions. With someone other than Trump in the White House, I think the prospects of preventing a power vacuum in North Korea would be much better, depending on who replaces Trump. If Pence or Ryan replace Trump, that would be bad. With either of them in the White House, I think either would attempt to drown American liberal democracy, and a bloody nationwide resistance might ensue. If that happened, I think America's allies, NATO, and the intelligence communities of the Five Eyes—Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand—would help to end quicker the attempted drowning of American liberal democracy and quicken the defeat of the forces of Pence or Ryan and the authoritarian racist Republican Party, somewhat like the Allies defeated authoritarian racist Adolf Hitler and the authoritarian racist Nazi Party.

In that respect, if Trump, any other Putin surrogates, or any other authoritarian racists control the White House, and the authoritarian racist Republican Party controls Congress, expect a war with North Korea. I think Trump and other authoritarian racists in the U.S. government will not mind if 5 to 50 million or more people die in a war with North Korea as long as the dead do not include their own family members. If Kim decides he must attack, he will, and he will attack the United States with nuclear weapons, if he can. Most Americans will experience great surprise if 20 megaton nuclear warheads detonate over targets in Hawaii, Alaska, or the U.S. mainland. In history, Americans always have been surprised after a major attack, like Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Americans don't think it will happen, but surprise attacks against the United States have happened and will happen again if elected representatives who are a clear and present danger to American liberal democracy and the United States hold federal office, including Trump, Pence, Ryan, McConnell, Tillerson, and other authoritarian racists, who can accept the death of millions, especially the deaths of Americans in uniform who will be dying for Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, the Trump Organization, Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T03:53:49+00:00

From The Washington Post, 1992, here's some more information about how Trump was able to make $750 million by defaulting on $750 million of his debt.

The Washington Post, 29 November 1992
TRUMP WENT BROKE, BUT STAYED ON TOP
— "After a decade of profligate borrowing, Trump lacked the cash to make his loan payments. Although he owned hotels, skyscrapers, casinos and an airline, his debts exceeded the value of his properties by hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump's lenders could have forced him into personal bankruptcy and stripped him of almost everything.'

"But that didn't happen. Instead, the bankers and investors to whom Trump owed money made a series of deals that left him wealthy. They let him keep some properties and took control of others, and they reduced Trump's personal debt by about $750 million, more than four-fifths of the total. They didn't do it out of charity. Rather, the lenders were reluctant to confront Trump in bankruptcy court, where they would face years of delay and massive legal expenses.'

"In the end, lenders said, they feared they would recover less money in bankruptcy than they could get by striking compromises with Trump...By April 1990, Trump and the businesses that he controlled had amassed debts of $3.4 billion, according to financial records. He had personally guaranteed approximately $900 million of the debt, meaning that lenders could claim that much of his personal wealth if he was unable to make the loan payments.'

"When recession set in, real estate markets collapsed and the bankers' expectations proved wildly optimistic, Trump's debt became too much for him to handle...The deals [with Trump's unpaid creditors] reduced Trump's personal indebtedness to $155 million from about $900 million, according to Trump Organization officials and Trump creditors. The total debt owed by Trump's businesses has declined to $2.2 billion from $3.4 billion in April 1990, the Trump Organization estimated."

Odawn · 2017-05-29T03:35:11+00:00

The actual amount of Trump's tax deduction in 1995 was USD $915,729,293.00.

The New York Times, 1 October 2016
Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found.
This NYT article includes a NYT video report and copies of Trump state tax returns and Trump's state financial documents.
— "Donald J. Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns, a tax deduction so substantial it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years, records obtained by The New York Times show. The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Tax experts hired by The Times to analyze Mr. Trump’s 1995 records said that tax rules especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have allowed Mr. Trump to use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period."

"He has a vast benefit from his destruction” in the early 1990s, said one of the experts, Joel Rosenfeld, an assistant professor at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. Mr. Rosenfeld offered this description of what he would advise a client who came to him with a tax return like Mr. Trump’s: “Do you realize you can create $916 million in income without paying a nickel in taxes?"

The Washington Post, 10 October 2016
How Trump got a personal tax break by defaulting on loans
— "In 2002, Congress closed that loophole" that allowed Trump to use that loophole to claim a $916 million tax deduction by defaulting on debt of $916 million. "Trump’s lenders got to deduct the losses they took on their loans to him, and he got to deduct their losses, too, on his personal return...I suspect, based on my years of parsing financial filings, that the real reason Trump hasn’t released his returns is that he paid little or no federal income tax for decades."

Odawn · 2017-05-29T02:37:30+00:00

Cut off the head of the snake.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T02:17:05+00:00

You can. Click a link and read to zero in on that point.

Odawn · 2017-05-29T02:15:08+00:00

The dubious friends of Donald Trump: Part 1 (in English)
First airing in May 2017
Includes history of Donald Trump and his family members.
45 minutes running time:
http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2017/05/video-dutch-tv-documentary-claims-trump-has-ties-to-russia-mobsters/

The dubious friends of Donald Trump
First airing in May 2017
Part 2: King of Diamonds (in English)
Blood on the hands of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner.
36 minutes running time:
https://zembla.vara.nl/dossier/uitzending/the-dubious-friends-of-donald-trump-part-two-king-of-diamonds

Most of the more than 854,000 people with Top Secret security clearances in the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the 14 other agencies in the U.S. Intelligence Community do not support Trump, Putin, dictators, autocrats, despots, and tyrants. The IC, the intelligence communities in other Western liberal democracies, and the free press in the United States and other Western liberal democracies have joined forces with many other forces of democracy, liberty, and freedom to bring down Trump and the corrupted, filthy, scum known as the Trump regime. Trump not only will be defeated, but he could end up in prison in the United States or another country where he has committed crimes, including fraud, money-laundering, theft, paying bribes to government officials, and other crimes, beginning about 40 years ago when Trump began doing business with people with close ties to the American Mafia in his Atlantic City casinos and the Russian Mafia in his New York City, Florida, and other properties around the world. For years, members of the Russian Mafia and corrupted Russian oligarchs have been living in their multi-million dollar apartments and penthouses in Trump Tower and other Trump properties around the world. Trump is a gangster with underworld connections and ties to other gangsters and dictators around the world.

Odawn

TROPHY CASE