Barack Obama

Omarosa Tell-All Book is Delicious, Nasty Reading about Trump

by

During a speech at the White House last November, 71-year-old Donald Trump awkwardly reached for a bottle of water. Then he used both hands to drink it. It looked as if Trump had a small episode of some kind.

“I found it worrisome,” wrote Omarosa Manigault Newman, an assistant who had known him for nearly 15 years. “I believe that Donald Trump is physically ill. His terrible health habits have caught up with him.”

He’s obese, doesn’t exercise, eats junk food, has daily tanning bed sessions and drinks up to 8 cans of Diet Coke a day. When she first met him on The Apprentice in 2003, he was svelte and weighed 30 pounds less.

She estimates that over the last 15 years he’s poured 43,800 cans of Diet Coke into his system. Omarosa thinks it gave him dementia, based on a Boston University study linking diet soda to brain damage.

This is just one of the stories she tells in Unhinged, her nasty, trashy tell-all book about her time in the presidential campaign and the White House. Progressives will enjoy 334 pages of satisying Schadenfreude written by a woman scorned.

Read more

That time Bernie Sanders voted to protect the Minutemen

by

As I was planning to do a post about Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ problems attracting black and Hispanic voters earlier yesterday afternoon, the news broke that Bernie’s wife Jane Sanders visited Maricopa County’s Tent City Jail in Phoenix. She was there for the laudable purpose of calling attention to mistreatment of inmates and immigrants but, of course, Arpaio hijacked the event and turned it into a PR photo op. Most of the local news coverage (warning, autoplays) featured Sanders and Arpaio disagreeing amicably about the jail and about Donald Trump’s candidacy, with Arpaio getting (yet another) earned media opportunity to promote himself in an election year.

Read more

pills

#TPP Is ‘Worse Than We Thought’: Text Finally Public

by

pillsYesterday the text of the multi-national “free trade” agreement– the long-awaited Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — was released to the public. This start the 90-day review period before President Barack Obama can seek approval from Congress. (Note that the review period overlaps the holiday season and the presidential primaries– plenty of distraction for the American voters.)

Ant-TPP activists and humanitarians wasted no time pushing out their stories and opinions; analyses are being posted on blogs, videos, and social media, particularly Twitter (#FlushTheTPP, #TPPWorseThanWeThought). Labeling the TPP a “corporate power grab nightmare,” Common Dreams posted a comprehensive write-up detailing low points such as climate denial, food safety, and net neutrality. Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviewed Public Citizen/Global Trade Watch’s  Lori Wallach and Doctors Without Borders Michael Forman. Focusing on big pharma’s power grab, Doctors Without Borders came out quickly and strongly calling the TPP “the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries”. The TPP extends drug patents and increases big pharma’s ability to set high prices. High prices will limit availability and limit access to care, particularly in poor countries. This will result in increased premature death among those who live in poverty. [So, why are we doing this? Oh, yeah, it’s “business friendly.” Too bad about the whole premature death thing.]

Read more

#StopFastTrack Nationwide #TPP Call-in Day on June 3 (video)

by
tpp democracyActivists around the globe are fighting the secret corporate takeover “free” trade deal know as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The fast track authority for the TPP is being heard in Congress now. Republicans and President Barack “Wall Street” Obama want the TPP fast track authority to pass. (Fast track authority allows presidents to negotiate trade deals without all of those messy Congressional debates and any of that unpredictable public input. This is how we got NAFTA and multiple other “free” trade deals that have hurt American workers.)
Progressives and most Democrats in Congress are against the TPP and fast track authority– mostly because it is a SECRET deal negotiated by 600 corporations and what we do know about it is bad for middle class Americans. (Only selected sections of the TPP have been released by WikiLeaks. Obama has been keeping the rest a secret. Why?!)
Recently the Arizona Daily Star reported that Congressional phone calls on the TPP are running 25 to 1 against it. To keep up the pressure, a national day of Congressional phone calls has been planned for June 3. Below are the details from the Citizens Trade Campaign. #StopFastTrack #FlushTheTPP

Read more

Elizabeth Warren

Warren Blasts Corporate Politicians, Calls for Break-Up of CitiGroup (video)

by
Elizabeth Warren
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says when CitiGroup can sneak deregulation into a must-pass governmental budget, it has too much power and should be broken up.

In a fiery but measured speech on the Senate floor, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren blasted the close ties between CitiGroup, Congress, and the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations as Wall Street “cronyism”. Channeling trust-busting, progressive President Teddy Roosevelt, Warren called for “opening up Dodd-Frank to make it tougher” and for an end to “too big to fail” banks.

“Let me say to anyone who is listening at Citi, I agree with you that Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said, looking directly into the camera. “It should have broken you into pieces.” [Full video after jump.]

Warren and other progressives are riled up because Congress inserted a Wall Street deregulation clause into the federal government budget bill which the House passed last week. This provision– written by CitiGroup lobbyists– weakens the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, allows Wall Street banks to return to the risky derivatives trading that sparked the worldwide financial collapse of 2008-09,  and paves the way for future Wall Street bank bailouts. The fix is in for more gambling with our money.

Read more