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Light Sabers

Trump, GOP set to battle on spending cuts

Alexander Bolton
The Hill
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump Budget cuts
© Unknown
President Trump may be headed into a big fight with Republican lawmakers with his plans for dramatic cuts to federal spending.

Officials in the Trump administration are combing through conservative budgets to find ways to save money in an effort to get rid of the "tremendous waste, fraud and abuse" that Trump pledged to eliminate during the campaign.

Many of the proposals that the officials are reviewing would gain support from a majority of conservative House Republicans, who have sought to cut the federal deficit by scrapping government programs they view as unnecessary.

But some of Trump's targets have fans in the GOP-controlled Congress, particularly in the Senate.
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Propaganda

Distracted media fails to catch Trump's major policy decisions


Moon of Alabama
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
Trump's fist fewdays in Whitehouse
© REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstU.S. President Donald Trump hands Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (R) an executive order that directs agencies on the Affordable Care Act, after signing it in the Oval Office in Washington. January 20, 2017. Also pictured is White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter (C).
For two days the media have been busy counting people in Washington DC. About 80-90% of the voters in Washington DC tend to vote for the Democrats. A recent gathering of a Republican aligned crowd on a rainy work-day attracted many people. A gathering of a mostly Democratic aligned crowd on a work-free day without rain attracted more people.

The media watched and counted. Then thousands of lines of "political analyses" were written to explain the difference of the crowd size without mentioning the significance of where it happened, what day of the week it happened and the environmental circumstances. The result was a lot of bullshit.

The new Trump administration was quite happy about this diversion of attention. It additionally lampooned the media when its new spokesperson condemned the press for not counting the right way.
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Top Secret

U.S. Senate confirms Mike Pompeo as CIA Director


RT
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 19:30 UTC
Mike Pompeo testifies at the Senate
© Carlos Barria/ReutersRepresentative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) testifies before a Senate Intelligence hearing on his nomination of to be become director of the CIA at Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 12, 2017.
President Donald Trump will have his top choice to head up the CIA. The Senate confirmed Representative Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) to lead the spy agency. At least 24 senators voted against, making it the closest of the three confirmation votes held so far.

The Senate was originally scheduled to vote on the nomination Friday, but his confirmation was delayed to Monday evening due to partisan sniping. In a deal between parties, Republicans reportedly agreed to push back the start of Pompeo's confirmation hearing by a day; in return, the Democrats were to allow the Senate to vote on the congressman on Inauguration Day, the Weekly Standard reported.

On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York reneged on that pact after several Democratic senators sought a delay in the vote so there could be more debate. However, a Democratic aide disputed that there was ever such a deal.

Despite the lack of a vote, Pompeo was with Trump as the new president visited the CIA headquarters on Saturday to speak with agency employees. Trump was effusive as he described Pompeo's accomplishments to the 400 attendees.

Comment: For more on Mike Pompeo, see:

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Blue Planet

United Russia reelects PM Medvedev as leader


RT
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 23:49 UTC
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the 16th congress of the United Russia all-Russian political party in Moscow
© Dmitry Astakhov / SputnikRussian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the 16th congress of the United Russia all-Russian political party in Moscow
Dmitry Medvedev has been reelected as chairman of parliamentary majority party United Russia. Other senior leaders of the party also retained their posts and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin joined its Supreme Council.

Boris Gryzlov was reelected as head of United Russia's Supreme Council and Sergey Neverov remains as chairman of its General Council. Former State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin, who currently heads Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), remains in the Supreme Council.

In his speech before the party congress, Medvedev called United Russia "the president's main political resource" and emphasized the importance developing the party's regional branches. To facilitate this, he proposed increasing the representation of regional groups in the General Council from the current 20 percent up to 30 percent.
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Newspaper

Spicer spars with media over 'always negative' reporting


RT
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 23:32 UTC
Press Secretary Sean Spicer
Press Secretary Sean Spicer
White House press secretary Sean Spicer held his first regularly scheduled press briefing, answering questions from White House journalists for the first time, and offering a more conciliatory note than his previous appearance in the briefing room.

"I was going to start with a recap of the inauguration, but I think we've covered that pretty well," Spicer joked as he walked in, referring to a spat from over the weekend. The new press secretary also kidded about emailing Obama spokesman John Earnest to say that he could "keep his title" as journalists' favorite press secretary "at least for a few days."
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Arrow Up

'New level' Syrian govt & opposition talks in Astana tense but promising - Russian envoy


RT
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:33 UTC
Participants of Syria peace talks attend a meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan January 23, 2017
© Mukhtar Kholdorbekov / ReutersParticipants of Syria peace talks attend a meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan January 23, 2017
The Syrian government and rebels have taken a new "sensible" path in negotiations, said Russia's representative in the Kazakh capital, Astana. He predicted a "good outcome" for the two-day peace conference, while admitting that direct talks remain unlikely.

"The first day of the talks was relatively fruitful," the Russian president's special envoy to Syria, Aleksandr Lavrentiev, told journalists on Monday evening. "It is notable the opening happened not only in the presence of the three country guarantors of the December 29 ceasefire [Russia, Turkey and Iran] but also in the presence of the representative of the UN Secretary-General Staffan de Mistura and the US Ambassador to Kazakhstan, as well as in the presence of the delegations of Syrian government and Syrian armed opposition."

"I think that it is an important and symbolic step which gives hope for a new [qualitative] level in the negotiation process," Lavrentiev added.
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Arrow Up

Hungary PM Viktor Oban praises Trump's inaugural address as signalling end to US oppression


Daily Mail
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:10 UTC
Viktor Orban
© Szilard Koszticsak/MTI via APHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses Lamfalussy Lectures Conference organized by the Hungarian central bank, the National Bank of Hungary, in a hotel in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Jan. 23, 2017.
President Donald Trump's position that all countries have the right to put their own interests first was the key phrase of his inaugural address, the prime minister of Hungary said Monday.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban interpreted Trump's statement as "the end of multilateralism" and as permission for Hungary to also put itself in first place.

Trump said in his inaugural address that Washington "will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world."

"But we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first," Trump said Friday. "We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example."

Orban, an early supporter of Trump who has praised his immigration policies, said that the West was undergoing a "change of character" and that Trump's phrase was essential to understand what was ahead for the world.
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Propaganda

After decrying fake news, journalists are still bringing on fake news

Sean Davis
The Federalist
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:48 UTC
bust of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr.
After spending weeks bemoaning the rise of "fake news," journalists have chosen to double down with fake news of their own.

If you thought the results of the 2016 election would cause members of the news media to do a bit of soul-searching about the tenor of their coverage, you were wrong. If you thought they might want to understand why their hysterical attempts to take down Donald Trump were all for naught, you were mistaken. And if you thought they were interested in understanding why media trust numbers just hit record lows, you were delusional.

After spending weeks post-election complaining about the rise of so-called fake news and attributing Hillary Clinton's loss to its proliferation, a large number of members of the esteemed fourth estate decided that what America needed wasn't less fake news, but a different kind of fake news. The kind of fake news that confirms their own biases and calls into question the credibility of those they oppose.
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Info

Bolivian president reshuffles cabinet replacing half of ministers


Sputnik
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:25 UTC
Evo Morales
© REUTERS/ Freddy Zarco/Bolivian Presidency
President of Bolivia Evo Morales formed a new Cabinet, replacing half of the ministers, which was aimed at providing opportunities for the new generations of Bolivian political leaders, media reported Monday.

According to TeleSur TV channel, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, who has been the ministry's head for 11 years, reportedly retains his post.

"We have ensured social stability, which in its turn provides political stability, which guarantees economic growth... Thank you very much for helping to create a new Bolivia for future generations," Morales said, addressing the new Cabinet.

On January 18, the Bolivian Cabinet submitted a traditional collective resignation, prior to the ratification or change for the next 12 months.

Comment: Let's see if the Trump administration will leave Bolivia alone:

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Radar

First US drone strikes on Trump's watch hit Al-Qaeda in Yemen and ISIS


RT
Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:19 UTC
US drone
© U.S. Air Force / Bobbi Zapka / Reuters
US drones have killed five Al-Qaeda operatives in central Yemen, the first such operation after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. The US-led coalition against Islamic State continued bombing in Syria and Iraq as well.

The "targeted drone strikes" took place in the town of Bayda, in the eponymous governorate in south-central Yemen, according to US Navy Captain Jeff Davis, spokesman for the Pentagon.

"AQAP remains a significant threat to the region and the United States," Davis said, referring to the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group's branch operating in Yemen.
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