SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalUS News Editorial: "State of Banality"
Trump has a well-deserved reputation as a rambling and often incoherent speaker; but a second Trump emerges when he is obliged to make more of a formal, set-piece address like the State of the Union, or his speech in Davos, Switzerland last week or his speech to Congress last year. This more restrained Trump is faithful to his prepared text, which often sounds less like the president and more like a speechwriter's generic conception of how a president ought to sound.
But of course Donald Trump can only be so conventional.
...
So he promised the people of Puerto Rico, among other localities still recovering from Hurricane Maria, that "we are with you, we love you, and we will pull through together," on the night before the Federal Emergency Management Agency will officially "shut off" food and water aid to the island where one-third of the population is still without power; he spoke of how important he views the opioid crisis, stirring words underscoring his administration's dearth of action on the issue (Trump "has not really done anything about [opioids], except insofar as he has pushed for massive cuts in Medicaid, which would produce massive cuts in substance-abuse treatment programs," Politico's Michael Grunwald noted this week in cataloguing Trump's broken promises from last year's address to Congress); "there has never been a better time to start living the American Dream," Trump said in describing his "New American Moment," before directing that instant specifically at "every citizen watching at home tonight," never mind that that dream has not traditionally been confined to the citizenry but has also served as a beacon to others around the world who are yearning to breathe free and make a better life for themselves and their families.
There was something mystifying about listening to Trump declare the "era of economic surrender" to be over at the end of a year in which his withdrawal from avenues of American global leadership have left voids which China, for example, has been more than happy to fill. That fact, along with Trump's declaration that "rivals like China and Russia … challenge our interests, our economy, and our values," when he's aided the former and abetted the latter.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thomas-jefferson-street/articles/2018-01-31/trumps-conventional-banal-forgettable-state-of-the-union-address
More in new poll blame congressional Republicans for shutdown than Dems
Source: MSN
Slightly more Americans said in a new poll that they would blame Republicans on Capitol Hill over Democrats for a government shutdown.
According to the Politico/Morning Consult poll released Monday, 41 percent of those polled said the GOP would be more to blame, while 36 percent chose the Democrats. Nearly a quarter, 23 percent, said they did not know or had no opinion.
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Americans are split on whether or not DACA is worth shutting the government down, pollsters found, with 42 percent saying the program "is important enough" to launch a government shutdown and 42 percent saying it is not significant enough for the closure.
The survey of 1,017 voters was conducted from Jan. 18 to 19. It has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/more-in-new-poll-blame-congressional-republicans-for-shutdown-than-dems/ar-AAv0TBn?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=ientp
Trump attorney sends Bannon cease and desist letter over 'disparaging' comments
Source: ABC News
Lawyers on behalf of President Donald Trump sent a letter Wednesday night to former White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon demanding he refrain from making disparaging comments against the president and his family.
The letter comes after excerpts from a forthcoming book by journalist Michael Wolff were made public Wednesday, causing a stir.
Trump attorney Charles J. Harder of the firm Harder Mirell & Abrams LLP, said in a statement, "This law firm represents President Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. On behalf of our clients, legal notice was issued today to Stephen K. Bannon, that his actions of communicating with author Michael Wolff regarding an upcoming book give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander, and breach of his written confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement with our clients. Legal action is imminent."
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-attorney-sends-bannon-cease-desist-letter-disparaging/story?id=52128555&cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_bsq_hed
"Litigation is imminent."??? Oh really? Let the depositions begin!
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