Donald Trump, a Diary

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So. We’ve done gone and did it. We’ve elected the guy I was sure would end up turning this country into a Fascist hellhole, and he’s now inaugurated.

So, I will keep a list of all the things he’s done here.

Before January

I’ve really not done much in the way of keeping track of all Trump’s done. The highlights of his activities include bypassing ethics reviews of his candidates and installing yes-men and cronies. None of this should surprise anyone. But in the interests of giving him a blank slate, I won’t detail anything in here. Let’s just say this is pre-45, and leave it at that. Instead? Let’s focus on Post-45.

January to March February (20th)

In the first quarter month of Trump’s first year in office, he has:

  • Scrubbed the White House website of all references to Climate Change. Let’s be clear here. Pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it not affect us. This means he owns any climate change disasters going forward.
  • A petty, small-minded attempt to photoshop a much larger crowd (Obama’s, to be precise) into his own inauguration. I know it burns to have to do this, but the mind that needs to do this is a poor, small mind indeed. This is not just limited to places like DailyKOS, but also Slate, Gizmodo, and KDVR (a local Fox affiliate!).
    • Sean Spicer, Trump’s Press Secretary, went on a ranting tirade against the Press…because they dared report the real crowd size. Not to be outdone, Trump himself attacked the press. We’ll see where this goes, but when a tinpot dictator starts attacking his country’s press, crackdowns usually follow. Are we a Republic and a Democracy, or am I getting a truck and heading to Canada as quick as we can go?
  • Trump’s hotel has banned media coverage for the next week. What a precedent this is: a hotel bearing a name of a sitting president.
  • [PROPOSED] A Trump idea I actually agree with! H1B Visas are planned to come with a minimum wage of $100,000 per year. We’ll see if they actually do that. If so, this will be a win for Trump in my book.
  • Put back in the ban on federal contributions to international organizations that speak to abortion.
  • Appointed a pro-domestic surveillance mouthpiece for CIA chief.
  • Restarted the Keystone pipeline.
  • As promised, Trump backed out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
    • And China is positively salivating at this opportunity.
    • On the other hand, we won’t have to deal with the TPP’s downside.
  • In a surprising twist, Trump has engaged Elon Musk and Musk has gotten onboard. Supposedly, Trump is pushing for Musk’s electric cars to be further produced, especially since they are American technologies. We’ll have to see how this shakes out, but on the surface, it’s looking like a win.
  • As promised, Trump has issued an executive order banning Muslims entry into the US. People are already suffering under this.
    • Ignored a court order to stop carrying this out.
    • Got slapped down by another judge, with a full-on ban on the ban.
      • This didn’t take long. Ranted against “So-Called” Judge.
      • Got slapped by the appeals court. Will appeal to the Supremes.
  • Changed the group “Countering Extremist Violence” to “Countering (Radical) Islamic Extremism”, and retasked it with exclusively targeting Islamic violence, rather than its broader goal of protecting Americans from all extremism.
  • Another petty little attack: Trump whining about The Apprentice and its low ratings, not realizing that it’s as much about him as it is about vapidness of Reality TV in general. Extra dingus points for whining about it during the National Prayer Breakfast. That’s a good venue to vent your spleen in, Donnie! And amusingly, Arnold replied that Donnie should be worried about his own ratings, seeing that they’re in the tank.
  • Trump managed to put off the Australian Prime Minister in a phone call ended early….”due to fatigue.” I thought the guy was supposed to be a well-spring of stamina? 5pm? That’s it? Nobody told Mr. Complainer that Presidenting was Hard Work(tm)? Sorry, I’m trying to give Trump a fair go in this diary, but seriously, it’s getting old, and we’re not even two weeks in.
  • After criticizing Obama every time he took a trip, Trump racks his first days of vacation up merely 15 days into his first term. Cost to Americans? According to this site, about $3 million.
    • Good analysis on bitching about the current guy’s vacation expenses while giving your guy a pass. I won’t have a problem with Trump getting taxpayer funds for international trips, but he should respect that this is the US taxpayer’s dime and be diligent and frugal. His son needs the US Secret Service to protect him because of the damage a foreign interest could do to the US by attacking him, so the $90k tax bill makes sense. I’d hope that he’d reimburse the US government, however, because he has the money to do so and this would help clear up any improper looks. Hope. Not expect. My main concern about all of this is that Trump bitched so much about Obama going on vacation on the Taxpayer’s dime, and now that he’s in office, it’s all hunky dory.
    • Of the first month of Trump’s term in office, he’s already spent 3 weekends on vacation, on the US taxpayer’s dime. Let’s make this clear. Washington Post points out that over Obama’s 8 years as POTUS, he consumed 83 million USD for vacations. Trump is scheduled to pass that mark maybe as soon as the end of this quarter.
  • Of all the things Trump could deny, the notion that he wears a bathrobe was high enough on that list to actually occupy his valuable time.
    • I constantly say ‘amateur hour at the White House’. This, folks, is why.
    • But now I think I understand why…
  • Shitstain Alert! Spicer, acting on behalf of Trump, insinuates that questioning Trump’s call on the raid last week is insulting the soldiers that died in it.
  • Days after losing his legendary stamina, Trump also lost his negotiating chops as well, and now he is agreeing to China’s One China Policy. Of course, Trump Trolls are out asking if those pointing this out want a war with China. Nah, I just want to point out that Trump is conning the entire country. Just remember. The Apprentice starring Donald Trump never ended. It just moved to the White House.
  • Trump rolled back Obama era Dodd-Frank supporting executive orders, and plans on rolling back Dodd-Frank itself with GOP help.
  • Oh, and didn’t we have a fuckfest of a hammering on Clinton’s e-mails? Wasn’t using a private E-mail server bad? Not so if you’re Trump!
  • In a much more sobering note, there’s the interview where Trump’s Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller made the Dictatorial statement that Trump’s decisions will not be questioned, most imperiously.Nothing ominous about that, whatsoever.
  • Time to change the format! Adding key events below.
  • So, the first head has officially rolled over in Trumpland. Mike Flynn got taken down by something that we have been pointing out constantly as a problem with the Trump Admin. Russian ties. This should be interesting.
    • Spicer had a hard time with the press briefing the next day.
      • Worked a blame Obama into there!
    • But that’s OK. The Republicans are all onboard with protecting Flynn from investigation, and would rather investigate who outed him.

March 

Because of the raw number of events in Trump’s first month in office, I’ve decided to break this up by month, at least for the time being. The pace of Trump’s BS has slowed down, as he has begun to realize exactly how hard it is to make things work, but already, he’s managed to roll back protection for Gays, Transgenders, Hispanics, and had his first scandal, but let’s see what’s next up

  • Trump’s admin has refused to release funding for CalTrans trains in the Bay area. One of the largest economic drivers in the US, Silicon Valley, is on the chopping block for Trump’s Admin. Surely, it’s only coincidence that they didn’t vote for him?
  • There are hints that Sessions is eyeing tightening up Federal enforcement of Marijuana restrictions in states that have legalized the use of MJ. I have listed the affected states below, with helpful color coding as to who they voted for. Everyone in blue voted Dem. Alaska and the ‘e’ in Maine are in Red, because Alaska went for Trump, and Maine split its votes up and gave one to Trump.
    • Colorado.
    • California.
    • Washington.
    • Alaska.
    • Maine.
    • Massachusetts.
    • Nevada.
    • Oregan.
    • DC.
  • In a not unexpected but still unprecedented (and unpresidented, to borrow a word…) move, press agencies critical of Donald Trump were barred from a Presser.
  • Finally, we get a chance to see what Team Red’s replacement for Obamacare will be. Turns out it’s so bad, even Redstate is bashing it.You know it’s bad when Team Reds biggest cheerleaders are railing against it.
    • It will knock tens of millions of people off of their plans.
    • Now, it looks like “victory” will be passing the bill in the House and giving up at the Senate.
      • It didn’t even get that far! Dead in the House because the House Conservatives didn’t think it went far enough!
      • Trump’s would-be signature move, the repeal of Obamacare….failed. Trump promptly blamed Democrats and Paul Ryan. Even conservatives aren’t buying that load of bullshit.
    • “Trumpcare” is now being called “Ryancare” in an attempt to insulate Trump from the fallout!

April

Been a bit lax about updating this as I’ve had plenty on my plate. But here’s a few things to see that happened in April.

 

 

Key Events

  1. 13 Feb 2017 – Flynn resigns after a reveal that he was parlaying with the Russians.

Keep coming back to this page. I will update it as new information comes in.

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