2017 - Page 101 of 105

We’re going to be feeling the feels on Inauguration Day — fear, sadness, disgust. We hope 44 is right, and our country is strong enough to withstand the next four years intact as a democracy. In the meantime, let’s make #ThanksObama a trending topic on the Twitter. If you tweet, go forward and let @BarackObama know you were glad he and his family made it through the past two terms and add what you’d like to thank him for the most.

Photo via Whitehouse.gov.

Weakest President Ever!

January 18, 2017 Buck Banks

Before Trump, only four men became president without winning a plurality or majority of the popular vote. Only one lost a greater percentage of the vote than Trump. Three of them served only one term. Three assumed office under clouds of illegitimacy. Each of these presidents, raised to the office against the popular will, was marked by the defect of their election. None evaded the debility of their unpopular elections. Either they were so politically hampered they lacked credibility and could do little, or else they tried to defy their original sin by governing as though they had solid mandates and disintegrated.

— Sidney Blumenthal

But Melania Did It!

January 18, 2017February 23, 2017 Buck Banks

Trump says his address was writ by him, no other.
Fact-checkers get ready — this should be a gusher.
Will he cover himself with glory?
Will he tell his childhood story —
Of growing up the black son of a single white mother?

LePage: Lewis Should Thank White Presidents

January 18, 2017 Buck Banks

I will just say this: John Lewis ought to look at history. It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, it was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.

— Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), asserting “that the NAACP should apologize to white America, making the comment just hours after he weighed in on the president-elect’s Twitter beef with a civil rights icon, saying U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) should be grateful,” the Portland Press Herald reports.

Of Americans think the Affordable Care Act is a “good idea,” its highest mark since pollsters began asking about President Obama’s vision for a health overhaul in April 2009, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The latest number compares with 41% who think the health law is a “bad idea.”

Nixon Not on Par with Trump’s Level of Corruption

January 17, 2017January 18, 2017 Buck Banks

I don’t think Richard Nixon even comes close to the level of corruption we already know about Trump.

— Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, in an interview with The Atlantic.

Trump Will Be the Least-Popular President in 30 Years

January 17, 2017 Buck Banks

40%

Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Obama. “Following a tumultuous transition period, approval ratings for Trump’s handling of the transition are more than 20 points below those for any of his three most recent predecessors. Obama took the oath in 2009 with an 84% approval rating, 67% approved of Clinton’s transition as of late December 1992 and 61% approved of George W. Bush’s transition just before he took office in January 2001.”

59

Number of Democratic who lawmakers have now announced they’ll boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, The Hill reports.

40%

Of Trump voters got most of their pre-election information from Fox news, a new Pew Research survey finds. Hillary Clinton voters named an array of different sources, with no one source named by more than one-in-five of her supporters.

I have access to buying a $10 million home. I don’t have the money to do that.

— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by the New York Times, slamming Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for saying that Americans would have “access” to health care insurance under a Trump administration.

— Sidney Blumenthal

I will just say this: John Lewis ought to look at history. It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves, it was Rutherford B. Hayes and Ulysses S. Grant who fought against Jim Crow laws. A simple thank you would suffice.

45%

I don’t think Richard Nixon even comes close to the level of corruption we already know about Trump.

— Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, in an interview with The Atlantic.

40%

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“The man is afraid of the voice of the people and that the people understand and know what he’s doing. He’s trying to stifle the ability of journalists to let the people of America know what’s really going on with their government.”

— “Kamala Harris called President Donald Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House ‘absolutely abhorrent,’” The Wrap reports.

“Not one of them is trained in technical skills. Not one research PhD, as opposed to China, where half the cabinet is science and technology PhDs. We’re led by grifters and fools.”

— Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs, on X, on President Trump’s 35-person cabinet.

“Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far… The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”

— Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), breaking with President Trump in a direct-to-camera video.

Numerati

1,000

10%

“The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study,” the Associated Press reports.

71%

$9.5 billion

“The Trump administration last year spent $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for federal workers as part of its plan to shrink the government and save taxpayers money, according to a new estimate by a congressional watchdog,” CNN reports.

470

Reuters has documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.