Saturday, February 25, 2017

CNN PROVIDES FULL COVERAGE OF HYSTERICAL DNC RAGEFEST

CNN once again demonstrated why it's credibility as a news organization has vanished.

The event itself was nothing short of an hysteria driven Establishment anti-Trump rally where the elites once again played musical chairs within their inner circle in one more desperate attempt to
maintain the status quo.

A news-worthy event? Hardly.

Perez wins DNC chairmanship

In a victory speech, Perez vowed that Democrats would wage an all-out battle to deny Trump a second term.
"We are at a 'where were you?' moment in American history: Where were you in 2017 when we had the worst President in US history?" he said.

What is being ignored, and at their peril, is that Main Street Americans are not going to fall back in line now that they have a genuine people oriented  person in the White House. 

Traditional Establishment parties are no longer the viable forces they once were; Trump proved that without question. The Republicans appear to have gotten the message and are reluctantly morphing into what Americans are looking for. 

As for the Democrats? Looks like the arrogance and denial remains strong; at least for now.

Friday, February 24, 2017

MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS IN CRISIS

When mental health professionals use their patients as sounding boards the profession is in deep trouble. The ethical issues abound and are severely damaging the mental health profession and the people in the helping profession(s)

What is even more alarming is that a newspaper like the Los Angeles Times would devote time and resources to publishing a politically biased piece that is obviously focused on bashing Trump  by mental health professionals exploiting their patients.

Finding it hard to talk about Trump

Therapists have been inundated by strong feelings on both sides. Some have given up on being neutral.

By Soumya Karlamangla


In her 35 years as a therapist, Arlene Drake has never heard so many clients talking about the same issue. Week after week, they complain of panic attacks and insomnia because of President Trump. They’re too anxious to concentrate at work. One woman’s fear turned into intense physical pain.

“It’s just a nightmare,” said Drake, who practices in West L.A.

Drake was trained not to reveal her personal beliefs, but now will agree with clients if they say they don’t support Trump.

“If this were just another session, if this weren’t such a big thing, if this weren’t so evil, I wouldn’t,” she said. “But I have to stand for what I stand for, and that does cross over into politics.”

Therapists nationwide say they’ve been overwhelmed by the strong feelings triggered by one of the most divisive figures in modern political history.

Some patients who support Trump say they feel isolated because they can’t share who they voted for in their workplace or home for fear of being harassed or called xenophobic or misogynistic. With few people to talk to freely, they turn to online forums and their therapists.

Opening up about voting for Trump has stoked conflict with family and friends. One therapist mediated a case in which an adult son threatened to cut off his relationship with his parents because they voted for Trump.

Some mental health professionals, such as Drake, have abandoned neutrality, while others are struggling to maintain it. Therapists on both sides of the political aisle are grappling with how to help patients affected by a national issue over which they have little control.

“This is so monumental because we are not in normal anymore,” said Randi Gottlieb, a therapist who heads the L.A. chapter of the California Assn. of Marriage and Family Therapists. “It’s putting into flux and questioning how do we practice, what is the best way to support the people we care for. We’re beginning those conversations — we don’t really have good answers.”

Therapists say the last time so many people came to therapy wanting to talk about the same thing was after the Sept. 11 attacks. Trump has been a topic of discussion for months, even for people who see therapists for issues as seemingly unrelated as relationship troubles or eating disorders.

“I had a 10-year-old in my office who was talking about it,” said Paul Puri, a psychiatrist in Brentwood.

Over the summer, William Doherty, a professor at the University of Minnesota and a therapist in St. Paul, published a manifesto online declaring Trump a unique threat to America’s mental health.

More than 3,800 therapists signed it.

Doherty wrote that Trump’s campaign was creating widespread alienation and fear among Americans. Trump was normalizing behavior that therapists fight to reverse, including “the tendency to blame others in our lives for our personal fears and insecurities,” he said, and “a kind of hyper-masculinity that is antithetical to the examined life and healthy relationships.”

These issues haven’t gone away now that Trump is president, Doherty said. He formed a group last month called Citizen Therapists for Democracy to consider issues raised by Trump’s presidency. Therapists aren’t accustomed to advising patients on how to handle this kind of “public stress,” since psychotherapy has traditionally been limited to private lives and psychology, he said.

Among the unanswered questions for therapists: Can they validate clients’ feelings without wading too far into politics? What’s the best way to uphold and act on their personal values? How can they help people deal with something that’s so pervasive and unpredictable?

“It’s thrown therapists,” Doherty said. “We’re struggling with it because we’ve never dealt with it — and now we’re forced to.”

Mental health professionals have also debated whether to diagnose Trump himself. Though some have publicly done so, an ethical standard known as the Goldwater Rule prevents psychiatrists from diagnosing public figures without personally evaluating them.

In 1964, more than 1,000 psychiatrists said in a magazine survey that then-presidential GOP nominee Barry Goldwater was psychologically unfit to be president. It was an ethical misstep that might have eroded confidence in psychiatry, wrote Maria A. Oquendo, the head of the American Psychiatric Assn., in a statement last year reminding members to abide by the rule.

At the most recent board meeting of the L.A. County Psychological Assn. last month, therapists also discussed how to talk about Trump, especially with patients whose political beliefs might differ from their own. It turned into an hourlong discussion that Hillary Goldsher, a therapist on the board, described as “emotional, challenging, difficult.”

But Goldsher, who practices in Beverly Hills, said that while she understands therapists’ desire to condemn Trump, she thinks opening up could isolate some patients.

She wants clients to feel free from judgment, so she redirects them if they ask whom she voted for.

“You sign up for the notion that your goal as a therapist is to hold a safe space regardless of your own beliefs,” she said.

Patients who feel overwhelmed by the new administration should set hard time limits for consuming the news, said Allen Wagner, a therapist in Mid-Wilshire who describes himself as “solution-focused.” He tells people to delete Twitter and Facebook apps from their phones so they’re not constantly tempted to check them.

Wagner has encouraged others to turn their anger or frustration into action by attending rallies or contacting their congressional representatives. One of his clients wrote thank-you letters to President Obama with her children.

“It makes them feel like it’s not something they’re watching, like a train wreck, and that there’s some level of control,” he said. “Maybe it doesn’t change the larger narrative, but it makes them feel as though they’re being authentic with themselves.”

In many ways, the election has been more challenging for his conservative clients, who feel as though they can’t tell their spouses, family members or friends that they voted for Trump, Wagner said.

They fear being automatically labeled bigots or accused of electing a new Hitler, he said. They rely on secret Facebook groups to express their feelings.

“It’s almost become irrational in terms of the anger people feel toward each other and the boxes they put each other in,” he said. “I feel for the people on both sides.”

Robert Puff, a psychologist in Newport Beach, said that many of his conservative patients were upset by the way Trump was portrayed by the media during the campaign. They dreaded the possibility of a Hillary Clinton presidency, especially after what they saw as “eight years of Obama oppression,” he said.

Puff zeroed in on ways each client could increase happiness within his or her own life, regardless of the political landscape. Now his conservative clients are mostly relieved Trump is in office, he said.

“They’re happy with what he’s doing,” he said.

Amy-Lee Goodman, a rape survivor who lives in Boston, said she broke down after watching a tape last year of Trump saying, in a vulgar way, that he could grab women by the crotch. She only felt more upset when he denied subsequent assault allegations, and then even more so after the election.

“I just had to turn off the news,” said Goodman, 29. “It felt personal, like a personal assault against me, like this whole country had said what happened to me didn’t matter, what happens to so many women doesn’t matter.”

Julia Hochstadt, who is Goodman’s therapist, said many survivors of sexual violence had flashbacks and panic attacks because of the assault allegations against Trump during the campaign. Many saw their worst fear, not being believed, play out on the national stage, she said.

Even now, so many of Hochstadt’s patients regularly talk about Trump that she’s had to be extra careful not to get overwhelmed.

She spends less time scrolling through her Facebook news feed and watching the news. She’s skipped a few recent episodes of the political thriller “Homeland,” one of her favorite TV shows, because it feels too heavy at the end of the day.

“There are fewer and fewer places where you’re not hearing people talk about this stuff,” Hochstadt said.

“I have to be ever diligent about carving out places for myself where I’m not talking about this, I’m not listening to this.”

TRUMP GIVES MSM FAKE NEWS A TIME OUT

Trump's message to the so-called news outlets like CNN is clear. Only organizations that actually report the news will be invited to news events.

For weeks now a number of media outlets have launched a 24/7 terrorists style propaganda blitz against the Trump Administration and trying to pass it off as reporting the news.

The unspoken message is; start behaving like a credible news organization if you want to participate. The reaction so far has been whining like a child given a time out for misbehaving.

White House blocks news organizations from press briefing

The decision struck veteran White House journalists as unprecedented in the modern era, and escalated tensions in the already fraught relationship between the Trump administration and the press.


The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and BuzzFeed were also among those excluded from the meeting, which was held in White House press secretary Sean Spicer's office. The meeting, which is known as a gaggle, was held in lieu of the daily televised Q-and-A session in the White House briefing room.

When reporters from these news organizations tried to enter Spicer's office for the gaggle, they were told they could not attend because they were not on the list of attendees.

In a brief statement defending the move, administration spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House "had the pool there so everyone would be represented and get an update from us today."

The White House press pool usually includes representatives from one television outlet, one radio outlet and one print outlet, as well as reporters from a few wire services. In this case, four of the five major television networks -- NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News -- were invited and attended the meeting, while only CNN was blocked.

And while The New York Times was kept out, conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network were also allowed in.

"This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House," CNN said in a statement. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like. We'll keep reporting regardless."

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet wrote, "Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest."

The White House press office had informed reporters earlier that the traditional, on-camera press briefing would be replaced by a gaggle in Spicer's office, reporters in attendance said. Asked about the move by the White House Correspondents Association, the White House said it would take the press pool and invite others as well.

The WHCA protested that decision on the grounds that it would unfairly exclude certain news organizations, the reporters said. The White House did not budge, and when reporters arrived at Spicer's office, White House communications officials only allowed in reporters from specific media outlets.

CNN reporters attempted to access the gaggle when it began at about 1:45 p.m. ET. As they walked with a large group of fellow journalists from the White House briefing room toward Spicer's office, an administration official turned them around, informing them CNN wasn't on the list of attendees.

Reporters from The Associated Press, Time magazine and USA Today decided in the moment to boycott the briefing because of how it was handled.

Asked during the gaggle whether CNN and The New York Times were blocked because the administration was unhappy with their reporting, Spicer responded: "We had it as pool, and then we expanded it, and we added some folks to come cover it. It was my decision to expand the pool."

Several news outlets spoke out against the White House's decision.

"The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House's decision to bar certain media outlets from today's gaggle," a Journal spokesman said. "Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future."

The White House move was called "appalling" by Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, who said the Trump administration is on "an undemocratic path."

Politico editor-in-chief John Harris said that "selectively excluding news organizations from White House briefings is misguided."

Said BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith: "While we strongly object to the White House's apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won't let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively."

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

PODESTA/HILLARY CONTINUE TO PLAY THE BLAME GAME

It looks like the Podesta/Hillary crowd are still not willing to accept responsibility for losing the election.

The reality is that Podesta and company ran a sleazy operation that was exposed to the public via emails they (and they alone) exchanged between each other.

How hard is it to understand that their undoing was not the fault of the FBI, the Russians, or the Tooth Fairy.


John Podesta Believes FBI Director ‘Succumbed’ To Pressure From Anti-Hillary Agents [VIDEO]
 
John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, says that FBI director James Comey may have caved to anti-Clinton “forces within the FBI” prior to the election by reopening the federal investigation into her emails just days before the election.

Podesta offered the theory at an event hosted by NewCo with Bloomberg News’ John Heilemann.

“I think there’s sort of two possibilities,” Podesta said when asked why he believes Comey reopened the investigation in October after closing it in July.

“There are at least forces within the FBI that wanted her to lose. I’m not sure they really understood the alternative, but they wanted her to lose. I think that’s one possibility.”


 

THE FAKE MAIN STREAM NEWS MEDIA



The West’s anti-Russian propaganda links Moscow to the blight of “fake news” but the evidence doesn’t connect the two. So, The New York Times makes the case with its own “fake news,” reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

A grave danger from the Western mainstream media’s current hysteria about “fake news” is that the definition gets broadened from the few made-up stories that are demonstrably false – often fabricated by kids to get more clicks – to include reasonable disputes about the facts of a complex controversy

This danger has grown worse because The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major Western news organizations have merged their outrage over “fake news” with the West’s propaganda campaign against Russia by claiming without evidence that the Russian government is somehow putting out false stories to undermine Western democracy.

NYT’s Fake News about Fake News

MSM USES TERRORISTS PROPAGANDA TACTICS

The Main Stream Media (MSM) does pose a danger to this country.

The terrorist style anti Trump media blitz is straight out of the playbook; weaken the country by disparaging its leaders, discredit the government by creating an atmosphere of disarray and chaos.

Take isolated insignificant incidents and blow them way out of proportion using dramatic tabloid style headlines and spinning them relentlessly 24/7.

Present one-sided news events and opinions by reporting on, and interviewing pundits, about events that oppose Trump while ignoring or minimizing coverage of those that do support Trump.

The terrorists use these same tactics to attack this country and, in both cases, are a clear and present danger to the United States and its citizens.

Sensing their last chance to stop the Trump administration from gaining ground, the global elite have launched a desperate, all-out effort to derail Trump’s pro-America efforts.
TRUMP SAYS MSM IS “ENEMY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE”


Friday, February 17, 2017

HOW THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA CREATES FAKE NEWS

First, you pick a buzz word; in this case "Russian" and then begin building rumors around it. Russia this and Russia that. You then fill the 24hr news cycle with he this, they that that at some point takes a life of it's own. 

Then you feed it to the pundits who then spew out their own individual interpretations while adding their own bias to it. 

Viola! You end up with something like this; but look out for the granual of fact that renders the rest of it fake. (see bold/underline below)

KremlinGate Enters Uncharted Waters as Russian Links Overwhelm DC

As The New York Times reported, NSA intercepted numerous conversations between members of Trump’s inner circle and senior Russian intelligence officials, as well as other Kremlin power-players.

Although NSA sources did not reveal the content of those calls—and even specified that to date, no signs of collusion in hurting Clinton’s campaign had been found—the appearance of something worse than mere impropriety was unavoidable. 

There are several reasons why a presidential campaign might regularly contact a hostile foreign intelligence service—and none of them is savory.

GUESS WHAT FOREIGN COUNTRIES INTERFERED IN US POLITICS?

The big hoopla about Russian meddling in US politics is getting a lot of attention from the Trump bashers, but very little attention was paid to these meddlesome events; 

Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai requested a meeting with Hillary Clinton’s top aides in January 2016, according to an internal email circulated among the former secretary of State’s senior presidential campaign officials.

“Chinese Ambassador Cui invited me over to the residence Tuesday for a coffee and to make a request. He wants to have an informal, private, off the record get together with a few of us to discuss the next year and the current state of US-China affairs,” wrote Clinton campaign aide Kurt Campbell in the Jan. 7, 2016, email.

“He asked me to host a social meal at my house in the next month. He was fairly insistent and indicated that he wanted to pass along some perspectives. I told him I’d reach out to you all to see about your judgement on this and possible availability. I’m happy to make some chili and cornbread by the fire but let’s first decide whether this makes sense. Please let me know your thinking,” Campbell said.

The email is one among hundreds of emails to and from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta that were made public by Wikileaks during the 2016 election cycle


 
How Netanyahu's speech to Congress has jeopardised US-Israel relations

The White House is particularly incensed that the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, and John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, conspired to arrange the speech to a joint sitting of Congress without consulting the administration. Democrats accuse Boehner of ambushing the president as the Republicans push – with the backing of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington – to strengthen sanctions against Iran, a move Obama has warned “will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails”.

But it was Dermer, who was born in the US and worked as a Republican political operative before moving to Israel, who instigated Netanyahu’s address to Congress.

Netanyahu has defended the speech as a legitimate attempt to stop Obama from making concessions to Iran that the Israeli leader said will leave Tehran on the brink of being able to build a nuclear weapon.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

HOT AIR GAZETTE: 20 REASONS WHY THE US GOES TO WAR

HOT AIR GAZETTE: 20 REASONS WHY THE US GOES TO WAR: And none of them has to do with defending the Homeland or repelling an invasion by foreign armies. The US goes to, and starts wars because...

20 REASONS WHY THE US GOES TO WAR

And none of them has to do with defending the Homeland or repelling an invasion by foreign armies.

The US goes to, and starts wars because there's a cabal of very rich and powerful people who make a lot of money from wars.

IKE labeled them the "Military Industrial Complex" and warned us to be wary of them because these people would place Americans in harms way just to make a buck.

History shows that Ike was right but we did not heed his warnings and are now enmeshed in "endless" wars and conflicts that cost some Americans their lives while others are rolling in cash;

Who are they?

National security and warfare are big business. The U.S. government spent $598.5 billion, over half of its discretionary budget, on military and weapons technology in 2015. The 100 largest arms-producing and military services companies across the globe sold an estimated $370.7 billion worth of arms that year.

In its latest annual report, Top 100 Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated arms sales for companies around the world using financial documents and reports of sales to national ministries and departments of defense. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 20 companies with the largest arms sales in 2015

Read More; 20 Companies Profiting the Most From War

Friday, February 10, 2017

IS TRUMP RIGHT ABOUT JUDGES AND THE COURTS?

Trump is taking a lot of heat from the Establishment via the Main Stream Media about his candid comments about judges and courts.

Yet, when the tables are turned it is literally ignored;

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg calls Trump a 'faker,' he says she should resign
The "politically correct" latte-sipping elitists are moaning and groaning about Trumps comments regarding rulings on his actions which  he and most Americans would consider reasonable and logical.

The claim is that Trump has crossed a line and that by criticizing the courts and some of the judges that sit on them he is "politicizing" the process.

One only needs to look at the way judges behave to see that the "line" has been crossed many times over by these judges and Trump is calling them out.

The 9th Circuit’s dangerous and unprecedented use of campaign statements to block presidential policy

HILLARY STILL NOT WELL LIKED - OH WELL!

The bitter pill of defeat has not taken Hillary completely off the political stage.


Read: Hillary takes a shot at Trump and gets a quick reminder that she's still not well liked.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

DT - DONALD TRUMP aka DON TEFLON

The attacks from both the left and right wings of the political Establishment via the Main Stream Media is unprecedented.

Yet nothing seems to have the negative impact it's intended to.

This begs the question; Is Donald Trump worthy of the handle, "DON TEFLON"?

Donald Trump might be more popular than you think
They say he's thin skinned much to the dismay of his attackers he counter attacks without blinking an eye.

Is the thin skin coated with Teflon?

They say he's aggressive (childish) but could it be that he's just assertive when he takes on the "bully" Main Stream Media who's behavior is likened to that of a playground bully; teasing, haunting, insulting, name calling and most of all disrespectful to the office of POTUS.

Castigating Trump for Truth-Telling
It's been obvious from the start of the Trump movement that this person was not cut from the same cloth as the string of Establishment bred politicians he laid waste to during the primaries which culminated in his defeat of the Establishment's heir apparent in the General Election.

It's also been made clear that "Main Street Americans" continue to support Trump in spite of all of the attacks against him from primarily the "latte sipping coastals" who he refuses to pander to.

The signs are clear; Don Teflon is a force to be reckoned with;

New Poll Shows Most Americans Support President Trump’s Immigration Ban










Saturday, February 4, 2017

ESTABLISHMENT LATTE-SIPPING COASTALS GO NUCLEAR

They are coming out in droves, protesting and resisting everything an anything in order to make a lot of noise (and Mainstream Media) hoping that something sticks.

They are incoherent, delusional and frantic, and in a complete state of chaos with no credible leadership.

What drives them is fear. Fear that they have no control and the days of living off the backs of Main Street Americans are over.

Thousands Descend Upon Winter White House in Anti-Trump Protest | Sunshine State News | Florida Political News

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

IS THE ESTABLISHMENT ABANDONING WEINER?


Now that the Clinton dynasty no longer glitters will those in her inner circle be vulnerable to the laws and constraints those with less influence are subjected to? 
 
For a while it looked like Anthony Weiner the husband of a close Hillary insider: Huma Abedin was going to get away with his alleged criminal behavior because of his status in the Establishment hierarchy. 


Things have changed.

Federal prosecutors are considering whether to bring child pornography charges against former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), according to a new report.

The possible charges stem from Weiner’s allegedly sexually explicit exchanges with a 15-year-old girl last year, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal said the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office are investigating Weiner’s interactions with the teenager.