It just keeps getting worse...

Trump threatens to pull federal funding for California wildfires over 'gross mismanagement'

President Donald Trump woke up in Paris on Saturday in the mood to make threats toward California as it deals with deadly wildfires in Northern California and hundreds of smoldering homes in Southern California. In an angry tweet, the president threatened to pull federal funding for the state if nothing is done to "remedy" the situation.

Trump is in Paris to take part in a commemoration for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. But his mind was still on the disaster unfolding out west in the U.S.

Nine people have died in a spate of wildfires that began this week. All of the deaths were as a result of the Camp Fire in the area of Paradise, California, near Chico. Almost the entire city was decimated by flames early Friday.

The president approved an emergency declaration for the state on Friday -- but warned he may not do the same in the future. Emergency declarations provide municipalities with air support, relief supplies and evacuation transport.

Trump has made similar claims in the past.

In August he tweeted, "California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!"

Fire officials said Trump's statements, and remedies, were incorrect.

"We have plenty of water to fight these fires," Deputy Cal Fire Chief Scott McLean said in a statement in August. Nonetheless, the Trump administration announced it would override the Endangered Species Act to provide extra water -- not needed by the fire crews.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-threatens-pull-federal-funding-california-wildfires-gross/story?id=59102371




Does anybody remember ANY President ever doing anything even remotely like this?

I almost feel sorry for the White House staff. They must spend their days sitting at their desks, shaking their heads, rolling their eyes and thinking "Oh my God! What now?"

Deus X wrote:Does anybody remember ANY President ever doing anything even remotely like this?

I almost feel sorry for the White House staff. They must spend their days sitting at their desks, shaking their heads, rolling their eyes and thinking "Oh my God! What now?"

To your question: Good holy grief, NO.

To your final comments: We can only hope there's enough intelligence and independent thinking left in the White House to see this insanity for what it is. But I have serious doubts about that. We see no evidence of it; they all seem to've turned into pitiful, frightened sycophants.

This country is so fucked.

P.S. This latest is after Trump once more blasted one of our best allies, Macron of France, on Twitter while on French soil, and later pretended to make nice. What a huge, huge horse's ass.

And I repeat my last comment above.

https://potus-geeks.livejournal.com/792446.html


To further combat disloyalty to the war effort at home, Wilson pressured Congress to pass the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 to suppress anti-British, pro-German, or anti-war statements. He called for the arrest and deportment of foreign-born enemies. Many recent immigrants or resident aliens without U.S. citizenship, who opposed America's participation in the war, were deported to Russia or other nations under the powers granted in the Immigration Act of 1918.

The Sedition Act of 1918 extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. The Sedition Act of 1918 prohibited the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for five to 20 years. The act also allowed the Postmaster General to refuse to deliver mail that met those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. Though the legislation enacted in 1918 is commonly called the Sedition Act, it was actually a set of amendments to the Espionage Act.

https://www.history.com/news/presidents-relationship-with-press

Political spin is a part of modern day life, and we have Theodore Roosevelt to thank for it. Roosevelt understood he could use the power of the press to communicate and engage with the American people in a way that Presidents before him hadn’t. He organized publicity stunts, once going to the bottom of the Long Island Sound in a submarine to show his support for the warships. He toured the country promoting legislation, upgraded the White House’s pressroom and used it for informal news conferences, and hired government press officers.

One of Roosevelt’s most notable press campaigns focused on reforming the meat industry after the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Realizing the publicity surrounding the book could help his plans to push the Pure Food and Drug Bill through Congress, he dispatched inspectors to confirm Sinclair’s accounts of horrid, unsanitary conditions in the meat industry.

Though he’d later call Sinclair and other journalists like him “muckrakers,” Roosevelt used the press to his advantage, giving reporters information on Sunday and then basing his decisions on how the public reacted to the Monday papers. So-called muckraker Lincoln Steffens maintained that congressmen went along with Roosevelt because he was “the leader of public opinion” and they were afraid of facing retribution if they defied him.

https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article212849579.html

It was never a question of “if.” It was always a matter of “when.”

The seizure of a New York Times reporter’s phone and email records has sent a chill down the spine of every journalist concerned about protecting his or her sources. That means every serious reporter — especially those in Washington who cover politics and national security.

But absolutely no one should be surprised.

The signs were all there.

https://www.mrc.org/bozells-column/obamas-anti-media-tantrums

"Those right-wing extremists want to obsess about perjury (or giving missile secrets to the Chinese, ad infinitum), but I won’t be distracted from the people’s business."

Obama is the most pampered president of the television age. If it weren’t for these same terrible reporters proclaiming out loud that they were weak in the knees over the sweet sound of his speeches, he wouldn’t be president. But he has all the gratitude of a spoiled six-year-old.

And here's one to top it off as  to the actual results of political messaging.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/obama-war-on-cops-police-advocacy-group-225291

Police group director: Obama caused a 'war on cops'
William Johnson, The head of a law enforcement advocacy group, lashed out at President Barack Obama in the wake of the Dallas shootings.

The head of a law enforcement advocacy group lashed out at President Barack Obama in the wake of the Dallas shootings that left five police officers dead, accused the president of carrying out a "war on cops."

“I think [the Obama administration] continued appeasements at the federal level with the Department of Justice, their appeasement of violent criminals, their refusal to condemn movements like Black Lives Matter, actively calling for the death of police officers, that type of thing, all the while blaming police for the problems in this country has led directly to the climate that has made Dallas possible,” William Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said in an interview with Fox on Friday morning.

How are targeted attacks on police doing now? All good? While you each beg for central govt control.