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  • Jan 31
  • 39 min read

The following are posts from February 2017:



Wednesday February 1, 2017



No ‘G’day, mate’: On call with Australian PM, Trump badgers and brags - The Washington Post http://ow.ly/koFA308AX35



Thursday February 2, 2017




Friday February 3, 2017


Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Federal judge in Seattle blocks Trump's travel ban nationwide



Trump adviser cites non-existent 'massacre' defending ban http://ow.ly/FVEl308FICq



Will Trump give Conway leniency he won't give media? http://ow.ly/z0Wz308FIGL



Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Trump to dismantle Dodd-Frank Wall Street rules through executive orders



Trump’s pick for Army secretary withdraws from consideration - The Washington Post http://ow.ly/HfLf308FIT1


Various articles about the Trump Admin during the past couple weeks since Trump was sworn in:


Forty percent of registered voters support impeaching President Trump, according to a poll released Thursday from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP).
Nearly half of voters, 48 percent, are opposed to impeaching Trump, and 12 percent remain unsure, according to the poll.
Pollsters also found that a majority of voters, 52 percent, would prefer former President Obama in his old role rather than Trump; 43 percent prefer Trump, and 5 percent are uncertain.



Two top Republicans long expected to lead the Senate’s role in repealing the Affordable Care Act said publicly this week that they are open to repairing former president Barack Obama’s landmark health-care law ahead of a wholesale repeal, which has been a GOP target for eight years.
Coming one week after a closed-door strategy session in which Republicans expressed frank concerns about the political ramifications of repealing the law and the practical difficulties of doing so, statements this week by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) brought into public view the political and policy challenges the GOP is facing.
Alexander, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said at a hearing Wednesday: “I think of it as a collapsing bridge. . . . You send in a rescue team and you go to work to repair it so that nobody else is hurt by it and you start to build a new bridge, and only when that new bridge is complete, people can drive safely across it, do you close the old bridge. When it’s complete, we can close the old bridge, but in the meantime, we repair it. No one is talking about repealing anything until there is a concrete practical alternative to offer Americans in its place.”
And Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee — another panel with a crucial role in the effort to repeal the ACA — said Thursday that he “could stand either” repealing or repairing the law. “I’m saying I’m open to anything. Anything that will improve the system, I’m for,” he said.

A federal judge in Detroit has ordered the administration to stop enforcement of President Trump’s executive order barring citizens from certain Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the U.S, CBS Detroit reported Friday.  

A federal judge in Boston is hearing arguments on a request to extend a temporary injunction against President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
A seven-day restraining order was granted Sunday in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two professors who were detained at Boston’s airport as they returned home from an academic conference.

A lot of politics is about the basics, and in Congress that means answering the phone. By that measure, life on Capitol Hill in the Trump era is a struggle.
Whether constituents are calling to request congressional flags, get help with a local issue — or, more likely, to register their support or displeasure with the latest move by President Donald Trump — these days they are more likely to get a busy signal or voice mail than a live human.
It’s especially true for Republican senators responsible for ensuring confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet, including divisive picks like billionaire Betsy DeVos to lead the Education Department.
Dropped calls mean angry voters, so lawmakers across the Capitol, from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to the most junior senator working out of a temporary basement office, are scrambling to handle the surge.

The Trump administration has revoked more than 100,000 visas under its temporary ban on travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, according to The Washington Post. 
A government attorney revealed the number during a hearing in a lawsuit filed on behalf of two Yemenis who arrived at Dulles International Airport but were sent back to Ethiopia due to Trump’s executive order. 
The attorney did not provide a specific number of visa holders sent back to their home countries from the airport, located in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., according to the Post.


The Saturday Night Massacre was the term used by political commentators[1] to refer to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and as a result the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal.

Last Week:










White House Staff start leaking: https://twitter.com/RoguePOTUSStaff



And Jared Kushner had already been handed the administration’s first crisis—a multi-headed hydra of Sean Spicer’s press conference; Conway’s reference to “alternative facts”; Trump’s ill-advised C.I.A speech; his untruths about the size of his rally (and, later, why he lost the popular vote).The tide of bad press seemed to swell on Saturday, another person with ties to the First Family told me, when Kushner was absent observing Shabbat. “He wasn’t rolling calls on Saturday when this happened,” this person told me. “To me, that’s not a coincidence.”

Friday; Jan 27:



Bannon appointed to National Security Council in permanent position while the DNI and JCS was demoted. The Dept of Energy (in charge of the NUKES) Director (Perry?) was removed all together.

Bannon is who wrote the EOs, was in on the Putin call (with Flynn) and is now basically running things. Trump is his puppet: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-steve-bannon-national-security-council-2017-1


GOP warns Trump to not drop the sanctions: http://time.com/4652478/donald-trump-russia-putin-republicans/


Saturday; Jan 28:











This is a remarkable day. When Donald Trump was elected president, we promised that if he tried to implement his unconstitutional and un-American policies that we would take him to court. We did that today. And we won.


Sunday; Jan 29:





Obama’s story about the arc of history does not imply that progress moves forward steadily and without interruption, or that liberals should adapt to complacency, or that progress will occur without conflict. Indeed, that conflict has burned for more than two centuries. What we now call the struggle between red and blue America was the same basic divide that pit Adams against Andrew Jackson. Blue America envisions a positive role for government in developing the talents of all its citizens, regardless of identity. Red America intertwines a suspicion of elites and centralized authority with a commitment to racial revanchism.
Adams’s fatalistic assessment 180 years ago seemed accurate at the time, after his party had suffered three consecutive defeats. And, indeed, his Whigs would suffer a series of misfortunes leading to its ultimate expiration within two decades. Yet, in the long run, Adams’s ideas won out. Slavery was abolished in 1865, a national bank was established in 1913, and the federal government actively invested in education and infrastructure, all as Adams had dreamed. “From the vantage point of the twenty-first century,” writes historian Daniel Walker Howe, “we can see that the Whigs, though not the dominant party of their own time, were the party of America’s future.”












Monday; Jan 30:



This weekend alone, the civil liberties group received more than $24 million in online donations from 356,306 people, a spokesman told The Washington Post early Monday morning, a total that supersedes its annual online donations by six times.In an interview with CNN, the ACLU had a one-word reaction: “Wow.”

Mexican avocados have been held up at the American border after the US Department of Agriculture temporarily blocked their import after a row over potatoes. Five trucks carrying 100 tonnes of the fruit from the Mexican state of Jalisco were halted at the border last week after the US reneged on an export agreement signed last year.  

When I read about the incredibly active first week of the Trump administration, I struggle with two competing narratives about what’s really going on. The first story is simple: the administration is just doing what it said it would do, literally keeping its campaign promises. Lots of people won’t agree, but it’s playing to its base. They’re also not really good at this whole government thing yet, so implementation is shaky. The second is more sinister: the administration is deliberately testing the limits of governmental checks and balances to set up a self-serving, dangerous consolidation of power.



As airports fell into chaos in the wake of Donald Trump’s executive order this weekend, border agents confronted targeted travelers with an unusual request: access to their social media accounts. In Houston, an immigration lawyer named Mana Yegani reported Border Patrol agents checking new arrival’s Facebook pages, alongside questions about political views and associations.














The White House has asked the Pentagon to compile a list of recommended Iraqis to be exempted from the 90-day travel ban, which could include translators, drivers, linguists and others who have taken “tangible actions” supporting U.S. forces, according to spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis.







If the U.S. government stops processing or admitting people even for a week, “their exit visa expires or their medical expires, they have to go back and start all over,” Nina Zelic, director for refugee services for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine domestic resettlement agencies, told The Huffington Post last week. “The process is so synchronized that any stick in the wheel sort of throws it off pretty badly.”



According to the Globe and Mail, Bissonnette was known as a “right-wing troll” among local groups for his ultraconservative comments on social media. He openly expressed support for Marine Le Pen, of France’s far-right National Front, and defended Donald Trump in online forums.






The Trump White House did not consult top Republican leaders or key committee heads before the president’s unilateral action Friday barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, multiple GOP sources said.
The offices of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other leaders were not shown the text of the executive order or asked to provide any input before Trump signed it at the Pentagon on live television, these sources said.



Obama, who is still on vacation with his family after leaving office this month, issued a statement through his spokesman Monday encouraging Americans to publicly protest President Trump’s move to ban citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries — as well as refugees from across the globe — from entering the United States.
He also contested Trump’s claim that Friday’s executive order was based in part on decisions made during his administration, including identifying the same seven countries as harboring terrorism threats and slowing the processing of visas for Iraqis after evidence surfaced that two Iraqis seeking resettlement had been linked to terrorist activity in their homeland.
“With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion,” Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said in a statement.


Here’s the breakdown by country:

Iran: 35,363 nonimmigrant visas, 7,179 immigrant visasIraq: 13,499 nonimmigrant visas, 2,010 immigrant visasSyria: 10,061 nonimmigrant visas, 1,901 immigrant visasSudan: 5,080 nonimmigrant visas, 1,642 immigrant visasYemen: 4,525 nonimmigrant visas, 3,143 immigrant visasLibya: 3,303 nonimmigrant visa, 272 immigrant visasSomalia: 331 nonimmigrant visas, 1,078 immigrant visas

The work of the committee aides began during the transition period after the election and before Donald Trump was sworn in. The staffers signed nondisclosure agreements, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Trump’s transition operation forced its staff to sign these agreements, but it would be unusual to extend that requirement to congressional employees. Rexrode declined to comment on the nondisclosure pacts.
It’s extremely rare for administration officials to circumvent Republican leadership and work directly with congressional committee aides. But the House Judiciary Committee has some of the most experienced staffers when it comes to immigration policy.
Interviews and internal communications obtained by The Intercept reveal how American personnel tasked with aiding the planet’s most vulnerable populations and representing the country in the international arena are learning bit by bit, through emails and confounding directives, how the jobs they signed up for are being steadily eroded.
The immigration official said that staffers at one Department of Homeland Security office were devastated when they arrived at work Monday morning to find an email, circulated among DHS leadership over the weekend, informing department personnel that they would no longer be permitted to adjudicate any immigration claims from the seven countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban, including petitions for asylum, permanent residency, or naturalization.




President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizens and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy — not just during an election but every day.
Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.
With regard to comparisons to President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, as we’ve heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith.

The great issue of today is lying — constant lying in public. Lying is the ally of faction and, since President Trump’s rise to power, it is the greater danger. Yes, the word is lying — not negotiation, salesmanship, bluster, attention-getting, delusion, deception, braggadocio, exaggeration, bullying, alternative facts, or any other euphemism. Once, President John F. Kennedy could say that our national problems were no longer ideological but technical. Lying on a grand scale has reversed that.




Over the past 25 years there have been two periods of increased gun violence in U.S. schools and “the timing of these periods significantly correlates with increased economic insecurity,” said researchers from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.“The link between education and work is central to our expectations about economic opportunity and upward mobility in America,” said John Hagan, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University and one of the authors of the study, which was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.“
Our study indicates that increases in gun violence in our schools can result from disappointment and despair during periods of increased unemployment, when getting an education does not necessarily lead to finding work.”




For all the promises of Republican bonhomie, Trump and his aides kept GOP congressional leaders almost completely in the dark about the most consequential act of his young presidency: a temporary ban on refugees and on anyone from seven majority-Muslim nations.
Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly fumed privately to associates over the weekend because they had been caught unaware by a travel ban that was drafted and set into action largely in secret by the White House, according to three people who have spoken with them.
Inside the West Wing, tensions flared as differences in management style emerged between two factions: one led by chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who wrote the immigration order, and the other composed of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and his deputies, who are accustomed to operating with a more traditional chain of command.


After the sun set on Monday and Democrats made their way from the Capitol, a crowd of at least 1,000 protesters was waiting on the narrow path between the court and its first set of stairs. The crowd, bent around a path that had been left open for Democrats, launched into chants of “Hands too small, can’t build a wall” and “Build a fence around Mike Pence.” Some shouted, “Walk the walk!” — a command to the Democrats themselves.



Seizing on growing public outcry over Trump’s executive order temporarily banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from across the globe, Democrats on Capitol Hill launched what they said would be a protracted fight on several fronts. It will include public protests against the ban, delaying Cabinet confirmations and an attempt to reject Trump’s pick to serve on the Supreme Court, an announcement expected Tuesday.
The plans represent a sharp pivot in Democratic strategy after weeks of vowing to work with Trump and Republicans in areas of agreement — and to allow noncontroversial nominees to be quickly confirmed.
But “then Trump shredded the Constitution,” said one senior aide familiar with ongoing strategy talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“We should be using our time on the floor to talk about the dangerous consequences to U.S. national security by this executive order. We shouldn’t be rushing through any confirmation votes this week,” said Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.).

A draft of a potential executive order began circulating in Washington over the weekend that would overturn President Barack Obama’s directive barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the federal workforce and by federal contractors.
But individuals familiar with deliberations within the White House, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no final decision has been made, said that the details of the policy remain in flux and that it is far from certain President Trump would ultimately issue such an order.
That top officials are debating whether to wade into the issue of gay and transgender rights highlights the tension the new administration faces when it comes to social issues. Trump campaigned on an economic message, but he is under pressure from the social conservatives who propelled him into office to implement their top priorities.

“He is running a cabal, almost like a shadow NSC,” the official said. He described a work environment where there is little appetite for dissenting opinions, shockingly no paper trail of what’s being discussed and agreed upon at meetings, and no guidance or encouragement so far from above about how the National Security Council staff should be organized.The intelligence official, who said he was willing to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt when it took office, is now deeply troubled by how things are being run.“They ran all of these executive orders outside of the normal construct,” he said, referring to last week’s flurry of draft executive orders on everything from immigration to the return of CIA “black sites.”
After the controversial draft orders were written, the Trump team was very selective in how they routed them through the internal White House review process, the official said.

Tuesday; Jan 31/Today:





Minhaj said Trump’s executive order caused white women to turn scarves into hijabs and Muslims were praying at the airport while others cheered them on.“Think about how crazy this is: Because of Donald Trump, people were being nice at the airport,” Minhaj said. “For years, Donald Trump has been scared by the spread of Islam in America. Well, congratulations, Mr. President. Mission accomplished.”

“[W]e answered questions on stage and were reminded what the stories were all about: fighting fascism, embracing diversity and never giving up hope. Suddenly seemed a lot less fantastical,” the actor wrote, before thanking the Potter fans who turned out.










Less than two weeks into his presidency, Republicans are facing a major test of that vow. A broad swath of congressional GOPers have come out against Trump’s immigration executive order, which was an outgrowth of his proposed Muslim ban that Republicans roundly condemned during the campaign. What lawmakers will do to act on their concerns remains to be seen.

Amazon is supporting Bob Ferguson, Washington state attorney general, in suing Trump over the “un-American and unlawful” ban in what is the first legal challenge to the policy. The lawsuit seeks to temporarily block the executive order and have key provisions struck off as unconstitutional. 
“If successful, this would have the effect of invalidating the President’s unlawful action nationwide,” said Ferguson. “Our complaint will be supported by declarations from entities like Expedia and Amazon, in which they lay out the significant harm that this executive order imposes on their businesses and their employees." 
Microsoft and Expedia also said they would support the legal challenge, offering information about the ban’s impact and testimony if necessary. 

Tens of thousands of people across Britain have protested against Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to formally invite US President Donald Trump to the country.
Protesters at Monday evening’s gatherings demanded that the government withdraw its invitation in light of Trump’s decision to ban citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.  
The rallies, which were held in every major British city and several smaller towns, drew huge crowds despite being announced less than a day earlier.



In one of several recent clashes with President Donald Trump’s administration, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly refused attempts by the White House to name Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as Kelly’s deputy, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday night.



The NRA is lobbying for a jurist who is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and the group is prepared to be an important player in winning confirmation for Trump’s choice.
Beyond the Supreme Court, the NRA sees an opportunity with Republicans in control of the White House and Congress to pass legislation that would expand concealed-carry laws across state lines. It also hopes to win approval of a bill that would make it easier for hunters to use sound suppressors, otherwise known as silencers.

The White House said former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates "betrayed” the Justice Department at the threat of national security. She was ousted late Monday night.
But the Democrats see a more sinister motive, warning that Trump is adopting a tyrannical approach that politicizes the Justice Department and will discourage federal employees from upholding their constitutional duties across all agencies.

Three Republican lawmakers say undertaking such a massive project will fall short of alleviating the issues surrounding border security.
Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), who represents the largest region along the Mexican border of any member of Congress, actively opposes the wall, a cornerstone of Trump’s campaign.And Reps. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) and Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) have both expressed skepticism about how effective the wall would be at stopping the flow of people coming to the U.S. illegally.
Their lack of enthusiasm means there isn’t a single border-area lawmaker who vocally supports the construction of a wall in their district.




“I’m going to vote for Rex Tillerson in spite of some significant reservations about Exxon Mobil and about his ties to Russia because I think he’ll give the president the kind of independent advice that he needs,” King said Tuesday on CNN’s “New Day,” referring to Trump’s pick to lead the State Dept.
“And he’s a guy that doesn’t need the job, I suspect right now he probably wonders if he wants the job. But I think he will be an independent voice.”

“Given the rate at which things are coming to a head, “President Trump” — the sort-of legitimate head of a republic — won’t last long,” Krugman writes. “Either he or the republic, in any meaningful sense, will be gone quite soon. I have a hard time seeing one year, let alone four.
”What this means, Krugman says, is that absolutely no one should collaborate with Trump — even if they happen to agree with him on a particular issue. The threat to democracy that Trump represents, according to Krugman, is too great to risk giving him legitimacy.


Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are boycotting the confirmation vote on President Donald Trump’s nominees Steve Mnuchin, for Treasury Secretary, and Tom Price, for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The boycott means that Democrats have delayed the confirmation vote of these two Trump nominees. Democrats don’t have enough votes to block Trump’s nominees — they can be confirmed with a simple majority alone, which Republicans have the numbers for. But the committee can’t vote without a quorum, and that requires at least some Senate Democrats to attend.




In an 1888 lecture, James Russell Lowell, a founder of this magazine, challenged the happy assumption that the Constitution was a “machine that would go of itself.” Lowell was right. Checks and balances is a metaphor, not a mechanism.
Everything imagined above—and everything described below—is possible only if many people other than Donald Trump agree to permit it. It can all be stopped, if individual citizens and public officials make the right choices. The story told here, like that told by Charles Dickens’s Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, is a story not of things that will be, but of things that may be. Other paths remain open. It is up to Americans to decide which one the country will follow.
No society, not even one as rich and fortunate as the United States has been, is guaranteed a successful future. When early Americans wrote things like “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” they did not do so to provide bromides for future bumper stickers. They lived in a world in which authoritarian rule was the norm, in which rulers habitually claimed the powers and assets of the state as their own personal property.

Rep Maxine Waters introduces bill demanding an investigation of Trump & any collusion ties to Russian Hacking: https://twitter.com/MaxineWaters/status/826427863524048896




All told it took less than 2 weeks for Trump to get to the point that Nixon did after the Watergate break in.


God, I hope this means his impeachment and/or criminal charges are coming up soon. Otherwise, I’m not sure America will exist in a month’s time. We will be a full dictatorship with the way that Trump is purging opposition and people who wish to defend the Constitution over being loyal to Trump.



I believe that what we need is a nonviolent national general strike of the kind that has been more common in Europe than here. Let’s designate a day on which no one (that is, anyone who can do so without being fired) goes to work, a day when no one shops or spends money, a day on which we truly make our economic and political power felt, a day when we make it clear: how many of us there are, how strong and committed we are, how much we can accomplish.

More common in Europe than in the United States, the general strike has its roots in the British working class movement of the mid-1800s; one of the first major general strikes in the United Kingdom occurred in 1842, when unionists and Chartists led a massive strike for better wages and political reform. About 500,000 workers across Britain participated in the strike, which staved off proposed wage cuts and improved working conditions in most factories. 

This covers the rest of Tuesday through to late Wednesday night.


FYI: WaPo has a twitter account that specifically applies context to Trump tweets. @realDonaldCntxt


For the rest however, it was anything but a display of profiles in courage. The widespread unease in Republican ranks at what is happening, at the damage being done to the country’s global reputation, is palpable. But the criticism is being voiced not at the substance of what has been done, but at the way it was done.

Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.

CBS News has learned that U.S. investigators have been looking into at least one phone call – in late December – between Flynn and Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.The call came just as the Obama administration expelled dozens of Russian diplomats and announced sanctions in response to the wave of election cyberattacks.

The letters were sent in September 2015 and June 2016, and directed Twitter to provide the FBI with the “name, address, length of service, and electronic communications transactional records for all services, as well as all accounts,” pertaining to two accounts. Both letters instruct the company not to turn over the content of those accounts.
The letters also specified that Twitter was not to “disable, suspend, lock, cancel or interrupt service” to either account, on fears that the users would become aware that they were under investigation.

It is not clear why Flynn Jr.’s account was taken down, though he recently garnered interest over a tweet about Trump’s executive order to temporarily ban U.S. entry to refugees from several predominantly Muslim countries. The inflection of Flynn Jr.’s tweet suggested that the president’s order is, in fact, a ban on Muslims.

Flynn’s Twitter account appears to have been deleted a day after his son, Michael G. Flynn, also deleted his account. The younger Flynn deleted his account after he sent multiple tweets using the hashtag “#MuslimBan" on Saturday and Sunday, referring to Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from certain Muslim-majority countries.

The ranking Democrats on six House committees are asking the Pentagon to determine whether the adviser, Mike Flynn, violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause when he was paid to speak at an event in Moscow celebrating the Russian-funded news outlet RT.The emoluments clause bars government officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments.
Flynn retired from the Army in 2014 as a three-star general. The House Democrats, though, are pointing to Defense Department guidance that warns retired military officers that they are still subject to the emoluments clause even after they leave the military because “they are subject to recall.”

Flynn, in his first appearance in the White House press briefing room, said the missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel by Iran-allied Houthi militants off the coast of Yemen underscored “Iran’s destabilizing behavior across the Middle East.”Richard Nephew, a former Obama administration official who was a U.S. negotiator with Iran on the deal, said Flynn’s comment could backfire.“I think this will create an impetus for the Iranians to ‘resist’ and ‘defy’ more, and that could well create an escalatory cycle with Iran,” he said. “Being tough with Iran is one thing, but you have to back it up and bring partners with you. Is Flynn prepared to deal with what comes from that?”

Ever since Trump got the security briefings in December on Russian hacking Putin has been purging ranks of US/UK assets.

Intelligence around the world have been paying attention to this since the Dossier was leaked. Putin has since released information on charging FSB agents of treason and there has been at least 4 deaths linked to this as well.

Where did Putin get this information and how? Fingers are pointing to Trump. There is also Flynn’s 6 phone calls to Russian Ambassador on the day of Obama expelling those 35 Russians.

This leads to belief and evidence of, that Trump and Flynn have shared classified information with Putin. This is treason.


The following is some tweets on theories of why Trump would be aiding Putin in such a way. What does Putin have on Trump?


There is a shitton of circumstantial evidence that we can indict Trump over. If it was anyone else, he would already be in handcuffs sitting in jail waiting for a trial.

Unless, they are letting him get more rope for his neck. But can we wait that long? Will anything be left of our democracy in a month’s time?



Senate Democrats deployed a dramatic eleventh-hour maneuver to deny committee votes to two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks Tuesday, arguing that those nominees had lied to them.
Senators on the Finance Committee were set to vote on Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and Steve Mnuchin to lead the Treasury Department. But on Tuesday morning, they simply didn’t show up for the votes, denying Republicans the quorum they needed to move forward toward confirmation. At least one Democrat needs to be present for the vote to happen.
Explaining the boycott, Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the two nominees “misled the public and held back important information about their backgrounds.”





To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists. We respond to all of these by doing our best to protect our journalists, by recommitting ourselves to reporting fairly and honestly, by doggedly gathering hard-to-get information – and by remaining impartial. We write very rarely about ourselves and our troubles and very often about the issues that will make a difference in the businesses and lives of our readers and viewers.





San Francisco filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order directing the US government to withhold money from cities that have adopted sanctuary policies toward undocumented immigrants.

The order would also bar undocumented immigrants from accessing the child tax credit, even when their children are U.S. citizens.
Further, the order would direct the government to publish recurring reports on how much money it spends on benefits for immigrants — and how those funds could be reinvested in America’s inner cities.
While there’s much to be said for informing the public on how its tax dollars are spent, the ostensible purpose of this report is to direct the anger and resentment of the native-born working poor toward the immigrants below them — instead of at the oligarchs above. After all, you could just as easily start publishing weekly reports on how subsidies to oil companies and the revenues that will be lost to Trump’s tax cuts for the rich — or the $20 billion the president wants to spend on his monument to American xenophobia — might be “reinvested” in our urban centers.

Hundreds of people protesting President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks marched on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn, New York, home Tuesday night, demanding he fight the nominations.
As protests against Trump and his policies sweep the nation, activists took to the streets in front of 9 Prospect Park West, the apartment building where Schumer lives in the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope.
Demonstrators chanted, “Chuck! Chuck! Don’t sell us out! We need a fighter to knock Trump out!” and, “No hate! No fear! Refugees are welcome here!” as they marched toward Schumer’s house. 
.
The protest was part of #ResistTrumpTuesdays, a series of events planned for every Tuesday during Trump’s first 100 days. The actions are led by progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org, community activist group Resist Trump New York, and several other national organizations. Thousands rallied outside local offices of Congress members during last week’s #ResistTrumpTuesdays demonstrations, which followed massive worldwide women’s marches.


“The Senate must insist upon 60 votes for any Supreme Court nominee, a bar that was met by each of President Obama’s nominees,” Schumer said in the statement. “The burden is on Judge Neil Gorsuch to prove himself to be within the legal mainstream and, in this new era, willing to vigorously defend the Constitution from abuses of the executive branch.”
And Schumer sounded doubtful the Colorado federal judge could make the case.“Given his record, I have very serious doubts about Judge Gorsuch’s ability to meet this standard,” Schumer said. “Judge Gorsuch has repeatedly sided with corporations over working people, demonstrated a hostility toward women’s rights, and most troubling, hewed to an ideological approach to jurisprudence that makes me skeptical that he can be a strong, independent justice on the court.”




Iran: Ebay, Google, YouTube, DropBox, Twitter. Plus World of Warcraft, Tindr, Periscope, Flipgram, Bizrate.com, and Shopzilla.
Syria: Al Monitor, Apple, MigrantHire.
Iraq: ThinkEthnic





A top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fired back, saying that “the American government will understand that threatening Iran is useless,” according to the Reuters news agency, citing local media.
“This is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened Iran,” the adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, said. “Iran does not need permission from any country to defend itself.”






The arrival of Californian, Texan, Puerto Rican, Northern Irish, Catalan, Italian and Lebanese secessionists to mingle with activists from several unrecognized separatist territories in former Soviet republics is becoming a tradition as Moscow turns to belligerent, anti-Western nationalism coupled with a readiness to take up arms against its former Soviet vassals.
Moscow uses these gatherings to promote its political agenda, gain more political leverage in the West and push for the lifting of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea and support of the separatists in eastern Ukraine, a former lawmaker with the ruling United Russia party said.
“The more the West is disunited, the more beneficial it is to Russia,” Sergei Markov said, adding that the secession of California and Texas — a prospect that would appear to be something of a long shot — would “undoubtedly benefit” the Kremlin.



After a week filled with executive orders fulfilling a large portion of his major campaign promises, President Donald Trump appears to have backed away from his pledge to let Medicare negotiate for lower prescription drug promises. 
Mr Trump said that, after meeting with pharma lobbyists, he would oppose apparent “price-fixing” by Medicare, rather than working to stymie the industry’s grip on drug prices.
“I’ll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller younger companies to take the risk of bringing their product to a vibrantly competitive market,” he said this week, according to a pool report. “That includes price-fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare, which is what’s happening.” 






But the Post poll has excellent news on that front, too: 40 percent of Democratic women say they plan to get more involved in political causes this year. Only 25 percent of all American adults, and 27 percent of Democratic men (sigh), say the same. Democrats under 50 — particularly those who lean left — are also planning to step up their game in large numbers.







 What this outpouring of anti-Trump sentiment portends for the battles ahead—and how to turn it into ongoing political power—are essential questions to analyze and debate. But first things first: If the opposition indeed manifested the biggest political protest in the nation’s history, this achievement must be stated clearly, recognized widely, and claimed as a victory by the forces that made it happen. Such a public declaration is imperative not only because putting more people in the streets than ever before is by definition a historic achievement. It’s also because this achievement illuminates the new balance of power and possibilities on today’s political battlefield.
One thing is undeniable: The popular opposition to Donald Trump is big—very big. More important, the protests of Trump’s first 10 days showed that a significant portion of the opposition isn’t going to sit idly by, grumbling in private, while Trump demonizes immigrants, violates the Constitution, ravages the environment, and more. Organizations like Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Greenpeace have not only received tens of millions in donations since Trump took office; they’ve also seen a remarkable surge in the numbers of people looking to get involved. These are people who are rising up and will take to the streets. They will become part of the Resistance. And in so doing, they will convince countless others to join them—to take the critical step from passive opposition to active resistance. As one protest sign in Washington urged: We Outnumber Them—Resist!
One oft-heard chant at the Washington march warned Trump that this was only the beginning: “We are not going away! Welcome to your first day!” Four days later, Greenpeace made good on that promise by unfurling a giant yellow banner on a construction crane above the White House with black letters exclaiming “RESIST!”—an instantly iconic image that Greenpeace is printing on posters and flags to display in windows at home and wave at the next rally. Three days later, the tens of thousands who protested and rushed to airports to battle the Muslim travel ban demonstrated that large numbers of people are ready to put their bodies on the line to call out authoritarianism and to defend American values and their fellow human beings.




 Then, things get interesting. The Senate has a pile of work ahead of it, from continuing to approve Trump’s executive branch nominees to a Supreme Court vacancy. Plus, there’s a budget that expires at the end of April, the Obamacare repeal law through a budget-reconciliation vote, the debt ceiling, and several other matters requiring attention. The Senate can take the time to pass these CRA resolutions, but Mitch McConnell has to weigh that against getting other work done.
That makes the outcry among rank-and-file Democrats to resist the Trump regime and its allies in Congress more than a symbolic stand. We know that Senate Democrats can withhold unanimous consent, stretch out conformation votes, and make life miserable for the majority, as Republicans did to them. The CRA resolutions introduce the aspect of a ticking clock. Every delay that Democrats force in the Senate gives less time for these regulations to be wiped out, subsequently crippling future action to protect against pollution in lands and waterways, or contractor malfeasance. McConnell will eventually have to choose which regulations to rescind and which to keep, as long as Democrats don’t collaborate and let the clock run.
Resistance doesn’t just satisfy a psychic longing to stop an outlaw presidency. For the next several months, it has an end goal.


While probation generally implies house arrest from sunset to sunrise, under a 1945 law that human-rights lawyers point to as problematic, police have the discretion to force the ex-prisoner to spend that time under supervision inside a police station. The practice was practically unheard of for political prisoners until now.
“It is legal, but they are exploiting the law and imposing an exemplary punishment on the defendant because these people are considered opponents of the regime,” said Mohamed Elhelw, the head of the legal unit for the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms. “This is unprecedented. The way probation is being implemented is actually imprisonment. It violates the spirit of the law.”




Robert Loeb, the president of Temple Bnai Israel, told Forward: "Everyone knows everybody, I know several members of the mosque, and we felt for them. When a calamity like this happens, we have to stand together."
We have probably 25 to 30 Jewish people in Victoria, and they probably have 100 Muslims. We got a lot of building for a small amount of Jews.
”One of the mosque’s founders, Shahid Hashmi, said: “Jewish community members walked into my home and gave me a key to the synagogue.”
The centre was built in 2000.

Donations and an online fundraising campaign have raised more than $900,000 (£717,000) for reconstruction.



In the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration last month, Senate Democrats seemed to have settled on a strategy for taking him on.
It went something like this: Pick their battles and fight the Cabinet nominees they considered most unqualified or extreme. Stick together to oppose the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and other GOP efforts to dismantle the progressive gains of the Obama era. And wait for Trump to come to them seeking a deal on infrastructure, trade, or other issues where their priorities aligned.
The Democratic base, it turned out, had other ideas.In protests across the country and in calls, tweets, and Facebook messages to senators over the first 10 days of Trump’s presidency, the party rank-and-file demanded a much simpler game plan: Fight him on all of it.




In an agency-wide directive sent to DHS staff early Wednesday afternoon, the IG’s office wrote, “All agency personnel must preserve any document that contains information that is potentially relevant to OIG’s investigation, or that might reasonably lead to the discovery of relevant information relating to the implementation of this Executive Order. For the duration of this hold, any relevant information that is within your possession or control must be preserved in the exact form as it currently exists.”
The Department’s IG office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation.



It’s lost on few operatives in either party that Democrats need 24 seats to win back the House and almost exactly that many Republicans hold districts that voted for Clinton. Moreover, about two-thirds of those Republicans are in districts that backed Romney in 2012—albeit in some cases very narrowly—before tipping to Clinton last fall. That could be a preview of the difficulties ahead for them as Trump so aggressively defines the GOP with polarizing actions on issues including climate, trade, and immigration, as well as with his combative personal style.
“These are districts that already didn’t like Trump when he was elected, and given what we are seeing with his approval numbers … there is no reason to believe [it will get better],” said Tom Bonier, chief executive officer of TargetSmart, a Democratic voter-targeting firm. “If that does represent his high-water mark, there has to be a number of Republicans who are deeply concerned about [their] election prospects in 2018, based on their party affiliation and their connection to President Trump.”



Roth was, in fact, not the only inspector general to receive a phone call. Several others took similar calls or were left voicemail messages that put their job security in jeopardy. A transcript of one such message, obtained by the House Oversight Committee, read like this:
I’m calling on behalf of the presidential transition team to inform you that you are being held over on a temporary basis to continue working in the capacity as inspector general following the inauguration.
Those calls were a result of a Jan. 13 email titled “TONIGHT: Inspector Generals Notification.” The email, which was first reported by The Washington Post, directed Trump’s “team leads” to call their IGs and let them know they were being “held over on a temporary basis.” It also mentioned that the current inspectors general would be vetted based on information the team leads had provided.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., announced a bill titled the Strengthening Oversight of National Security Act that would codify the permanent members and structure of the National Security Council, and require a joint congressional resolution to add any member or attendee who has not been confirmed by the Senate – other than a handful of non-political White House staff members.
It would also limit the principals committee to members of the National Security Council. And if someone who is not Senate-confirmed needs to attend for a “one-time decisionmaking action” it would require their name  to be shared with Congress within 24 hours.

Gorka immediately shut down any suggestion that the Trump administration would heed criticism of its handling of the executive order, telling Tapper it’s “not reflective of the truth” to suggest there were problems with the ban’s rollout.


The Murkowski switch is a testament to the power of the grassroots resistance to Trump and to his cabinet picks.
“I have heard from thousands, truly, thousands of Alaskans who have shared their concerns about Mrs. DeVos,” Murkowski acknowledged, before announcing that “I do not intend to vote on final passage to support Mrs. DeVos.”
Murkowski had, indeed, heard from “thousands, truly, thousands of Alaskans” who expressed opposition to the DeVos nomination—voicing particular concerns about the Trump pick’s support for school privatization and school “choice” schemes, and about the threat her approach poses to rural schools.
“More than 200 Alaskans gathered outside of US Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office in downtown Anchorage on Monday afternoon to protest President Donald Trump’s choice of Michigan billionaire and school voucher advocate Betsy DeVos for education secretary,” Alaska Dispatch News reported this week:
Demanding that Murkowski vote against DeVos, protesters stood outdoors holding signs and chanting, “Stand up for Alaska,” “Public funds for public schools,” “Lisa, you know better,” and “We need educators, not billionaires.” Many also stood in a line that snaked inside Peterson Tower on L Street, waiting to take one of the elevators six floors up to Murkowski’s office where they wrote down their comments to the Republican senator.


President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop “bad hombres down there” unless the Mexican military does more to control them itself, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.
The excerpt of the call did not make clear who exactly Trump considered “bad hombres,” — drug cartels, immigrants, or both — or the tone and context of the remark, made in a Friday morning phone call between the leaders. It also did not contain Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s response.





The vote, mostly along party lines, was by far the closest in at least half a century.
Fifty-six senators backed Tillerson, and 43 voted no. Every Republican favored Tillerson, along with four members of the Democratic caucus, Senators Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin and Mark Warner as well as Angus King, an independent.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons did not vote.
Tillerson’s predecessor in the position, John Kerry, was confirmed by 94 to 3. Condoleezza Rice, the last secretary of state nominated by a Republican, was confirmed by 85-13.

Bannon, who used to head the alt-right outlet Breitbart News, spoke at a 2014 conference at the Vatican in which he called for a Christian holy war. “We’re at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict,” he said, referring to Islam as a “new barbarity that’s starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we’ve been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years.”
.
“No, I think the president has been very clear that his number one goal is not to target any one religion, but places, and areas where we believe that there is an issue. There is a big difference between Islam the religion and radical Islamic terrorists, that come here to do us harm,” he replied. Vega then asked, “But nothing about this comment that the president wants to distance himself from, or even elaborate on? I mean, these are being seen as very controversial –”
“I just think that I made it clear that there’s a difference between the president’s view,” he replied.

It should have been one of the most congenial calls for the new commander in chief — a conversation with the leader of Australia, one of America’s staunchest allies, at the end of a triumphant week.
Instead, President Trump blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refu­gee agreement and boasted about the magnitude of his electoral college win, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the Saturday exchange. Then, 25 minutes into what was expected to be an hour-long call, Trump abruptly ended it.
At one point, Trump informed Turnbull that he had spoken with four other world leaders that day — including Russian President Vladi­mir Putin — and that “this was the worst call by far.
”Trump’s behavior suggests that he is capable of subjecting world leaders, including close allies, to a version of the vitriol he frequently employs against political adversaries and news organizations in speeches and on Twitter.
“This is the worst deal ever,” Trump fumed as Turnbull attempted to confirm that the United States would honor its pledge to take in 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center.

Republicans in House vote to axe rules preventing corruption and pollution: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-regulations-idUSKBN15G5QZ





Mattis’s visit comes amid reports that the North may be readying to test a new ballistic missile in what could be an early challenge for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
“I will talk to them about THAAD absolutely,” Mattis told reporters shortly before landing in South Korea, referring to the plans to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea.
South Korea and the United States say the deployment of THAAD is designed to protect against North Korea’s growing nuclear and ballistic capabilities.



On Wednesday’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, CNN reporter Kate Bennett said that Melania’s lack of a White House staff is an unusual stage for the first lady to be in. Sure, Melania might not be living in the White House, but the role of the first lady also doubles as the nation’s host, often arranging for special dinners and visits from foreign dignitaries. But as Bennett points out, there’s no staff heading the office of the first lady. “There’s no social secretary, no communications director, no chief of staff,” Bennet said. “So right now even the visitor’s office is on hold because there’s no one staffed there, which means the white house, the people’s house, is not allowing tours.” She added that by comparison, Michelle Obama had a staff of 24 who were mostly in place by the time she arrived at the White House.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, Reddit noted that the r/altright subreddit forum would be banned due to members posting the personal information of others with the intent of causing them harm. The practice is also referred to as doxxing.

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

It is not, however, “politicization” of the Department of Justice. That’s an altogether different — and more dangerous — phenomenon. It’s what happens when an attorney general or president employs the enormous power of the department, with its 10,000 lawyers and 13,000 FBI agents, to pursue personal or partisan goals. It happens when impartiality is thrown out the window and vindictiveness and vendetta take over.
Is Sessions the man to ensure this does not happen? This week’s showdown between President Trump and acting attorney general Sally Yates changes the equation. The independence of the department is under threat. Protecting it must be Sessions’s top priority. Yet thus far he has offered little more than bland assurances of fairness — combined with worrying hints of blindness to the gravity of the situation.

U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.   
As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.
The Pentagon directed queries about the officials’ characterization of the raid to U.S. Central Command, which pointed only to its statement on Wednesday.
“CENTCOM asks for operations we believe have a good chance for success and when we ask for authorization we certainly believe there is a chance of successful operations based on our planning,” CENTCOM spokesman Colonel John Thomas said.
“Any operation where you are going to put operators on the ground has inherent risks,” he said.
The U.S. officials said the extremists’ base had been identified as a target before the Obama administration left office on Jan. 20, but then-President Barack Obama held off approving a raid ahead of his departure.
A White House official said the operation was thoroughly vetted by the previous administration and that the previous defense secretary had signed off on it in January. The raid was delayed for operational reasons, the White House official said.




Billy Baldwin on Twitter: "Twitler gettin' his swerve on... #StopPresidentBannon https://t.co/wmaThEc6qV" http://ow.ly/WvNs308G6Sx


CNN 

The rapid halting of President Donald J. Trump's immigration order has given him his first exposure to the limits on his presidential power.


Sunday February 5, 2017


Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer might be even funnier than Alec Baldwin's Donald J. Trump on this week's Saturday Night Live.



Trump defends Putin: "You think our country's so innocent?" - CNN http://ow.ly/PF2r308Hy2p



The "Ragged Old Flag" Lyrics From This Super Bowl Spot Bring All The Feels http://ow.ly/q2qi308HFYt



After Trump moves to undo financial regulations, Sanders calls him ‘a fraud’ - The Washington Post http://ow.ly/DmzU308HH90



A congressman even jumped in with a joke.





Monday February 6, 2017



Check out this article from USA TODAY:

127 companies now support brief opposing Trump ban


Why We’re Calling for Congress to Impeach Donald Trump - TIME http://ow.ly/uUfS308KlSp


Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles - NYTimes.com http://ow.ly/6qsY308Km2n



Tuesday February 7, 2017


The Hill was live.

WATCH LIVE: Teachers, parents, students and lawmakers gather outside the Capitol to protest the nomination of Betsy DeVos for secretary of Education.



Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Betsy DeVos confirmed Education secretary in historic vote



Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Homeland Secretary John Kelly: I should have consulted Congress on travel ban



Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Federal appeals court judges skeptical of Trump's travel ban



"It's a shame that Republicans voted to confirm one of their major donors instead of looking out for our children."



Warren cut off during Sessions debate after criticism - CNN http://ow.ly/wMDt308N1RF






Wednesday February 8, 2017


Thursday February 9, 2017


Donald Trump's tweet about Nordstrom and Ivanka Trump was an important mistake.

But White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made matters dramatically worse.


Friday February 10, 2017


Interested in taking action regarding Enviro Issues in Texas?

Every Texas Legislative Session, a coalition called the Alliance for a Clean Texas (ACT) works together on legislation affecting the environment and public health. This is a big-tent coalition that includes environmental, public health, consumer protection, and faith-based organizations. ACT participating-organizations meet weekly at the Capitol to discuss legislation and legislative strategy.

ACT sends out Friday alerts on bills of concern that are moving through the legislature and also holds a weekly Sunday call with interested citizens and citizen-activists from across the state on critical environmental legislation. This call is some of the most important work of the coalition, allowing the group to activate grassroots support, and contact local elected officials including mayors and county judges, where and when it is most needed. An example of this organizing is the citizen-mobilization which occurred in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and elsewhere when the Legislature was debating House Bill 40, which eviscerated local control on oil and gas drilling, in the 2015 session. These citizen-calls are also an important tool for organizing lobby days, regional events, press conferences, and citizen outreach to legislative offices.

ACT is looking for interested individuals to participate in the citizen calls and the environmental work of ACT this session. If you or individuals in your Senate Districts would like to become involved please sign up at www.acttexas.org.  For further information, contact ACT Coordinator Beving Rita at rita.beving@gmail.com or (214) 557-2271.


Here's a list of our senators and representatives phone numbers to keep so you can call on issues that are important to you:

Senator John Cornyn: 202-224-2934

Senator Ted Cruz: 202-224-5922

State Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst: 512-463-0118

State Rep. Geanie W. Morrison: 512-463-0456



Saturday February 11, 2017


If you don't have your papers proving you are here legally or a US Citizen prepare to get detained by ICE. They don't care. If you are brown you are a target.



Monday February 13, 2017


This is some A+ trolling.



Thursday February 16, 2017




Saturday February 18, 2017


Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Trump declares 'fake news' media 'the enemy of the American people'



Wednesday February 22, 2017




Thursday February 23, 2017


Don't forget about tonight's meeting!



"Elected Republican officials, in Trump’s mind, should focus on representing 'Republican people,'" Steve Benen writes. http://on.msnbc.com/2lN9EJv


Great meeting tonight, thanks to all who came out!



Friday February 24, 2017





Sunday February 26, 2017


Go figure.




-- end of February 2017 posts





















 
 
 
  • Jan 31
  • 8 min read

The following are posts from when our party fb was first started. The first month of January 2017.


I'm going to go through all of our posts and put on our blog. The reason being is that so much of our social media posts are on fb because of how easy it is to do.


When I catch up I will switch to weekly or daily posts. So that everything that is on fb is on here as well.


The plan then is to continue copying over to our substack since it's easier to find things.


----



Sunday January 1, 2017

Happy New Year! Let's work together to make 2017 great!!


Thursday January 5, 2017

The White House@WhiteHouse

2 hours ago

"The change we’ve brought about these past eight years was never about me. It was about you." —@POTUS: go.wh.gov/CabinetInReview


USA TODAY Politics@usatodayDC

3 hours ago

5 takeaways from the Senate hearing on Russian hacks usat.ly/2j9cByR via @ErinVKelly



Friday January 6, 2017


Do you care about the future of Texas & protecting our families from #txlege Trump Republicans, take this survey➝ bit.ly/2ja4kyC


Saturday January 7, 2017

They must be stopped.

Read more here: http://cnb.cx/2hYjffq

Image by Occupy Democrats, LIKE our page for more!


Sunday January 8, 2017


Tuesday January 10, 2017


Wednesday January 11, 2017

Thursday January 12, 2017



Friday January 13, 2017


Friday January 20, 2017



Saturday January 21, 2017


We’re ready to hit the ground running and get to work on the issues that matter to Texas working families, but we need your input. Take our 2017 Legislative Priorities Survey TODAY and make your voice heard: http://bit.ly/2hdzd4S


Monday January 23, 2017

Tuesday January 24, 2017

Wednesday January 25, 2017



My brother, Todd Trautman, was a national debate champion, so even casual discussions with him sometimes include him asking, "What's your source?" We must always consider the quality of our information as we seek to understand both sides or use the info in an argument. This chart is helpful for that.

It was created by a person named Vanessa Otero (who I don't know) and doesn't claim to be based on a scientific analysis, just a conversation starter to make sense of the media landscape. I hope that helps!


Thursday January 26, 2017

Thanks to Evelyn Burleson for passing down her donkey and Democrat pin. I will work hard to follow in your footsteps. Sandy


We had a great meeting tonight! Thanks to all who attended!


Science is not Democratic or Republican, progressive or conservative. Science is science. There are no "alternative facts." A modern society cannot survive unless decisions are made on evidence-based research. Congratulations to those scientists and researchers who are fighting back.


Friday January 27, 2017

Saturday January 28, 2017


Most of you have seen the draft executive order on immigration and refugees that the President is expected to sign. If signed as written, it would ban Syrian refugees from entering our country, suspend the entire refugee program for 120 days, cut in half the number of refugees we can admit, and halt all travel from certain Muslim countries.

Having looked at the draft, I felt I had no choice but to speak out against it in the strongest possible terms.

In doing so, I want to make three points.

First, it is a cruel measure that represents a stark departure from America's core values. We have a proud tradition of sheltering those fleeing violence and persecution, and have always been the world leader in refugee resettlement. As a refugee myself who fled the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, I personally benefited from this country’s generosity and its tradition of openness. This order would end that tradition, and discriminate against those fleeing a brutal civil war in Syria. It does not represent who we are as a country.

Second, this measure would directly harm our security interests. As you all know, the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East poses an extraordinary threat to the stability of that region and to our allies in Europe. We need to be doing more, not less, to alleviate the problem – and one important way to do that is to accept a modest number of thoroughly vetted refugees. The signing of this executive order would send a terrible signal to our allies in Europe and in the Middle East, who will now have an excuse to do less. It will also be a gift to ISIS, which has been telling Muslims around the world that the west is their enemy. I have no doubt they will use this order as propaganda to support that claim.

Third, there is no data to support the idea that refugees pose a threat. This policy is based on fear, not facts. The refugee vetting process is robust and thorough. It already consists of over 20 steps, ensuring that refugees are vetted more intensively than any other category of traveler.

The process typically takes 18-24 months, and is conducted while they are still overseas. I am concerned that this order’s attempts at “extreme vetting” will effectively halt our ability to accept anyone at all. . When the administration makes wild claims about Syrian refugees pouring over our borders, they are relying on alternative facts – or as I like to call it, fiction.

The truth is that America can simultaneously protect the security of our borders and our citizens and maintain our country’s long tradition of welcoming those who have nowhere else to turn. These goals are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they are the obligation of a country built by immigrants.

Refugees should not be viewed as a certain burden or potential terrorists. They have already made great contributions to our national life. Syrian refugees are learning English, getting good jobs, buying homes, and starting businesses. In other words, they are doing what other generations of refugees – including my own – did. And I have no doubt that, if given the opportunity, they will become an essential part of our American fabric.

Yesterday, I tweeted about my own background. I was raised a Catholic, married an Episcopalian and then found out I was Jewish. I said in my tweet that should a registry of Muslims be instituted by this administration, I would add my name to such a list.

Such a registry is not included in the language of this order, but by targeting Muslim-majority countries for immigration bans and by expressing a clear preference for refugees who are religious minorities, there’s no question this order is biased against Muslims. And when one faith is targeted, it puts us all at risk.

When I came here as a child, I will never forget sailing into New York Harbor for the first time and seeing the Statue of Liberty. It proclaims “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty, and today she is weeping because of the actions of President Trump.



President Trump’s first seven days of false claims, inaccurate statements and exaggerations http://ow.ly/AtyK308rBHx



A good article on Mexico exports. http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/mex/



Monday January 30, 2017


This first week has been a test of how far they can push as well as figuring out how much further they can go.

Unless Trump is impeached or 25A and Bannon, Conway, Flynn, Miller, Kosher, Sessions, Rudy, and Manafort are fired...we are getting a dictatorship.



The rise and rise of Steve Bannon –> The former head of extreme right-wing Breitbart news is ever-increasing his power and influence in the White House. “While the American public’s attention was focused on the thousands of families whose lives were disrupted and even put at risk by Trump’s ban on Muslims entering the USA, the US Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were removed from the list of permanent attendees in the President’s National Security Council,” author Corey Doctorow writes for the blog Boing Boing. “They were replaced with white nationalist Trump advisor Steve Bannon. Trump announced the changes shortly after speaking with Putin for an hour.”

Sign up for our Morning Reads daily newsletter here: http://billmoyers.com/.../morning-reads-steve-bannon.../#



Check out this article from USA TODAY:

Fact check: Trump’s immigration policy vs. Obama's



Here's a list of Reps and Senators to call and hound. Make them take a stand.



President Trump's executive actions: The complete list so far http://ow.ly/ai4l308w0gi



Tuesday January 31, 2017


From Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College:

"I don't like to talk about politics on Facebook-- political history is my job, after all, and you are my friends-- but there is an important non-partisan point to make today.

What Bannon is doing, most dramatically with last night's ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries-- is creating what is known as a "shock event."

Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by claiming that they alone know how to restore order.

When opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies. As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines established by the shock event.

Last night's Executive Order has all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.

Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.

My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is in no one's interest to play the shock event game. It is designed explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they cannot stand against something its authors think they won't like.

I don't know what Bannon is up to-- although I have some guesses-- but because I know Bannon's ideas well, I am positive that there is not a single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle-- and my friends range pretty widely-- who will benefit from whatever it is.

If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have been tricked into accepting their real goal.

But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event.

A successful shock event depends on speed and chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union.

If people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the strings. This was Lincoln's strategy when he joined together Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power.

Five years before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground. They ended up rededicating the nation to a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Confederate leaders and Lincoln both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the better idea about how to use it."

COPY AND PASTE. DON"T "SHARE"





-- end of January 2017 posts

 
 
 

It is the Year of the Snake! Specifically the Wood Snake.


Lunar New Year Day is Wednesday January 29, 2025!


Last year was Year of the Wood Dragon our blog post here.



Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival, marks the end of winter and the arrival of the spring season on the lunisolar calendar. Plus, it signifies the start of the new year.
The Lunar New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice and between the spring equinox during the months of either January or February. It is regarded as the most popular holiday in China and Chinese communities around the world. 
Each year is represented by one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, each holding specific personality traits. Last year was the year of the Wood Dragon, while 2025 is the year of the Wood Snake.
"The Wood Snake year is part of a 60-year cycle of the 60 pillars, which is the 60 possible combinations of the five elements and the 12 animal signs," Chinese metaphysics consultant Vicki Iskandar tells PEOPLE exclusively. Wood Snake, in particular, makes this year distinct from the next.
Similar to Western astrology's elements (fire, water, earth, air), Chinese zodiacs pair with one of the five elements in the heavenly frequency (wood, fire, earth, metal, water). "The element and the animal sign differentiate the qualities and characteristics year after year," explains Iskandar.
While the Snake year comes every 12 years, the last time we had the Wood Snake year was in 1965 according to the Chinese calendar. "The Wood Snake will have many of us on the move, while some of us may finally have the chance to take a break after a challenging Dragon year," she predicts.

The Year of the Wood Snake begins at 4:36 a.m. PT on Jan. 29, 2025. It coincides with the new moon in Aquarius, which marks the annual start of Lunar New Year.

Iskandar tells PEOPLE that we can gain "better insights" into what 2025 will bring by looking at the world events and general trends that occurred in 1965 in comparison to the previous Snake year in 2013, which was a Water Snake year.
"Each pairing of the element and the animal sign has its own dynamics influenced by the interaction between the elements in the pillar, as each of the animal signs is also associated with an element," Iskandar says.
For example, the Snake (a Yin Fire sign) "is more at home" in a Wood environment and "in harmony with nature" since Wood produces Fire in the Chinese Five Elements theory. "Whereas Water clashes with Fire in the Water Snake pillar, which could manifest as disharmony," she adds

In Chinese astrology, there are Yin and Yang years. A Yang year (ending in an even number) will always be followed by a Yin year (ending in an odd number) and visa versa.
The order of the elements follows the cycle of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water in the Chinese Five Elements theory. It will start with Yang Wood, followed by Yin Wood.
"The Wood Snake has Yin Wood in the heavenly frequency and Yin Fire in the Snake," says Iskandar, noting that the Snake is a Fire sign. Simply put, the Wood Snake year contains Yin Wood and Yin Fire — so 2025 as a whole is a Yin year, Iskandar makes clear.
"A Yang year will highlight more masculine, upright, rigid and linear qualities while a Yin year will be more feminine, softer and more relaxed and spontaneous," she explains. "We’re more likely to soften our stance and venture outside of our comfort zone in a Yin year rather than sticking to our principles and standing our ground in a Yang year."

"2025’s Yin Wood is much more flexible, tolerant and peace-oriented compared to 2024’s unbending, divisive Yang Wood," Iskandar says. "The Snake is also much more unpredictable and quicker in action compared to the Dragon."
The Dragon as a Yang Earth sign can be compared to a mountain, which she notes "can be imposing and unmovable." The Snake as a Yin Fire sign can be compared to a candle flame, which she says "transforms darkness into light in an instant."Yin Fire is also transformative, like a snake shedding its skin. "It’s also unpredictable," Iskandar puts forth. "Ideas and trends can spread quickly... Expect the unexpected!"

Those who are born in a Snake year (1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013) "will experience the most transformative year with major life changes," Iskandar predicts.
When the year falls on the animal sign associated with your birth year, also known as the Grand Duke year, she says it's typically a "pivotal" one. This happens every 12 years.
"If you’ve been considering changing your career, job or residence, this is the year to go for it," Iskandar puts forth. "The Grand Duke visiting your sign offers you a chance to reinvent yourself. This can be your most successful year with major milestones achieved."
She adds, "Opportunities may appear in the form of sudden, unexpected endings that turn out to be blessings in disguise. A positive and strategic mindset will make a big difference in shaping your year."

As one of the travel stars in Chinese astrology, she says the Snake "compels us to move" and many will be called to "travel the world" as a result. "We may feel restless from the fast-paced nature of the Snake, so work off the restless energy with physical activities and remember to stay present!"

Red lanterns, fireworks and family feasts. This is how millions of families around the world will be ringing in the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the Chinese zodiac calendar.
This Wednesday, January 29, marks the beginning of the 15-day celebration, also known as the Spring Festival, when the Year of the Snake is ushered in.
In many families, the new year is marked by exchanging red envelopes filled with money, seeing family and friends, and eating auspicious treats such as turnip cake. It is also China’s busiest travel period of the year.
‘Chunyun’ – the name for the 40-day period when Chinese people go home to celebrate the Lunar New Year with their families – is often referred to as one of the world’s biggest human migrations. This year, it’s expected that 9 billion journeys will be made during chunyun, or spring rush, from January 14 to February 22, state media reported.

“Year 2025 will be very different. The Snake — with a strong fire element, along with some metal and earth elements — is a zodiac sign that can cause significant clashes and conflicts. We need to be mindful of accidents as we approach the Snake Year. The overall atmosphere in the world will become slightly more chaotic.”
But, she says there’s no need to be “overly grim.”
“We can always choose to look at it positively,” says Chow.
“Snakes have a more observant personality. The Yin Wood Snake is more like a little green snake, rather than a large cobra, who can observe clearly before making a decisive strike at the right moment.”





What does that mean? What does a Lunar New Year mean? What is a LunarSolar calendar?


A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Earth's sky. If the sidereal year (such as in a sidereal solar calendar) is used instead of the solar year, then the calendar will predict the constellation near which the full moon may occur. As with all calendars which divide the year into months there is an additional requirement that the year have a whole number of months. In some case ordinary years consist of twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, which adds a thirteenth intercalary, embolismic, or leap month.
The Five Phases and Four Seasons of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, with English translation.
1729 Japanese calendar, which used the Jōkyō calendar procedure, published by Ise Grand Shrine.

Their months are based on the regular cycle of the Moon's phases. So lunisolar calendars are lunar calendars with – in contrast to them – additional intercalation rules being used to bring them into a rough agreement with the solar year and thus with the seasons.
The main other type of calendar is a solar calendar.

~

The Chinese, Buddhist, Burmese, Assyrian, Hebrew, Jain and Kurdish as well as the traditional Nepali, Hindu, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Vietnamese calendars (in the East Asian Chinese cultural sphere), plus the ancient Hellenic, Coligny, and Babylonian calendars are all lunisolar. Also, some of the ancient pre-Islamic calendars in south Arabia followed a lunisolar system.[1] The Chinese, Coligny and Hebrew[a] lunisolar calendars track more or less the tropical year whereas the Buddhist and Hindu lunisolar calendars track the sidereal year. Therefore, the first three give an idea of the seasons whereas the last two give an idea of the position among the constellations of the full moon. The Tibetan calendar was influenced by the Buddhist calendar. The Germanic peoples also used a lunisolar calendar before their conversion to Christianity.

Lunar New Year is the beginning of the new year based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. Lunar calendars follow the lunar phase while lunisolar calendars follow both the lunar phase and the time of the solar year. The event is celebrated by numerous cultures in various ways at diverse dates.




Year

Lunar New Year date

Animal

2025

29 January

Year of the Snake

2026

17 February

Year of the Horse

2027

6 February

Year of the Goat

2028

26 January

Year of the Monkey

2029

13 February

Year of the Rooster

However, there are also some important differences in some countries:

  • Japan: Instead of the pig the Japanese have a boar in their zodiac.

  • Vietnam: The Vietnamese zodiac has the buffalo instead of the ox and the cat instead of the rabbit. It is believed that the Chinese word for "rabbit" — "卯兔" (mǎo tù) — sounded like "meo" in Vietnamese, which means "cat".

  • Thailand: Instead of the dragon, Thai people have Naga, a mythical, snake-like monster, which is worshipped to bring fertility and wealth.

  • Myanmar: Instead of an annual zodiac, Myanmar has animals associated with days of the week. There are eight animals (as Wednesday is split into morning and afternoon). These are: Garuda (mythical bird), Tiger, Lion, Elephant (with tusks), Elephant (without tusks), Rat, Guinea Pig, and Dragon.




Years of the Snake include 2025, 2013, 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965, 1953...
In Chinese zodiac, the snake is associated with wisdom, charm, elegance, and transformation. People born in the Year of the Snake are believed to be intuitive, strategic, and intelligent.

Dates for Snake Years

Snake Years

Date

Element

1917

January 23, 1917 – February 10, 1918

Fire Snake

1929

February 10, 1929 – January 29, 1930

Earth Snake

1941

January 27, 1941 – February 14, 1942

Gold Snake

1953

February 14, 1953 – February 3, 1954

Water Snake

1965

February 2, 1965 – January 20, 1966

Wood Snake

1977

February 18, 1977 – February 6, 1978

Fire Snake

1989

February 6, 1989 – January 26, 1990

Earth Snake

2001

January 24, 2001 – February 11, 2002

Gold Snake

2013

February 10, 2013 – January 30, 2014

Water Snake

2025

January 29, 2025 – February 16, 2026

Wood Snake


Chinese Horoscope 2025 Predictions for 12 Zodiac Signs


Rats' Horoscope 2025

Like in 2024, Rats will also enjoy a stable year in 2025. Your quick thinking and unique perspectives will lead you to make successful decisions, propelling your careers to new heights. You will excel in entrepreneurship and career advancements, while fostering positive relationships with colleagues, friends, and family.


Oxes' Horoscope 2025

Oxen will enter a stable and fruitful year in 2025, marked by diligence and responsibility. Your steady progress in career and harmonious relationships with colleagues and superiors will ensure continued success and prosperity.


Tigers' Horoscope 2025

Tigers may encounter challenges in 2025, necessitating hard work and a low-key approach to seize opportunities and manage finances effectively. Maintaining a positive mindset and focusing on personal growth will be key to overcoming obstacles.


Rabbits' Horoscope 2025

Rabbits will experience a significant rise in luck in 2025, with everything falling into place effortlessly. Your hard work will lay a strong foundation for future success, leading to financial stability and modest spending habits.


Dragons' Horoscope 2025

Dragons will have a positive year in 2025, marked by success, financial stability, and a renewed focus on family responsibilities. Your hard work will be rewarded, leading to a harmonious and fulfilling year ahead.


Snakes' Horoscope 2025

Snakes may face challenges in career and finances in 2025, requiring optimism and adaptability to overcome setbacks and achieve success. Avoiding negative influences and prioritizing health will be crucial for navigating the year ahead.

(more below this section)


Horses' Horoscope 2025

Horses can look forward to a peak year in 2025, with luck on your side in both career and relationships. Your charisma will attract success in the workplace and love in your personal lives, culminating in a fulfilling year ahead.


Goats' Horoscope 2025

Goats will shine in 2025, effortlessly earning wealth and recognition without excessive effort. Your stable finances and prosperous career will bring contentment and success, as your excel in your professional endeavors.


Monkeys' Horoscope 2025

Monkeys can expect a stable year ahead in 2025. Despite appearing unreliable and arrogant, your are adaptable and ambitious. Your wit and wisdom will shine, helping you navigate challenges in work and life effortlessly. Financially, you will prosper, make new connections, and achieve breakthroughs with the help of benefactors.


Roosters' Horoscope 2025

Roosters can anticipate a rewarding year in 2025. Your hard work and perseverance will pay off, leading to career advancements and financial gains. Unexpected windfalls and fulfilling relationships await, making you feel content and successful in various aspects of life.


Dogs' Horoscope 2025

Dogs can expect a stable and rewarding year in 2025, with continuous surprises and financial growth. Your dedication and professionalism will lead to success in both career and relationships, ensuring a worry-free and prosperous year.


Pigs' Horoscope 2025

Pigs may face interpersonal challenges in 2025, requiring tact and composure to navigate conflicts and maintain harmonious relationships. By staying level-headed and focusing on solutions, you can overcome obstacles and enjoy a successful year.



In Chinese culture, the Snake is the most enigmatic animal among the 12 zodiac animals. People born in a year of the Snake are supposed to be the most intuitive.
Snakes tend to act according to their own judgments while remaining private and reticent. They are determined to accomplish their goals and hate to fail.

Snakes represent the symbol of wisdom. They are intelligent and wise. They are good at communication but say little. Snakes are usually regarded as great thinkers.
Snakes are materialistic and love keeping up with the Joneses. They love to possess the best of everything but they have no patience for shopping.


In Chinese element theory, each zodiac sign is associated with one of the five elements: Gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. For example, a Wood Snake comes once in a 60-year cycle.
It is theorized that a person's characteristics are decided by their birth year's zodiac animal sign and element. So there are five types of Snakes, each with different characteristics:

Element of Snake

Personality

Wood Snake

Orderly, intelligent, with a gift for appreciating the knowing celebrities and a refined taste

Fire Snake

Smart, insightful, communicative, active, and fond of the limelight

Earth Snake

Calm, with strong self-control, but not steadfast and diligent enough in work

Gold Snake

Determined, courageous, confident, and able: a born leader

Water Snake

Clever, creative, lively, and communicative, but sentimental



Things that will bring Snakes luck:

  • Lucky numbers: 2, 8, 9, and numbers containing them (like 28 and 89)

  • Lucky colors: black, red, and yellow

  • Lucky flowers: orchid and cactus

  • Lucky directions: east, west, and southwest

Things that Snakes should avoid:

  • Unlucky colors: brown, gold, white

  • Unlucky numbers: 1, 6, and 7

  • Unlucky directions: northeast and northwest


Each animal sign has its unique characteristics. Love compatibility within the Chinese zodiac animals takes the characteristics of each animal into account. Only those whose characteristics match can be good partners.

See below the compatibility of the Snake with other animals, and find out if the Snake is compatible with your sign or not.

  • Best with: Ox or Rooster

  • Worst with: Tiger, Horse, or Pig


Snakes are very creative and extremely diligent. Although Snakes work very hard, they have a tendency to be job-hoppers as they become easily bored. Snakes are great thinkers. Complex problems stimulate them. They're excellent problem-solvers and thrive under tight deadlines.

Good career choices for Snakes include: scientist, analyst, investigator, painter, potter, jeweler, astrologer, magician, dietician, and sociologist.




The snake () is the sixth of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Snake is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol .[1]
According to one legend, there is a reason for the order of the animals in the cycle. A race was held to cross a great river, and the order of the animals in the cycle was based upon their order in finishing the race. In this story, the snake compensated for not being the best swimmer by hitching a hidden ride on the Horse's hoof. When the horse was about to cross the finish line, the snake jumped out, scaring the horse, and thus edging it out for sixth place.
The same twelve animals are also used to symbolize the cycle of hours in the day, each being associated with a two-hour time period. The hour of the snake is 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., the time when the Sun warms up the Earth, and snakes are said to slither out of their holes. The month of the snake is the 4th month of the Chinese lunar calendar and it usually falls within the months of May through June depending on the Chinese to Gregorian calendar conversion. The reason the animal signs are referred to as zodiacal is that one's personality is said to be influenced by the animal signs ruling the time of birth, together with elemental aspects of the animal signs within the sexagenary cycle. Similarly, the year governed by a particular animal sign is supposed to be characterized by it, with the effects particularly strong for people who were born in any year governed by the same animal sign.
In Chinese symbology, snakes are regarded as intelligent, with a tendency to lack scruples.[2]

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Snake", while also bearing the following elemental sign:

Start date

End date

Heavenly branch

10 February 1929

29 January 1930

Earth Snake

27 January 1941

14 February 1942

Metal Snake

14 February 1953

2 February 1954

Water Snake

2 February 1965

20 January 1966

Wood Snake

18 February 1977

6 February 1978

Fire Snake

6 February 1989

26 January 1990

Earth Snake

24 January 2001

11 February 2002

Metal Snake

10 February 2013

30 January 2014

Water Snake

29 January 2025

16 February 2026

Wood Snake

15 February 2037

3 February 2038

Fire Snake

2 February 2049

22 January 2050

Earth Snake

21 January 2061

8 February 2062

Metal Snake

7 February 2073

26 January 2074

Water Snake

26 January 2085

13 February 2086

Wood Snake

12 February 2097

31 January 2098

Fire Snake

In Japan, the new sign of the zodiac starts on 1 January, while in China it starts, according to the traditional Chinese calendar, at the new moon that falls between 21 January and 20 February, so that persons born in January or February may have two different signs in the two countries, but persons born in late February (i.e. on or after 20 February) automatically have one sign in both countries.

Basic astrological associations

Earthly branch:

Element:

Planet:

Yin Yang:

Yīn

Lunar month:

Fourth

Lucky numbers:

2, 8, 9

Lucky flowers:

Lucky colors:

Red, light yellow, black; Avoid: white, golden, brown[3]

Season:

Summer

The snake is the sixth of the twelve signs and belongs to the second trine, with the ox (second sign, 牛, Earthly branch: 丑) and the rooster (tenth sign, 雞/鷄; 鸡; , Earthly branch: 酉), with which it is most compatible. The pig is the most incompatible.[4]


See also



The pervasive taboos:

  1. Don’t say unlucky words like “death”, “illness” or “loss” because if you use these words during the festival, they will follow you the whole year.

  2. Don’t break porcelain or glass.

  3. Don’t scold children. If you scold your kids during the Spring Festival, they will become naughty and will need to be scolded for the whole year.

  4. Don’t grieve or you will be sad all the time.

  5. Do not get your hair cut. It is considered a curse on your uncle.

  6. Don’t press for payment of debt.


On New Year’s eve:

  1. Do not eat fish head or tail. “Fish” has the same pronunciation as “abundance” in Chinese, so if you leave some fish on New Year’s Eve till the next day, it means you will always have enough wealth to spend for the next year. Similarly, your rice jar should not be empty on New Year’s Eve. It should be full to ensure that you will not encounter any hunger next year.

    • You are not supposed to go to bed early on New Year’s Eve. On the contrary, you should stay up late and alert in order to keep the “Sui” monster away.


On the first day of the lunar year:

Chinese people consider New Year’s Day a very important day. There are many taboos on this day.

  1. No washing clothes or hair or bathing. The first and second day of the lunar year is the birthday of the “Water God”, so you are not supposed to use water to show respect for the Water God.

  2. No sweeping the floor or taking out rubbish. If you do so, you are carrying your fortune out.

  3. No eating porridge. In old times, only poor families would eat porridge, so in order to gather wealth in the coming year, do not eat porridge.

  4. Do not urge someone to get out of bed. If you are urged out of bed on the first morning, it means that you will be rushed the whole year.

  5. Do not give New Year’s greetings to someone still in the bed. Doing so might lead to that person lying in bed sick for the whole year.

  6. Avoid using needles, knives or scissors on the first day. These items may cause bleeding. Blood is considered unlucky.

  7. Do not take an afternoon nap. Napping on New Year’s Day indicates laziness for the next year.

  8. Married women are not supposed to visit their parents’ home. They can only go there on the second or the third day.

  9. When giving lucky money as a gift, the amount should be an even number rather than an odd number. Even numbers are supposed to be lucky numbers.

  10. Younger people should bow to older people, and when they do so, the posture of their hands is very important. The left hand should cover the right fist as “left” was supposed to be more respectful in ancient China. The opposite posture is used to show respect to the dead.


On the fourth day of the lunar year:

The fourth day is the day when the Kitchen God returns to one’s house. People are not supposed to go out on that day. They should stay at home to prepare sacrificial offerings to welcome the Kitchen God back. See our story on the Kitchen God at:https://www.confuciusinstitute.ac.uk/fortune-god-kitchen-god-door-god/


On the fifth day of the lunar year:

Only from the fifth day of the New Year are people finally allowed to take out rubbish and sweep the floors. On this day, the rubbish and dust turn into “symbols of poverty”, so cleaning the house means to expel “poverty”. On this day, people are also supposed to receive the God of Fortune, so traders worship the God of Fortune and reopen their businesses.



Chinese Lunar New Year 2025: Things to do

The dos ensure the New Year is filled with positive energy, setting the tone for a harmonious and prosperous beginning. These practices are rooted in tradition and aim to attract good fortune, happiness, and success. It also brings friends and families together.


1. Wear red

The colour red is considered symbolic and auspicious. It stands for prosperity, good luck and vitality. It is also considered to ward off evil and negative energies. Wear red to attract good fortune and start the year on a positive note.

In fact, the colour red is present in the decoration of the festivities. Decorate your house with red lanterns. Crimson paints the Chinese decoration with great vigour.


2. Gift money in Hongbao

Hongbao is a lucky red envelope. It is stuffed with cash and gifted to friends and family. It symbolises good wishes and luck for the year ahead. The magic is in the red envelope itself as it is believed to be lucky. Only clean and crisp notes are put inside these envelopes. The cash amount included in the envelope should not be 4 (like no 4, 40, or 400) as the pronunciation for ‘four’ is Chinese for death. However, don't give odd amounts of money.


3. Family dinner

There’s a family dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve, which holds great significance. This meal, known as the Reunion Dinner, is a lavish feast featuring an array of delectable dishes like fish and dumplings. Extended family and friends gather together to welcome the new year.


Chinese Lunar New Year 2025: Things not to do

There are certain taboos associated with Chinese New Year that hold great cultural significance. These practices are deeply rooted in tradition and are believed to influence the fortunes of the year ahead. They are considered bad omens, and avoiding them helps to ensure that negative energies are kept at bay.


1. Do not sweep

On New Year’s Day, sweeping or cleaning the house is considered bad luck. It is advised to complete all cleaning before the Lunar New Year begins. Cleaning on the first day of the New Year is believed to sweep away any incoming good fortune.


2. Do not wear black or white clothes

Black and white colours are associated with mourning and funerals in Chinese culture. These colours are suited for the lively festivities of the New Year.


3. Do not break

Be extra careful during the New Year festival. Breaking a glass or ceramic is believed to bring bad luck. However, even if something is broken, protect yourself from bad energy by wrapping the broken pieces in red cloth or paper and utter the phrase “Sui Sui Ping An.” It means ‘May You Have Peace All Year Around.’ This in a way protects against the bad luck of the broken glass.


4. Do not use scissors

On New Year's Day, keep away all sharp objects like scissors and knives and don't use them. It is believed to ‘cut the thread of good fortune.’


5. Do not use bad language

Refrain from using foul language or inauspicious words as they may attract misfortune.


6. Do not have porridge

Porridge is a meal for the poor, so it is advised not to begin the New Year with this breakfast. It is a bad omen to start with a ‘poor’ meal.


7. Do not wash clothes

As per Chinese culture, on the first and second day of the New Year clothes are not washed as these two days are also celebrated as the birthday of their water deity who is also the deity for wealth. Washing clothes on these days may anger the god and result in loss of money. Instead, clothes are washed in advance.


By following the DOs and DON’Ts, the beginning of the New Year can be marked with good luck and prosperity, keeping misfortune at bay.




Many early Lunar New Year celebrations, rooted in ancient agricultural practices, involved edible offerings to deities and ancestors for a bountiful harvest. Today, as the holiday garners global participation from one-fifth of the world's population, food remains at the heart of the festivities, carrying rich symbolism with certain dishes signifying prosperity, health and abundance. Here's a look at some of the key foods central to Lunar New Year feasts.


1. Noodles: To Live Long and Prosper

Changshou Mian, known as "longevity noodles," symbolizes the wish for a long and healthy life. Noodles have been traced back more than 4,000 years in Chinese diets, but the tradition of consuming these long, uncut strands, sometimes over a foot in length, is thought to have originated during the Han Dynasty.

According to a popular legend, Emperor Wu associated a long face with a long life. And since "noodle" in Chinese sounds like the word "face," by his reasoning, eating long noodles would increase one's lifespan.

While likely more myth than fact, that tale has endured. Chen Yuanpeng, a professor and Chinese culinary specialist, tells CNN the story has woven itself into the fabric of the culture. "It has also become a part of the culture and history of longevity noodles, which has been documented for more than 1,000 years," Chen says.


2. Citrus Fruits: For Luck and Prosperity

In Lunar New Year traditions, revelers believe tangerines, oranges and pomelos bring good fortune. Their Mandarin names echo words with symbolic meanings: "jú" for oranges suggests "good luck" or "fortune," "chéng" for tangerine is akin to "success," and "youzi" for pomelos sounds similar to "have" or "abundance."

Historically, Time reports, parents from the Qing Dynasty would place oranges near their children's pillows to scare off monsters during the Lunar New Year. And beyond their linguistic connections, the citrus fruits' vibrant colors and round shapes represent vitality and wholeness.

Offering the fruits is seen as an act of good fortune for both hosts and guests, especially when delivered in pairs or multiples. Keep the leaves and stems intact, and they're even bigger symbols of longevity and fertility.

In Vietnamese culture, a five-fruit platter, or "mâm ngũ quả," is a centerpiece of the Lunar New Year table. Traditionally, the arrangement includes a combination of tropical fruits, such as oranges, pomelos, kumquats, persimmons and bananas, with each fruit chosen for its color and meaning to embody a prosperous year ahead.


3. Sweet Rice Balls for Unity

Yuanxiao or tangyuan, served in syrup, are sweet glutinous rice balls that hold a special significance during the Lantern Festival, which marks the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations. These round treats, symbolic of family unity, togetherness, and the hope for a sweet and harmonious year, date back more than a thousand years to the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-906).

According to the BBC, the name yuanxiao was changed to tangyuan (meaning "round balls in soup") in the early 1900s when China President Yuan Shikai ordered it so because yuanxiao sounded like "remove Yuan." 

"Remarkably, the ruler's thin-skinned request worked—sort of," the BBC reports. "While people in southern China now refer to the rice balls as tangyuan, those in northern and central China … still call them yuanxiao."


4. Golden Spring Rolls for Prosperity

Spring rolls are another popular dish during Lunar New Year celebrations; their golden color and cylindrical shape are reminiscent of gold bars and, thus, wealth. According to the Independent, "Hwung-Jin Wan-Lyang" is a lucky saying for eating the food in China, translating to "a ton of gold." And the ingredients used inside spring rolls, such as carrots, cabbage and mushrooms, represent growth, abundance and wealth, while vermicelli noodles symbolize longevity.


5. Fish: For Abundance

In Chinese culture, "yu," the word for fish, sounds like the word for surplus or abundance, and the presentation of a whole fish is a Lunar New Year staple.   

"You cannot cut (the fish)," Julie Zhu, who works with the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center and was born in China, tells NBC. "Have the whole fish on the table."

But don't eat it all. Leaving some of the dish uneaten represents the hope for abundance to carry over into the new year.


6. Bánh Chưng: Connection Between Heaven and Earth

The traditional Vietnamese rice cake bánh chưng is steeped in legend and culture. Its square shape represents the connection between heaven and Earth, signifying unity and promising good luck and fruitful harvest. 

The invention of bánh chưng dates back to the era of the Hùng kings (2879 to 258 B.C.). The cake's simple ingredients—glutinous rice, mung beans and pork, wrapped in banana leaves—carry deep symbolism.

"As people display the cake on altars and eat it during Tết, a time of hope and rebirth of nature, they remember their ancestors and express gratitude to Mother Nature and her bounty," the CBC writes.


7. Dumplings: Pockets of Prosperity

Jiaozi, the beloved Chinese dumplings, have been a staple of Lunar New Year festivities for centuries, with their origins also rooted in the Han dynasty. The legend goes that the ear-shaped pieces of dough wrapped around various fillings were invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a "Sage of Medicine," to cure the frostbitten ears of villagers. 

Over time, the tradition of making and eating dumplings during the Lunar New Year spread across China and beyond. According to the BBC, jiaozi has a phonetic connection to the phrase "transition from old to new" and that the shape of the dumplings resembles ancient Chinese gold ingots, symbolizing wealth and good prosperity. At the same time, ingredients such as pork, shrimp, and veggies represent abundance.


8. Korean Rice Cake Soup: Adds a Year of Life

Consuming tteokguk, a Korean rice cake soup, during Lunar New Year celebrations is believed to add a year to one's age, symbolizing the passage of time and the promise of longevity. The round rice cakes represent coins and the hope for prosperity. Meanwhile, the dish's clear broth signifies purity and the opportunity for new beginnings. 

Historically, according to "The Customs of Joseon," tteokguk played a role in ancestral rituals and eating "a white food to begin the new year holds the religious meaning of rebirth for all creatures in the world."


9. Sweet or Savory, Nian Gao: Lasting Prosperity

Nian Gao, or sticky rice cake, is often interpreted as "year high," and its name signifies the hope for growth and rising fortunes in the coming year. The cake's signature stickiness is a metaphor for a family's wish for lasting prosperity.

According to members of the Newham Chinese Association, the term "nian gao" translates to "getting higher, or taller, or better or more promising for the year to come." 

The tradition of making nian gao dates back centuries, with its origins rooted in Chinese mythology as a sacred offering. "At the end of every year, folklore says, the Kitchen God makes his 'yearly report' to the Jade Emperor," according to China Highlights. "To prevent him from badmouthing their house, people offered nian gao, which would stick his mouth shut. Hence, nian gao is prepared for offering before Chinese New Year."


10. Leafy Greens: For Wealth

Spinach, lettuce, bok choy and other leafy greens symbolize prosperity, growth and good fortune–and their presence in Lunar New Year dishes is no coincidence. The Mandarin term for greens, "qing cai," echoes the word for wealth, making these vegetables popular in stir-fries, soups and hot pot meals. 

During Vietnamese Lunar New Year, or Tết, celebrants often include leafy greens in spring rolls and salads. In Korean culture, they commonly use them in dishes such as Korean barbecue and bibimbap to represent a wish for a prosperous year ahead.




1. Doing house chores

Don’t: It seems strange that such a good thing to do is one of things not to do on Chinese New Year, but there are explanations for this. Since the old days, Chinese people have always been working hard every day during the year. When Chinese New Year’s Day comes, they take a day or days off from work and also don’t do housework. It’s considered unlucky to do work and chores on the first day of the year as it symbolizes going through hardships through the year.

There are more specific Chinese New Year superstitions related to house chores as well. Sweeping dirt and dust out of the house and dumping trash are believed to be sweeping away and dumping good fortune. Washing clothes on the first two days of Lunar New Year is also considered an offense to the Water God as it’s the god’s birthday.

Do: Make sure your house is tidy before Lunar New Year, so you can rest and celebrate to the fullest. If you need to sweep dirt and dust, don’t sweep them out through the front door. Instead, sweep them inward and take them out through the back door.


2. Washing and cutting hair

Don’t: Washing and cutting your hair are like washing away and cutting off your prosperity and wealth and thus is among the things not to do on Chinese New Year.

Do: It’s great to groom yourself before Lunar New Year, so you look your best from the first day of the year!


3. Using sharp utensils

Don’t: Sharp cooking utensils are not to be used on Chinese New Year. When preparing meals, Thai-Chinese families will avoid ingredients that need to be cut as using sharp utensils is like cutting good luck out of your life.

Using scissors during the first month is also one of Chinese New Year taboos as it symbolizes fighting with others.

Do: You might want to prepare everything beforehand if you want to cook up a feast. Or maybe, go out to enjoy festivities and great meals at these places to visit during Chinese New Year in Thailand!


4. Wearing black or white clothes

Don’t: Black and white. The colors that are used in tragic events such as funerals. It isn’t hard to see why wearing black or white clothes is one of the things not to do on Chinese New Year.

Do: Wear red as it’s a lucky color for the Chinese. It’s bright and brings positive energy.


5. Lending money

Don’t: Letting someone borrow your money is also one of the things not to do on Chinese New Year. According to Lunar New Year beliefs, more and more borrowers will come to you all through the year.

Do: In addition to not lending money to others, be sure you return all the money that you owe before Chinese New Year.


6. Crying

Don’t: Weeping on the first day of Chinese New Year isn’t a good beginning, isn’t it? Chinese New Year taboos have it that those who cry will be crying throughout the year. Another foreboding reason is that children’s crying is believed to bring misfortune to the whole family.

Do: Be happy and make sure your loved ones are happy. Smile and wish others a Happy Chinese New Year. If you have children, avoid punishing them. Yes, even if they’re naughty, everyone seems to tolerate them during Chinese New Year.


7. Breaking stuff in your house

Don’t: This isn’t only a Chinese New Year superstition, but also a traditional Thai belief. When something is broken in the house, it’s an ill omen that bad things may happen to a family member or loved one.

Do: We should be careful at all times, not only on Lunar New Year, aren’t we?


8. Saying bad words and cursing

Don’t: Swearing, saying words with negative meanings (e.g. death, poverty, ghosts) and bad-mouthing are things not to do on Chinese New Year as they will bring you bad luck all year long. The word “sì” for “4” is also considered a bad word since it sounds similar to “death” in Chinese.

Do: According to Chinese New Year superstitions, saying nice things and being kind will bring joy and luck to you.


9. Going into other people’s bedrooms

Don’t: One of things not to do on Chinese New Year is to wake someone up and greet them in their bedroom. As the belief goes, the one woken up will have to work to exhaustion throughout the year.

Do: Let your family members rest and then you can spend time together in the living room. New Year is a family time, after all.


10. Buying new shoes

Don’t: The reason why buying new shoes is one of the things not to do on Chinese New Year is related to the language. This superstition comes from one Chinese ethnic group in Thailand, Chaozhou or Teochew. The word “shoes” in their language is “hoi”, which sounds similar to “hai” or “sigh” in English. Sighing at the start of the year is like you’re already stressed about something and that’s not a good way to begin, right?

Do: Buy new shoes beforehand or have spare pairs at the ready.


11. Eating congee for breakfast

Don’t: As the less fortunate in China could only afford congee in the past, congee is considered an inappropriate food to serve as the first meal of the year.

Do: The idea of eating leftovers might not sound very appealing. However, eating the leftovers of New Year’s Eve dinner symbolizes having more than needed according to Chinese New Year superstitions.



Various Articles to continue learning about what the Year of the Wood Snake will be like:


Food:


https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-food/chinese-new-year-food.htm#google_vignette (12 Lucky Chinese New Year Foods to Greet the Year of Snake 2025)






Decorations:









Korean New Year:










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