Trump 22: Not Even Poe Could Make This Shit Up

[Childless]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

When you are the presidunce, it's just so irritating that there is that pesky First Amendment to mess with your authoritarian tendencies.

Trump bans coverage of golf outings after media exposes sham “working vacation”

Ugh. How gross is that 'shake of his belt' that he does in the video in the embedded tweet? 

Does he realize he just threw down the challenge to every Joe Schmo out there with a smart phone camera and a Twitter account?

[CTRLZero]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I wonder, will sinners Ivanka, Betsy, Kellyanne, Omarosa, Sarah, Hope, Kathleen, Dina, and Lindsey all (be asked to) resign now?

Yeah, we know Pastor Ralph Drollinger is in Mike Pence's pocket.  Once Trump is ousted, you know Pence will send the wimmen packing to the extent possible.  A couple laughers, Drollinger has picked up the Trump lingo, it's the "best bible study", but of course:

Quote

The President has yet to attend a session but he receives a copy of Mr Drollinger’s teaching weekly

...but does Trump read it?  I think not, unless it's presented in outline form with illustrations.

[Childless]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

But of course...

I wonder, will sinners Ivanka, Betsy, Kellyanne, Omarosa, Sarah, Hope, Kathleen, Dina, and Lindsey all (be asked to) resign now?

So, let me get this straight.  I have young kids, so if I work, I'm a sinner.  If I don't work and have to be on welfare and food stamps, I'm a government moocher living off of his hard earned money.  So, what exactly am I supposed to do?  Seems to me to be a no win situation.  Since I want my kids to live in a warm, safe house, have enough food to eat, and get a good education (which is only possible in my town with private schooling), I'm going to have to go the sinner route.  Somehow, I really don't think God gives a shit.

2 minutes ago, CTRLZero said:

Yeah, we know Pastor Ralph Drollinger is in Mike Pence's pocket.  Once Trump is ousted, you know Pence will send the wimmen packing to the extent possible.  A couple laughers, Drollinger has picked up the Trump lingo, it's the "best bible study", but of course:

...but does Trump read it?  I think not, unless it's presented in outline form with illustrations.

Are you kidding me?  That thing goes into the trash can the moment he's left alone.

[Destiny]

It's just a cover for the real reason. The doctor told Trump's daddy that he couldn't in good conscience let Donnie go to Vietnam because he was so stupid and arrogant he wouldn't last five minutes there. As a matter of fact, the doctor was pretty sure Donnie wouldn't even survive the plane trip over.

I know. I was being sarcastic. I don’t buy that story either.

[GrumpyGran]

So I was just in the OT waiting room and picked up a copy of People mag from about two weeks ago with the Trumps on the cover. NOT a flattering article. Most of it was about Donnie Jr., how he fought with Daddy, bar-tended, ended up in jail for public drunkenness. Trump only saw the kids when they came by the office in the morning for their lecture before school.

Eric is actually quoted as saying when he was ten he and his Dad racing each other on the ski slope and Trump pushed him over so he would win. The great part was at the end, the article quotes a friend in their circle as saying that Junior hates this because of all of the scrutiny. Apparently he can't wait until these four years are over. OMG!

He's gotten A LOT of bad press lately. The Sports Illustrated article about all the ways he cheats on the golf course, the phone calls to Nieto  and Turnbull making him look like an idiot. At some point, ridiculous tweets won't be enough. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Uh-oh, I guess this i s more "fake news": "The Daily 202: No, Donald Trump’s base is not ‘far bigger and stronger than ever before’"

Spoiler

President Trump is clearly rankled by the notion that his political support is slipping, pushing back against the idea during a barrage of tweets Monday from his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, where aides said he is having a “working vacation.”

...

In fact, as his overall approval rate has sunk, some of the president’s core supporters have soured on his performance, polls show. A Quinnipiac University poll last week found 23 percent of registered voters “strongly approve” of Trump’s handling of his job, down from 29 percent who felt that way during his first week in office. Even white voters with no college degree — one of the demographics that backed his candidacy most enthusiastically — disapprove of how Trump is handling his job by 50 percent to 43 percent.

Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s top advisers and a longtime conservative pollster, acknowledged the erosion in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“In some of the polling, which of course I scour daily on behalf of the president, his approval rating among Republicans and conservatives and Trump voters is down slightly,” she said. “It needs to go up. They are telling him, ‘Just enact your program.’”

Notably, Trump’s approval is still in strongly positive territory among Republicans, a dynamic that has kept many GOP lawmakers lashed to the president amid the tumultuous early months of his administration. According to Gallup’s weekly tracking averages, 82 percent of Republicans last week said they approve of Trump’s performance, down from 89 percent in January.

So how weak are Trump’s numbers among his base — and what do they mean for the 2018 midterms and the GOP congressional majority?

“There’s no question they’ve slipped just a little bit,” veteran GOP pollster Neil Newhouse told me. “I think you can probably argue that it’s gotten a little bit smaller.” Still, intensity for Trump remains among his supporters, he added: “They are very protective of the president.”

He noted that Trump’s standing among Republicans is still higher than the lowest assessments of President Barack Obama among Democrats during the last administration. According to Gallup, Obama’s approval fell to a low of 72 percent among fellow partisans in early October 2011.

As he’s conducted polls this year for GOP congressional and gubernatorial primary races around the country, Newhouse said he has not found any place in which Trump’s approval among Republicans has gone below 75 percent.  

He also suspects that a share of Americans are reluctant to tell pollsters that they support Trump, a phenomenon some argue impacted public surveys during the 2016 election. “I think you have a small chunk of voters who are just unwilling to admit it,” said Newhouse, who believes that dynamic undervalues the president’s overall approval rating by as much as three points.

In the end, however, nervous Republicans can only take so much comfort from Trump’s support among party loyalists. Scott Clement, The Washington Post’s polling director, noted that the percentage of Americans who strongly approve of the president has declined to about a quarter of the electorate -- lower than his first weeks in office. “His lopsided disapproval among political independents is more worrisome for his political future,” Clement said.

And Trump’s upside-down overall approval rating is a flashing warning sign for the GOP in the 2018 midterms.

The Democrats need to win 24 seats in the House and three in the Senate to take control of Congress next year. For many reasons — including the right’s success at mastering redistricting battles across the country — the party faces stiff head winds.

But Trump’s unpopularity gives Democrats hope that an intense rejection of his politics will overcome their structural disadvantages. Since 1966, when the incumbent president’s job approval has fallen below 50 percent, his party has lost an average of 40 House seats and five Senate seats in the midterms, according to Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, who put together a chart that illustrates the past bloodbaths. “Fifty percent has been the magic number,” he said.

Trump’s most recent approval rating in Gallup’s tracking poll: 37 percent.

...

 

[Cartmann99]

10 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I wonder, will sinners Ivanka, Betsy, Kellyanne, Omarosa, Sarah, Hope, Kathleen, Dina, and Lindsey all (be asked to) resign now?

Obviously, they all have notes from their nearest male relative ordering them to work outside the home, so we'll have to have a showdown between the pastor and the patriarchs to resolve who has final authority over these women.

What: Godly duel

Where: In front of the White House

Why: Women

What time: Sunday at sunrise

 

[fraurosena]

Remember my post about the presidunce's tweet thanking a bot? Well...

Twitter suspends army of fake accounts after Trump thanks propaganda ‘bot’ for supporting him

Quote

Twitter suspended a number of fake accounts over the weekend that were using false names to spread pro-Trump propaganda.

In a tweet on Saturday, President Donald Trump expressed thanks to Twitter user @Protrump45, an account that posted exclusively positive memes about the president. But the woman whose name was linked to the account told Heavy that her identity was stolen and that she planned to file a police report. The victim asserted that her identity was used to sell pro-Trump merchandise.

Although “Nicole Mincey” was the name displayed on the Twitter page, it was not the name used to create the account. The real name of the victim has been withheld to protect her privacy.

The @Protrump45 account also linked to the website Protrump45.com which specialized in Trump propaganda. All of the articles on the website were posted by other Twitter users, which also turned out to be fakes.

Mashable noted that the accounts were suspected of being so-called “bots” used to spread propaganda about Trump. Russia has been accused of using similar tactics with bots during the 2016 campaign.

By Sunday night, Twitter had suspended @Protrump45 and all of the Twitter accounts associated with the Protrump45.com website. However, Trump had not removed his tweet thanking @Protrump45 by the time of publication.

The tweet in question still hasn't been removed: 

 

 

 

[fraurosena]

Please let this just be his usual bluster and posturing.

 

And hope with all your might that his tiny hands stay far, far away from those nuclear codes!

[onekidanddone]

4 hours ago, CTRLZero said:

but does Trump read it?  I think not, unless it's presented in outline form with illustrations.

Only if it is in bullet points and Turmp's name is substituted for God. (Apologies to FJ folks who believe in God)

[CTRLZero]

27 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Obviously, they all have notes from their nearest male relative ordering them to work outside the home, so we'll have to have a showdown between the pastor and the patriarchs to resolve who has final authority over these women.

What: Godly duel

On a side note, I just finished reading "American Jezebel" by Eve LaPlante.  Subtitled "The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans," it illustrates how things haven't changed in over 350+ years.  The trial transcripts read like a "godly duel."  Worth a read.

[AnywhereButHere]

21 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Please let this just be his usual bluster and posturing.

 

And hope with all your might that his tiny hands stay far, far away from those nuclear codes!

Can someone - anyone, make him shut up?! I think (hope) Kelly will sit on him and hogtie him long before he hits the button (although maybe not), but I can see his words riling up Kim Jong-un, and we'll be on the receiving end of the fire and fury.

I have a whole lot of fear that basically, we're screwed. Eventually, they're going to goad each other into action.

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

Can someone - anyone, make him shut up?! I think (hope) Kelly will sit on him and hogtie him long before he hits the button (although maybe not), but I can see his words riling up Kim Jong-un, and we'll be on the receiving end of the fire and fury.

I have a whole lot of fear that basically, we're screwed. Eventually, they're going to goad each other into action.

I hate to add to your fears, but...

To Launch a Nuclear Strike, Donald Trump Would Follow These Steps

The link has a graph of how things work, but what it boils down to is that if the presidunce decides to use nuclear weapons, there is only one option that could stop him: if three or more of the five ICBM launch squadron's refuse. And that is highly unlikely.

Oh, and the time it takes from decision to launch? Less than five minutes...  

[AmazonGrace]

Hi, Mike, don't you think that President Pence has a certain ring to it? You would look so presidential. You're not getting any younger, it would be a shame to make Mother wait until 2020. Don't you want to make her FLOTUS now? 25th Amendment has never looked prettier, amirite? 

respectfully, I'm too young to die 

Here's Trump solving the opioid crisis. Basically he thinks that no one has ever thought to tell the kids that drugs are bad for them. 

[AmazonGrace]

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/08/politics/trump-retweet-fox-news-north-korea-story-haley/index.html

Trump retweets Fox News story containing classified info

Spoiler

 

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's retweet of a Fox News story claiming US satellites detected North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to a patrol boat is raising eyebrows on Tuesday after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley indicated that the information in the report is classified and was leaked.

"I can't talk about anything that's classified and if that's in the newspaper that's a shame," Haley said Tuesday on "Fox and Friends" when asked about the story that cites two anonymous sources.

Pushed on whether the information was leaked, Haley said "it's one of those things I don't know what's going on. I will tell you it's incredibly dangerous when things get out into the press like that."

But just a few hours before Haley's appearance on Fox, Trump retweeted a post from the Fox News morning show promoting the story said to contain classified information.

 

FOX & friends ✔@foxandfriends

U.S. spy satellites detect North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to patrol boat http://fxn.ws/2wp9cU2 

12:50 PM - Aug 8, 2017

US spy satellites detect North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to patrol boat

Despite the United States' insistence that North Korea halt its missile tests, U.S. spy agencies detected the rogue communist regime loading two anti-ship cruise missiles on a patrol boat on the...

foxnews.com

 

The White House has not responded to a request for comment.

"It is alarming the casualness with which President Trump shares classifieds information," Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California told CNN's Poppy Harlow Tuesday. "Just because something is in the press doesn't make that information no longer classified, so the President should not be tweeting classified information just because he is the President."

Will Fischer, an Iraq War veteran and director of government relations for VoteVets, was also critical of the retweet and questioned what role -- or lack thereof -- new chief of staff John Kelly had in the process.

"It is absolutely terrifying to see that information that Ambassador Haley said was 'dangerous' to print was retweeted by Donald Trump," Fischer said in a statement. "The question for everyone to ask is: What did General Kelly say? If he told Donald Trump to retweet this, there's a real problem. If he told Trump not to, and Trump ignored him, that's a big problem. If Donald Trump is refusing to consult with his chief of staff on any of this, that's a huge problem, especially given General Kelly's military background."

A US defense official familiar with the latest US intelligence corroborated reporting contained in the Fox News story, telling CNN that as of August 1 North Korea had loaded two anti-ship "Stormpetrel" cruise missile "canisters" on a guided missile patrol craft stationed on the east coast.

The official said this is the first time these types of canisters have been loaded on to this type of ship since 2014 -- a move that the US military thinks may mean that North Korea is prepping for a seaborne anti-ship cruise missile test.

Trump's motive for retweeting the Fox News story remains unclear but the decision to promote a report that -- according to the US ambassador to the United Nations -- contains classified information leaked to the press by anonymous sources comes just days after the President praised Attorney General Jeff Sessions' plan to combat that very practice in the name of national security. 

"After many years of LEAKS going on in Washington, it is great to see the A.G. taking action!" Trump tweeted. "For National Security, the tougher the better!" Trump tweeted over the weekend.

Tuesday's retweet also coincided with the release of a series of new polls that not only call Trump's Twitter habits into question but also reveal major concerns around the President's trustworthiness and ability to effectively manage the standoff with North Korea.

Poll: Americans uneasy about North Korea, doubt Trump's ability to handle situation

According to a new CBS News poll only a third of those surveyed having confidence in Trump's ability to handle the situation with North Korea.

A new CNN poll shows that a majority (52%) of Americans say Trump's tweets are not an effective way for him to share his views on important issues, and 72% say they do not send the right message to other world leaders.

Further, 62% overall say that Trump's statements and actions since taking office have made them less confident in his ability to be president.

In May, Trump was criticized after The Washington Post reported that he shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador to the US in a White House meeting.

Despite statements from top administration officials that called the report "false," two former officials knowledgeable of the situation confirmed to CNN at the time that the main points of the Post story were accurate.

 

 

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Remember my post about the presidunce's tweet thanking a bot? Well...

Twitter suspends army of fake accounts after Trump thanks propaganda ‘bot’ for supporting him

I had imaginary friends when I was four. Trump is 71.  SAD

[GreyhoundFan]

"Getting Trump Out of My Brain"

Spoiler

Last week The Washington Post published transcripts of Donald Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders. A dear friend sent me an email suggesting I read them because they reveal how Trump’s mind works. But as I tried to click the link a Bartleby-like voice in my head said, “I would prefer not to.” I tried to click again and the voice said: “No thanks. I’m full.”

For the past two years Trump has taken up an amazing amount of my brain space. My brain has apparently decided that it’s not interested in devoting more neurons to that guy. There’s nothing more to be learned about Trump’s mixture of ignorance, insecurity and narcissism. Every second spent on his bluster is more degrading than informative.

Now a lot of people are clearly still addicted to Trump. My Twitter feed is all him. Some people treat the Trump White House as the “Breaking Bad” serial drama they’ve been binge watching for six months. For some of us, Trump-bashing has become educated-class meth. We derive endless satisfaction from feeling morally superior to him — and as Leon Wieseltier put it, affirmation is the new sex.

But I thought I might try to listen to my brain for a change. That would mean trying, probably unsuccessfully, to spend less time thinking about Trump the soap opera and more time on questions that surround the Trump phenomena and this moment of history.

How much permanent damage is he doing to our global alliances? Have Americans really decided they no longer want to be a universal nation with a special mission to spread freedom around the world? Is populism now the lingua franca of politics so the Democrats’ only hope is to match Trump’s populism with their own?

These sorts of questions revolve around one big question: What lessons are people drawing from this debacle and how will those lessons shape what comes next?

It’s clear that Trump is not just a parenthesis. After he leaves things will not just snap back to “normal.” Instead, he represents the farcical culmination of a lot of dying old orders — demographic, political, even moral — and what comes after will be a reaction against rather than a continuing from.

For example, let’s look at our moral culture. For most of American history mainline Protestants — the Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians and so on — set the dominant cultural tone. Most of the big social movements, like abolitionism, the suffragist movement and the civil rights movement, came out of the mainline churches.

As Joseph Bottum wrote in “An Anxious Age,” mainline Protestants created a kind of unifying culture that bound people of different political views. You could be Catholic, Jewish, Muslim or atheist, but still you were influenced by certain mainline ideas — the Protestant work ethic, the WASP definition of a gentleman. Leaders from Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama hewed to a similar mainline standard for what is decent in public life and what is beyond the pale.

Over the last several decades mainline Protestantism has withered. The country became more diverse. The WASPs lost their perch atop society. The mainline denominations lost their vitality.

For a time, we lived off the moral capital of the past. But the election of Trump shows just how desiccated the mainline code has become. A nation guided by that ethic would not have elected a guy who is a daily affront to it, a guy who nakedly loves money, who boasts, who objectifies women, who is incapable of hypocrisy because he acknowledges no standard of propriety other than that which he feels like doing at any given moment.

Donald Trump has smashed through the behavior standards that once governed public life. His election demonstrates that as the unifying glue of the mainline culture receded, the country divided into at least three blocks: white evangelical Protestantism that at least in its public face seems to care more about eros than caritas; secular progressivism that is spiritually formed by feminism, environmentalism and the quest for individual rights; and realist nationalism that gets its manners from reality TV and its spiritual succor from in-group/out-group solidarity.

If Trump falls in disgrace or defeat, and people’s partisan pride is no longer at stake, I hope that even his supporters will have enough moral memory to acknowledge that character really does matter. A guy can promise change, but if he is dishonest, disloyal and selfish, the change he delivers is not going to be effective or good.

But where are people going to go for a new standard of decency? They’re not going to go back to the old WASP ideal. That’s dead. Trump revealed the vacuum, but who is going to fill it and with what?

I could describe a similar vacuum when it comes to domestic policy thinking, to American identity, to America’s role in the world. Trump exposes the void but doesn’t fill it. That’s why the reaction against Trump is now more important than the man himself.

One way or another I’m gonna wash that man right outta what’s left of my hair.

Some interesting concepts are floated in the op-ed. Especially about how fractured our society has become.

[GrumpyGran]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

He also suspects that a share of Americans are reluctant to tell pollsters that they support Trump, a phenomenon some argue impacted public surveys during the 2016 election. “I think you have a small chunk of voters who are just unwilling to admit it,” said Newhouse, who believes that dynamic undervalues the president’s overall approval rating by as much as three points.

Dream on, sad minion. Trump supporters make a living of sharing their support for Lil' Don. There are no secret admirers out there. Sad.

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

I hate to add to your fears, but...

To Launch a Nuclear Strike, Donald Trump Would Follow These Steps

The link has a graph of how things work, but what it boils down to is that if the presidunce decides to use nuclear weapons, there is only one option that could stop him: if three or more of the five ICBM launch squadron's refuse. And that is highly unlikely.

Oh, and the time it takes from decision to launch? Less than five minutes...  

Whew, thanks, @fraurosena. No, that's way too complicated for him. It involves reading, listening to instruction, understanding encryption, too many steps for him. Now I'm scared we'd all be dead before he figured it out.

[AnywhereButHere]

Someone needs to do this to Caligula's iPhone (and possibly his fingers).

Spoiler

I miss this show.

[onekidanddone]

22 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Whew, thanks, @fraurosena. No, that's way too complicated for him. It involves reading, listening to instruction, understanding encryption, too many steps for him. Now I'm scared we'd all be dead before he figured it out.

Knowing the toddler he is likely to give the order to launch over twitter.

[GrumpyGran]

35 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Knowing the toddler he is likely to give the order to launch over twitter.

Yeah, he'll try to put the code into a tweet. Or he'll pause to tweet that he's launching an attack before he does it.  Now I have "Mars Attacks!" in my brain.

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin: "What Trump’s freakout over his VP’s ambition tells us"

Spoiler

The New York Times kicked a hornet’s nest with a story suggesting that Vice President Pence is cultivating his own base of support, with an eye toward a 2020 run if President Trump doesn’t seek a second term (or is irreparably weakened). Knowing that the wrath of the narcissist in chief would be coming, Pence rushed to deny that he was anything but a loyal VP. He put out an unusual statement insisting, “Today’s article in The New York Times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team. The allegations in this article are categorically false and are just the latest attempt by the media to divide this Administration.”

The problem, however, is that Pence has been meeting with donors, has been creating an independent power base (as the Times reported), has hired a politically combatant chief of staff and has been the main channel of communication between Trump and Republicans on the Hill. The only real question is whether he is doing these things on behalf of Trump — or his own political ambition. (Very likely, it is some combination of the two.) It’s impossible to say definitively what Pence’s motives are, which only fuels Trump’s well-known paranoia and hatred of being upstaged. Moreover, it doesn’t help reassure the president if, as was reported, Pence’s aides are whispering about being ready if Trump doesn’t make it to 2020. (Trump’s Monday attacks on the Times most likely reflected his annoyance with seeing his VP’s profile rise.)

Finally, for his sake and that of the country, the best thing Pence could do would be to stay far away anything having to do with the special counsel or the Russia scandal. (Having vouched for the phony explanation for Michael Flynn’s firing, he’s in an awkward enough position.) I share entirely the view of the Lawfare blog’s legal gurus, who recently warned Pence in an open letter:

Your boss is completely out of control. You know this, probably better than we do. You know that he is incapable of controlling his behavior and could lash out at any moment in a fashion that could be ruinous. You know that’s true even if there’s nothing to all those Russia allegations. And you know that all those denials—including the ones to your face—have proved false. You know, in other words, that it could happen. And if it does, you will face the monumental task of leading a fractured country forward out of the wreckage. The time to begin preparing for that moment is now.

In other words, Pence would be wise to be less overtly political, entirely silent on Trump’s legal problems and focused on preparing himself in the event that he must step into the presidency before 2020. Come to think of it, that might be the only way Pence gets to be president.

Yeah, neither of them will listen.

[Ali]

We almost never go out to eat. We decided to go out tonight. As we drove up, we discovered a crowd of Trump supporters having a worship service in front of the restaurant. I gave them two thumbs down as we drove past. I looked at the restaurant's Facebook page and discovered there was a Republican meeting there tonight.

[Zola]

Scientists circumvent Trump to spread climate change report

https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-circumvent-trump-release-climate-change-report-184734984.html

Spoiler

The public feud between President Trump and climate scientists is heating up.

According to climate change experts, the manner in which a climate change report recently spread is just as important for understanding the contemporary political climate as for that report’s scientific findings.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one scientist told the New York Times that he and other scientists were sharing the draft of a climate change report put together by scientists from 13 federal agencies because they feared it might be suppressed.

“The legacy of the Trump administration thus far has been to suppress science and delete climate change from reports. [The researchers] are feeling desperation to get this information out to the public before it can be packaged, edited, downplayed and messaged away,” Liz Perera, the climate policy director for the Sierra Club, told Yahoo News.

Peter Frumhoff, the director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, pointed out that an earlier draft of the report had actually been publicly available since last December. Still, the scientists were worried enough that it might not be handled correctly so they went to the press themselves.

“The reason it got posted [on the New York Times website] was out of concern — legitimate concern, I might add — that the Trump administration, given its record of misrepresenting or sidelining science, especially on climate change, might do something to subvert, misrepresent or delay the serious science of climate change,” Frumhoff told Yahoo News.

The authors concluded that Americans are feeling the impact of climate change right now, as the average temperature in the U.S. has risen considerably in recent decades. Contradicting obfuscation from the Trump administration, they note that tens of thousands of scientists have conducted thousands of studies documenting the impact of human activities, in particular greenhouse gas emissions, on observable changes in the land and air.

Congress requires the National Climate Assessment once every four years so top decision makers in the country can evaluate the scale and rate at which climate change is affecting the country. The National Academy of Sciences has already signed off on the most recent draft (dated June 28, 2017), but its official release awaits President Trump’s approval.

“The scientists in our country are feeling completely desperate. They are screaming from the mountaintops that we’re in a dire situation,” Perera said.

David Hawkins, the director of climate programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said there are no surprises in his report and that it merely compiles the scientific literature that’s been published since the prior report in 2014.

“That literature confirms what we’ve understood for several decades now about climate change,” Hawkins told Yahoo News. “This is science knowledge that the National Academy of Sciences told George W. Bush when he was president way back in 2001.”

What did Bush hear that’s been repeated here? That climate change is real and most of the observed increase in temperatures globally has been caused by human activities, most significantly the burning of fossil fuels.

Scientific evidence continues to accumulate every year and continues to point in the same direction.

“We are going to be watchdogging to make sure that the final report isn’t delayed or otherwise monkey-wrenched with by this administration,” Frumhoff said.

Frumhoff, a global change ecologist, noted that the draft report is very strong and reinforces the basic understanding that humans are warming the planet, most notably through the burning of fossil fuels. But he said it’s important to await the final version before drawing conclusions about how it differs from previous reports.

“We expect the federal agencies to do their final sign-off over the next few weeks based on the timeline they’ve set. The final report, which is intended to take account of all the peer review comments, is slated to come out sometime in September,” he said.

Trump, who is currently on a “working vacation” at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., has been following through on his campaign promises to fight against environmental regulations and strengthen the oil and natural gas industry. He announced his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change in early June.

It is no surprise that members of the scientific community would have concerns about Trump’s support for their work. They have already had a fraught relationship. After Trump’s election victory, more than 2,300 scientists (including 22 Nobel Prize winners) signed an open letter urging the president-elect to respect scientific inquiry. In April, scientists and their supporters held a March for Science, which was a departure for many who typically choose not to engage in politics. And the feud between scientists and the Trump administration seems far from over.

Perera said that the contents of the new report are nothing new to people who pay attention to climate science, and especially not to people already suffering from the effects of climate change.

“The reality is that this is not ‘new.’ We’re living with it every day, and the fact that the president would call it a hoax when we have actual climate victims in our country is abominable. Donald Trump still has his head in the sand. It’s gone beyond denialism. It’s cowardice.”

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, released a statement in much the same vein. He said the report confirms what many already know: that anthropogenic climate change is real and that “we need to do something about it.”

“The federal government should not suppress or deny these facts, nor should it try to silence government scientists,” he said. “Instead, our leaders need to come together to raise the alarm and find a way forward. Congress should lead the way, and we can start by looking at carbon fee proposals as part of tax reform.”

When asked about the report Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, “It’s very disappointing, yet entirely predictable, to learn the New York Times would write off a draft report without first verifying its contents with the White House or any of the federal agencies directly involved with climate and environmental policy.”

Huckabee Sanders also noted that it had been available online before the Times report and said the White House will not comment on any draft report before its scheduled release date.

A team of more than 300 experts produces the National Climate Assessment with guidance from a 60-member federal advisory committee. It undergoes a strenuous review process that includes federal agencies and the National Academy of Sciences.

From the article: "Donald Trump still has his head in the sand. It’s gone beyond denialism. It’s cowardice.”

I could not agree more, but would add - it's also his insane need to buy "friends" with whatever gifts he can offer (even those that aren't actually his to give), at whatever cost...including a healthy future for Earth and all of her residents. Doesn't he realize that includes Ivanka's children?

I love these scientists and their insistence on doing what's right.