justsomeantifas:

Here’s your dose of “What the Fuck Is Going On” News (Weekend Edition 2/25/2017 – 2/26/2017)

• On Saturday Trump announced that he will not be attending the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 29th. White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders explained this decision stating that there’s too much tension between Trump and the press. The last time a president skipped the event was in 1981, however it was because Ronald Reagan was recovering from being shot in an assassination attempt. (source)
• The State Department announced that they will finally resume regular news briefings at the beginning of March. The regular press briefings will return after a 6-week hiatus, an unusual break in their responsibilities which is to explain US foreign policy to the country and the world through daily televised news conferences. It’s currently unknown if they will be allowed to report daily, so far the word being used it “regularly,” and there’s no information if these briefings will remain televised. (source)
• The U.S. government plans to start awarding the preliminary contracts for the construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it will accept “concept papers” for the wall’s design and chose the best ones by March 20th, and start granting contracts by mid-April. The total costs of the wall are estimated to be 21.6 billion dollars, despite Trump saying it will cost 12 billion dollars. (source)
• Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez was elected chair of the Democratic National Committee beating out Rep. Keith Ellison. The final tally was 235 for Perez and 200 for Ellison. Perez used his first motion as chairman to appoint Ellison as the deputy chair of the DNC. (source)
• Formal ethic complaints were filed against Kellyanne Conway, she is accused of “professional misconduct” due to ethics breaches and repeated lies. The complaint concludes that Conway’s “conduct, clearly violative of the rules that regulate her professional status, cries out for sanctioning” by the bar. (source)
• Democratic National Committee members voted down a resolution that would have reinstated the ban on corporate political action committee donations to the party. The resolution would have also forbidden “registered, federal corporate lobbyists” from serving as “DNC chair-appointed, at-large members.” The resolution will now go to the DNC’s smaller executive committee for consideration. (source)
• Trump proposed that his supporters hold a mass rally in response to the anti-Trump rallies across the country. He tweeted yesterday “Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!” (source)
• Trump took to Twitter to complain that the media “has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion.” He very obviously parroted what had just aired on Fox News where Hermain Cain literally said that exact statement. Cain was also parroting a recent articles from a pro-Trump blog that regularly posts false information and the statement is taking credit for something Trump had nothing to do with. Trump is still working off last year’s budget so even if there is a real decrease, it has nothing to do with him and his administration. (source)
• President Donald Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, Philip Bilden, withdrew from consideration today. He withdrew because he was unable to untangle his financial investments in the vetting process. A new nominee is expected within the next few days. (source)
• Trump’s new national security adviser H.R. McMaster held a meeting of the National Security Council where he spoke out against Trump’s Islamophobic language. McMaster said that Trump’s use of the term “radical Islamic terrorism” is offensive, stating that it doesn’t help to defeat terrorist groups, it hurts relationships with allies, and groups like ISIS represent a perversion of Islam, and aren’t a true representation of Islam. Trump and others in the GOP has often criticized those who don’t use the term. (source)
• Press secretary Sean Spicer is cracking down on leaks that are coming out of the White House. There will be increased security measures that include random phones checks of White House staffers which will be overseen by White House attorneys. (source)
• In a recent interview on Fox News, they had on a man named Nils Bildt who the channel billed as the “Swedish Defence and National Security Advisor”. Bildt was on to defend Trump’s comments regarding Sweden and immigration. However, the Swedish defense ministry and foreign office know nothing of Bildt or who he is and said they have “no spokesperson of that name.” Bildt says that he never misrepresented himself and Fox News was responsible for giving him the title. (source)
• The father of the Navy SEAL who died in the Yemen raid last month wants an investigation into the operation. He lashed out against Trump’s attempt to prevent an investigation by using his son as a prop. Earlier in the month, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that the raid was “highly successful” and that anyone who undermines the success of the raid by requesting an investigation owes an apology to William Owens, the SEAL who died. Owens father says that he wants an investigation and wants the administration to stop using his son in this manner. (source)
• And now your daily reminder that: Flint, Michigan still doesn’t have clean water. Standing Rock still needs your support. The American infrastructure report card still averages poorly with the rating of a “D+” Today (2/26) another Jewish cemetery was attacked in an act of anti-Semitic vandalism, here is their donations page.