100 days of chaos and controversy: Trump claims his administration “has been just about the most successful in our country’s history”, untainted by special interests. “For too long, politicians cared more about special interests than they did about a very successful future for all Americans.” http://www.11alive.com/news/politics/transcript-president-trump-talks-about-his-first-100-days/435151828
Schumer: Trump has abandoned working families. “…Trump has swapped populism for plutocracy, spending the first 100 days governing from the far right on behalf of the powerful corporations and special interests he once stumped against.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/04/28/100-days-trump-abandons-working-families-charles-schumer-column/100990506/ Something that Democrats would NEVER do!
Hundreds of thousands march for action on climate change. “At the marquee event, the Peoples Climate March in Washington, D.C., approximately 150,000 to 200,000 people made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue on their way to encircle the White House.” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/04/29/thousands-brave-weather-to-protest-trump-climate-policies.html
Turkey blocks Wikipedia, apparently considering the website a threat to its national security. “It cited a law that allows it to block access to individual web pages or entire websites for the protection of public order, national security or the well-being of the public.” http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-internet-wikipedia-idUSKBN17V06Q
Brazilian unions declare general strike over government’s austerity policies. “(President) Temer’s efforts to pass pension and labour reforms have deeply angered many Brazilians.” http://www.smh.com.au/world/brazil-gripped-by-first-general-strike-in-two-decades-20170428-gvv96j.html
Woman shot during police anti-terror raid in London. “According to eyewitnesses, the front door of the house in Harlesden Road was wide open at the time of the arrest – and the hallway could be seen covered in blood after the shooting.” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dont-touch-body-woman-shot-10314226
Some ASEAN members plead for de-escalation of North Korea standoff. “We have to caution everybody, including those who’d give the advice to the two players, because you have nuclear warheads to just show restraint.” https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-29/japan-philippines-urge-u-s-north-korea-to-avoid-brink-of-war Pope Francis agrees. “I call on them, and I will call on them, as I have on leaders of different places, to work to resolve their problems through diplomatic avenues.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/29/world/middleeast/pope-francis-egypt.html?_r=0
Delta pilot allegedly hit passenger while breaking up fight. “As the women tussle on the ground, the pilot steps in and appears to grab one woman’s arm and then delivers a blow.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/29/us/delta-pilot-atlanta-airport-woman.html
Trump tax plan might result in people declaring themselves corporations. “After Kansas eliminated its state tax on pass-through income, the number of people taking advantage of the exemption soared, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue for state coffers.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/upshot/under-the-trump-tax-plan-we-might-all-want-to-become-corporations.html
Trump has reportedly played golf 19 times during his first 100 days, versus 1 for Obama, 0 for W. and 7 for Bill Clinton. http://www.businessinsider.com/why-american-presidents-play-so-much-golf-2017-4
Trump and Pence both call mainstream media “fake news” in speeches. “Trump has frequently assailed news outlets that cover his administration critically as “fake news”. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/331250-pence-rips-into-media-at-100-days-rally
BBC tech program investigates U.S. company’s home email server claiming to be “world’s most secure” email solution. “Mr Moore said the Nomx was an “overpriced and outdated mail server” and used one of the “most insecure PHP applications” he had ever encountered.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38934822 According to the BBC World News’ “Click” TV program, the CEO of Nomx is reportedly a former F-35 fighter tech project manager. After watching the program, I had to wonder if the government is hiring incompetent employees or if Nomx is an undercover law enforcement project targeting people who are worried about email security. The default password was “password” and the user is reportedly not prompted or required to change it, for example. The memory is not encrypted, so if someone were to have a “sneak and peek” warrant to perform a secret search of your home and they opened the device and removed the card, they would reportedly have all of your unencrypted emails.
NSA reportedly drops program that allowed government to examine your email if it included the word “Putin” (or, from her previous phone tapping experience, apparently even “Merkel”). “Now, the NSA statement says, it “will no longer collect certain internet communications that merely mention a foreign intelligence target…. Instead, NSA will limit such collection to internet communications that are sent directly to or from a foreign target.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/28/partial-fix-nsa-scraps-part-warrantless-surveillance
Former CEO of anti-choice law firm appointed to Department of Health and Human Services. “It is unacceptable that someone with a history of promoting myths and false information about women’s health is appointed to a government position whose main responsibility is to provide the public with accurate and factual information.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/28/women-be-warned-trump-just-nominated-radical-anti-choice-activist-key-hhs-post
Fourth Arkansas death penalty prisoner apparently in distress during lethal injection execution. “According to Associated Press state editor Kelly Kissel, Williams convulsed and shook 15 to 20 times over a period of 10 to 20 seconds. Afterwards, he continued to gasp and made an audible groaning sound until about 10:59 a.m., the witnesses said.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/28/demand-probe-arkansas-killing-spree-concludes-shaking-and-convulsions
Trump calls legislative process “a bad thing for the country”. “President Donald Trump took aim at the D.C. gridlock during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “The First 100 Days” on Friday evening, blasting the existing system in Congress as “archaic”.” http://ijr.com/2017/04/859573-trump-blames-archaic-system-in-congress-for-lack-of-legislative-progress/
25 years after Rodney King beating, use of excessive force by police is still an unresolved issue. “When I began doing police misconduct cases in 1981, people would say, ‘An officer would never do that’…. Video has made it clear that it does happen.” http://www.ibtimes.com/rodney-king-la-riots-25-years-later-video-changed-everything-nothing-2532089
South Korea refuses to pay $1 billion for U.S. anti-missile missile deployment. “Seoul retorted that under the Status of Forces Agreement that governs the US military presence in the country, South Korea would provide the THAAD site and infrastructure while the US would pay to deploy and operate it.” http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/seoul-rejects-trump-demand-pays-missile-system-170428051855034.html
Trump unable to fill venue for “100 days” speech. “President Trump claimed his 100-day rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night broke attendance records, though journalists pointed out rows of empty seats at the expo center where the event was held.” http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/331255-trump-says-rally-crowd-broke-records-despite-empty-seats Obviously the “fake news” mainstream media has photoshopped these pictures, just like they did at Trump’s inauguration!
Fox News tweets extremely misleading economic figures blaming/giving credit to presidents for the legacies of their predecessors. “The (official) unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and began to fall shortly after, hitting 4.8 percent when Obama left office in January 2017.” http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/social-media-shtstorm-descends-on-fox-news-over-deeply-ludicrously-egregiously-dishonest-tweets/
Writer warns that Trump administration has been testing the limits during their first 100 days. “For now he remains an autocratic leader stuck with a democratic society and “what’s left of a democratic government,” she said, but “a serious crisis such as a terrorist attack or an economic crash” could provide Trump with the impetus he needs “to strip citizens of their rights”. ” http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/authoritarianism-expert-on-surviving-trumps-next-100-days-forget-your-hopes-get-ready-to-fight/ It worked for Bush!
Woman reportedly hospitalized by machete-wielding conservative in Kentucky coffee shop. “He asked somebody what their political affiliation was, they said ‘Republican,’ and the guy said, ‘You are safe’”. http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/crime/article147344794.html
More than 5,700 U.S. troops to be deployed to Europe and Afghanistan. “About 1,700 soldiers from two different units will deploy to Afghanistan…” https://www.armytimes.com/articles/army-announces-new-deployments-for-5-700-soldiers
Pentagon is reportedly investigating former Trump national security advisor Mike Flynn’s income from foreign sources. Flynn allegedly “accepted tens of thousands of dollars of fees from Russian sources, including RT, the Kremlin-funded television network.” https://www.democracynow.org/2017/4/28/headlines/pentagon_investigating_michael_flynn_over_foreign_payments