WEEK IN REVIEW

Donald Trump repeated his opinion that the US should have taken Iraq’s oil when it first had a chance, saying that ISIS would not exist without funding from that oil. He also said that maybe there will be another chance, which suggests that he may favor another war against Iraq to obtain its oil. WTS 2017 Jan 26 (Story)

President Trump is clamping down on federal agencies dealing with climate change. This involves thousands of employees, grant recipients, and contractors. He has temporarily frozen EPA grants and contracts and shut down the agency’s public communications. The EPA and other agencies are removing climate-change information from their websites. Inside Climate News 2017 Jan 26 (Story) (Cached)

Scientists at California’s Salk Institute are introducing human DNA into pig DNA with the objective of growing organs for human transplant. The chimera creations present a serious ethical dilemma if the pigs were to acquire human intelligence. For this reason, the US government does not fund chimera research at this time (nor does it prohibit it). However, the National Institute of Health is considering reversing its decision and may begin giving tax-funded research grants. Newsy 2017 Jan 26 (Story)

The Trump administration removed four top-level State Department career officers as a first step to clean house. The terminated appointees include: Patrick Kennedy, who was caught trying to downgrade importance of Hillary’s classified emails and was responsible for security in Benghazi; Joyce Anne Barr, Michele Bond, and Ambassador Gentry Smith. Victoria Nuland, who was a key figure in the coup in Ukraine, also was let go. ADN 2017 Jan 26 (Story) (Cached)

Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin building a wall on the US/Mexico border. The EO cites a law that was passed in 2006 authorizing its construction. A poll shows that 59% of Americans want the wall. He signed another EO to block federal funding to sanctuary cities that prohibit police from arresting or detaining illegal aliens. Sanctuary city mayors will litigate the cuts in federal funding. CBS News 2017 Jan 26 (Story)

White House spokesman Sean Spicer made a statement to the press suggesting that an import tax on goods from Mexico could provide the funding for the Mexican border wall.AP 2017 Jan 26 (Story)

Huffington Post published a draft of Trump’s planned executive order to place a 30-day ban on all entry into the US  from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. It also would suspend immigration of refugees for 120 days. An entry/exit biometric tracking system would be set up for all visitors to the US. Huff Post 2017 Jan 25 (Story) (Cached)

Trump signed executives orders to advance the construction of two oil pipelines, the Keystone XL and Dakota Access. Obama killed the Keystone XL pipeline, saying it would hurt American efforts to reach a global climate-change deal. The Army decided last year to explore alternate routes for the Dakota pipeline after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters said it threatened drinking water and Native American cultural sites. Warren Buffett, who has a monopoly on oil transport on railroads will lose millions from anticipated transport of oil that now will be pumped though pipes, so an angry reaction from him is anticipated. It may not be a mere coincidence that Buffet has heavily funded groups that oppose the pipelines. ZeroHedge 2017 Jan 24 (Story) (Cached)

Hollywood celebs and politicians actually have advocated the murder of Donald Trump. Madonna has said that she wanted to blow up the White House; comedy writer, Katie Rich, has been suspended from Saturday Night Live for characterizing Trump’s ten-year old son as a school shooter; and a Swedish politician who queried on Facebook if someone could shoot Trump has lost his job. 21st Century Wire 2017 Jan 24 (Story) (Cached)

Okanagan, a Canadian company, will begin selling ‘Arctic’ GMO apples that are genetically engineered to resist browning. The company has Arctic versions of  Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Fuji apples, and expects to add more. The only way customers can detect the GMO apples is to scan the product code (not many customers carry around a scanner) or to rely on stores to state they are GMO apples – which most stores have no intention of doing. [Browning is caused when the flesh of the apple is exposed to air and is oxidized by it. That requires changing the chemical composition of the food. Will that affect how the apple is digested and absorbed in the intestinal tract? Does it alter the nutritional content? Most likely it does, but the company has no motivation to conduct rigorous testing to find out.] Fox News 2017 Jan 24 (Story) (Cached)

US: Scientists are modifying E coli microbes to carry genetic material that they believe will allow them to program how organisms behave. The scientists, who originally said they were merely interested in making new drugs to help cure diseases, are now creating microbes that will support the creation of new life forms. [If this doesn’t run shivers down your back, you should start thinking about life forms that do not cure disease but are harmful to human health – or even human existence.] Guardian 2017 Jan 24 (Story) (Cached)

President Trump issued an amazing executive order that directs all federal agencies charged with enforcing Obamacare to expect that the law soon will be repealed. Therefore, they were told not to enforce any fines, penalties, or levy taxes at this time. Judge Napolitano says that the order was ‘revolutionary’ in the sense that, never before, has he seen a Presidential directive that calls for putting the needs of the people above the needs of the government. Fox News 2017 Jan 23 (Story)

President Trump signed three executive orders that include the US withdrawal from the TransPacific Partnership negotiations with eleven other countries. Instead, he intends to make trade agreements with each country directly. Trump imposed a federal hiring freeze on all agencies except the military. He also blocked federal funding for any organization overseas that funds abortions. AP 2017 Jan 23 (Story)
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When withdrawing from negotiations for the TransPacific Partnership treaty, Trump did not address the most controversial part of it, which is the investor-state dispute settlement system. The ISDS allows investors in one country to use international courts to sue governments of other countries. This eliminates a major component of  national sovereignty. Globe and Mail posted 2017 Jan 23 (Story) (Cached)

David Brock, founder of Media Matters, funded by George Soros, gathered over one-hundred wealthy donors for a weekend conference near Miami, to plot ways to drive Trump from the Presidency through impeachment. According to a confidential memo, Brock’s super PAC, American Bridge, will spend $7.8 billion this year to create a war room for this purpose. It is staffed with 25 researchers, a communications team of 16 people to feed material to the press and to deliver information directly to voters. This group also will perform opposition research (meaning digging up or creating adverse information about elected officials) in 16 of the 20 Senate races in 2018 to flip control of the Senate back to the Democrats. InfoWars 2017 Jan 23 (Story)
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Tax records show that David Brock, founder of super PAC, American Bridge, operated over a dozen pro-Hillary Clinton organizations that moved huge amounts of money from one group to another and payed a 12.5% commission to those who actually moved the money. That’s called money laundering. Brock also paid $850,000 in hush money to William Grey, a former boyfriend, to stop him from telling donors and the IRS about Brock’s illegal use of the donations. The Citizen’s Audit 2017 Jan 23 (Story) (Cached)
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A liberal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), led by David Brock (see previous story), filed a lawsuit against President Trump that alleges he is violating the Foreign-Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by holding investments in foreign countries. CREW is seeking Trump’s tax records and other sources of information to politically damage him. ABC News 2017 Jan 23 (Story)

US intelligence agencies are investigating possible ties between Trump and Russia, based on a phone call between Michael Flynn, Trump’s national-security adviser, and Russia’s ambassador to the US at the time Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats. [They are scraping the barrel looking for dirt, but this phone call is not it.]  CBS News 2017 Jan 23 (Story)

President Trump visited the CIA to assure the agency of his support. He was (justifiably) critical of 17 US intelligence agencies when they claimed that Russia hacked the election and other false narratives. Trump has blamed the media for trying to make it seem that there is deep conflict between him and the intelligence community when that is not justified. Mainstream media now is trying to deepen the rift by focusing on the anger expressed by the outgoing CIA chief, John Brennan. CBS News 2017 Jan 23 (Story)

Uppsala, Sweden: Three Arab migrant males were arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a young woman after Facebook viewers notified police that the men were livestreaming themselves in the act. Emil Khodagholi, the main suspect, has a record of violence and was arrested in 2012 for assaulting a 16-year old with an iron bar. Information Liberation 2017 Jan 23 (Story) (Cached)

Pope Francis compared Trump’s populism and rise to power to Hitler. Then he said he was going to wait to see what Trump does before issuing a judgement upon him – which he already did by comparing him to Hitler. Pope Pius XII supported Hitler in WW2. RT 2017 Jan 22 (Story) (Cached)

US: Last week’s Women’s Marches in various cities were not pro-woman, but anti-Trump protests. The Muslim feminist author of this article objected to the marches because the leftist organizers failed to address Islamic extremism and needed Muslim reforms to benefit women. George Soros denied funding of the marches, but more than 50 ‘partners’ in the protests, including Planned Parenthood, have deep financial ties with Soros.   NYTLIVE 2017 Jan 20 (Story) (Cached)