The Denver Post minces no words in its editorial yesterday, Lying Donald Trump can’t be trusted, and that needs to stop now.

The president of the United States needs to demand of himself and of his staff that comments presented to the American people can be trusted and supported by legitimate — and not “alternative” — facts.

Without that basic level of trust, the very functioning of our federal government and our nation will be at risk....his actions betray a terrible failing, a deep character flaw within the new president that cannot be excused as campaign bluster.

Americans won’t be led by a man who works through manipulation and falsehood.

The Trump Org needs to reject its latest poppycock idea of opening a Trump hotel in Denver. Not only will it be boycotted, so will properties of local investors in and supporters of the project. Denverites voted overwhelmingly against Trump. Let them try Colorado Springs. Or a bed and breakfast in Alamosa or somewhere similar they can find a few people who won't revolt over the idea.[More...]

Not a good day for Donald Trump or Rex Tillerson, his choice for Secretary of State.

The entire senior staff of the State Department just resigned.

The entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, part of an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.

...“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”

Will there be a similar exodus at DOJ when Jeff Sessions takes over?

Update: The Washington Post has two reporters working on the story. The first reported as above. The second, a few hours later, writes that Team Trump requested the resignations of several "senior State Department diplomats."

Donald Trump's plans are already generating fear and loathing, resulting in violence.

In Pittsburgh, PA, a Mexican college student who is legally in the U.S. listened to Trump on TV (while drinking beer) and got in an argument with his roommate, biting off his ear and breaking his finger. It seems the assaultive roommate feared being deported. Luckily, the assaulted roommate made his way to a gas station to call police. His ear was recovered in the room and stitched back on. The assaulting roommate is gone. Both come form Mexico.

To paraphrase Trump's probable response: "What did you expect? People are angy."

Germany has repealed a law allowing prosecution of those who criticize foreign leaders. It takes effect 1/1/2018.

The Washington Posts suggests it's just in time for Donald Trump.

In related news, the Netherlands is proposing to start a fund for international groups offering abortion counseling, to circumvent Trump's plan: [More...]

Donald Trump and his incendiary but essentially meaningless border wall talk and executive order do nothing but push people's buttons.

Mexican President Pena Nieto today posted a video message to the Mexican people today on Twitter, saying "As I've said again and again, Mexico will not pay for any wall." (México no pagará por ningún muro".) (Article here.)[More...]

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, aka the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has written an open letter to Donald Trump. It was published today on Twitter, and released to journalists.

Here is the English version (I'm not sure how long it will remain up, so if you're interested, read it soon.)

He makes some good points as to why we should get out of Afghanistan for once and for all. Not surprisingly for a man of supreme incompetence and an extraordinarily limited vocabulary, Trump sent the opposite message to U.S. troops in Afghanistan today: [More...]

The New York Times has the facts on what it calls "Trump Voting Fraud Lie."

This year's Oscar nominations are out. The New York Times has the surprises and snubs. The nominations are much more diverse than last year.

I'm tired of reading and writing about the man currently occupying the oval office and his family. Much more pleasant and garnering millions of views per video on Instagram is Nusret Gökçe, aka #SaltBae, the incredibly good-looking, sexy, talented butcher/restaurateur at Nusr Et steakhouses in Turkey, Dubai and now Abu Dhabi. [More...]

You'd never know it from the news headlines, but as the San Francisco Chronicle reports, there are people supporting SNL's Katie Rich, who tweeted a joke about Barron Trump, deleted it and got suspended by NBC, notwithstanding her profusive apology.

The Chronicle reports supporters can be found at the new #KeepKatieRich hashtag on Twitter, where many point out that Donald Trump posts worse things about people every 30 minutes.

There are legitimate topics to discuss about Trump's children, including 10 year old Barron, that affect us all -- like how much extra it's going to cost taxpayers to provide continuing security for him and his mother in New York while Trump is living in the White House so the child doesn't have to be inconvenienced by changing schools in the middle of the school year. This isn't a second residence, which most Presidents have had, but dual residency. While they have the right to decide where they sleep, Trump should be footing that bill, not us. [More...]

Donald Trump has been given the green light for son-in-law Jared Kushner to serve as his advisor.

Here's the legal opinion of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

(My opinion: Forget Mike Pence. Apparently, America elected Jared Kushner. Trump, who has no clue how to govern, little inclination to learn and even less of an attention span thinks his son-in-law will figure it all out. If not, he can always seek Ivanka's opinion.)

In addition to bringing peace to the Middle East, Superman Kushner is expected to handle "government partnerships with the private sector and matters involving free trade." [More...]

The Washington Post reports that U.S. Border Patrol Agents refused entry to Canadians who were coming to the U.S. to join the Women's March:

U.S. border agents asked what they planned to do in the United States. “We said we were going to the Women’s March on Saturday and they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to pull over,’ ” Dyck told the Guardian. Agents then searched their car and examined their cellphones, according to Dyck. Each member of the group was fingerprinted and had their pictures taken.

Finally, after two hours, the agents told Dyck and his friends to turn around. “They said, ‘You’re headed home today,’ ” Dyck told the Guardian. Officials warned that they’d be arrested if they tried to cross at a different spot this weekend, Dyck said. “And that was it, they didn’t give a lot of justification.”

[More...]