Donald Trump and the Fellowship of the Alternative Facts (Part 14)

[47of74]

After reading all the shit Agent Orange has done over the years I only have one question for him.

And of course Agent Orange went right to his "fake news" excuse.

politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-tweet-nbc-abc-russia-fake-news-236407

Quote

President Donald Trump labeled reports from two major networks on alleged ties between individuals linked to his campaign and the Russian government as “totally biased and fake news” Thursday morning, continuing his tirade against allegations that his election team colluded with the Kremlin.

Jesus, Donald.  Buy a new excuse already.

[fraurosena]

16 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

After reading all the shit Agent Orange has done over the years I only have one question for him.

And of course Agent Orange went right to his "fake news" excuse.

politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-tweet-nbc-abc-russia-fake-news-236407

Jesus, Donald.  Buy a new excuse already.

Well, that just might be a Freudian slip there. Such dishonesty indeed, mr. presidunce.

[fraurosena]

The plot around Nunes thickens...

Nunes apologizes to Intelligence Committee - But won't explain his stunt

Quote

After the Thursday morning meeting, Rep. Jackie Speier (Calif.), one of the committee's Democrats, told reporters that Nunes had apologized to committee members. Another committee source confirms that Nunes did express his regrets but adds that Nunes would not tell committee members where the information he cited had come from. Nunes did promise, according to this source, that he would share the material with his colleagues on Friday.

This is an important point. According to the committee source, Nunes did not tell his staffers about this information prior to his Wednesday press conferences. He went rogue. That would suggest that the information was given to him directly—which would be an unusual occurrence. In most cases involving an intelligence community official or employee bringing information to the committee, a staffer would handle the matter first. There has been widespread speculation among intelligence world observers that the White House may have sent the material Nunes' way. So its origins could be a telling piece of information. [...]

Nunes' apology is not likely to heal the wounds he inflicted with his unprecedented move. He may have killed any chance there was for his committee to mount an effective and independent probe and bolstered the case for a special select committee or an independent commission. And he still has more explaining to do—to committee members and to the public.

 

[RoseWilder]

2 hours ago, sawasdee said:

@HowlI very definitely hold no brief for Comey.

But I seem to remember an idea being floated at the time of his Hilary email revelations 1 week before the election, that Comey's hand was forced. By the NY FBI office, who had the information, and were close to Giuliani. That they threatened to leak the info in the most damaging way possible if Comey didn't go on record.

This would explain a lot, including the almost frantic speed at which those emails were shown to be irrelevant, and Giuliani's seeming knowledge of a coming 'bombshell'.. Comey may have been in a no win situation.

In which case, as an honourable public servant, he would be absolutely furious at being so compromised, and equally absolutely determined that any case he brought against those behind the forcing of his hand be airtight.

The above scenario actually explains most of Comey's behaviour.

Louise Mensch has been saying this very thing for months. She said that Putin has people planted inside the NY FBI Office, and that they forced Comey's hand. 

[Cartmann99]

20 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

The plot around Nunes thickens...

Nunes apologizes to Intelligence Committee - But won't explain his stunt

 

 Nunes broke both of his damn legs running to show Big Daddy his information, and he should immediately be thrown off of the Intelligence Committee. How in the hell can you have an investigation, when the guy in charge is in Trump's back pocket?

Also, if anybody gets a better idea of when the House is supposed to vote on the healthcare bill, please post about it. I've heard it's supposed to be sometime tonight, but would love to know a more precise time if anyone knows. Thanks!

[iweartanktops]

On 3/22/2017 at 10:33 AM, sawasdee said:

I'm quite glad he's staying quiet - I cannot imagine him saying anything inoffensive.

And you were right. He didn't mention the victims (only the American, this morning), and he sounded very patronizing about May. 

 

[fraurosena]

Here's a video of MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell's take on the Nunes situation:

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-trump-ryan-nunes-in-over-their-heads-904405571961

Well worth the watch.

[fraurosena]

@Cartmann99, according to this article by HuffPo, the vote is scheduled to be done by 7 p.m. There are doubts however:

Quote

But the expectation is that the final vote, previously planned for Thursday afternoon, will instead be delayed until Friday.

“I hope we’ll negotiate in good faith and get to a vote by 7 p.m. today,” said Meadows.

Right now, I suppose it's anyone's guess as to when the final vote will be held.

[Howl]

from @fraurosena's post: 

Quote

Nunes did promise, according to this source, that he would share the material with his colleagues on Friday.

Ah, yes.  Friday, the day that news goes to, to die.  Be interesting to see at what time on Friday this info is released.

Honestly, the Republicans and Trump people get their collective feet out of their mouths so they can step on their own dicks at the earliest possible moment. 

[Fascinated]

17 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

Why is this man still president: 

 

This photo makes me want to hurl. That is all..

[fraurosena]

34 minutes ago, Howl said:

... so they can step on their own dicks

I'm afraid  that's going to be a problem, if the size of certain hands are an indication...

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

@Cartmann99, according to this article by HuffPo, the vote is scheduled to be done by 7 p.m. There are doubts however:

Right now, I suppose it's anyone's guess as to when the final vote will be held.

 Ryan just postponed the briefing he was supposed to give the press, so I wonder if he's going around trying to whip up support.

CNN is now saying that it's not certain a vote will happen today.

Quote

The Republican health care legislation is in limbo Thursday afternoon after multiple meetings at the White House and Capitol have failed to produce a deal.

And it's unclear if a vote will even happen Thursday, as leaders hoped.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members appear to hold the key to any agreement on a final bill, met with President Donald Trump earlier Thursday. The session started with a standing ovation for the President, but there was little obvious progress they could point to, a GOP source said.

One senior administration official described the meeting with one word: "Intense."

The Freedom Caucus has been delivered a "final offer," said a member of House leadership, chief deputy whip Patrick McHenry. "It's really in the hands of the members there to accept or reject the White House's offer."

"This is the final offer," McHenry said. "We have a package, they have an offer, and‎ they can accept or reject it."

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said there's no deal yet.

"There are not enough votes as of 1:30 p.m. today," he told reporters.

...

 

 

Edited to add: CNN (the TV version...) is now running a banner that reads: "GOP Source: No Vote Tonight on Health Care Bill". So, the vote may not happen tonight.

 

Edited again to add: CNN has announced that the Republicans in the House are meeting at 7PM Eastern and the vote has been postponed. No more info has been forthcoming. Spicey is in his office, getting info for a White House statement, supposedly. Let's see how long it takes the tiny fingers start Tweeting.

[iweartanktops]

I just read there will be no vote tonight. True? 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 minute ago, iweartanktops said:

I just read there will be no vote tonight. True? 

That's what they just said on CNN.

Now they have Cheeto on, he's schmoozing with some truck drivers' organization.

[AnywhereButHere]

Quote

BREAKING NEWS: House GOP leaders delay vote on health care repeal bill. Details to come.

This was the headline on my home page just now. It's Republicans. I'm not holding my breath waiting for the details.

[Cartmann99]

Time magazine has an interview with Trump that is most disturbing to me. He lies like he usually does and repeats himself numerous times throughout the interview.

The bolded parts are the interviewer speaking. In the first part, the interview has just started, and the interviewer is trying to explain what he would like the interview to cover:

Quote

 

Do you want me to give you a quick overview [of the story]?

Yeah, it’s a cool story. I mean it’s, the concept is right. I predicted a lot of things, Michael. Some things that came to you a little bit later. But, you know, we just rolled out a list. Sweden. I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems. Huma [Abedin] and Anthony [Weiner], you know, what I tweeted about that whole deal, and then it turned out he had it, all of Hillary’s email on his thing. NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it. Brexit, I was totally right about that. You were over there I think, when I predicted that, right, the day before. Brussels, I said, Brussels is not Brussels. I mean many other things, the election’s rigged against Bernie Sanders. We have a lot of things.

 

Towards the end of the interview:

Quote

 

Ok. So you don’t worry that your credibility, that if you’ve cited things that later turn out to be wrong, based on anonymous sources that that hurts you.

Name what’s wrong! I mean, honestly.

Fox News said…

Brexit. Wait a minute. I predicted Brexit. What I said about NATO was true, people aren’t paying their bills. And everyone said it was a horrible thing to say. And then they found out. And when Germany was over here I said, we are going to have a great relationship with Germany but you have to pay your NATO bills, and they don’t even dispute it, ok. So what have I said that is wrong? Everyone, I got attacked on NATO and now they are all saying I was right. I got attacked on Brexit, when I was saying, I said long before the day before, I said the day before the opening, but I was saying Brexit was going to pass, and everybody was laughing, and I turned out to be right on that. I took a lot of heat when I said Brexit was going to pass. Don’t forget, Obama said that U.K. will go to the back of the line, and I talked about Sweden, and may have been somewhat different, but the following day, two days later, they had a massive riot in Sweden, exactly what I was talking about, I was right about that.

 

http://time.com/4710456/donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/

[iweartanktops]

http://www.npr.org/2017/03/23/521239749/in-major-blow-to-trump-gop-health-care-bill-vote-delayed?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=politics&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20170323

[GreyhoundFan]

From the WaPo: "House leaders postpone vote on their health-care plan"

Quote

House leaders postponed a vote Thursday on their plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system, as they and President Trump struggled to meet demands of conservative lawmakers who said they could not support the bill.

House Republicans planned to meet behind closed doors later Thursday to figure out their next steps. Leaders have told the rank and file to be available Friday in the event a vote can be scheduled then.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the delay but said that she expected debate on the bill to begin Thursday night, with the expectation of a vote early Friday.

“We’re very confident that the bill will pass tomorrow morning,” she sid.

Earlier Thursday, conservative House Republicans had rebuffed an offer by Trump on Thursday to strip a key set of mandates from the nation’s current health-care law, raising doubts about whether House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) had the votes.

Trump met at the White House with the most conservative House Republicans, hoping to close a deal that would help ensure passage of the party’s health-care plan by shifting it even further to the right. But the session ended with no clear resolution, and some lawmakers said they needed more concessions before they would back the bill.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), asked whether the White House had made its final negotiating offer, said that if that’s the case, “They’re not going to pass the bill.”

Talks continued, however, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he still anticipated a vote on the measure by day’s end. Asked whether there was an alternative plan to the current bill, Spicer replied: “No. it’s going to pass. So that’s it.”

The chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), also said that resolution could “possibly” be resolved Thursday. His spokesman, Ben Williamson, later tweeted that Meadows “remains hopeful and will continue working” to reach a deal.

That appears to have changed, according to several lawmakers who confirmed the delay.

The session came after more than a day of almost nonstop negotiations, as Trump and Ryan have worked to mollify members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus while simultaneously trying to minimize defections by GOP moderates.

As of midafternoon Thursday, 37 House Republicans — mainly Freedom Caucus members — had announced their opposition to the bill, known as the American Health Care Act.

Trump will also meet Thursday with members of the moderate “Tuesday Group,” Spicer said. On Wednesday, four Republican moderates — Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (N.J.), Daniel Donovan (N.Y.) and David Young (Iowa) — announced their opposition, increasing pressure on leaders to win over conservatives.

...

 

[fraurosena]

Holy shit. Read this transcript from an interview Time did with the tangerine toddler. Prepare yourself though. If you thought he's idiot, this just might be definitive proof. And I'm not kidding when I say that.

http://time.com/4710456/donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/?xid=homepage

Quote

President Trump spoke with TIME Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer on March 22 for a cover story about the way he has handled truth and falsehood in his career. [... transcript:]

Yeah, it has been a wild couple months. You keep us busy.

Yeah, it’s been good though. It’s been good.

Do you want me to give you a quick overview [of the story]?

Yeah, it’s a cool story. I mean it’s, the concept is right. I predicted a lot of things, Michael. Some things that came to you a little bit later. But, you know, we just rolled out a list. Sweden. I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems. Huma [Abedin] and Anthony [Weiner], you know, what I tweeted about that whole deal, and then it turned out he had it, all of Hillary’s email on his thing. NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that, and I said that the allies must pay. Nobody knew that they weren’t paying. I did. I figured it. Brexit, I was totally right about that. You were over there I think, when I predicted that, right, the day before. Brussels, I said, Brussels is not Brussels. I mean many other things, the election’s rigged against Bernie Sanders. We have a lot of things.

This is just the beginning of the interview. It gets more convoluted as it goes on. It's pretty hard to follow exactly what he's trying to say, but I can't help but get the impression that either the man's going senile and only has a limited understanding of what's going on and keeps repeating things he's been told to say, or what he believes he should be saying, or he's a complete moron and only has a limited grasp of what's going on and keeps repeating things he's been told to say, or what he believes he should be saying.

Either way... holy shit!

[Fascinated]

I actually think he might believe what he's saying. Who else reads his words in his smarmy voice?  Ugh.  Forcing myself to channel Alec Baldwin. More palatable. What an enormous dick. 

[Cartmann99]

2 minutes ago, Fascinated said:

 Who else reads his words in his smarmy voice?  Ugh.  

*raises hand, shudders*

[fraurosena]

2 minutes ago, Fascinated said:

What an enormous dick. 

No... like I said earlier: not if his hands are any indication 

[GreyhoundFan]

33 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Holy shit. Read this transcript from an interview Time did with the tangerine toddler. Prepare yourself though. If you thought he's idiot, this just might be definitive proof. And I'm not kidding when I say that.

http://time.com/4710456/donald-trump-time-interview-truth-falsehood/?xid=homepage

This is just the beginning of the interview. It gets more convoluted as it goes on. It's pretty hard to follow exactly what he's trying to say, but I can't help but get the impression that either the man's going senile and only has a limited understanding of what's going on and keeps repeating things he's been told to say, or what he believes he should be saying, or he's a complete moron and only has a limited grasp of what's going on and keeps repeating things he's been told to say, or what he believes he should be saying.

Either way... holy shit!

This morning, the Washington Post fact checkers gave basically everything he said in the Time interview a "4 Pinocchio" rating, meaning outright lies. He really is the most delusional person out there, isn't he?

[47of74]

22 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

This morning, the Washington Post fact checkers gave basically everything he said in the Time interview a "4 Pinocchio" rating, meaning outright lies. He really is the most delusional person out there, isn't he?

I'm surprised that he isn't getting his nose caught in doors with the amount of prevarication he's been doing the past year.

 

58 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

No... like I said earlier: not if his hands are any indication 

Very true.  If his hands are any indication you'll probably not be able to see if without assistance from an electron microscope.

I'm going to quit that chain of thought because I don't want to think about Agent Orange's tallywhacker.

[GreyhoundFan]

This chaps my hide: "Federal agency rules Trump’s D.C. hotel lease in ‘full compliance’"

Quote

Government officials overseeing the Trump International Hotel’s lease with the federal government have determined the deal is in “full compliance” despite a clause in the agreement barring any “elected official of the Government of the United States” from deriving “any benefit.”

In a Thursday letter to Eric Trump, the president’s son now overseeing the hotel, the project’s contracting officer found the company met the terms of the lease because the president had resigned from a formal position with the company and the organization had restructured an internal operating agreement so he received no direct proceeds from the D.C. hotel business while in office.

“In other words, during his term in office, the president will not receive any distributions from the trust that would have been generated from the hotel,” said the contracting officer, Kevin M. Terry.

...

The announcement by the General Services Administration allows Trump’s company, which he still owns, to continue to benefit from a contract ultimately overseen by his administration, a situation that ethical experts have called unprecedented and a conflict of interest that puts the president’s personal financial situation ahead of taxpayers.

Trump signed a 60-year lease for the government-owned Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2013, then spent more than $200 million turning the project into a luxury hotel.

Since the election, Democrats on Capitol Hill have constantly pressed the agency to address concerns raised by Trump’s profiting from the lease deal. Some members of Congress worry that Trump could appoint new leaders who will renegotiate the terms of the lease to eliminate any legal entanglements, especially after a civil servant overseeing public buildings for the agency, Norman Dong, announced his departure recently.

...

Most recently Reps. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) wrote to the GSA’s inspector general, Carol F. Ochoa, urging her to launch an investigation. This week Ochoa declined, writing March 17 that she will “continue to monitor” the GSA’s management of the lease and “will remain alert to any irregularities” but saying nothing about an investigation.

Since Trump took office, GSA officials and Trump Organization representatives have been negotiating changes to the company’s corporate structure and landed on an agreement in which the president would still profit from the hotel but not receive those profits until he leaves office.

Trump put his ownership stake in the project into a trust, the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, controlled by his two adult sons and Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive at his company. This is a step far short of a blind trust, in which assets are independently managed — a structure previous presidents employed.

However the Trump Organization also agreed not to send any of the earnings from the hotel company to the president’s trust until he leaves office, writing to the agency to say that it would “not make any distributions to DJT Holdings LLC or to any other entity in which President Trump has a direct, indirect or beneficial interest” until then.

...

Okay, show of hands...who thinks that Agent Orange isn't going to benefit from the hotel in question? Yeah, I thought so.