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Trump 23: The Death Eaters Have Taken the Fucking Country


Destiny

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27 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'll be interested to see if they can capture millenials in 2020.  Plus, just like Canada has a PM named Justin, it would be cool to have a VP named Mindy.

It's better than having a FLOTUS named Melania-Ivanka.

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34 minutes ago, Zola said:

And how they said voting for Hillary would be worse because then we'd have a president under federal investigation, suspected of various criminal activity. 

Make no mistake- Hillary would have been under constant investigation. The Republican Congress would have made sure everything was investigated- even a decision to wear a blue suit instead of a white one. I can even see her critics making something up for the investigators to find. Hillary would not have been given the opportunity to do a great job.

On the other hand, since Trump is President, anything goes, according to Congress(not the special investigator). The illegal things and poor choices are just called "doing his job".

 

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40 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Make no mistake- Hillary would have been under constant investigation. The Republican Congress would have made sure everything was investigated- even a decision to wear a blue suit instead of a white one. I can even see her critics making something up for the investigators to find. Hillary would not have been given the opportunity to do a great job.

 

Without the Russian meddling we'd have had a Democratic president and likely a Democratic house.

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Barron will be attending St. Andrew's in the fall.  The first day of school is September 5.  Maybe Barron's social studies teacher can arrange a special catch-up class for Trump.

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This is getting beyond fucking insane.  Now it is bikes. Anything connected to Obama has to go.  I wouldn't it past him to soon deny Obama was ever president.

Such a disgusting white hooded man baby.

Obama’s administration requested a Bikeshare station at the White House. Trump’s administration just had it removed.

Quote

The Trump administration has dismantled aspects of Obama’s legacy, big and small — including the Capital Bikeshare station that was installed on the White House grounds at the request of the Obama administration.

The District’s Department of Transportation confirmed Wednesday that it removed the nine-slot Bikeshare station this week at the Trump administration’s request.

Unlike every other Bikeshare station in the region, this one was not accessible to the public and could only be used by commuters who had access to White House grounds. The Obama administration requested the station in 2010.

It’s unclear why the White House wanted it removed. The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

“We got the request to remove it, and we honored that request,” said Terry Owens, spokesman for the District’s transportation agency.

The transportation agency didn’t have ridership data available Wednesday for the station, which was at 17th Street and State Place NW.

Cyclist Gregory Matlesky noticed that it was missing and tweeted about it Tuesday. Washingtonian first reported on its removal.

Because it was not publicly accessible, the station doesn’t appear on maps or Bikeshare apps.

The Bikeshare system has 440 stations and 3,700 bikes throughout the District and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

 

 

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They also removed protections for freaking bridges so they wouldn't have to adhere to the rising water levels for his infrastructure plans like what?!

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This is obviously satire, but still LOL.

Quote

Donald Trump has insisted the Rebel Alliance must take their share of the blame for the violence in the Star Wars universe after revealing the Empire had all the necessary permits to gather at the Death Star.

Speaking to reporters to clarify his position on the violent battles fought between the two sides, Trump explained that the fake news media are ignoring all the good people inside in the Empire.

“I don’t see anyone talking about the bad people inside the Rebel Alliance charging at the Death Star even though it had all the necessary paperwork in place and was allowed to be there.

“The Empire followed the rules, and went about its business within the rule of law, is that so wrong? Are we criticising people for obeying the law now?

Yeah fuck face probably would take Palpatine's side.

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Jennifer Rubin is on a tear: "Meltdown day'

Spoiler

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday that he was ending the White House council on manufacturing and the Strategic and Policy Forum.

One of the councils had planned to disband after a conference call of its executives on Wednesday morning, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Trump’s tweet came after reports that council was disbanding.

Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Stephen A. Schwarzman, who led the Strategic and Policy Forum, phoned the president on Wednesday to inform him the group was being disbanded, according to people familiar with the call.

Meanwhile, Vice President Pence on a foreign trip said he stands by the president but pointedly refused to say if he agreed with President Trump’s effort to equate neo-Nazi protesters with anti-Nazi protesters. He also decided to return home early from his South America trip, heightening the sense that the White House is in the midst of a crisis not comparable to anything Trump has yet experienced. He also canceled an appearance with GOP Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, who has yet to call for removal of Confederate statues or condemn the president’s lack of leadership.

Meanwhile, international leaders continue to condemn the neo-Nazi violence and Trump’s response to it. The Post reported:

British Prime Minister Theresa May didn’t call Trump out by name but said in a statement Wednesday there was “no equivalence” between the two sides. … Similarly, the European Commission mentioned neither Trump nor Charlottesville but, in a tweet Wednesday morning, reiterated the European Union’s founding principles: liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamentals, and the rule of law. …

Others were more explicit in their criticism of Trump. Germany Justice Minister Heiko Maas blasted Trump’s Tuesday news conference as one that sugarcoated the racist violence from the weekend.

“It is unbearable how Trump is now glossing over the violence of the right-wing hordes from Charlottesville,” Maas said in a statement, according to Reuters. “No one should trivialize anti-Semitism and racism by neo-Nazis.”

This has now become an international humiliation for the United States. The president who vowed to make America strong and respected has made it look small and cowardly. Our allies’ criticisms sound like past U.S. presidents’ condemnation of third-world autocrats.

What would make this crisis different than ones that preceded it? One or more resignations of senior officials, especially White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, might shock the political system. Republicans supporting a censure resolution would also turn up the heat. And outside groups and individuals including business and civic groups can shun him. Moreover, ordinary voters can vote with their feet as well. Trump has planned a campaign-style rally in Arizona next week. Voters can stay away or show up and peacefully protest. However, so long as Trump has his family and close confidantes to enable him, he’s unlikely — unless he runs into legal or financial scrutiny he cannot avoid — to walk away. That’s now as much a problem for Republicans as it is for those who rationalize working with him for the “good of the country.” The country can be spared at this point only by his quick departure.

Someone posted that the TT would be throwing a pep-rally soon to soothe his nerves. Well, it looks like one is scheduled in Arizona.

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The attack at Charlottesville almost feels like a re-enactment of Higher Learning.  If we're going to redo a '90s movie, can't we do Reality Bites or Clueless instead?

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Speculation is that because Melania stayed in NJ and Ivanka was off on vacation with Jared(again?) his better halves were not there to encourage him to temper himself.

Guess Melania has had enough vacation. And I know we don't pay Ivanka and Jared but they do seem to vacation, oh, I don't know, once a month?

Well, I hope we learned a lesson here.

1 minute ago, JMarie said:

The attack at Charlottesville almost feels like a re-enactment of Higher Learning.  If we're going to redo a '90s movie, can't we do Reality Bites or Clueless instead?

Ivanka's already re-doing Clueless but without the happy ending.

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I can't remember if this was posted. If it has been, my apologies. "Mayor wants Trump to delay Phoenix rally"

Spoiler

The mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, issued a statement Wednesday night urging President Trump to delay his campaign rally in the city while "our nation is still healing" from the violence that took place in Charlottesville, Va.

“It is my hope that more sound judgement prevails and that he delays his visit," Mayor Greg Stanton (D) said in a statement, also saying he is "disappointed" with the president.

...

Stanton also warned Trump against any plans to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt last month for disobeying a judge's order to stop detaining people over suspicion of being undocumented. Arpaio was a controversial sheriff because of his hardline immigration stances.

"If President Trump is coming to Phoenix to announce a pardon for former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, then it will be clear that his true intent is to enflame tensions and further divide our nation," Stanton said in the statement.

Trump told Fox News earlier this week that he was seriously considering pardoning Arpaio, who he called a "patriot."

“Is there anyone in local law enforcement who has done more to crack down on illegal immigration than Sheriff Joe?” Trump told Fox News. “He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

Stanton also said that while he disagreed with Trump's visit, he wouldn't attempt to prevent Trump from renting his rally venue, the Phoenix Convention Center.

"With regard to use of the Phoenix Convention Center for the rally: This is a public facility and open to anyone to rent, including the Trump campaign," he said.

"Our Constitution protects the right to free speech, even for those we disagree with or those who don't represent the values we hold dear as a community," he concluded.

 

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Spoiler alert -- back to four Pinocchios! "President Trump’s false claim that counter-demonstrators lacked a permit"

Spoiler

“You had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit, and they were very, very violent. . . . You had a lot of people in that [white nationalist] group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest, because you know — I don’t know if you know — they had a permit. The other group didn’t have a permit.”
— President Trump, remarks during a news conference on infrastructure, Aug. 15, 2017

In blaming both sides for the violence in Charlottesville that left one person dead, President Trump twice asserted that the people protesting white supremacists and neo-Nazis lacked a permit, unlike the groups that gathered to protest the possible removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

But that’s turned out to be false, according to documents and interviews obtained by our Washington Post colleague Justin Moyer.

The Facts

Walt Heinecke, a professor at the University of Virginia, told Moyer that he received a “special events certificate of approval” for events at McGuffey Park and Justice Park — sites blocks from Emancipation Park, where white nationalists had a permit for a Saturday rally. A car allegedly driven by James Alex Fields Jr. rammed into counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman, on Fourth Street, which runs adjacent to Justice Park.

The document is below, with Heinecke’s address and cellphone number removed.

...

Charlottesville spokeswoman Miriam I. Dickler told Moyer that only one permit was issued for Emancipation Park — the one received by white nationalists staging the “Unite the Right” rally. However, counter-protesters did not need permits to protest that rally, she said.

“Please bear in mind that people do not need a permit to enter a public park, even when another event is scheduled to take place there, nor are they required to have one to be on streets or sidewalks adjacent to or outside the park,” Dickler said in an email.

On Friday night, 250 white nationalists carrying torches marched and chanted anti-Semitic slogans on the U-Va. campus, where they encountered about 30 students who had locked arms around the base of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, according to a Washington Post timeline. Brief clashes took place, resulting in some injuries. U-Va. allows access to open spaces and so permits were not required for such marches, according to a statement by U-Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan condemning the “intimidating and abhorrent behavior displayed by the alt-right protestors.”

On Saturday, when the major violence occurred, people started gathering in Emancipation Park. Charlottesville Police Chief Al S. Thomas Jr. told The Post the white-nationalist groups went back on a plan that would have kept them separated from the counter-protesters. The two sides started clashing, and by 11:22 a.m. police had declared an unlawful assembly.

“I think what the president is trying to say is that counter-protesters did not have a permit to be in Emancipation Park,” Heinicke said. “That’s irrelevant.” He added: “Either way you cut it, the president got it wrong.”

The White House declined to comment.

The Pinocchio Test

President Trump twice claimed that counter-protesters lacked a permit to demonstrate in Charlottesville. But they did have permits for rallies — and they did not need one to go into or gather near Emancipation Park, where white nationalists planned their rally. The president earns Four Pinocchios.

Four Pinocchios

 

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Anyone else unable to sleep lately? Not just me right? Seriously, we've always been a fucked up country in many ways... but what type of fucked up country is my baby growing up in? :cry:

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Oh, so it's fine to be a Nazi and hurt people as long as you have a permit.     :my_dodgy:

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A good one from Politico: "‘He is stubborn and doesn't realize how bad this is getting’"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump’s decision to double down on his argument that “both sides” were to blame for the violent clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was driven in part by his own anger — and his disdain for being told what to do.

Trump’s temper has been a constant force in this eight-month-old White House. He’s made policy decisions after becoming irritated with staffers and has escalated fights in the past few weeks with everyone from the Senate majority leader to the volatile dictator of North Korea.

The controversy over his response to the Charlottesville violence was no different. Agitated about being pressured by aides to clarify his first public statement, Trump unexpectedly unwound the damage control of the prior two days by assigning blame to the “alt-left” and calling some of the white supremacist protesters “very fine people.”

“In some ways, Trump would rather have people calling him racist than say he backed down the minute he was wrong,” one adviser to the White House said on Wednesday about Charlottesville. “This may turn into the biggest mess of his presidency because he is stubborn and doesn't realize how bad this is getting.”

For Trump, anger serves as a way to manage staff, express his displeasure or simply as an outlet that soothes him. Often, aides and advisers say, he’ll get mad at a specific staffer or broader situation, unload from the Oval Office and then three hours later act as if nothing ever occurred even if others still feel rattled by it. Negative television coverage and lawyers earn particular ire from him.

White House officials and informal advisers say the triggers for his temper are if he thinks someone is lying to him, if he’s caught by surprise, if someone criticizes him, or if someone stops him from trying to do something or seeks to control him.

That latter trigger — of attempting to corral him — set in motion the past five tense days surrounding Charlottesville. On Saturday, the president failed to condemn white supremacists, who had marched through the city shouting anti-Semitic chants and assaulting counterprotesters. One of them killed a 32-year-old woman and injured roughly 20 others when he rammed his car at a high speed into a crowd.

Under intense pressure from aides and fellow Republican lawmakers, whose support the president needs to advance his agenda, Trump gave a more conciliatory speech on Monday. He clarified that he does not support specifically the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, but then he backtracked to his more defiant stance just 24 hours later during an impromptu news conference at Trump Tower, meant to focus on infrastructure.

“I do think there is blame — yes, I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said, equating the actions of the white supremacists with the other protesters. Hate group leaders like David Duke saw the comments as yet another sign of the president’s support.

The majority of Trump’s top aides, with the notable exception of Steve Bannon, had been encouraging Trump to put to an end this damaging news cycle and talk that makes him seem sympathetic to groups that widely decry Jews, minorities and women. But the president did not want to be told what to do and seemed in high spirits on Tuesday evening, even as headlines streamed out about his seeming overtures to hate groups, according to one White House adviser who spoke to him.

The president “thinks he's right. He still thinks he's right,” an adviser said.

But in this White House, Trump’s anger isn’t just a side detail for stories about the various warring ideological factions, or who’s up and down in the West Wing. Instead, that anger and its rallying cry helped to fuel his rise to the White House, and now Trump uses it as a way to govern, present himself to the American public and even create policy.

In one stark example, the president’s dislike of being told what to do played a role in his decision to abruptly ban all transgender people from the military: a move opposed by his own defense secretary, James Mattis, and the head of the Coast Guard, who vowed not to honor the president’s decree.

The president had grown tired of White House lawyers telling him what he could and could not do on the ban and numerous other issues such as labor regulations, said one informal White House adviser. While multiple factors were in play with the transgender ban, Trump has grown increasingly frustrated by the lawyers’ calls for further study and caution, so he took it upon himself to tweet out the news of the ban, partly as a reminder to the lawyers who’s in charge, the adviser said.

“For Trump, there came a moment where he wanted to re-establish that he was going to do what he was going to do,” said the adviser, who knows both the president and members of the staff. “He let his lawyers know that it’s his job to make decisions and their job to figure out how to implement it.”

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday night: "The President is focused on what Americans care about — growing our economy, creating jobs, protecting our border and keeping our country safe — not tabloid gossip, which the media seems to care so much about."

Trump is by no means the only president to be driven by his temper at times. Bill Clinton, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon all were famously known for their anger, while John F. Kennedy had a reputation for speaking sharply to staff, said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and clinical associate professor of public service at New York University. Nixon’s aides dealt with his vitriol by trying to build walls around him to protect the public from his moods as an internal set of West Wing checks and balances. It’s harder to set up those guardrails for the tweeter in chief.

“It’s not unusual to have presidents motivated by anger," Naftali added. "The difference with Trump is the lack of filter, so we’re seeing much more of his thinking than we ever saw with past presidents.”

Trump’s quickness to anger and the destructive aftermath have been a hallmark of his presidency from the very beginning. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer was widely mocked after he was forced to tussle with reporters in the briefing room and make factually inaccurate claims about the size of Trump’s inauguration crowds as the president fumed at the side-by-side comparisons with President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Another of Trump’s major outbursts happened back in March, when he unloaded on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House lawyer Don McGahn and senior strategist Steve Bannon in the Oval Office for Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigations. It’s a move that still irks the president, and recently Trump publicly said he would not have appointed Sessions to oversee the Department of Justice if he had known about the chance for recusal.

Trump has also become angry on several occasions with McGahn, sometimes for matters entirely out of his control, such as the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign, or the poorly received rollout of the president’s first immigration and travel ban. That executive order was written by Bannon and senior adviser Stephen Miller and is tied up in the courts.

Other notable targets of the president’s frustrations have included national security adviser H.R. McMaster, former chief of staff Reince Priebus and Spicer, who was often on the receiving end of profane criticisms when Trump did not approve of something as innocuous as the chyrons on the TV news shows he watched.

The outbursts extend back to Trump’s campaign days when he could become irritated about expenses and money, according to a senior campaign official.

Some aides and advisers defended the president’s temper by chalking it up to part of the deal of working in a demanding environment for a high-profile boss, a situation that could easily be replicated in Wall Street or Hollywood.

“When the president is upset and people are in the room, it does not mean he is necessarily upset with them," one close adviser to the White House said. "Often, he is upset with the direction of where the situation was going.”

Nor is Trump’s anger omnipresent. It does not always appear in traditionally stressful situations such as during personnel changes, or responding to a major threat or incident. Instead, the president’s temper flares when he feels personally wronged, or controlled, or as if someone is not being loyal to him, aides and advisers say.

The few White House staffers who have managed to escape Trump’s wrath include his daughter, Ivanka; longtime aide Hope Hicks; and, to some extent, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, and Marc Short, director of legislative affairs.

Some Mondays in the White House have been particularly bad for the president’s outbursts. With more time to read the newspapers, watch TV and call old friends over the weekend, Trump sometimes returns to the White House fired up about a specific issue and “loaded,” as one adviser called it.

On one particular Monday, he unleashed on McGahn for failing to solve the Russia investigations — even though an outside attorney, Marc Kasowitz, had assumed the Russia portfolio.

“The possibility that the president is annoyed and angry and yells at someone in the building is not of a lot of consequence to me because it happens all of the time,” said one informal yet frequent adviser to the White House.

You know, I had to counsel an employee recently because of outbursts. It's pretty sad that the president is even worse.

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We need to isolate him further, like on that deserted island we frequently discuss: "Trump’s isolation grows in the wake of Charlottesville"

Spoiler

President Trump now finds himself more isolated than ever from his own party, world leaders and the business community that once cautiously embraced him — a fissure that was growing for weeks but turned into a chasm following his response to the racist violence in Charlottesville this weekend.

Trump had to disband two corporate advisory councils after a slew of chief executives resigned from the panels while criticizing the president for a day earlier blaming both white supremacists and counterprotesters for the melees that led to the death of a 32-year-old woman. Republicans continue to distance themselves as they call on the president to more forcefully condemn the racist groups that gathered for the “Unite the Right” rally. And foreign officials lined up this week to make clear they strongly disagree with Trump’s view of the events in Charlottesville.

Trump had already stoked tensions in recent weeks as he repeatedly attacked congressional GOP leaders for his stalled legislative agenda and alarmed allies at home and abroad with threats of military force against North Korea and Venezuela.

But his reaction to this week’s violence, which roiled the nation at a time when a president is typically leaned on for comfort and guidance, has created deep uncertainty about whether he can effectively lead his party and focus on urgent tasks looming in the fall, including avoiding a government debt default and moving forward on the tax cuts he promised during the campaign.

“This has done irreparable damage in some ways,” said Joshua Holmes, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who remains close to him. “There have been lingering tension between the president and Capitol Hill here for months. This clearly made it significantly worse. I don't know of any Republican who is comfortable with where we're at right now based on the president’s comments.”

Trump’s troubles began Saturday when he delivered a statement condemning hatred and bigotry following the chaos in Charlottesville, but he faced criticism for saying it comes from “many sides” while failing to specifically call out the white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Then on Monday he issued a new, more forceful statement, which eased the controversy even if it didn’t satisfy his critics.

But by Tuesday, after returning to New York and Trump Tower for the first time since becoming president, Trump reverted back to his original posture. In a freewheeling, heated news conference that was supposed to highlight a new infrastructure proposal, Trump again condemned white supremacists but defended some “fine people” who gathered at their rally in Charlottesville and questioned why the “alt-left” had not been similarly criticized for the violent confrontations.

As his aides watched silently, Trump appeared to be in his element: shutting down questions from the “fake news” media, touting the praise he had received from the mother of a young woman killed in the violence and pitching his winery located near the scene of the weekend’s chaos.

Among Republicans in Washington, the spectacle seemed to confirm a growing feeling that Trump’s presidency is unlikely to ever get back on track, leaving the party’s leadership in Congress feeling “demoralized,” according to one Republican with close ties to the party’s leadership.

“It think it’s fair to say that many of my colleagues are frustrated by the lack of focus on the issues at hand,” said Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) “To the extent that we’re all having to answer questions on these other matters is unhelpful and is distracting, frustrating, and it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting to the American people, too.”

Trump had already been picking fights with party leaders, criticizing McConnell for the Senate’s failure to pass health-care legislation in sharply worded tweets. But even if health-care reform is no longer likely to pass, Trump still needs to work closely with Congress if he is to have any hope of advancing legislative priorities on issues such as taxes or infrastructure.

“His agenda was put at tremendous risk by being critical of Senator McConnell and alienating McConnell and McConnell’s entire operation,” said one Republican operative in frequent touch with the White House. “He’s now alienated a majority of rank-and-file members in the House and Senate.”

World leaders, many of whom were already wary of Trump, also sought to distance themselves from the president’s comments.

“I see no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them,” British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement, without naming Trump. “I think it is important for all those in positions of responsibility to condemn far-right views wherever we hear them.”

As Trump’s standing with voters sank lower this week, reaching a nadir of 34 percent, according to a new Gallup survey, he has increasingly turned inward to his base. His allies have followed his lead in blaming the media for ginning up controversy and holding Trump to a higher standard after Charlottesville.

“What I have seen sharply increase is a sense that he is not being treated fairly,” said Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.

Kaufmann said he is not very concerned that Trump’s sinking approval ratings will be a problem for him.

“If you would have asked me this question two years ago, I would have answered an unequivocal yes,” Kauffman said. “On the other hand, we’ve seen his poll numbers at low levels in the campaign and during his time as president. I don’t think conventional rules and analysis fit this president.”

Other Republican officials said there is frustration over the lack of progress in Washington but that much of that anger is being directed at Congress, with the president’s supporters more willing to give him some leeway — for now.

“I think people are generally displeased, and they tend to be focused on the lack of progress on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act,” noted Jeff Hays, chairman of the Republican Party of Colorado. “A lot of the people I talk to, they wish they would have gotten this right in the beginning of January, but they’re tolerant and they understand.”

He added that Trump has created problems for himself.

“He does give his detractors and he gives the larger media ample opportunities to focus on things that really are not governance-related,” Hayes added.

Trump has yet to see any member of his administration quit in protest over his remarks on the violence in Charlottesville, a move that could escalate his problems quickly, even while some in his Cabinet have gone out of their way to more forcefully condemn white-supremacist groups.

“The racism, bigotry, and hate perpetrated by violent white supremacist groups has no place in America. It does not represent what I spent 23 years defending in the United States military and what millions of people around the globe have died for,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in a statement. “We must respond to hate with love, unity and justice. I fully support President Trump and Attorney General Sessions in uniting our communities and prosecuting the criminals to the fullest extent of the law.”

But on an issue that Trump had previously been given a wide berth — the economy — there are wide cracks appearing in his coalition.

Corporate executives who once felt it was in their best interest to stay close to the White House to help shape the president’s agenda condemned Trump’s comments on Charlottesville this week, and eight corporate leaders quit his advisory councils.

Walmart’s chief executive called Trump out for missing an opportunity to unite the country. 

“As we watched the events and the response from President Trump over the weekend, we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists,” wrote Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon.

The business world had been optimistic that a Republican president and Congress would produce comprehensive tax reform. But their exodus from the president’s circle signals they are unwilling to associate their brands with Trump. 

“It’s going to be treated as a blow because it is a blow,” said David Gergen, a former White House adviser to Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. “It darkens the shadows over his legislative agenda.”

He noted that Trump’s remarks Tuesday came at an event meant to highlight a proposal to make it easier to complete infrastructure projects, a top priority for the business community. 

“It’s not lost on anybody that they were trying to push through infrastructure and they wandered over into the swamp of racial division,” Gergen said.

 

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I thought this is an interesting opinion piece: "What if Western media covered Charlottesville the same way it covers other nations"

Spoiler

If we talked about what happened in Charlottesville the same way we talk about events in a foreign country, here’s how Western media would cover it. Those quoted in the “story” below are fictional.

The international community is yet again sounding the alarm on ethnic violence in the United States under the new regime of President Trump. The latest flash point occurred this past weekend when the former Confederate stronghold of Charlottesville descended into chaos following rallies of white supremacist groups protesting the removal of statues celebrating leaders of the defeated Confederate states. The chaos turned deadly when Heather Heyer, a member of the white ethnic majority who attended the rally as a counterprotester, was killed when a man with neo-Nazi sympathies allegedly drove his car into a crowd.

Trump, a former reality television host, beauty pageant organizer and businessman, rose to political prominence by publicly questioning the citizenship of the United States’ first black president, Barack Obama. Since his election, Trump has targeted Muslims, refugees, Mexicans and the media. He has also advocated for police brutality. These tactics have appealed to and emboldened white ethno-nationalist groups and domestic terrorist organizations.

After Charlottesville, Trump has largely refused to unequivocally condemn the actions of the white supremacist groups. In a shocking news conference Tuesday, Trump, fuming after consuming hours of cable television, doubled down on blaming “both sides” for the weekend’s violence. His remarks garnered praise from a former leader of a white terrorist group known as the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville,” Duke said on Twitter.

Beyond Trump’s coddling of white extremist groups, the emboldening of white supremacists and neo-Nazis raises questions about the state of the United States’ democracy 152 years after its brutal civil war over the rights of the white ethnic majority in its southern region to enslave members of the black ethnic minority. After the Charlottesville turmoil, more protests are expected around the country against the removal of Confederate monuments.

“Culturally, Americans are a curious lot,” said Andrew Darcy Morthington, an United Kingdom-based commentator who once embarked on a two-year mission trip to teach rural American children and therefore qualifies as an expert on U.S. affairs. “Donald Trump’s campaign message was that he would make America great again, and that there would be so much ‘winning.’ If America cares about being great, why has it fought so hard to keep monuments to the Confederate losers and enslavers?”

“The worst thing Britain ever did was letting go of our colony and thinking Americans were capable of governing themselves without eventually resorting back to tribal politics,” said Martin Rhodes, a shopkeeper in London. “I can’t believe a once-great empire would threaten everything it has built over generations just because a group of people give in to racism and xenoph…” Rhodes’s voice trailed off as he stared wistfully at a silent Big Ben.

Experts are also linking the weekend violence to the scourge of domestic terrorism carried out by white males, who have carried out almost twice as many mass attacks on American soil than Muslims have in recent years.

“This is the time for moderates across the white male world to come out and denounce violent racial terrorism, white supremacy and regressive tribal politics,” said James Charlotin, a Canadian national security expert. “Why haven’t they spoken out?”

European leaders have offered to convene the first-ever Countering Violent White Male Extremism (CVWME) summit somewhere in Europe, but critics have pointed out that Europe was the original exporter of many of the same colonial and white supremacist ideologies that have fueled misery all over the globe.

The Trump regime, which has failed to deliver on much of its legislation promises, is governing in a country awash in guns, where the maternal mortality rate, alcoholism and opioid drug use are on the rise.

“This is just a recipe for entrenched disaffection from the state and further isolation and radicalization of American white males,” Charlotin said.

“The Americans on both sides of the political spectrum like to talk about identity politics, or white identity,” said Mustapha Okango, a Kenyan anthropologist based in Nairobi. “The Americans like to lecture us and other Africans about keeping tribalism out of our politics and putting country ahead of our ethnic groups. America’s institutions are strong. But when I saw the images of those white men in polos carrying Party City tiki torches and weapons, it’s pretty clear American white tribal politics are alive and well, explicitly fueled by President Trump’s regime. White supremacy doesn’t just hurt blacks or other minority groups, it hurts the whole country. Take it from us Kenyans, it’s a dangerous recipe. We had hoped better for America.”

 

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Twitler is playing on his cell phone again: "Trump mourns loss of ‘beautiful statues and monuments’ in wake of Charlottesville rally over Robert E. Lee statue"

Spoiler

President Trump on Thursday mourned the loss of “beautiful statues and monuments” in the wake of the violent clashes in Charlottesville during a white supremacist demonstration protesting the planned removal of a statue depicting Confederate military commander Robert E. Lee.

... < tweets from the twit >

Trump's string of morning tweets made clear the president was not willing to back down over his claims Tuesday that some of the demonstrators had legitimate grievances over the loss of Southern “history,” and that “both sides” were to blame in the mayhem that left a woman dead and at least 19 more injured. Trump made those claims a day after he had belatedly condemned the neo-Nazi and Klux Klan groups that organized the Unite the Right rally, and politicians from both parties have criticized the president for inflaming racial tensions and failing to provide clear moral leadership for the nation.

Some white supremacist leaders, including David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard, have praised Trump for his “honesty” and “courage.”

During his remarks Tuesday and again in his tweets Thursday, Trump argued that Lee and fellow Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, who commanded Southern forces in the Civil War to secede from the United States, are important and admired historical figures in the South and that they could be equated to Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves and thus could potentially be subject to a modern-day backlash that would tarnish their legacies.

 

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Just watched the video of Heather Heyer's mother at her memorial. She was more presidential than the present WH occupant. An impressive woman.

@GreyhoundFan TT is too stupid to realise that the Founding Fathers are remembered because they are precisely that - they helped found the nation. Lee, Jackson et al sought to destroy it.

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From the NYT: "How to Handle Donald Trump"

Spoiler

Donald Trump is still president. Hard to know what to do with this, people.

In less than a week he’s managed to put on one of the most divisive, un-helpful, un-healing presidential performances in American history. It’s been a great stretch for fans of Richard Nixon and James Buchanan.

On Wednesday Trump had to dissolve his business advisory councils because the C.E.O.s were fleeing like panic-stricken geese from a jumbo jet. We now have a president who can’t get the head of Campbell Soup to the White House.

Trump also announced plans to hold a rally next week in Arizona, where he’s said he’s “seriously considering” a pardon for former sheriff Joe Arpaio, the loathsome racial profiler who never met a constitutional amendment he didn’t ignore. Arpaio’s treatment of Latinos won him a criminal contempt conviction, but of course that’s nothing to our leader.

We had no idea how bad this guy was going to be. Admit it — during the campaign you did not consider the possibility that if a terrible tragedy struck the country involving all of our worst political ghosts of the past plus neo-Nazism, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz would know the appropriate thing to say but Donald Trump would have no idea.

George W. Bush would have been at the funeral for the slain civil rights demonstrator in a second. About the best Trump could do was to praise Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, for writing “the nicest things” about him. Bro did indeed express appreciation for the president’s denunciation of “those who promote violence and hatred.” That was his written-by-someone-else statement, which preceded the despicable impromptu version.

We’re only safe when he’s using prepared remarks. The extemporaneous Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville wasn’t just tone-deaf and heartless; you had to wonder about the overall mental balance of a man who managed to both defend the alt-right demonstrators in Virginia and brag about his real estate in the neighborhood.

“Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville?” Trump asked the stunned reporters. “I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States. It’s in Charlottesville.”

It was truly the kind of performance you expect from a deranged person, brought out to explain why he blew up a large government building and inquiring cheerfully: “Has anybody seen my car? It’s really nice. A Ford Pinto.”

Also, Trump does not own one of the largest wineries in the United States. Trump Winery is one of the largest wineries in Virginia, which is like bragging you own one of the largest ski resorts in Ohio.

(There’s something about catching these wild misstatements and lies of self-aggrandizement that can actually be soothing in the worst of times. It’s a diversion that gives you a little break from wondering what’s going to happen to the country.)

Meanwhile, business executives were concluding it was morally compromising to be on the White House manufacturing council. It’s hard to imagine what else could happen before autumn kicks in.

We are just beginning to fully understand how critical it is for a president to have at least a minimal understanding of American history. This one seems to have only recently discovered he belongs to the same party as Abraham Lincoln. “Most people don’t even know he was a Republican,” Trump told a political gathering. “Right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don’t know that. We have to build that up a little more.”

His response to the biggest challenge of his presidency began by blaming “many sides” for the crisis. Then there was the reading of an appropriate, if way overdue, statement. Then came the disastrous press conference on Tuesday, when he was just supposed to read a brief description of the administration plan for infrastructure — something about giving road-builders a reprieve from having to consider the possibility of future flooding.

But he started to take questions and actually say things from his own mind. His staff looked worried, then nervous, then despairing.

Even when Trump is not historically wrong, or making things up to extol his own self-image, or failing to do even the least modicum of national healing at a time of crisis, he’s so incoherent that it’s possible to misunderstand what should be a simple thought.

“I didn’t know David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts,” he blathered at one point, then lapsed into that terrible tendency to refer to himself in the third person. “And the facts, as they started coming out, were very well stated. In fact, everybody said his statement was beautiful. …”

This can’t go on. We don’t have time to wait for impeachment. Patriotic Republicans and administration officials have to get together and find a way to make sure that Donald Trump will never again say anything in public that is not written on a piece of paper. It’s their duty to the country.

Unfortunately, I don't think the Repugs have suddenly developed a backbone.

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2 hours ago, sawasdee said:

Just watched the video of Heather Heyer's mother at her memorial. She was more presidential than the present WH occupant. An impressive woman.

@GreyhoundFan TT is too stupid to realise that the Founding Fathers are remembered because they are precisely that - they helped found the nation. Lee, Jackson et al sought to destroy it.

As this is precisely what Putin the tangerine toddler is after, it is no wonder he feels such a kinsmanship to Jackson and Lee.

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2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

From the NYT: "How to Handle Donald Trump"

  Hide contents

Donald Trump is still president. Hard to know what to do with this, people.

In less than a week he’s managed to put on one of the most divisive, un-helpful, un-healing presidential performances in American history. It’s been a great stretch for fans of Richard Nixon and James Buchanan.

On Wednesday Trump had to dissolve his business advisory councils because the C.E.O.s were fleeing like panic-stricken geese from a jumbo jet. We now have a president who can’t get the head of Campbell Soup to the White House.

Trump also announced plans to hold a rally next week in Arizona, where he’s said he’s “seriously considering” a pardon for former sheriff Joe Arpaio, the loathsome racial profiler who never met a constitutional amendment he didn’t ignore. Arpaio’s treatment of Latinos won him a criminal contempt conviction, but of course that’s nothing to our leader.

We had no idea how bad this guy was going to be. Admit it — during the campaign you did not consider the possibility that if a terrible tragedy struck the country involving all of our worst political ghosts of the past plus neo-Nazism, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz would know the appropriate thing to say but Donald Trump would have no idea.

George W. Bush would have been at the funeral for the slain civil rights demonstrator in a second. About the best Trump could do was to praise Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, for writing “the nicest things” about him. Bro did indeed express appreciation for the president’s denunciation of “those who promote violence and hatred.” That was his written-by-someone-else statement, which preceded the despicable impromptu version.

We’re only safe when he’s using prepared remarks. The extemporaneous Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville wasn’t just tone-deaf and heartless; you had to wonder about the overall mental balance of a man who managed to both defend the alt-right demonstrators in Virginia and brag about his real estate in the neighborhood.

“Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville?” Trump asked the stunned reporters. “I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States. It’s in Charlottesville.”

It was truly the kind of performance you expect from a deranged person, brought out to explain why he blew up a large government building and inquiring cheerfully: “Has anybody seen my car? It’s really nice. A Ford Pinto.”

Also, Trump does not own one of the largest wineries in the United States. Trump Winery is one of the largest wineries in Virginia, which is like bragging you own one of the largest ski resorts in Ohio.

(There’s something about catching these wild misstatements and lies of self-aggrandizement that can actually be soothing in the worst of times. It’s a diversion that gives you a little break from wondering what’s going to happen to the country.)

Meanwhile, business executives were concluding it was morally compromising to be on the White House manufacturing council. It’s hard to imagine what else could happen before autumn kicks in.

We are just beginning to fully understand how critical it is for a president to have at least a minimal understanding of American history. This one seems to have only recently discovered he belongs to the same party as Abraham Lincoln. “Most people don’t even know he was a Republican,” Trump told a political gathering. “Right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don’t know that. We have to build that up a little more.”

His response to the biggest challenge of his presidency began by blaming “many sides” for the crisis. Then there was the reading of an appropriate, if way overdue, statement. Then came the disastrous press conference on Tuesday, when he was just supposed to read a brief description of the administration plan for infrastructure — something about giving road-builders a reprieve from having to consider the possibility of future flooding.

But he started to take questions and actually say things from his own mind. His staff looked worried, then nervous, then despairing.

Even when Trump is not historically wrong, or making things up to extol his own self-image, or failing to do even the least modicum of national healing at a time of crisis, he’s so incoherent that it’s possible to misunderstand what should be a simple thought.

“I didn’t know David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts,” he blathered at one point, then lapsed into that terrible tendency to refer to himself in the third person. “And the facts, as they started coming out, were very well stated. In fact, everybody said his statement was beautiful. …”

This can’t go on. We don’t have time to wait for impeachment. Patriotic Republicans and administration officials have to get together and find a way to make sure that Donald Trump will never again say anything in public that is not written on a piece of paper. It’s their duty to the country.

Unfortunately, I don't think the Repugs have suddenly developed a backbone.

The Repugs are still high as a kite on their power trip. They're busily looking anywhere but at the presidunce, so they can keep sniffing the power that was unexpectedly thrown in their laps. And even when he jumps up and down in front of them screaming 'look at what horrible things I'm saying and doing', all they do is pay lip-service to being affronted on twitter. And do precisely nothing.

That R beside their names stands for Repugnant, Repulsive and Reprehensible. And for quite a lot of them, Racist too.

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