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Trump 29: Divider In Chief or Liar In Chief? WHY NOT BOTH?


Destiny

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Remember Melania plagiarizing Michelle Obama's speech?

Well, her husband just plagiarized... drumroll please....Hillary Clinton!

 

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"Trump’s night of intense gaslighting"

Spoiler

“We have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government,” President Trump said Tuesday night in his first State of the Union address. Was this sarcasm?

This is the president who has fueled a hysterical smear campaign against the FBI for personal gain. He wants to and may soon release a memo with cherry-picked information alleging misconduct in the Justice Department in order to discredit a federal investigation into his associates. He singles out individual FBI officials for accusation and abuse on Twitter. He on a practically daily basis insists that the Russia investigation is based on a hoax, despite the intelligence community’s unanimous conclusion that Russia attempted to sway the 2016 election. He insists he respects the professionals in the law enforcement and intelligence communities, until their professionalism clashes with his wishes.

This is the president who alleged, without evidence, that he really won the popular vote because millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton in California. He empaneled a commission designed to find “evidence” of widespread voter fraud — which only benefits Democrats, of course. To the chagrin of state officials across the country, the message was that Americans cannot trust their voting system.

This is the president who insisted that the “Court System” is “broken and unfair” because he disagreed with a ruling and that he would consider breaking up the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

This is the president who publicly campaigned for his own attorney general to resign, which means that at least one of them does not deserve the office he inhabits, but kept Jeff Sessions in place anyway.

This is the president who hurls insults at “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” and a variety of other congressional leaders.

This is the president who, on his second day in office, blew the public credibility of the White House staff by ordering his press secretary to baldly lie about the size of the crowd at his inauguration.

In other words, this is the president who has done more to undermine “the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government” than any chief executive since Richard Nixon.

Throughout his address, Trump spoke of grand principles as though he lived up to the words. But, as he has repeatedly proved, saying you are honest does not mean you are, saying you will unite people does not mean you will, and saying that you have fixed government does not mean you have. You might, in fact, be doing lasting damage to the norms and institutions that allow the government to serve the public interest. All the high rhetoric in his Tuesday night speech just made Trump a gaslighting artist and hypocrite as well as a calamitous president.

 

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I didn't watch. As I was backing out of Netflix, it popped up for about 5 seconds and I yelled "Liar" and turn the TV off.

Aside from the manipulation of facts, the exaggerations and the blatant lies, the impression I got was that he would make a statement, pause and wait for people to stand and applaud, and if they didn't he would start applauding for himself until they stood. It seems from what I've seen since, he on occasion encouraged people to stand up and applaud. He really can't get through a speech unless he is being applauded continuously. What a pathetic little man.

I read somewhere the other day that he does not go out around the country to speak to the American people unless he can be assured that the crowd will applaud him and that there will be no one who questions him or disagrees with him. This is just so unbelievable. The people who support him say he is a great deal-maker and a powerful leader. Then why is he terrified of even the hint of criticism?

Of course, because he was able to string some sentences together all of his followers are screaming today about how incredible he is. Ugh.

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Exclusive: Trump asked Rosenstein if he was 'on my team'

Quote

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein visited the White House in December seeking President Donald Trump's help. The top Justice Department official in the Russia investigation wanted Trump's support in fighting off document demands from House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes.

But the President had other priorities ahead of a key appearance by Rosenstein on the Hill, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Trump wanted to know where the special counsel's Russia investigation was heading. And he wanted to know whether Rosenstein was "on my team."

The episode is the latest to come to light portraying a President whose inquiries sometimes cross a line that presidents traditionally have tried to avoid when dealing with the Justice Department, for which a measure of independence is key. The exchange could raise further questions about whether Trump was seeking to interfere in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into potential collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia and obstruction of justice by the White House.

At the December meeting, the deputy attorney general appeared surprised by the President's questions, the sources said. He demurred on the direction of the Russia investigation, which Rosenstein has ultimate authority over now that his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has recused himself. And he responded awkwardly to the President's "team" request, the sources said.

"Of course, we're all on your team, Mr. President," Rosenstein told Trump, the sources said. It is not clear what Trump meant or how Rosenstein interpreted the comment.

The Justice Department declined to comment for this story. The White House did not comment.

Rosenstein's meeting with the President came as Rosenstein prepared to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Trump appeared focused on Rosenstein's testimony, according to a source briefed on the matter, and he brought it up with the deputy attorney general.

As a further sign of the President's focus on Rosenstein's testimony, one of the sources said Trump also had suggested questions to members of Congress that they could ask Rosenstein.

One line of inquiry Trump proposed lawmakers ask about was whether Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election because Mueller was not selected as FBI director. CNN has reported that Trump has been venting to his aides about Rosenstein in recent weeks and even raised the possibility of his removal. Sources say Trump believes Rosenstein was upset Mueller wasn't selected as FBI director and responded by making him special counsel. It does not appear those questions were asked of Rosenstein at the hearing.

Rosenstein's December 13 appearance before the committee included strong backing for Mueller. He also pushed back at Democrats' questions about the President's demands for loyalty.

"As long as you are following your oath of office, you can also be faithful to the administration," he testified.

At the hearing, Rosenstein repeatedly declined to say whether Trump had ever asked him about the Russia Investigation. But he testified that he never received any "improper orders" from Trump and denied that anyone ever asked him to pledge his loyalty, dating back to his time in the Bush administration.

"Nobody has asked me to take a loyalty pledge, other than the oath of office," Rosenstein said.

In the first months of his presidency, Trump asked Comey for loyalty, according to Comey's testimony on Capitol Hill and his account to other FBI officials. Comey did not pledge loyalty, and after a few additional tense interactions with Trump, he was fired in May 2017.

While searching for Comey's replacement, Trump interviewed acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Trump asked McCabe who he voted for during that interview, according to a source familiar with the matter. McCabe did not vote for president in the 2016 general election but did vote in the Republican primary in Virginia, sources told CNN. Trump has publicly denied that he asked McCabe who he voted for.

Seven months later, Rosenstein made his pitch in the December meeting with the President, asking for White House backing as the Justice Department sought to deny access to sensitive documents demanded by Nunes, who has spent months pursuing claims of surveillance abuses by the FBI and the Justice Department against the Trump campaign.

There was no decision by the President at the meeting, the sources told CNN.

White House chief of staff John Kelly later notified the Justice Department that the President would not help block access to the documents.

Apparently the TT wants to rid himself of Rosenstein because he believes Rosenstein was miffed the presidunce didn't appoint Mueller as head of the FBI after firing Comey, and in retaliation Rosenstein then appointed Mueller as Special Counsel.

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A good one from the NYT: "Trump’s Birth Control Problems"

Spoiler

Does Donald Trump actually believe in contraception?

Today we’re going to talk about how this administration is hacking away at government support for family planning. But in order to get there, we’ll have to spend a minute discussing the president’s sex life, and Stormy Daniels, the porn star.

I know you’d much rather get into the serious issue right away, but bear with me.

Daniels recently became famous when The Wall Street Journal reported that she had been paid $130,000 in hush money shortly before the election to keep quiet about a one-night stand she’d had with Trump. That was back in 2006, right after Melania gave birth to Barron. Lately, Stormy has been signing denials while making TV rounds and winking broadly.

The best evidence that the interlude did occur is an interview she gave In Touch magazine in 2011. Her description of their one-night stand was so boring, it seems impossible she was making it up. The only truly interesting part was Daniels’s report that Trump really hates sharks. (“He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die.’”) We know people cared about that part because of the flood of donations to pro-shark charities.

The sex, in case you’re interested in that sort of thing, sounded pretty run-of-the-mill. The only unusual part was that she said Trump did not use a condom: “And I was really kind of upset about it because I am so, like, careful.”

Our president spoke highly of condoms back in the day, when he did endless radio guy-talk sessions with his old pal Howard Stern. On the other hand, he volunteered that he had been surprised when his squeeze Marla Maples announced she was pregnant: “She said, ‘I think I’m so happy! We’re about to have a child.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ I didn’t know about this.”

The wife Trump ditched for Marla was Ivana, who later claimed she had gotten pregnant on their honeymoon even though she was using an IUD. “Three years later, the same thing happened!” the first former Mrs. Trump reported in her recent biography. And then again. The failure rate for IUDs is currently about 0.8 percent, but Ivana’s were apparently less reliable than a fortune cookie.

This may be way more than you wanted to know. But the point is that Trump seems to have had either terrible luck or stupendous ineptitude when it comes to birth control. Do you think that’s why he’s intent on wrecking things for the rest of the nation?

The administration certainly seems to be going out of its way to make it difficult for women to get help with family planning. Early on, Trump announced that employers who offered moral objections would no longer have to cover contraceptives in their health care plans.

Tough luck, female employees. Alex Azar, the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services, was asked about Trump’s policy during his confirmation hearings and went out of his way to be incoherent: “I do believe we have to balance, of course, a woman’s choice of insurance that she would, that she would want, with the conscience of employers and others in — that’s a balance. That’s sort of an American value, is trying to balance those. …”

People, what do you think he was trying to say?

A) “My main goal here is to demonstrate I can sound like Donald Trump. The whole gang’s doing it!”

B) “Screw you, this administration takes the evangelical side.”

C) “Did I mention I think drug prices are too high?”

Meanwhile, the Title X program, a critical source of federal funding for family planning services, seems to have been dumped in a deep freeze. The more than $250 million in current grants, which support reproductive health services in every state, are going to start expiring soon, and so far the administration hasn’t made a peep about how groups can apply for renewals. “There is an increasing tension and anxiety in the field,” said Jessica Marcella of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.

The Trump administration originally put Title X funding under the direction of Teresa Manning, an anti-abortion activist who claimed “contraception doesn’t work.” Good news! Manning left abruptly in January.

Bad news! She’s been replaced by Valerie Huber, a longtime advocate of sexual abstinence, which she refers to as “sexual risk avoidance.”

Now it’s not surprising that Trump decided to cuddle up to the anti-abortion movement. True, it’s a complete turnaround from the position he took in his precampaign life. (“Who said I’m pro-choice?” he once demanded, perhaps forgetting it was him, in one of his books.) But dumping your principled positions on abortion is pretty much a requisite for getting the Republican presidential nomination. And in Trump’s case, of course, there wasn’t any principle.

Torpedoing critical programs that help women to avoid unwanted pregnancy in the first place, however, is just cruel and stupid. And an embarrassing reminder that, for a former playboy, our president doesn’t seem to know all that much about birth control.

Too bad Stormy doesn’t take follow-up questions.

He couldn't care less about effective contraception.

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27 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A good one from the NYT: "Trump’s Birth Control Problems"

  Hide contents

 The wife Trump dumped for Marla was Ivana, who later claimed she had gotten pregnant on their honeymoon even though she was using an IUD. “Three years later, the same thing happened!” the first former Mrs. Trump reported in her recent biography. And then again. The failure rate for IUDs is currently about 0.8 percent, but Ivana’s were apparently less reliable than a fortune cookie.

This may be way more than you wanted to know. But the point is that Trump seems to have had either terrible luck or stupendous ineptitude when it comes to birth control. Do you think that’s why he’s intent on wrecking things for the rest of the nation?

He couldn't care less about effective contraception.

Or the condoms were too big for his dinky winkie and kept slipping off..,

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Gonna get out the popcorn and await the coming tweet storms....


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So if you are like me, you may not have watched the State of the Union, but you probably heard about this couple. They were guests of Trump, a cop and his wife who adopted the baby of a homeless heroin addict.

The initial press about them was all positive, but later some of the more liberal media outlets began pointing out how creepy this story is.

A few things about this couple set off my fundie radar. They are 27 and already have 4 kids. They said that adoption was "on their hearts". I did a little more digging and found that Ryan Holets is one of 9 and he said "children are a blessing" when talking about the size of his family.

So, fundies, baby collectors, both?

 

links

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/01/health/police-officer-adopts-homeless-opioid-newborn-btc-beyond-the-call-of-duty/index.html

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/trumps-cop-takes-homeless-fetus-anecdote-handily-synthesizes-the-gop-stance-on-women-and-babies.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/1105379/apd-officer-honored-for-adopting-addicts-baby.html

https://splinternews.com/everyone-loved-trumps-horrifying-story-about-the-nice-w-1822576173

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Why would we think they are baby collectors? They’re oldest child is five and they have a set of twins, so they started having kids at 22. They offered to foster while the mom got clean, and she wasn’t ready. I say good for them. 

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He's 27? I thought he was much older. 

I saw their story as a short clip on FB and I said to my daughter that it would be a sweeter story if they had taken in and befriended the mom. But I don't know that they didn't do that. 

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On 1/8/2018 at 9:45 PM, iweartanktops said:

More what the fucks... 

I'd probably be banned if I said what I think about this tweet. Don't want to put @Curious in that position, but damn it, don't talk about us (black people), you bigoted ass hole! 

As long as you don't threaten POTUS forcing the secret service to pay me a visit to subpeona any information we have on you, you are free to post what you want.  We don't have rules about language here since @Destiny and I would both be banned if we did (making it somewhat difficult to manage the forum and server ;)

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21 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

He's 27? I thought he was much older. 

I saw their story as a short clip on FB and I said to my daughter that it would be a sweeter story if they had taken in and befriended the mom. But I don't know that they didn't do that. 

Apparently they raised a lot of money for her. I suspect they're pretty conservative but I have nothing against them. 

Ps this op-ed about their story is worth a read:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-honored-a-hero-cop-for-saving-a-baby-what-happened-to-the-mother/2018/01/31/93067b06-06a9-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html

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41 minutes ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

Apparently they raised a lot of money for her. I suspect they're pretty conservative but I have nothing against them. 

Ps this op-ed about their story is worth a read:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-honored-a-hero-cop-for-saving-a-baby-what-happened-to-the-mother/2018/01/31/93067b06-06a9-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html

Good! That was what I was hoping. I think that part of the story actually shows more charity and compassion than adopting the baby. I'd guess she is drug effected, and that is not always an easy road. But a tiny baby is much more loveable than her drug addicted mother. 

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Something is seriously wrong guys. This is the last tweet by the presidunce:

That was on January 30. He hasn't tweeted since. That's a mighty long time for him to be away from his phone. Did it break? Did he break?

Has anyone even seen him since the SOTU?

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Ok, he's back now. Tweeting alternative facts, as usual.

8 million less than Obama... 

 

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This is hilarious. Once again, it turns out the presidunce is stating the direct opposite of the truth.

 

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7 hours ago, Curious said:

We don't have rules about language here since @Destiny and I would both be banned if we did (making it somewhat difficult to manage the forum and server ;)

Fuck fuck fuckidiity fuck fuck fuck that orange homonculus and all his Branch Trumpvidian supporters.  And especially the fucks at Faux News. 

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2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Fuck fuck fuckidiity fuck fuck fuck that orange homonculus and all his Branch Trumpvidian supporters.  And especially the fucks at Faux News.

I love you so much it hurts. :pb_lol:

Quote

Trump is expected to sign off on the memo's release before he departs for congressional meetings in West Virginia Thursday, officials said. The White House will then transmit the memo back to the House Intelligence Committee, which has the authority to release it to the public, the officials said.

Reporting from other sources is saying that the memo could be released as early as Friday.

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15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A good one from the NYT: "Trump’s Birth Control Problems"

  Reveal hidden contents

Does Donald Trump actually believe in contraception?

Today we’re going to talk about how this administration is hacking away at government support for family planning. But in order to get there, we’ll have to spend a minute discussing the president’s sex life, and Stormy Daniels, the porn star.

I know you’d much rather get into the serious issue right away, but bear with me.

Daniels recently became famous when The Wall Street Journal reported that she had been paid $130,000 in hush money shortly before the election to keep quiet about a one-night stand she’d had with Trump. That was back in 2006, right after Melania gave birth to Barron. Lately, Stormy has been signing denials while making TV rounds and winking broadly.

The best evidence that the interlude did occur is an interview she gave In Touch magazine in 2011. Her description of their one-night stand was so boring, it seems impossible she was making it up. The only truly interesting part was Daniels’s report that Trump really hates sharks. (“He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die.’”) We know people cared about that part because of the flood of donations to pro-shark charities.

The sex, in case you’re interested in that sort of thing, sounded pretty run-of-the-mill. The only unusual part was that she said Trump did not use a condom: “And I was really kind of upset about it because I am so, like, careful.”

Our president spoke highly of condoms back in the day, when he did endless radio guy-talk sessions with his old pal Howard Stern. On the other hand, he volunteered that he had been surprised when his squeeze Marla Maples announced she was pregnant: “She said, ‘I think I’m so happy! We’re about to have a child.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ I didn’t know about this.”

The wife Trump ditched for Marla was Ivana, who later claimed she had gotten pregnant on their honeymoon even though she was using an IUD. “Three years later, the same thing happened!” the first former Mrs. Trump reported in her recent biography. And then again. The failure rate for IUDs is currently about 0.8 percent, but Ivana’s were apparently less reliable than a fortune cookie.

This may be way more than you wanted to know. But the point is that Trump seems to have had either terrible luck or stupendous ineptitude when it comes to birth control. Do you think that’s why he’s intent on wrecking things for the rest of the nation?

The administration certainly seems to be going out of its way to make it difficult for women to get help with family planning. Early on, Trump announced that employers who offered moral objections would no longer have to cover contraceptives in their health care plans.

Tough luck, female employees. Alex Azar, the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services, was asked about Trump’s policy during his confirmation hearings and went out of his way to be incoherent: “I do believe we have to balance, of course, a woman’s choice of insurance that she would, that she would want, with the conscience of employers and others in — that’s a balance. That’s sort of an American value, is trying to balance those. …”

People, what do you think he was trying to say?

A) “My main goal here is to demonstrate I can sound like Donald Trump. The whole gang’s doing it!”

B) “Screw you, this administration takes the evangelical side.”

C) “Did I mention I think drug prices are too high?”

Meanwhile, the Title X program, a critical source of federal funding for family planning services, seems to have been dumped in a deep freeze. The more than $250 million in current grants, which support reproductive health services in every state, are going to start expiring soon, and so far the administration hasn’t made a peep about how groups can apply for renewals. “There is an increasing tension and anxiety in the field,” said Jessica Marcella of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association.

The Trump administration originally put Title X funding under the direction of Teresa Manning, an anti-abortion activist who claimed “contraception doesn’t work.” Good news! Manning left abruptly in January.

Bad news! She’s been replaced by Valerie Huber, a longtime advocate of sexual abstinence, which she refers to as “sexual risk avoidance.”

Now it’s not surprising that Trump decided to cuddle up to the anti-abortion movement. True, it’s a complete turnaround from the position he took in his precampaign life. (“Who said I’m pro-choice?” he once demanded, perhaps forgetting it was him, in one of his books.) But dumping your principled positions on abortion is pretty much a requisite for getting the Republican presidential nomination. And in Trump’s case, of course, there wasn’t any principle.

Torpedoing critical programs that help women to avoid unwanted pregnancy in the first place, however, is just cruel and stupid. And an embarrassing reminder that, for a former playboy, our president doesn’t seem to know all that much about birth control.

Too bad Stormy doesn’t take follow-up questions.

He couldn't care less about effective contraception.

It's a crying shame that his parents didn't think about contraception one dark night 70 something years ago.

 

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