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

[47of74]

3 minutes ago, Destiny said:

Challenge accepted.

Ditto.  I also filled out the survey.  For his Muslim ban question I said that I was more worried about his dumb followers here than I was about people from the countries in his Muslim ban.

[Destiny]

Ditto.  I also filled out the survey.  For his Muslim ban question I said that I was more worried about his dumb followers here than I was about people from the countries in his Muslim ban.

I *might* have said that the thing I wanted him to focus on was impeachment hearings. Hypothetically.

[suglo]

The Toddler wants to know how you think he's doing so far ... hu...uhuhu... ha.. hahahaha...HAHAHAAAA 
https://gop.com/survey/president-trump-first-50-survey/
 

I filled it out (they will ignore my responses I'm sure) and after hitting send it took me to a donation page to help him make America great again. These people are absolute loons.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Destiny]

Oh for fucking fuck's sake:

Laptops, Other Electronics To Be Banned On Some U.S.-Bound Flights
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/laptops-electronics-ban-flights_us_58d04b51e4b0ec9d29dea4de

How the shit does this help security? This is going to end up a nightmare to deal with for the airlines. Conveniently, it also seems to only apply to Muslim countries.

[GreyhoundFan]

I filled out the survey too. I'm sure my answers will be disregarded. I made up an email address that included tangerinetoddler in the name. I couldn't help myself.

@Destiny, that is the dumbest ban ever. Um, how is he telling a non-US airline what they can do with passengers flying to Montreal? And suspicious people only fly to NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and Montreal? WTDH?

 

"The Trump Kids’ Spring Break Is Turning Aspen Into a Nightmare"

Quote

Two months into our current historical experiment, each week of Donald Trump’s young presidency appears to have begun the same way—with the assumption, or perhaps even the assertion, that this will be the week that the administration either puts on its big boy pants, quits the tomfoolery, and attempts to govern; or that it is indeed the week that it falls headlong off the precipice of impeachment. This has been the leitmotif as tensions mounted regarding who Trump would nominate for the Supreme Court; whether he would appeal the Muslim ban; as he prepared to address Congress; as it seemed that everyone in his administration—including even attorney general Jeff Sessions—had met with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

This week, though, was supposed to be the real test. On Monday morning, F.B.I. director James Comey categorically refuted Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama had wiretapped his phone at Trump Tower. Trump’s health-care plan is also set to face a consequential vote in Congress later in the week. Fallout is still rolling in from his proposed budget plan. Impossibly, the president's approval rating has fallen even further, to 37 percent.

It just so happened that this make-or-break moment for Trump fell on the eve of spring break for private schools across the eastern seaboard. For many wealthy families and their privileged scions, that means two weeks of rollicking in Florida or Turks and Caicos, and then Colorado or Utah, or perhaps vice versa depending on a matriarch’s social ritual of choice. Trump’s adult children, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric,__ are no exception to this calendar rhythm. The Trumps have spent three decades as a moneyed, gold-dipped New York family, and moneyed, gold-dipped New York families skip town for spring break, regardless of whether it’s a big week for dad.

Over the weekend, the Trump Kids flew to Aspen, Colorado. In tow were Don Jr., his wife, and their five kids; Ivanka and her three kids (her husband, Jared Kushner, who serves as a senior adviser to her father, stayed behind in Washington. It was this week, after all.) Eric and his wife joined, too. Unfortunately, unlike trips past, the extended Trumps now require a great deal of Secret Service protection. Over the weekend The Aspen Times reported that about 100 Secret Service agents were expected to travel with them. As a matter of protocol, the Secret Service would not comment on the number of agents it sent to protect the First Family. A representative told me I would have to file a Freedom of Information Act request in order to find out how much the government spent on sending agents on a Trump spring break. Bill Linn, an assistant chief of police in the town of Aspen, said that the Secret Service had been in touch with the police department and had not asked for any kind of support.

For many, a chance to spot the First Family is a draw. Dinner reservations and spots at events held at Mar-a-Lago, for instance, are now hard to come by. But for many New York families vacationing in Aspen, the presence of the Trumps is nothing but trouble. “They’re everywhere. There are so many of them,” one New York mom who is vacationing in Aspen told me. “Everyone is complaining. Everyone is annoyed.”

Another New York mom who took her kids to Aspen for the week said that with so many agents about, it is hard to get around the mountain. Because the Trump group is so big, and security is so tight, it’s harder to score tables at the few local restaurants at which New Yorkers normally dine. Traffic, too, they said, is a nightmare. (Linn said that there were no reports filed about traffic related to a dignitary visit, but that traffic has been challenging). About 40 or so locals threw together a last-minute protest on Main Street—for “All That Is Right and Good”—when they heard about the First Family’s visit.

...

The truly rich, who go places like Aspen, aren't used to being inconvenienced.

[CTRLZero]

I filled out the survey using an old email that I don't check any longer.  I may have done a little bit of scolding about how unacceptable his behavior is for a president.   Wish I'd thought to add the bit about concentrating on his upcoming impeachment, lol!

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, iweartanktops said:

 

This.

[GreyhoundFan]

"President Trump’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Twitter day". Too many Tweets to copy, but interesting to read.

 

There's so much going on that we can't keep up with it all: "Overshadowed executive order sets stage for threatened federal programs, workforce. Layoffs loom."

Quote

Welcome to Trumpland — a place of endangered domestic programs and a threatened federal workforce.

“Hard power” is Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney’s description of President Trump’s proposed budget.

Hardhearted is another.

The budget Trump released Thursday brings more anxiety to federal employees who already are nervous about a president who considers so many of them expendable. While that was clear from his spending blueprint, another document that received less attention could have a more lasting imprint.

No one expects Trump’s budget to be implemented as written, because Congress will change it. Less-known and less tamper-proof — but longer-lasting — is Trump’s executive order, released three days earlier, outlining a “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.”

The executive order and the budget proposal, plus an earlier hiring freeze memorandum, present a management strategy designed to jettison agencies, oust programs, slow hiring and dump employees.

Former presidents gave their reorganization initiatives optimistic names like Bill Clinton’s “Reinventing Government.” The Trump administration approach reflects his darker view: the “deconstruction of the administrative state” in the words of top aide Stephen K. Bannon.

...

“I would expect that there would have to be reductions in forces at various agencies,” Mulvaney added.

In reply to Jim Acosta, a CNN reporter who asked if the budget is “hardhearted,” Mulvaney called it “as compassionate as you can get.”

Only in a Trump world of alternative facts.

 

[RoseWilder]

I'm never sure which thread to put things that involve both Trump and Congress, so I'm just going to put it here: 

 

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Trump wants to defund PBS. ‘Sesame Street’ brutally parodied him for decades."

The article goes on to talk about "Donald Grump's" three appearances on Sesame Street. They are almost eerie in how realistic they are in their portrayal of the tangerine toddler.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Ooh, I bet this will start those little fingers a-Tweeting: "Trump drops 208 spots on Forbes list of billionaires"

Quote

Donald Trump is $1 billion poorer since becoming president, according to Forbes’s latest list of the world’s billionaires.

The magazine’s newest ranking, released Monday, estimated that Trump’s net worth has fallen from $4.5 billion last year to $3.5 billion today, dropping him 208 spots on the magazine’s list of billionaires, from No. 336 last year to No. 544.

Although Trump resigned from his businesses when he entered office, his slide isn’t due to the sale of any of those businesses, because he still owns them.

Rather, Trump’s net worth is down because about 40 percent of his wealth comes from real estate he owns in Midtown Manhattan, including Trump Tower and eight other buildings within about a mile.

“Midtown Manhattan real estate is down; therefore, so is Donald Trump’s fortune,” the magazine said in a statement.

...

Trump has disputed Forbes’s estimates in the past, particularly regarding the worth of his brand, which — compared with real estate — is more difficult to value. During the presidential campaign, he said he was worth $8.7 billion, and he said last year in a personal financial disclosure form filed with the federal government that his net worth was “in excess” of $10 billion.

...

Forbes isn’t the only publication tracking Trump’s wealth to conclude that he is probably worth much less than he says he is. Fortune and Bloomberg have previously offered their own lower estimates.

Of course he disputes it -- if the article isn't fawning, it's "fake".

[onekidanddone]

50 minutes ago, Destiny said:

I *might* have said that the thing I wanted him to focus on was impeachment hearings. Hypothetically.

I was on a roll until they made it impossible for me to send with out making a donation. I just closed out of the survey at the end. How do you get around that? What would happen if I used a fake credit card number?

[JMarie]

10 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Ooh, I bet this will start those little fingers a-Tweeting: "Trump drops 208 spots on Forbes list of billionaires"

Of course he disputes it -- if the article isn't fawning, it's "fake".

To deflect from this and all the other fake news of the day, Eric "the other one" Trump announced his wife is expecting a son.

Sure, that'll keep the focus light and positive.

[onekidanddone]

39 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I filled out the survey too. I'm sure my answers will be disregarded. I made up an email address that included tangerinetoddler in the name. I couldn't help myself.

@Destiny, that is the dumbest ban ever. Um, how is he telling a non-US airline what they can do with passengers flying to Montreal? And suspicious people only fly to NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and Montreal? WTDH?

 

"The Trump Kids’ Spring Break Is Turning Aspen Into a Nightmare"

The truly rich, who go places like Aspen, aren't used to being inconvenienced.

Four little words for them.  They Are Not KIDS.  I'm sure some of his white demographic in Appalachia who are about to loose their food stamps are mighty happy his "kids" can go on vacation. 

[47of74]

38 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I filled out the survey too. I'm sure my answers will be disregarded. I made up an email address that included tangerinetoddler in the name. I couldn't help myself.

@Destiny, that is the dumbest ban ever. Um, how is he telling a non-US airline what they can do with passengers flying to Montreal? And suspicious people only fly to NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and Montreal? WTDH?

 

"The Trump Kids’ Spring Break Is Turning Aspen Into a Nightmare"

The truly rich, who go places like Aspen, aren't used to being inconvenienced.

I remember when President Obama came to the place I worked at several years ago it was a mad house there.  I had to leave for work at 3:30 in the morning to get there in time to get parking because they blocked off half the lots.  They had a bunch of media organizations there, roads blocked off, and so on. 

I slept real good the following weekend as it had all caught up with me then.

[RoseWilder]

Let's file this one under "Christians are hypocrites": 

I'm really glad someone pointed out the nauseating double-standards. 

[GreyhoundFan]

The WaPo is doing an Agent Orange Madness bracket: "Trump Madness: What’s the quintessential quote of the Trump administration?"

 

"All the President’s Lies"

Quote

The ninth week of Donald Trump’s presidency began with the F.B.I. director calling him a liar.

The director, the very complicated James Comey, didn’t use the L-word in his congressional testimony Monday. Comey serves at the pleasure of the president, after all. But his meaning was clear as could be. Trump has repeatedly accused Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones, and Comey explained there is “no information that supports” the claim.

I’ve previously argued that not every untruth deserves to be branded with the L-word, because it implies intent and somebody can state an untruth without doing so knowingly. George W. Bush didn’t lie when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and Obama didn’t lie when he said people who liked their current health insurance could keep it. They made careless statements that proved false (and they deserved much of the criticism they got).

But the current president of the United States lies. He lies in ways that no American politician ever has before. He has lied about — among many other things — Obama’s birthplace, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Sept. 11, the Iraq War, ISIS, NATO, military veterans, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants, anti-Semitic attacks, the unemployment rate, the murder rate, the Electoral College, voter fraud and his groping of women.

He tells so many untruths that it’s time to leave behind the textual parsing over which are unwitting and which are deliberate — as well as the condescending notion that most of Trump’s supporters enjoy his lies.

Trump sets out to deceive people. As he has put it, “I play to people’s fantasies.”

Caveat emptor: When Donald Trump says something happened, it should not change anyone’s estimation of whether the event actually happened. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. His claim doesn’t change the odds.

...

 

[iweartanktops]

1 hour ago, Destiny said:

Oh for fucking fuck's sake:

Laptops, Other Electronics To Be Banned On Some U.S.-Bound Flights
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/laptops-electronics-ban-flights_us_58d04b51e4b0ec9d29dea4de

How the shit does this help security? This is going to end up a nightmare to deal with for the airlines. Conveniently, it also seems to only apply to Muslim countries.

Fucking obviously, Trump really supports businesses. 

[GreyhoundFan]

The Toddler's winery was discussed a few days ago. Well, guess what? They want to hire more foreign workers.

Quote

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — As President Donald Trump touts job creation for Americans as a top priority, his son’s Virginia winery is seeking permission to hire foreign workers to cultivate its grapes.

Trump Vineyard Estates, better known as Trump Winery, asked to bring in 29 workers this season through the federal H-2A visa program, The Daily Progress reported (http://bit.ly/2nL4wDB ). The program enables agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to do agricultural jobs or perform other temporary or seasonal services.

Trump Vineyard Estates, owned by Eric Trump, initially applied for six foreign workers in December. Two months later, the company applied for 23 more. Both job orders for Trump Vineyard Estates say the primary tasks include planting and cultivating vines, adding grow tubes and pruning grape vines.

H-2A workers and U.S. workers in corresponding employment must be paid a certain rate — $10.72 an hour for vineyard farm workers in Virginia this year. To apply, employers say they’ve been unable to find American citizens to fill the jobs. At least three other local vineyards also applied to hire foreign workers.

“It’s difficult to find people,” said Libby Whitley, an attorney who has worked with employers, including Trump Winery, on labor issues.

But news reports that followed the winery’s December requests for the visas prompted criticism over the request. Trump campaigned on promises to create new jobs for American workers and used harsh rhetoric to talk about immigrants, including his promise to build a border wall to keep out people from Mexico and Central America who make up much of the migrant workforce in the U.S.

Whitely said she assumed her company would be flooded with people applying for the jobs because of the media coverage of the winery’s initial request.

“Guess how many applicants we had? … 13,” she said. “And they were all from places like the Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria. We did not have one American worker apply on (the first job order).”

Several people have sent emails to show they are outraged that Trump winery is hiring foreigners, Whitley said.

“I qualify every one of those responses and I say, ‘Are you interested in the job? If you are, please get in touch with us immediately,'” Whitley said.

Trump Winery didn’t respond to the newspaper’s request for comment

Maybe if he paid more, some of his supporters would want to work there.

[iweartanktops]

WHITE. 

[RoseWilder]

This tweet perfectly sums up the current state of the GOP: 

 

[SpurgeonSquarepants]

Hey guys, it's been awhile! Been busy gestating and birthing another heathen, but now I'm done with that!

I found something for all you wonderful internet friends that is *hopefully* not already here...

https://newrepublic.com/article/140961/amazing-disgrace-donald-trump-hijacked-religious-right

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I love this one:

[RoseWilder]

Now this is interesting: 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

We can all rest easy because the tangerine toddler will have mommy his daughter close by:  "Ivanka Trump moves into West Wing office, acknowledges ‘no modern precedent’ for her role"

Quote

Though Ivanka Trump lacks a formal White House job, the president’s older daughter is moving into her own West Wing office, an administration spokesperson said  — a move that increases her profile as an influential, though unofficial, adviser to her father.

Ivanka Trump will not be on the government payroll or officially bound by its ethics rules, but she said in a statement to Politico that she will "voluntarily" follow those restrictions, anyway. She also acknowledged the unusual nature of her emerging role.

"I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life,” Ivanka Trump in the statement. “While there is no modern precedent for an adult child of the president, I will voluntarily follow all of the ethics rules placed on government employees."

...

Ivanka's political ascent stands in contrast with some of her previously stated intentions. In January, she announced that she and her husband, Jared Kushner, would be moving to the nation’s capital — but she would be taking time off to focus on her family.  “I plan to take time to settle our three young children into their new home and schools," she wrote on Facebook at the time.

...

On Monday evening, NBC reported Ivanka has banned her eponymous brands from advertising anything with her image. But extracting the First Daughter's likeness from her products may prove difficult. During the campaign and even after the election, her public life has been intertwined with her products.

...

To the bolded: it would be nice if everyone in this administration would follow all of the ethics rules placed on government employees.