Donald Trump and the Deathly Fallout (Part 15)

[GreyhoundFan]

Mr. Delusional is at it again: "Trump says he can’t be sued for violence at his rallies because he won the election"

Quote

Last year, protesters from a campaign rally sued Donald Trump — claiming the future president urged his supporters to assault them.

Now Trump is the president, of course. And while the lawsuit grinds on, with more accusations added last week, he claims he won immunity along with the election.

“Mr. Trump is immune from suit because he is President of the United States,” his lawyers wrote Friday, rebutting a complaint filed by three protesters who claimed Trump incited a riot against them at a Louisville event in March 2016.

Trump's team challenged the accusations — negligence and incitement to riot — on many other grounds, too.

But a federal judge already rejected their attempt to have the lawsuit thrown out earlier this month.

And in another new filing in the same case, a Trump supporter accused of assaulting protesters agreed with the plaintiffs that Trump wanted a riot — while denying he actually harmed anyone.

Alvin Bamberger, who was seen in a video pushing a protester through a jeering crowd at the Louisville convention center, “would not have acted as he did without Trump and/or the Trump Campaign’s specific urging and inspiration,” Bamberger's lawyer wrote.

Bamberger denied “shoving … and striking” anyone, as the lawsuit accuses him of. But he admitted to touching plaintiff Kashiya Nwanguma, a 21-year-old college student who had gone to the rally with a protest sign.

And he accepted as true her claims that Trump's speech “was calculated to incite violence” against the protesters.

“Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump and/or the Trump Campaign repeatedly urged people attending Trump political rallies to remove individuals who were voicing opposition,” reads Bamberger's filing, which asks that Trump be forced to pay his damages, if he's found liable.

The Washington Post has chronicled Trump's history of tough talk from the podium and violent rallies that followed him on his path to the Republican nomination.

“I'd like to punch him in the face,” Trump once said of a protester at a rally in Las Vegas, for example.

...

“At the Louisville political rally at issue in this lawsuit, Trump and/or the Trump Campaign urged people attending the rally to remove the protesters,” Bamberger's lawyers wrote. He “had no prior intention to act as he did.”

“That is extremely significant,” said Greg Belzley, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “It is fairly unusual to have a person who is engaged in violent misconduct ... actually point the finger at the person and identify the person who caused him to do what he did.”

He laughed out loud when asked about Trump's claim of presidential immunity, pointing to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that held President Bill Clinton could be sued over events that occurred before he took office.

While the judge has not yet set a timetable for the expected trial, Belzley said his team would begin requesting campaign documents and other evidence they hope will show that Trump knew his words could provoke violence.

And they are preparing to put the president under oath as the lawsuit moves toward trial.

“The key is going to be his deposition,” Belzley said, “which we intend to pursue.”

Oh, I hope they depose him until he cries.

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh please: "GOP leaders urge patience — not panic — amid Trump’s early stumbles"

Quote

More Americans disapprove than approve of President Trump’s job performance. His White House is in a perpetual state of turmoil. Fellow Republicans control Congress, but no signature legislation has passed. And in ruby-red Kansas last week, the Republican candidate in a special election got a scare from a turbocharged Democratic base, winning a House seat by a far slimmer margin than expected.

For a Republican Party already starting to strategize ahead of next year’s midterm elections, the turbulent, inchoate environment as the Trump presidency nears its 100th-day mark could be a cause for concern or even alarm.

Yet party leaders and strategists are preaching patience, not panic.

These Republicans — who acknowledge that their political brand will be shaped by the 45th president as long as he holds office — say their political fortunes will be told over the next year and a half in the answers to two overriding questions: Does Trump project strength? And does he achieve progress that amounts to more jobs and higher wages?

“What matters is a record of accomplishment,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who has been conducting focus groups of Trump supporters. “People can disagree over the details or the significance of the change, but if you have a record of accomplishment, that fixes everything. . . . If you don’t, no rhetoric will fix it.”

That view contrasts sharply with the conservative ideological projects inspired by some past Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and is part of an emerging recognition for the Grand Old Party that doctrines may not drive voters as much as selling changes Trump has made.

...

The president who campaigned on his decades of real estate dealmaking and his vow that nobody could execute more “beautiful” deals in Washington is anxious to achieve, well, deals.

“He’s realizing that the party will hang with him, but there are no guarantees and no easy paths forward,” said Ed Rollins, a longtime GOP strategist. “It’s got to kill them that they have the whole thing — the White House and Congress — and they can’t seem to get it together.”

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) was blunt: “We can’t blame this on Barack Obama. We have to look in the mirror.”

For congressional Republicans, the challenges are not necessarily overcoming a policy divide with Trump, but getting clear direction from the White House about the shape and scope of the agenda for the remainder of the year.

...

What worries Republican leaders is the potent Trump resistance movement activated on the left. Consider last week’s results in Kansas. Trump carried the 4th Congressional District last fall by 27 percentage points, yet Republican Ron Estes won the special election for the open House seat by just seven percentage points over Democrat James Thompson, who was buoyed by a surge in his party’s turnout.

Another special election this Tuesday presents a second test, this time in a suburban Atlanta district that is expected to be more competitive for Democrats than the one in Kansas.

“Their base is whipped up and going,” Cole said of the Democrats. “Nothing we can do is going to change that. So you better have your own base equally charged up, and to do that you have to convince them that you’re getting things done — that the fact that they gave you the Senate, the House and the White House means something.”

...

Some Trump allies say he must stay true to his promise of wholesale change to maintain his political currency.

“They’re in power because people reacted to the options that were presented and went with the party that seemed to be more like change,” Caddell said. “There is no deep support for the GOP. They remain an unpopular party, and people are very dissatisfied, which is why Trump is sitting in the White House. If the Republicans don’t recognize that, our politics will move on from them.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I thought this was a good editorial: "The secret presidency"

Quote

FOR DECADES, and particularly since President Richard Nixon’s administration, public pressure has led presidents to become steadily more open with citizens about how they conduct business, and more mindful of ethics. Major party candidates have released their tax returns, revealing information about their finances and any potential conflicts of interest. Presidential relatives have avoided high office. The Justice Department has insulated itself from the Oval Office. And, as of the Barack Obama presidency, the White House has released voluminous records on who visited the executive mansion grounds so citizens could know who was meeting with the president and his staff.

Some of these practices flowed from formal rules, others from norms based on the American notion that the president works for the people and that transparency and ethical guidelines are essential checks against abuse of that trust. Though presidents have chafed at the expectations that follow from this principle, none before President Trump has so brazenly attempted to reverse the decades-long trend toward an above-board presidency.

...

Mr. Trump’s decision to claw the White House logs back into the shadows follows several other moves that show contempt for the public. As a candidate, Mr. Trump promised to disclose his tax returns; then postponed the release date; then seemed to decide that he never need keep that promise. His excuse — that the IRS is auditing his recent tax forms — has been thoroughly discredited as a rationale, and provides not even phony cover for refusing to release older returns. Given Mr. Trump’s sprawling, secretive business, and unanswered questions about its ties to Russians, his departure from tradition in this matter is particularly unsettling. Nor has he made as clean a break from his business as taxpayers have a right to expect.

Judging from his public statements, Mr. Trump calculates that there is little to no political price to be paid for flouting norms of ethics and openness. But his dismal poll numbers consistently show that Americans question his honesty. A time may come when he needs to ask the American people to have confidence in him. After undoing the nation’s progress toward transparency, he may find that the reservoir of trust is very shallow.

 

 

"Trump wants to give the rich a big tax cut. Here’s what his supporters want."

Quote

President Trump and his GOP allies are planning on handing out trillions of dollars in tax cuts. It's one of a few major goals for Republicans now that they have control in Washington.

Yet a new poll suggests that ordinary Republican voters lack enthusiasm for broad tax relief, and might even object to current plans to reduce taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Although the GOP plans might address other concerns that Republicans shared with pollsters about taxes in America, the results suggest that more Republicans want to see an increase in taxes for the rich than want to see their own taxes reduced.

More Republicans say they pay about the right amount in taxes than complain about paying more than their fair share, according to the poll published Friday by the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, large groups of Republican voters say they were already upset by the fact that some corporations and rich households pay too little.

Last year, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the speaker of the House, and his GOP colleagues put forward a proposal for tax relief that would primarily benefit the well-off. After a decade, 99.6 percent of the savings under the plan would accrue to the richest 1 percent of households, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

In the Pew poll, however, 40 percent of Republicans said they were bothered "a lot" by the fact that some wealthy Americans do not pay their fair share of taxes.

The plan would also reduce the rate on corporate income from 35 percent to 20 percent and reduce taxes on corporations by $891 billion in total over a decade. Yet even more Republicans worry that corporate taxes are already too low. In the poll, 44 percent of GOP respondents said corporations paying too little bothered them a lot.

...

Trump's plan would also reduce the number of taxpayers who itemize -- by about 60 percent -- but could make the tax code more complex in other ways, according to the center. Trump's plan includes a major break aimed at small businesses, but experts on taxation have warned that provision could be abused by workers with high salaries, who could claim to be operating small businesses contracting with their current employers.

During the campaign, Trump's advisers did not make clear how they would address this potential loophole, and the White House has yet to issue a revised plan now that Trump is in office.

Among working-class and poor Republicans, there is even greater concern that corporations and the rich are not paying enough.

For instance, a majority of Republicans with annual family incomes under $30,000 -- 51 percent -- were bothered a lot by corporations not paying their fair share, according to Pew. In that group, 45 percent said the same about rich taxpayers. And only 25 percent said the amount they themselves pay bothers them a lot.

The opposite was true among Democrats: Less affluent Democrats tended to have more conservative views of the tax system.

Twenty-four percent of Democrats with incomes below $30,000 said they were bothered a lot by the amount they pay in taxes, compared to 13 percent of those with incomes above $75,000. Meanwhile, 19 percent of Democrats with less than $30,000 a year said that the poor did not pay their fair share, compared to just 8 percent of Democrats with incomes above $75,000.

Regardless of income, roughly three-quarters of Democrats are bothered a lot by how little corporations and wealthy Americans pay.

The Republican plans to reduce taxes for those groups are also at odds with the concerns of a majority Americans as a whole. Nationally, 60 percent of respondents told Pew they were already bothered a lot by the rich paying less than their fair share, and 62 percent said the same about corporations.

As if Agent Orange cares about what his supporters want.

[GreyhoundFan]

Sigh: "Trump Raises Millions for 2020 Re-election Bid"

Quote

President Trump is raising money toward a bid for a second term earlier than any incumbent president in recent history, pulling in tens of millions of dollars in the months after his election and through his inauguration.

Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday showed that Mr. Trump’s campaign brought in $7.1 million during the first three months of 2017, on top of over $23 million raised with the Republican Party. By contrast, President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee brought in a total of about $15 million during the first three months of his first term in 2009.

A vast majority of Mr. Trump’s donors gave small amounts, and relatively little came in large checks from wealthy Republican benefactors. That suggests that Mr. Trump is relying heavily on the grass-roots donors who provided much of the cash — aside from his own fortune — he used for his campaign.

Mr. Trump’s campaign committee spent $6.3 million from January through March, including $1.2 million on merchandise and “Make America Great Again” hats, sales of which helped his fund-raising.

As it did during the presidential race, Mr. Trump’s campaign also spent significantly on Trump properties. Trump Tower in Manhattan, where the campaign is based, collected $300,000 in rent. At least another $25,000 went to other properties, including Mr. Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas and a golf course he owns in Florida. Such transactions are legal, and required to ensure he pays fair market rate for campaign costs.

The campaign disbursed tens of thousands of dollars to a firm owned by Mr. Trump’s chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon. The bill was for “administrative assistant/secretarial” services.

...

“They know the Democrats are already raising a lot of money by people who may not have liked Hillary or were not engaged, but have become engaged because of their reaction to the president,” Ms. McGehee said.

Ms. McGehee also noted that Mr. Trump had more control over rallies run by his re-election campaign, as they allow him to make sure crowds are full of his supporters. The president held his first campaign rally, in an airplane hangar in Florida, about four weeks after taking office.

Mr. Trump filed for the 2020 race the day of his inauguration. Filing quickly allowed him to continue to raise money and tap the small donors whose enthusiasm was critical to his campaign, with a heavy dose of email blasts and requests for help against the proverbial Washington establishment.

The Trump campaign has been hawking the hats and other collectibles to members of its email list, at campaign events and at Trump Tower, where the iconic red version of his hat was sold out on Friday.

“It’s the same story of a president who has chosen not to disentangle himself from his business interests,” Ms. McGehee said.

I'd happily give if it was to purchase every member of this administration a striped jumpsuit for their prison stay.

[47of74]

Yep, the Party of Personal Responsibility on display once again;

rawstory.com/2017/04/lawyers-for-trump-fan-who-attacked-black-woman-at-kentucky-rally-blames-trump-for-urging-him-on/

Quote

Attorneys for a Ohio man who is accused of attacking a black woman at a Donald Trump campaign rally last March claimed their client was acting at the behest of the then-candidate.

As part of his defense, Bamberger’s  attorneys stated that their client, “admits only that he touched a woman,” but pinned the blame on Trump.

“Bamberger had no prior intention to act has he did,” the attorneys wrote in their filing. “Bamberger would not have acted as he did without Trump and/or Trump campaign’s specific urging and inspiration. To the extent that Bamberger acted, he did so in response to – and inspired by – Trump and/or Trump campaign’s urging to remove the protesters.”

According to the attorneys, if Bamberger is found liable, Trump or his campaign are also to blame “because Trump and/or Trump campaign urged and inspired Bamberger to act as he did.”

You act like a racist fuckstick because some orange buffon tapeworm asshole shithead starts getting stupid and then you want to claim that he told you to when you act on your urges?  Nice try. 

[purple_summer]

Let's have a moment of positivity shall we? 

 

[fraurosena]

Some more fun.

 

[fraurosena]

Just heard the best description of this administration.

"This whole thing is like somebody took the script from "Game of Thrones" and mixed in a few pages from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Said by writer Charlie Pierce on MSNBC's Ari Melber:

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/-democrats-taking-over-the-trump-white-house-921795139549

 

[fraurosena]

Melania Trump set to move with son Barron to White House ‘at end of school year’

Now, before you all get your hopes up that this will put an end to all that taxpayer money going towards the security of Trump Tower, she doesn't say which school year... 

[fraurosena]

Ethics? What ethics? Huh?

With Trump Appointees, a Raft of Potential Conflicts and ‘No Transparency’

I'm quoting the most important findings, but the article itself contains quite a number of factual examples. Well worth the read!

Quote

President Trump is populating the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who in many cases are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck.

The potential conflicts are arising across the executive branch, according to an analysis of recently released financial disclosures, lobbying records and interviews with current and former ethics officials by The New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica.

In at least two cases, the appointments may have already led to violations of the administration’s own ethics rules. But evaluating if and when such violations have occurred has become almost impossible because the Trump administration is secretly issuing waivers to the rules. [...]

This revolving door of lobbyists and government officials is not new in Washington. Both parties make a habit of it.

But the Trump administration is more vulnerable to conflicts than the prior administration, particularly after the president eliminated an ethics provision that prohibits lobbyists from joining agencies they lobbied in the prior two years. The White House also announced on Friday that it would keep its visitors’ logs secret, discontinuing the release of information on corporate executives, lobbyists and others who enter the complex, often to try to influence federal policy. The changes have drawn intense criticism from government ethics advocates across the city.

Mr. Trump’s appointees are also far wealthier and have more complex financial holdings and private-sector ties than officials hired at the start of the Obama administration, according to an Office of Government Ethics analysis that the White House has made public. This creates a greater chance that they might have conflicts related to investments or former clients, which could force them to sell off assets, recuse themselves or seek a waiver.[...]

A White House spokeswoman, Sarah H. Sanders, declined repeated requests by The Times to speak with Stefan C. Passantino, the White House lawyer in charge of the ethics policy. Instead, the White House provided a written statement that did not address any of the specific questions about potential violations The Times had identified. 

“The White House takes its ethics pledge and federal conflict of interest rules very seriously,” the statement said. “The White House requires all of its employees to work closely with ethics counsel to ensure compliance and has aggressively required employees to recuse or divest where the law requires.” [...]

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, said the sheer number of potential conflicts — which will require recusals, necessitate waivers or result in violations of the ethics rule — is disturbing, particularly given the secretive approach the administration is taking on the issue.

“This is not a matter of just checking a box — this is about protecting the integrity of the operation of federal government,” Ms. Brian said. “But our worst fears are coming true: We know people coming in who have conflicts, and we cannot see what restrictions they are under, if any.”

The result, she predicted, might serve no one particularly well. Even if the rules are enforced, so many senior officials will be required to recuse themselves that “they will have a hard time getting their job done.”

[HarryPotterFan]

On April 14, 2017 at 6:07 PM, TeddyBonkers said:

I want this to sound reassuring, so please take it in the spirit in which it is intended. North Korea "rattles its sabers" every spring and late summer. That's when American soldiers in South Korea are out in the field, doing their military training.  This saber ratttling might be louder this year than in others, but I hope that's all it is.

Source: Mr. Bonkers did a short tour in South Korea a number of years ago, and the Army is still sending families over to South Korea to accompany soldiers on long tours.

My fear is Trump doesn't understand this and will do something stupid.

[HarryPotterFan]

On April 12, 2017 at 10:25 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

More damage to federal agencies: "White House tells agencies to come up with a plan to shrink their workforces"

What Agent Orange and Mulvaney don't seem to understand is that many federal employees are covered by unions and civil service regulations that make it difficult to fire or lay off. It usually ends up costing more. It's not like private industry, especially in an at-will state, where you can be let go with no notice or reason.

What about new federal employees still under the probationary period? 

[fraurosena]

Now this is just idiotic.

US embassy holds ‘terrorist’ 3-month-old baby because wrong box was checked on visa form

I mean... come on!  There was nobody that thought this was incredibly stupid at the embassy? Really? From the article:

Quote

“I couldn’t believe that they couldn’t see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone,” Kenyon [the baby's mom] explained, adding that after seeing who they were refusing entry to, embassy officials failed to see how ridiculous the request was.

“They didn’t appear to have a sense of humor over it at all and couldn’t see the funny side,” Kenyon stated [...]

But there's another thing I find truly weird about all of this. There's a new presidunce, and he's got some whack-job ideas about keeping terrorists out. Ok, I can understand that. But all those people, in all those agencies that actually have to enforce all of this, suddenly collectively become complete morons? 

The psychology about this fascinates me. It's why dictatorships can succeed... 

 

[fraurosena]

Yes, this is a historic presiduncy.

From the HuffPo article 'Trump Taps Salesman To Run Military Draft' referenced in the tweet above:

Quote

Late Monday night, when many Americans were in bed, President Donald Trump quietly announced his intention to nominate former Washington state senator Don Benton (R) to be director of the Selective Service System, which operates the nation’s military draft.

This was when the problems first came to light.

They started with a White House statement that lauded Benton’s environmental record, and the three years he spent leading the Environmental Services Department in Clark County, Washington.[...]

Of the 204 words in the announcement, there wasn’t one mention of the military, the draft, or anything related to what the Selective Service System actually does. Nor were there any references to qualifications or experiences that prepare Benton to manage the millions of records in the draft system, or the agency’s roughly $25 million budget.

It was as if the White House had written the statement for a completely different job than the one Benton was being given.

Turns out, that’s exactly what happened.

Benton had originally been expected to fill a top position at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he was part of the Trump “landing team” during the presidential transition.

But this was before Benton began to infuriate his boss, the newly confirmed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Benton’s habit of interrupting policy discussions to make bizarre comments became so maddening, according to The Washington Post, that senior staff began keeping him out of policy meetings. 

All of which posed a dilemma for the president: On one hand, Benton was an early Trump supporter and the chair of Trump’s Washington state campaign. Given how few Republican legislators were early Trump supporters, there was a real desire to reward each one. On the other hand, the agency where Benton was actually qualified to work, the EPA, did not want to hire him.

So Trump’s solution was to give Benton oversight of the military draft.[...]

“This is a completely inappropriate appointment for that position,” said Richard Painter, the chief ethics lawyer for former Republican President George W. Bush.  

“We need to convince young men to register for the draft, and to step up if they’re needed to fight. And who is it who’s asking them to do that? Someone who’s never served, and for whom this is a throwaway political patronage job.”

The article goes on to state what a terrible fuck this dude really is. Because it's such a lump of text, I've put it under a spoiler. Read the whole article though, for even more information and opinions.

Spoiler

[...] a wide-ranging HuffPost review of Benton’s public records, past interviews, marketing materials, biographies and corporate disclosures reveals that his career has been marked by lawsuits, ethics problems, public feuds and allegations of cronyism.

As a member of the Washington state senate for two decades, Benton was known for getting into vicious arguments with his fellow senators, some of which resulted in formal complaints.

A brief stint as state GOP chairman in 2000 lasted only eight months, during which Benton, who was already under pressure for allegedly mishandling party funds, fired the committee staff and changed the locks at party headquarters. Benton’s fellow Republicans ultimately voted to replace him.

In 2012, he threatened to file a $1 million libel suit against a challenger who pointed out that Benton had missed nearly 300 Senate votes in his four-year term.

In 2014, he accused a fellow senator of behaving like “a trashy, trampy-mouthed little girl.” The senator also said that Benton followed her around the Senate floor yelling, “You are weird and … weird! Weird, weird, weird. Just so weird!”   

At the time, Benton had a job as director of the Clark County Environmental Services Department. But this position, too, was mired in controversy.

Political allies had given Benton the job, despite his having no background in environmental policy. After three tumultuous years, the department was dissolved in May of 2016. Six months later, Benton sued Clark County for $2 million.

Through it all, his marketing firm, The Benton Group, had continued to peddle motivational seminars to sales teams at local TV stations. [ a clip of this is included in the article]

Luckily for Benton, by the time his job for the county environmental services department was eliminated last year, he’d already found a new patron: Trump.

The president first met Benton in the spring of 2016, during Trump’s only campaign stop in deep blue Washington state. The two men reportedly bonded over a meal of McDonald’s. “I had Filet-O-Fish and he had a Big Mac,” Benton later said.

Soon after, Trump hired Benton to be his campaign director in Washington state, a doomed mission (Trump lost by 15 points).

Nonetheless, over the next few months Benton charged the Trump campaign more than $135,000 in fees and reimbursements, according to a review of Federal Election Commission records. This included rent paid for by the Trump campaign, along with money paid to Benton’s son, his wife, Mary, and his sales training company, The Benton Group.

Benton’s company also goes by the name National Advertising Consultants as well as National Consulting Services Inc. Over the years, Benton has frequently used these entities as brokers for his own campaign ads in Washington state. In these cases, Benton pays himself the standard 15 percent commission. 

 

[47of74]

Happy Easter, Man Baby.

nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-investigation-tax-day-protesters-tweets-election-over-n747101

Quote

President Donald Trump on Twitter Sunday lashed out against citizens who'd taken to the streets to exercise their First Amendment rights.

While claiming that thousands of people who on Saturday demanded Trump finally release his full tax returns were "paid" protesters, Trump tweeted, "The election is over!"

"Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies," Trump tweeted a day after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in more than 150 cities across the country.

An hour after wishing his 28 million followers a Happy Easter, Trump hailed his November win and called out those making his undisclosed tax history an issue.

 

[candygirl200413]

So um... this is a thing.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/reorganizing-the-executive-branch

Quote

On March 13th, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order that will make the Federal government more efficient, effective, and accountable to you, the American people. This Executive Order directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to present the President with a plan that recommends ways to reorganize the executive branch and eliminate unnecessary agencies. 

President Trump wants to hear your ideas and suggestions on how the government can be better organized to work for the American people. 

Share your ideas below by June 12th!

 

[SilverBeach]

5 hours ago, HarryPotterFan said:

What about new federal employees still under the probationary period? 

Ain't no new Federal employees . One of the first acts of this tragedy of an administration was to institute a hiring freeze. I'm an old Federal employee (thirty years) and really glad about it. I see light at the end of my tunnel-retirement.

[HarryPotterFan]

Just now, SilverBeach said:

Ain't no new Federal employees . One of the first acts of this tragedy of an administration was to institute a hiring freeze. I'm an old Federal employee (thirty years) and really glad about it. I see light at the end of my tunnel-retirement.

Well the probationary period where you can get fired is two years, right? So is anyone newer than that screwed or are they safe?

[GreyhoundFan]

7 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Melania Trump set to move with son Barron to White House ‘at end of school year’

Now, before you all get your hopes up that this will put an end to all that taxpayer money going towards the security of Trump Tower, she doesn't say which school year... 

They may spend the summer (or part of the summer) in DC and go back to NYC for the next school year.

 

6 hours ago, HarryPotterFan said:

What about new federal employees still under the probationary period? 

Well, any under a probationary period could probably be let go. I believe for competitive hires, the probationary period is a year, but that exceptions can be made for certain positions. Agent Orange put a freeze on immediately and I don't think there were many hires in late 2016. I don't know if union rules cover probationary employees.

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Happy Easter, Man Baby.

nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-investigation-tax-day-protesters-tweets-election-over-n747101

Once again, Trump is handed opportunities to improve his public image, and he pisses all over them.

 Whining about protestors and bragging about the election on Easter morning is downright tacky. Does he even understand what Easter represents?!? If you are going to pretend to be a Christian, at least put on a good show for the public at Easter and Christmas. 

 

 

[47of74]

Once again, Trump is handed opportunities to improve his public image, and he pisses all over them.
 Whining about protestors and bragging about the election on Easter morning is downright tacky. Does he even understand what Easter represents?!? If you are going to pretend to be a Christian, at least put on a good show for the public at Easter and Christmas. 
 

 

Yesterday I had an image of Donald J. Putinfluffer come up on my phone. My sister happened to see it and was wondering what that "fucking idiot" had done now.

[GreyhoundFan]

4 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Once again, Trump is handed opportunities to improve his public image, and he pisses all over them.

 Whining about protestors and bragging about the election on Easter morning is downright tacky. Does he even understand what Easter represents?!? If you are going to pretend to be a Christian, at least put on a good show for the public at Easter and Christmas. 

 

 

 

He couldn't care less about being a Christian. The only religion he worships is DJT.

 

Must be nice to be able to just take time off whenever you want: "As tensions with North Korea flare, Trump spends quiet weekend at Mar-a-Lago"

Quote

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Just hours before North Korea fired a failed ballistic missile, President Trump spent his morning enjoying the blue, breezy weather here on Florida’s eastern coast Saturday, zipping around the greens of his private golf club.

The day before, the president also passed the morning playing golf at Trump International Golf Club, according to someone who saw him on the course.

And in addressing North Korea’s latest provocation, Trump — who spent at least a portion of both evenings greeting guests at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach — deferred to his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, a retired four-star Marine Corps general.

“The president and his military team are aware of North Korea’s most recent unsuccessful missile launch,” Mattis said in a ­two-sentence, emailed statement Saturday night. “The president has no further comment.”

On the question of North Korea, one of the United States’ most immediate geopolitical threats, Trump was uncharacteristically quiet over the weekend, instead leaving it to his team of deputies, as well as Vice President Pence, to articulate the administration’s policy toward the totalitarian regime.

...

Trump, a normally prolific — and brash — user of Twitter, also spent the weekend largely quiet on social media; his last tweet heading into the weekend concerned his enthusiasm about the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday.

On Sunday morning, Trump briefly took to Twitter, boasting about his electoral college victory in the 2016 presidential election and asking why his tax returns mattered in light of his win. He also extolled his efforts to rebuild the military.

He also seemed to admit he was using the Treasury Department’s currency report — which did not label China a currency manipulator — as a political bargaining weapon.

During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would brand China a currency manipulator on Day One of his administration. On Day 83, he officially backed off that course.

“Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korea problem?” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “We will see what happens!”

But then the president retreated back into his calm Palm Beach world. He attended Easter services at Bethesda-by-the-Sea church here with his wife, Melania, son Barron, and daughter from his second marriage, ­Tiffany, before returning to Mar-a-Lago for an annual brunch and Easter egg hunt with his eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and their families, according to an aide.

One intrusion from the outside world came from Don Jr., who over the weekend was sporting a green T-shirt that read “Very Fake News” in block white letters — a reminder of all those who, the president believes, have treated him so unfairly.

Two observations: 1. He's still bragging about the damned election. To quote Elsa, "LET IT GO". 2. Can't you see him pitching a fit if he didn't find the most Easter eggs?

[GreyhoundFan]

From the NYT: "A Homebody President Sits Out His Honeymoon Period"

Quote

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump has become a virtual homebody during his first few months in office, largely sitting out the honeymoon period that other presidents have used to hit the road and rally support for their priorities.

Mr. Trump, who dislikes spending the night away from home and has been adapting to life at the White House, has rarely ventured far from the Executive Mansion or his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida during his first 85 days in office. He has not strayed west of the Mississippi River, appearing at public events in only seven states and eschewing trips overseas. He is planning to travel to Wisconsin on Tuesday, and his first international trip is scheduled for next month, when he is to visit Brussels and Italy for meetings with world leaders.

By contrast, President Barack Obama had made public appearances in nine states and taken three overseas trips by this point in his presidency, and was beginning his fourth journey abroad. And President George W. Bush had stopped in 23 states by mid-April during his first year in office and also visited Canada.

“We are not seeing this president following the norm of going out to the public and making his case in the same way as presidents have for as far back as you want to go,” said James A. McCann, a professor of political science at Purdue University who has studied presidential travel patterns. “Trump is going to his own drummer, as usual. It’s a risky strategy.”

Most presidents, hoping to seize on the public optimism that normally accompanies the start of a new administration, head out into the country to promote their agendas and apply political pressure — overt or otherwise — on lawmakers to fall in line. But Mr. Trump has held just a small number of political rallies in Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky, all states he won comfortably; visited a pair of military bases in Virginia and Florida; and spoken to aerospace and automotive workers in South Carolina and Michigan.

“When you’re president, you don’t travel to get frequent flier miles — you travel to make a point,” said Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary to Mr. Bush, who used one elaborate tour to stop in states of Democratic senators whose support he needed for his tax-cut plan.

“It’s surprising,” he continued, referring to Mr. Trump, “that he hasn’t used that power of the presidency to announce big policy initiatives and really drive home his point.”

...

“Every time you travel, you’re eating up a big chunk of the day, so you have to be really strategic about it,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. “When you’re really trying to get a lot done, you have to budget your time very carefully, and we’re going to continue to be smart about the best use of his time, because his time is his most valuable asset.”

“The pace of his schedule has been nonstop,” Mr. Spicer added.

...

I guess Spicey means non-stop golf, TV watching, and time on Twitter.

[AnywhereButHere]

Yeah, because the travel time from D.C. To Florida is sooo draining. He spends so much time there out on the golf course, we can probably add sunstroke to the list of things wrong with him. 

Besides, who needs to visit a country when you can just save time and throw a bomb at it? 

[AuntK]

On 4/14/2017 at 1:14 AM, iweartanktops said:

I'm going to risk sounding really stupid. But if another country decided to bomb the United States, where, exactly do you think they would focus? Would it be the WH? Any random city? Multiple places? 

Just curious. Totally not nervous or anything. 

I think they would go directly for Twitler, and I'd put my money on Mar-a-Lago. It's on the coast, they could use Cuba as a base, be in and out in minutes. And he is there almost every weekend.