Trump 18: Info to Russia, With Love

[sawasdee]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

No big surprise: "Trump’s first full education budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice"

  Hide contents

Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The administration would channel part of the savings into its top priority: school choice. It seeks to spend about $400 million to expand charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, and another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies.

President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have repeatedly said they want to shrink the federal role in education and give parents more opportunity to choose their children’s schools.

The documents — described by an Education Department employee as a near-final version of the budget expected to be released next week — offer the clearest picture yet of how the administration intends to accomplish that goal.

Though Trump and DeVos are proponents of local control, their proposal to use federal dollars to entice districts to adopt school-choice policies is reminiscent of the way the Obama administration offered federal money to states that agreed to adopt its preferred education policies through a program called Race to the Top.

The proposed cuts in long-standing programs — and the simultaneous new investment in alternatives to traditional public schools — are a sign of the Trump administration’s belief that federal efforts to improve education have failed. DeVos, who has previously derided government, is now leading an agency she views as an impediment to progress.

“It’s time for us to break out of the confines of the federal government’s arcane approach to education,” DeVos said this month in Salt Lake City. “Washington has been in the driver’s seat for over 50 years with very little to show for its efforts.”

The proposed budget would also reshape financial aid programs that help 12 million students pay for college.

A White House official said Wednesday it would be premature to comment on any aspect of “ever-changing internal discussion” about the president’s budget before its publication. “The president and his Cabinet are working collaboratively to create a leaner, more efficient government that does more with less of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars,” the official said.

Liz Hill, an Education Department spokeswoman, emphasized that all figures are preliminary until officially released next week. Hill said that the proposed budget protects special-education funding, ensures careful stewardship of taxpayer dollars and demonstrates the administration’s “strong commitment to ensuring the Department of Education provides more educational options for low-income students.”

The budget proposal calls for a net $9.2 billion cut to the department, or 13.6 percent of the spending level Congress approved last month. It is likely to meet resistance on Capitol Hill because of strong constituencies seeking to protect current funding, ideological opposition to vouchers and fierce criticism of DeVos, a longtime Republican donor who became a household name during a bruising Senate confirmation battle.

Asked for comment, a spokesman for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, referred to Alexander’s response in March to the release of Trump’s budget outline. That statement emphasized that while the president may suggest a budget, “under the Constitution, Congress passes appropriations bills.”

Under the administration’s budget, two of the department’s largest expenditures in K-12 education, special education and Title I funds to help poor children, would remain unchanged compared to federal funding levels in the first half of fiscal 2017. However, high-poverty schools are likely to receive fewer dollars than in the past because of a new law that allows states to use up to 7 percent of Title I money for school improvement before distributing it to districts.

The cuts would come from eliminating at least 22 programs, some of which Trump outlined in March. Gone, for example, would be $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor, and $2.1 billion for teacher training and class-size reduction.

The documents obtained by The Post — dated May 23, the day the president’s budget is expected to be released — outline the rest of the cuts, including a $15 million program that provides child care for low-income parents in college; a $27 million arts education program; two programs targeting Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students, totaling $65 million; two international education and foreign language programs, $72 million; a $12 million program for gifted students; and $12 million for Special Olympics education programs.

Other programs would not be eliminated entirely, but would be cut significantly. Those include grants to states for career and technical education, which would lose $168 million, down 15 percent compared to current funding; adult basic literacy instruction, which would lose $96 million (down 16 percent); and Promise Neighborhoods, an Obama-era initiative meant to build networks of support for children in needy communities, which would lose $13 million (down 18 percent).

The Trump administration would dedicate no money to a fund for student support and academic enrichment that is meant to help schools pay for, among other things, mental-health services, anti-bullying initiatives, physical education, Advanced Placement courses and science and engineering instruction. Congress created the fund, which totals $400 million this fiscal year, by rolling together several smaller programs. Lawmakers authorized as much as $1.65 billion, but the administration’s budget for it in the next fiscal year is zero.

The cuts would make space for investments in choice, including $500 million for charter schools, up 50 percent over current funding. The administration also wants to spend $250 million on “Education Innovation and Research Grants,” which would pay for expanding and studying the impacts of vouchers for private and religious schools. It’s not clear how much would be spent on research versus on the vouchers themselves.

There is currently only one federally funded voucher program, in the District of Columbia. A recent Education Department analysis of that program found that after a year in private school, voucher recipients performed worse on standardized tests than their counterparts who remained in public school.

The administration would devote $1 billion in Title I dollars meant for poor children to a new grant program (called Furthering Options for Children to Unlock Success, or FOCUS) for school districts that agree to allow students to choose which public school they attend — and take their federal, state and local dollars with them.

The goal is to do away with neighborhood attendance zones that the administration says trap needy kids in struggling schools. The documents cite Minneapolis (where parents can choose which city school their children attend) and Hartford, Conn. (where students can cross city-suburban lines to attend school) as examples.

But the notion of allowing Title I dollars to follow the student — known as “portability” — is a controversial idea that the Republican-led Senate rejected in 2015. Many Democrats argue that it is a first step toward private-school vouchers and would siphon dollars from schools with high poverty to those in more affluent neighborhoods.

Leaders of historically black colleges and universities had sought an increase in federal funding for their institutions. The administration’s budget proposal would hold funding flat compared to spending levels over the first half of fiscal 2017.

The administration is also seeking to overhaul key elements of federal financial aid. The spending proposal would maintain funding for Pell Grants for students in financial need, but it would eliminate more than $700 million in Perkins loans for disadvantaged students; nearly halve the work-study program that helps students work their way through school, cutting $490 million; take a first step toward ending subsidized loans, for which the government pays interest while the borrower is in school; and end loan forgiveness for public servants.

The loan forgiveness program, enacted in 2007, was designed to encourage college graduates to pursue careers as social workers, teachers, public defenders or doctors in rural areas. There are at least 552,931 people on track to receive the benefit, with the first wave of forgiveness set for October. It’s unclear how the proposed elimination would affect those borrowers.

The administration also wants to replace five income-driven student loan repayment plans with a single plan.

That change would likely benefit many undergraduate borrowers, who currently can have the balance of their loan forgiven after paying 10 percent of their income for 20 years. Trump’s proposal — which makes good on a campaign promise — would raise the maximum payment to 12.5 percent of income, but shorten the payment period to 15 years.

The proposal is less sweet for borrowers who take out loans to earn advanced degrees. They currently pay monthly bills capped at 10 percent of income for 25 years. Under the new plan, they’d pay more (12.5 percent of income) for longer (30 years).

There were no estimates on how much the government would save by eliminating public-service loan forgiveness, overhauling the income-based repayment plans and ending subsidized loans.

The spending plan supports year-round Pell Grants, which allow low-income students to use the money for three semesters of college, instead of two. That way, students can take a full load of courses year-round and earn a degree faster. The administration also would increase available funds for year-round Pell by $16.3 billion over 10 years.

Still, the maximum annual award would remain flat at $5,920. And without any directive to index the award to inflation, that ceiling might remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Trump is seeking an additional $158 million for salaries and expenses in the Education Department, up 7 percent, money that according to the budget documents would go toward loan-servicing costs, improved information-technology security, auditing and investigations and additional security costs for the secretary. DeVos has contracted with the U.S. Marshals Service to provide security rather than using the in-house security team that guarded previous secretaries.

Despite that increase, the agency workforce would decline by about 150 positions, or 4 percent.

The staffing decline at the department’s Office for Civil Rights — which is dealing with a large increase in discrimination complaints — would be steeper.

Trump is seeking $106.8 million for the civil rights office, unchanged from the funding level over the first half of fiscal 2017. But — thanks to a recent bump from Congress — the proposed total is $1.7 million less than the office is now receiving. The spending proposal would result in the loss of more than 40 of roughly 570 positions.

But education is an investment in the future of the country. I remember the arguments when Maggie decided that education was a commodity - we lost that fight.

Please fight back - I don't even like to think of the able, intelligent, and creative people who were denied an education in the UK because of her.

Our future is our kids. They must be educated to the absolute limits of their ability if the country is to progress. Their financial state is irrelevant - stop educating rich thickos and give bright kids of any financial level the chance to optimise their - and the country's  - future.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[onekidanddone]

9 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Our "WUT" for the day:

Islamaphobe Picked to Write Speech on Islam for Saudi Arabia Visit

 

What could possibly go wrong?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is totally delusional about what’s happening to him right now"

Spoiler

The appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate possible Trump campaign collusion with Russian meddling in the election puts the Trump presidency in substantially greater peril than it was in only 24 hours ago. But, remarkably enough, this did not even have to happen at all — it only happened because the unhinged behavior of President Trump himself made it happen.

Yet it’s not clear that Trump’s less-than-vise-like grip on reality permits him to even grasp this.

Trump unleashed two tweets Thursday morning responding to the news of the appointment, which was made by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein after days of deafening criticism. Trump claimed: “With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special councel [sic, or perhaps more appropriately, sick] appointed!” He then added: “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

Separately, The Post reports that Trump is raging at his staff for failing to mitigate his “stumbles.” Why? Because “Trump largely thinks that his recent mishaps are not substantive but simply errors of branding and public relations, according to people close to him and the White House.”

But, despite Trump’s suggestion that he is being victimized by a witch hunt, and that a more adept PR strategy could minimize the damage, this is a situation entirely of Trump’s own making. And each of Trump’s actions leading up to this moment are rooted deep in Trump’s autocratic and authoritarian impulses; his total contempt for basic institutional processes; and his tendency, when his sense of grievance strikes, to slip into a delusional belief that he can overwhelm the institutional independence of his persecutors the way he might steamroll someone in a business deal.

Let’s trace the basic arc of this whole story. The special counsel might not be happening if Trump had not abruptly fired former FBI director James B. Comey. The reporting indicates that Trump was driven to do this out of grievance-laden rage at Comey for failing to make the Russia probe disappear (Comey isn’t supposed to do that at Trump’s behest, and firing him isn’t going to do it either). So this was rooted in crazy, and didn’t have to happen.

More to the point, the manner in which Trump fired Comey led directly to the special counsel. Trump had made the decision and then instructed Rosenstein to produce the bogus rationale for it (Comey’s botched handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe). Trump then blithely conceded on national television that the real reason was Comey’s handling of the Russia probe. He was either unaware that this might be a problem, or didn’t care, because, well, you can take the rule of law and shove it. All this unleashed a tirade of criticism arguing that Rosenstein, having helped provide a cover story for Trump (which Trump himself then blew up), is too compromised to oversee the continuing FBI probe. This surely helped bring about the special counsel’s appointment — and Trump authored it.

After that, Comey associates retaliated by leaking word that Trump had demanded Comey pledge his loyalty at a private dinner in January. And after that, Comey associates leaked word of a memo in which Comey asserted that Trump had tried to persuade him to quash the probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s Russia ties. To be fair, we don’t know if either of these things happened. But if they did, which is perfectly plausible, these things, too, appear rooted in Trump’s autocratic contempt for basic institutional processes. And we will soon hear from Comey himself on these matters when he testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Trump has created a problem for himself in yet another way, too: He denied asking Comey for a loyalty pledge by vaguely threatening to release alleged tapes of their conversation. Now, if Comey publicly attests to that pledge, the White House will be forced to produce these tapes or admit they don’t exist, and it’s very likely that neither of those outcomes would turn out well for Trump.

The point is not just that Trump’s actions are entirely to blame for the appointment of the special counsel. It’s also that there are no indications that Trump even understands this. And on top of that, these actions themselves — which simply did not have to happen — will now likely be probed by the special counsel, too.

...

Best line: "...Trump’s less-than-vise-like grip on reality..." What an apt statement.

[candygirl200413]

So I don't know if any of you guys are still having this, and for me it has diminished greatly, but I still have a few liberals on my facebook feed who are still telling me to be compassionate for trump supporters. Even though many of them still don't and will not give a fudge about me. Or that they voted against their self-interests because they only get their news for Fox and don't want to use their brains to gain information elsewhere.

I feel also for those relying on the forgiveness programs, I met many at my internship a few summers ago who had till next year to get them forgiven but with that in jeopardy, I can't imagine how fearful they are right now. My heart aches for how our already disastrous school system is about to get that much worst and how this administration and many in congress just won't care.

[sawasdee]

55https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/18/pence-says-trump-remains-focused-on-policy-priorities-including-tax-cuts/

Quote

With the White House consumed by a series of crises, Vice President Pence on Thursday sought to put a focus on his boss’s agenda for tax cuts and other pro-business priorities.

Yeah, that help big business and the top .01%

Quote

he offered greetings from President Trump, whom Pence described as “a champion of American workers and American free enterprise.”

That 's why he and Ivanka have all their products made overseas.

Quote

Whatever Washington D.C. may be focused on at any given time, rest assured, President Donald Trump will never stop fighting for the issues that matter most to the American people: good jobs, safe streets and a boundless American future,” Pence told about 350 business leaders gathered for an “Invest in America! Summit.”

Maybe get your and Ivanka's stuff made in the US? That would make a few jobs....

Quote

“If you take nothing else from what I say today, know this: President Donald Trump is committed to signing the most significant and consequential tax relief in American history,” Pence said.

To take more from the working and middle classes and give to the top.01% - and make the latter even richer...

Quote

Before exiting, the vice president left the group with this pledge: “In the days and weeks ahead, we will continue to work tirelessly to enact our agenda and make the strongest economy in the world stronger still.”

By taxing the super rich at a low level at the expense of the consumer, it will decrease spending - except on mega yachts- and depress the economy. Because the working and middle classes will have no money to spend - especially as they come to grips with AHCA!

Welcome to the next depression!

[onekidanddone]

From the NYT 

When the World Is Led by a Child

A child with his finger on the dooms day button. It is rather long and I wanted to projectile vomit after reading... so get the Xanax and bucket ready

Quote

At certain times Donald Trump has seemed like a budding authoritarian, a corrupt Nixon, a rabble-rousing populist or a big business corporatist.

But as Trump has settled into his White House role, he has given a series of long interviews, and when you study the transcripts it becomes clear that fundamentally he is none of these things.

At base, Trump is an infantalist. There are three tasks that most mature adults have sort of figured out by the time they hit 25. Trump has mastered none of them. Immaturity is becoming the dominant note of his presidency, lack of self-control his leitmotif.

First, most adults have learned to sit still. But mentally, Trump is still a 7-year-old boy who is bouncing around the classroom. Trump’s answers in these interviews are not very long — 200 words at the high end — but he will typically flit through four or five topics before ending up with how unfair the press is to him.

His inability to focus his attention makes it hard for him to learn and master facts. He is ill informed about his own policies and tramples his own talking points. It makes it hard to control his mouth. On an impulse, he will promise a tax reform when his staff has done little of the actual work.

Second, most people of drinking age have achieved some accurate sense of themselves, some internal criteria to measure their own merits and demerits. But Trump seems to need perpetual outside approval to stabilize his sense of self, so he is perpetually desperate for approval, telling heroic fabulist tales about himself.

“In a short period of time I understood everything there was to know about health care,” he told Time. “A lot of the people have said that, some people said it was the single best speech ever made in that chamber,” he told The Associated Press, referring to his joint session speech.

By Trump’s own account, he knows more about aircraft carrier technology than the Navy. According to his interview with The Economist, he invented the phrase “priming the pump” (even though it was famous by 1933). Trump is not only trying to deceive others. His falsehoods are attempts to build a world in which he can feel good for an instant and comfortably deceive himself.

He is thus the all-time record-holder of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the phenomenon in which the incompetent person is too incompetent to understand his own incompetence. Trump thought he’d be celebrated for firing James Comey. He thought his press coverage would grow wildly positive once he won the nomination. He is perpetually surprised because reality does not comport with his fantasies.

Third, by adulthood most people can perceive how others are thinking. For example, they learn subtle arts such as false modesty so they won’t be perceived as obnoxious.

But Trump seems to have not yet developed a theory of mind. Other people are black boxes that supply either affirmation or disapproval. As a result, he is weirdly transparent. He wants people to love him, so he is constantly telling interviewers that he is widely loved. In Trump’s telling, every meeting was scheduled for 15 minutes but his guests stayed two hours because they liked him so much.

Which brings us to the reports that Trump betrayed an intelligence source and leaked secrets to his Russian visitors. From all we know so far, Trump didn’t do it because he is a Russian agent, or for any malevolent intent. He did it because he is sloppy, because he lacks all impulse control, and above all because he is a 7-year-old boy desperate for the approval of those he admires.

The Russian leak story reveals one other thing, the dangerousness of a hollow man.

Our institutions depend on people who have enough engraved character traits to fulfill their assigned duties. But there is perpetually less to Trump than it appears. When we analyze a president’s utterances we tend to assume that there is some substantive process behind the words, that it’s part of some strategic intent.

But Trump’s statements don’t necessarily come from anywhere, lead anywhere or have a permanent reality beyond his wish to be liked at any given instant.

We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.

“We badly want to understand Trump, to grasp him,” David Roberts writes in Vox. “It might give us some sense of control, or at least an ability to predict what he will do next. But what if there’s nothing to understand? What if there is no there there?”

And out of that void comes a carelessness that quite possibly betrayed an intelligence source, and endangered a country.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Dear Saudi Arabia: Embrace Trump at your peril"

Spoiler

When President Trump touches down this weekend in Saudi Arabia for his first foreign visit, he can be sure of getting a warm reception. The Saudis have made no secret of the fact that they had real differences with the Obama administration — which they believed did not back them as vigorously as necessary in their regional competition with Iran — and they have good reason to think Trump may be different. When Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the White House in March, he described Trump’s election as “a historic turning point in bilateral relations of the two countries” and heaped praise on the new president’s understanding of the challenges facing the Middle East. It is not surprising that, according to leaked documents, the Saudis plan to spend some $68 million to give Trump the extravagant reception he adores.

It is easy to see why the Saudis are so hopeful about Trump. He says he’s going to take a much tougher stance against Iran and the Islamic State, two of Riyadh’s biggest enemies. He has heaped praise on Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, whom the Saudis see as a key ally in the region and bulwark against Islamist extremism. He will end the traditional U.S. practice of pressing regional leaders on democracy and human rights, a long-standing irritant in U.S.-Gulf relations. And Trump has expressed unambiguous support for Riyadh’s military campaign in Yemen, seen by the Saudi leadership as a vital national interest.

But the Saudis and others in the region should be careful about hitching their stars too closely to the Trump wagon. In the short run, Trump may say what they want to hear and offer some marginal additional support on policy issues. In the longer run, he is likely to prove an unreliable partner whose incompetence, disloyalty and unpopularity could prove costly to all concerned.

First, for all the differences in tone, it is far from clear that Trump’s approach to the Middle East will prove that different — or more successful — than his predecessor’s, even from a Saudi perspective. Trump talks tough on Iran, yet seems determined to preserve the allegedly “disastrous” nuclear deal. So far on Iran, there has been little to the “new” policy beyond a few additional sanctions and the announcement of a policy review. On Syria, far from expanding Barack Obama’s limited efforts to oust the Iran-backed Assad regime, Trump is abandoning them. His strategy to combat the Islamic State is turning out to be essentially the same as Obama’s, and on Egypt, Sissi may have gotten an Oval Office visit but seems unlikely to get much more than that, certainly not when it comes to the cash Cairo so badly needs and which the Saudis are tiring of paying. On Yemen, Trump has sent more Special Operations forces and advanced munitions to support the Saudi military operation, but it remains to be seen how long that support will be sustained if, as is likely, that war drags on and becomes increasingly unpopular in the United States.

Second, the Saudis should keep in mind that Trump is exceedingly transactional and focused only on his own — often personal — interests. In exchange for all he is doing for them, it will not be long before he starts to expect favors (beyond mere praise and a royal welcome) in return. It could start with additional investments in the United States and expand to preferential treatment of U.S. airlines, Arab steps to normalize relations with Israel, Gulf payments for “safe zones” in Syria, public defenses of Trump’s immigration policies, and of course business deals to the benefit of Trump businesses. The price for U.S. support could rise over time, while a failure to pay up could cause resentment and vindictiveness. This would not be the first business relationship with Donald Trump to turn sour, and if the Saudis think friendship or loyalty will provide them cover, they are not familiar with his track record.

Third and most important, Trump will not be around forever. He is already the most unpopular president at this point in a new administration, and all signs are that his standing will plummet further as failures and scandals accumulate. The Saudis and others should ask themselves whether they really want to be so closely tied to a president whose domestic agenda is frozen in Congress and the courts, whose presidential campaign is under FBI investigation, who is being credibly accused of obstruction of justice and who, days before his trip, allegedly imperiled the life of a secret agent through an extraordinary lack of self-discipline and judgment.

Mohammed, the deputy crown prince, likely one day to be the Saudi king who will rule for decades to come, should recall the experience of another young leader who sought to cozy up to a failing U.S. president for the sake of short-term bilateral relations. That was British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who 15 years later is still paying the price for his embrace of George W. Bush, who left office after the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina with a 22 percent domestic approval rating. And there is a good chance that Trump ends up making Bush look wildly popular by comparison.

So if I can permit myself some advice to my Saudi friends, by all means give Trump the royal treatment and look for ways we can work together. But for the sake of our relationship, don’t put all your eggs in that basket, and keep the longer term in mind.

This is good advice.

[onekidanddone]

He is going to hold a news conference.  Lucky for me I have to be some place this evening. Can somebody else please take one for team FJ?

[Destiny]

He is going to hold a news conference.  Lucky for me I have to be some place this evening. Can somebody else please take one for team FJ?

Someone please do. I'm stuck in jury duty.

[GreyhoundFan]

9 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

He is going to hold a news conference.  Lucky for me I have to be some place this evening. Can somebody else please take one for team FJ?

I have to work tonight or I'd do it. I'll be anxious to see the WaPo transcript.

[Rachel333]

I'm watching it, but I'm sure there will be plenty of actual transcripts available. So far, everything has been pretty normal. Trump just asked for questions, though, and everyone laughed. It sounds like now they're going to get into the Russia stuff.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

Oh good grief, the conference is on now. I can see his nose growing longer with each sentence. He's whining about the "witch hunt". Now he's talking about the "staggering" numbers of the success of the military. He's talking about the "tremendous" progress of the last 100 or so day.

 

 

He said there was "no collusion" and that "all those factories" that have opened back up because of him. I guess I'm confused, I don't know of any major reopenings  thanks to the TT.

[Destiny]

Now he's talking about the "staggering" numbers of the success of the military. He's talking about the "tremendous" progress of the last 100 or so day.

Citations for both the above fucking required Cheeto.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

He was asked about human rights violations and his answer makes no sense. Bigly surprise there.

 

Just now, Destiny said:

Citations for both the above fucking required Cheeto.

LOL, his active imagination is the only citation he requires. Sadly, the rest of us expect more.

[Rachel333]

Lol at "the [Colombian] president was telling me--and I knew--" He had to get it in that he already knew.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

Every time President Juan Manuel Santos of Columbia speaks, TT looks like he's falling asleep.

 

 

He must have slapped on extra makeup. He looks more orange than normal. Also, it looks like he's losing more hair than in the past. Methinks the stress of the WH is getting to him.

[47of74]

2 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

So I don't know if any of you guys are still having this, and for me it has diminished greatly, but I still have a few liberals on my facebook feed who are still telling me to be compassionate for trump supporters. Even though many of them still don't and will not give a fudge about me. Or that they voted against their self-interests because they only get their news for Fox and don't want to use their brains to gain information elsewhere.

I feel also for those relying on the forgiveness programs, I met many at my internship a few summers ago who had till next year to get them forgiven but with that in jeopardy, I can't imagine how fearful they are right now. My heart aches for how our already disastrous school system is about to get that much worst and how this administration and many in congress just won't care.

And my response to people wanting me to be nice and compassionate to Branch Trumpvidians is basically two words.  Fuck and them.  (Or fornicate and them if I'm in a reasonably good mood).   I figure anything bad that happens they got what they wanted and they can kiss my hind parts if they don't like it.  If I wouldn't genuflect to Rep. Blum or Agent Fuck Face I sure as hell am not going to genuflect to any Branch Trumpvidians.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

President Santos is giving good stats on efforts against drug cartels. TT looked bored and then slammed Santos, saying that his answer was "long, long" and that "walls work, just ask Israel." Seriously.

[47of74]

6 minutes ago, Destiny said:

Citations for both the above fucking required Cheeto.

And in proper Bluebook form too, Cheeto.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

He's now saying "we have plenty of problems" and "Director Comey was unpopular with many people" and "I got a strong recommendation from Rosenstein". "I thought when I fired him, it would have bipartisan support." He whined about Comey's "poor, poor performance." and that Comey "readjusted the record". Good freaking grief.

[Rachel333]

"No, no, next question."

"I think it's totally ridiculous, everyone thinks so."

[Destiny]

 
 
President Santos is giving good stats on efforts against drug cartels. TT looked bored and then slammed Santos, saying that his answer was "long, long" and that "walls work, just ask Israel." Seriously.

Are you fucking serious? Out loud with fucking words? With Santos in the fucking room? JFC
I apologise to the world on behalf of the US.....again.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

He said that the FBI "is special" and that the new Director is going to be "outstanding" and the people of the FBI will be "thrilled". He keeps trying to pivot away. He said that "Obamacare is dead. We have no healthcare" And we are going to have "the biggest tax cut in history" and that will "bring back jobs."

1 minute ago, Destiny said:

Are you fucking serious? Out loud with fucking words? With Santos in the fucking room? JFC
I apologise to the world on behalf of the US.....again.

I know, right?

 

 

"the track we are on is record-setting". I guess that's right in one perspective.

[Rachel333]

He's really rambling. I don't even remember what the question was now.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

 

Santos is giving good answers. A reporter pointed out that he has been a "punching bag" for some media outlets and has he given advice to TT. He replied that he wouldn't give advice about that.