Trump 22: Not Even Poe Could Make This Shit Up

[sawasdee]

What is also fascinating is that every previous president has not only worked with his party in Congress, but looked at the effect on those elected members of his policies. They looked at the future of their party. He doesn't give a fuck! 

He will destroy the Repuglican party in order to defend his own inadequacy and corruption. And he seems to have not only started the process, but to be accelerating it.

I wish I could enjoy it, but I'm too scared.

We truly are living in 'interesting times'. (Re the old chinese curse and the Terry Pratchett novel...)

 

 

[Destiny]

I mean. Inherently the death of the Republican Party in its current form is a good thing. That said, I’d rather it not be via a fucking nuclear war.

[AnywhereButHere]

I'm leaving work now and heading to see the Al Gore movie. Because, you know, things aren't depressing enough.  I guess it's a toss up as to whether climate change or N. Korea gets us all first.

[Cartmann99]

I'm still processing Trump's timid response to the reporter's question about Putin kicking our people out of Russia. Putin really does have Trump's testicles in a jar on his desk, doesn't he? 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

I'm still processing Trump's timid response to the reporter's question about Putin kicking our people out of Russia. Putin really does have Trump's testicles in a jar on his desk, doesn't he? 

Yeah, that was...disturbing. No surprise, he's thanking Putin for expelling our diplomats. I really think he thinks Putin fired them. 

He seems to be on a bender, someone please put something in his chocolate cake. 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

Putin really does have Trump's testicles in a jar on his desk, doesn't he?

In a shot glass, since they're tinier (relatively speaking) than his toddler hands.

"Why is Sebastian Gorka still in the White House? Because Trump loves his TV performances."

Spoiler

Of all of President Trump’s close advisers, there is one who perhaps best typifies the worst of Trump’s combative, us-vs.-them, fact-free style: Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president who shares his views that Muslims are the enemy, bellicosity is strength and the news media are out to get the president.

For months, Gorka received heavy scrutiny over his ties to far-right, anti-Semitic groups in Hungary, leading to widespread rumors last spring that he was going to be dismissed from the White House. But not only has his White House tenure endured, he has continued to be a ubiquitous Trump surrogate in the media.

Why is Gorka still there? The best explanation is that Trump loves Gorka’s television performances, whether they are in the Trump-friendly confines of Fox News, or in the hostile territory of MSNBC or CNN, where Gorka plays the anti-“fake news” pit bull for his boss.

Gorka has been hitting the airwaves again this week, defending Trump’s unscripted “fire and fury” bellicosity against North Korea, undercutting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s effort to scale back the president’s rhetoric, and strongly hinting Trump is ready to go to war with Pyongyang.

“You should listen to the president,” Gorka said derisively on the BBC Radio 4’s program “Today” this morning. “The idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical.”

In Gorka’s world, only he truly understands not just what the president wants, but also that the president is right about everything. Gorka has been widely mocked by national security experts as a fringe player with scant credentials for his purported counterterrorism post. But he has a single piece of expertise that has turned him into a favorite Trump surrogate: a willingness to defend Trump against any perceived enemy, and to project Trump’s us-vs.-them mentality to the world — regardless of what more senior administration officials or anyone with actual expertise thinks.

Gorka’s willingness to prostrate himself for Trump appears to have no bounds, including suggesting that the president of the United States is willing to launch a nuclear war. When pressed today on the BBC about his suggestions that Trump would order a military strike, Gorka maintained, “Donald Trump has been unequivocal — he will use any appropriate measures to protect the United States and her citizens.” He repeatedly refused to provide further details but did remind the audience — and perhaps that audience was merely Trump himself — that “there’s only one person in this great country that controls our nuclear arsenal.”

Gorka sent chills down the spines of his British audience today — including among some British members of Parliament — as he seemed to be paying no mind to how Trump’s Cabinet and advisers are scrambling to scale back his reckless war threats.

Gorka further defended Trump this week on MSNBC, when asked why the president has not yet condemned the bombing of a mosque in Minnesota. “We’ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right-wing individuals in the last six months that actually turned out to be propagated by the left,” Gorka said. When pressed on the fact that Trump has been quick to condemn attacks allegedly perpetrated by Muslims, Gorka retorted: “Sometimes an attack is unequivocally clear for what it is.” But the mosque bombing in Minnesota, Gorka suggested, could have been committed by “people who fake hate crimes.”

To be sure, some in the White House have apparently tried to get Gorka transferred — to no avail. As veteran national security reporter Bob Dreyfuss reports today in Rolling Stone, the White House “tried to find him a job at another agency,” but “nobody wanted him,” as a source put it.

Yet, it seems, one very powerful person does want Gorka to stay: the president. As Jonathan Swan has reported, although some West Wing aides consider Gorka’s media appearances “an embarrassment,” his No. 1 fan is none other than Trump himself. Trump’s admiration seems to stem largely from Gorka’s eagerness to jettison any semblance of custom or charm when appearing on networks Trump considers hostile to his interests. “Gorka’s stock has soared as President Trump has watched him on various cable channels fighting with the hosts and accusing them of being part of the ‘fake news industrial complex,’ ” Swan reported.

Indeed, Gorka’s willingness to disparage any media that dare question Trump is what helped make him a regular presence on Fox, where he is frequently called upon to do just that, including by Trump friend Sean Hannity. Not even the Soviet Union’s media was that bad, Gorka once told Hannity, speaking about CNN, which has become a regular target of the president himself.

Since for Trump all that matters is defending him, it seems that Gorka will remain in the White House as long as his aggressive defenses of Trump continue making him happy.

Another person who needs to be jettisoned to the uncharted desert island we discuss frequently.

[Zola]

3 hours ago, sawasdee said:

Jesus, Mary and Joseph - we're living in a very bad, end of times novel. How the f&@k did he ever, with his manifest inadequacies, get into the primaries, let alone win them?  Can't a party refuse a candidate? WTF were they thinking?

For this alone, allowing TT to run in their name, the GOP should burn in hell.

And the rest of the world, with no say in US politics, has to live - or not - with the results. Goddamn them.

Agreed. I felt a similar way towards Sarah Palin as well, though not quite as extreme.

Family member of mine, an enthusiastic Repug, was trying to excuse Palin ditching out as governor of Alaska at the time of our conversation, and said that the media was so bothersome that she was actually incapable of continuing as governor. Too much pressure. (Blame the press much?)

I replied that if that was the case, it was sure a good thing she hadn't become VP - the media coverage of that job would have left her a recluse in addition to entirely unable to fill the post of VP.

I further added that I didn't appreciate the Repug party having put forth a person who would not be able to do the job they were elected to do if pressure got hot...which is guaranteed to happen, by very nature of the job.

I feel that same way again right now, times about a billion.

How incredibly irresponsible of the Rs to repeatedly nominate candidates both incompetent and unfit to actually do the job. It makes me so angry and outraged. 

[Zola]

33 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

*snip*
"Why is Sebastian Gorka still in the White House? Because Trump loves his TV performances."

  Reveal hidden contents

Of all of President Trump’s close advisers, there is one who perhaps best typifies the worst of Trump’s combative, us-vs.-them, fact-free style: Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president who shares his views that Muslims are the enemy, bellicosity is strength and the news media are out to get the president.

For months, Gorka received heavy scrutiny over his ties to far-right, anti-Semitic groups in Hungary, leading to widespread rumors last spring that he was going to be dismissed from the White House. But not only has his White House tenure endured, he has continued to be a ubiquitous Trump surrogate in the media.

Why is Gorka still there? The best explanation is that Trump loves Gorka’s television performances, whether they are in the Trump-friendly confines of Fox News, or in the hostile territory of MSNBC or CNN, where Gorka plays the anti-“fake news” pit bull for his boss.

Gorka has been hitting the airwaves again this week, defending Trump’s unscripted “fire and fury” bellicosity against North Korea, undercutting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s effort to scale back the president’s rhetoric, and strongly hinting Trump is ready to go to war with Pyongyang.

“You should listen to the president,” Gorka said derisively on the BBC Radio 4’s program “Today” this morning. “The idea that Secretary Tillerson is going to discuss military matters is simply nonsensical.”

In Gorka’s world, only he truly understands not just what the president wants, but also that the president is right about everything. Gorka has been widely mocked by national security experts as a fringe player with scant credentials for his purported counterterrorism post. But he has a single piece of expertise that has turned him into a favorite Trump surrogate: a willingness to defend Trump against any perceived enemy, and to project Trump’s us-vs.-them mentality to the world — regardless of what more senior administration officials or anyone with actual expertise thinks.

Gorka’s willingness to prostrate himself for Trump appears to have no bounds, including suggesting that the president of the United States is willing to launch a nuclear war. When pressed today on the BBC about his suggestions that Trump would order a military strike, Gorka maintained, “Donald Trump has been unequivocal — he will use any appropriate measures to protect the United States and her citizens.” He repeatedly refused to provide further details but did remind the audience — and perhaps that audience was merely Trump himself — that “there’s only one person in this great country that controls our nuclear arsenal.”

Gorka sent chills down the spines of his British audience today — including among some British members of Parliament — as he seemed to be paying no mind to how Trump’s Cabinet and advisers are scrambling to scale back his reckless war threats.

Gorka further defended Trump this week on MSNBC, when asked why the president has not yet condemned the bombing of a mosque in Minnesota. “We’ve had a series of crimes committed, alleged hate crimes by right-wing individuals in the last six months that actually turned out to be propagated by the left,” Gorka said. When pressed on the fact that Trump has been quick to condemn attacks allegedly perpetrated by Muslims, Gorka retorted: “Sometimes an attack is unequivocally clear for what it is.” But the mosque bombing in Minnesota, Gorka suggested, could have been committed by “people who fake hate crimes.”

To be sure, some in the White House have apparently tried to get Gorka transferred — to no avail. As veteran national security reporter Bob Dreyfuss reports today in Rolling Stone, the White House “tried to find him a job at another agency,” but “nobody wanted him,” as a source put it.

Yet, it seems, one very powerful person does want Gorka to stay: the president. As Jonathan Swan has reported, although some West Wing aides consider Gorka’s media appearances “an embarrassment,” his No. 1 fan is none other than Trump himself. Trump’s admiration seems to stem largely from Gorka’s eagerness to jettison any semblance of custom or charm when appearing on networks Trump considers hostile to his interests. “Gorka’s stock has soared as President Trump has watched him on various cable channels fighting with the hosts and accusing them of being part of the ‘fake news industrial complex,’ ” Swan reported.

Indeed, Gorka’s willingness to disparage any media that dare question Trump is what helped make him a regular presence on Fox, where he is frequently called upon to do just that, including by Trump friend Sean Hannity. Not even the Soviet Union’s media was that bad, Gorka once told Hannity, speaking about CNN, which has become a regular target of the president himself.

Since for Trump all that matters is defending him, it seems that Gorka will remain in the White House as long as his aggressive defenses of Trump continue making him happy.

Another person who needs to be jettisoned to the uncharted desert island we discuss frequently.

It's like Trump thinks this is all a damn television show. This crap where he needs to be constantly amused and entertained and, of course, PRAISED is total bullshit.

Ratings, polls, rallies, wins, bomb bomb bomb. Like that's all that matters. So fucking clueless and juvenile. Not just ignorant but unintelligent. 

And he doesn't understand why he isn't more beloved by any and all, regardless of who he surrounds himself with. Oh my Rufus. Just plain stupid.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump says he was surprised by FBI raid of Manafort’s home, which sent a ‘very strong signal’"

Spoiler

President Trump said Thursday that he was surprised by the FBI’s pre-dawn raid of his former campaign chairman’s home last month, calling the action “pretty tough stuff” but declining to weigh in on whether it was appropriate.

During the raid on the Alexandria, Va., home of Paul Manafort, the FBI seized documents and other materials related to the special counsel investigation of possible meddling in the 2016 election.

In his first public comments since the raid was made public this week by The Washington Post, Trump called Manafort “a very decent man” but said he hadn’t spoken to him for a long time. “I thought it was a very, very strong signal, or whatever,” Trump said of the raid, speaking to reporters at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is vacationing.

The raid, which occurred without warning on July 26, marked an aggressive new approach by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team in dealing with a key figure in the Russia inquiry. Using a search warrant, agents appeared the day Manafort was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and a day after he met voluntarily with Senate Intelligence Committee staff members.

Manafort has been under increasing pressure as the Mueller team looks into his personal finances and his professional career as a highly paid foreign political consultant.

Trump said Manafort is “like a lot of other people, probably makes consultant fees from all over the place, who knows, I don’t know. But I thought it was pretty tough stuff to wake him up. Perhaps his family was there. I think that’s pretty tough stuff.”

Asked whether he had spoken to Attorney General Jeff Sessions or the FBI about the raid, Trump said: “I have not. But to do that early in the morning, whether or not it was appropriate, you’d have to ask them.”

At the time the president was making his comments about the raid, Manafort was changing his legal team. Going forward, Manafort will no longer be represented by Reginald Brown of WilmerHale, a former White House counsel known for his good relationships on Capitol Hill. He will now rely on lawyers at Miller Chevalier, according to his spokesman, Jason Maloni. The new team will be led in part by Kevin Downing, a former Justice Department litigator known for his work on international tax matters. The move may signal that Manafort expects to defend himself in a possible tax inquiry -- and that cooperation with congressional investigators will no longer be the high priority that it was when he retained WilmerHale.

In recent weeks, Manafort provided key documents to congressional committees, including a memo he wrote following the June 9 meeting with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower that had been arranged by the president’s son. The meeting was set up after a family acquaintance promised compromising information on Hillary Clinton from Russian sources.

During the Bedminster briefing, Trump was also asked about the status of his relationship with Sessions, whom Trump has criticized in statements and tweets since the attorney general recused himself from the Russia investigation. Trump has also accused Sessions of not aggressively pursuing allegations of leaks by government officials.

“It is what it is,” Trump said of his relationship with Sessions. “It’s fine.”

Trump offered praise for the attorney general’s work to crack down on illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border. “He’s working hard on the border,” Trump said. “I’m very proud of what we’ve done at the border.”

The president also told reporters that he has no intention of dismissing Mueller, as White House aides have said in recent weeks.

“I haven’t given it any thought.” Trump said. “Well, I’ve been reading about it from you people. You say, ‘Oh, I’m going to dismiss him.’ No, I’m not dismissing anybody. I mean, I want them to get on with the task. But I also want the Senate and the House to come out with their findings.”

“I thought it was a very, very strong signal, or whatever,”  -- he sounds like a 15 year old girl.

 

[Palimpsest]

2 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

“I thought it was a very, very strong signal, or whatever,”  -- he sounds like a 15 year old girl.

Gawd!  Most !5 year old girls have way more sense than Trump.

[Howl]

Quote

 

@GreyhoundFan said:

*snip*
"Why is Sebastian Gorka still in the White House? Because Trump loves his TV performances."

 

This guy is an expert on fake, all right.  He has a fake Ph.D. from a 4th tier Hungarian university.  Two of his dissertation advisors are not academics and the third is a family friend, but Gorka makes sure everyone calls him Dr. Gorka. 

He's another Bannon protégé.  And he has Trump's ear.  Maybe he'll get the ax from John Kelly,  who won't suffer bombastic fools gladly.  From Rolling Stone

Sebastian Gorka, the West Wing's Phony Foreign-Policy Guru

[Cartmann99]

23 minutes ago, Howl said:

Two of his dissertation advisors are not academics and the third is a family friend, but Gorka makes sure everyone calls him Dr. Gorka. 

I bet when he goes to Starbucks, and they ask what name to write on his cup, he tells them Dr. Gorka. 

[JMarie]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-dc-hotel-turns-dollar2-million-profit-in-four-months/ar-AApQy6q?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Quote

Donald Trump’s company turned a $1.97 million profit at its opulent Trump International Hotel so far in 2017, dramatically beating its expectations and giving the first hard numbers to critics who charge that Trump is profiting from his presidency.

The Trump Organization had projected that it would lose $2.1 million during the first four months of 2017 as it established a new hotel and convention business in the nation’s capital, according to newly released federal documents.

Instead the hotel, with its namesake in the White House down the street, is already turning a hefty profit and charging more for its rooms than most or all of the city’s other hotels.

The $4.1 million swing from projected losses to profitability represents a 192 percent improvement over what the Trump family planned to make when the company opened the hotel in the fall.

Driving the profits are the extraordinary prices guests have been willing to pay for rooms, including members of Trump’s Cabinet who have stayed or lived there, as well as big spending on food and beverages in the meeting areas, bar and restaurant — spots frequented by members of Trump’s inner circle and other Republican leaders.

This year, guests have paid an average of $652.98 a night to stay there, beating the company’s expectations by 57 percent, according to documents posted online recently by the General Services Administration.

That probably makes it the most expensive hotel in the city, according to industry experts, as guests at competing luxury hotels such as the Hay-Adams, Four Seasons and Willard paid an average of $495 a night, according to data from Smith Travel Research.

Since Trump entered the White House in January, the hotel has emerged as a Republican Party power center and popular destination for conservative, foreign and Christian groups holding meetings in Washington, earning Trump’s company $19.7 million through April 15, according to his financial disclosure with the government.

Government ethics experts and Democrats in Congress have railed against the government’s lease, with Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) calling it a “highly unethical arrangement.”

“What makes all of this particularly galling is that we now have the unprecedented situation where the President of the United States is both the landlord and tenant of a federal building,” he said in a July statement.

Upon taking office, Trump tried to address ethical concerns by turning over the hotel’s management to his two eldest sons and vowing to take no hotel profits during his tenure. But he retained his ownership interest, allowing him to eventually profit from the holdings, against the advice of the government’s top ethics official.

Government watchdog groups, competing businesses and state attorneys general have sued over what they call unfair business practices that allow Trump to use the presidency to enrich himself — a tension likely to be heightened by the hotel’s almost immediate profitability.

Of his 202 days in office, Trump has spent 65 days at his properties, most of them at his golf properties. He has twice been to the Pennsylvania Avenue hotel to have dinner, appearances that critics say amount to promotional displays.

But although there has been evidence of revenue slipping at Trump golf courses, his D.C. hotel is already able to charge more than most — if not all — other hotels in the capital.

“The Trump International is, if not the, then one of the top rate-getters in the city,” said Marc Magazine, an executive at the real estate firm Savills Studley.

Trump International visitors have spent $8.2 million on food and drinks so far at the hotel this year, beating expectations by 37.2 percent. Those gains easily outweighed underperformance by the hotel’s retail, parking and Spa by Ivanka Trump, which all failed to meet the company’s expectations.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, led the development of the project as a Trump Organization executive before resigning to join the White House. She also retained her stake in the hotel and reported $2.4 million in hotel-related revenue from its opening to June.

The hotel’s management has sought to capi­tal­ize on the president’s popularity in the GOP by marketing meeting space and rooms to Republicans and conservatives.

“We are very proud of the success of the project,” the president’s son Eric Trump, who took over the company with his brother Don Jr., said in an email.

The data does not show how much of the hotel’s profits come from foreign governments, money the hotel has promised to donate to the U.S. treasury at the end of the year to avoid violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from profiting from foreign governments without specific approval from Congress.

The Trump International’s performance to date comes despite the fact that its rooms are more often empty than its competitors’, meaning there is room to grow its profits. It posted an occupancy rate of 42.3 percent, compared with nearly 70 percent in the industry.

Management is charging so much, however, that the hotel is doing just fine.

“Basically, this hotel is getting three times the average rate,” said analyst Michael Bellisario of Robert W. Baird & Co. “So some people really want to stay there, and then there’s a bunch of people who don’t.”

Not many people want to stay there, but for those who do, they overpay (while probably staying in the luxury rooms)?  Am I understanding this correctly?   Is that how Trump is getting three times the average rate for a much lower occupancy rate?

Class, let's say it together:  e-mol-u-ments

[Cartmann99]

On 10/08/2017 at 10:21 PM, JMarie said:

Not many people want to stay there, but for those who do, they overpay (while probably staying in the luxury rooms)?  Am I understanding this correctly?   Is that how Trump is getting three times the average rate for a much lower occupancy rate?

Class, let's say it together:  e-mol-u-ments

Check out the prices for the restaurants in his hotel. Paying $13 for a side order of french fries is nuts. 

https://www.trumphotels.com/washington-dc/dining

[Ali]

I suspect money laundering.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Someone needs to distract Trump with a shiny object"

Spoiler

This is what we dreaded. Some international crisis was bound to flare up, and President Trump would make it worse. Now we can only hope that the mature adults surrounding him are able to cool things down.

Trump probably thought it was oh-so-clever to answer North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear provocations with a taste of the dictator’s own apocalyptic language, threatening “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” It sounded like a playground taunt, reflecting the president’s emotional immaturity. On Thursday, Trump said that maybe those words weren’t “tough enough.” Soon these two nuclear-armed leaders may be trading insults about the size of each other’s hands.

The “fire and fury” line was “improvised,” meaning Trump failed to warn anyone about it beforehand — not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, not Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, not Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, not national security adviser H.R. McMaster, not U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Wish these five officials well, because they stand between us and unthinkable disaster.

It is possible that “fire and fury” was, in Trump’s mind, a bit of strategy. Perhaps he wanted to come across as a dangerous madman. If so, he succeeded in unnerving Americans and our allies — but not, apparently, the North Koreans.

Ironies abound. Before Trump’s intervention, his administration was actually doing pretty well in orchestrating a global response to North Korea’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. Haley managed to get the U.N. Security Council to approve tough new sanctions, which meant she had to win cooperation from China and Russia — a real diplomatic achievement.

Moreover, Trump’s bombast may even have occasioned high-fives in Kim’s inner circle. Kim has long sought direct talks with the United States as a way of showing the North Korean people his exalted status among world leaders. A back-and-forth exchange of rhetoric fills the bill.

Dealing with this crisis will require patience and realism, both of which Trump totally lacks.

There is no quick solution. If there were, Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama would have implemented it long ago. A U.S. military strike could cost millions of lives in South Korea and perhaps many thousands in Japan. Our nation, under Trump, would become an international pariah. We would have the blood of many innocents on our hands.

The reality is that Kim doesn’t want to conquer the world — or provoke a U.S. attack that could end his regime. He wants to remain in power. He also dreams of someday reuniting the Korean Peninsula under his own leadership, but that is a much longer-range goal. Right now, his imperative is survival.

By developing nuclear weapons and advanced missile technology, Kim sought to ensure that he never faces the fate of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Having gone to extraordinary lengths to obtain this insurance policy, he is not likely to give it up. Ever.

The Trump administration believes the Chinese government could do more to pressure Kim. It is true that China has the power to destroy the fragile North Korean economy, but Chinese leaders are not willing to confront the consequences of provoking a collapse of central authority in Pyongyang. And the Kim dynasty has shown a willingness to force the North Korean people to endure unspeakable hardship in the pursuit of national goals.

I see no way that Kim is ever going to be persuaded or coerced into giving up his nukes. Maybe he would do so under imminent threat of being deposed. But in any scenario I can imagine, he has more leverage with nuclear weapons than without them. I don’t want to live in a world in which a nuclear-tipped North Korean missile can hit Guam or Hawaii or Los Angeles or Chicago, but we may not have a choice.

Deterrence does work, though. It worked throughout the Cold War. It worked during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, when China was at least as unhinged as North Korea is today. It works between India and Pakistan.

Trump once said he would be willing to meet with Kim. If the president can be kept from making further threats and the present crisis allowed to subside, perhaps we can eventually offer direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang — something Kim dearly wants — with the subject being a verifiable freeze on the North Korean nuclear program. After a freeze is in place for a while, it might be possible to negotiate reductions.

As I said, we need to be patient and realistic. Someone please distract the president with a shiny object for the next few years.

Pitiful, but true.

[GreyhoundFan]

OMG: "Military is ‘locked and loaded,’ Trump says in latest warning to North Korea"

Spoiler

President Trump on Friday offered a fresh threat of force against North Korea, writing on Twitter that “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded” if the regime of Kim Jong Un should “act unwisely.”

“Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” Trump added in reference to the North's development of nuclear weapons despite increased United Nations sanctions.

...

Trump’s latest warning came a day after he cautioned North Korea that “things will happen to them like they never thought possible” should the isolated country attack the United States or its allies.

Trump also told reporters that his previous day’s threat of “fire and fury” may not have been “tough enough,” even as he sought to reassure an anxious world that he has the situation under control.

The escalation in rhetoric by Trump — which some U.S. leaders and allies have criticized — comes as North Korea has stepped up its threats against the United States, including a potential missile launch landing near the U.S. territory of Guam.

Trump’s tweet and statements to reporters on Thursday came from Bedminster, N.J., where he is on what the White House called a working vacation at his private golf club.

Trump’s rhetoric has become considerably more bellicose in recent days.

Just this past weekend, the administration was congratulating itself for orchestrating a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote to sharply increase sanctions against Pyongyang, describing steady diplomatic and economic pressure as the keystone of its strategy.

Instead, Trump said Thursday that the administration is now examining its entire military posture in Asia and that “we are preparing for many different alternative events.”

He said that he had already decided to increase the “antimissile” budget “by many billions of dollars, because of North Korea and other reasons.”

Um, dear TT, this is not a video game or playing with your toy soldiers. Your words and actions can conceivably kill millions. SHUT UP NOW.

[MarblesMom]

Yeah, I woke up to that on my phone.  WITAF is going on?  STOP TWEETING.

[GreyhoundFan]

Because he just can't shut up: "Trump retweets Fox headlines about ‘fallout’ for Republicans who cross him"

Spoiler

President Trump showed no interest Friday in backing off his feud with Senate Republicans, even as some in his own party warned he could be undermining his agenda on Capitol Hill.

Taking to Twitter, Trump retweeted a pair of “Fox & Friends” headlines recounting his rhetorical battle with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other member of the GOP caucus.

“Senators learn the hard way about the fallout from turning on Trump,” read the first headline.

The second: “Trump fires new warning shot at McConnell, leaves door open on whether he should step down.”

The president has been smarting from the Senate’s failure to pass an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, a long-standing priority for the GOP and a marquee campaign promise from Trump last year.

In a series of tweets and public statements in recent days, Trump has taken shots at McConnell for comments earlier this week suggesting that Trump’s lack of political experience had led to “excessive expectations” for passing major legislation.

Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Trump declined to say whether McConnell should resign. But Trump said they should ask the question again if the Senate leader doesn’t deliver on the president’s leading priorities. Besides a health-care bill, those include tax cuts and new infrastructure spending.

One of the Fox News stories amplified by Trump on Twitter on Friday notes that two GOP senators who’ve spoken out against Trump and his policies — Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Dean Heller (Nev.) — have now drawn primary challenges.

“Republican senators who have been a thorn in President Trump's side are beginning to see the political consequences of opposing the White House as pro-Trump activists start to mobilize,” says the story retweeted by the president.

In the wake of Trump’s comments on Thursday, several Republicans said his words could instead backfire, making it more difficult to get his agenda passed on Capitol Hill, where McConnell is a key figure and still popular among fellow GOP senators. So far, Republicans have achieved few major legislative victories, despite control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

What a freaking manbaby.

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course: "Trump’s effort to blame Obama for the opioid epidemic"

Spoiler

“Federal drug prosecutions have gone down in recent years. We’re going to be bringing them up and bringing them up rapidly. At the end of 2016, there were 23 percent fewer than in 2011. So they looked at this scourge and they let it go by, and we’re not letting it go by.”
— President Trump, remarks before a briefing on the opioid epidemic, Aug. 8, 2017

President Trump — who two days after this briefing said he would declare the opioid epidemic to be a national emergency — not so subtly tried to pin the blame on the Obama administration. “They looked at this scourge and they let it go by,” the president said, citing statistics that federal drug prosecutions have declined 23 percent since 2011.

But there’s a problem: These stats don’t tell you much about opioids.

The Facts

The White House did not respond to a query, but the president appears to be referring to a March report by the Pew Research Center. That study showed that federal criminal prosecutions of all types reached a peak in 2011  and had fallen to the lowest level in two decades. As the president said, drug charges fell by 23 percent, with 24,638 defendants in fiscal 2016, compared with 32,062 in fiscal year 2011.

To fairly compare what happened under the Obama administration, we’d have to go back to 2008, President George W. Bush’s last year. From fiscal 2008 to 2016, drug prosecutions dropped 15 percent.

But these numbers are for all drug prosecutions — and the data does not break out opioid-related prosecutions. Instead, the data shows only two categories: marijuana and then all other drugs. Because marijuana was legalized in some states during President Barack Obama’s term, marijuana prosecutions fell 39 percent from 2011 to 2016. Without marijuana in the totals, the decline for drug prosecutions between 2011 and 2016 is 18 percent.

...

“In 2013, for example, after two states legalized the recreational use of marijuana, the department announced new charging priorities for offenses involving the drug, which remains illegal under federal law,” the Pew report noted. That same year, Pew noted, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced a policy change that prosecutors make sure each case “serves a substantial federal interest,” a reason overall federal prosecutions may have fallen. Under the “Smart on Crime Initiative,” prosecutors were told to focus finite resources on more serious drug cases and leave low-level offenders to state prosecutors. (Many drug cases are handled in state courts, and there is even less data on that.)

“The data don’t specifically break out opioid prosecutions, so there’s no way to know what happened on that front,” said John Gramlich, who wrote the Pew report.

Trump’s statistic thus does not really tell you much about Obama’s handling of opioids. Our colleagues at FactCheck.org cited data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission — which shows how many people were actually sentenced for drug crimes — that indicates Trump is falsely attacking the former president.

Again, there are not good breakdowns for opioids. But there is data for heroin, which shows the number of people who were sentenced for federal heroin offenses rose by 56 percent from fiscal 2011 to 2016. Separately, the number of people convicted of trafficking in oxycodone rose sharply from 2008 to 2014, before falling in 2015 and 2016. But there isn’t data on other crimes involving oxycodone, hydrocodone or fentanyl.

Obama’s handling of the crisis is certainly open to criticism. If Trump wanted to be specific, he could have cited a Washington Post investigation that showed the Drug Enforcement Administration, under pressure from drug companies, softened enforcement of wholesale companies that distributed pills to the corrupt pharmacies that illegally sold the drugs for street use.

The jury is still out on whether Trump can improve on Obama’s numbers. In a report released July 27,  the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University said that drug prosecutions have continued to decline during the first five months of the Trump administration, so that “fewer drug offenders were federally prosecuted over the past 12 months than at any time during the last quarter century.”

The Pinocchio Test

This is a good example of data being used incorrectly. Federal prosecutions have gone down since 2011, but that does not indicate that the Obama administration ignored the opioid epidemic. The number cited by Trump was the result of a decline in marijuana prosecutions and a change in policy to focus on bigger, more important cases. Moreover, there is not enough detail in the data to show whether opioid prosecutions declined, as Trump suggested.

Two Pinocchios

Wow, the TT should celebrate, he only received two Pinocchios, instead of his usual four.

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘When you put this guy in a cage and think you’re controlling him, things like this happen’"

Spoiler

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Midway through President Trump’s second media availability in a single afternoon here Thursday, his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, held up a sign signaling to the boss that it was time to drop the curtain on the show.

“One more question,” it read.

The president either did not see her plea or opted to disregard it, because he kept answering questions — for 20 minutes straight, after having already fielded them for seven minutes in the earlier session.

This was Trump in his element: At his luxurious private golf club here in Bedminster, the cameras trained on him, his vice president and national security advisers looking on admiringly, he parried queries — at times even gleefully — like a tennis player.

Engaging with people — journalists, advisers, friends and even foes — is Trump’s lifeblood. His Oval Office has felt like a busy train station, with people breezing in and out to share a juicy tidbit or to solicit the president’s opinion on a pressing issue or to chew over something in the news. He likes to watch cable television news shows with other people, sometimes only through the phone.

After a week of seclusion at his Bedminster golf club, mostly out of public view during his working vacation, Trump seemed to have a lot he wanted to get off his chest. He weighed in on a far-reaching array of topics and generated new headlines in rat-a-tat fashion.

The president’s exchanges with a small pool of traveling reporters lacked the formality of a full-fledged news conference. (His last was in February.) After each answer, he made eye contact with a reporter, as if to say, “Gimme another!”

“It was like he was a dam that had suddenly burst free and he was able to unload a lot that was on his mind,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said.

At both media availabilities, which had been billed as “sprays,” an official term for photo opportunities, Trump’s new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, was relegated to merely watching the spectacle. The retired four-star Marine Corps general has, with great fanfare, worked to instill order in the White House, including a more disciplined message from the administration and more limited access to the president.

But two things Kelly apparently could not control on Thursday: What Trump would say next or how long he would keep talking.

“This is what General Kelly will learn very quickly, which is when you put this guy in a cage and think you’re controlling him, things like this happen,” said one Trump confidant, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Also watching it unfold on television was Trump biographer Tim O’Brien. The moment, he said, was vintage Trump.

“President Trump is a performance artist and he loves being on stage. . . . He was very much Trump unshackled and unfettered and reveling in this moment,” said O’Brien, author of the 2005 book “Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

Senior White House officials reached out following the president’s performance to say how much their boss enjoyed the exchanges. They said the president is eager to prove that he is hard at work on his vacation, and they argued that the president’s visibility helps galvanize his base of supporters at a time when polls show his support softening.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said Trump in recent days has been restless to share his thoughts on what she termed “one of the juiciest, newsiest periods of his presidency.”

“The president proved again that he is the best messenger and communicator in his White House,” Conway said. “The rest of us are serviceable understudies. . . . From the campaign trail to the presidency, he gets joy on the job, and part of his joy is engaging with the fourth estate.”

Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, echoed Conway’s assessment, saying, “This is what has made him a success in everything he’s done for the last 40 years.”

Trump made news on North Korea’s nuclear crisis (“Things will happen to them like they never thought possible”), on his frustrations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (“Mitch, get to work!”), on the FBI’s pre-dawn raid of his former campaign chairman’s home (“Pretty tough stuff’), on the opioid crisis (“It’s a national emergency”), and on banning transgender people from the armed forces (“I’m doing the military a great favor”).

Trump also said he was thankful to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin for expelling hundreds of U.S. diplomats from his country; was still weighing a decision about troop levels in Afghanistan; has confidence in a pair of embattled senior aides, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Attorney General Jeff Sessions; is working to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal; and is hunting down “leakers” who share sensitive information with journalists.

Trump’s impromptu answers could cause headaches for his administration in the days to come. His comments on North Korea, for instance, are unlikely to calm jitters around the world over the escalating nuclear brinkmanship between Trump and North Korea’s erratic leader, Kim Jong Un.

O’Brien said Trump “was in his element,” but added, “I don’t think it’s a good thing. Donald Trump in his element is someone who’s living in his own private Idaho, inside his own head. He’s constantly scripting how he sees the world and his role in it.”

Thursday’s episode reminded some in Trump’s orbit of his thrill ride of a news conference at the end of the Republican National Convention last summer in Cleveland.

Trump’s aides had succeeded in keeping him buttoned-up and on-message through the week-long convention, and his final stop in Cleveland was supposed to be a quick thank-you event to honor his local supporters the morning after he gave his formal address accepting the GOP nomination.

Instead, Trump effectively free-wheeled, reviving feuds with former rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich and even defended the journalistic credibility of the National Enquirer after it published an unsubstantiated charge about Cruz’s father.

Trump lives to be in the arena himself, said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump adviser.

“He realizes that the best way for him to control his message is to be the message,” Nunberg said.

I have a spare dog crate. It's big enough for the TT. Maybe I should offer it to Kelly.

[JMarie]

8 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Check out the prices for the restaurants in his hotel. Paying $13 for a side order of french fries is nuts. 

https://www.trumphotels.com/washington-dc/dining

At the shiny new D. C. hotel, there's an Ivanka suite

Quote

Quote

Ivanka Suite

One bedroom with one king bed

City View

At 860 square feet, this luxurious two level suite, with an internal staircase, has an upstairs private sitting area. Sophisticated and classically furnished décor with signature blues complement the rich wood and fabrics. The ground floor features a king size bed, custom luxurious bed and bath linens including plush robes, 55” high definition television with enhanced sound system, complimentary VoIP phone calls, refreshment center with Nespresso machine, bedside charging for all smartphones, executive desk, dressing closet and spacious marble bath with separate deep soaking tub , shower and luxurious toiletries.

ROOM FEATURES

Designer bath and bed linens

Refreshment center with Nespresso beverages

Nightly turndown service with complimentary bottled water

Electric sheers and drapes

Clothes steamer

Stocked mini-bar

Work desk

In-room safe

Pillow menu

BATHROOM

Italian marble designer bathrooms

Separate shower with handheld showerhead

Luxurious toiletries

Make-up mirror

Hair dryer

Plush bathrobes

TECHNOLOGY

Complimentary wireless internet

Enhanced lighting

55” HD flat-screen television with enhanced sound system

Complimentary digital access to over 5000 newspaper and magazines

From 1,263.00

 

USD / Night Excluding Taxes & Fees

 

Pillow menu?  And where are the Donald Jr. and Eric suites?

[fraurosena]

On 10-8-2017 at 3:05 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

The picture at the beginning of the article is worth a look: "Inflatable Trump chicken takes roost outside White House"

  Reveal hidden contents

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump may be out of town, but one plucky protester is keeping an eye on the White House.

A giant inflatable chicken bearing the unmistakable hairstyle of the commander in chief transfixed tourists and television cameras in the nation’s capital Wednesday afternoon.

Twitter users quickly posted dozens of images of the irate-looking fowl with a golden pompadour seemingly glaring down at the White House from a nearby green space known as the Ellipse. The chicken even appeared clearly in the background of a major news network’s live interview.

The Trump chicken balloon has appeared in Washington before, most recently before a protest in April to pressure Trump into releasing his tax returns. It even has its own Twitter account: @TaxMarchChicken.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

LOL, this even made the news over here! 

Any news about him in my country is invariably of the 'look wtf that orange idiot did now' type. 

[fraurosena]

On 10-8-2017 at 3:41 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

The survey interviewed a sample of 1,325 Americans from June 5 through 20

Yeah, sorry. This again is an example of why I don't put any credence in polls. How can this infinitesmally tiny sample actually represent 323.1 million people currently living in America?

As to the actual subject matter of the article @GreyhoundFan quoted, I do find the idea that the Repugliklans would even consider this very, very disquieting. And I would be even more disconcerted if they were to suggest postponing the 2018 elections. I have to admit that I wouldn't put it past them, though, if they believe it would keep them in power.

[Palimpsest]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Your words and actions can conceivably kill millions. SHUT UP NOW.

Or perhaps even everyone on the planet.

I don't care who does it - John Kelly or Congress - but take away his phone, put him in a straight-jacket, gag him, and stick him in a padded room in the White House basement until this can be sorted out.  This is not the behavior of a POTUS.