Trump 23: The Death Eaters Have Taken the Fucking Country

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump distances himself from GOP lawmakers to avoid blame if agenda stalls"

Spoiler

President Trump is strategically separating himself from Republicans in Congress, an extraordinary move to deflect blame if the GOP agenda continues to flounder.

Trump deepened the fissures in the party on Thursday when he accused the top two leaders on Capitol Hill of mismanaging a looming showdown over the nation’s borrowing authority. Republican lawmakers and aides responded to the president’s hostility with broadsides and warnings of their own.

Frustrated by months of relative inaction across Pennsylvania Avenue and emboldened by his urge to disrupt the status quo, Trump is testing whether his own political following will prove more potent and loyal than that of his party and its leaders in both houses of Congress.

The growing divide comes at an inopportune moment for Washington, however. In addition to having to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a fiscal crisis, Republicans face September deadlines to pass a spending bill to avert a government shutdown, as well as pressure to fulfill a key Trump campaign promise to rewrite the nation’s tax laws.

Behind the scenes, some Republican staff members described a more functional relationship between aides and lawmakers on Capitol Hill and White House officials. But in public, Trump is waging war against lawmakers. With a pair of morning tweets, he said he asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to include a debt-ceiling increase in a recent veterans bill.

“I requested that Mitch M & Paul R tie the Debt Ceiling legislation into the popular V.A. Bill (which just passed) for easy approval,” he wrote. “They . . . didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval. Could have been so easy — now a mess!”

In a later tweet, the president slammed McConnell for not being able to pass a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “That should NEVER have happened!” he wrote.

Trump is railing against Republicans because he thinks it will help him politically down the road, for instance during a 2020 reelection bid, said one outside adviser to the White House.

If Republicans lose the House in the 2018 midterm elections, as several White House advisers have warned the president, Trump can say, “See, I told you these guys wouldn’t get anything done. I’ve been saying this for months. They’re not following my agenda,” said the adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks.

Roger Stone, an ally of and former political adviser to Trump, put it this way: “The Trump brand and the Republican brand are two different things. What happened the last time the establishment tried to face him down? They got crushed.”

If Republicans lose the House, however, Trump could face greater peril than a difficult 2020 election: a Democratic majority eager to pursue impeachment and with subpoena power to conduct investigations.

For many GOP lawmakers, the justification for not fully breaking from Trump has been the promise of trying to salvage key parts of the party’s agenda. But now, they are increasingly resigning themselves to the reality that they will be largely on their own. One Senate GOP aide likened it to “being handed the keys to the car.”

As a result, they have grown increasingly hostile toward the president.

“It doesn’t help at this point, with a September coming up that is very consequential, to be throwing rocks at one another,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). He added: “You don’t, I think, do a lot of good by torching your teammates, particularly by name, individually.”

Said the Senate GOP aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid: “The sense you get is ‘We’re going to have to figure this out. We’re just going to assume we’re not going to get any help from the White House.”

Some White House aides have shown little sympathy toward GOP lawmakers who have made harsh remarks about Trump. Asked Thursday to respond to recent comments by Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) doubting the president’s competence and stability to lead, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded, “I think that’s a ridiculous and outrageous claim and doesn’t dignify a response from this podium.”

The relationship between Trump and McConnell, meanwhile, has become increasingly acerbic in recent weeks, in private and public. But as details have surfaced in news reports, McConnell has tried to project unity even as some Republicans have said tensions are still raw.

In remarks Thursday morning at the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s annual Country Ham Breakfast, McConnell praised the president and his administration for making strides on regulatory reform, the Supreme Court and looking out for rural Americans.

But he acknowledged differences on trade, saying he was “a little concerned” about some of Trump’s protectionist rhetoric. He also cracked a joke that underscored the challenges he faces with a narrow majority in the Senate.

“I’m often asked, ‘What is being the majority leader of the Senate like?’ ” he said. “The best answer I’ve been able to think of is, ‘It’s a little bit like being a groundskeeper at a cemetery. Everybody’s under you, but nobody’s listening. That’s what you get with 52-48.’ ”

McConnell sees a 2018 Senate map ripe with opportunities to expand the GOP majority. For this reason, Republicans in his orbit have been particularly pained by Trump’s attacks against Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a critic of the president who is up for reelection. They see the leader of their party, Trump, potentially sabotaging a chance to make it easier to pass the legislation he has complained about stalling.

The Trump administration has warned that Congress must raise the federal debt limit before October to avert a fiscal crisis. The government spends more money than it brings in through revenue, and it borrows money to cover the difference by issuing debt.

During an event in Everett, Wash., on Thursday, Ryan said he is confident that Congress will raise the debt limit and avoid a federal default.

“We pay our debts in this country, and we’ll continue to do so,” he said. “I’m not worried that’s going to get done, because it’s going to get done.”

Ryan acknowledged discussions about attaching the debt issue to the veterans bill, but said the maneuver ultimately “wasn’t available to us.”

Several House aides expressed exasperation Thursday about Trump’s claim regarding that proposal. They called that a misrepresentation of what had actually happened: White House and congressional aides had informally discussed the possibility that the Senate could attach a debt-ceiling extension to a House-passed veterans bill in late July, but it was never clear that the Senate would act before the House was scheduled to break for the summer — and many conservative House Republicans had warned GOP leaders not to pursue the maneuver.

Trump’s threat this week to shut down the government if a spending bill to keep it running past the end of next month does not include funding to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has compounded worries about the September to-do list.

“We don’t need a government shutdown. That never ends well,” Flake told Fox News Channel on Thursday. “We don’t save money doing it.”

The House Freedom Caucus stands to play a pivotal role in the fall’s legislative drama. On one hand, the bloc of hard-liners has been among the most fervent backers of Trump’s agenda, and its top leader, Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.), frequently consults with the president. On the other hand, the caucus and other conservatives have been reluctant to compromise on their principles to accomplish it — at least not without a fight.

“Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House,” Rep. Mark Walker (N.C.), a member of the Republican Study Committee, wrote in an opinion piece published earlier this month. “Any legislation signed into law needs to reflect unified government.”

Congressional Democrats are expected to stand firmly in opposition to Trump’s attempt to secure more federal funding for the border wall, as they did in the spring during similar spending talks.

On the debt limit, Democrats are taking a more hands-off approach, thinking the issue is entirely up to Republicans to resolve, given that in the past they called for spending reductions to be coupled with any debt-limit increases.

Some congressional aides are anticipating that Trump will hold a White House meeting with top House and Senate leaders shortly after lawmakers return from the their recess.

If a meeting is held, it would be the first face-to-face exchange between Trump and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) since the president hosted a cocktail reception for top lawmakers in late January. The last time he saw Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in person was the day after that reception, at a meeting aboutSupreme Court nominees.

Some Republicans hope that private negotiations on tax reform, the debt ceiling and keeping the government running won’t be weighed down by ugly public feuds.

One senior Republican involved in the process said Thursday that a relatively drama-free extension of the debt limit and a resolution to keep the government open until the end of the year are both likely to pass next month, with discussions about a border wall pushed into the next round of budget negotiations.

A second Republican, who has spoken with the president, said Thursday that Trump sees benefits from fighting GOP leaders but is not yet convinced that a showdown over a wall in September is necessary and is open to hearing options about how to proceed. The Republicans spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

Still, the long-term political upside that many in Trump’s inner circle see in going after congressional Republicans and the hard-line stances Trump is fond of taking are expected to complicate the delicate talks. They also raise the possibility that Trump will never ease up in his attacks.

“This is where the base already was. They hate Washington,” said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser. He added: “They don’t need the president to tell them that Congress isn’t doing its job. They already understand that.”

Yeah, just like a toddler -- "not me", "I didn't do it"

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s rhetorical schizophrenia is easy to see through"

Spoiler

And so, on one day, we had an unhinged and divisive rant by President Trump in Phoenix. Then, the next day in Reno, Nev., a call for national unity and reconciliation. Multiple political personality disorder. Rhetorical schizophrenia.

The gap between Trump extemporaneous and Trump scripted is canyon-like. The normal role of a speechwriter is to find, refine and elevate the voice of a leader. The greatest professional victory comes when a president thinks: This is the way I would sound if I had more time to write and more talent with language. In these circumstances, speechwriting is not deception; it is amplification.

But what about speechwriting that is designed to give a leader a different voice? Here moral issues begin to lurk. Is it ethical to make a cynical leader appear principled? A violent leader seem pacific? A cruel leader seem compassionate? This calculation is difficult, because most of us have an incongruous mix of such traits. Or maybe a speechwriter can hope a president will eventually rise to the level of his teleprompter.

My purpose is not to indict the president’s speechwriters. It is to point out that, in Trump’s case, there is no doubt which is his authentic voice, because he leaves no room for doubt. In rambling stemwinders such as the one in Phoenix, he plays rhetorical games with the artificial (for him) constraints of being presidential. “Nobody wants me to talk about your other senator — who’s weak on borders, weak on crime,” he said of (conservative Republican) Jeff Flake. “Now everybody’s happy.” Here the “nobody” clearly included his own concerned advisers. Trump often uses speeches (and Twitter) to cut the strings of their counsel.

Trump deserves a patent on the idea that political authenticity means spontaneity. So it was the real voice that we heard in Phoenix, attacking a man with brain cancer — Republican Sen. John McCain — without any wish for his recovery. The real voice defending a supporter who had been fired by CNN for writing “Sieg Heil” on Twitter. The real voice making fun of a TV anchor’s height. The real voice again widening racial divisions by defending Confederate monuments as “our history and our heritage.” (Instead of the royal “we,” the white “we.”) It was the real voice expressing greater passion in criticizing journalists than white supremacists.

Trump dares us to take him at face value. His self-revelation comes unbidden, even involuntarily. And his transparency reveals a disordered personality.

Why does this matter? For one thing, his Phoenix remarks indicate a loose connection to reality. His response to the violence in Charlottesville was, in his view, “perfect.” The North Koreans, he claimed, are learning to “respect” America (for which there is no evidence). “I don’t believe that any president has accomplished as much as this president in the first six or seven months,” Trump claimed of himself. “I really do not believe it.”

What if Trump really believes what he claims? Then he would be not deceptive, but deluded. A deluded man in charge of North Korean policy. A deluded man who could employ nuclear weapons at a moment’s notice (actually two to three minutes to order a launch). This appears to be the reason that national security professionals such as former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former acting CIA director John McLaughlin have been particularly disturbed of late. Trump is not merely acting unpresidential; he is erratic and grandiose.

This also matters in a domestic context. On the evidence of the Phoenix speech, Trump believes that a government shutdown is preferable to giving up on funding for the southern border wall. This involves a different type of delusion. Poll after poll demonstrates that about 35 percent of Americans support Trump’s wall. You can’t hold national parks and veterans’ payments hostage over an issue like this and expect to win.

Adds one Republican budget expert I spoke with: “It also takes careful management of the levers available to the administration in a shutdown to keep it from becoming a nightmare immediately, and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] is not doing the work to prepare. Incompetence is the death of these guys over and over.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) know a shutdown would not turn out well. But Trump’s version of reality appears to make another Republican legislative and political disaster inevitable. The unified control of House, Senate and presidency means little when the president lives in a reality of his own.

The author makes some very valid points.  "...erratic and grandiose..." yup, that's the orange menace to a T.

[Cartmann99]

Quote

Over the weekend, POTUS Shield prayer warriors gathered at Rick Joyner’s church in South Carolina for three days of spiritual warfare against the enemies of President Trump.

Led by tsunami-stopping pastor Frank Amedia, who served as a volunteer “Christian policy liaison” for Trump’s presidential campaign, POTUS Shield was formed to cover Trump in prayer and protection by Religious Right activists who believe that Trump is to play a key role in ushering in a new prophetic era that will unite the church as they “prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.”

During the Saturday afternoon session, Amedia revealed that he will soon be traveling to Washington, D.C., to seek White House press credentials for his organization so that they can use right-wing Christian media to help spread President Trump’s message directly to his supporters.

Since Jim Bakker dons his Trump-themed pajamas before crawling inside a giant Donald Trump doom bucket every night, it's no surprise that he is involved with this:

Quote

Amedia said he has already received commitments from Joyner, Sid Roth, Jim Bakker and other right-wing Christian television broadcasters to carry any news reports that POTUS Shield produces, meaning they will have the ability to “get the news out on the basis of the truth for the kingdom to tens of millions of people.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-potus-shield-prayer-warriors-are-seeking-white-house-press-credentials/

Hey Frank, since you can stop tsunamis, how about doing something about Harvey? C'mon, Frank, show your stuff! There are Trump voters in the path of the hurricane, you gotta save them to protect your income stream!

On a more serious note, my fear is that the response by Trump's administration to Harvey is going to be woefully inadequate, and the propaganda these nutters are putting out is scary. 

 

[Palimpsest]

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The author makes some very valid points.  "...erratic and grandiose..." yup, that's the orange menace to a T.

And so are "unhinged" and "deluded."  Good article.

@Cartmann99, those prayer warriors with their POTUS Shield are a sorry bunch but it is almost funny.  And I agree with you about a probably very inadequate response to Harvey.  Trump should try to remember how Bush was vilified for his poor response to Katrina

The way he is going, Trump will probably say the hurricane is a Good Thing and cleared the border states of ebil Dems so his stinkin' Wall can be built. 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"President Trump wants to pressure allies by cutting foreign aid. That never works."

Spoiler

In his speech this week on his plans for the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, President Trump said he will use the threat of withdrawing foreign aid to put pressure on Pakistan to better support the American mission. Despite proposing dramatic cuts to the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development budgets, the Trump administration still requested $740 million in foreign aid for Pakistan, so this threat carries significant weight. Then, just one day later, news broke that the State Department is withholding $195 million in military aid for Egypt and has revoked another $95 million in foreign aid, seeming proof that we are willing to use aid as leverage.

But history shows that foreign aid is a poor way to get what we want. Threatening to cut off aid is almost certain to fail in bringing about political change in Egypt, Pakistan or any country that the United States has a strategic interest in supporting.

U.S. foreign aid has long been held out as a carrot to reward countries that embrace democracy and free markets. For example, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a foreign aid agency created under George W. Bush, awards funds only to countries that are undertaking liberal political and economic reforms. During the Cold War, increased aid was also offered as a potential reward to failing states such as El Salvador. During a visit there by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush at the height of the country’s civil war, El Salvador was promised a massive increase in military assistance in exchange for the removal of military leaders suspected of human rights abuses and greater restraint by the government-aligned “death squad terrorists” who had killed thousands. While death squad killings did decline, the lull in violence was short lived. According to Human Rights Watch, there were 1,900 political killings and disappearances in El Salvador only a year after Bush’s visit. Promises of aid didn’t stop the violence, but Congress still approved the Reagan administration’s $61.7 million aid request to resupply the Salvadoran military, which was apparently running out of bullets.

The cutoff of aid has also been used as a stick — either threatened or enforced — to motivate countries to get back on track with U.S. objectives. In 2010, U.S. military aid to several Pakistani military units was cut as punishment for human rights abuses, including at least 300 extrajudicial executions in the Swat Valley. In a war for “hearts and minds,” killing civilians doesn’t help. But the Obama administration undermined the impact of the cuts by simultaneously negotiating a $2 billion counterterrorism package with Pakistan. The following year, the Obama administration suspended 40 percent of the $2 billion package in an attempt to secure greater cooperation from the Pakistani military in fighting against the Taliban — the very same thing Trump threatened.

Why does aid fail to change governments’ behavior? One of the reasons is that we give most of our foreign aid to countries that are strategically important to the United States — nations like Egypt and Pakistan. We need their continued cooperation on a range of issues, and this ultimately limits the amount of pressure we can apply. Sometimes there are developments beyond our control. Restrictions on foreign aid to Indonesia were eased in 2005 after a tsunami devastated parts of the country. Other times, the cuts in aid are too small to matter. In 2015, $5 million in aid was withheld from Mexico after the summary execution of 22 suspected gang members during the country’s ongoing drug war. But that amounted to 15 percent of U.S. support for the Mexican police and military under the Merida Initiative. The Mexican military continues to support local police forces, recently killing 17 in a firefight, which suggests that little has changed in the Mexican government’s strategy.

Often, cutting aid is simply not enough to force change. In Mali, the Obama administration suspended $70 million in bilateral aid — roughly half of U.S. aid to the country — after a 2012 coup. The State Department said aid would resume at normal levels once democratic rule was restored. The coup leader stepped down, but the military remained in power. Presidential elections were held more than a year later, after French military intervention in the country.

Pressuring countries through foreign aid can also drive them away from the United States. This fear was strongest during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was actively competing for influence in developing countries, but it’s still very real. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has led to thousands of deaths. In response, the U.S. postponed millions of dollars in foreign aid. Duterte also rejected $280 million in aid from the European Union because it was pressuring him to improve human rights conditions. Aid can no longer buy political influence in the Philippines.

The risk of pushing countries whose cooperation we need closer to Russia, China and Saudi Arabia — all of which have sizable aid programs of their own — is something Congress and the Trump administration should consider. Long-standing relationships, such as we have with Pakistan and Egypt, do need to be revisited. There’s no question that foreign aid needs to be reformed so that it better serves our national interest instead of supporting countries that undermine our goals. But empty threats put us in a poor negotiating position — something that this president should, at least in theory, know a bit about.

Just one more instance where the TT doesn't understand the big picture.

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

The way he is going, Trump will probably say the hurricane is a Good Thing and cleared the border states of ebil Dems so his stinkin' Wall can be built. 

Texas is a red state, so I figure he would toss them some pocket change in exchange for the ability to do a land grab on the border.  If a blue state went trough a hurricane, flood, earth quake, Godzilla rampage he'd just let it rot.

[Palimpsest]

7 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

 If a blue state went trough a hurricane, flood, earth quake, Godzilla rampage he'd just let it rot.

And how!  

TX may be a Red state but it has some rebellious little Democratic areas.  I hope none of our members are in the path of Harvey. @Howl, and any others in TX, I hope your can stay safe.

 

[EmiGirl]

Spoiler

 

I did NOT want to see this as soon as I walked into the auction today.  I'm not pleased.

[GreyhoundFan]

The first part of the daily megarticle in today's WaPo is about how the TT's handling of the hurricane will be a test.

Spoiler

THE BIG IDEA: Last August, Donald Trump attacked Barack Obama for golfing on Martha’s Vineyard after floods in Louisiana left 13 people dead. The then-Republican nominee flew to Baton Rouge to hand out toys to children who had lost their homes. “The president says he doesn’t want to go,” an outraged Trump told volunteers at a Baptist church.

“I heard he wants to stay under par while we are under water,” said Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council.

“He will never be under par,” Trump replied.

When Obama went down a few days later, Trump declared on Fox News that it was “too late.”

Now Trump faces his first major natural disaster as president. Will he go golfing this weekend as Hurricane Harvey pounds Texas?

-- If Harvey is not on your radar yet, it should be. Here’s the latest, via Joel Achenbach, Steven Mufson and Jason Samenow: “Texas is bracing for potentially catastrophic flooding and winds as Hurricane Harvey intensified Thursday and cruised toward a late Friday impact near Corpus Christi. The National Hurricane Center described Harvey’s sudden strengthening as ‘astounding.’ The storm is expected to strike as a Category 3 hurricane — meaning with winds greater than 111 miles per hour — making it the most powerful storm to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Despite the increasingly alarming forecasts, officials in Corpus Christi as of Thursday evening had held off on ordering mandatory evacuations of the city …

The hurricane center projected that the hurricane will stall on the Texas coast for several days, which could dump historic quantities of rain, with some places seeing as much as 35 inches: “The storm is forecast to meander to the east, deluging Houston and possibly New Orleans next week.”

...

-- Storms like this can define presidencies. George W. Bush’s presidency never recovered after Hurricane Katrina 12 summers ago. George H.W. Bush’s 1992 reelection hopes were hurt by his botched response to Hurricane Andrew because it cemented the narrative that he was detached from domestic problems and unconcerned about acting swiftly to help regular people back home.

-- In contrast to his brother and father, everyone agrees that Jeb Bush did a fantastic job as governor of Florida at responding to hurricanes. “Nine hurricanes slammed into Florida during Bush’s time in office, eight of them in a dizzying, 14-month span in 2004-05 — a record-breaking number that defined Bush as a steady executive in the face of disaster,” the Miami Herald reported in a story that published two years ago yesterday.

...

-- Yesterday afternoon, Trump tweeted a video clip of him visiting FEMA headquarters for a briefing on hurricanes. That trip took place three weeks ago – on Aug. 4:

...

-- When will Trump go to Texas? The Obama White House bristled at Trump’s attacks last year, saying the president was not just going to fly down to Baton Rouge for a photo op. It’s a tricky balancing act. Bill Clinton criticized Bush 41 for going to Florida too soon after Hurricane Andrew during the 1992 campaign because he said it distracted emergency responders and tied up police who should have been helping people.

-- The danger of looking aloof is real. Bush 43 cut short a month-long vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., by two days so that he could return to Washington to manage the response to Katrina. On the way back, Air Force One took a detour so the president could glimpse the wreckage. Photographers were invited into Bush’s cabin so they could document him looking down on Louisiana from the window of his plane. Looking back, Bush has described that as “a huge mistake” that made him appear “aloof.” “That photo of me hovering over the damage suggested I was detached from the suffering on the ground,” he wrote in “Decision Points,” his memoir. “That was not how I felt. But once that impression was formed, I couldn't change it.”

-- Beware the split-screen effect: Obama’s numbers took a big hit after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf. One reason it was so bad was that there was a live feed of oil gushing into the ocean while experts struggled to plug the well. Trump could look bad, for example, if cable news juxtaposes footage of a brash and divisive speech against images of devastation in Texas. Can the president stay on message and appear focused on the task at hand in the face of human suffering?

-- “As a political matter, a botched hurricane response in the Gulf Coast … would see Trump criticized — not by blue-state leaders he can mock or ignore — but by key members of his own coalition,” Ron Klain, a senior White House aide to Obama and Bill Clinton, noted in a potentially prescient Aug. 6 column.

-- Major damage will also draw public attention to severe budget cuts Trump has proposed. GOP operative John Weaver, a top strategist to John Kasich and John McCain before that, noted last night:

...

-- Trump wants to cut the National Weather Service’s budget by 6 percent and its parent agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), by 16 percent. “Trump also proposed huge subcuts for programs that engage in computer modeling of storms, as well as observation of storms and dissemination of data,” Newsweek’s Matthew Cooper reports. “Already, the U.S. is behind Europe in its forecast accuracy, and further cuts to research would likely leave the country farther behind in what’s been called ‘climate intelligence.’ The National Weather Service’s main forecasting model, the Global Forecasting System, has seen a major drop-off in accuracy. The White House’s budget proposal would only make it worse. It seeks to cut 26 percent from NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which supports data collection, climate and science, as well as research into more accurate weather forecasting models. The budget blueprint also would cut $513 million from NOAA’s satellite division … a 22 percent reduction.”

-- Before his retirement at the end of June, the retiring chief of a team of U.S. hurricane specialists at the National Hurricane Center warned that Trump’s budget cuts could have dire consequences. “It's hanging on really by a thread in terms of funding,” James Franklin told the Associated Press before stepping down after 35 years at NOAA.

-- “What’s more, it’s terrifying to think that Trump will be handling this crisis while he continues to deny the existence of human-caused climate change, which makes heavy rainfall events like this one more likely,” writes the New Republic’s Emily Atkin. “He recently rolled back flood standards that required new federal infrastructure be built with sea-level-rise in mind.”

-- Some good news: Trump’s FEMA director, Brock Long, is well regarded by professionals. “He was sworn in just two months ago,” Bloomberg’s Chris Flavelle reports in a profile that just posted. “Long's appointment was welcomed by experts on extreme weather, who praised him as neither overtly ideological nor hostile to the mission of the agency he was chosen to lead. Before being appointed to the top job, he was director of Alabama's Emergency Management Agency from 2008 to 2011, as well as a regional hurricane program manager for FEMA.”

-- But Hurricane Harvey could also spotlight still-unfilled positions in the Trump administration. Trump still had not nominated an administrator to lead NOAA, for example, even though Obama named someone before he was even inaugurated.

There is also no replacement yet for John Kelly at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA. He resigned as secretary to become White House chief of staff. At yesterday’s briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president has confidence in acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke. “I think that we are in great shape having General Kelly sitting next to the president throughout this process,” she said, adding that there is “probably no better chief of staff for the president during the hurricane season.” “The president has been briefed and will continue to be updated as the storm progresses,” Huckabee Sanders said. “Certainly (it is) something he’s very aware of, and we’ll keep a very watchful eye on, and (he) stands ready to provide resources if needed.”

...

So, he bitched about Obama golfing following a disaster. Is he going to head to the golf course this weekend? Methinks the answer is yes. He won't let anything get in the way of going to his gold palace and golfing.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is sobering: "What Trump has undone"

Spoiler

President Trump has repeatedly argued that he’s done more than any other recent president. That’s not true, as measured by the amount of legislation he’s been able to sign. It is true, though, that Trump has undone a lot of things that were put into place by his predecessors, including President Barack Obama.

Since Jan. 20, Trump’s administration has enthusiastically and systematically undone or uprooted rules, policies and tools that predated his time in office. Below, a list of those changes, roughly organized by subject area.

Did we miss something? Let us know.

The economy

Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The trade deal would have established a trade partnership between the United States and countries on the Pacific Rim.

Reversal of a rule that would mandate that oil and gas companies report payments to foreign governments. The Securities and Exchange Commission will no longer receive this information.

Ended limits on the ability of states to drug test those seeking unemployment benefits.

Repeal of a rule allowing states to create retirement savings plans for private-sector workers.

Repeal of a bill that mandated that employers maintain records of workplace injuries.

Killed a rule mandating that government contractors disclose past violations of labor law.

The justice system

Rescinded an Obama effort to reduce mandatory sentences. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered that prosecutors seek the most stringent penalties possible in criminal cases.

Reversed the government’s position on a voter ID law in Texas. Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department argued that the law had discriminatory intent. Under Sessions, Justice withdrew that complaint. On Wednesday, a federal court threw out the law.

Reviewed Justice Department efforts to address problematic police departments. An effort to address concerns in the Baltimore Police Department was delayed.

The environment

Withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.

Blocked the Clean Power Plan. The plan implemented under Obama focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Ended a study on the health effects of mountaintop-removal mining. The process involves blasting away the tops of hills and mountains to get at coal seams under the surface.

Rescinded a rule mandating that rising sea levels be considered when building public infrastructure in flood-prone areas.

Reversed an Obama ban on drilling for oil in the Arctic.

Reviewed the status of national monuments for possible reversal. In April, Trump signed an executive order ordering a review of monuments added in the past 20 years, opening up the possibility that some areas previously set aside would have that status revoked.

Withdrew a rule regulating fracking on public land.

Reversed a ban on plastic bottles at national parks.

Rescinded a limit on the number of sea animals that can be trapped or killed in fishing nets.

Delayed and potentially rolled back automotive fuel efficiency standards.

Repealed the Waters of the United States rule. This rule expanded the definition of water bodies that were protected by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ended a rule banning dumping waste from mining into streams.

Reversed a rule banning hunting bears and wolves. The ban applied to federal refuges in Alaska and prohibited hunting predators using certain methods.

Repealed a rule that would have centralized federal land management.

Removed a bike-sharing station at the White House.

Foreign policy and immigration

Cut the number of migrants and refugees allowed from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Repealed a rule allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military.

Rolled back of Obama’s outreach to the Cuban government.

Ended the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program. DAPA extended protections for some immigrant parents whose children were citizens of or residents in the United States.

Education

Withdrew federal protections for transgender students in schools. Under the rule approved by Obama, transgender students could use school bathrooms that corresponded to their gender identities.

Reversed a rule that mandated how achievement is measured in schools.

Repealed a rule mandating certain requirements for teacher-preparation programs.

Other policy areas

Revoked a ban on denying funding for Planned Parenthood at the state level.

Repealed a rule mandating that Internet service providers seek permission before selling personal information.

Reversed a rule that would ban gun sales to those deemed “mentally defective” by the government.

Slow or nonexistent staffing at the Senate-confirmed and management level across administration agencies.

Repealed a rule mandating consolidation of transit planning authorities.

 

[Cleopatra7]

Because this country is quickly swirling around the bowl with 45's uninspired non-leadership, I propose that we find alternate uses for the president's name. My suggestion is that the phrase "Donald John" be used to refer to a particularly disgusting public bathroom, as in, "I don't want to drink too much before the trip; the bathroom at the Greyhound bus station in Augusta, Georgia is a real Donald John and I don't want to use it if I don't have to."

[GrumpyGran]

17 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Donald Trump’s Identity Politics"

  Reveal hidden contents

In the wake of the presidential election, we’ve all been asking simplistic questions about how Donald Trump won. Was it economics? Was it racism? Was it misogyny? Did it come down to identity? We know that it can’t have been just one thing, and that President Trump’s triumph was a concoction of many things. Nonetheless, several factors came together in a peculiar way, with serious electoral consequences. Millions of white voters began to see themselves more openly not as white supremacists but as white identified.

It is no secret that the president has capitalized on the increasing salience of race and ethnicity in recent years. The furious reaction to many different historical and cultural developments — mass immigration; the success of the civil rights and women’s rights movements; the election and re-election of a black president; and the approaching end of white majority status in the United States — has created a political environment ripe for the growth of white identity politics.

Ashley Jardina, a political scientist at Duke, puts it this way: When the dominant status of whites relative to racial and ethnic minorities is secure and unchallenged, white identity likely remains dormant. When whites perceive their group’s dominant status is threatened or their group is unfairly disadvantaged, however, their racial identity may become salient and politically relevant.

White voters for whom racial identity is important include a minority faction of white supremacists, but as a whole they constitute a much broader and encompassing group. In an Aug. 16 essay for The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, Jardina wrote: The whites marching on Charlottesville were only a small segment of a much larger population for whom the politics of white identity resonates. The vast majority of white Americans who feel threatened by the country’s growing racial and ethnic diversity are not members of the KKK or neo-Nazis. They are much greater in number, and far more mainstream, than the white supremacists who protested in Virginia over the weekend.

A total of 36 percent of whites described their racial identity as either “very important” (16 percent) or “extremely important” (20 percent), according to an American National Election Studies survey in January 2016. Another 25 percent said it was “moderately important.”

Careful examination of Trump’s initial support shows the key role of white identity voters in Trump’s ascendance.

Between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28, 2016, as Trump consolidated his early support on the eve of the Republican caucuses and primaries, ANES conducted a special pre-election survey. To explore the role of white voters for whom racial identity was especially important, three political scientists — John Sides, Michael Tesler and Lynn Vavreck — analyze the ANES data in their forthcoming book, “Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America.”

The survey, they write, asked four questions that captured dimensions of white identity: the importance of white identity, how much whites are being discriminated against, the likelihood that whites are losing jobs to nonwhites, and the importance of whites working together to change laws unfair to whites. We combined those questions into a scale capturing the strength of white identity and found that it was strongly related to Republicans’ support for Donald Trump.

On the basis of that scale, the authors assembled the data illustrated by the accompanying chart, which shows that fewer than five percent of white Republicans who indicated that their racial identity was of little importance supported Trump. Among those who said their identity as whites was extremely important to them, Trump’s support reached 81 percent.

...

In a separate essay on the Post’s Monkey Cage site in March 2016, Tesler and Sides explained that both white racial identity and beliefs that whites are treated unfairly are powerful predictors of support for Donald Trump in the Republican primaries.

Once Trump secured this “white identifier” base — making him competitive in a multicandidate field — he was positioned to expand his traction among traditional Republicans, including a decisive majority of those who backed Mitt Romney, John McCain and George W. Bush.

What are the views of “white identifiers”?

According to Jardina, these voters are more likely to think that the growth of racial or ethnic groups in the United States that are not white is having a negative effect on American culture.

And they are much more likely to rank illegal immigration the most important issue facing the U.S. today, relative to the budget deficit, health care, the economy, unemployment, outsourcing of jobs to other countries, abortion, same-sex marriage, education, gun control, the environment or terrorism.

Perhaps most important, Jardina found that white identifiers are an aggrieved group. They are more likely to agree that American society owes white people a better chance in life than they currently have. And white identifiers would like many of the same benefits of identity politics that they believe other groups enjoy.

In other words, most — though by no means all — white identifiers appear to be driven as much by anger at their sense of lost status as by their animosity toward other groups, although these two feelings are clearly linked.

Tesler argued last November, after the election, that the Trump effect combined with eight years of racialized politics under President Obama, means that racial attitudes are now more closely aligned with white Americans’ partisan preferences than they have been at any time in the history of polling.

Just over a decade ago, political scientists were discounting the significance of white identity in elections.

David O. Sears, a professor of political science and psychology at U.C.L.A., wrote in 2006 that whites’ whiteness is usually likely to be no more noteworthy to them than is breathing the air around them. White group consciousness is therefore not likely to be a major force in whites’ political attitudes today.

In a 2005 paper, Cara Wong, a political scientist at the University of Illinois, and Grace E. Cho, who was a graduate student in politial science at the University of Michigan at the time, found that many whites identified with their race, but “white racial identity is not politically salient.”

Wong and Cho went on, however, to make what turned out to be a crucially important point: that since white identity is indeed unstable but easily triggered, the danger is that a demagogue could influence the salience of these identities to promote negative outgroup attitudes, link racial identification more strongly to policy preferences, and exacerbate group conflict.

John Podhoretz, in an article on the Commentary website, referred to Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacy — and anti-Semitism — on display in Charlottesville:

Our president responded by condemning violence “on many sides” and offering his “best regards” to the casualties. This was not a mistake on Trump’s part. This was a deliberate communications choice. It has a discomfiting parallel with the now-forgotten moment one week after Trump’s swearing in when his administration issued a statement on Holocaust remembrance that did not mention Jews.

Podhoretz recognizes Trump’s adamant refusal to alienate his most dogged backers: If there’s one thing politicians can feel in their marrow, even a non-pol pol like Trump, it’s who is in their base and what it is that binds the base to them and, even more important, the nucleus — the very heart of a base, the root of the root of support.

For years, Podhoretz writes, Trump operated below the radar, cultivating a constituency of “disaffected Americans entirely on the margins of American life, politically and culturally and organizationally.”

He did so, Podhoretz argues, by capitalizing on media and organizational tools disdained by the establishment: Alex Jones’s Infowars; the American Media supermarket tabloids, including The National Enquirer, Star and the Globe; the WWE professional wrestling network where “Trump intermittently served as a kind of Special Guest Villain.”

While Trump’s initial base included many on the margins of society, the larger population of white identifiers has been a growing constituency within the Republican electorate, starting in the white South after the passage under President Lyndon Johnson of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Trump, Vavreck noted in an email, was the first successful presidential candidate willing to explicitly direct his campaign toward this disaffected white electorate.

“This has been happening for a while, which is why Trump was able to leverage white identity in 2016,” she wrote. “Trump went where no other GOP primary candidate would go even though they all knew those voters were there.”

In “Identity Crisis,” Sides, Tesler and Vavreck write that Trump’s primary campaign became a vehicle for a different kind of identity politics — oriented around white Americans’ feelings of marginalization in an increasingly diverse America.

The three authors describe a rapidly “growing sense of white victimhood.” They cite surveys showing that among Republicans, the perception of discrimination against whites grew from 38 percent in 2011-12 to 47 percent in January 2016.

A February 2017 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute separately asked voters whether “there is a lot of discrimination” against various groups. 43 percent of Republicans said there is a lot of discrimination against whites, compared to 27 percent of Republicans who said that there is a lot of discrimination against blacks.

Trump, according to Sides, Tesler and Vavreck, was unusual in how he talked about race. Candidates have traditionally used implicit racial appeals to win over voters without appearing overtly prejudiced. And, as much political science research has shown, these appeals have often succeeded in activating support among voters with less favorable views of racial minorities. But Trump talked about issues related to race and ethnicity in explicit terms.

Direct and indirect references to threats to white identity continue to shape Trump’s rhetoric. In his ongoing drive to demonize the media, Trump declared during his rally in Phoenix on Tuesday that “they are trying to take away our history and our heritage.”

Shedding light on Trump’s sustained backing among his supporters, a Public Policy Polling survey conducted from Aug. 18 to Aug. 21 found that Trump’s approval rating did not diminish in the aftermath of the Charlottesville protests on Aug. 11 and 12, during which white nationalists marched wearing Nazi insignia and chanting anti-Semitic slogans. The poll reported that support for Trump held firm probably because his supporters think that whites and Christians are the most oppressed groups of people in the country.

Trump has mobilized the white identity electorate, and in doing so has put the tenuous American commitment to racial and ethnic egalitarianism on the line. And Trump has been captured by the success of his own demagoguery. He surged ahead of his Republican competitors for the nomination when he threw matches on the kindling and now, under siege, his only strategy for survival is to pour gasoline on the flames.

No one doubts that it has been unsettling for many Americans to adapt to an increasingly interconnected world. Still, history has not been kind to those who have unequivocally yielded to racial grievance — to our local agitators, the David Dukes and the Father Coughlins, as well as to the even more poisonous propagators of racial hatred overseas. As Trump abandons his campaign promises to end endless war, to provide “beautiful” health care, to protect Medicaid, to restore American industry, jobs and mines, to make Mexico pay for a border wall, he has kept his partially veiled promise to focus on white racial essentialism, to make race divisive again. He has gone where other politicians dared not venture and he has taken the Republican Party with him.

This is a very thoughtful piece.

I do my own very un-scientific research once or twice a week by checking in with @Trump_Regrets. I can't attest to its authenticity but if it's to be believed he lost very few followers after the comments regarding Charlottesville, but significantly more after the Phoenix speech. If you believe these real(?) people's tweets claiming they are done with him, they are most upset with the fact that he plays too much golf, tweets stupid things and has rallies. They want him to stop those things and start "MAGA", as if he could. Still delusional but not happy with him anymore because they now realize he will never stop with the self-aggrandizement.

[Cartmann99]

Someone from his staff grabbed his phone and tweeted:

I understand that having the president show up too soon after a disaster can actually make things worse by slowing down efforts to help the afflicted areas. Trump should wait until the elected officials of those areas think the time is right for him to visit, and just rely on reports from the ground for the time being.

The question is, will he listen to the officials, or will he want to have campaign rallies there under the guise of "cheering up" the residents? 

[candygirl200413]

So NHC (National Hurricane Center) has no director for office of director or a branch chief for hurricane specialist. I'm assuming as well that a lot of staff on here are just from Obama's administration http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutstaff.shtml.

Remember the flood earlier this summer? From Tennessee? Reps/Senators were asking for Trump's help and were ignored. The same will happen for Harvey which is obviously sad but again not surprising. I'll be surprised if he goes down there.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump is threatening a government shutdown. Here’s what that looks like."

Spoiler

At his raucous Phoenix rally, President Trump threatened to shut down the government in a matter of weeks if Congress refuses to fund the border wall he has long promised supporters.

“If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump told attendees, who fist-pumped and chanted, “Build that wall.”

The Tuesday rally wasn’t the first time Trump had raised the prospect of a government shutdown. In May, he tweeted that the “country needs a good ‘shutdown’” to leverage a better budget deal for Republicans.

...

A good shutdown? Recent history shows there’s no such thing.

Trump, for example, likes to brag about the growth rate of the gross domestic product.

But the 16-day government shutdown of October 2013, which was the longest since 1980, resulted in an estimated $24 billion in lost economic output, or 0.6 percent of projected annualized GDP growth, according to the Standard & Poor’s ratings agency.

Much of that came from government workers, including civilian contractors, not getting paid. And it wasn’t the whole of the government workforce that was “furloughed,” only about 850,000 employees, or about 40 percent of the federal civilian workforce, according to the Congressional Research Service. There were exemptions for many workers deemed essential.

Trump has promised to supercharge oil and gas drilling in America. But the shutdown of government all but shut down the drilling permitting process temporarily.

He portrays himself as someone who knows how to run a business, loves monuments and is making life better for veterans.

But the 2013 shutdown closed national monuments, stalled disability checks for veterans and disrupted loans for small businesses.

The shutdown was overwhelmingly unpopular, with 8 in 10 Americans saying they disapproved of the government closure, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

At the time, President Barack Obama blamed Republicans, who he said used the budget bill to try to leverage a rollback of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans blamed Obama and the Democrats, who they said wouldn’t negotiate.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said that it was “very hard from a distance to figure out who has lost their minds. One party, the other party, all of us, or the president.”

If a shutdown occurs this year, there might not be the same blame-game: Trump has already claimed responsibility for it. That’s unprecedented for a sitting president.

The current bipartisan spending agreement, reached in late April, will fund government operations through Sept. 30. Lawmakers reached the deal only after Trump dropped his demand that the spending package include funds for the border wall. But the rift between Trump and Congress — including his notably frosty relationship with Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell — has only grown since then.

Trump is a man who loves a good show. But the optics of a shutdown, the way it looks on television, are awful.

In 2013, a group of visiting veterans, some in wheelchairs and other leaning on canes, stormed the World War II Memorial, which had been closed by the National Park Service because of the shutdown. It was riveting television but lousy politics.

The same was true for those tourists at the Statue of Liberty, disappointed and angry to learn they couldn’t visit it.

National parks closed, leading to $450,000 a day in lost revenue, according to the National Park Service, including considerable economic suffering for the communities near them.

Below is a sampler of other shutdown consequences from 2013 taken verbatim from a November 2013 report from the Executive Office of the President. The government shutdown:

Disrupted private-sector lending to individuals and small businesses. During the shutdown, banks and other lenders could not access government income and Social Security Number verification services. Two weeks into the shutdown, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had an inventory of 1.2 million verification requests that could not be processed, potentially delaying approval of mortgages and other loans.

Hindered trade by putting import and export licenses and applications on hold. For example, because the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau was unable to issue export certificates for beer, wine, and distilled spirits, more than two million liters of U.S. products were left sitting at ports unable to ship.

Halted permitting and environmental and other reviews, delaying job-creating transportation and energy projects. For example, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was unable to process about 200 Applications for Permit to Drill, delaying energy development on Federal lands in North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, and other states.

Halted Federal loans to small businesses, homeowners, and housing and health care facility developers. The Small Business Administration (SBA) was unable to process about 700 applications for $140 million in small business loans, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was unable to process over 500 applications for loans to develop, rehabilitate, or refinance around 80,000 multifamily rental units.

Stalled weekly progress in reducing the backlog of veterans’ disability claims, which was previously being reduced at a rate of almost 20,000 claims per week.

Delayed almost $4 billion in tax refunds and … the start of the 2014 tax filing season by up to two weeks.

Prevented the timely and complete investigation of 59 airplane accidents by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Delayed workshops for 1,400 military service members to help them transition to civilian life and employment.

In short, shutdowns tend to remind people in dramatic ways that the government actually does things, things that are often missed when they’re gone.

Yeah, the TT doesn't get that people (other than the freaking teabaggers) don't like when the government shuts down.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Religious leaders plan rally in Washington as a moral rebuke to Trump’s presidency"

Spoiler

The Rev. Al Sharpton organized more than 1,000 religious leaders from multiple faiths to rally Monday in Washington, saying he hopes to show that opposition to President Trump is not merely a political reproach, but also a moral one.

The “One Thousand Ministers March for Justice” in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will come on the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech.

The rally was planned long before a deadly white supremacist protest earlier this month in Charlottesville, although Sharpton said the events in Virginia only intensified the mission of Monday’s march.

“Charlottesville gave it a new energy, and a lot of ministers called in saying that this is the time to make a moral statement,” Sharpton said. “The president called for unity, and we are going to show unity. The question is, which side is the president on?”

According to National Park Service permits, the rally will start at 10 a.m. near the MLK Memorial at West Potomac Park-Polo Field on the Mall.

The rally will include a prayer vigil and ceremony in which leaders will “recommit to being at the forefront of social justice and civil rights,” the permit states. Participants then will march to the Department of Justice.

Sharpton’s National Action Network organization is planning the rally, which will be attended by Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith leaders. Former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and King’s older son, Martin Luther King III, also are expected to attend.

“We want to convene ministers from all faiths to make a moral statement that no matter what party is in office, there are certain moral things that should be nonnegotiable,” Sharpton said. “That is voting rights, health care, criminal justice reform and economic justice.”

In the wake of the Charlottesville protest — in which a white supremacist rallygoer allegedly drove his car through a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman — Trump received condemnation from both parties after he said there was blame on “many sides” for the deadly violence. (Under pressure the next day, he condemned neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan by name, but later seemed to defend his original remarks.)

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said it’s critical for Jewish leaders to have a presence at Monday’s rally. Pesner was one of many rabbis who said he would not participate in an annual conference with the president ahead of the Jewish High Holidays because of Trump’s Charlottesville remarks.

He said Jews marched 5,000 years ago out of Egypt, they marched with Martin Luther King Jr. 54 years ago and would be marching Monday against Trump. More than 200 Jewish leaders are expected to march Monday, Pesner said.

“We Jews will march for 5,000 more years if that’s what it takes to make sure that all people experience compassion and justice and equality,” Pesner said. “We know that it’s our jobs as Jews to always show up and beat back the forces of white supremacy, racism and hate of all forms.”

Trump and Sharpton, two prominent New Yorkers, have a long and public history. During the 1989 Central Park jogger case, Sharpton stood by five black teens who were accused of attacking a white female jogger in Central Park. Trump, in an open letter published as an ad in the New York Times and other newspapers, called for the teens to be sentenced to death.

The teens were exonerated in 2002 after another man confessed to the crime.

Trump and Sharpton, according to Sharpton, have “always had an adversarial political relationship.”
“It’s fair to say that we are doing this march because the basic tenants of Dr. King’s dream are at risk now by the policies being promoted by this administration,” Sharpton said. “Trump has kept the bust of Dr. King in his office, but what about the dream of Dr. King?”

I've never been a Sharpton fan, but I like seeing people from all walks protesting the TT.

[GrumpyGran]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered that prosecutors seek the most stringent penalties possible in criminal cases.

Hey, now, this could work out very well! Very well indeed. Would be great if his little attempt at punishing "very bad" people ended up biting him in the ass.

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Religious leaders plan rally in Washington as a moral rebuke to Trump’s presidency"

  Hide contents

The Rev. Al Sharpton organized more than 1,000 religious leaders from multiple faiths to rally Monday in Washington, saying he hopes to show that opposition to President Trump is not merely a political reproach, but also a moral one.

The “One Thousand Ministers March for Justice” in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will come on the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech.

The rally was planned long before a deadly white supremacist protest earlier this month in Charlottesville, although Sharpton said the events in Virginia only intensified the mission of Monday’s march.

“Charlottesville gave it a new energy, and a lot of ministers called in saying that this is the time to make a moral statement,” Sharpton said. “The president called for unity, and we are going to show unity. The question is, which side is the president on?”

According to National Park Service permits, the rally will start at 10 a.m. near the MLK Memorial at West Potomac Park-Polo Field on the Mall.

The rally will include a prayer vigil and ceremony in which leaders will “recommit to being at the forefront of social justice and civil rights,” the permit states. Participants then will march to the Department of Justice.

Sharpton’s National Action Network organization is planning the rally, which will be attended by Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith leaders. Former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and King’s older son, Martin Luther King III, also are expected to attend.

“We want to convene ministers from all faiths to make a moral statement that no matter what party is in office, there are certain moral things that should be nonnegotiable,” Sharpton said. “That is voting rights, health care, criminal justice reform and economic justice.”

In the wake of the Charlottesville protest — in which a white supremacist rallygoer allegedly drove his car through a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman — Trump received condemnation from both parties after he said there was blame on “many sides” for the deadly violence. (Under pressure the next day, he condemned neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan by name, but later seemed to defend his original remarks.)

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said it’s critical for Jewish leaders to have a presence at Monday’s rally. Pesner was one of many rabbis who said he would not participate in an annual conference with the president ahead of the Jewish High Holidays because of Trump’s Charlottesville remarks.

He said Jews marched 5,000 years ago out of Egypt, they marched with Martin Luther King Jr. 54 years ago and would be marching Monday against Trump. More than 200 Jewish leaders are expected to march Monday, Pesner said.

“We Jews will march for 5,000 more years if that’s what it takes to make sure that all people experience compassion and justice and equality,” Pesner said. “We know that it’s our jobs as Jews to always show up and beat back the forces of white supremacy, racism and hate of all forms.”

Trump and Sharpton, two prominent New Yorkers, have a long and public history. During the 1989 Central Park jogger case, Sharpton stood by five black teens who were accused of attacking a white female jogger in Central Park. Trump, in an open letter published as an ad in the New York Times and other newspapers, called for the teens to be sentenced to death.

The teens were exonerated in 2002 after another man confessed to the crime.

Trump and Sharpton, according to Sharpton, have “always had an adversarial political relationship.”
“It’s fair to say that we are doing this march because the basic tenants of Dr. King’s dream are at risk now by the policies being promoted by this administration,” Sharpton said. “Trump has kept the bust of Dr. King in his office, but what about the dream of Dr. King?”

I've never been a Sharpton fan, but I like seeing people from all walks protesting the TT.

Will be interesting to see if the alt-rights show up to counter-protest, thereby making even bigger hypocrites out of themselves. If that's possible.

[onekidanddone]

Shout out to all Texas and Louisiana FJ peeps.  Stay safe and post updates to let us know y'all are okay.

[GreyhoundFan]

13 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Shout out to all Texas and Louisiana FJ peeps.  Stay safe and post updates to let us know y'all are okay.

I second this. I just saw that the European model is forecasting up to 60 inches of rain over the next week in Texas and Louisiana. That's crazy.

For those who are interested, the WaPo has a running live feed about Harvey.

Pence is staying in DC for the weekend while the TT goes to Camp David. I bet he'll be unhappy, since there isn't much golf there and the accommodations are not like his gold palaces.

[GrumpyGran]

2 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I second this. I just saw that the European model is forecasting up to 60 inches of rain over the next week in Texas and Louisiana. That's crazy.

For those who are interested, the WaPo has a running live feed about Harvey.

Pence is staying in DC for the weekend while the TT goes to Camp David. I bet he'll be unhappy, since there isn't much golf there and the accommodations are not like his gold palaces.

Yep, that's a lot of water. To all of you in TX and LA, keep an eye on it. Water can rise very quickly. Be safe!

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

Sharpton’s National Action Network organization is planning the rally, which will be attended by Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith leaders. Former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and King’s older son, Martin Luther King III, also are expected to attend.

It is good to see leaders of faith come together, but these are not the only faiths in this country.  Pagan, Wicca, Buddhists, Hindus and so many more.  I hope they will be recognized as well.

I don't go to marches anymore, but I'd go as a Jew-is atheist 

[Cartmann99]

Hey Everyone, 

Just a heads up that I started a thread for hurricane news, the Trump administration's response to it, and a place for everyone effected by the storm to check in and let us know they are safe.

Thanks!

[Destiny]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/politics/trump-mattis-transgender-ban.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=65747566&pgtype=Homepage&_r=0

Quote

WASHINGTON — President Trump signed a long-awaited directive on Friday that precludes transgender individuals from joining the military but gives Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wide discretion in determining whether transgender personnel who are already in the armed forces can continue to serve.

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT.

[fraurosena]

14 minutes ago, Destiny said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/politics/trump-mattis-transgender-ban.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=65747566&pgtype=Homepage&_r=0

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT.

Here's what Joe Kennedy had to say about that. Not that it will change anything... 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Understatement of the year: "Trump provokes widespread anxiety"

Spoiler

The George Washington University Battleground Poll released on Thursday reports:

There is widespread national concern about President Donald Trump’s public discourse and behavior, according to the latest George Washington University Battleground Poll. The survey, taken August 13-17, found a large majority of voters — 71 percent — agreed his “behavior is not what I expect from a president” (27 percent disagreed), and 68 percent agreed his “words and actions could get us accidentally involved in an international conflict” (29 percent disagreed).

Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of the registered voters polled said the country is on the wrong track, and a majority (56 percent) had an unfavorable view of President Trump (41 percent favorable). A similar number disapproved of the job he’s doing as president (55 percent), while 42 percent approved, and 56 percent also said he has not been effective as the president, while 39 percent said he has been effective.

As an aside we might note that there is some segment of voters who think he could accidentally involve us in an international crisis and still approve of the job he is doing. There’s no accounting for personal priorities, I suppose.

More ominous for Republicans as a whole:

The GW Battleground Poll hinted at possible congressional upheaval with the 2018 midterm elections. Slightly more survey respondents chose Democrats (46 percent) than Republicans (40) on a generic congressional ballot, and voters were evenly split on their current members of Congress (43 percent approve, 45 disapprove).

Of 10 issues listed in the survey, the two on which Democrats hold a lead in voter confidence were health care (52 percent to the GOP’s 35) and climate change (62 to 24). More than half (53 percent) of voters said it was a good thing Congress did not repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (41 percent said it was a bad thing), although slightly more people (35 percent) credited congressional Republicans with that inaction than Democrats (30) or the president (19).

And they do not buy that the Russia investigation is a “hoax.” (“When asked their thoughts on the ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, most voters (a combined 55 percent) believed Trump campaign staffers behaved improperly. A plurality, 33 percent, thought Trump campaign staffers likely committed crimes. Another 22 percent thought campaign staffers acted unethically but not criminally. Only 36 percent of respondents said the president’s campaign staff behaved normally.”)

The advice from the Democratic half of the polling team, Celinda Lake and her colleagues, provides a solid warning to Democrats. “Trump’s missteps have not translated to unambiguous gains for the opposition party. Democrats enjoy a narrow advantage in the generic congressional trial heat for the 2018 midterm elections, yet trail their Republican counterparts on most major issues, including voters’ persisting central concern: jobs and the economy,” they warn. “In order to win next November, Democrats will need to do more than ‘lean in’ on frustration with the President and the Republican Congress—though that certainly is a key element of positioning the party for victory; in addition, Democrats must make a far stronger case that they possess bold solutions to the major challenges facing the country and the capacity to effect dramatic change should voters hand them the reins of power.” That would suggest, in lieu of a raft of itty-bitty prescription, a limited list of widely popular items: fixing Obamacare, passing a major infrastructure bill, focusing any tax cut on the middle class, etc. Trump has not made good on his populist agenda — and that offers Democrats a chance to pick up disenchanted Trump voters and reassemble their own coalition.

The 2018 midterm elections are figuratively a referendum on Trump — and whether the country is better served by a Congress that is subservient to the president or by a Congress that will stand up to him. In this regard, Democrats would be wise to paint (correctly) their opponents as too afraid to fight Trump not only on issues like racial unity but on taxes (for the rich), massive cuts to Medicaid and immigration extremism. Democrats’ job will be made even easier if Republicans cannot manage to keep the government open and the country’s credit rating intact.

In other words, unless Republicans in Congress can reduce the chaos and produce widely popular legislation, Democrats can present themselves as the only adults in sight. That’s a role Republicans like to inhabit but when the president acts like a crabby toddler, the job of grownup is wide open.