Trump 24: Fiddling, er, Tweeting While Rome Burns

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Any outlet that kisses his fat orange ass is fine by him.

Why, thanks @GreyhoundFan for that image right before I go to bed.

[JenniferJuniper]

Stole this bit of brilliance from somewhere on FB.

Spoiler

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Sorry @fraurosena . Hopefully you can get some rest.

If it makes you feel better, I was eating lunch and became a little nauseous.

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

Mr. Bharara had this response to man baby's threats against NBC. 

A adult daycare center where the big baby has a box of matches and a gallon of Sterno. 

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin: "Trump’s words can be the basis for impeachment"

Spoiler

President Trump’s attack on NBC is now a sustained attack on the press and the concept of a free press. He declared in tin-pot-dictator rhetoric: “It is frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write.” That’s a direct repudiation of the First Amendment in the context of threats to pull NBC’s license. That’s not merely outrageous and indefensible; it is, I would argue, one of many instances in which Trump’s words reveal an inability to carry out his oath of office.

Bob Bauer writes: “A president who is a demagogue, whose demagoguery defines his style of political leadership, is subject for that reason to impeachment.” That’s not as shocking as one might think. He reasons:

In Federalist No. 65, Hamilton defines an impeachable offense as one that inflicts “political” injury on a democratic society; it is not hard to imagine a chief executive who, by his or her speech, achieves this level of harm. An openly racist president would fall into this category. So would one who lied about the reasons for taking the country to war.

We need not rely on hypotheticals. The Nixon case is precedent on this question. The House Judiciary Committee approved an article of impeachment citing Nixon’s publicly stated falsehoods about the Watergate break-in and his actions to investigate it, as violations of his constitutional oath to take care to faithfully execute the laws and his office. There is, then, no basis for the claim that words alone cannot justify the institution of impeachment proceedings.

When we add to that Trump’s public abuse of members of his own Cabinet, members of Congress, judges, etc., we can see classic demagogic conduct. That entails, Bauer argues, “manipulation of language to attract and maintain popular support in service of the demagogue’s unbounded self-interest. The leadership function has become pathologically personalized; personal ends and ambitions are of primary importance to the demagogue. His self-interested ends justify the use of virtually any means—or at least any he could hope to get away with.” And that description truly embodies Trump’s behavior. Recall that Trump thinks members of the executive branch including the FBI owe an oath of loyalty to him personally rather than to the Constitution. That too is the mind-set of a lawless demagogue.

Add to that Trump lies, the constant big and small ones, the ridiculous and the mendacious. We know from his persist telling of untruths that have been long ago debunked that he has become indifferent to or unfamiliar with the real world when facts do not comport with his views. Couple that with his attack on an independent source of information — the free press — and one sees a president morphing into an authoritarian who imagines he is unencumbered by the law.

Bauer recalls some of the most dangerous lies, threats and rejections of democratic government:

Trump’s speech in office, much of it delivered in 140 characters to millions, is extremely and consistently loose with truth, often outrightly false, and contemptuous of institutions, including courts of law. His assaults on the media for “fake news” include the flat-out denial of reporting, including reporting he knows to be true, such as emerging chronicle of the 2016 Russian intervention … He fired James Comey as FBI director for the stated reason that Comey was investigating that intervention—an investigation with implications for his, his family’s and his campaign’s legal interests. Then, he threatened Comey with the disclosure of “tapes” of their conversations; tapes that he later acknowledged did not exist. …

Trump’s speech, like that of the classic demagogue, is not merely replete with falsehoods and disdain for limits. Of Trump it may be said, as [Sen. Joe] McCarthy’s biographer said of him, that “he [has] delighted in revenge and when attacked [will] return a blow twice as hard,” and in argument, he has “refused to concede a single point and clung tenaciously to his position.”

In and of themselves, Trump’s words might not be sufficient to justify impeachment. But when you combine them with his severe intellectual and temperamental limitations that require constant monitoring by a triumvirate of generals, and his attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation, there is little doubt that he is precisely the sort of person whom the Founding Fathers had in mind when they included the impeachment clause.

 

[onekidanddone]

I'm sitting here fuming over Trump and eating some saltines. Then it hit me.. I really am a BEC

[GreyhoundFan]

Good one from Vanity Fair: "“I Hate Everyone in the White House!”: Trump Seethes as Advisers Fear the President Is “Unraveling”"

Spoiler

In recent days, I’ve spoken with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president that seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods.

***

At first it sounded like hyperbole, the escalation of a Twitter war. But now it’s clear that Bob Corker’s remarkable New York Times interview—in which the Republican senator described the White House as “adult day care” and warned Trump could start World War III—was an inflection point in the Trump presidency. It brought into the open what several people close to the president have recently told me in private: that Trump is “unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.”

The conversation among some of the president’s longtime confidantes, along with the character of some of the leaks emerging from the White House has shifted. There’s a new level of concern. NBC News published a report that Trump shocked his national security team when he called for a nearly tenfold increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal during a briefing this summer. One Trump adviser confirmed to me it was after this meeting disbanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron.”

In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”

According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!” (A White House official denies this.) Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about Kelly’s future increased after Politico reported that Kelly’s deputy Kirstjen Nielsen is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretary—the theory among some Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his departure.

One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said. Even Trump’s most loyal backers are sowing public doubts. This morning, The Washington Post quoted longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack saying he has been “shocked” and “stunned” by Trump’s behavior.

While Kelly can’t control Trump’s tweets, he is doing his best to physically sequester the president—much to Trump’s frustration. One major G.O.P. donor told me access to Trump has been cut off, and his outside calls to the White House switchboard aren’t put through to the Oval Office. Earlier this week, I reported on Kelly’s plans to prevent Trump from mingling with guests at Mar-a-Lago later this month. And, according to two sources, Keith Schiller quit last month after Kelly told Schiller he needed permission to speak to the president and wanted written reports of their conversations.

The White House denies these accounts. “The President’s mood is good and his outlook on the agenda is very positive,” an official said.

West Wing aides have also worried about Trump’s public appearances, one Trump adviser told me. The adviser said aides were relieved when Trump declined to agree to appear on the season premiere of 60 Minutes last month. “He’s lost a step. They don’t want him doing adversarial TV interviews,” the adviser explained. Instead, Trump has sat down for friendly conversations with Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee, whose daughter is Trump’s press secretary. (The White House official says the 60 Minutes interview is being rescheduled.)

Even before Corker’s remarks, some West Wing advisers were worried that Trump’s behavior could cause the Cabinet to take extraordinary Constitutional measures to remove him from office. Several months ago, according to two sources with knowledge of the conversation, former chief strategist Steve Bannon told Trump that the risk to his presidency wasn’t impeachment, but the 25th Amendment—the provision by which a majority of the Cabinet can vote to remove the president. When Bannon mentioned the 25th Amendment, Trump said, “What’s that?” According to a source, Bannon has told people he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term.

"What's that?" Yeah, no surprise that he has no idea of any actual Amendments.

[onekidanddone]

22 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"What's that?" Yeah, no surprise that he has no idea of any actual Amendments.

Ah dear @GreyhoundFan I hate to disagree, but there is one Amendment he loves, and that is the second one.  At least the perverted version the NRA and BTs support.

[GreyhoundFan]

You are so right, @onekidanddone. He does know that one. I'm guessing he doesn't realize there are any others.

[HeathenBlondie]

34 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Good one from Vanity Fair: "“I Hate Everyone in the White House!”: Trump Seethes as Advisers Fear the President Is “Unraveling”"

What a surprise, I hate everyone in the White House too!    Well, maybe hate is a strong word that I should save for terrorists, white supremacists, Nazis, etc, etc.....oh, wait...

 

[MarblesMom]

5 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

A adult daycare center where the big baby has a box of matches and a gallon of Sterno. 

And some nuclear codes, and a button he wants.to.push.so.badly.

[onekidanddone]

6 minutes ago, MarblesMom said:

And some nuclear codes, and a button he wants.to.push.so.badly.

He said during the campaign that there was no reason to have nukes if you didn't use them.  That right there should have been a clue the guy is freaking fucked up.

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, MarblesMom said:

And some nuclear codes, and a button he wants.to.push.so.badly.

Of course he does. What do toddlers love to do? Push buttons! Let them push start on the microwave or washing machine and they think they rule the world. For those of us who have been around toddlers, they sure push our buttons as well! Trump fits on both counts.

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about Kelly’s future increased after Politico reported that Kelly’s deputy Kirstjen Nielsen is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretary—the theory among some Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his departure.

 

I have a feeling many Cabinet members are staying out of a sense of duty.  If they leave, they know their positions won't be filled anytime soon, so by staying, they hope to at least maintain some semblance of order among the chaos (since nobody seems to be able to get anything done).

[fraurosena]

The presidunce is ignoring Congress and not implementing sanctions on Russia. Geez, why doesn't that surprise us?

Trump Just Blew Off a Deadline for Implementing Russian Sanctions He Approved

Spoiler

The White House has blown by an October 1 deadline for beginning to implement new sanctions targeting Russia, drawing concern in Congress that President Donald Trump is planning to ignore parts of a bill he grudgingly signed in August.

“The delay calls into question the Trump administration’s commitment to the sanctions bill which was signed into law more than two months ago, following months of public debate and negotiations in Congress,” Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in a joint statement Wednesday. “They’ve had plenty of time to get their act together.”

The bill required the Trump administration to issue by October 1 “regulations or other guidance to specify the persons that are a part of, or operate for or on behalf of, the defense and intelligence sectors of the Government of the Russian Federation.” The administration has yet to do so. The Treasury and State departments also have not issued guidance on their plans for imposing the measure, a Senate aide said. The aide said that members of the White House’s National Security Council have assured senators that they are “getting to” the sanctions and “it’s gonna happen.” But lawmakers are wary.

Cardin and McCain said the White House has also ignored a September 28 letter they sent asking for information on implementation plans. “In addition to the administration’s lack of responsiveness on this deadline, there does not appear to be a significant diplomatic effort to engage our allies in Europe and lead an effort to increase pressure on Moscow,” they said in their joint statement. “Congressional intent was clear, reflected in the overwhelming bipartisan majority in favor of the legislation.”

The legislation’s primary thrust was to prevent the president from removing sanctions without congressional approval. Trump has mulled unilaterally rescinding earlier US sanctions imposed on Russia after its incursion into Ukraine. The new sanctions bill passed both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly amid bipartisan concern about Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and congressional and Justice Department investigations into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during last year’s presidential race.

Trump opposed the new legislation, agreeing to sign it only after it became clear Congress could override his veto. But he also issued a presidential signing statement suggesting he might ignore what he said were “a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions” in the legislation. “My administration will give careful and respectful consideration to the preferences expressed by the Congress in these various provisions and will implement them in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations,” the statement said. The White House did not respond Wednesday to questions about its plans concerning the Russian sanctions.

Wanna bet that 'careful and respectful consideration' is going to take as long as the whole presiduncy?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Pro sports teams were once reliable patrons of Trump’s hotels. Not anymore."

Spoiler

Until recently, the Trump SoHo hotel served as a kind of luxe clubhouse for NBA teams visiting New York.

At least 12 teams — more than a third of the league — had stayed there since it opened in 2010. The players loved it so much they became walking ads for the Trump brand: Superstar Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder praised the hotel in the press. Toronto Raptors all-star Kyle Lowry gave interviews on the lobby’s couch. Then-Thunder forward Steve Novak tweeted about the $20 room-service lattes.

Now, it’s not the same.

All but one of the 12 teams said they have stopped patronizing the Trump SoHo since Donald Trump launched his presidential bid in 2015, according to team officials. Among the latest to depart were the Raptors, Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards, who all dropped Trump SoHo this summer and made different arrangements for the upcoming season.

Another NBA team quit staying at Trump’s hotel in downtown Chicago. And at least three National Hockey League teams and one Major League Baseball club have stopped frequenting Trump hotels in the same time, according to interviews with team officials.

Before Trump turned professional athletes into his political targets in recent weeks — jousting on Twitter with the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and blasting football players for kneeling during the national anthem — he had been privately losing their teams’ business. The trend has sapped his hotels of revenue and big-league buzz, a survey of teams by The Washington Post found.

In all, The Post found that 17 teams from across the four major sports had stayed at Trump properties in recent years. Now, at least 16 are no longer customers.

“The president has seemingly made a point of dividing us as best he can,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told The Post in an interview this week, explaining the shift. His team quit using Trump SoHo in 2016. “He continually offends people, and so people don’t want to stay at his hotel. It’s pretty simple.”

The Post reached out to all 123 teams in the four major U.S. sports leagues to find out how many men’s teams are still Trump customers. A total of 105 responded. Not a single team confirmed its players stay at Trump properties.

Some of the teams that have left Trump hotels cited reasons outside politics. One, for instance, said it was difficult to get team buses in and out of Lower Manhattan.

The loss of pro sports clients at Trump’s hotels is part of a larger trend at his businesses, which appear to be pulled in opposite directions by his polarizing presidency.

At properties that offer proximity to the president — such as his Washington hotel and the Mar-a-Lago Club where he stays in Florida — business seems to be strong.

But the Trump Organization has had customers bleed away from other locations, particularly those who eschew political controversy. His golf clubs in California and New York have lost charity tournaments. His courses in Scotland just reported that their losses doubled in 2016.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the investment fund that owns Trump SoHo referred questions to Trump Organization officials.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed the idea that Trump’s attacks on sports teams were connected to the loss of pro athletes as customers.

“The president has repeatedly said he doesn’t care about his business, he cares about the country,” Sanders wrote in an email. “The president’s position on athletes standing for the National Anthem is about respecting the flag and the men and women of the military who sacrifice to defend it and nothing else.”

Trump has given up leadership positions at his businesses. But he still owns them through a trust controlled by his eldest sons. That means he still can take profits from properties such as the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, which his company owns, and Trump SoHo, from which he draws fees. Trump’s business receives 5.75 percent of that hotel’s operating revenue, according to company documents posted online by Reuters.

Before Trump ran for office, The Post found, at least three of the four major U.S. sports provided his properties with regular business. The exception was football: The Post could not identify any National Football League teams that stayed at Trump hotels, although five NFL teams declined to comment and seven did not respond to repeated inquiries. NFL teams typically do not stay at luxury hotels.

The majority of Trump’s pro sports customers came from the National Basketball Association.

And the bulk of those clients stayed at Trump SoHo. The hotel in Lower Manhattan is convenient to both Madison Square Garden, where the New York Knicks play in midtown, and to Barclays Center, the home of the Brooklyn Nets.

For Trump’s business, those visits meant money. Teams paid about $20,000 per night for rooms and food, according to one team official’s estimate.

It also meant a connection to the NBA brand and the luxury cool that accompanies superstars on the road.

“When I stay here in New York, I’m at the Trump SoHo,” Russell Westbrook told GQ in 2014, saying the hotel’s lobby had inspired his fashion designs. “. . . Inside the hotel they have, like, a bunch of gold in the middle of the hotel, and I see how colors go together.”

In April 2016, ESPN writer Kevin Arnovitz said he had interviewed 40 NBA players and staffers to come up with a list of the NBA’s favorite hotels. Trump Soho was the top one in New York, Arnovitz wrote.

The frequent presence of the NBA players was noted by other customers.

“Btw, the Trailblazers were there when we checked in,” one guest at the hotel posted in a TripAdvisor review in April 2015, “and the Indiana Pacers team were there the day before we checked-out.”

In 2016, a Trump SoHo ballroom was cited as the scene of a season-changing moment for the Cleveland Cavaliers. During a film session there, coach Tyronn Lue inspired slumping forward Kevin Love with a profane pep talk.

But NBA patronage of Trump hotels began to change in June 2015, when Trump entered the White House race as a hard-right figure, stoking suspicions about immigrants and resentment of coastal elites.

Soon after, he began to lose some customers from the league, whose ranks of players are three-quarters black and include many who have been outspoken about issues such as law enforcement’s treatment of African Americans.

That summer, the Pacers stopped staying at Trump SoHo. A spokesman blamed problems with bus access.

So did the Dallas Mavericks, whose owner, Mark Cuban, became one of Trump’s loudest critics in 2016. Cuban declined to comment about the team’s decision.

In 2016, after Trump had captured the GOP nomination, more NBA teams left.

The Memphis Grizzlies quit Trump SoHo. No connection to politics, the coach said.

So did the Thunder. The team would not comment on why.

The Milwaukee Bucks stopped being Trump customers the following year — after first trying, and failing, to pull out of a Trump Chicago reservation during the preseason, according to team officials. When the Bucks returned to Chicago in the regular season, they had a new hotel.

In that case, the reason for the departure was Trump himself. The Trump Organization was seen as not reflecting the franchise’s values and some players were not comfortable patronizing its properties, according to a person familiar with the decision who requested anonymity to describe internal discussions.

One of those players was Bucks forward Jabari Parker.

“I’m proud to not stay in Trump hotels,” Parker told the Sporting News last November, reflecting on the decision after the election. “I don’t support someone who endorses hate on other people. He ran his campaign on hate. He’s attacked everything that I am and believe.” Parker said he felt offended by Trump’s attacks on immigrants because his mother is from Tonga.

In some cases, pro teams continued to frequent Trump hotels but individual players stayed away. The Los Angeles Dodgers, for instance, returned to Trump’s Chicago hotel in May 2016 on a road trip to play the Cubs. But Adrian Gonzalez, a Mexican American first baseman, chose to stay elsewhere.

“You can draw your own conclusions” about why, Gonzalez told the Los Angeles Times. “They’re probably right.”

The team soon followed suit. When the Dodgers returned to Chicago for the playoffs that year, they stayed at a new hotel.

“The decision to stay elsewhere was not a political one,” said Dodgers spokesman Joe Jareck.

Then Trump was elected.

Last winter, after the election, something similar happened with the Cavaliers. When the team returned to Trump SoHo, star LeBron James and several other players did not join it there, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

“Just my personal preference,” James said, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, when asked why.

At the end of the season, the Cavaliers also decided not to come back to Trump SoHo, according to a team spokesman.

Trump SoHo also lost the Los Angeles Lakers as customers. The team had made plans to stay at Trump SoHo last season but pulled out before they arrived, citing worries about anti-Trump protests.

All three of the NHL teams that The Post identified as Trump clients have also stopped staying in Trump hotels. The Tampa Bay Lightning left in 2016. The Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals left this year.

It is possible that Trump still has some pro sports teams as clients.

For instance, the NBA’ s New Orleans Pelicans, who have frequented Trump SoHo in the past, declined to say whether they were returning there this season, despite multiple inquiries.

Of the 105 teams from across all four sports that The Post reached, 18 declined to comment and 71 said they had not stayed at Trump properties in recent years. Sixteen said they had stayed at a Trump hotel in the past seven years but had stopped since he launched his White House run.

This year, the radio station WNYC reported that corporate event bookings were down at Trump SoHo and staff layoffs might be required. The hotel’s sushi restaurant, Koi, closed earlier this year.

On a recent Saturday evening, bars in the surrounding neighborhood were teeming with patrons. But the bar at the Trump SoHo was empty. A bartender predicted it would pick up.

Over the course of the next hour, two women stuck their heads in, looked around and left without saying a word.

As usual, Sarah is spouting a bunch of crap. I bet it is making the TT crazy that so many people are publicly avoiding his properties.

[GrumpyGran]

8 hours ago, JMarie said:

I have a feeling many Cabinet members are staying out of a sense of duty.  If they leave, they know their positions won't be filled anytime soon, so by staying, they hope to at least maintain some semblance of order among the chaos (since nobody seems to be able to get anything done).

Kelly may have several people begging him not to leave. He has to know that if he goes, his replacement could be anyone, likely someone who is just a yes man for Trump. He is literally holding back all-out chaos. 

I feel like every day is a face-off between Trump and sanity. Every day I think he can't get any crazier. Every day he proves me wrong. It used to be two or three times a week. Now it's every day.

[Howl]

11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"What's that?" Yeah, no surprise that he has no idea of any actual Amendments.

Very early on, Evan McMullin was in a meeting where it became quite evident that Trump had never read the Constitution.  

So funny (in a funny-so not funny kinda way) that WH staffers are leaking like a screen door on a submarine, while the official line is, Nothing to see here, move along. Everything is fine. In fact, it's so fine, nothing has ever been better, not even in the History of Better. Trust us, it's bigly good, really THAT GOOD. 

That the entire GOP is collateral damage and looking like they can't find their butts with a flashlight is lost on no one.   The GOP is all flop sweat and desperation thinking about the mid terms.  

So my question is, at what point leading up to the 2018 elections will they decide action must be taken?  And if, re: 25th Amendment, could Trump summarily fire and replace those Cabinet-level secretaries with Trump sycophants before a vote could take place?  I have a feeling that these questions are being addressed by cadres of Constitutional lawyers behind closed doors. 

Constitutional crisis, indeed. 

ETA: Going for an impromptu google civics lesson on "advice and consent" and the Senate's role in Cabinet-level appointments. 

[GrumpyGran]

7 minutes ago, Howl said:

So my question is, at what point leading up to the 2018 elections will they decide action must be taken?

I thought it would have happened by now. They are playing with fire and it is more than just their re-elections at stake. Every day he borders on international disaster and if it happens, they are going to have a hard time convincing more than half of this country that Obama is somehow responsible.

[Ali]

7 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

I thought it would have happened by now. They are playing with fire and it is more than just their re-elections at stake. Every day he borders on international disaster and if it happens, they are going to have a hard time convincing more than half of this country that Obama is somehow responsible.

Well, there is also Hillary.....

[Howl]

33 minutes ago, Ali said:

Well, there is also Hillary.....

Ben-gah-zeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

 

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Pro sports teams were once reliable patrons of Trump’s hotels. Not anymore."

I can't quite describe the extent to which this warms the cockles of my icy-cold heart.  *does a few celebratory mental cartwheels*

I just wish the article included an estimated dollar loss to Trump. 

[Howl]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Pro sports teams were once reliable patrons of Trump’s hotels. Not anymore."

I can't quite describe the extent to which this warms the cockles of my icy-cold heart.  *does a few celebratory mental cartwheels*

I just wish the article included an estimated dollar loss to Trump. 

[AnywhereButHere]

I wasn't sure where to put this, but here seems as good a place as any. One more stop on the "How to lose friends and isolate our country" tour.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/politics/unesco-us-withdraw/index.html

Quote

...

In a statement released via her official Twitter handle, Bokova called the withdrawal "a loss to UNESCO. This is a loss to the United Nations family. This is a loss for multilateralism."

To prevent violent extremism, we must teach peace

She paid tribute to what she said had been a meaningful relationship between UNESCO and the US, saying: "since 2011, we have deepened the partnership between the United States and UNESCO, which has never been so meaningful. Together, we have worked to protect humanity's shared cultural heritage in the face of terrorist attacks and to prevent violent extremism through education and media literacy."

"At the time when the fight against violent extremism calls for renewed investment in education, in dialogue among cultures to prevent hatred, it is deeply regrettable that the United States should withdraw from the United Nations agency leading these issues," Bokova said in the statement.

"At the time when conflicts continue to tear apart societies across the world, it is deeply regrettable for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations agency promoting education for peace and protecting culture under attack," the statement said.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

From the NYT: "The Trumps, the Poodle, the Sex Scandal"

Spoiler

Thanks to Ivana Trump’s new memoir, we now know that Donald Trump once did have a dog. Well, actually it was Ivana’s. A poodle named Chappy. And Donald didn’t like him.

Nevertheless, this appears to be the closest our current president ever came to having a pet, so attention must be paid.

This is possibly the biggest insight in “Raising Trump,” by Donald’s first ex-wife. (We are not going to go into her contention that people who have been married more than 10 years seldom have sex more than “a few times a month.”)

I’m sort of presuming that you’re not going to read it, despite the fact that it includes several recipes. So let me summarize. The book is supposed to be about good parenting. But the most important thing you learn is that we can never say another mean thing about Donald Jr. again. Really, it sounds like the worst childhood ever. His story begins with Dad resisting the idea of naming the baby after him, in case his first born turned out to be “a loser.”

As a toddler, Don Jr. broke his leg due to a negligent babysitter. Then one day when Ivana was out of town, he and Eric called hysterically to report they had found their nanny unconscious in the basement. (She died.)

Wait, there’s more: During their infamous divorce, Dad sent a bodyguard from his office to get Junior, announcing: “You’re not getting him back. I’m going to bring him up myself.”

Ivana says she responded: “O.K., keep him. I have two other kids to raise.” Silence and 10 minutes later the bodyguard returned her son.

It was, Trump’s ex-wife concluded, “a tactic to upset me.” However for some reason, at around this time Don Jr. stopped speaking to his father and wound up getting shipped to boarding school.

After several more years of being the namesake of a man who was then famous for starring in the most sensational tabloid stories of the era, Don Jr. graduated from college, moved to Colorado and got a job bartending. Ivana said she made her disapproval clear by “cutting him off” until he gave up, returned to New York and joined the Trump Organization.

Do you see what I mean? It’s a miracle the man is walking and taking nourishment. I will never attack him again. Well, except for the elephant hunting.

A lot of “Raising Trump” is Ivana bragging that the children were never spoiled — unlike those Kardashians. There’s a lot about her glamorous wardrobe and triumphs as a C.E.O. in the family businesses. (“My version of helicopter parenting was to bring the kids to work with me in the Trump chopper.”)

And you just keep plowing on because you figure sooner or later she’s going to get to The Affair.

Finally, it’s 1989 in Aspen. A young woman comes up to Ivana and says: “I’m Marla and I love your husband. Do you?”

What followed was perhaps the biggest sex scandal in American history. O.K., I’m totally exaggerating. (Remember that whopper in the 19th century with Grover Cleveland’s illegitimate child?) But the Donald-Marla-Ivana story was unusual in that at the time, nobody involved in it was all that important. Trump was a celebrity real estate developer, but there were plenty of equally rich and glamorous figures in New York, many of them having adultery issues of their own.

The difference was that Trump pushed the story, calling his allies in the media with new tidbits or lines of defense. It was as if Grover Cleveland had press agents trying to make sure his side of the love-child scandal was in a headline every day.

You will not hear anything about that angle in Ivana’s book. In fact, once the affair comes center stage, you hardly hear anything about Donald at all. He seems to be a sort of passive bystander. (“After the showgirl got pregnant and had a daughter, Donald married her.”)

The villain of the book is “Marla freaking Maples” the “showgirl” who broke up her marriage and produced The New York Post’s all-time famous front-page headline: “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had.” If Marla had kidnapped Donald, thrown him in a trunk and driven him off to a shotgun wedding, she could not have been more evil.

Ivana’s eagerness to gloss over the sins of an ex who now happens to be president of the most powerful nation on the planet is hardly the worst issue of sexism the country has to discuss this week. But it’s still a useful reminder that Trump has gotten away with absolutely appalling behavior throughout his life, right down to his yelping “locker room talk” whenever people bring up that recording of him bragging about grabbing women’s private parts.

Toward the end of the book Trump is “kind enough to waive the $20,000 fee” when Ivana held her third marriage at Mar-a-Lago. The later husbands were pretty terrible, too. One of them had a large, thuggish son who spent one family gathering throttling — oh no! — Donald Jr.

The happiest person in the family was probably Chappy.

Okay, I still don't feel bad for junior, but it does sound like a sucky childhood. I don't intend to purchase the book, because I don't want any of my hard-earned money going to anyone with that last name.

[fraurosena]

Apparently the presidunce was of the opinion we needed more confirmation that he is a raging white-supremacist racist POS, So he went out and did this:

Donald Trump praises CNN commentator fired for tweeting Nazi salute as 'a source of truth'

Spoiler

Donald Trump has praised a political pundit fired by CNN for using a Nazi salute. 

Jeffrey Lord sparked uproar in August after using Twitter to post “Sieg Heil” in response to criticism from a liberal activist. 

The US President, during a speech on tax reform in Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening, said the “great Jeffrey Lord” – who was presumed to be in attendance – had been on “fake news CNN for a long time”.

“He was one of my few sources of truth. Thank you, Jeffrey, for being here. That’s a great honour.”

Mr Lord, one of CNN’s few in-house Trump supporters, was sacked hours after sending the offensive tweet, with a spokesperson for the news channel branding the message “indefensible”.

The 66-year-old failed to delete the tweet and defended his actions, saying he was mocking Nazis and fascists. 

 

“I'm mocking people who are posing a serious threat to the American free press. That's what I'm mocking,” he said. “I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here.” 

Mr Trump had previously come to Mr Lord’s defence at a rally in Arizona. “They fired Jeffrey Lord. Poor Jeffrey,” he said. "Jeffrey Lord. I guess he was getting a little bit fed up and was probably fighting back too hard and they said ‘We gotta get [him] out of here’.”

The conservative commentator had been in a long-running dispute with Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a left-leaning US media watchdog. 

Branding the organisation "Media Matters Fascists”, Mr Lord accused it in a column of trying to “shut down speech they don’t like” following a campaign urging advertisers to boycott Fox NewsTV host Sean Hannity.

In a tweet to Mr Carusone, he misspelt his name as “Corusone”, prompting the Media Matters chief to reply: “Your headline has a mistake in it. Why do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you don't take yourself seriously?”

Mr Lord replied, “Sieg Heil!”