Trump 24: Fiddling, er, Tweeting While Rome Burns

[GreyhoundFan]

"Yet again, Trump’s defensiveness makes his handling of a Gold Star family’s grief worse"

Spoiler

If the White House is looking for a silver lining to President Trump drawing the nation’s attention to his handling of the deaths of Special Forces soldiers in Niger, it’s that people are at least not as focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. (The storm made landfall there four weeks ago; less than a fifth of the island has electrical service.) If the White House wanted to demonstrate that Trump was incapable of making a bad situation worse, though, the week has been a disaster of its own.

Two weeks ago, four Special Forces soldiers were killed in Niger, where they had been dispatched to participate in a patrol with troops from that country. While Trump had flown to Dover, Del., in February to meet the remains of a Navy SEAL killed in a botched raid in Yemen — a service member whose name Trump invoked during his joint address to Congress later that month in defense of that raid — he made no public statement about the deaths in Niger and didn’t attend the soldiers’ returns to the United States.

It wasn’t until Monday that he said anything about the deaths, when pressed by reporters at a news conference. His response, rather than tamping down questions, ended up beginning days of criticism. Clearly hoping to give the impression that he was going above and beyond in paying tribute to the soldiers, he said that he would be calling their families, something he claimed that his predecessors didn’t do but that he does regularly. He had already written letters over the weekend, he said. (Over the previous two weekends, he’d also gone to his golf club in Sterling, Va., on both days — and on the preceding Monday.)

His claim that previous presidents hadn’t called the families of soldiers who had been killed in action was rebutted even before the news conference was over, prompting Trump to revise his claim to suggest that it was the combination of calls and letters that set him apart.

The next day, though, his staff told reporters that Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, hadn’t received a call from President Barack Obama when his son was killed while serving — after Trump raised the point in a radio interview. By Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that Trump’s claim that he generally called the families of those killed wasn’t the case with several families with which the AP had spoken.

Trump did call the families of those killed in Niger — but that went south, too. His comments to the wife of Sgt. La David T. Johnson reportedly included an aside about how Johnson “knew what he signed up for,” which the family, listening in, understandably considered disparaging. Trump denied the comment Wednesday morning, accusing a Democratic member of Congress who first mentioned the comment of having “fabricated” it. Johnson’s mother confirmed it to The Washington Post.

This was an avalanche of mistakes that Trump created, mistakes that compounded mistakes.

The first mistake was that Trump didn’t acknowledge the soldiers’ deaths at the outset. Why he didn’t do so isn’t clear. As David Graham pointed out at the Atlantic, the White House said on the day after the attack that the administration was “continuing to review and look into this,” implying that there was still some uncertainty. But the soldiers’ bodies soon returned to the United States; Trump could certainly have at that point mourned their passing.

The second mistake was compounding that inaction by trying to insist that he was doing more than what was expected of a president. It’s the classic excuse of the kid who didn’t do his report so he asks for more time because, instead of a report, he’s doing a full diorama. But in this case, it was Trump saying that no one had ever done a diorama before, in front of a national audience that had seen a lot of dioramas.

The third mistake was in trying to defend that claim by dragging another personal tragedy into the debate to serve as his witness: the death of Kelly’s son. The move didn’t prove his case and, instead, forced Kelly into a fray that he has long sought to avoid.

The fourth mistake was claiming that he’d regularly made those calls in the past, raising the natural question of whether he had. Before Monday, a president not calling every family that had sacrificed a loved one to the country wasn’t newsworthy. Trump made it newsworthy.

The fifth mistake was compounding the new attention he’d drawn to those calls by apparently saying something that was interpreted by members of the family as disrespectful. Presidents’ outreach to the families of soldiers killed in combat has often traditionally been private, as staff members for those presidents noted after Trump’s news conference comments. By making those calls a public issue, Trump raised the bar he’d need to exceed to have them go well. It seems they didn’t.

This is what Trump does. Not only can we point to past examples of him taking a bad hand and making it worse, we can point specifically to a previous example of him making his handling of a family of a fallen soldier worse.

Last year, Khizr and Ghazala Khan took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to accuse then-candidate Trump of disrespecting the memory of their son, Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim American who had been killed in Iraq, by suggesting that Muslims be barred from entering the country. It was a stunning and emotional speech — and Trump’s handling of it kept the family and the story in the news for days as he kept adding new areas of critique.

His first response was to praise the Khans’ son, while stating that the parents had “no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things.”

He then went on television and said of Ghazala Khan — who didn’t speak during the convention — “maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say,” a clear insinuation about the status of women in some Muslim places. Ghazala Khan spoke out in response, by way of an opinion piece in this paper.

Trump summarized his thinking in a tweet.

... < typical stupid tweet from twitler >

He was, of course, welcome to do whatever he wanted. It’s just that the response from the public might not be favorable. (In fact, it wasn’t; three-quarters of those polled by The Post and ABC disapproved of Trump’s response to the Khans.)

Trump can’t help it. Even before the election, that was clear to the public, which consistently questioned his temperament. But both the Khan dispute and Trump’s response to the deaths of soldiers in Niger are examples of Trump’s instinctive defensiveness working against his long-term benefit.

What’s remarkable is that Trump didn’t learn this lesson last year.

He doesn't learn lessons. Because, in his narcissistic mind, he already knows everything.

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh, FFS, it just keeps getting better (not): "Trump offered a grieving military father $25,000 in a call, but didn’t follow through"

Spoiler

President Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said.

Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge, told The Washington Post that Trump called him at his home in Zebulon, N.C., a few weeks after his 22-year-old son and two fellow soldiers were gunned down by an Afghan police officer in a suspected insider attack June 10. Their phone conversation lasted about 15 minutes, Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father’s struggle with the manner in which his son was killed.

“I said, ‘Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,’ “ Baldridge said. “I feel like he got murdered over there.”

Trump’s offer of $25,000 adds another dimension to the president’s relations with Gold Star families, an honorific given to those whose loved ones die while serving in support of the nation’s wars. The disclosure follows questions about how often the president has called or written to grieving military families.

The Washington Post contacted the White House about Baldridge’s account on Wednesday morning. Officials declined to discuss the events in detail.

But in a statement Wednesday afternoon, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said: “The check has been sent. It’s disgusting that the media is taking something that should be recognized as a generous and sincere gesture, made privately by the President, and using it to advance the media’s biased agenda.”

Trump said this week that he has “called every family of somebody that’s died, and it’s the hardest call to make.” At least 20 Americans have been killed in action since he became commander in chief in January. The Washington Post interviewed the families of 13 and found that his interactions with them vary. About half had received phone calls, they said. The others said they had not heard from the president.

In his call with Trump, Baldridge, a construction worker, expressed frustration with the military’s survivor benefits program. Because his ex-wife was listed as their son’s beneficiary, she was expected to receive the Pentagon’s $100,000 death gratuity — even though “I can barely rub two nickels together,” he told Trump.

The president’s response shocked him.

“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,’ and I was just floored,” Baldridge said. “I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded because the man did say this. He said, ‘No other president has ever done something like this,’ but he said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ ”

The president has faced worsening backlash since details emerged of his phone call Tuesday with the widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed Oct. 4 alongside three other U.S. soldiers in Niger. After not addressing the incident for 12 days, Trump on Monday falsely claimed that previous presidents never or rarely called the families of fallen service members. In fact, they did so regularly.

Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) said Trump called Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, on Tuesday and said her husband “knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway.” Wilson was riding in a limousine with the wife and said she heard the conversation on speakerphone.

Trump denied the allegation Wednesday morning. But the fallen soldier’s childhood guardian, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post that she also was in the car when the White House called, and said that “President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband.”

In all, seven Gold Star families contacted by The Post said they have had phone conversations with Trump. Most said they appreciated the gesture. Four families said they have not received a call and were upset. One said Trump had not called but that they knew the late soldier would not want his death politicized. An additional family said that it had corresponded with the White House but declined to elaborate.

The Associated Press reached one other family, that of Army Spec. Etienne Murphy, 22. His mother said she received neither a call nor a letter from the president.

Baldridge said that after the president made his $25,000 offer, he joked with Trump that he would bail him out if he got arrested for helping. The White House has done nothing else other than send a condolence letter from Trump, the father said.

“I opened it up and read it, and I was hoping to see a check in there, to be honest,” the father said. “I know it was kind of far-fetched thinking. But I was like, ‘Damn, no check.’ Just a letter saying ‘I’m sorry.’ ”

The experiences of other Gold Star families were more typical.

The family of Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas, a 23-year-old Army Ranger killed April 27 in a raid on the Islamic State in Afghanistan, met with Vice President Pence at Dover Air Force in Delaware as the soldier’s casket arrived from overseas. They had a 20-minute call with Trump about two weeks later, said Thomas’s father, Andre.

“He gave his condolences and made some comments how different his paperwork was when it went across his desk,” the father said in a phone interview. “Said most of the paperwork he sees in these types of death says, ‘He’s respected by his peers.’ He said Cameron’s stuck out because it said he was respected and loved by his peers.”

The grieving father said he then spoke at length about his son’s love for the Army and his determination to become a Ranger, a distinction he earned at age 19. About midway through the phone call, the elder Thomas shared with Trump that he had voted for him, and “that got him on another tangent” that extended the conversation for about 10 minutes,” the father said.

The president then spoke about his work in office and “the strides that he’s made in the short time he’d been president,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the family was touched by the phone call. The father of a Mormon family with 12 children, seven of them adopted, he was concerned about the attention and publicity that his son’s death could bring. But talking to the president helped him put things in perspective and realize that his son “belonged to the country.”

“Politics is politics, and maybe some people wouldn’t care to hear from him,” he said. “But putting politics aside, it does mean a lot to a family, their child.”

William J. Lee, 40, shared a similar experience, saying that his entire family spoke by phone with Trump after his brother, Army 1st Lt. Weston Lee, 25, was killed in Mosul, Iraq, on April 29.

“He was very cordial nice and very nice,” Lee said, of the call, which he said lasted about five or six minutes.

Lee said the president spoke to them about “how impressive my brother was, how he had read the reports, reading everything about Weston, and he could tell how amazing he was. And talking to us, he could tell how strong we were and how strong he must have been. We were all pretty devastated.

“It meant something, the leader of our nation calling us and showing the honor and respect to my brother that I feel my brother earned,” the brother said, his voice cracking.

Quinn Butler, whose 27-year-old brother, Aaron, was killed in August by an explosion in Afghanistan, said that their parents received numerous letters from generals and other leaders, but no call or letter from Trump.

Staff Sgt. Aaron Butler, a Special Forces soldier, was very supportive of Trump and appreciative for what he has done for the military, his brother said. The soldier believed that Trump helped initiate some changes that have enabled commanders to make more progress against the militants in Afghanistan.

Quinn Butler said that he was surprised that his parents did not receive a call from Trump, considering his brother was a “very elite soldier, a soldier who had given everything.” But he said that Aaron would not want his death politicized.

“I think that Aaron would be very upset if anything was manipulated to show that he didn’t support Trump and that he wasn’t appreciative of the things that he did do, because he was,” the brother said.

Euvince Brooks’s son, Sgt. Roshain E. Brooks, 30, was killed Aug. 13 in Iraq. He has not heard from the White House. The president’s claim this week that he had called every military family to lose a son or daughter only upset the Brooks family more.

Brooks said that after watching the news on Tuesday night he wanted to set up a Twitter account to try to get the president’s attention.

“I said to my daughter, ‘Can you teach me to tweet, so I can tweet at the president and tell him he’s a liar?’” he said. “You know when you hear people lying, and you want to fight? That’s the way I feel last night. He’s a damn liar.”

 

[JMarie]

12 hours ago, formergothardite said:

How is Fox news going to spin that to make it look good? 

Do I smell a challenge???

Hannity says the Democrats are politicizing the death of Sergeant Johnson, and it's awful.  Rep. Frederica Wilson is Trump's #1 hater, and how dare she go to CNN and complain.  "Let's assume the president is slightly inarticulate," argues Hannity, but shouldn't the military know that bodily harm is a possibility when enlisting?  It's the context, not the words, that is important, says Hannity.  Wilson has hated Trump since he became President (but Hannity is the only one who will tell you this).  He then calls out all the non-Fox News reporters ("overpaid spoiled brats"), and says he's going to donate $14,000 to Johnson's family and they ["fake" Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper ("you make enough money"), Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, "Humpty Dumpty" (Brian) Stelter] should do the same.  "I'm sick and tired of all of you people, exploiting tragedies, believing the worst, and doing nothing to help these people.  Put up the money."

As if $14,000 is enough to cancel out any bad behavior.

Blah blah blah about Hillary and uranium.

A (blue-eyed blond Caucasian) Gold Star mom stops by and says she went to a special Gold Star families dinner hosted by Trump, even though her son was killed in 2011.  She says Wilson is wrong.  At the end of the segment, Hannity tells her he loves her, and she tells him she loves him.  Really?

Some more talk about Putin and uranium.

Oh yay, David Clarke (plagiarizer/sheriff) stops by!  The fake news reporters won't donate to the Johnson family, he says, because they'd rather complain about stuff.

The NBA is now starting to protest and kneel during the national anthem.  How dare they!  And why are they protesting, argues Larry Elder (radio show guy).  He says that only seventeen unarmed black men were killed by police officers last year ("that's not very many!"), but FIVE THOUSAND black men were killed by other black men.  Chew on that!

Ainsley Earhardt (Fox and Friends cohost -- boy, she's staying up late!) promotes her new book and rambles on about her daughter.  

Hannity promotes Revive Us 2, a "national family meeting" (documentary?) that Kirk Cameron is involved with (in theaters nationwide on October 24, with an encore on November 1).  Spoiler alert:  Ben Carson's in it!  Oh yay, Kirk stops by!  There's a "fresh momentum" of people wanting to study their faith, he claims.

Hannity will be in Las Vegas tomorrow, but he can't tell you why.  You'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out.

Gotta hit the chocolate!

[GreyhoundFan]

@JMarie -- may Rufus bless you for taking one for the FJ team and recapping that skunk Hannity's show. I saw ads for the Kirk thing and thought that you couldn't pay me to have to see that.

Jennifer Rubin has an interesting take: "Small things aren’t small: More pushback against Trump"

Spoiler

Individually they may not be a big deal. Even collectively they do not rival President Trump’s domestic and foreign policy demolition derby for the most pressing issues of our time. But Trump’s moral depravity and attack on democratic norms remain critically important, as does the pushback which is thankfully coming with more frequency and rigor than ever before.

The Post reports:

The mother of a soldier killed in an ambush in Africa said Wednesday that President Trump “did disrespect my son” with remarks in a condolence telephone call.

Sgt. La David T. Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, told The Washington Post that she was present during the call from the White House on Tuesday to Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson. Johnson’s mother also stood by an account of the call from Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) that Trump told Johnson’s widow that her husband “must have known what he signed up for.”

“President Trump did disrespect my son and my daughter and also me and my husband,” Jones-Johnson said.

Trump lashed back. He denied Wilson’s account in a Twitter message Wednesday. He said he had “proof” that the exchange did not go as Wilson had described. Trump did not elaborate, but the claim again raised questions about whether the president tapes calls and conversations.

Later Wednesday, Trump expanded on his denial.

Sgt. Johnson’s mother, his wife and Rep. Wilson all confirm that Trump was disrespectful, if not cruel.

“Wilson went on to say Trump “was almost like joking. He said, ‘Well, I guess you knew’ — something to the effect that ‘he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, but I guess it hurts anyway.’ You know, just matter-of-factly, that this is what happens, anyone who is signing up for military duty is signing up to die. That’s the way we interpreted it. It was horrible. It was insensitive. It was absolutely crazy, unnecessary. I was livid.”

“[His widow] was in tears. She was in tears. And she said, ‘He didn’t even remember his name.’”

Trump’s hideous lack of empathy and determination to lie when he’s caught behaving inappropriately cannot be allowed to pass. His word cannot be trusted, his conduct must be repudiated.

Principle: The country needs to collectively come to grips with Trump’s unfitness — and remember that voting for a miserable human being for president isn’t justified because he’ll sign a tax cut or appoint a judge. Those who have enabled him deserve our scorn. 

Next, Trump has spent ridiculous amounts of time and effort to stir the pot on the NFL kneeling protests. The NFL has now officially decided to tell him to butt out. Commissioner Roger Goodell made clear the NFL will not require players to stand for the anthem.

“NFL executives and owners joined NFLPA executives and player leaders to review and discuss plans to utilize our platform to promote equality and effectuate positive change,” he said. “We agreed that these are common issues and pledged to meet again to continue this work together. Asked if the owner would demand players stand, he answered, “We did not ask for that.”

Trump threw a fit on Twitter, but once again Trump got stepped over and ignored by the NFL. (He was the failed owner of the New Jersey Generals of the now-defunct USFL.)

The principle: Trump isn’t going to tell people how to protest, or companies how to run their businesses. 

Then there is his attack on the “disgusting” First Amendment. A Federal Communications Commission member and then the chairman (a Trump appointment) rebuffed the president. “The FCC under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment,” Chairman Ajit Pai said this week. “And under the law the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast.” Even more emphatically, commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel over the weekend said: “History won’t be kind to silence. I think it’s important for all the commissioners to make clear that they support the First Amendment, and that the agency will not revoke a broadcast license simply because the president is dissatisfied with the licensee’s coverage.”

The principle: Trump cannot trample on free speech, chill opposition and expect to be given a free pass. Indeed, his utterance(s) become part of the case for his unfitness to hold office.

And let’s not forget his grotesque conflicts of interest, self-enrichment and alleged violation of the Emoluments Clause. The Center for Responsibility in Washington was in federal court in New York today arguing to halt Trump’s receipt of monies received from foreign governments. In a press release following oral argument, CREW said that “the American people must be confident that the president is acting in our interest, not being influenced by payments from foreign governments, state governments, or the federal government.” The statement continued, “We and our co-plaintiffs Eric Goode, Jill Phaneuf, and the Restaurant Opportunities Center United are glad to have had the opportunity today to tell the Court why we are the right parties to bring this important case and why it is right and appropriate for the president to be held accountable for violating the Emoluments Clauses, which were intended to protect this country against the risk of significant corruption.” A decision is expected within 30 to 60 days.

The principle: Trump’s financial abuse of his office cannot become the new normal; if Democrats ever win the House the universe of his financial dealings (conflicts of interest, nepotism, emoluments receipt) can for the basis for impeachment, or at the very least, hearings with subpoena power.

Finally, new evidence arises every day suggesting the president is totally incapable of performing his duties. In a response to Trump’s on-again/off-again/sort of on-again support for the Obamacare compromise worked out by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor: “President keeps zigging and zagging, so it’s impossible to govern.” After recounting the contradictory statements in public and private Schumer said, “[Trump] doesn’t know what the bill is. We should have a President who actually knows the facts of bills that he talks about. . . . [H]he’s totally inconsistent. For it one day, against it the next day. You can’t govern, Mr. President, you cannot govern a country, you cannot keep America great if you don’t know what’s in the bills and don’t have a consistent policy about them. But he keeps zigging and zagging, our only hope it maybe tomorrow he’ll be for this again.” Shorter: He’s overwhelmed and unable rationally to perform his duties.

The principle: Trump may in fact be reaching the point at which the 25th Amendment becomes a consideration. In the future, we must never, ever elect someone as intellectually, temperamentally and morally deficient as Trump. He remains a menace to the country. 

 

[Audrey2]

@JMarie, Thank you for the recap. As painful as the Duggars are to watch, I think Hannity is excruciating! I hope you get to enjoy your favorite beverage or snack while watching and recapping.

[Howl]

10 hours ago, JMarie said:

He then calls out all the non-Fox News reporters ("overpaid spoiled brats"), and says he's going to donate $14,000 to Johnson's family and they ["fake" Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper ("you make enough money"), Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, "Humpty Dumpty" (Brian) Stelter] should do the same.  "I'm sick and tired of all of you people, exploiting tragedies, believing the worst, and doing nothing to help these people.  Put up the money."

Um, if giving $$$ is the right thing to do, shouldn't Hannity pony up and pay that amount to the family of every fallen soldier and challenge others to do the same? Or start a GoFundMe that will give $$$ to the families of every fallen soldier? 

I found a transcript for yesterday's show.  Why is Hannity still nattering on about Hillary selling our uranium supply to the Russians?  If it's the biggest scandal of the last 100 years, and they have FBI sources confirming all this, why crickets from everybody else?

[47of74]

10 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

@JMarie, Thank you for the recap. As painful as the Duggars are to watch, I think Hannity is excruciating! I hope you get to enjoy your favorite beverage or snack while watching and recapping.

Calling Hannity an asshole is insulting to assholes.  I had to work with one of his fans several years ago and he would parrot every thing that dumb shit Hannity said at work.     

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Trump White House’s utterly unmoored week"

Spoiler

President Trump's most faithful supporters like to believe he's always a step ahead of the media and the political establishment — that he's playing three-dimensional chess while we're stuck on checkers. Where we see utter discord, they see carefully orchestrated chaos.

This week should disabuse absolutely everybody of that notion.

On two issues — health care and calling the families of dead service members — the White House has shown itself to be clearly unmoored, careening back and forth based upon the unhelpful and impulsive comments and tweets of its captain.

On the more substantial issue of health care, Trump apparently told Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to craft a deal to replace the Affordable Care Act subsidies for insurers covering low-income Americans. Trump then canceled the subsidies and explained that the money was only making insurers rich (it's not). Then he suggested he would support Alexander's deal. Then he apparently realized that those two things were completely inconsistent, and he backed off his support for the deal, leaving Alexander holding the bag and apparently (understandably) puzzled.

... < tweet from Lamar Alexander >

On Gold Star families, Trump responded to a question Monday about why he hadn't said anything about four soldiers killed in Niger by accusing his predecessors of not calling such families. “If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls — a lot of them didn't make calls,” Trump said. “I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I'm able to do it.”

That drew quick and full-throated rebukes from former Barack Obama aides, and Trump said later in the same news conference that he wasn't so sure about his own claim. “I don't know if he did,” Trump said of Obama making calls. “No, no, no, I was told that he didn't often.”

Too late.

Fast-forward to Tuesday night, and a Democratic congresswoman accused Trump of being insensitive during a call she witnessed to the widow of a soldier killed in Niger. Trump promptly suggested the congresswoman was lying and said he had “proof.” By Wednesday afternoon, though, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House had no tapes of the calls — i.e. no proof. And by that point, several of the 20 Gold Star families whose loved ones have died since Trump took office told the media — including The Washington Post — that Trump had never actually called them. Another one said Trump promised the family $25,000 but never followed up. (The White House now says the check has been sent.)

In other words, Trump:

• Brought this issue up of his own accord even when he hadn't called some of the very few (relative to his predecessors) new Gold Star families he's seen lose loved ones on his watch. While more than 2,500 service members were killed in action during Obama's tenure, only 20 have died in Trump's first nine months.
• Claimed “proof” that his own White House admits he doesn't have.
• Rehashed the death of his own chief of staff's son, suggesting Obama didn't call John F. Kelly when his son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. Kelly hasn't commented.
• Put the White House in the position of disputing the accounts of Gold Star families.

If you think any of these things were planned, you are kidding yourself. And these are not distractions; if anything they cast even more light on Republicans' failure to restructure health care and the situation in Niger, about which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has alleged the Trump administration isn't being forthcoming.

... < tweet from Jake Tapper >

There is no game plan on any of this; it's Trump simply floating from one controversy to the next and making things worse by flying off the handle and saying untrue things. Trump's controversies are usually at least within the realm of plausible deniability; these examples just seem totally careless and haphazard.

Careless and haphazard. That could be the motto for this administration.

[formergothardite]

16 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The check has been sent.

They are using the old "the check is in the mail" excuse? If I'm reading that correctly he promised it in June and it is now getting near the end of October. Was he sending the check by a literal snail mail? 

We all know that what really happened was he made a promise he never intended to keep and now is being forced to send the money since it came out he lied to a Gold Star family. 

I'm rather scared to see what he will say if Sgt. La David T. Johnson's mother keeps being vocal about how shitty he was. 

[Flossie]

19 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"The Trump Doctrine"

... On nearly every major issue, President Trump’s position is: “Obama built it. I broke it. You fix it.”

Trump is like the son of a former neighbor of mine.  That boy was loud, demanding, and loved destroying things.  One day one of my kids built the cutest robot out of Duplo blocks.  It was so cute that we set it on the floor a few feet in front of the kitchen door so her father would see it as soon as he walked in after work.  
But my neighbor and her kids showed up first.  I said "Isn't that cute?  ______ built that all by herself.  Not bad for a three year old, right?"  Neighbor boy took one look at the robot, ran forward, and did some kind of pretend karate kick, destroying the robot.  I was stunned, and looked at his mother.  She smiled a little and merely said "He's such a boy.  He's saving the planet from the evil invading robots."

The boy was a four year old growing up in a house with a violent father who made no secret that he felt the boy wasn't good enough, and the kid was acting as much like his father as he could, trying to get some kind of positive recognition from the ass.

So what's Trump's excuse?

[Howl]

Obama Begins Calling American People to Console Them About Trump Being President

Andy Borowitz 

Spoiler

 

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Former President Barack Obama has started calling every person in America to offer consolation about Donald Trump being President, Obama has confirmed.

“It’s something I meant to do right after the Inauguration,” Obama said, during a brief break from the phone calls. “I feel terrible that I didn’t get to it sooner.”

The former President said that, although the phone calls are a small gesture, he felt that he had to do whatever he could to extend his sympathy about Trump being President.

“There’s a lot of pain out there that a phone call from me can never fix,” he said. “Still, I want people to know that I care.”

Carol Foyler, who has been grieving since Trump was elected, last November, said that receiving a call from Obama on Monday “meant a lot.”

“The fact that he took the time to call me, when he had three hundred million more people left to call, is something I’ll never forget,” she said.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

  "Trump suggests FBI may have ‘paid for’ dossier alleging Russia ties"

Spoiler

President Trump suggested Thursday that the FBI may have had a hand in creating an intelligence dossier that alleged ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.

“Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The compendium of information about Trump, much of it unproven, was produced by a former British intelligence agent last year, mostly before Trump won the 2016 election. Officials have said the FBI has confirmed some of the information, rejected other parts, and caution that it may be impossible to verify or disprove the rest.

Trump has vigorously denied allegations in the document that the Russian government has collected compromising information about him and was engaged in an active effort to assist his campaign.

The Washington Post has previously reported that the FBI agreed in October 2016 to pay the dossier’s author, Christopher Steele, for further work that might help its own investigation into Russian election activities.

The FBI, as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee, is investigating Russian interference in the election and alleged contacts between Trump’s associates and the Kremlin.

As the allegations contained in the dossier began appearing in news stories and the dossier itself became the subject of intense public debate, Steele became a publicly known figure and the FBI did not pursue further work from him, The Post reported in February.

Trump’s Twitter question about whether the FBI may have “paid for” the document suggests that he is asking whether the bureau had been involved earlier in the process, although his precise meaning is unclear.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

Republicans, particularly Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), have sought further answers from the FBI about its relationship with Steele, and its plan to pay him for information that could incriminate Trump or his associates.

It is not uncommon for the FBI to pay sources of information, and Steele was well known to the FBI. Previously, Steele had helped the FBI put together a sprawling global bribery case involving FIFA, the governing body of world soccer.

When Steele started compiling the dossier in 2016, he was doing so for a Washington firm called Fusion GPS. The firm began researching Trump first for an unidentified GOP donor, and then later for Democrats.

Republican lawmakers have been pressing Fusion GPS for months to identify those who paid for Steele’s work, but the firm has refused. Fusion GPS says that it has promised confidentiality to its clients and that violating that obligation would harm its business model.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for Fusion GPS said the firm’s employees refused to testify in response to a subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee, invoking their constitutional privilege not to do so. The firm’s founder, Glenn Simpson, had previously given a 10-hour interview to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The dossier alleged, among other things, that associates of Trump colluded with the Kremlin on cyberattacks on Democrats.

Trump said Monday that there was “no collusion” with Russia and that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election activities should conclude quickly. Mueller’s probe, however, is broader than just the collusion inquest.

Steele began his Trump investigation in June 2016 after working for another client preparing a report on Russian efforts to interfere with politics in Europe.

U.S. intelligence had been independently tracking Russian efforts to influence electoral outcomes in Europe.

“Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years,” Steele wrote in June.

Steele’s information was provided by an intermediary to the FBI and U.S. intelligence officials after the Democratic National Convention in July 2016, when hacked Democratic emails were first released by WikiLeaks, according to a source familiar with the events. After the convention, Steele contacted a friend in the FBI to personally explain what he had found.

 

[47of74]

I hear Kelly is disgusted with fuck face

Quote

Trump's decision to invoke Kelly's son was seen by some commentators as lacking in taste and decorum, since Kelly himself has made an evident effort to keep Robert Kelly's death out of the realm of political debate. On Wednesday, Sanders said she believes that "General Kelly is disgusted by the way that this has been politicized and that the focus has become on the process and not the fact that American lives were lost. I think he's disgusted and frustrated by that. If he has any anger, it's toward that."

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"It’s absurd for Trump to promote good character. But character counts now more than ever."

Spoiler

At a moment such as this, when the world seems so comprehensively turned upside-down, it can be difficult to name any one absurdity as particularly telling. There are so many obscene, excellent choices for the honor, but today, at least, one seems clear. The president of the United States has apparently decided to mark the National Character Counts Week he proclaimed by feuding with the National Football League, lying about his predecessors’ treatment of Gold Star families to excuse his own lapses and making mockery of his already-enfeebled excuse for the most damaging act of his young presidency, his decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey.

In the promotion of character, as in many other areas, President Trump has managed to make the institution of the presidency feel like the Cheshire Cat. The substance has faded away, leaving a rictus grin floating malevolently in midair. It’s a disconcerting feeling, especially after 16 years under two presidents of different parties who conducted themselves with dignity and their family lives with integrity and affection. But I’d submit that the moral vacuum currently occupying the White House is an opportunity for the rest of us to figure out what it means to be good. Though character has always been an essential quality, these days, we need it more than ever.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who doesn’t entirely like who they became during the 2016 presidential election cycle and after the shock of the verdict on Election Day last year. I’ve felt angry, irritable, short-tempered. I’m plagued by unpleasant, vengeful thoughts. Some of what has happened to me is probably necessary, and some of what it has led me to is probably wise. I’ve been disabused of my remaining illusions about what’s possible in American politics. I’ve been working harder to determine when someone is trying to waste my time and wear me out rather than to really talk to me, and I’ve gotten better about disengaging when a conversation is not worthwhile. I’ve committed to new charitable contributions and community service. But I don’t like the sour incursions into my general determination to be open-hearted and the dampening of my ambition to be kind. And so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to be better, both for the benefit of the people around me and for myself.

The truth is, the White House’s discussion of character in Trump’s proclamation isn’t actually a bad starting point, even if it also is a comprehensive description of everything Trump himself is not.

“Character can be hard to define, but we see it in every day acts — raising and providing for a family with loving devotion, working hard to make the most of an education, and giving back to devastated communities,” the declaration argues. “These and so many other acts big and small constitute the moral fiber of American culture. Character is forged around kitchen tables, built in civic organizations, and developed in houses of worship. It is refined by our choices, large and small, and manifested in what we do when we think no one is paying attention.”

I’ve seen a lot of people do that work of refinement in the past couple of years. I saw it in my friends on the right who rejected Trump’s candidacy early and stuck to their decision in a stalwart fashion. I’ve seen it in my friends who are clergy and theologians who minister to their parishioners and to people who are ill and afraid. I’ve seen it in my friends who have become parents, and tried to become parents, and developed new strength, patience and devotion in the process.

And I saw a great deal of character in Chicago a few weeks ago for a meeting of the Civic Collaboratory, a gathering of people from all across the political spectrum, organized by my friend, Citizen University’s Eric Liu. For some of them, being engaged in civic life means convening conversations with people who profoundly disagree with them. For others, that means camping out in some of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods in an effort to keep those corners free of violence. The substance of the work these people are doing showed character, and so did the spirit with which they presented their projects and pledged to help one another. Being around them made me unfurl a little bit, and it reminded me how tense and sometimes closed off I’ve been, and for how long.

The trip reminded me that while it’s easy for our conversations about character to become defined by what a lack of it looks like, remembering what character actually is — and how good it feels to encounter someone who possesses it — is equally important. That doesn’t mean that it’s unwise to steer clear of moral voids or to look clearly at at a Cheshire Cat grin and recognize it for what it is. But if Trump seems ridiculous for proclaiming National Character Counts Week, we’d be equally ridiculous to cede it to him. Trump can provide a counterexample. It’s up to the rest of us to affirm every day what character really means.

 

[GrumpyGran]

5 hours ago, 47of74 said:

I hear Kelly is disgusted with fuck face

 

What the ever-lovin' hell. Does she hear herself? She does mean he's disgusted with exactly what she is standing there doing, right?

And I'm so tired of Dumpy and his phantom friends who tell him things. All those 'people' who are saying things. Shut up. No one is saying anything, you're just making shit up and blasting it out of your lying pie-hole. I wish some reporter would call him on it, ask him who exactly said what and when they said it, where he was, etc. Let him twist in the wind a while, sputtering and backtracking.

[JMarie]

Because the attack in Niger got so much coverage today, I was thinking about Trump and Niger.  Raise your hand if you think Trump had no idea where Niger is (not even which continent), or keeps thinking people are talking about Nigeria.

 

 

[Cartmann99]

I'm so stunned over how the Johnson family was treated by Trump. 

Looks like we are probably in for some more angry tweets tomorrow morning:

Quote

When White House Chief of Staff John Kelly condemned a Miami congresswoman on Thursday for sneering at President Donald Trump’s condolence call to a soldier’s widow, the retired general recalled when the two attended a somber ceremony in Miramar to dedicate a new FBI building named after two slain FBI agents.

Kelly criticized Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson for claiming “she got the money” for the new building during the 2015 ceremony while he and others in the audience were focused on the heroism of agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove, killed during a 1986 shootout with bank robbers south of Miami.

Thursday night, Wilson said Kelly got the story flat-out wrong. In fact, she said Washington approved the money before she was even in Congress. The legislation she sponsored named the building after Grogan and Dove, a law enacted just days before the ceremony.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article179869321.html

[candygirl200413]

I hope this today makes people realize how disgusting John Kelly is too. Really, you're going to talk down to a widow who lost her husband because you're a horrible babysitter?! Plus fuckface has had the same type of reactions to other gold star families so it's also like why are people shocked? The whole adminstration are just POS

 

[Howl]

20 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Trump said Monday that there was “no collusion” with Russia and that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election activities should conclude quickly.

Really, I had to stop laughing before I could respond.  Ignore the fake news, nothing to see here.  Move along, move along.

Depressing (non-fake) news du jour: most Republicans in my state of Texas think Trump is doing fine, just fine.  

[47of74]

I see FuckFace Von Shitgibbon is sticking his nose into the UK now so he can stoke fears about Islamic boogeymen.

Quote

Donald Trump has blamed a rise in crime in the UK on “radical Islamic terror”, despite there being no evidence to support the claim.

In an early morning tweet the President said: “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13% annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ Not good, we must keep America safe!”

The figures come from the UK’s Office for National Statistics, which released new data on Wednesday showing the number of crimes recorded annually in England and Wales had passed five million for the first time in a decade.

Would someone please take his phone away from him? 

[clueliss]

OMG - this thread from Laura Sessions on what really happened in Niger (Twitter).  

 

[candygirl200413]

I was going to just share that!! It's disgusting because there will be no hearings for this via congress. That whole pentagon is disgusting and could care less. Unnecessary killing for no reason.

[clueliss]

I had to stop reading for a moment - when I got to - we left the guy behind.  and he was probably alive.  I admit to having opinions about Benghazi (and still voted for Hilary) but this?  this is so many levels of wrong.  And he's using his tweeting and mouthing off to distract folks.  

[candygirl200413]

Benghazi was definitely a mistake and it's beyond horrible that lives were lost but Hillary did apologize and don't forget that Jason Chaffetz removed funding for security which was another factor into causing Benghazi. This is just disgustingly horrible. Also didn't know we now contractor other sources now? And that this entire administration wants this covered up and release no details about what happening?

They just don't care. I'm also especially nervous for the soldiers we have now that are just going to be dealing with a horrendous administration who just don't care.

One of my college best friends dad is in Afganistan and I'm just like God forbid something horrendous like this happens there or anywhere else who will do anything about it? I don't even know what will happen now that the FBI is investigating because I don't trust them either.

[GrumpyGran]

50 minutes ago, clueliss said:

I had to stop reading for a moment - when I got to - we left the guy behind.  and he was probably alive.  I admit to having opinions about Benghazi (and still voted for Hilary) but this?  this is so many levels of wrong.  And he's using his tweeting and mouthing off to distract folks.  

All of that in her tweet I had heard except for some details. I agree with you @candygirl200413, our military does some shit that would make your hair curl. They are NEVER going to tell you unless they have to, it's a closed culture.

That said, I have some questions about this situation. In her tweet she says a dozen of our troops were put in this situation. There were a dozen soldiers there? So three are killed immediately. They are taken out, where are the other nine? That would imply that Sgt. Johnson was not alone. So were there a dozen soldiers?

We are never going to know the answers to this and the fact that these soldiers were sent into this situation unaware of what was in fact happening is reprehensible. It wouldn't surprise me at all of the Bengazi fiasco was the result of the same kind of thing. Our Intel people and military don't like to share information with each other or with people who should have the info for their safety. And the issue of farming out security for our troops to the highest bidder-WTF?

This is going to echo as Trump's Bengazi and he won't like that. Prepare for the backlash.