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Trump 41: Waiting For My Impeachment


GreyhoundFan

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“A Very Stable Genius” never gets old.

Edited by smittykins
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I expect heads are exploding in the IC over this.  Surely there will be some very covert actions taking place to block some of the more damaging possibilities.  

Also, consider if someone like Devin Nunes gained access to all of this declassified information or, um, THE FUCKING RUSSIANS. 

 

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Amash really wants to get Trump out. And now he's taking Congress to task as well.

 

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This makes me want to scream. A close family member of mine was in procurement for the federal government for decades, eventually ending up as chief of procurement for multiple agencies. There are very strict laws about vendor selection and management. Of course, the "very stable genius"/"bestest businessman ever" doesn't know or care about the law. "‘He always brings them up’: Trump tries to steer border wall deal to North Dakota firm"

Spoiler

President Trump has personally and repeatedly urged the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to award a border wall contract to a North Dakota construction firm whose top executive is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News, according to four administration officials.

In phone calls, White House meetings and conversations aboard Air Force One during the past several months, Trump has aggressively pushed Dickinson, N.D.-based Fisher Industries to Department of Homeland Security leaders and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commanding general of the Army Corps, according to the administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions. The push for a specific company has alarmed military commanders and DHS officials.

Semonite was summoned to the White House again Thursday, after the president’s aides told Pentagon officials — including Gen. Mark Milley, the Army’s chief of staff — that the president wanted to discuss the border barrier. According to an administration official with knowledge of the Oval Office meeting, Trump immediately brought up Fisher, a company that sued the U.S. government last month after the Army Corps did not accept its bid to install barriers along the southern border, a contract potentially worth billions of dollars.

Trump has latched on to the company’s public claims that a new weathered steel design and innovative construction method would vastly speed up the project — and deliver it at far less cost to taxpayers. White House officials said Trump wants to go with the best and most cost-effective option to build the wall quickly.

“The President is one of the country’s most successful builders and knows better than anyone how to negotiate the best deals,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in an email. “He wants to make sure we get the job done under budget and ahead of schedule.”

Fisher’s chief executive, Tommy Fisher, has gone on conservative television and radio, claiming that his company could build more than 200 miles of barrier in less than a year. And he has courted Washington directly, meeting in congressional offices and inviting officials to the Southwest desert to see barrier prototypes.

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Even as Trump pushes for his firm, Fisher already has started building a section of fencing in Sunland Park, N.M. We Build the Wall, a nonprofit that includes prominent conservatives who support the president — its associates and advisory board include former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince, ex-congressman Tom Tancredo and former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach — has guided an effort to build portions of the border barrier on private land with private funds.

The first section is expected to be unveiled soon. Fisher-branded equipment and workers were visible this week preparing the site outside El Paso, within feet of the International Boundary Monument No. 1, placed in 1855 at the beginning of the effort to delineate the Mexican border. The stretch, part of which is on private land owned by a brick company, is the only area in the region without a barrier, in part because it crosses rugged terrain.

Scott Sleight, an attorney for Fisher, said in a statement Thursday that Fisher Industries is committed to working with the federal government to secure the border and has developed a patent-pending installation system that allows the company to build fencing “faster than any contractor using common construction methods.”

“Fisher has invited officials of many agencies and members of Congress to demonstrate what we believe are vastly superior construction methods and capabilities,” Sleight said. “Consistent with the goals President Trump has also outlined, Fisher’s goal is to, as expeditiously as possible, provide the best quality border protection at the best price for the American people at our Nation’s border.”

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, has joined in the campaign for Fisher Industries, along with Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), an ardent promoter of the company and the recipient of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Fisher and his family members, according to campaign finance records. Cramer, in an interview Thursday, said the Trump administration has shown a great deal of interest in his constituent’s company.

“He always brings them up,” Cramer said, noting that he spoke with Trump about Fisher twice — once in February and again on Thursday. Each time, Trump said he wanted Fisher to build some of the barrier, Cramer said.

Cramer said Trump likes Fisher because he had seen him on television advocating for his version of the barrier: “He’s been very aggressive on TV,” Cramer said of the CEO.

“You know who else watches Fox News?” Cramer asked.

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Trump’s repeated attempts to influence the Army Corps’ contracting decisions show the degree to which the president is willing to insert himself into what is normally a staid legal and regulatory process designed to protect the U.S. government from accusations of favoritism. They also show how a private company can appeal to the president using well-placed publicity and personal connections to his allies — and the president’s willingness to dive into the minutiae of specific projects.

But Trump’s personal intervention risks the perception of improper influence on decades-old procurement rules that require government agencies to seek competitive bids, free of political interference.

A senior White House official explained Trump’s advocacy for Fisher Industries by saying the president was told the company was cheaper than others and could build the wall faster. The official said that Trump would prefer another company if he learned it could do the work cheaper and faster than Fisher has promised.

The official said Trump had not told Semonite he must award the contract to the company but had repeatedly brought up Fisher Industries as an option because he sees the process as too expensive and too slow. Trump wants to see hundreds of miles of border barrier completed within the next two years.

Trump has taken an intense interest in the border barrier project, expressing frustration with the pace of progress on a structure he views as key to his reelection campaign. Several administration officials have said the president requires frequent briefings from his staff and has given specific but shifting instructions to Semonite and DHS leaders on his preferred tastes and design specifications.

Most recently, the president has insisted the structure be painted black and topped with spikes, while grumbling to aides that the Army Corps contracting process is holding back his ambitions. At the White House meeting Thursday, he said he doesn’t like the current design for the wall’s gates, suggesting that instead of the hydraulic sliding gate design, the Army Corps should consider an alternative, according to an administration official: “Why not French doors?” the president asked.

Trump also dismissed concerns about cost increases and maintenance needs associated with applying paint to the structure, insisting the barrier be black, the administration official said. He also wants the flat steel panels removed from the upper part of the fence, which he considers unsightly, preferring sharpened tips at the end of the steel bollards.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

The Army Corps, with a reputation for rectitude, discipline and impartiality, is the designated contracting authority for the border barrier project, developing specifications, awarding contracts and ensuring legal and regulatory compliance.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers goes to great lengths to ensure the integrity of our contracting process,” said Raini W. Brunson, a spokesperson for the Army Corps, who referred questions about Trump’s conversations with Semonite to the White House.

The president ordered the reassignment of defense funds to the barrier project after Democrats denied his request for $5 billion. Instead, the agreement to end the government shutdown included $1.4 billion for the barrier. Since then, with Trump promising to build 400 miles of fencing by next year, the Pentagon has pledged to provide at least $2.5 billion more.

Fisher Industries was one of the six companies that built border wall prototypes outside San Diego in 2017, but the company’s concrete design did not afford the see-through visibility that DHS officials wanted. While many of the companies declined to discuss their prototypes with reporters, Tommy Fisher was an eager booster for his plan, criticizing the steel bollard design and professing that a more expensive concrete version would be better.

When Fisher began promoting a steel version of the barrier that he said could be installed faster and cheaper, the Army Corps said the design did not meet its requirements and lacked regulatory approvals.

“The system he is proposing does not meet the operational requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” an official said. DHS officials also told the Army Corps in March that Fisher’s work on a barrier project in San Diego came in late and over budget.

Fisher Industries has alleged improprieties with the border wall procurement process and sued the government on April 25.

Fisher has made repeat appearances in conservative media including Fox News, touting his plan and denouncing “bureaucracy” for holding back construction progress. His pitch has become something of a conservative cause celebre, and in April, Fisher hosted a demonstration of his construction techniques in Arizona with lawmakers including Cramer, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), as well as Kobach, the immigration hard-liner whom the president had been considering as a possible DHS secretary.

Fisher this week told radio listeners in North Dakota that he was using private donations to build a section of border wall to show off his superior construction methods, which involve using heavy equipment to hold steel panels in place as they are anchored into the ground. He said he knows Trump will be impressed.

“The Corps said it couldn’t be done, but now the Border Patrol has seen it,” Fisher said of his construction project in an interview Wednesday on “The Flag,” a show on North Dakota’s WZFG News. “They’ve been out each day, and the proof’s in the pudding, and after that, it’s going to open up a whole new narrative about how border security should be handled, who should construct it, and the border agents will finally get what they deserve. And we’ll prove it in a half-mile stretch where they said it couldn’t be done.”

Collecting private donations, We Build the Wall has raised $22 million for the cause. The group has announced a raffle for a “wall reveal ceremony” it said will be attended by its “MAGA All Star board of advisors.”

“Witness history made on completion of the first privately funded section of the border wall!” it says. Cramer said Fisher is working with We Build the Wall. The group did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has repeatedly brought up Fisher Industries after hearing about the company in early 2019, administration officials said.

In an earlier meeting with military and DHS officials in the Oval Office, Trump said that the government was getting ripped off by current contractors — and that Fisher could do it for less than half the price and with concrete. “The president got very spun up about it,” said one person with direct knowledge of the meeting.

Officials from the Army Corps and DHS then met with Kushner several times to explain why Fisher wasn’t the best deal. Kushner was intimately interested in the cost of the wall and why other companies were being chosen over Fisher, administration officials said. Trump repeatedly told advisers that Fisher should be the company, administration officials said, and he has remained focused on the cost of the wall and how slow its progress has been.

Army Corps of Engineers officials evaluated Fisher’s proposal and said that it didn’t meet the requirements of the project — and that the proposal was cheaper because it wasn’t as high-quality, or as sophisticated, in their view.

Finally, officials, including then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, went into the Oval Office this spring and explained that Fisher could bid but that the company’s proposal needed to change.

Nielsen and Semonite separately explained that the president could not just pick a company. Nielsen did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump remained frustrated, saying that Fisher said it could build the barrier cheaper and faster. “He said these other guys were full of s---,” an official said.

Fisher was added to a pool of competitors after the Army Corps came under pressure from the White House, administration officials said.

On Tuesday, after Semonite was called to a meeting with Cramer on Capitol Hill, the senator posted a photograph of the encounter to Twitter, saying he had “discussed border wall construction” with Army Corps leaders.

Cramer said he was glad the president is so involved in the process. Trump was elected to cut through Washington’s entrenched bureaucracy, he said.

“Good for him. It’s why he is the president of the United States. He knows a thing or two about building big projects,” Cramer said. “This is why he’s president.”

Cramer said that he has long known the Fisher family and that he is not advocating for the company because its ownership has donated money to his campaigns.

“I was doing it before they were a financial contributor,” he said. “For no other reason than the fact that he’s a constituent of mine.”

Cramer said he had gone down to the border to see Fisher’s “show and tell” demonstration. The senator said he has discussed the company with Semonite, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others.

Tommy Fisher and his wife gave more than $10,000 — the maximum allowable contribution — to Cramer in 2018 as he ran for Senate, campaign finance records show. Fisher was Cramer’s guest at Trump’s State of the Union speech in February, and the CEO said he shook the president’s hand afterward.

Trump backed Cramer last year in his campaign to unseat Democrat Heidi Heitkamp. During his Senate run, Cramer appeared in a social media video at Fisher headquarters in North Dakota, driving an excavator.

“Here at Fisher Industries in Dickinson ND, I tested just how easy it is install a panel of wall myself,” Cramer wrote on Twitter.

 

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Just came across this Twitter thread by Jared Yates Sexton about how Trump reveals himself as a classic abuser in his tweets about Nancy Pelosi and I've linked below to the thread unroll. 

I've followed a few people on twitter who were raised by a mother or father with NPD, who could basically predict Trump's moves and meltdowns because they know how narcissists work.  This is from the perspective of someone who grew up with abuse and recognizes in Trump the classic signs of an abuser.  Sadly accurate: 

First paragraph: 

Quote

I've written about this extensively in my new book  The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making but it's really important to get this out: Trump's behavior with Pelosi completely reflects the cycle of abuse that myself and other survivors have endured. 1/

Click HERE for full text (four-minute read)

 

Edited by Howl
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3 hours ago, Howl said:

Timely reminder from Fred Harding: 

 

This is a 1987 article about it by Associated Press. It reports part of the ad's text. The ad itself has been repeatedly posted in the Twitter thread.

ETA He doesn't name NATO but it is implied, after all I doubt that he knows which countries are members.

 

Edited by laPapessaGiovanna
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Yeah that orange fuck has no respect for other cultures

Quote

Traditionalists are angry at the prospect of Donald Trump watching a sumo bout on a ringside seat rather than the traditional mode of sitting cross-legged on a cushion.

Trump will present a trophy that carries his name to the winner of a major tournament at the Ryogoku Kokugikan hall in Tokyo on Sunday during his four-day visit to Japan.

But in a sport whose rituals date back more than a millennium and a half, purists have been upset at the 72-year-old’s seating arrangement.

Trump will sit in a chair among the most prized seats that encircle the ring known as masu seki. Normally sitting in this area is done on flat cushions known as zabuton.

Meanwhile racists everywhere would have thrown a fucking fit if President Obama had not showed respect to the previous Emperor several years ago.  Of course these pieces of shit would complain no matter what he does.

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I'm guessing this sale is to distract from all the crap here at home:

 

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Yeah no one is really too enthused to be stuck on an airliner with fuck head.

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When Trump first took office, staffers clamored to travel on overseas trips. But now, in the third year of his presidency, several officials said they do their best to avoid staffing the trips because of the chaotic nature that typically accompanies them.

During international flights, Trump typically remains in the front cabin. He does four things, the current and former aides said: eats, watches television or reads newspapers, talks with staff and calls friends and allies back home as he zips away into foreign skies.

Trump will spend hours reviewing cable news coverage recorded on a TiVo-like device or sifting through cardboard boxes of newspapers and magazines that have been lugged aboard. He'll summon sleeping staffers to his office at moments the rest of the plane is dark, impatient to discuss his upcoming meetings or devise a response to something he saw in the media.

Trump has long insisted that he is treated unfairly by the news media, and if he sees something on television that bothers him -- "which he invariably will," one official quipped -- he instructs his staff to fix it, no matter if they are at the White House or flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Often, instead of looking over his remarks for upcoming bilateral meetings or paging through a briefing book, the President will fixate on the negative headline that day, griping that none of his predecessors has been through such treatment.

I'd tell these staffers whining about it bed.  Made.  Fucking well lie. 

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On 5/24/2019 at 2:40 PM, smittykins said:

“A Very Stable Genius” never gets old.

Michael Hayden: retired Air Force four-star general and past Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and wrote The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies  He is utterly horrified by Trump. 

He suffered a major stroke in November, but he's been working hard at recovering and the stroke has not impaired his sense of humor: 

 

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National disgrace is putting it too nicely.

Edited by GreyhoundFan
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I know it's satire.  It made me laugh:

 

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41 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I know it's satire.  It made me laugh:

 

One of Queen Elizabeth's hats would be a better president than Jackass Orange. ?

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He's so desperate to play with KJU: "Still angling for a deal, Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan"

Spoiler

TOKYO — President Trump on Monday denied that North Korea had fired any ballistic missiles or violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions, taking the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the assessments of his own national security adviser and his Japanese host. He praised the murderous dictator as a “very smart man.”

He also again sided with Kim over former vice president Joe Biden, after his Democratic rival was branded a “fool of low I.Q.” by North Korea’s state media for calling the North Korean leader a dictator and a tyrant.

At a joint news conference with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Trump gave cover to Kim as he directly contradicted his national security adviser, John Bolton, as well as Abe, by arguing that Pyongyang had not launched ballistic missiles this month or violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“My people think it could have been a violation,” Trump said. “I view it differently.”

When pressed, the president added that he was not “personally” bothered by North Korea’s short-range missile tests this month.

Trump’s comments were reminiscent of his repeated statements that he believed the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country had not interfered in the 2016 U.S. election — an assessment in direct conflict with U.S. intelligence conclusions.

On Saturday, Bolton had told reporters there was “no doubt” that North Korea had violated the Security Council resolutions by firing short-range ballistic missiles.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry was quick to criticize Bolton on Monday, with an unnamed spokesman quoted in state media as calling him a “war maniac” who has a “different mental structure from ordinary people.”

But Bolton didn’t get much support from Trump, who appears keen to think the best of Kim and their personal chemistry amid growing signs that one of his major foreign policy initiatives is failing.

“I view it as a man — perhaps he wants to get attention, and perhaps not, who knows,” Trump said, referring to Kim and the tests. “It doesn’t matter. All I know is that there have been no nuclear tests. There have been no ballistic missiles going out. There have been no long-range missiles going out.”

The human rights atrocities on Kim’s watch are plentiful, including forced labor, deliberate starvation and executions. In 2016, North Korea imprisoned 21-year-old U.S. college student Otto Warmbier and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor. Warmbier fell into a coma while in a North Korean prison and died shortly after his return home in 2017, after Trump negotiated his release.

But Trump portrayed the North Korean dictator as a leader who believes, as the president himself said he does, that his country has “tremendous economic potential,” but who understands he can’t develop it while still pursuing his nuclear ambitions.

“He knows that with nuclear, that’s never going to happen, only bad can happen,” Trump said. “He understands. He is a very smart man; he gets it.”

The president — a former real estate developer — also cast Kim’s opportunities through the lens of his previous passion. North Korea, the president said, is “located between Russia and China on one side, and South Korea on the other. It’s all waterfront property. It’s a great location, as we used to say in the real estate business.”

In an earlier tweet, Trump also weaponized Kim against Biden, the Democratic candidate for president about whom he and his aides appear to be most worried. Trump wrote that he appreciated a recent comment by North Korea state media criticizing Biden, adding, “Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?”

U.S. presidents traditionally refrain from criticizing their political rivals or talking partisan politics on foreign soil, but when pressed about seeming to choose a brutal dictator over a fellow American, Trump doubled down on his initial tweet. “Well, Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-IQ individual,” he said. “He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that.”

Bolton and the U.S. ambassador to Japan, William Hagerty — both sitting to the side — chuckled slightly at Trump’s put-down of the former vice president.

Abe has sought to play down his differences with Trump over North Korea and stressed that the two countries’ positions were “the same.” He said Trump had “broken the shell of mistrust” with Kim and that he shared Trump’s vision of a bright future. 

But Abe did not agree with Trump when it came to the missile launches.

“On May 9th, North Korea launched short-range ballistic missiles, and that’s a violation of the U.N. Security Council’s resolution, so, as I have been saying, this is quite a regrettable act,” he said.

Earlier Monday, Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako welcomed Trump and his wife, Melania, at the Imperial Palace, making Trump the first foreign leader to be welcomed there since Naruhito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne at the beginning of May. Following palace custom, the president walked much of the red carpet alone, greeting an honor guard and schoolchildren waving U.S. and Japanese flags.

In the evening, the Trumps were back at the palace for a six-course, black-tie banquet, beginning with consommé a la royale and including turbot and beef. Trump called himself “profoundly honored” to have been the first state guest of the new imperial era — known as the Reiwa era — invoked ancient Japanese texts and thanked the people of Japan “for their incredible hospitality and warm welcome in this majestic land.”

So far, Japan’s attempt to court and flatter Trump during this four-day state visit appears to be paying off. Talking to the media before his summit discussions with the Japanese leader, Trump described Abe as a “truly amazing prime minister” and Japan as a “really interesting and fabulous place.”

“We understand each other very well, we’re very committed to each other as nations, so we have a situation where we have the best relationship that we’ve ever had with Japan, and we’re going to keep it that way,” he said.

Crucially for Japan, Trump signaled that a trade deal between the two nations — something he has been impatient to deliver — would be delayed until after July’s Upper House elections in Japan. He said the two leaders would “get the balance of trade straightened out rapidly,” adding that an announcement would come “probably in August.”

Trump wants to see Japan cut tariffs for U.S. agricultural products, after the United States’ withdrawal from the 11-nation Trans Pacific Partnership left its exporters at a disadvantage. He has also threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on foreign cars, although he declared this month he would delay imposing them for 180 days to allow room for negotiations on restricting import volumes.

But Abe’s constant reminders to Trump that Japan’s car companies have poured money into the United States, including in regions dominated by Republican voters, also appear to be paying off.

Trump also boasted that Japan has become one of the world’s top purchasers of U.S. defense equipment and would be buying 105 F-35 stealth aircraft, giving it the largest such fleet of any U.S. ally.

But Trump said he believed a trade deal could be reached that would “benefit both our economies” and reduce the U.S. deficit.

Trump also backed Abe’s efforts to mediate between the United States and Iran, with the prime minister reported to be planning a visit there next month.

“I do believe Iran would like to talk, and if they’d like to talk, we’d like to talk also,” Trump said. “I know for a fact that the prime minister is very close with the leadership of Iran, and we’ll see what happens. . . . Nobody wants to see terrible things happen, especially me.”

Several hours later, during his news conference, Trump said the United States was simply “looking for no nuclear weapons” when it comes to Iran, and offered yet another implicit dig at Bolton, who has pushed for a more hawkish stance toward the country.

“We’re not looking for regime change,” Trump said, as his national security adviser sat mere feet away. “I just want to make that clear.”

I wonder if Naruhito had the palace staff bring in Big Macs for Dumpy as part of the six course dinner.

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On 5/21/2019 at 4:40 AM, Alisamer said:

He kept telling his sweet, stay at home mom wife that she would be fine, she's a good person, she has an American son, she's married to an American, etc. Until she got deported and banned from re-entering the country for at least ten years. Their son will be nearing high school graduation before she even has a chance to TRY to come back home

So what penalty did the husvand receive for knowingly harbouring an illegal immigrant (his words) for an extended period? Jail time? Fines? And if not, why not? Seriously if having his wife - who he presumably at least likes - didn't change his mind then what will?

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7 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

So what penalty did the husvand receive for knowingly harbouring an illegal immigrant (his words) for an extended period? Jail time? Fines? And if not, why not? Seriously if having his wife - who he presumably at least likes - didn't change his mind then what will?

I think he must have considered his wife more of a live-in maid with benefits. What else could explain his attitude?

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Trump's stupidity was on show again.

 

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Trump accidentally slipped in a sentence stating the truth for once. You can bet he was mightily upset.

 

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Also onboard the  USS Wasp, the following was spotted.

It is appalling that they would put that crap on their uniforms. Can you imagine the hue and cry from the right wing nutjobs if someone in the military displayed a patch featuring Obama?

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Good grief. It seems that extra hit of orange on his face has seeped into his brain and fried them even more than they already were. And note his enunciation is getting worse too.

"They're making planes sho complexsh you can't fly 'em...

"They're always comin' up oot new ideas"

 

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"Trump basked in spotlight in Japan, even as his focus seemed elsewhere"

Spoiler

TOKYO — President Trump flew over 14 hours, passed through 13 time zones and crossed the international date line to — essentially — be feted by the Japanese.

On a four-day visit to Japan, Trump enjoyed golf and double cheeseburgers (complete with U.S. beef), participated in an imperial gift exchange, attended a traditional sumo tournament and fielded questions from the media at the gilded Akasaka Palace. 

But like many strategies to influence and contain the president, the carefully planned Japanese attempt hit something of a skid on Trump’s first full day in Tokyo on Sunday, when Trump fired off a tweet that, in a single missive, undermined his national security adviser, aligned himself with a brutal dictator and attacked a Democratic rival on foreign soil. 

Then Monday, in a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump continued his headlong plunge into diplomatic mayhem, expressing such eagerness for a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he backed Kim over his own top aides (notably national security adviser John Bolton), his allies (Japan) and his fellow Americans (former vice president Joe Biden).

Calling Kim “a very smart man,” Trump said he was not “personally” bothered by North Korea’s short-range missile tests this month and does not believe the tests violate United Nations Security Council resolutions — a transgression about which Bolton had previously told reporters there was “no doubt.”

“My people think it could have been a violation,” Trump said, as Bolton sat just feet away. “I view it a little differently.”

Abe, meanwhile, referred to the North Korean tests with “great regret” — though, in an apparent attempt to maintain his bromance with Trump, Abe also credited the president with beginning negotiations with North Korea, saying Trump “cracked open the shell of distrust” with the regime.

Trump also seemed to side with Kim and his repressive regime over Biden, violating an unofficial rule of presidential behavior — that partisan politics stops on foreign soil. Asked about a tweet in which Trump appreciatively recounted North Korea’s state media calling Biden a “fool of low I.Q.,” the president simply doubled down on the insult.  

“Well, Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-IQ individual,” the president said, as Bolton and the U.S. ambassador to Japan, William Hagerty, chuckled lightly. “I think I agree with him on that.”

And Trump expressed openness to improving relations with Iran, currently one of America’s biggest geopolitical foes, after recently ordering 1,500 additional troops to the region. 

“We’re not looking for regime change,” he said, in another tacit rebuke of Bolton, who has long pushed for a more aggressive hard-line stance against Iran. “I just want to make that clear. We’re looking for no nuclear weapons.”

Still, when Trump wasn’t making unplanned news, he largely basked in his elevated status, with Abe playing humble guide. 

In some ways, the president’s Japan sojourn revealed Trump as part reluctant tourist, part eager honoree, and always deeply perplexed when the spotlight was not squarely on him. 

At Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium for the sumo championships Sunday, for instance, Trump suddenly found himself spectator rather than actor, and was notably subdued. After entering the arena to applause and craned necks, the crowd returned its collective attention to the ancient grappling, and Trump sat almost stone-faced as he took in the final matches. 

After donning slippers — no shoes are allowed in the ring — Trump did rise to present the 25-year-old champion with the first “President’s Cup,” a more than four-foot-tall and 60-pound silver trophy with an eagle taking flight set atop it. But he appeared to lack his trademark panache. He read from a certificate, smiled, clapped and bowed slightly before exiting the ring. 

In other moments, Trump’s interests seemed to drift stateside, at least according to his social media feed. During his four days abroad, the president tweeted about sports (the Indianapolis 500), culture (actor Jussie Smollett) and, of course, politics. 

The president attacked Democrats, impeachment efforts and Biden, even using the 1994 crime bill as a foil to argue that Biden — who supported the legislation — is unelectable to large swaths of the Democratic base.  

“Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected,” Trump wrote from Tokyo. “In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you.”

Abe, for his part, at least publicly largely tried to ignore disagreements between himself and the president, and instead focused on honoring and entertaining his guest — the first foreign leader invited to an official state visit following the May enthronement of the new emperor, Naruhito. 

After all, Trump is a president who at times prefers to be treated like a monarch, reveling in the spotlight and celebrations of himself. And the Japanese were happy to oblige, hoping to woo Trump on everything from trade to security by tailoring the trip to his whims and professed likes. 

Abe and Trump played golf, took a selfie and, in a nod to the president’s preferred palate of bland Americana, consumed a carnivore’s bovine delight — burgers (at the country club), Wagyu beef (at the traditional robatayaki charcoal grill) and Cote de Boeuf Rotie (at the six-course black-tie gala at the Imperial Palace). 

And the president was simply thrilled to be the guest of honor — even if, at least at first, he seemed a little unclear on just what the celebration was. Before leaving for Japan, Trump told reporters that Abe persuaded him to visit the country twice in roughly a month — he returns in June to Osaka, for the Group of 20 leaders’ summit — by inviting him to a “very big event” that the prime minister promised Trump would be “one hundred times bigger” than even the Super Bowl. 

Once here to help usher in the “Reiwa” era under Naruhito, Trump continued to enthuse about Abe’s invite to be the first leader to meet the new emperor after ascending the Chrysanthemum Throne. 

“That was a great honor,” he said Monday, sitting alongside Abe. “That’s a big thing. Two hundred and two years — that’s the last time this has happened.” 

Trump has four foreign trips this summer, and a senior White House official said he was most excited about this first one to Japan and next week’s journey to Britain and France, which similarly includes an official state visit — complete with pomp and grandeur — during his British stop.

Before Trump departed for Japan, another senior White House official promised a “substantive” trip with “some substantive things.” Yet it was hard to point to any major diplomatic breakthroughs.  

As NBC’s Hallie Jackson quipped on MSNBC as the trip wound down, the only real deliverable “has been the delivery of that trophy to the sumo wrestling championship.”

Still, Trump did try to imbue his trip with some substance. Out of respect for Abe, he met with relatives of the abductees — those Japanese abducted by North Korea, never to be seen again — his second such meeting with the families. 

“The United States also remains committed to the issue of abductions, which I know is a top priority for Prime Minister Abe,” he said during their news conference Monday. “The United States will continue to support Japan’s efforts to bring these abductees home.”

 And he announced a new space agreement, albeit with few specifics. “I am pleased to confirm that Prime Minister Abe and I have agreed to dramatically expand our nations’ cooperation in human space exploration,” Trump said. 

“We’ll be going to the moon,” he continued. “We’ll be going to Mars very soon. It’s very exciting.”

Before leaving Japan on Tuesday, Trump visited American troops — some sporting “Make Aircrew Great Again” patches on their uniforms — for Memorial Day at Yokosuka Naval Base outside Tokyo.

“From America’s earliest days, fearless Americans have said goodbye to their loved ones, gone off to war and stared down our enemies, knowing that they may never, ever return,” Trump said. “Memorial Day links every grateful American heart in eternal tribute to those brave souls who gave their last breath for our nation, from Concord to Gettysburg, from Midway to Mosul.”  

Despite some notable policy cracks between Trump and Abe, from the Japanese perspective, the trip was still largely a success. One of the main goals was simply to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship, and Abe is a careful student of Trump — understanding, among other things, that he is most likely to influence the president when physically by his side. 

To that end, Abe flew to D.C. in April to visit Trump, and by June, the two men will have met three times in as many months. They have also spoken and met in person more than 40 times.  

Noting all the red carpets — literal and proverbial — that the Japanese had rolled out for their American guest, one Japan-based journalist assessed the trip with a quip: “I’m surprised they didn’t put on a geisha show for him.”

It's sickening that he requires so much flattery.

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2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Trump's stupidity was on show again.

 

This makes me absolutely stabby! It is not Happy Memorial Day, anal orifice.

I went to school (year behind but was in music and an after school activity) with a really great guy who was killed in a training accident overseas while in the Navy. One of his classmates lost her husband in a military action (don't want to dox myself and really don't want to dox others). I know their families and friends would give anything to have their loved one there, instead of being someone we remember on Memorial Day. To say, "Happy Memorial Day" negates some of the seriousness of their sacrifices.

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3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Trump's stupidity was on show again.

 

Are we sure this isn't a farce?  No one can possibly be this tacky.

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