Trump 42: Racist In Chief

[GreyhoundFan]

He's trying to deny citizenship from the children of men and women serving our country overseas, but this is okay because he makes money...It's so disgusting.

 

[fraurosena]

A Baptist Church. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

He's not kidding, you know. He really wants more than two terms, and he's grasping at straws as to how to get it.

Trump says he should be ‘given our stolen time back’ after release of Comey report

Quote

President Trump suggested Friday that he and his supporters should be “given our stolen time back” in light of a Justice Department report that found former FBI director James B. Comey violated FBI policies regarding memos that helped spark the special counsel investigation.

It was not immediately clear what Trump meant, but in May he shared a tweet by a supporter that said he should have two years added to his term as compensation for having endured the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

“The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated,” Trump said in a tweet, referring to the Justice Department’s inspector general. “Our rights and liberties were illegally stripped away by this dishonest fool. We should be given our stolen time back?”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on what the president meant.

The report released Thursday by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said Comey violated FBI policies in how he handled memos that detailed his early interactions with Trump. The report said Comey kept the government documents at his home, engineered the release of some of their contents to the news media and did not tell the bureau which person or people he had given them to.

Comey’s orchestration of the release of the memo’s contents was a factor in Mueller’s appointment as special counsel. Mueller would go on to focus intently on the episodes Comey described in his memos as possible obstruction of justice by the president. The memos asserted, among other things, that Trump had pressed Comey for loyalty and had asked him about letting go of an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Comey, whom Trump fired in May 2017, told investigators that he felt the memos were personal and that he was acting in the best interests of the country.

The inspector general wrote that his office gave its findings to the Justice Department to determine whether Comey had committed a crime and that officials declined to prosecute the case.

In a separate tweet Friday, Trump wrote that the decision not to prosecute showed “how fair and reasonable” Attorney General William P. Barr is. “So many people and experts that I have watched and read would have taken an entirely different course,” Trump wrote. “Comey got Lucky!

In May, conservative religious leader Jerry Falwell Jr. wrote on Twitter that Trump should have two years added to his first term “as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup,” a reference to the Mueller investigation.

Trump retweeted Falwell and in subsequent tweets of his own wrote that “they have stolen two years of my (our) Presidency.”

Trump has also publicly mused — seemingly in a joking fashion — about extending his four-year term. Earlier this year, he brought up the idea after receiving an award at an event for the Wounded Warrior Project.

“Well, this is really beautiful,” Trump said. “This will find a permanent place, at least for six years, in the Oval Office. Is that okay?”

“I was going to joke, general, and say at least for 10 or 14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that, so we’ll say six,” he added.

Later Friday, Trump tweeted several clips of Republican allies speaking out in television interviews about Comey.

Two of Trump’s closest allies in Congress — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) — also called for a hearing on the inspector general’s report.

“Because Comey’s compilation and dissemination of sensitive FBI information led directly to two-plus years of political turmoil and vitriolic partisan attacks on the President, the OIG’s report demands congressional attention,” the two lawmakers wrote in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.).

Jordan is the top Republican on the committee, and Meadows is the top Republican on the panel’s subcommittee on government operations.

Mueller’s report did not establish that anyone on the Trump campaign illegally coordinated with Russia. It did not draw any legal conclusions about whether Trump tried to obstruct the probe. Mueller said the report did not exonerate the president..

Because how else will he avoid jail time -- which he knows is coming once the presiduncy ends?

[Dandruff]

12 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

He's not kidding, you know. He really wants more than two terms, and he's grasping at straws as to how to get it.

He might get more than two terms...just not in the WH.

Ultimate hypocrisy that he's using the effects of Comey's having broken a rule as an argument for more presiduncy.

[fraurosena]

NO WE DON'T!!!

 

[samurai_sarah]

19 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

NO WE DON'T!!!

 

Followed your link and the fact that the University of Utrecht uses Trump to study narcissists tells its own story about the Netherlands and him. https://www.uu.nl/en/node/541/donald-trump-textbook-narcissist

 

[fraurosena]

 

[AmazonGrace]

He read a briefing? 

 

[fraurosena]

52 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

He read a briefing? 

Read a briefing? Nah. But there was this interesting picture... 

[formergothardite]

And that is the last time they include pictures. I am 100% sure he had no idea it was classified or important to keep secret and he didn't care. All he wanted was to show off the cool picture. 

[Ozlsn]

34 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

And that is the last time they include pictures. I am 100% sure he had no idea it was classified or important to keep secret and he didn't care. All he wanted was to show off the cool picture. 

"But her emails!!"

[fraurosena]

Presiduncial word salad about Dorian. He's never even heard of it, but he knew it existed... .

It's time for the 25th to be invoked. It really is.

 

Good grief, it's worse than I thought. This isn't the first time he's said he didn't know Cat. 5's exist.

 

[fraurosena]

The optics of this are terrible, if the pats are really what this tweeter suggests or not.

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Presiduncial word salad about Dorian. He's never even heard of it, but he knew it existed... .

It's time for the 25th to be invoked. It really is.

 

Good grief, it's worse than I thought. This isn't the first time he's said he didn't know Cat. 5's exist.

 

And how could he have been hiding under a rock when Katrina hit in 2005? That was a Category 5 that devastated New Orleans. It was a huge news story in the US.

[GreyhoundFan]

32 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

And how could he have been hiding under a rock when Katrina hit in 2005? That was a Category 5 that devastated New Orleans. It was a huge news story in the US.

First of all, he doesn't pay attention to the news unless it involves him. Secondly, he doesn't remember anything. Thirdly, the worst hit areas from Katrina were occupied by poor people, especially poor people of color.

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Presiduncial word salad about Dorian. He's never even heard of it, but he knew it existed... .

He reminds me of some of the folks I used to see long ago engaging in heated conversation with lamp posts.

[Ozlsn]

20 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

He reminds me of some of the folks I used to see long ago engaging in heated conversation with lamp posts.

Now of course they blend in by having conversations on their invisible mobile phones.

1 hour ago, Audrey2 said:

And how could he have been hiding under a rock when Katrina hit in 2005? That was a Category 5 that devastated New Orleans. It was a huge news story in the US.

Does he have real estate in the area? Was it damaged?  If not he probably ignored it.

[GreyhoundFan]

From the wonderful Alexandra Petri: "Trump has a plan! His plan is for nothing to go wrong."

Spoiler

First off, do not worry about the economy. There is nothing to worry about. Who’s worried? If you were to worry, that would make the economy second-guess itself and grow agitated. Don’t worry about the economy. It’s fine. Worry about the Space Command.

Second, if there are any problems with the economy (there aren’t, but if there were), they would have nothing to do with the president. The last thing that would possibly impact the economy are his trade policies. It is “badly run and weak companies,” as he wisely clarified on Twitter.

Third, if there were to be any kind of downturn (not necessarily a bad thing, at hotels, people pay for such a service!), there is a plan. The plan is for it to be, as Mick Mulvaney told a gathering of donors last week, “moderate and short.”

This plan is without flaw, and, indeed, is the approach the administration is taking to all forms of crisis. That is, I am pleased to report, why there are currently no crises whatsoever.

Consider, for instance, the new rollback of methane regulations — even over the objections of people in the affected industries. A similar, ingenious philosophy is being applied here. To try to limit the amount of methane released into the earth’s atmosphere would send the earth a message that we thought it might be getting to the point where additional methane and CO2 could be dangerous to the planet, and that realization might cause the earth to panic, hyperventilate and destroy all human life.

Nothing depresses a planet so much as the suggestion that its continued health is hanging by a very fragile thread. The last thing we would want the earth to do is think there was a problem. If we were to take any steps that made it look as though we were aware of a problem and were addressing it, well, that would be the end, for all of us. No, we must keep it in a state of blissful ignorance.

Indeed, we have taken this attitude broadly in all areas of our lives. Take health care, for instance. If you do not have a plan that allows for bad things to happen, you will be amazed, for instance, how many fewer times you will visit the doctor and how much less prescription medicine you will obtain! Probably this is because you are healthier.

Similarly, imagine what might happen if we were to make any effort to regulate guns. If guns knew we were thinking of regulating them, why, something terrible might happen in America, on a regular basis, even.

This is why we are not even contemplating a plan for removing bedbugs should they ever come to the Doral resort. If you devised a plan to remove them, then for that plan to work bedbugs would have to show up in the first place — simply unthinkable!

We must stand firm in our refusal to plan for anything but good outcomes.

The second you make a plan for something bad to happen, you may as well be sending it an engraved invitation. If we make any plans that will invite people to see us as not confident, and then the bears of the economy will fall upon us and destroy us. Oh no, I have mentioned them! Now they will hear us.

No. Our plan for if the economy is ʙᴀᴅ (shh, not so loud, you must not frighten the economy) is for it not to be ʙᴀᴅ. If we have a ʀᴇᴄᴇssɪᴏɴ (hush), our plan is for it not to be the bad kind, and for it to leave quickly.

Umbrellas invite rain. Safety harnesses inspire people to drop from great heights. Do not get me started on what helmets do.

This is why the Titanic brought so few lifeboats on board. To bring too many is to imply that a disaster might happen, in which case such lifeboats might be needed and might lead the ship to lose confidence in itself and capsize. This would have been disastrous!

The last thing we need is to invite disaster.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Trump’s lost summer: Aides claim victory, but others see incompetence and intolerance"

Spoiler

When President Trump presided over the battle tanks and fighter jets, the fireworks and adoring fans on July 4, he couldn’t have known that the militaristic “Salute to America” — as well to himself — would end up as the apparent pinnacle of the season.

What followed was what some Trump advisers and allies characterize as a lost summer defined by self-inflicted controversies and squandered opportunities. Trump leveled racist attacks against four congresswomen of color dubbed “the Squad.” He derided the majority-black city of Baltimore as “rat and rodent infested.” His anti-immigrant rhetoric was echoed in a missive that authorities believe a mass shooting suspect posted. His visits to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso following gun massacres in those cities served to divide rather than heal.

Trump’s economy also began to falter, with the markets ping-ponging based on the president’s erratic behavior. His trade war with China grew more acrimonious. His whipsaw diplomacy at the Group of Seven summit left allies uncertain about American leadership. The president returned from his visit to France in a sour mood, frustrated by what he felt was unfairly negative news coverage of his trip.

The two months between Independence Day and Labor Day offered a fresh and vivid portrait of the president as seen by Trump’s critics — incompetent, indecisive, intolerant and ineffective. 

White House officials promote the summer of 2019 as one of historic achievement for Trump, offering up a list of more than two dozen accomplishments. But privately, many of the president’s advisers and outside allies bemoan what they consider to be a period of missed opportunity and self-sabotage. 

In the final lull before the 2020 campaign starts to intensify this fall, Trump could have worked strategically to solidify his position and broaden his appeal. Instead, his words and actions this summer served to further divide the country and to harden public opinion about the ever-polarizing president.

“You can’t fall off the floor,” said Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. “Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Before he was elected, we knew he grabbed women by the p-word and he was this political hand grenade. If you hate Trump, you hate Trump; if you love Trump, you love Trump.”

Castellanos said that some of the chaos of the summer is mere Washington “kerfuffle,” but what could have lasting impact “is not just the trade war, but a cold war with China and the uncertainty that may well impair economic growth going into November 2020.”

“That’s what we’ll remember from the long, hot summer of 2019,” Castellanos concluded. 

Trump had some victories. In addition to his Independence Day celebration, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s July 24 testimony before two House committees did not have the impact that many Democrats desired, as Mueller offered no new damning evidence against the president. And last Thursday, the Justice Department’s inspector general found that former FBI director James B. Comey — a frequent target of Trump’s ire — had violated FBI policies in his handling of memos that detailed his controversial interactions with the president.

Asked about Trump’s summer, the White House offered a detailed, 26-point list of what officials characterized as key successes. The highlight reel ranged from the highly specific (meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and imposing more sanctions on Iran and Venezuela) to the vague (releasing a strategy that “aims to increase women’s leadership in efforts to prevent conflict and promote security”). 

“I don’t know how anyone could see this summer as anything but successful with the president continuing to deliver on his promises to the American people despite the negative news coverage of this administration,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman. “President Trump has accomplished more at this point in his first term than any president in history and his policies are building a safer, stronger and more secure America.” 

But some White House aides and outside Trump allies offer a grimmer view, describing an administration in which the president has crashed through the remaining guard rails. The chief of staff is still in an “acting” role and jobs that multiple aides once handled are now being filled by fewer staffers, and the president and his team failed to drive a sustained message or capitalize on what they view as winnable fights on the economy and immigration. 

A Republican operative in frequent touch with the White House described the mood from the “staff guys and gals” as one of weariness. “Exhaustion, fatigue, wake us when it’s over,” said the operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to summarize the sentiment of private conversations. “They’re just tired.”

Deere rejected the suggestion that the White House staff is flagging. “Yes, the days are long, but we are doing an incredible amount of work benefiting the American people under the leadership of this president,” Deere said. “I just don’t see people who are exhausted or not able to get the job done.”

Summer, when Congress adjourns for the month of August, traditionally has been a period in which presidents try to take advantage of the relative quiet to set an agenda and drive a favorable media narrative. Some of Trump’s allies lament that he did not seize this opportunity to lay a foundation for his 2020 campaign. 

“Trump squandered a summer of opportunity to enhance his reelection campaign,” Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor and chief executive of Canary, a drilling services company, wrote in an email. “While Democrats are divided and focused on their own primary, President Trump could have focused on solving the trade war, a genuine infrastructure plan or a decisive foreign policy victory. Instead, he fanned the flames of the trade war, attacked Baltimore, ‘the squad’ and the Federal Reserve, and failed to add a cornerstone achievement to his 2020 election credentials.”

Eberhart concluded: “As a Republican, all you can do is hope it doesn’t end in a wreck.”

But others point out that by virtue of his unconventional style, Trump is capable of seizing the media spotlight whenever he chooses, regardless of whether Congress is in session. The president, they added, is someone who thrives amid havoc and this summer did not feel demonstrably different from other periods of his presidency. 

“Normally a president’s numbers go up in August because they have the playing field to themselves and you don’t have all these little Chihuahuas nipping at your heels from Congress, but Trump has always marched to his own tune,” said Scott Reed, senior political strategist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

It is unclear whether Trump will pay a political price for his summertime controversies. A Washington Post average of seven nationally representative polls in August finds Trump’s approval rating at 41 percent, down slightly from a June average of 43 percent in those same polls. 

Trump is not the first president to falter in the summer before his reelection campaign. Former president Barack Obama had a difficult summer in 2011, thanks to a debt ceiling showdown with congressional Republicans, before rebounding to win a second term in 2012. Former president George W. Bush, buffeted by the unending war in Iraq, started to slump in the summer of 2003, although he went on to win handily in 2004. 

Trump stoked weeks of racial animus beginning July 14 with his tweet that four congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Three of the congresswomen were born in the United States and all four members are U.S. citizens.

On July 27 he attacked Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, one of the highest-ranking black Democrats in Congress, and called his Baltimore district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

The first weekend of August, two mass shootings in less than 24 hours — one in El Paso, the other in Dayton — provided another test for the president. In El Paso, 22 people were killed in and near a Walmart near the U.S.-Mexico border after police believe the alleged gunman posted a statement online warning of a “Hispanic invasion” and mimicking some of Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about immigrants.

The president generated more controversy the week after the massacres when he visited the two cities but appeared insufficiently empathetic to many. Following his stop in Dayton, he attacked the city’s mayor, Nan Whaley, and Ohio’s Democratic senator, Sherrod Brown. And in El Paso, he inserted himself into the tragedy by bragging about his crowd size in comparison to Beto O’Rourke — a Democratic candidate for president who had previously represented El Paso in Congress — and flashing a thumbs-up in photos with shooting victims.

Many Democrats had hoped Trump might use the moment to pursue universal background checks and other measures, but that prospect now seems increasingly unlikely after the president backed down under pressure from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights supporters. After another mass shooting in west Texas Saturday that killed seven people, Trump said the event “really hasn’t changed anything.”

Whaley, in an interview, described Trump’s entire visit to Dayton as “bizarre.”

“He thought it should be all about him and not about the victims and the people who lost their lives, and that’s where the focus has been for us here,” Whaley said. “I’d prefer him to just come in, show some sort of empathy and just be honest and say, ‘I’m not going to do anything because the guys at the NRA own me.’”

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D), whose district includes El Paso, was also critical of Trump’s visit, saying it left her and many in her community disappointed. 

“It was a moment that could have been transformative and instead it was a moment that was not just squandered but a moment that left many people in my community, myself included, feeling like we didn’t understand how he could ruin such a profound moment of grief,” Escobar said in an interview.

 The congresswoman added, “The president of the United States has dehumanized people of color and immigrants. . . . He has an obligation to rehumanize. It takes more than showing up. It takes a dialogue with the community. It takes true remorse.”

 

[Howl]

Rufous Reindeer, Rick Wilson is on a roll today. Brutality in service of truth. 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by Howl

[samurai_sarah]

17 hours ago, Dandruff said:

He reminds me of some of the folks I used to see long ago engaging in heated conversation with lamp posts.

 

I swear my last altercation with a lamppost was more edifying than anything that Trump has ever said. It jumped out in front of me, in the dark, while I was battling allergies. I demanded to know what it was doing there. It stoically didn't answer. I gave it a kick (I can't be held responsible for what I do when I can barely see or breathe), it didn't move. It serenely stood above it all and continued doing its job, regardless of class, gender, colour, nationality or creed.

I can respect that. That's one good lamppost. Better than most politicians I have come across!

Edited September 2, 2019 by samurai_sarah
wrong word

[fraurosena]

It's really hard to keep up with all of the lies and also keeping them straight.

 

[Becky]

17 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

It's really hard to keep up with all of the lies and also keeping them straight.

 

Ninety-leven, twelveteen, covfefe....

Edited September 2, 2019 by samurai_sarah
Changed to edit quotes

[GreyhoundFan]