Trump 48: Nobody Likes Me

[GreyhoundFan]

Interesting thread:

The rest is under the spoiler:

Spoiler

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This ticks me off: "White House lawn, Rose Garden being re-sod after damage from GOP convention"

Spoiler

President Trump’s reelection campaign is paying to replace sod on the White House South Lawn and in the Rose Garden after damage to the greenery late last month from large crowds and heavy equipment used for Republican National Convention festivities, White House and campaign officials said Tuesday.

Trump’s unprecedented decision to stage overtly political events on public property — which drew complaints that the Trumps were using “the people’s house” for personal gain — continues to reverberate nearly two weeks later, as work crews re-sod the lawn and make other repairs.

On Aug. 27, Trump delivered his address formally accepting the Republican nomination on the South Lawn before an estimated 1,500 supporters seated on chairs. The president spoke from an enormous stage built in front of the South Portico of the White House. It was flanked by massive television screens and illuminated by scores of hulking spotlights — all particularly heavy equipment to position on grass.

Two nights earlier, first lady Melania Trump delivered her convention address in the newly reconstructed Rose Garden, with dozens of supporters seated in chairs. Turf was laid atop the grass as a protective measure, according to one White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because aides were not authorized to discuss some details.

“The sod is being replaced at no cost to taxpayers,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. “Additionally, there has been other planned infrastructure work taking place on the south grounds.”

A Trump campaign official confirmed that the sod replacement was being paid for with campaign funds.

The construction underway includes other repairs and improvements that were already in the planning stages or under consideration, said a White House official.

CNN first reported some aspects of the Rose Garden work.

The work has been ongoing for several days and has interrupted the regular rhythms at the White House. The president has been transported to Joint Base Andrews for recent flights via motorcade rather than by helicopter because Marine One cannot land on the South Lawn during the construction and repairs.

In addition, White House staff members have kept journalists covering events there from seeing the work underway in the Rose Garden and on the South Lawn by using alternate venues. The president typically holds outdoor news conferences in the Rose Garden, but he held Monday’s gathering with reporters instead in the North Portico of the White House. It was the first time in recent memory that the president staged a news conference on the front steps of the residence facing Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Trump campaign and Melania Trump’s office declined to comment on the record. The National Park Service did not respond to requests for comment.

Officials did not detail how much the repairs would cost.

A White House official said that it was not uncommon in this administration, as well as previous ones, to undertake repairs to the South Lawn following large events, such as the annual Easter Egg Roll or Fourth of July fireworks.

But the current construction highlights the blatant manner in which Trump used the trappings of the presidency for purely political purposes in staging the Republican convention at the White House — a move that outraged government ethics experts, as well as many Democrats.

In August, Melania Trump unveiled the redesigned Rose Garden. The first lady took on the Rose Garden renovation as a personal project, along with revamping the White House tennis pavilion.

 

[IrishCarrie]

Very good article in The Irish Times today by Michael McDowell, who is a barrister and senator in Ireland and previously served as Minister for Justice and Attorney General. I don't know how to get a full article on here but a lot of it is background filler that we all know anyway.

I just love that there's a headline today in Ireland's most reputable newspaper  that says "TRUMP IS A MORAL MONSTER AND A DANGER TO HUMANITY" ?

Favourite paragraphs include: 

"Far from Making America Great Again (MAGA), we now have MAHA, (Make America Hate Again). The sight of rival militias – black and white – toting assault rifles is scary. And it is exactly what the Trump playbook needs.

The idea that Joe Biden is an existential threat to the American way of life is a grotesque lie. The idea that giving every American some access to decent healthcare is a route to establishing “death committees” as part of big government is another grotesque distortion. But repeat such a lie sufficiently often and it will gain traction. The idea that Trump is a defender of Christianity is absurd but evangelicals still believe it."

And another: 

"The recent book published by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, identified one thing – that his own sister, a retired federal judge, believed the president was “cruel”. While it was perhaps a little underhand for Mary Trump to secretly record Maryanne Trump Barry passing that judgment on her brother, it was a telling and undeniable truth. Donald Trump is a cruel sociopath. He is erratic, egotistical, cynical and ruthless. He is devoid of a working moral core and conscience. Even if you discount by half Michael Cohen’s kiss-and-tell account of his doings with Trump, you are still left with a clear picture of a moral monster.

The world has been warned about the nature of the man. We can only hope that there remains in the hearts of sufficiently many decent Americans the elementary Christian impulse towards kindness and aversion to cruelty, cynicism and hatred."

Says it all, really...

[GreyhoundFan]

"A GOP county chair asked Trump to wear a mask to his rally. Instead, Trump mocked pandemic restrictions."

Spoiler

Hours before President Trump arrived in Winston-Salem, N.C., for a campaign rally on Tuesday, the county’s top Republican official issued a warning: The president better be wearing a mask.

“It’s been ordered by the governor,” David Plyler, a Trump supporter and GOP chair of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, told the Winston-Salem Journal. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in North Carolina, do as the governor says.”

But when the president emerged Tuesday evening to address a cheering group of supporters, his face was fully exposed, a likely violation of the state’s coronavirus rules.

The same was true of many of the supporters behind his podium, especially those high up in the stands and out of view. And in fact, the whole event appears to have defied restrictions from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who has limited outdoor mass gatherings at 50 people under the state’s current phase of reopening.

Trump jeered that crowd cap too, suggesting that his supporters received less leeway than the widespread demonstrations for racial justice that have swept the nation this summer, often bringing hundreds of people in proximity on city streets.

“We call you peaceful protesters, you know why?” Trump told his supporters, who were tightly packed into several bleachers erected near Smith Reynolds Airport. “Because they have rules in these Democrat-run states that if you’re campaigning, you cannot have more than five people. They did that for me.”

Both his words and the optics of his rally in Winston-Salem on Tuesday point to a growing rift in the 2020 campaign season: As Democratic nominee Joe Biden quietly holds small campaign events with only a few dozen people, the president has instead orchestrated loud, in-person gatherings that flout local health rules.

t is another sign of the long shadow the coronavirus pandemic has cast over this year’s presidential election. The virus, which has infected nearly 6.3 million Americans and killed at least 186,000, has become a signature talking point for Trump as he insists on “The Great American Comeback” and asserts that a vaccine could be coming as soon as Election Day.

For months, the president ridiculed face masks and refused to appear in public with one on, until he suddenly changed course in July and tweeted a photo of himself with his face covered, calling it a “patriotic” act. But after mocking Biden for wearing a mask and insisting that reporters remove theirs while asking him questions during a news conference, Trump on Tuesday evening appeared to make a full, unabashed return to his previous stance on the coverings.

Trump’s campaign told CNN that masks and hand sanitizer would be provided for Winston-Salem rally attendees, who would be screened before the event with temperature checks. Anyone signing up for a ticket was also required to acknowledge the possibility of infection, as has been true of other audiences on the campaign trail.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested that Trump did not need to wear a mask because he is tested daily.

“When you wear a mask, it’s really for others’ protection, not for your own protection,” Meadows told reporters.

Still, Plyler, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners chair, said that the president needed to stop politicizing the issue and instead lead the country on the single prevention measure that has shown to be most effective in curbing the spread of the virus.

“The president of the United States sets the example for everybody else,” Plyler told CNN. “You can hear it: if the president of the United States says I don’t have to wear it, I’m not going to wear it. And I can guarantee you that will be done.”

Plyler also pointed to the situation in North Carolina as a sign of the need for Cooper’s face mask mandate. Although the state has moved to “Phase 2.5” of reopening, with gyms and playgrounds allowed to reopen under certain conditions, 6,000 people are infected in Forsyth County, he said. The county has had 86 covid-19 fatalities.

“We’ve got the virus here. The virus doesn’t give a rip whether it’s the president or God Almighty himself. It’s going to find its place,” he told CNN. “And the way we have to figure this, at least in my mind, is that we all have to be careful about it.”

A proud Trump supporter, Plyler said he would have tried to attend the rally if he had not scheduled a medical procedure well in advance. And looking ahead to other rallies, he offered a practical suggestion for the campaign.

“You know what would be neat?” he said. “If before he got off the plane if he gave everybody a box of Make America Great Again masks.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

He's so ugly. If someone mispronounced his name, either accidentally or on purpose, he'd have a hissy fit.

 

[fraurosena]

Corruption complete.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Interesting: "What Bob Woodward’s book tells us about Trump"

Spoiler

It is hardly surprising when President Trump says something that turns out not to be true.

What has not always been clear, however, is what drives him to lie so constantly. Is it because he’s ignorant? Or because he is deluded? Or simply that he is malevolent? The possibilities are not necessarily exclusive of one another.

Now, thanks to The Post’s Bob Woodward, we have learned the answer with regard to what history is likely to rank as perhaps the most consequential of all the falsehoods that Trump has uttered.

In his soon-to-be-released book, “Rage,” Woodward reveals that Trump intentionally played down the threat from covid-19, which has killed at least 186,000 Americans since February and dealt a gut punch to the economy.

At a time when the president was assuring the country that this virus was no more serious than ordinary flu, and that his administration had the situation under control, he was telling Woodward a far different story.

On Feb. 7, the president called Woodward and told him that the coronavirus was “deadly stuff.”

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a Feb. 7 call. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”

In another interview, on March 19, Trump admitted to Woodward that he deliberately lied about the danger to the public.

“I think, Bob, really, to be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” the president said.

These are not a leak from anonymous sources. These are the president’s own words. You can hear them on Woodward’s tape.

Trump had been apprised of the truth as far back as Jan. 28, when he was briefed during a top-secret session in the Oval Office. At that point, the outbreak had not spread widely beyond China.

“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien told Trump, according to Woodward’s reporting. “This is going to be the roughest thing you face.”

Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, had been speaking to contacts in China and warned the president that he could be facing a health emergency as bad as the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

But Trump continued to sell a far different line in public. On Feb. 10 — three days after he had told Woodward that covid-19 was “deadly stuff” — he predicted the virus would disappear by April: “When it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”

And on Feb. 26, shortly after the first cases were reported in this country, he blithely assured us: “We’re going to be pretty soon at only five people. And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. So we’ve had very good luck.”

The consequences of Trump’s refusal to be straight with the country, we now know, have been tragic.

Rather than taking cautionary measures that could have spared immeasurable suffering, such as assuring that adequate testing was available, the president denied what he knew was true. Or, as he so memorably put it at a news conference in March: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

In that case, however, Trump was telling us something fundamental about himself. Those six words are both the most fitting epitaph for his presidency, and the central reason that Americans should put an end to it when they go to the polls in November.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Off to say more prayers that RBG can hold on...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

More like five seconds...

[GreyhoundFan]

Go, Claire, go!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Amen.

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Go, Claire, go!

 

To us, he's stupid. To his followers, they won't know about it because it won't be on FOX news, or he'll be the most transparent and truthful president ever. Seriously, I know these people. Sadly, a close friend is a Trumphumper and would say Trump is the greatest President ever, even if Trump came to his house and killed his beloved cat and torched his beloved game collection. It's like their brains have been eaten by Zombies.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, Audrey2 said:

Sadly, a close friend is a Trumphumper and would say Trump is the greatest President ever, even if Trump came to his house and killed his beloved cat and torched his beloved game collection. It's like their brains have been eaten by Zombies.

Trump could start performing abortions in the Rose Garden and the majority of the so-called pro-lifers would clap and cheer.

[fraurosena]

This was one of the first thoughts I had too.

If he waited releasing this knowledge for the publication of his book in order to hype up publicity for it, then that is utterly reprehensible.

[fraurosena]

Another reason for Trump to be angry and afraid. Expect rage tweets soon.

 

[Becky]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Off to say more prayers that RBG can hold on...

 

The thought of smarmy Ted Cruz on the supreme court makes me want to vomit.  ?

[front hugs > duggs]

2 hours ago, Becky said:

The thought of smarmy Ted Cruz on the supreme court makes me want to vomit.  ?

Even my non-US-citizen husband heard that name yesterday and groaned loudly. It made me so proud to be married to him lol.

[GreyhoundFan]

Don't read until you take some powerful anti-nausea medication:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[JMarie]

Trump just stopped talking. Lots of words jumbled together, zero coherence. H1N1. The NFL. Hunter Biden. Phony witch hunts. Covid is China's fault. We're supplying the whole world with ventilators. Bob Woodward should have told everyone Trump was downplaying Covid. He discussed what he watched on tv last night. FISA. 

The crap at the bottom of my purse is more organized than that speech.

Edited September 10, 2020 by JMarie
spelling

[fraurosena]

3 minutes ago, JMarie said:

Bob Woodward should have told everyone Trump was downplaying Covid.

Gee, if only Bob had said Trump was downplaying covid! Because that would have compelled Trump to contradict him and he would have been forced to adequately respond to the pandemic. 

[fraurosena]

He's freely admitting that he watches tv almost non-stop, and that Faux is his primary source of information. 

 

[smittykins]

21 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Off to say more prayers that RBG can hold on...

 

Personally, I’d rather have a Muppet on the Supreme Court.

[fraurosena]

Biden, are you paying attention?

 

13 minutes ago, smittykins said:

Personally, I’d rather have a Muppet on the Supreme Court.

Statler and Waldorf would have my vote!

[JMarie]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

He's freely admitting that he watches tv almost non-stop, and that Faux is his primary source of information. 

 

I'm shocked he didn't mention he was interviewed by Hannity last night.