President Donald Trump: The Thread

[StrangeSox]

Wapo story on the Trump campaigns vetting or complete lack thereof.

 

'Anyone . . . with a pulse’: How a Russia-friendly adviser found his way into the Trump campaign

 

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/politics/gre...tana/index.html

 

 

If Gianforte loses, he -- and the story -- disappear. Republicans would immediately blame his last-minute implosion for the defeat, allowing them to avoid the idea that the race should be properly read as a national referendum on Trump and the recently-passed American Health Care Act. (Worth noting: Before Gianforte's choke-slam on Jacobs, the race had been tightening due to the corroding national environment for Republicans.)

 

Now, consider what happens if Gianforte wins. Some time between now and June 7, he will have to appear in court to face the assault charge. And based on the audio provided by Jacobs as well as the eyewitness reports from a Fox News crew, it's hard to see how he doesn't get convicted. (Nota bene: I am not a lawyer.)

 

What do Republicans do then? Every member of leadership will be asked, daily, whether seating Gianforte represents a willingness to look the other way. And for a party already struggling with branding issues, that's not the sort of story House Republicans need bouncing around Washington.

 

If they don't seat Gianforte, then what? Can they force him to resign? And would that mean -- as I suspect it would -- another special election where the Democratic nominee, Rob Quist, would almost certainly run and might well start as the front-runner due to the controversy surrounding Gianforte?

 

Gianforte losing is a bad story for national Republicans. Gianforte winning might well be a worse one.

[RockRaines]

Well duh. Europe is not going to be happy with us now being aligned with Russia. We are breaking huge trends.

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/politics/tru...ture/index.html

 

Trump "lecture" seen as unsettling NATO alliance (SHOCKER!!!)

 

 

Had it all backwards, thought the Muslim speech in S.A. would be the unsettling one and that he'd learned his lessons on NATO by now (not to mention the Russian probe and McMaster/Mattis/Tillerson hammering him on the importance of Europe, Cohn of Goldman Sachs and Dina Powell, too).

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/politics/mon...ults/index.html

 

Quist is currently leading by 1.5% with 26% counted (I'm assuming that's NOT including the plethora of mail-in ballots, because if that's the case, it's hard to see Quist losing the actual vote that takes place today)

 

Libertarian candidate pulling 5.9%, so his votes definitely are having an impact as well on the overall race due to its closeness.

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[RockRaines]

If you vote for that guy, even looking at his policies, you suck.

[Soxbadger]

Things can change as the votes today will be the last ones counted but as of now the expecation is Quist will lose but do better than previous democrats.

[RockRaines]

Things can change as the votes today will be the last ones counted but as of now the expecation is Quist will lose but do better than previous democrats.

Once again showing how s***ty a two party system is. I hate it so much.

 

I'm running for local office this fall and I really believe at this point in our lives with technology we can represent the people so much better.

[caulfield12]

http://billingsgazette.com/news/government...7e77646c61.html

How can the US restore civility? This panel has some ideas.

 

 

President Trump’s war on the press is dangerous. He’s discrediting a profession he fears

http://www.poynter.org/2017/president-trum...e-fears/461352/

 

 

 

Make no mistake: Donald Trump has fueled violence against journalists | Richard Wolffe

https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-mistake-donal...-161641383.html

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[NorthSideSox72]

Obviously, someone who did what Gianforte did should not be in office. But before people get in an uproar about the results, remember that something like 70% of the votes for the election were ALREADY CAST when it happened. So the incident ends up not being able to be the swing moment it would have been if it was all just voting day only. That also means that it doesn't mean a lot, good or bad, for either party as any kind of waterloo moment or the like.

 

[Kyyle23]

https://twitter.com/politics_pr/status/867821900545888256

 

A lot of stifled laughs and looks of "what the hell?" going on right here

[NorthSideSox72]

s***, if I am Trump's administration and watching how everything is covered so differently. I'd be tempted to mimic the same Obama administration opacity in an attempt to stifle some of this stuff. Let's see if Trump's administration could use the Espionage Act more than every administration before him combined like Obama's admin did.

 

Here's where you lose me.

 

If you want to say that Bush and Obama were covered "differently" in some intentional way, then I think you can find that. I'd say that the mainstream national media as a whole leans slightly left, so yeah there is some differentiation, though I think it's not nearly as large a gap as Fox News would like you to believe.

 

But Trump? I mean, put simply, the main reason the press has been so negative on him is that HE'S BEEN TERRIBLE AT HIS JOB. And I don't mean little stuff, or subjective policy - I mean complete, utter incompetence. How on earth can you spend much time reporting positives with this guy? What has he actually accomplished, versus the myriad stupidity coming from this administration?

 

Does the press also dislike Trump, and might that cause them to be even more negative than truly unbiased? Yes! But that's like a rounding error compared to the simple fact that this administration has been a walking disaster.

 

[caulfield12]

"Let's discuss Tom Perez and his cussing crusade that he's been giving at so many different fundraisers. Let's talk for a moment about the California Democrat convention ... where you had a number of Democrats on stage screaming 'expletive Trump' and 'expletive Republicans.'"

 

She said Democrats and the mainstream media then want to turn around and accuse Trump and those on the right of fomenting violence.

 

Loesch said that everyday Americans see this double-standard, and they are tired of it.

 

"We're tired of being lied about, we're tired of being manipulated, and we're tired of them excusing awful things done to us in the name of partisan ideology," Loesch said. "This is the point we are at because people hate media this badly."

 

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/05/25/dana...porter?vid=auto

[caulfield12]

By George Melloan

May 25, 2017 7:09 p.m. ET

A lobbyist friend who visited Capitol Hill recently came away horrified. “I now am ready to believe that the partisanship is so unhinged that it’s a threat to the Republic,” she writes in an email.

 

This Washington hysteria comes at a time of full employment, booming stocks, relative peace and technological marvels like an electronic robot named Alexa who fetches and plays for you songs of your choice. What’s the fuss about?

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-faces-th...lass-1495753759

Trump Faces the Fury of a Scorned Ruling Class

Edited May 26, 2017 by caulfield12

[StrangeSox]

[caulfield12]

A former speechwriter for George W. Bush and current Washington Post columnist is criticizing conservative media figures for promoting a conspiracy theory about the death of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who was shot and killed last summer.

 

Michael Gerson, who served as Bush’s top speechwriter from 2001 through 2006, argues in a column published by the Post on Thursday that the “failure of decency” by popular right-wing personalities like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh indicates deeper problems within the conservative movement.

 

“This is a concrete example of the mainstreaming of destructive craziness,” Gerson writes.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-bush-spee...-224624086.html

 

 

 

 

But this failure of decency is also politically symbolic. Who is the politician who legitimized conspiracy thinking at the highest level? Who raised the possibility that Ted Cruz’s father might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Who hinted that Hillary Clinton might have been involved in the death of Vince Foster, or that unnamed liberals might have killed Justice Antonin Scalia? Who not only questioned President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, but raised the prospect of the murder of a Hawaiian state official in a coverup? “How amazing,” Trump tweeted in 2013, “the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived.”

 

We have a president charged with maintaining public health who asserts that the vaccination schedule is a dangerous scam of greedy doctors. We have a president charged with representing all Americans who has falsely accused thousands of Muslims of celebrating in the streets following the 9/11 attacks.

 

Those conservatives who believe that the confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch is sufficient justification for the Trump presidency are ignoring Trump’s psychic and moral destruction of the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Clinton, with a small number of changed votes, would have defeated Republicans. But Trump is doing a kind of harm beyond anything Clinton could have done. He is changing the party’s most basic moral and political orientations. He is shaping conservatism in his image and ensuring an eventual defeat more complete, and an eventual exile more prolonged, than Democrats could have dreamed.

 

The conservative mind, in some very visible cases, has become diseased. The movement has been seized by a kind of discrediting madness, in which conspiracy delusions figure prominently. Institutions and individuals that once served an important ideological role, providing a balance to media bias, are discrediting themselves in crucial ways. With the blessings of a president, they have abandoned the normal constraints of reason and compassion. They have allowed political polarization to reach their hearts, and harden them. They have allowed polarization to dominate their minds, and empty them.

 

Conspiracy theories often involve a kind of dehumanization. Human tragedy is made secondary — something to be exploited rather than mourned. The narrative of conspiracy takes precedence over the meaning of a life and the suffering of a family. A human being is made into an ideological prop and used on someone else’s stage. As the Rich family has attested, the pain inflicted is quite real.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the...m=.d57bf707371f

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dick Allen]

So according to WaPo, Kushner wanted a "secret" communication challenge set up with Russia.

 

Nothing to see here....

Of course not. Fake news. It was interesting that President Jared "forgot" to put his Meetings with Russian officials on his security clearance form. Seems A recurring theme in the administration . He did remember when the failing NYT who only tells lies reported it.

 

They are probably going to eventually use the phony Obama wiretapped them claim as a reason They needed these secret communication.

Edited May 27, 2017 by Dick Allen

[caulfield12]

Duterte or Trump quotes...?

 

 

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has sought to reassure soldiers who might be accused of committing abuses under martial law and jokingly said that if any of them were to rape three women, he would personally claim responsibility for it.

 

Duterte is notorious for comments often deemed offensive and made the remark as a joke, reiterating that only he would be liable for any backlash over military rule on southern Mindanao island. He has, however, said he would not tolerate abuses.

 

"If you go down, I go down. But for this martial law and the consequences of martial law and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible, just do your job I will take care of the rest," Duterte said on Friday, according to a president's office transcript.

 

"I'll imprison you myself," he said, referring to any soldiers who commit violations, then he joked: "If you had raped three, I will admit it, that's on me."

 

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/philippines-dute...-054235089.html

[caulfield12]

Texas governor Abbott draws (some) criticism for jokes about shooting journalists

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-governor-d...-001214260.html

 

The GOP is really writing their own obits for 2018/20. These attack ads are writing themselves. Basically, whenever they are in charge, it lasts about two years and then all comes crashing down....see 1994 (Gingrich Revolution) and the Bush "compassionate conservative" Revolution.

 

This might be the best way to finally get single payer healthcare, Medicare for all. Then you actually might get 3% growth if you get the insurance industry out of the equation.

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[Dick Allen]

The coal miners aren't going to be happy. Natural gas is cleaner? Who knew?

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/white-house-...8--finance.html

[caulfield12]

Making America Great Again...???

 

(CNN)Two men were fatally stabbed Friday on a crowded commuter train in Portland, Oregon, when they confronted a passenger who was "yelling a gamut of anti-Muslim and anti-everything slurs," a police spokesman said.

 

The suspect may have been targeting two girls who were described as Muslim. One of them was wearing a hijab, Portland police Sgt. Pete Simpson told CNN.

 

"We have not been able to find those girls to verify that," Simpson said.

 

Police are considering the man's remarks as hate speech, the department said in a statement.

 

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.s...t2box_targeted_

More detailed article...

 

"In the midst of his ranting and raving, some people approached him and appeared to try to intervene with his behavior and some of the people that he was yelling at," Simpson said. "They were attacked viciously."

 

One good Samaritan died at the scene and another at the hospital, he said. The third victim was undergoing evaluation, but didn't suffer life-threatening wounds, he said.

 

"These were folks just riding the train and unfortunately got caught up in this," he said.

 

It's not clear why the man was yelling, Simpson said.

 

"He was talking about a lot of different things, not just specifically anti-Muslim," Simpson said.

 

"We don't know if he's got mental health issues," Simpson said. "We don't know if he's under the influence of drugs or alcohol or all of the above."

 

The FBI said it's "offering any resource that may assist Portland Police in their investigation" and will "determine whether there is any potential federal violation."

 

Evelin Hernandez, a 38-year-old Clackamas resident, said she was on the train when the man began making racist remarks to the young women. Some men tried to quiet him, she said, and he stabbed them.

 

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.s...t2box_targeted_

 

"I don't blame Donald Trump — I don't think he's a white supremacist," the author said.

 

But Zafar added that he believes the president's words on the campaign trail in 2016 policies such as his proposal to ban immigration and travel from six majority Muslim nations has nevertheless empowered those with fringe views.

 

"Clearly it's been festering and brewing," Zafar said. "And now with the election of President Trump those voices have felt some level of legitimacy."

 

The biggest problem, the author said, is that too few Americans personally know somebody of Islamic faith. Zafar pointed to a 2014 Pew Research study that found only 38 percent of U.S. residents know a Muslim.

 

"It's really hard to believe in that rhetoric and harbor ill will if they know someone in that demographic," he said. "If someone knew a Muslim, I don't think they would believe that rhetoric so easily."

 

 

 

Bizarro World. Bono and GW Bush team up, Trump is common enemy with budget cuts for AIDS/HIV potentially impacting a Bush pet program

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/bono-hangs-george...topstories.html

Edited May 27, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

President Trump enters the G7 summit in Sicily fresh off tense confrontations at a NATO meeting. The White House is in damage control mode over a report that Trump called Germans “very bad” and threatened to end German car sales in the U.S.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-deni...-040901876.html

[Dick Allen]

This is pretty funny

 

http://toofab.com/2017/05/26/jimmy-kimmel-...fourth-graders/

[caulfield12]

“The belief in shared values has been shattered by the Trump administration,” said Stephan Bierling, an expert on transatlantic relations at Germany’s University of Regensburg. “After the inauguration, everyone in Europe was hopeful that Trump would become more moderate and take into account the positions of the G-7 and of NATO. But the opposite has happened. It’s as if he is still trying to win a campaign.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/follow...m=.48092f0c4aae

 

 

100 8th graders refuse to meet/take a picture with Paul Ryan

http://www.teenvogue.com/story/eighth-grad...paul-ryan-photo

 

http://addictinginfo.com/2017/05/28/paul-r...with-him-video/

 

 

 

Steve Bannon has a new threat to confront: Deep State Saboteurs in the Federal Government

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-offi...-213833997.html

Edited May 30, 2017 by caulfield12