President Donald Trump: The Thread

[Chicago White Sox]

https://www.c-span.org/video/?429535-1/comm...happen&live

 

Yay, another DeVos hearing!!!

Lol...Patty Murray straight-up murdered DeVos in her opening remarks. I was waiting for a "I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul" to end it.

[caulfield12]

In addition to the new American Idea line, the company revealed the location of its first upper-tier Scion hotel, which will be in Cleveland, Mississippi. That brand, first announced last year, will feature "approximately 100 rooms, suites and extended-stay accommodations, a 6,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, a 5,000-square-foot event hall" and other amenities, according to a news release from the organization.

 

"This is real America," Eric Trump said. "And to be able to go in there and cater to them as well; I think that's a beautiful thing."

 

The brothers dismissed the idea that the hotel chain expansion could put a further spotlight on their father's continued influence in the business, and whether it amounts to making money from politics. The announcement of the expansion comes as the two brothers deepen their involvement with the Republican National Committee before the 2018 midterm elections, and continue to support their father's already up-and-running 2020 re-election campaign.

 

Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and his wife Lara huddled with GOP leaders at the RNC in Washington D.C., in late May to discuss strategy, and Donald Jr. has even campaigned for candidates in special election races including Montana's Rep.-elect Greg Gianforte. The headquarters of Trump's re-election campaign are stationed in Trump Tower just floors below the son's Trump Organization offices.

 

"It has nothing to do with politics," Donald Trump Jr. said of the new hotel line. "We're trying to make money off of a hotel brand that we feel there's an underserved market to. I think more companies could probably do better by being a little bit more patriotic."

 

We don't talk about the activities of the business. We don't talk about what we're doing in the business," Eric Trump said. "It doesn't blur the lines. You're allowed to show that. And remember, the president of the United States has zero conflicts of interest. Zero."

 

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trump-sons-expans...topstories.html

 

[caulfield12]

Nixon had a 24% approval rating when he left office. At the lowest points in GWB's presidency - including right before the '08 election - GWB held a 25% approval rating (all per Gallup). Voting and approval ratings based exclusively on political party are not some 21st Century phenomenon.

 

What's truly amazing is that Trump STILL has another 10-15% fall to catch those two. (Cue Carville's "It's the Economy, Stupid!" Line)

 

It might happen early next week in the fallout over the Comey testimony to Congress.

Edited June 6, 2017 by caulfield12

[illinilaw08]

"This is real America," Eric Trump said. "And to be able to go in there and cater to them as well; I think that's a beautiful thing."

 

It drives me insane when people say that. America is comprised of 50 states. By definition, all of it is "real America." The bolded is pandering to an ideal that wearing a flag on one's sleeve makes them more patriotic and better at being American than those fake Americans living in California.

[StrangeSox]

It drives me insane when people say that. America is comprised of 50 states. By definition, all of it is "real America." The bolded is pandering to an ideal that wearing a flag on one's sleeve makes them more patriotic and better at being American than those fake Americans living in California.

"Real America" are the parts of the country where hardly anyone lives and where the people who do live there rarely leave and live in monocultures, not the areas where tens of millions of Americans of all different backgrounds and beliefs live.

[Dick Allen]

If that is the real America and the Trumps are patriotic, why don't they all move there? Security will be a lot cheaper.

 

I'm guessing they don't want to live in what they would call the real America.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Dick Allen

[Dick Allen]

Pruitt said they have added about 50,000 coal mining jobs since the 4th quarter last year. That number is slightly off. They added 1,000. For all the importance these idiots are putting on coal, more people work at Disney World than are coal miners. Considering Trump saved millions of jobs and billions of dollars during his recent trip, maybe he can find the coal miners alternative employment.

Edited June 6, 2017 by Dick Allen

[southsider2k5]

Nixon had a 24% approval rating when he left office. At the lowest points in GWB's presidency - including right before the '08 election - GWB held a 25% approval rating (all per Gallup). Voting and approval ratings based exclusively on political party are not some 21st Century phenomenon.

 

Approval ratings aren't what I am getting at here. Even if someone disapproves of their "own" party candidate, they will typically still carry water for them when they compare them to the "other" party candidate. Hillary Clinton had some of the highest disapproval ratings in history, and entire wing of the party who blamed her for costing Bernie Sanders. But that wing sure as hell picked up the bucket and ran with it once it was Donald Trump they were running against.

[RockRaines]

Pruitt said they have added about 50,000 coal mining jobs since the 4th quarter last year. That number is slightly off. They added 1,000. For all the importance these idiots are putting on coal, more people work at Disney World than are coal miners. Considering Trump saved millions of jobs and billions of dollars during his recent trip, maybe he can find the coal miners alternative employment.

Arby's is a largest industry than coal. They are a joke

[StrangeSox]

The 27 Words Trump Wouldn’t Say

Here's the commitment the president refused to deliver at NATO headquarters.

 

“We face many threats, but I stand here before you with a clear message: the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance and to Article 5 is unwavering.”

[illinilaw08]

Approval ratings aren't what I am getting at here. Even if someone disapproves of their "own" party candidate, they will typically still carry water for them when they compare them to the "other" party candidate. Hillary Clinton had some of the highest disapproval ratings in history, and entire wing of the party who blamed her for costing Bernie Sanders. But that wing sure as hell picked up the bucket and ran with it once it was Donald Trump they were running against.

 

I'm not sure what you are getting at here. There were a lot of Sanders voters that stayed home, voted 3rd party, or even voted for Trump. And voters who identify as Democrats - even the ones who disliked Hillary Clinton - still recognized that Hillary Clinton was more likely to support policies that the average Democratic voter supported than Trump. Should those voters have stayed home?

 

On the other side, there was a pretty significant Never Trump component of the Republican Party... until the actual ballots were cast and Trump won the Presidency.

 

But why is this unique to the 21st Century?

[StrangeSox]

The country is more ideologically aligned with the parties than it was in the mid-20th, but we've been undergoing that realignment since Nixon and there was even stronger and more strongly enforced partisanship back in the heydays of machine politics in the 19th century.

[StrangeSox]

Some digusting bigotry right in our own backyards, a couple of Muslim girls at a Pepe's in Hickory Hills getting yelled at.

 

https://hatehurts.net/2017/06/06/disturbing...can-restaurant/

 

The incident took place Monday night (June 5th,) at Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant, in Hickory Hills, IL – a suburb of Chicago. According to Anthony, the girls were breaking their daily Ramadan fast at the restaurant – when the confrontation took place. The In the video, the harasser can be heard telling the girls “Get going, beat it! If you don’t like it in this country…”

 

One of the girls can be heard saying “This is our home too” – and as the confrontation escalated, the man can be seen aggressively getting up as the girls begin to exit the restaurant. As they are walking away – he refers to them as “camel-jacking motherf***ers,” along with other epithets.

[StrangeSox]

How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business

 

LIKE AUTUMN LEAVES, sponsored Cadillacs, Ferraris and Maseratis descend on the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, in September for the Eric Trump Foundation golf invitational. Year after year, the formula is consistent: 18 holes of perfectly trimmed fairways with a dose of Trumpian tackiness, including Hooters waitresses and cigar spreads, followed by a clubhouse dinner, dates encouraged. The crowd leans toward real estate insiders, family friends and C-list celebrities, such as former baseball slugger Darryl Strawberry and reality housewife (and bankruptcy-fraud felon) Teresa Giudice.

 

The real star of the day is Eric Trump, the president's second son and now the co-head of the Trump Organization, who has hosted this event for ten years on behalf of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He's done a ton of good: To date, he's directed more than $11 million there, the vast majority of it via this annual golf event. He has also helped raise another $5 million through events with other organizations.

 

The best part about all this, according to Eric Trump, is the charity's efficiency: Because he can get his family's golf course for free and have most of the other costs donated, virtually all the money contributed will go toward helping kids with cancer. "We get to use our assets 100% free of charge," Trump tells Forbes.

 

That's not the case. In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it's clear that the course wasn't free--that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament.

 

Additionally, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has come under previous scrutiny for self-dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake rather than those of charity, apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization.

 

And while donors to the Eric Trump Foundation were told their money was going to help sick kids, more than $500,000 was re-donated to other charities, many of which were connected to Trump family members or interests, including at least four groups that subsequently paid to hold golf tournaments at Trump courses.

Edited June 6, 2017 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

The Qatar situation was kicked off by fake news planted by Russian hackers.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/06/politics/rus...isis/index.html

 

 

[RockRaines]

The Qatar situation was kicked off by fake news planted by Russian hackers.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/06/politics/rus...isis/index.html

But CNN is fake news

[caulfield12]

It drives me insane when people say that. America is comprised of 50 states. By definition, all of it is "real America." The bolded is pandering to an ideal that wearing a flag on one's sleeve makes them more patriotic and better at being American than those fake Americans living in California.

 

64% of US GDP resides in counties Clinton won, despite the overall number of counties going to Trump 4-5x in number.

 

 

 

The article offered no citations or links to support its claims. However, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 3,141 counties in the United States. A slightly different version of the claim appeared to originate with Breitbart on 15 November 2016:

 

Claim: Donald Trump won an overwhelming 7.5 million popular vote victory in 3,084 of the country’s 3,141 counties or county equivalents in America’s heartland.

 

Fifty-five point seven million out of the 109.3 million Americans who cast their ballots in those counties voted for Trump, while only 48.1 million voted for Hillary Clinton, according to the latest county by county election results reported at Politico. The remaining 5.4 million voted for other candidates.

 

That article linked to a Politico story, but that article cited scattered results only in counties with noteworthy results (not a numerical tally by county). A map was attributed to a University of Michigan blog, which contrasted several different maps contrasting the election results as they’re generally shown with cartograms (which adjust for population density).

 

 

Misleading maps and distorted data led to an inaccurate rumor that Donald Trump won 3,084 of America's 3,141 counties.

http://www.snopes.com/trump-won-3084-of-31...clinton-won-57/

Edited June 6, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

The oil industry's most powerful lobbying group met on March 23 with President Trump's interior secretary (Ryan Zinke, who Gianforte will replace in Congress unless he assaults more reporters) at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. It also happened to be the same day the administration killed a rule that oil companies opposed.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/06/investing/...-api/index.html

 

Unfortunately real news despite it being CNN...

Edited June 6, 2017 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

But CNN is fake news

 

The problem for Russia now is sanctions will only be increased...their situation in Syria made more precarious Vis a VIs a future international (or European) coalition, and, when Trump is impeached or resigns, dealing with Pence, Mattis, McMaster and Dunford collectively will be much worse than had Hillary Clinton actually been elected. Beware what you wish for.

 

Not only that, but it's having the impact of solidifying NATO solidarity against Russia and unifying the EU nort to south, US ambivalence notwithstanding.

 

 

More bad (but unexpected) news for Trump...

 

Washington (CNN)In his much-anticipated congressional testimony on Thursday, fired FBI Director James Comey will dispute President Donald Trump's blanket claim that he was told he was not under investigation multiple times, according to sources familiar with Comey's thinking.

 

Rather, one source said that Comey is expected to tell senators that he never assured Trump he was not under investigation, because such assurances would have been improper. Another source hinted that the President may have misunderstood the exact meaning of Comey's words, especially regarding the FBI's ongoing counterintelligence investigation.

Edited June 6, 2017 by caulfield12

[Dick Allen]

The next couple of days should be interesting

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nation...m=.9d5b00a51713

[StrangeSox]

Comey asked sessions not to leave him alone with Trump.

 

https://t.co/9BTyAGkIop

 

Sessions reportedly has threatened to quit in the last couple of weeks.

[caulfield12]

But the White House is far from enthusiastic about the public spectacle that’s shaping up.

 

Several White House officials noted with frustration the countdown clocks that have been on TV this week before the testimony. "It's like nothing else matters this week," one Republican close to the White House said. "I think they feel like they are just waiting and waiting and waiting and have no control."

FAKENEWS.COM

 

 

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/06/c...y-russia-239214

Comey met with Mueller to coordinate testimony, areas to avoid related to bigger Russian investigation

Edited June 7, 2017 by caulfield12

[StrangeSox]

I love dueling wapo/nyt breaking stories.

 

Top Intel official told colleagues Trump asked him to intervene with Comey to get him to back off Flynn investigation.

https://t.co/sYWyG00VdF

 

E: Dan Coates, director of national intelligence. I had heard a rumour on another forum that this was coming a couple of weeks ago, and that Coates was visibly upset behind closed doors.

 

 

He testifies tomorrow in open session.

Edited June 7, 2017 by StrangeSox

[StrangeSox]

President's son says Democrats are "not even people"

[chw42]

President's son says Democrats are "not even people"

 

Yeah, well Trump used to be one. And I know he's not "people".