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You've been Trumped!

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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 16 Jul , 2018 8:47 pm
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The Estonian government consider their own country to be in direct danger from Russian attack. Putin has made it clear that he considers former Soviet republics to be his rightful sphere of influence.

If you were to ask what, in a completely hypothetical situation, Putin would like the US President to do, the list would go:

Abolish sanctions
Acknowledge annexation of Crimea
Overlook invasion of Ukraine
Sabotage EU and NATO to make them incapable of taking military or trade action in the event of Russian invasion of their members

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 16 Jul , 2018 9:15 pm
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Frelga wrote:
The Estonian government consider their own country to be in direct danger from Russian attack. Putin has made it clear that he considers former Soviet republics to be his rightful sphere of influence.
Quite true, but I'm not sure the former Estonian president's remark had anything to do with that. I think that, like many of us, he was just appalled.

People in Estonia are justifiably proud of defending their country when the Russians took over the TV tower in Tallinn in 1991. Trump licking Putin's boots is not likely to go over well there - even putting aside their justifiable concerns that Putin wants to form the Soviet Union again.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 16 Jul , 2018 11:05 pm
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Fun fact - in 1991 I was on the train out of Tallinn and saw Russian tanks on the train moving in the opposite direction. They were under tarps, but the shapes were quite distinctive, and the gun barrels stuck out.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 17 Jul , 2018 12:08 pm
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I heard about it much later from our hosts who took us to the TV tower. It was still vivid in their memories.

There were some small impromptu protests last night at the White House, with more planned today.
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/397356 ... tin-summit
Quote:
Protesters greeted President Trump as he returned from his summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, with dozens gathering outside the White House and yelling "traitor" late into the night.

The impromptu protest, dubbed #OccupyLafayettePark, came after Trump's controversial press conference with Putin. During the joint presser, Trump refused to denounce Russia's 2016 election meddling and said both countries were to blame for the current low point in U.S.-Russia relations.

Trump is unrepentant in his interview with Fox's Hannity:
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... -us-russia
Quote:
President Trump on Monday evening blamed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference for driving a “wedge” between Washington and Moscow.

“It’s driven a wedge between us and Russia,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity in his first one-on-one interview since meeting face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, earlier in the day. “Maybe we’ve just knocked down that wedge.”

...The president also said that Putin described the impact of the Russia investigation on U.S.-Russia relations as “a shame” during their closed-door session.“It’s a sad thing,” Trump said. “It’s a very sad thing for our country to see this.”
Damned right it's sad - to see an elderly, egotistical fool with way too much power being manipulated by Putin. Trump needs to go back to private life, where his idiocy doesn't affect the entire world. And you have to wonder what information Trump gave away to Putin in that private meeting, given that he obviously trusts Putin over his own intelligence professionals in the US.



Hannity is senile:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/39734 ... ery-strong
Quote:
Fox News host Sean Hannity praised President Trump's performance at a controversial news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, saying the U.S. leader was "very strong."

The Fox News host, a close friend of Trump and one of the president's most ardent media defenders, said that Trump was right to hone in on questions about the the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) handling of a 2016 cyberattack and the since-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
Not that most of us expected any different from Hannity.


Other Fox hosts are also continuing their Trump propaganda machine, even while some of their colleagues are appalled at Trump's behavior:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... rence-with
Quote:
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs late Monday slammed President Trump's critics, saying he thinks the president "handled himself perfectly" during a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“What would it have taken to satisfy the morons on those clips?” Dobbs asked. “We’ve had a series of presidents who were outright jokes,” Dobbs said. “And I’m talking Clinton. I’m talking Bush, and I’m talking Obama. The fact this country survived those three folks is amazing to me.”

Some GOP members are trying to smear those who attack Trump. We're back to McCarthyite accusations again:
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39725 ... nist-party
Quote:
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) accused John Brennan on Monday of having been a member of the Communist Party during the Cold War... "John Brennan was a disaster as CIA director. He was a disaster as the counterterrorism official. He was a member of the Communist Party during the Cold War," DeSantis said on Fox News.

...DeSantis's allegation that Brennan was a member of the Communist Party hinges on the former CIA director's admission that he voted for the Communist Party's presidential candidate, Gus Hall, in 1976. As Brennan tells it, he was in college at the time and the vote was his way of "signaling my unhappiness with the system, and the need for change." He has said that he was forthcoming about his vote when he entered the CIA and has asserted that he was never a member of the Communist Party.


http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/39 ... -obamacare
Quote:
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Monday that he is in talks with the Trump administration about ways to restart key ObamaCare payments that the administration abruptly suspended this month.

The administration’s surprise suspension of $10.4 billion in payments to insurers this month set off a round of warnings of rising premiums and condemnation from Democrats who said it was further GOP “sabotage” of the health-care law.

...The administration cited as its reason for stopping the payments a court ruling from a federal judge in New Mexico finding that the administration had not fully justified its formula for dispensing the funds, which are made through a program known as risk adjustment.Brady likewise pointed to the court decision, saying he was “very concerned” by the ruling.

Legal experts and insurers say that the administration is overstating the effects of the court decision and it could restart the payments on its own.


Edit: Russian media (who everyone pretty much knows not to trust) are telling the world what Trump and Putin agreed to in their private tete-a-tete. And given that Trump didn't take notes or allow any other American to do so...
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39742 ... on-with-us
Quote:
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that it stands ready to step up cooperation with the U.S. on international security matters outlined by President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit on Monday.

"The Russian Defense Ministry is ready for practical implementation of the agreements in the sphere of international security reached by Russian and U.S. Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, at their Monday’s summit in Helsinki," Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the ministry said, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS.

..."The Russian Defense Ministry is ready to enliven contact with the U.S. colleagues, between our General Staffs and via other communication channels, to discuss extension of the START Treaty, cooperation in Syria, and other topical issues of military security," he stressed.
I wonder if that includes the proposal to let the KGB question people in the US, in return for letting Robert Mueller go to Russia and question the indicted Russians there? (Which won't come to pass, of course - I'm sure Trump's staff has more sense than he does.)


Meanwhile, this is what Trump has to say:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... tin-summit
Quote:
"While I had a great meeting with NATO, raising vast amounts of money, I had an even better meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia," Trump tweeted.

"Sadly, it is not being reported that way - the Fake News is going Crazy!" he added.
Oh, and he also tweeted that he's decided that he's decided on a wonderful new color scheme for the new presidential planes - red, white and blue. How comforting.




In other news, the Trump administration is pushing increased arms sales:
https://insidedefense.com/insider/white ... fer-policy
Quote:
President Trump has approved an implementation plan to carry out the new conventional arms transfer policy aimed at streamlining the international weapon sales process and boosting American jobs.

...In April, Trump signed a national security policy memorandum outlining a new arms transfer policy that calls for the consideration of “economic security” when weighing the benefits of a potential weapon sale. The idea is to boost American jobs and more aggressively advocate on behalf of the U.S. defense industry by competing for sales in key regions against firms from China and Russia.

...U.S. government officials will do more to promote foreign sales of U.S. equipment and "exploring mechanisms to reduce financial barriers to the procurement of American defense goods and services," the fact sheet states
https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2 ... 0617120814
Quote:
Send Lawyers, Guns and Money: The New Conventional Arms Transfer Policy
On April 19, 2018, our current President issued National Security Presidential Memorandum No. NSPM-10 outlining the new Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) Policy. The new CAT policy is clear: We’re here to deal!
Quote:
To ensure its success, the administration has deputized all government officials as its sales force. What’s more, these folks are enthusiastic: “Under this administration, there will be no prouder and more active advocate for U.S. sales than the U.S. government itself,” White House trade chief Peter Navarro said.
Quote:
Our new CAT policy requires the U.S. government to consider five factors prior to approving any arms transfer. In no particular order, these are: national security, economic security, relationships with allies and partners, human rights and international humanitarian law, and nonproliferation. The five factors used to determine to whom we sell arms are presumably of equal weight. Nevertheless, there is a sense that human rights may take a backseat to closing deals. Such sentiment appears to stem from the divergence in how we evaluate human rights abuses in comparison to our closest allies. The United States and our NATO allies are signatories of the Arms Trade Treaty which includes provisions against selling weapons where they can be expected to be used to commit abuses. The European Parliament adopted resolutions in 2016 and 2017 calling for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia citing, inter alia, “indiscriminately killing and wounding civilians in violation of the laws of war.” As of January 2018, Germany, Norway and Belgium have ceased arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Contemporaneously, the Trump administration issued a notification of a potential $500 million sale to support Saudi Arabia’s Patriot missile defense system.


http://thehill.com/homenews/news/397453 ... eparations
Quote:
Several members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council reportedly resigned over the Trump administration’s controversial immigration policies.

...“Were we consulted, we would have observed that routinely taking children from migrant parents was morally repugnant, counter-productive and ill-considered," the group wrote in the letter obtained by The Post. "We cannot tolerate association with the immigration policies of this administration, nor the illusion that we are consulted on these matters.”

Richard Jeffrey Danzig, who served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton, was reportedly one of the four advisory council members who announced his resignation. He was joined by former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-N.Y.), according to the Post. The letter was reportedly signed by Obama-era officials David Martin, who previously served as principal deputy general counsel at DHS, and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew Olsen.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKBN1K704F
Quote:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Monday that it will no longer require certain tax-exempt organizations including politically active nonprofit groups, such as the National Rifle Association and Planned Parenthood, to identify their financial donors to U.S. tax authorities.

...The change protects the privacy of wealthy donors of “dark money” donations to politically active groups. Conservatives have complained that the disclosures to the IRS, though not public, were susceptible to media leaks.


Edit: Trump claims he now believes intelligence agencies - more or less. But there was a little twist from someone behind the scenes. I suspect the lights going out as Trump spoke was not a coincidence. The lights may indeed be going out if this is enough to get the GOP to obediently line up behind Trump again.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... l-agencies
Quote:
President Trump quipped that U.S. intelligence agencies were responsible for the lights briefly going out while he made a White House statement reaffirming his support for American intelligence officers.

“Let me begin by saying that once again, full faith and support for America’s intelligence agencies. I have a full faith in our intelligence agencies,” he said, before the lights in the room faded out....“You guys ok? Good, that was strange,” he said after the lights came back on.

...“I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place,” Trump said during the statement on Tuesday. “Could be other people also. A lot of people out there,” he added.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/h ... r-by-house
Quote:
The House rejected a resolution on Tuesday that would have rebuked President Trump for his remarks at a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The House ruled the measure, offered by House Foreign Affairs ranking member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), was out of order.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 18 Jul , 2018 12:42 pm
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Official account of the Russian embassy:

The Russian Defense Ministry @MoD_Russia[ img ] is ready for the practical implementation of agreements in the area of global security reached in Helsinki between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump

https://twitter.com/RusEmbUSA/status/10 ... 0217691136
Interesting choice of image with the tweet

I squinted, and the byline in the middle talks about Russian government authorizing military forces in Syria and the start of something about submarines in the Pacific.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 18 Jul , 2018 1:16 pm
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Interesting. Submarines in the Pacific sounds too detailed for Trump, unless it's something on Putin's wish list that Trump just said "sure" to without having the faintest idea what it's about. I wonder if this is an amalgamation of things from the Trump-Putin meeting and the side talks between US and Russian officials.


Apparently, Trump and Putin also made some agreement about North Korea.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... orth-korea
Quote:
President Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin might “in the long run, an even greater success” than the NATO summit, saying Moscow has agreed to help the U.S. with North Korea.

“Russia has agreed to help with North Korea, where relationships with us are very good and the process is moving along,” Trump tweeted. “There is no rush, the sanctions remain! Big benefits and exciting future for North Korea at end of process!”
No doubt North Korea will benefit one way or another, given all the reports that North Koreans show no signs of slowing their nuclear weapons program and stood up US officials (or sent underlings) in a couple of meetings.

If Russia agreed to something, I think we can safely say it's to their benefit, but not necessarily to that of South Korea or Japan.



Trump tweet:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ence-loved
Quote:
“So many people at the higher ends of intelligence loved my press conference performance in Helsinki," he said. "Putin and I discussed many important subjects at our earlier meeting. We got along well which truly bothered many haters who wanted to see a boxing match. Big results will come!”

People seem to be assuming he meant intelligence agencies, which are not happy of course, rather than intelligent people. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates made a statement contradicting Trump very quickly after the summit.


http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3975 ... in-meeting
Quote:
Senate Democrats are demanding President Trump detail what he discussed during a private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the answers are needed to "adequately protect America’s interests." Six Democrats sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday saying Americans "have a right to know" what the two leaders discussed during their closed-door meeting on Monday in Helsinki, Finland.


http://thehill.com/homenews/397579-trum ... ato-allies
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday questioned why the U.S. must commit to defending all NATO allies during an interview in the wake of a contentious summit with the transatlantic alliance in Belgium.Trump made the comment on Fox News's "Tucker Carlson Tonight"when host Tucker Carlson asked why should his "son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack?"

"I've asked the same question," Trump said. "Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. ... They are very strong people. They are very aggressive people, they may get aggressive, and congratulations, you are in World War III. "I understand, but that's the way it was set up. Don't forget, I just got here a little more than a year and a half ago, but I took over the conversation three or four days ago and I said you have to pay," Trump added, referencing the demands he made about defense spending during the summit.
Mutual protection is the basic premise of NATO and why countries agree to join. Also why Putin hates it, of course.



http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... cil-report
Quote:
A top intelligence official at the National Security Council (NSC) is reportedly leaving the White House. Michael Barry, senior NSC director for intelligence programs, is leaving the council as part of national security adviser John Bolton’s major staffing overhaul, two government officials told the Daily Beast.

...Several officials have left the NSC since Bolton was appointed in April. He has said that he wants to reshape the council, but it is unclear what his desired structure is. Most recently, a senior director in the NSC was reportedly pushed out of the council for clashing with White House aide Stephen Miller.
They also note that the latest aide left after the Trump-Putin meeting.



More of Trump's need to make himself the center of the universe is on display. This stuff isn't necessarily harmful in itself (other than making the US president look a fool), but it's not exactly reassuring given his position and powers:
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/397584 ... time-in-70
Quote:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday inaccurately claimed that Queen Elizabeth reviewed her honor guard for the first time in 70 years during his visit with the monarch last week.

..."We met with the Queen, who is absolutely a terrific person, where she reviewed her honor guard for the first time in 70 years, they tell me," Trump said. "We walked in front of the honor guard and that was very inspiring to see and be with her. And I think the relationship, I can truly say is a good one. But she was very, very inspiring indeed."

Contrary to Trump's statement, however, the queen has reviewed her honor guard many times over the last 70 years. The tradition often takes place during visits from foreign officials
I noticed that he also made his usual "we have a good relationship" remark. I read that Philip (who no longer has official duties and can please himself) didn't show up to tea with Trump. And rumors are that the younger generation refused to come.



http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... conference
Quote:
White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly gave GOP lawmakers the green light to rebuke President Trump's controversial remarks from his joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Three sources told Vanity Fair on the condition of anonymity that Kelly was furious after Trump stood with Putin during their summit in Helsinki and sided with his denial that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

On the other hand:
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39744 ... utin-furor
Quote:
Top conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus are defending President Trump’s performance at the Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Members of the group applauded the president's diplomatic efforts, arguing the media has placed too much focus on his remarks at a post-summit press conference with Putin and not enough on his actions.


Another person who successfully manipulated Trump:
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... onsibility
Quote:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed responsibility for President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, according to a video obtained by Israeli public television. The video shows Netanyahu speaking two weeks ago about the deal with members of his Likud political party, according to the Times of Israel.

“We convinced the US president [to exit the deal] and I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement,” Netanyahu reportedly says in the video, aired by public broadcaster Kann. “And we didn’t give up."

btw, some of the practical costs of Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem are out. The political costs we already know:
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... 21-million
Quote:
Designing and building the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem will cost more than $21 million, according to documents filed with the official database of federal spending.

Al-Monitor first reported on the filing, which occurred on July 9 and shows that the State Department granted the Maryland-based Desbuild Limak D&K a contract worth $21.2 million to design and construct “addition and compound security upgrades” at the embassy.

...“We’re going to have it built very quickly and very inexpensively,” President Trump said in March, according to Al-Monitor. ...“They put an order in front of my desk last week for a billion dollars. I said, ‘A billion? What’s that for?’ ” Trump asked. “We’re actually doing it for about $250,000.
I don't have the link, but I saw a while back that the embassy move is very popular with evangelicals in the US, but not nearly as popular with ordinary people in Israel.



Given Trump's relationship with mainsteam news agencies, I doubt this makes him sad:
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/inter ... y-they-are
Quote:
Lawmakers on Tuesday warned of the dangers President Trump's tariffs could pose to local newspapers during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Roughly a dozen members of Congress were testifying against the tariffs at an International Trade Commission hearing, according to the Associated Press. The commission is investigating whether the Commerce Department should make the tariffs permanent or reverse them.

The members of Congress said the tariffs, which were put in place by the Trump administration after a complaint from a paper plant in Washington state, could result in workers being laid off and newspapers folding, leading to a reduction in news coverage, the AP reported.



The Guardian has details on some of Maria Butina's meetings and attempts to influence US politicians:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... ia-charges
Sometimes their articles have a definite slant, but this seems to mostly be straight and factual reporting.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -scientist
Quote:
President Trump this week named a former Dow Chemical Company executive who worked in the company's pesticide division to be chief scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the third major hire of a Dow alumnus in his administration.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 19 Jul , 2018 2:17 pm
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http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/ ... with-putin
Quote:
Russia's ambassador to the United States on Wednesday said President Trump made "important verbal agreements" with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their private conversation in Helsinki on Monday. Russian envoy Anatoly Antonov listed cooperation in Syria and arms control as two issues the world leaders had agreed on, according to The Washington Post.

But the Post reported that the highest-level Trump administration officials still do not know what Trump promised Putin during their one-on-one meeting, which lasted more than two hours.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... personally
Quote:
President Trump was reportedly shown highly classified information more than a year ago proving that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered cyberattacks to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump was shown the information at a briefing weeks before his inauguration. The documents he was shown included texts and emails from Russian military officers, as well as information from a source close to Putin, according to the Times.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39780 ... n-security
Quote:
House Republicans are refusing to provide additional funding for state election security grants in a spending bill despite upsetting Democrats pointing at Russian election interference.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... s-citizens
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that President Trump will discuss allowing Russian investigators to come to the United States to question U.S. citizens, including a former American ambassador to Russia.

Sanders said during a White House press briefing that Trump is “gonna meet with his team” to talk about the potential for Russian officials to question U.S. citizens like Michael McFaul, who was ambassador to Russia from January 2012 to February 2014.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... ricans-its
Quote:
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday dismissed the suggestion that Russia should be allowed to question U.S. citizens, an offer Russian President Vladimir Putin presented to President Trump earlier in the week.

At a joint press conference in Finland, Putin said he’d be willing to allow U.S. law enforcement to travel to Russia and observe the questioning of suspects implicated in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. In exchange, Putin said he’d want access to U.S. citizens for questioning.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... ll-discuss
Quote:
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice tore into the Trump White House for considering the possibility of allowing Russian officials to interrogate US citizens.

...“Beyond outrageous,” Rice tweeted. “Amb. McFaul served our country honorably and with full diplomatic immunity. If the White House cannot defend and protect our diplomats, like our service members, they are serving a hostile foreign power not the American people.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... absolutely
Quote:
A State Department spokeswoman on Wednesday dismissed Russian claims against Americans as “absolutely absurd” and said that the agency does “not stand by those assertions that the Russian government makes.”

...“What I can tell you is that the overall assertions are absolutely absurd — the fact that they want to question 11 American citizens and the assertions that the Russian Government is making about those American citizens,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert at a press briefing on Wednesday. “We do not stand by those assertions.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... conference
Quote:
President Trump on Wednesday said he thinks he did a "great job" at Monday's controversial joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

"I think I did great at the news conference," Trump said on CBS Evening News. "I think it was a strong news conference." ..."I will tell you, I don’t know what all the fuss is about," Trump said. "I think the press largely makes up a lot of the fuss about a lot of the things. It’s crazy."
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/397796 ... hite-house
Quote:
Democratic lawmakers joined activists at a candlelight vigil in front of the White House Wednesday night to protest President Trump's recent remarks about Russia and to show support for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe...The event was one of around 200 protests in cities around the country organized by liberal groups.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... with-putin
Quote:
President Trump on Thursday said he wants to have a second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as he endures days of stark, bipartisan criticism over his performance at his first summit with the Russian leader Monday in Helsinki, Finland.

..."The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media," Trump tweeted. "I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.



http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/39 ... ort-agenda
Quote:
Officials within the Department of Veterans Affairs have moved to root out staffers who are believed to be disloyal to President Trump and his agenda, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

...more than a dozen people have been reassigned from leadership positions ahead of Robert Wilkie's likely installment to lead the agency. Some of those recently reassigned employees had been with the department for decades, while others were Trump appointees.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch ... ittee-post
Quote:
Kansas State Sen. Barbara Bollier (R) has been stripped of her leadership position by the Republican Senate president after she endorsed two Democrats.

Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle (R) removed Bollier from her position as vice chair of the Public Health and Welfare Committee over her “embarrassing” endorsements, The Lawrence Journal-World reported Wednesday.

“While we respect differing opinions in our caucus, it is unacceptable to betray members of your own party by publicly endorsing leftist Democrats,” Wagle said in a statement.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/39 ... f-midterms
Quote:
A former GOP megadonor is throwing his money behind Democrats hoping to help build a “Blue Wave” in the November midterms.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... into-zinke
Quote:
The Interior Department's Inspector General (IG) is investigating a real estate deal involving Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the chairman of a leading oil services company, the IG office confirmed to the Hill Wednesday.

The investigation will focus on a Montana-based commercial development that Zinke is poised to benefit from financially, Politico first reported Wednesday.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... gs-funding
Quote:
The House on Wednesday rejected a Democratic-backed proposal that would have boosted funding for the Interior Department’s internal watchdog office.

The amendment proposed by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) to the appropriations bill to fund Interior and other agencies would have given Interior’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) $54.986 million, a $2.5 million increase over what the GOP proposed for the office.

...Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the OIG has been stretched thin due to the Zinke projects.


http://thehill.com/latino/397735-trump- ... rotections
Quote:
The Trump administration pushed forward its policy of ending immigration benefits for Central American countries despite advice to the contrary from its own intelligence analysts.

A set of documents released as part of a court case Tuesday show the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence analysts warned that ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Central American countries would ultimately result in more illegal immigration.
http://thehill.com/latino/397741-at-lea ... fter-being
Quote:
At least 70 children under the age of 1 have been ordered before immigration judges since last October, some without any form of legal representation present, according to newly released government data.

Information from the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported by the Texas Tribune on Wednesday states that the number of infants summoned before immigration judges tripled in 2017 compared to the previous year.


http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39771 ... alled-very
Quote:
President Trump’s requested military parade in Washington, D.C. will reportedly cost close to $12 million, according to three U.S defense officials who spoke to CNN. The cost of the parade has been estimated at anywhere between $10 million and $30 million, but CNN reported that defense officials it spoke to increasingly think it will land at $12 million.

...A $12 million parade would actually cost just a little less than the U.S.-South Korea large scale military exercise that Trump canceled during his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39770 ... litary-ban
Quote:
An appeals court on Wednesday ruled against the Trump administration and upheld a court order stalling a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military.


http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... h-disposal
Quote:
The Trump administration started easing some standards for how companies discard coal ash, the toxic substances left over from burning coal.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made final Wednesday what it said are the first of a potential series of changes to the Obama administration’s landmark 2015 rule that dictated the first ever federal standards for coal ash disposal.

...It is the first major regulatory move by acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, who took over earlier this month when former chief Scott Pruitt resigned under the cloud of numerous scandals.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... ution-rule
Quote:
A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a Trump administration policy that sought to ignore a regulation limiting sales of trucks that environmental groups called “super-polluting.”

The policy memo at issue said EPA wouldn’t enforce a 2016 regulation from the Obama administration that sought to put a cap on sales of “glider trucks,” new heavy trucks with older chassis and engines that do not meet current air pollution rules.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... f-drilling
Quote:
Green groups are suing the Trump administration over its decision to expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

...The suit targets a decision from the administration to open up 78 million acres of the Gulf to potential drilling. The groups say regulators have failed to do the necessary environmental checks and are in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).



http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -state-tax
Quote:
The Trump Foundation is reportedly under investigation in New York for possibly violating state tax laws. Two unidentified officials in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) office said the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance inquiry could uncover criminal activity, according to a Wednesday New York Times report.

...According to the newspaper, the probe may be linked to the lawsuit New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood (D) filed a lawsuit last month.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... g-from-the
Quote:
Rep. Andy Harris (R–Md.) on Tuesday dismissed criticism of President Trump's remarks during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, saying he discounts “anything that involves the mainstream media press.”

Unlike a handful of Republican lawmakers who have condemned Trump for appearing to refute his own intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election during the press conference, Harris lauded Trump's meeting with Putin as a “successful summit.”

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/39 ... on-tribune
Quote:
Sinclair is revising its plan to sell some of its companies in an attempt to appease the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the agency outlined issues with the broadcaster's pending merger with Tribune Media.


Edit to add:
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3979 ... -officials
Quote:
The Senate on Thursday approved a resolution warning President Trump not to let the Russian government question diplomats and other officials, not long after the White House released a statement backpedaling on a proposal to allow Moscow to help interrogate U.S. citizens such as former Ambassador Michael McFaul.

Senators voted 98-0 on the resolution spearheaded by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez (N.J.), Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii).

According to Putin, Trump has agreed to consider essentially legitimizing Russia's invasion of parts of Ukraine:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -at-summit
Quote:
Vladimir Putin told Russian diplomats that he made a proposal to Donald Trump at their summit this week to hold a referendum to help resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but agreed not to disclose the plan publicly so the U.S. president could consider it, according to two people who attended Putin’s closed-door speech on Thursday.

...Putin’s proposal would call for a vote conducted under international auspices by the residents of the separatist territories on their status, the people said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the details of what Putin said about Ukraine at the summit, saying only, “Some new ideas were discussed. They will be worked on.”

...The U.S. and the European Union have repeatedly accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to support separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies the charge, though Ukraine has captured a number of Russian soldiers and weaponry on its territory.

Putin pointed to a 2014 referendum, which wasn’t internationally recognized, that was held in Crimea to justify Russia’s annexation... Leaders of so-called rebel republics in Donetsk and Luhansk held referendums in May 2014 that declared independence. The votes were rejected as illegal by the U.S. and the European Union, while Ukraine called them a “farce.”

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 20 Jul , 2018 3:11 am
A green apple painted red
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This is what comes out of not having American officials in the room. They could have been watching cartoons for two hours for all we know, but now Putin could say that Trump promised to give Alaska back to Russia and someone might believe him.

_________________

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 20 Jul , 2018 1:05 pm
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Yes. And Trump agreeing to what Putin wants in Ukraine, Europe, North Korea, etc. is also plausible, given Putin's cleverness and Trump's ignorance of international affairs and unwillingness to learn or listen to advisers.

And the worst of it is that the GOP seems to have little spine to counter Trump. At least they stood up against him agreeing to consider letting the KGB question US ambassadors. The cynic in me wonders whether the GOP would have even held the vote, though, if Trump had been quicker to realize he was the only one with any enthusiasm for it.


http://thehill.com/policy/international ... n-election
Quote:
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said Wednesday that people "ought to accept" President Trump's "apology" for misspeaking regarding Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election earlier this week.

"He said he made a mistake," Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during a press call, according to the Des Moines Register. "He apologized for it. And we ought to accept his apology and say, 'Praise the Lord' when anybody that’s in politics ever says they did anything wrong, and especially if they apologize for it."
Grassley is an idiot. Trump's advisers came up with a transparent excuse that he meant to say "wouldn't" instead of "would," which is a) highly implausible, given what Trump said at various times before and after that particular sentence, b) so transparent that any parent of a 5-year-old wouldn't believe it, c) not in the least an apology, especially with his ad lib of "could have been other people" after he read his prepared statement.


http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39797 ... n-in-syria
Quote:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday said he would consider granting the U.S. military a waiver to coordinate with Russian forces in Syria, adding that he’d “have to think long and hard” about such a move.

...Current U.S. law prohibits coordination and collaboration with the Russian military, as stipulated in the National Defense Authorization Act following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula.

U.S. Central Command head Gen. Joseph Votel earlier Thursday told reporters that any U.S. military coordination with the Russian military in Syria would require congressional approval or a waiver. Votel’s remarks come after President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Helsinki earlier this week and made “important verbal agreements” on increased cooperation between Washington and Moscow on international security matters, according to the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Trump is planning to repeat this fiasco soon in DC.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... washington
Quote:
President Trump has asked his national security adviser John Bolton to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington for a second summit. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that plans are underway for a second summit after Trump floated the news in an earlier tweet on Thursday.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3979 ... tin-summit
Quote:
Many GOP senators regard Trump's meeting with the Russian leader in Helsinki earlier this week as a political disaster. ...When asked about the possibility of a second summit, Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) hung his head and quipped, “maybe in a year or two.”

The body language of other GOP senators was equally telling. “I don’t have anything to say about that today,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), another member of the GOP leadership, lowering his eyes and shaking his head.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... scussed-in
Quote:
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Thursday that he doesn’t know what was said during the private meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

...“I think that as time goes by — the president has already mentioned some things that happened in that meeting — I think we will learn more,” he said, “but that is the president’s prerogative.”...
Coats added that he would have advised Trump against meeting one-on-one with Putin, but added “that’s not my role.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... iew-report
Quote:
President Trump’s advisers were reportedly left outraged by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’s interview in Aspen, Colo., on Thursday, concerned that his comments hitting Trump over his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would upset the president.

...Coats said during an interview at the Aspen Security Forum that he would have advised Trump against meeting one-on-one with Putin, and was visibly surprised when told that the White House had invited Putin for a visit this fall. “OK,” a surprised Coats said about the proposed meeting. “That’s going to be special.”
All this catering to Trump and trying to avoid upsetting him, etc. reminds me of an old Twilight Zone episode where a kid has supernatural power to punish the adults around him.


http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... dar-report
Quote:
CNN reported Thursday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has been leaving details about some meetings off his official calendar. CNN compared Zinke’s public calendar with emails between the Interior chief and his scheduler, and found more than a dozen times when the calendar does not include or obscures details about his meetings.

...The Interior Department said in a statement to CNN that Zinke’s office “complies with all applicable laws, rules and regulations.” “We always strive toward transparency which is why we include additional information in briefings that are made available to the public,” the statement read. “Additionally, it’s very common for scheduled items to be canceled the day of, which is why something could be referred to in an email or briefing and not be on the calendar released.”

http://thehill.com/latino/398000-364-ch ... -at-border
Quote:
The Trump administration said in a court filing Thursday that it has reunited 364 immigrant children between the ages of 5 and 17 that it identified as being separated from their parents at the border, one week before the deadline to complete the reunifications.

The administration said last week that it had identified 2,551 immigrant children who had been separated from their families at the border.

Officials said Thursday that they have identified 1,606 of the parents, and have interviewed and cleared 848 of them to be reunited with their children, according to the court filing. Another 272 of the parents still have to be interviewed. ...The Justice Department filing also stated that 679 of the parents needed “further evaluation” to determine if they were possibly eligible for reunification.


http://thehill.com/policy/finance/inter ... s-on-china
Quote:
President Trump in an interview that aired Friday said that he’s “ready to go” with $500 billion in tariffs on China after already slapping the country with a series of tariffs.

...The Trump administration imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products last month, which China quickly matched with tariffs on the same value of American goods. The administration then announced that it would impose another series of tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

China has promised to retaliate for the latest round of tariffs and has filed a challenge with the World Trade Organization.


http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... endangered
Quote:
The Trump administration is proposing significant changes to the way it enforces the Endangered Species Act (ESA), saying they are a needed modernization of decades-old regulations, but wildlife groups say the changes will put endangered animals and plants at risk.

The proposal would make it easier to delist an endangered species and would withdraw a policy that offered the same protections for threatened species as for endangered species unless otherwise specified. It would streamline interagency consultations and make it more difficult to protect habitat near land where endangered species live.

The proposed rules also include an interpretation that a species considered endangered would be protected for a “foreseeable future” that extends “only as far” as it can be reasonably determined that “both the future threats and the species’ responses to those threats are probable.”

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sat 21 Jul , 2018 6:43 pm
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This was rather interesting. If Maria Butina is such a minor player, why is Russia making such efforts to get the US to free her?
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... sian-agent
Quote:
Russia's top diplomat is calling on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to free a Russian woman accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the United States. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued Saturday that Maria Butina had been detained "fabricated charges" and called for her release as soon as possible, Reuters reported.

Lavrov made the demand during a phone call with Pompeo aimed at improving relations between the two countries

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... -far-right
Quote:
President Trump's former chief White House strategist Stephen Bannon says he is setting up a political foundation in Europe in the hopes of swinging power across the continent in favor of right-leaning nationalist parties such as France's National Front, recently renamed to National Rally.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... into-fifth
Quote:
A former adviser to Hillary Clinton brought a hip hop band and dancers to the White House for the fifth night of a multi-day protest on Friday.

Adam Parkhomenko has been organizing the “Occupy Lafayette Park” protests since President Trump’s controversial summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Footage captured from the Friday protest shows protesters standing along the White House fence holding signs that read "Treason" as the group performs.

Trump is back to obsessing over the NFL:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... s-kneeling
Quote:
President Trump singled out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a tweet on Friday, calling on the football executive to further punish players who protest at games by kneeling during the national anthem.

Trump, noting Goodell's potential $40 million a year salary, tweeted that the NFL commissioner must "make a stand" and suspend players for a game or the entire season if they continue to kneel. Many players have knelt during the anthem to protest policy brutality and racism.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Sun 22 Jul , 2018 2:51 pm
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Some of Maria Butina's activities seem to predate Trump and reach higher in the government than previously thought:
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... al-reserve
Quote:
The 29-year-old Russian woman accused of working as a foreign agent in the U.S. reportedly met with senior officials in the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve in 2015. ...The Reuters report indicates that Butina’s contacts were with higher-level officials than previously reported. Washington pro-Russia foreign policy think tank Center for the National Interest set up the meetings between Butina and the officials, according to the news service.

The Carter Page documents demanded by a conservative group can be read here:
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... arter-page
Quote:
The Justice Department on Saturday released documents related to the surveillance warrants on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the federal investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia... The heavily redacted application materials ... indicate that the FBI "believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government ... to undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law."
From The Economist:
https://www.economist.com/united-states ... -revealing
Quote:
The Republicans’ defensiveness about Russian hacking is revealing
It is impossible to know whether the GRU swung the 2016 election, and therefore impossible to say categorically that it did not
Quote:
The margin of Mr Trump’s victory in the electoral college was tiny, a matter of just under 80,000 voters in three rustbelt states. Any one of Hillary Clinton’s unforeseen troubles could account for that: including her late fainting fit, James Comey’s blundering or an illicit Russian social-media campaign that suggested she was in league with the devil. And a bigger Russian intervention, the cyberwar on behalf of Mr Trump described in Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers, could have hurt her more than all the rest combined. It appears to have been better-resourced, longer-running and more extensive and ingenious than almost anyone imagined.


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... spite-rain
Quote:
Protests against President Trump carried into day six with a crowd gathering outside of the White House Saturday despite heavy rain.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... with-putin
Quote:
President Trump said in a tweet early Sunday that he had a “great” meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that “fake news” has worked to “disparage” it.

... I had a GREAT meeting with Putin and the Fake News used every bit of their energy to try and disparage it. So bad for our country!
"Fake news," in this case, apparently being Fox and most conservative sources, as well as other mainstream media. Trump strikes me as delusional at this point.


http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39813 ... each-trump
Quote:
President Trump's performance this past week aside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki sparked outrage among congressional Democrats in all ways but one: There's been no surge in support for impeachment.

Instead, Democratic leaders have tamped down the impeachment push in the name of political pragmatism, fending off — for now — an effort by animated caucus liberals to escalate their oust-Trump campaign following his broadly maligned joint press conference with Putin in the Finnish capital on Monday. Not only is impeachment highly unlikely under a GOP-controlled Congress, the leaders argue, but it could undermine the chances of Democrats winning back the House in November


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... llegations
Quote:
An Illinois shelter housing migrant children separated from their parents at the southern border is under federal investigation for allegations of child abuse.

The Casa Guadalupe shelter in the Chicago suburbs told The Washington Post on Friday that the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services have each launched investigations.

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018 ... der-attack
Quote:
The world trading system is under attack
Quote:
Mr Trump is waging a trade war that this year has already hit imports worth over $89bn in 2017, including $32bn of goods from China, and $48bn of steel and aluminium (see chart 1). The fight will intensify. America plans further tariffs on $208bn of Chinese imports and is threatening duties on imported vehicles and car parts that will hit European and Japanese firms hard. As well as generating trade disputes with new tariffs, America is also gumming up the WTO’s system for solving them, by blocking the appointment of judges to its Court of Appeals.
[/quote]

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 23 Jul , 2018 1:17 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/39 ... s-trump-is
Quote:
Republican Senate nominee Corey Stewart (Va.) was interrupted by audience laughter during a debate on Saturday after saying President Trump “stands up” to Russia.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ax-returns
Quote:
President Trump’s tax returns are back in the spotlight after his private one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Trump’s comments during a joint press conference with Putin on Monday alarmed lawmakers, leading some to wonder about the president’s possible financial ties to Russia.

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/ ... its-a-hoax
Quote:
President Trump on Sunday blamed his predecessor for the response to Russian election interference in 2016, which he appeared to call "a big hoax."

"So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election," Trump tweeted. "Why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he tell our campaign?" "Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!"
Seriously, how can anyone with half a brain believe Trump's "I meant to say wouldn't, not would" nonsense denial at this point? And how can anyone think Trump is fit to be president if he believes briefings from his own intelligence agencies plus Mueller's recent indictment of 12 Russian agents are all just a hoax?



The Atlantic, discussing Sarah Sanders and her work for Trump, starting with her recent comment to the press that Trump was going to seriously consider handing over a previous US ambassador and others to the Russians for questioning, something everyone else found instantly appalling.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainme ... os/565610/
Quote:
The World Burns. Sarah Sanders Says This Is Fine.
The White House press secretary has set a new precedent: Partisanship over patriotism. Victory over truth.
Quote:
It is a well-worn cliché of the Trump presidency—which is also to say, it is a well-worn cliché about the Trump psyche—that, within a White House as vertically integrated as this one, loyalty counts above all.

...This is a White House that prioritizes the scoring of points over the complexities of compromise. Sanders, on behalf of the president she works for...takes for granted an assumption that would be shocking were it not so common in the American culture of the early 21st century: There are things that are more important than truth.

Things like, for example, the claiming of victory against the other side. Things like, for example, the owning of libs and the trolling of Dems and the ability to victor-write history so thoroughly that you can claim, with an air of annoyance about being asked to make such a clarification in the first place, that the president’s long history of commentary on Russia has now been nullified because the president had, in a single public event, “misspoken.” All of which made Wednesday’s briefing—the president will work with his team—both deeply typical and astounding: Here was one of the most prominent representatives of the White House choosing partisanship over patriotism. Winning above all.
And right on cue today, Sanders proves The Atlantic's point:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... te-of-time
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday called special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into possible ties between President Trump's campaign and Russia "a hoax and a waste of time." "We’d all be a lot better off if ... Congress and the special counsel could come to the same conclusion that the rest of America has - that this is a hoax and a waste of time," Sanders said on "Fox and Friends."


https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... et/565838/
Quote:
Donald Trump’s Reckless Iran Tweet
Why would the president threaten war over such relatively inconsequential words?
Quote:
On Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech to a domestic audience that the United States cannot prevent his country from exporting oil, adding that “peace with Iran would be the mother of all peace and war with Iran would be the mother of all wars.”

Donald Trump could have responded like an unflappable world leader. Instead, he replied in the favorite style of easily baited idiots: He posted an all-caps tweet. “To Iranian President Rouhani,” he wrote. “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

By responding that way, Trump dramatically inflated the reach of Iranian words that would’ve otherwise been ignored. And he spoke as though rhetoric that wasn’t even particularly bellicose is itself good reason for war.

The episode reflects poorly on his fitness to be president. Maybe he is bluffing—that is to say, maybe he wouldn’t, in fact, launch a possibly catastrophic war over mere words, preferring to ground such a momentous decision in the actual substance of American national security. If so, he spoke recklessly: America gains exactly nothing from a bluff of that sort, and risks exposure if Iran chooses to call him on his words. Trump foolishly put the U.S. in a reactive position.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -the-mafia
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said ..."The level of corruption and wealth among regime leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government,” Pompeo said during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

During his remarks and the Q&A afterwards, Pompeo lambasted the Iranian regime and emphasized U.S. support for Iranian citizens, particularly those opposed to the government.
We already know that Bolton wants war with Iran. And that Trump has learned the disturbing lesson that his approval is boosted with his base when he's belligerent with a foreign country.


Edit: Bolton echoes Trump's belligerence:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ainst-iran
Quote:
National security adviser John Bolton on Monday reinforced President Trump's threats against Iran, warning that the country would "pay a price" if it acts negatively toward the United States.

“I spoke to the President over the last several days, and President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before," Bolton said in a statement Monday morning.
Is Congress going to act at all or are they willing to let the neocons and Trump drag us into war again? Trump's rhetoric is reminiscent of North Korea's leaders, but at least most people suspected they wouldn't start anything due to a sense of self-preservation.



Not that this is new under Trump, but based on the number of news reports, it seems to be increasing again:
http://thehill.com/latino/398316-video- ... e-citizens
Quote:
A woman traveling by bus from El Paso, Texas, to Los Angeles last week filmed a video of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection boarding the bus and agent asking passengers if they are citizens.

...In the clip, a woman, apparently Gonzalez, is heard confronting the officer, claiming that he is “not allowed to ask for that within 100 miles of the border.” “No, it's not right,” she says in the video. “Living in Nazi Germany where you need to show your I.D. within the states, this is bull—t.”

...Micah McCoy, director of the New Mexico ACLU, told KOAT that the checkpoint is legal. “The U.S. Supreme Court has said that this practice is legal,” McCoy said, noting that border patrol agents have special authority within 100 miles of the border. "As the ACLU though we would disagree with that. We believe people's rights don't just disappear because they are by an international border."
As a reminder, international borders mean borders with the ocean as well as Canada and Mexico. And they can stop any form of transportation - cars, buses, etc. I'm not sure whether they are also authorized to stop people who are just walking.



Edit to add:

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -monuments
Quote:
Senior Interior Department officials questioned the benefits of national monuments, instead playing up the potential to use some of the lands to develop natural resources, according to The Washington Post....The officials pushed for shrinking the size of some monuments as they emphasized the value of logging, ranching and energy development that could be unlocked on some of those lands.

...In one document, the department’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) officers questioned if sharing the notes with the public would be "revealing [the] strategy" behind their review, according to the Post. The Post notes that information about these moves came because the Interior’s FOIA office sent out a batch of documents to journalists and advocacy groups earlier this month. It later removed those documents online.
Apparently, they never meant to let these documents be seen by the American public, but accidentally sent them out with others.



Trump is looking for new ways to get revenge against his critics:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... s-security
Quote:
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday said that President Trump is exploring whether to remove the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan and other top Obama-era intelligence officials.

...“They’ve politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances,” Sanders said during the daily briefing. “Making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia, or begin influenced by Russia against the president is extremely inappropriate and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence.”


A recent article in Asia Times describes the internal communications and actions that suggest Kim Jong Un has no intention of denuclearizing North Korea.
http://www.atimes.com/article/time-to-g ... uclearize/
Quote:
Time to get real: North Korea will not denuclearize
All the signs point to the fact that Pyongyang will never give up its nuclear weapons or missile programs and blame the US for the collapse of talks
Some of it has already been widely reported, but I haven't read other information in any US or European sources. For instance:
Quote:
In March, another directive was issued, directing lectures to the Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League to strengthen the county’s resolve to remain a nuclear power. Moreover, the North Korean source reporting on this pointed out that there were instructions to use the meetings between the two Koreas as propaganda tools.
Quote:
Also significant is that Pyongyang has designated the entire Chagang Province, in central North Korea, as a “Special Songeun [military first] Revolutionary Zone,” possibly to conceal nuclear weapons or to contain them
Quote:
Perhaps most damning, however, is a document from North Korea’s powerful Organization and Guidance Department openly stating that the shutdown of the Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site on May 24, 2018, was merely “throwing sand in the eyes of the enemy.” The document ordered that specialized equipment be removed with great care from the test site well ahead of the arrival of the journalists who witnessed demolitions. None of those journalists was a nuclear expert; none were allowed close enough to see exactly what was destroyed.


btw, some news stories suggest that Trump's all-caps tweet about Iran is a way to get the focus off his Putin summit. It's possible. Still, it's worrying when some of his top officials like Bolton are reinforcing the idea.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 24 Jul , 2018 5:47 pm
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So Trump's trade wars have screwed up farmers' livelihoods after his targets retaliated. And guess who's on the hook to bail the farmers out so they won't stop supporting Trump in the short-term (midterms)? The US taxpayer.

Once again Trump makes a bad business decision, then sticks someone else with the bill.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/us/p ... e-war.html
Quote:
The Trump administration on Tuesday will announce up to $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers hurt by the president’s trade war, according to two people familiar with the plans, in an effort to insulate food producers from looming financial losses that would be a direct result of Mr. Trump’s policies.

The aid to farmers, to be announced by the United States Department of Agriculture, would come through a direct assistance program, one designed to help with food purchase and distribution, and one specifically geared toward promoting trade, according to one of the people. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have authorization to pre-empt a planned announcement later Tuesday.

The move is an indication that Mr. Trump — ignoring the concerns of farmers, their representatives in Congress, and even some of his own aides about the adverse consequences of a trade war he says he relishes — plans to plow forward in escalating his tariff tit-for-tat around the world.


I literally burst out laughing when I saw this one:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -democrats
Quote:
I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2018

Last edited by aninkling on Tue 24 Jul , 2018 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 24 Jul , 2018 6:10 pm
A green apple painted red
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So much for proud self sufficient farmers. Once again, the blue states are going to pay welfare for the red states thanks to the decisions of the Republican government.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 24 Jul , 2018 6:22 pm
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I don't blame the farmers. I see this purely as a selfish Trump move because he fears losing support.

Even the GOP doesn't seem to like his tariffs. The trouble it, Congress doesn't have a damned spine any more when it comes to Trump. As I understand it, all they'd have to do is take away his "national security" loophole for executive branch-imposed tariffs and we'd be done with his stupid trade wars.

The GOP couldn't even stand up to him on the Chinese company ZTE. Some of them tried, but got nowhere.


btw, the talking point Trump is sending out to his supporters is that they need to be patient - it will all turn out great in the end:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -trade-war
I suppose he counts on none of them bothering to learn anything about trade wars from sources other than him. Dear Leader said so, and now his "to hell with experts and the elite" cult must believe.


EDIT to add:
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -damage-to
Quote:
The Trump administration is planning on ending a policy that requires oil drillers, miners and land developers to pay the government for damages its work can have on wildlife and habitats on public land. Bloomberg News reported that the administration on Tuesday plans to announce that the Interior Department will stop requiring off-site “compensatory mitigation."

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/domes ... icy-ending
Quote:
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) sued the IRS on Tuesday to block a new policy no longer requiring some non-profits to reveal their donors.

The lawsuit, filed in Montana federal district court and first reported by The New York Times, alleges that the agency improperly implemented the new donor disclosure rules and has “unlawfully interfered with Montana’s ability to gather data that the state needs in order to administer its tax laws.”

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Wed 25 Jul , 2018 2:08 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/international ... n-us-goods
Quote:
The European Union's trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, said Wednesday that the EU is readying tariffs on $20 billion in U.S. goods if President Trump imposes trade levies on imported cars.

“We hope that it doesn’t come to that and that we can a solution," Malmstrom told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, according to Reuters. ...Malmstrom added that new European tariffs would target "agricultural products, machinery, high-tech products and other things.” Malmstrom also said that she did not take U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s proposal to drop tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and subsidies seriously, according to Reuters.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch ... mp-tariffs
Quote:
From Alaskan seafood to BMWs produced in South Carolina, President Trump’s growing trade war with nations from China to Turkey has spurred a series of alarming news stories from reporters seeking a local angle on a global phenomenon.That coverage has been almost universally negative, as local outlets cover the costs and impacts to industries important to their economies.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/39874 ... mp-tariffs
Quote:
General Motors (GM) on Wednesday downgraded its expected earnings for 2018 because of costs associated with the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs. Reuters reported that the company expected to face a $1 billion impact on its full-year results
So, how long until Trump demands that taxpayers bail out the many industries, besides farming, that will be affected by his trade wars?



http://thehill.com/regulation/administr ... nder-trump
Quote:
The Trump administration has imposed fewer penalties on corporations that broke the law or violated regulations during President Trump’s first year in office, according to a watchdog group. Public Citizen found that in 11 of 12 federal agencies, penalties against corporate violators dropped by at least 50 percent under the oversight of Trump-appointed officials, according to a report obtained by The Hill.

The most significant impact was found at the Environmental Protection Agency...The agency levied $1.5 billion in penalties against corporate violators last year, compared to $24 billion during President Obama’s final year in office, Public Citizen found.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... -car-rules
Quote:
The Trump administration is preparing to roll back Obama-era automobile efficiency and emissions standards by making the controversial argument that the rules make cars less safe. The proposal, which is expected to be unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the coming days, already has consumer and safety advocates ready for a fight.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... calls-with
Quote:
The White House is putting an end to the practice of publishing summaries, known as "readouts," of President Trump's calls with foreign leaders, in a departure from past Democratic and Republican administrations.
http://thehill.com/policy/international ... cial-video
Quote:
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday said the White House had appeared to delete a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin's support for President Trump in an official video of the leaders' joint press conference in Helsinki. Maddow specifically references a question from Reuters reporter Jeff Mason, who asked Putin if he wanted Trump to win the 2016 presidential election and if he directed any of his officials to help with that effort. Putin responds that he did want Trump to win the election because "he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal."

...The Atlantic was the first news outlet to point out the differences. Maddow adds that the Russian government's transcript from the event nixes Mason's question completely.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -force-one
Quote:
President Trump reportedly lashed out at aides after seeing first lady Melania Trump’s television broadcasting CNN on Air Force One....Officials said in the email that they would turn the televisions to Fox News for future flights, according to the Times.
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/te ... -have-been
Quote:
President Trump on Tuesday ripped the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for not approving Sinclair Broadcast Group's merger with Tribune Media, calling the move “so sad and so unfair.”
Not surprising - Sinclair has regular pro-Trump "must run" segments. But disturbing all the same- Trump is clearly trying to control media coverage and prevent the public from knowing certain things. It reminds me of the earlier news that he tears memos into little pieces, which staff then have to put back together like a jigsaw puzzle, to comply with government record-keeping rules.


http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3987 ... orth-korea
Quote:
Republican and Democratic lawmakers concerned over the uncertainty swirling around President Trump’s foreign and trade policies will press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for answers Wednesday, but there are doubts about how much he can answer.

Pompeo is scheduled to testify at 3 p.m. before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, an eagerly awaited appearance for lawmakers hungry to know more about Trump’s two-hour private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Helsinki.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/s ... on-russian
Quote:
A Senate resolution backing the intelligence community's findings on Russia's election meddling was blocked for a second time on Tuesday. Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.) tried to get consent to pass their resolution, which also thanks the Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigating Russia's interference.

But GOP Sen. David Perdue (Ga.) blocked their request, calling it a "political distraction." Under the Senate's rules any one senator can block a request to pass legislation by unanimous consent.

Some people have speculated that Trump's bluster about removing security clearances from his critics was an attempt at a distraction from his meeting with Putin, and not serious. This doesn't seem to be the case.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -of-former
Quote:
The White House on Tuesday reiterated President Trump's intention to look into revoking security clearances for a number of former intelligence officials who have been critical of the Trump administration, but offered no specifics on the process.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters on Air Force One that the president has "begun the mechanism" to remove security clearances from former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and several other ex-officials who mainly served in the Obama administration.
Worth noting that people who have security clearances don't actually get any information unless they need to know. And some people have noted that these security clearances would allow experts to be consulted immediately by the current administration in a crisis. Trump would be cutting off that source of expertise out of simple spite.


The BBC is not letting Trump's lackeys get away with their lies:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/39866 ... the-entire
Quote:
BBC's Emily Maitlis on Tuesday confronted former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, arguing that his actions while serving as the top spokesman for President Trump "corrupted discourse for the entire world by going along with" the president's lies.

... In a wide-ranging interview, Maitlis pressed Spicer on his frequent defenses of Trump's actions, including Spicer's statements on the size of Trump's inauguration crowd in 2017. Maitlis accused Spicer and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway of engaging in damaging rhetoric by creating a "second version of the truth” by saying Trump's inauguration-crowd size was the largest in history.


...“It became a joke. It became something that defined you,” she said. “You joked about it when you presented the Emmy awards. But it wasn’t a joke. It was the start of the most corrosive culture. You played with the truth, you led us down a dangerous path. You have corrupted discourse for the entire world by going along with these lies.”

EDIT; I've been waiting to see what comes of the Cohen shenanigans. Here's something that seems significant, done by a presidential candidate's "fixer" right before an election:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... del-report
Quote:
President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen formed a shell company with the intent of using it to pay a former Playboy model for the rights to her story claiming an affair with Trump, according to a new report.... The report comes days after it was revealed that Cohen secretly recorded Trump discussing the possible payment.


http://thehill.com/policy/technology/39 ... ship-limit
Quote:
A federal court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking to overturn the agency’s decision to effectively raise the limit on the number of local television stations a company can own. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the legal challenge on a technicality, ruling that the consumer group Free Press did not establish that it had the legal standing to bring the suit.

...The decision to reinstate the UHF discount last year was seen as a major win for companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has been trying to consolidate its power over the local television market.
The article claims this decision is probably too late to save Sinclair's acquisition of the Tribune stations, but I have to wonder if that's true. Sinclair has been fighting hard to control as many local stations as possible and it has Trump's backing.


http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39882 ... nal-emails
Quote:
Internal Pentagon emails show that the White House did not coordinate with or notify Defense Department officials before it released a statement last year warning that the Syrian government would “pay a heavy price” if it conducted another chemical weapons attack, BuzzFeed News reported.

...Mattis and White were on a plane to Germany to attend a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Marshall Plan when the White House released the statement. “I have nothing,” Navy Capt. Jeff Davis -- at the time a Pentagon spokesman -- told reporters in an email. “I suppose we send queries back to the White House.” “Was there any coord traffic on this?” a Joint Chiefs of Staff employee asked in an email to White and Davis. “This is the first I’m seeing about it. Any [talking points] would be appreciated. I’m getting calls from folks in DC.”

“Surprised us all,” Davis replied.

The emails also highlight that Pentagon and White House officials later deceived the press and public on the coordination between the two buildings.
So Trump has been playing emperor again. And the DoD gets to pretend that they knew all about his plans before he revealed them to the world in a tweet.


Well, at least someone in this administration has a backbone:
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/39 ... rump-tweet
Quote:
Ajit Pai, the Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said on Wednesday that President Trump criticism of his agency would not affect their decision to reject Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed merger with Tribune Media.
I wonder how long he'll last, now that he has defied Trump?


And someone with a brain apparently managed to reverse the Obamacare sabotage attempt:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/us/p ... &smtyp=cur
Quote:
The Trump administration, in an abrupt reversal, said Tuesday that it would restart a program that pays billions of dollars to insurers to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act. The administration suspended the program less than three weeks ago, saying it was compelled to do so by a federal court decision in New Mexico. But the administration said Tuesday that it would restore the program because otherwise health plans could become insolvent or withdraw from the market, causing chaos for consumers.

Me, I'm still waiting to hear about this wonderful improved healthcare program Trump and the GOP were going to provide us. So far, it's been the same old "jump through the hoops for the insurance companies and hope you've dotted every "i" or they'll deny your claim" game, insanely inflated prices, and defensive medicine tests of the American healthcare system, with added chaos and rising insurance rates contributed by Trump and company.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 26 Jul , 2018 1:58 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3989 ... -sanctions
Quote:
Legislation that would slap new financial penalties on Russia is running into a familiar obstacle: congressional inertia. Top Republican senators are warning that Congress won’t approve new sanctions quickly, even though many in the upper chamber want to pass something in the wake of the Helsinki summit.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... rosenstein
Quote:
A group of conservative House lawmakers on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the top Department of Justice (DOJ) official overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.The introduction of the resolution is the latest sign of escalating efforts among conservatives to oust the DOJ’s No. 2 official. Conservative members led by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), along with nine co-sponsors, introduced the five articles shortly after a meeting with DOJ officials concerning document production.

...They charge that Rosenstein has a conflict of interest in Mueller's probe, stating that he is a “witness” who could be called to testify in the ongoing investigation into potential surveillance abuse since he signed off on an FBI surveillance renewal application to wiretap Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign.

...The Justice Department declined to comment on the articles of impeachment, but hours before the impeachment text was introduced, DOJ officials told a far different story.

...t is unclear how many other Republicans will support this measure, or if Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other House GOP leaders will act on the impeachment efforts. But Meadows on Wednesday night threatened to force a vote to the House floor.
Grandstanding partisan hacks. But they seem to be doing a good job of distracting everyone from Trump's Helsinki summit with Putin and questions about his campaign's possible contacts with Russia.



Bill Shine seems to be trying to suppress reporters who ask questions Trump doesn't like:
http://thehill.com/media/398889-white-h ... rden-event
Quote:
The White House on Wednesday banned a CNN reporter from a press event in the Rose Garden for asking President Trump questions, according to a CNN report.

Kaitlan Collins, a White House reporter for CNN, was acting as the "pool reporter" for all networks during President Trump's meeting with European Union commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday afternoon.

Collins reportedly asked the president questions about the day's most talked-about stories, a typical move for a pool reporter. She asked, "Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?" and repeated the question once, according to CNN. She then asked, "Mr. President, are you worried about what Michael Cohen is about to say to the prosecutors? Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, Mr. President?"

When Trump didn't respond, Collins asked, "Why is Vladimir Putin not accepting your invitation, Mr. President?"

Trump ignored the questions and said, "Thank you very much, everybody" to the press pool.

After the event, Bill Shine, the newly minted White House deputy chief of staff for communications, called Collins into his office. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also present, according to CNN. The former Fox News executive and the press secretary then informed Collins that she was not invited to a press availability in the Rose Garden later in the afternoon because she asked questions that were "inappropriate" for the venue and for reportedly shouting the questions, according to the CNN report.
The responses:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/398 ... nnot-stand
Quote:
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) slammed the White House on Wednesday following reports that it banned a CNN reporter from a press event for asking President Trump questions.

“We strongly condemn the White House's misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like. This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak,” WHCA President Olivier Knox said in a statement. “It cannot stand,” the statement continued. “Reporters asking questions of powerful government officials, up to and including the President, helps hold those people accountable. In our republic, the WHCA supports the prerogative of all reporters to do their jobs without fear of reprisal from the government.”
http://thehill.com/media/398901-fox-new ... s-reporter
Quote:
Fox News on Wednesday came out in support of CNN after one of CNN's reporters was reportedly banned from a White House event. "We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press," Fox News president Jay Wallace said in a statement on Wednesday evening. Fox News host Bret Baier also weighed in, stating on air that Fox stands "firmly" with CNN on the issue.
http://thehill.com/media/398919-lou-dob ... ll-are-you
Quote:
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Wednesday night said he supports the White House's decision to ban a CNN reporter from a press event for asking President Trump questions earlier that day. His comments came shortly after Fox News President Jay Wallace said his network stands in "strong solidarity" with CNN. "My question is, who the hell are you?" Dobbs said after reading CNN's statement about the ban. "The president does insist on respect."
I am reminded about how European reporters refused to let one of Trump's ambassadors off-the-hook when he refused to answer a question, with each subsequent reporter asking him the same thing. A pity our reporters don't have that kind of solidarity. I'd be asking Trump the same questions at every press conference from now on, until he answered.

That is, if they can get hold of him. ;)
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... s-for-iowa
Quote:
President Trump departed the White House on Thursday for a trip to Iowa and Illinois without facing the news media, citing bad weather despite clear skies in the nation's capital.

The Rose Garden press conference was about an agreement between Trump and the EU to talk about trade:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... trump-deal
Quote:
The European Union appears to have won a big trade-war ceasefire with the U.S. for a small price -- at least in the short term.

In return for a pledge by U.S. President Donald Trump to suspend the threat of an extra tariff on European cars, the EU reheated proposals to bolster transatlantic economic ties and threw in a vow to buy more American soybeans.

...The main question mark is the feasibility for the EU of the remaining part of the package: a goal to import more liquefied-natural gas from the U.S. This has strategic consequences for the bloc in general and for Germany in particular as Europe seeks to reduce reliance on Russian natural gas.“We do not believe this will materialize in any significant way,” said Johana Typoltova, European gas analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... than-trump
Quote:
The joint statement Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump signed hints at what the bargaining was about. The parties agreed “to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods” (translation: tariffs on cars, the major sticking point in U.S.-EU trade relations under Trump, will not be touched) and to “reduce barriers and increase trade in services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical products, as well as soybeans” (translation: the EU will keep its trade barriers against U.S. agricultural imports but is happy to buy more soybeans).

Juncker also told Trump that the EU “wants to import more liquefied natural gas” from the U.S. (but not that it will work to reduce imports of Russian pipeline gas) and that it’s happy to work together with the U.S. to reform the World Trade Organization.

This may sound almost as unspecific as the statement Trump signed with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore: There are no numbers, no deadlines and no specific measures outlined in the Trump-Juncker document. Yet it’s clear that Trump’s fire and fury against European car imports have been put to rest, at least temporarily.
Good news, I think. As someone put it, the arsonist has gotten credit for putting out the fire - but I think we're all better off without the fire. Unfortunately, we have other fires Trump started with Canada and Mexico, not to mention the five-alarm blaze he's started with China, which holds US Treasury bonds as its ace.


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/busi ... ficit.html
Quote:
How the Trump Tax Cut Is Helping to Push the Federal Deficit to $1 Trillion
Quote:
The amount of corporate taxes collected by the federal government has plunged to historically low levels in the first six months of the year, pushing up the federal budget deficit much faster than economists had predicted.

The reason is President Trump’s tax cuts. The law introduced a standard corporate rate of 21 percent, down from a high of 35 percent, and allowed companies to immediately deduct many new investments. As companies operate with lower taxes and a greater ability to reduce what they owe, the federal government is receiving far less than it would have before the overhaul.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39900 ... olicy-bill
Quote:
The House on Thursday easily passed the $717 billion annual defense policy bill, keeping it on track to become law before the start of the fiscal year for the first time since fiscal 1997.

...“This bill takes a major step forward in rebuilding our military, reforming the Pentagon and better preparing this country to deal with the national security challenges which lay before us,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said on the House floor. The bill...would authorize about $639 billion for the base budget of the Pentagon and defense programs of the Energy Department. It would also allow for another $69 billion for a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account.



http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39887 ... -detainees
Quote:
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment that would limit the use of shackles on pregnant women detained by immigration and border patrol.

...The American Medical Association, she continued, recommends against shackling pregnant women in their second or third trimester because it can increase chances of harming the fetus.

The practice of shackling women was uncommon until the Trump administration imposed its zero-tolerance border crossing policy, Clark said, in part because women were not regularly detained prior to that.

The amendment would still allow the use of shackling in extreme circumstances, such as for women who pose a clear flight risk or a danger to themselves or others.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... rder-walls
Quote:
Thousands of scientists have endorsed research finding that President Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border would harm biodiversity in the region.Earther reported that as of Wednesday, more than 2,700 scientists have signed onto the study “Nature Divided, Scientists United: US–Mexico Border Wall Threatens Biodiversity and Binational Conservation.” The report was published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal BioScience. More than 2,500 scientists had signed on at the time of its publication.

The paper found that efforts to build the wall “threaten some of the continent's most biologically diverse regions,” and that the already constructed segments of the wall “are reducing the area, quality, and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation.”

Also, Putin was reluctant to visit the White House this fall, so Trump has put off that meeting. And the White House issued a statement claiming that the question about whether Putin wanted Trump to win the election was accidentally lost from the official video and transcript due to technical glitches. This sounds like a mighty big coincidence that Trump's least favorite question was the one lost. Or perhaps they're just not very competent? Thanks to The Atlantic and other media sources pointing out the omission, the Trump administration has now corrected the official transcripts: http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -saying-he



Edit:
Well, this didn't last long. :D
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... empt-after
Quote:
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) says he is tabling his efforts to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after having several meetings with Republican leadership, stating that he would instead pursue contempt if the Justice Department (DOJ) does not turn over documents Congress is seeking.
I didn't really expect this to go anywhere, but GOP leaders shut them down faster than I expected.


The Atlantic has a synopsis of the Pompeo hearings:
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ng/566045/
Quote:
Mike Pompeo came to Congress on Wednesday to brief members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Donald Trump’s recent summits with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. But the appearance turned into something far more fundamental and extraordinary: an investigation into whether, on foreign policy, the current president of the United States speaks for the U.S. government and U.S. officials like the secretary of state speak for the president. Senators of both parties questioned what the Trump administration stood for, and whether Trump and his administration stood in the same place.

More on the FCC's refusal to approve the Sinclair merger:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ne/566099/
Quote:
Sinclair’s deals were sketchy to say the least, orchestrating problematic sidecar agreements that would allow them to control certain stations even without owning them, he said. For instance, a sidecar deal would see the Chicago broadcasting powerhouse WGN sold to the Maryland car salesman Steven Fader, a business associate of the Sinclair chairman David Smith. Sinclair would still provide programming and ad sales, and would have a buy-back option, the Chicago Tribune reported in March.

...Pai’s reversal saw the FCC vote 4–0 to send the merger to an administrative judge—a potentially grueling uphill battle for any corporate aspirant in Sinclair’s shoes. Sinclair submitted a revised plan last Wednesday as a last-ditch effort to get the Commission to change its mind. Unless that happens, Sinclair-Tribune is staring down a slow and painful death. ...In sending the Sinclair merger to an administrative judge, Pai’s order went so far as to suggest Sinclair demonstrated a “lack of candor” in representing itself to the FCC, a harsh and uncommon accusation—a violation of the FCC’s “character qualifications” in licensing—that could result in harsh penalties for the company, including license revocations.

And this could get interesting:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/26/trump-o ... y-wsj.html
Quote:
A federal grand jury investigating President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer has subpoenaed the chief financial officer of Trump's company, Allen Weisselberg, to testify, a new report said Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal said that Weisselberg is considered a witness in the ongoing probe of Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen.
Apparently Mueller is also looking at Trump's tweets. Not too surprising. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when agents are looking at those. They must have a tough time keeping a straight face at the more lunatic comments.


http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/People ... 39871.html
Quote:
People are gathering with NextGen Iowa at Northeast Iowa Community College to protest during President Donald Trump's visit.... As soon as the President's motorcade arrived on campus, protesters filled the street leading to the main entrance at NICC. Messages on signs related to Russian collusion, deportation, and encouraging others to vote PresidentTrump and Congressman Rod Blum out of office.

...it did not stop Trump supporters from showing up, as well. " ... Sybil Schroeder, who came to support Trump, waving the flag of the United States....admitted she was in the minority today supporting Trump, but she said it would not stop her from wanting to stand in front and watch the President arrive

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 27 Jul , 2018 1:16 pm
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More bad news for Trump:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ad-of-time
Quote:
President Trump’s former longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen claims that Trump had prior knowledge of the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer, CNN reported Thursday. Sources told CNN that Cohen claims that he was with Trump when Donald Trump Jr. told him of the offer from Russians and that Trump approved going ahead with the meeting.
And he's willing to discuss it with Mueller.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -officials
Quote:
The Moscow lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign had close ties to top Russian government officials, according to a new report from the Associated Press.

Documents reveal Natalia Veselnitskaya served as a ghostwriter for high-level Russian government lawyers and collaborated with senior Interior Ministry personnel, according to the AP, who received the information from a London-based investigative unit, the Dossier Center.
Trump is doing his usual bluster routine about Cohen but this does not look good for him.


Apparently, Trump's Midwest trip wasn't the ego-booster that he looks for. After the protests in Iowa, people in Illinois greeted him with the Trump chicken:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing- ... mp-chicken
Quote:
Protesters lined up hours ahead of his visit to greet the president with the “Trump chicken” balloon and numerous signs attacking the president as a “liar,” calling for his impeachment, and slamming his controversial “zero-tolerance” immigration policy.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3990 ... -from-nato
Quote:
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation on Thursday to require President Trump to get the Senate's approval before he withdraws the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The bill—from Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.)—would require Trump to get the support of two-thirds of the Senate if he wanted to withdraw from the alliance or modify U.S. membership.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... he-wouldnt
Quote:
Acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Andrew Wheeler has been in meetings with representatives from three former lobbying clients ... biodiesel producer Darling Ingredients, agriculture company Archer Daniels Midland Co. and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, all of which were former clients from his time at Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting.

...Wheeler signed a Trump administration ethics pledge when he started at the EPA, promising that he would not “participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related” to former clients for two years.

E&E said it is possible that the events didn’t qualify as “particular matters” under ethics standards. But Wheeler told Bloomberg News in June that he would go farther than the pledge to avoid appearances of conflicts of interest.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... rump-rolls
Quote:
More than three dozens permits to import lion trophies have been issued since 2016, according to documents obtained by animal advocacy group Friends of Animals.... a result of the Trump administration easing restrictions on importing animal parts resulting from overseas hunting.

...Friends of Animals noted that more than half of the individuals issued trophy hunting permits have been donors to the GOP, President Trump or are linked to hunting lobbying group Safari Club International. One recipient, Steven Chancellor, was appointed to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s International Wildlife Conservation Council.

http://thehill.com/latino/399137-aclu-b ... t-families
Quote:
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ripped the Trump administration over the reunification of migrant children separated from their parents, claiming officials failed to meet the Thursday night deadline to reunite the children with their parents.

The government said in a court filing Thursday evening that it had reunited 1,442 children over the age of 5 with their parents who were in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Another 378 of those children have been “discharged in other appropriate circumstances,” including to a sponsor or to their parents in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody.

Another 711 children remain in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement after it was determined their parents are either not eligible for reunification or are unavailable.

More fallout from Bill Shine and Sarah Sanders telling a CNN reporter that she was banned from a later event, after she asked questions Trump doesn't like (and refused to answer or acknowledge). Shine seems to be trying to evade responsibility for what he did by playing semantic games:
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/39912 ... n-reporter
Quote:
Fox News host Shepard Smith called out his “personal friend” and former Fox News executive Bill Shine for barring a CNN reporter from a White House event on Wednesday.

...Smith aired footage of Shine telling reporters to ask the CNN reporter, Kaitlan Collins, if he ever used the word “ban” in telling her she could not attend the event.

...He also cited comments about the incident from White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who said members of the news media need to show more respect while covering Trump.

“Civility,” Smith said. “CNN maintains, the Correspondence Association agrees, and we at Fox News observe that Collins was civil, that she asked relevant and timely questions of a president who often answers questions under identical circumstances and in the same setting.” “One of our journalists might have done exactly the same,” he added.

;) :
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowit ... -to-moscow
Quote:
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Bringing a tumultuous chapter of American history to an abrupt conclusion, Donald J. Trump and three of his adult children fled to Moscow in the early hours of Friday morning.

...At the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that the Trump family had fled to Moscow, telling reporters, “The Trump family has not fled to Moscow.”


Edit to add:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... d-families
Quote:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is looking into allegations that the Trump administration deleted records of immigrant families it separated at the southern border.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the agency on July 6 after The New York Times reported, citing two unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, that records linking children to their parents have disappeared and in some cases been destroyed.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Mon 30 Jul , 2018 2:57 pm
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These news items were in the July 20 issue of Science magazine. I don't have online references:

- Trump's new NASA head Jim Bridenstine, who is not a scientist but seems sensible, asked for a deputy administrator with a scientific background to complement him. He specific mentioned Janet Kavandi, a former astronaut and now head of NASA Glenn Research Center in Ohio. Instead, Trump nominated James Morhard, a congressional staffer with no science background. Morhard is a former lobbyist and an administrator for the Senate Appropriations Committee.

- For the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, which "funds promising early-stage projects for energy efficiency and production," Trump has chosen 67-year-old S. Lane Genatowski, who headed an investment firm in Houston and has a law degree. Prior heads of this agency had degrees in science or engineering. The Trump administration has already tried to cut or eliminate funds this agency, but Congress wasn't willing to go along with him so far.



http://thehill.com/latino/399432-lawsui ... rder-twice
Quote:
A court filing on Saturday night alleges at least four migrant fathers were separated from their children again after being reunited with them briefly this week.

The declaration... was filed as part of the class-action lawsuit on behalf of migrant parents who wish to be reunited with their children. It alleges that the four fathers were given three “choices” when the government reunited them with their children: First, to be deported with their children; second, agree for the children to stay in the U.S. if the parent loses the immigration case; or third, to speak to a lawyer before making the decision.

The fathers are claiming the first option was already selected for them.

The allegation comes days after the government failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite families it separated at the southern border.
Reading the article, it sounds like some of them tried to make other choices but were denied or lied to, and one man had his son taken away again when he refused to agree to being deported together.



Trump was going ballistic at his New Jersey golf resort, where he once again retreated over the weekend.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... legal-scam
Quote:
President Trump asserted on Sunday that the special counsel investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia is "illegal" because it was ignited by a "fraudulent" opposition research dossier.

..."There is No Collusion!" Trump tweeted. "The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!"
Hard to believe the president of the US is this ignorant. Or maybe he's just trying to pull the wool over his supporters' eyes. And you'd think the president would have more important things to do than play golf and obsess over this investigation.


http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... government
Quote:
President Trump on Sunday unleashed a tirade against the media in which he called reporters "unpatriotic" for reporting on the inner workings of the government.

..."I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the dying newspaper industry," he added. "No matter how much they try to distract and cover it up, our country is making great progress under my leadership and I will never stop fighting for the American people!"

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Tue 31 Jul , 2018 7:52 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
http://thehill.com/regulation/labor/399 ... ericans-by
Quote:
The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Labor announced an agreement Tuesday to work together in cracking down on companies that "discriminate" against U.S. workers by hiring foreign workers.

...Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore said in a statement that the agreement will help the civil rights division’s “ability to identify employers the favor temporary visa holders over U.S. workers who can do the job.”
The article notes the irony of Trump hiring foreign workers for his golf properties but threatening other companies for not hiring Americans.


http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/39 ... g-children
Quote:
A Trump administration official told lawmakers Tuesday that he warned against "any policy" separating children from their parents, citing concerns about their health and wellbeing.

"During the deliberative process over the previous year we raised a number of concerns in the ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] program about any policy which would result in family separation due to concerns we had about the best interest of the child as well about whether that would be operationally supportable with the bed capacity we have," Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the administration's immigration policies.

... "There's no question, there's no question that separation of children from parents entails significant potential for traumatic psychological injury to the child."

White's comments came under questioning from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Nevertheless, Trump went ahead with "zero tolerance" policies that resulted in family separation.


http://thehill.com/latino/399636-judge- ... t-children
Quote:
A federal judge reportedly ordered the Trump administration on Monday to stop administering psychotropic medication to migrant children without obtaining permission from their parents or guardians, finding that the practice violated child welfare law.

Also worth noting that Trump is now tweeting "collusion is not a crime." So. First his campaign didn't meet with any Russians and all those Russian contacts were just a coincidence and normal. Then they met once but left in disgust when the Russians wanted to discuss adoptions (code for the Magnitsky Act). But Trump had nothing whatsoever to do with his son's meeting in Trump Tower and ever-changing story about the event.... and now? Oh hey, it doesn't matter if we did collude with them. Amazing that this is still acceptable to Trump supporters.

_________________

Society can and does execute its own mandates, and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. ― John Stuart Mill


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