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You've been Trumped!

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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 14 Mar , 2019 7:02 pm
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And if the planes are eventually found to be at fault, Boeing may have to refund every single one. Do you think they can stay solvent if that happens?

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Frelga
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 14 Mar , 2019 7:07 pm
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How's Airbus doing with the safety record?

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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 14 Mar , 2019 7:19 pm
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According to Google:
How many Airbus planes have crashed?
The Most Popular Airliners Worldwide
Aircraft Type	Total number currently operating	Fatal accidents to passengers
Boeing 777	854	0
Airbus A319	1207	0
Airbus A320	2388	9
Airbus A321	617	1
9 more rows•Nov 5, 2010
Is this what you meant?

Edit: sorry, the fields are not lined up. Is it possible to do that in phpbb?

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 15 Mar , 2019 10:24 am
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From what I'm hearing Jude its a simple software update that's required.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 15 Mar , 2019 2:20 pm
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I'm not sure how simple it is. I don't have a link to the article (it's probably the Wall Street Journal one behind a paywall), but it sounds like the FAA wants/ wanted Boeing to do several things in the software and Boeing insisted some were not necessary.

The whole thing seems to have been the result of economics/ profits. As I understand it in layman's terms, Boeing wanted to get its new, lighter, more fuel efficient plane out faster to compete with Airbus. And to do that, they scrapped plans for a new build and used the old 737 platform for the new engines. But that resulted in instability, so they needed a new system to stabilize the plane against stalls, part of which was this software with some sensors. If those sensors get erroneous readings, the system tries to override the pilot's commands and point the nose toward the ground, and the only way to override that currently is to turn off the system. Which, I imagine, is trickiest when you're taking off and many things are happening, and you have a very short window to realize that the issue is the plane's software and not something else. It sounds to me like they have a fundamental problem they just put a band-aid on, but I'll admit it's possible that this happens all the time when you're designing a modern plane, and this is a common and accepted solution.

btw, the FAA still doesn't have a permanent head, just an acting one. Apparently, Trump nominated his personal pilot for the position (no joke) and even the GOP-controlled Congress wouldn't go for that.I expect the acting head is competent enough, but Trump is ridiculous.


Speaking of which, 12 Republicans found their backbone and voted for the bill to deny Trump his emergency resolution. Not a veto-proof majority at this point, but it's something.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/434 ... eclaration


Also, almost the entire House voted to release the Mueller report to the public. This report doesn't say it, but a handful of House Republicans did vote "present" - but everyone else supported it. On the other hand, the bill has been blocked in the Senate by a Trump supporter.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/434 ... ade-public
Quote:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday blocked a resolution calling for special counsel Robert Mueller's report to be made public after it passed the House unanimously.

...Graham stressed that he supported Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and predicted that it would wrap up shortly. But he added that he had been "trying to find balance" by also supporting an investigation into Clinton-related scandals.
Their usual excuse, these days ... "But Hillary!" Of course, Graham didn't explain how blocking this bill would advance his cause, or why we need to be as concerned about a failed presidential candidate as about the current occupant of the White House.



EDIT:
The US is becoming a rogue nation under Trump and the neocons.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... estigating
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday that the United States would restrict visas of any International Criminal Court (ICC) staffers who investigate actions by U.S. military personnel.

...Pompeo declined to provide details on the number of visas that could be affected but said the administration had already begun implementing the policy.
So we're not going to let international courts investigate war crimes unless they're done by soldiers from another country. How far the US has fallen.


And our president and his allies are promoting conspiracy theories again.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... bi-doj-cia
Quote:
“'New evidence that the Obama era team of the FBI, DOJ & CIA were working together to Spy on (and take out) President Trump, all the way back in 2015.' A transcript of Peter Strzok’s testimony is devastating. Hopefully the Mueller Report will be covering this," the president tweeted.

It was unclear what exactly in Strzok's testimony the president referred to in his tweet, as Strzok did not appear to confirm any alleged acts of wrongdoing in the testimony released on Thursday.

...Strzok did say in the testimony that he believed the possibility of “a hostile foreign power ... seeking to clandestinely influence our presidential election” to be a more significant threat than the possible mishandling of classified materials by the former secretary of State.

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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 19 Mar , 2019 1:18 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... est-attack
Quote:
Trump blasts 'fake news media' as 'absolute enemy' in latest attack on press
https://thehill.com/latino/434670-repor ... s-of-trump
Quote:
Reporters, lawyers say they were detained at border, asked opinions of Trump: report
Quote:
Levy said she was told she would be arrested if she did not answer agent questions and was told she could not speak with an attorney. Both said they were detained for hours.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... with-faith
Quote:
State Department blocks reporters from Pompeo briefing with faith-based media: report
Quote:
The State Department allowed only "faith-based media” on a briefing call on international religious freedom held by Secretary State Mike Pompeo on Monday, and blocked reporters from other news outlets from joining, CNN reported.

...A transcript of the call will not be provided to reporters, CNN added.

John Kirby, a former State Department spokesperson and CNN analyst, told the network that "it is typical practice that any on the recorded interview in which a Cabinet official participates is transcribed and published at the earliest appropriate opportunity."



https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... l-alliance
Quote:
President Trump will meet with Brazil's "Trump of the Tropics" for the first time on Tuesday in a high-profile visit earning criticism from opponents in both countries.

Trump and Jair Bolsonaro have had a close relationship since the latter was elected in October of last year. Bolsonaro’s right-wing, populist policies have led many to draw parallels between him and Trump, earning him the nickname “Trump of the Tropics.”

...A senior administration official said that the similarities between Trump and Bolsonaro provide an opportunity to create a "north-south axis of two largest economies in the western hemisphere.”

...Criticisms of Bolsonaro include that he has praised Brazil’s former military dictatorship, advocated for torture, threatened to jail political opponents, and criticized women and the LGBTQ community. The Brazilian president’s unannounced visit to the CIA on Monday also drew the ire of his opponents back home, who see it as his bowing to U.S. power.


https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4346 ... spy-budget
Quote:
The Trump administration wants nearly $86 billion for its intelligence programs in fiscal 2020, a 6 percent jump from last year.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on Monday revealed that the administration wants $62.8 billion for its U.S. intelligence agencies, while the Pentagon released its $22.95 billion request for its military intelligence program (MIP). Details of the so-called black budget are secret, but the funds cover a range of expenses including spy planes and satellites, intelligence gathering through spies and informants, and cyber weapons.
I don't know if this budget includes increased money to spend on the surveillance of citizens in the US. Trump also wants much more money for the military and to cut programs for domestic programs.





btw, Boeing is under investigation:
https://thehill.com/policy/transportati ... y-concerns
Quote:
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that federal prosecutors as well as officials with the Department of Transportation are probing the development of the aircraft. According to the newspaper, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., subpoenaed at least one person involved in the plane's development for documents.
I doubt if much will come of it, given their close government ties and economic importance. Maybe a slap on the wrist.

_________________

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 20 Mar , 2019 2:32 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... lks-report
Quote:
President Trump is taking increased control over nuclear negotiations with North Korea, according to a Monday report by Time magazine. ...the news outlet reports Trump halted an endeavor by negotiator Stephen Biegun to reach the hermit nation through its United Nations mission in New York. Trump has also reportedly said he is not concerned by findings by the CIA, State and Defense Departments and other agencies that North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un will continue the country's nuclear program, saying he can strike up a deal.

“The President’s constant refrain is that Kim is his ‘friend,’ ” one official told the magazine.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -fake-news
Quote:
President Trump said Tuesday that he was "very proud" to hear Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro use the term "fake news" during a news conference at the White House.

Trump offered praise for his Brazilian counterpart, who has earned the nickname "Trump of the Tropics" for his similarities to the U.S. leader, during a diatribe against tech companies and broadcast networks. Trump suggested that those two groups are biased against him and other conservatives.

...Bolsonaro invoked the term Trump regularly uses to describe unfavorable news coverage during his opening remarks. "Brazil and the United States stand side-by-side in their efforts to ensure liberties in respect to traditional family lifestyles, respect to God our creator, against the gender ideology or the politically correct attitudes and against fake news," he said through a translator.

..."I also know that we’re going to have a fantastic working relationship," Trump said. "We have many views that are similar."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/ ... 34744.html
Quote:
US President Donald Trump and Brazil's new far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro forged a bond over their shared brand of conservative and populist politics on Tuesday, with Trump pledging to give more US support to Brazil's global ambitions.

Speaking at a joint White House news conference Trump said: "As I told President Bolsonaro, I also intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally - or, maybe a NATO ally. I'll have to talk to a lot of people but maybe a NATO ally - which will greatly advance security and cooperation between our countries."

..."We do agree with President Trump's decision or proposal on the wall," Bolsonaro said, in remarks translated to English by the broadcaster. "The vast majority of potential immigrants do not have good intentions. They do not intend to do the best or do good to the US people."

Trump said that he and Bolsonaro will have a "fantastic working relationship" and that "we have many views that are similar".


...Trump warned on Tuesday that the US could impose "a lot tougher" sanctions on Venezuela as he urged the country's military to depose leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.

There are questions about whether further US sanctions will help force out Maduro or just hurt people who are already poor and desperate.
https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/america ... 42058.html
Quote:
US sanctions hurting Venezuela's most vulnerable

As the US and its allies slap new sanctions on the country, life for Venezuelans gets worse amid shortage of medicine and food.




The Trump administration is ignoring the law:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4348 ... cy-remains
Quote:
A federal judge on Tuesday said her injunction preventing President Trump’s transgender military policy from taking effect remains in place days after the Pentagon released a memo to implement the policy. In a three-page order, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that “defendants were incorrect in claiming that there was no longer an impediment to the military’s implementation of the [transgender policy] in this case.”

Asked whether the order will affect plans to implement the policy on April 12, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the department is “consulting with the Department of Justice on next steps.”

_________________

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 21 Mar , 2019 6:04 pm
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Trump continues on his mission to provoke unrest in the Middle East and inspire Muslim nations to hate the U.S.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... overeignty
Quote:
Trump says US will recognize Israel's sovereignty over Golan Heights

Israel captured Golan Heights from Syria after war in 1967
Netanyahu responds on Twitter: ‘Thank you President Trump!’


...Trump declared his break with [US policy for the last 50 years] policy in a tweet.

He said: “After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!”
Might makes right. Putin is expectantly waiting a similar announcement on Crimea.

btw, Netanyahu is visiting the US in a few days (mostly, I believe, to attend the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC's conference, which will be attended by many US politicians). I suppose it makes a nice change from his own country, where he's mired in scandals. Trump's move looks like an attempt to boost Netanyahu's chances in the upcoming elections.


Edit: It looks like some members of Congress will support Trump's move.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/ ... 21640.html
Quote:
Last month, US Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Congressman Mike Gallagher introduced legislation in the House of Representatives and the Senate to recognise Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Disgusted, but not surprised.



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... on-centers
Quote:
President Trump is considering deploying a 1,000-person force usually used for relief efforts after hurricanes and other natural disasters to help staff overcrowded detention centers for migrants, according to people briefed on the matter.

...Trump is contemplating bolstering capacity by using the Surge Capacity Force — an entity created by Congress in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for times when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needs extra staff on short notice.

The statute allows the Department of Homeland Security, which houses FEMA, to “borrow” trained federal employees from other parts of the government who volunteer for the effort in the event of an emergency.
Operative word being VOLUNTEER. These people volunteered to help people affected by natural disasters, not to serve as guards in detention centers for immigrants.



https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... rump-putin
Quote:
White House rejects Dem request for documents on Trump-Putin communications
Quote:
The Democrats’ request followed a January Washington Post report that Trump had sought to keep details of his communications with Putin secret, including at one point taking the notes of an interpreter present for his conversation with Putin on the sidelines of the 2017 G-20 meeting in Hamburg.
Seriously, isn't it time someone in Congress sends a subpoena to this arrogant bastard? Trump has refused request after request from House committees and so far, NOTHING in response.



https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... pate-in-un
Quote:
The U.S. reportedly denied several visa applications from women trying to attend an annual United Nations women's conference this month.

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), a U.N.-affiliated organization, told BuzzFeed News that at least 41 women were denied visas as they attempted to attend the Commission on the Status of Women, a conference running from March 11 to March 22 in New York.

The organization added that the number represents only "the tip of the iceberg."

BuzzFeed noted that the U.S. is not allowed to prevent individuals or nongovernmental organizations from attending the U.N. headquarters, according to a treaty from 1947.



Let me guess. No Trump supporter will be outraged over this. Because it's Kushner, who's a member of our current ruling family, and not Hillary Clinton.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... t-official
Quote:
The House Oversight and Reform Committee has obtained information that senior White House adviser and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has used WhatsApp and his personal email to conduct official government business.

Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wrote in a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone on Thursday that the panel gained confirmation from Kushner’s attorney Abbe Lowell in December of last year that Kushner "continues to use" the encrypted message service for government business


EDIT:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/ ... os-1230490
Quote:
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday that addresses campus free speech as well as other higher education issues, according to several sources familiar with the White House’s plans.

Trump said earlier this month he would issue an executive order “requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars.”

...While Republicans have widely criticized colleges and universities for stifling free speech rights on campuses, some conservatives have also cautioned against creating new federal restrictions.

"I do not want to see Congress or the president or the department of anything defining what a speech code should be or should not be, what you can say, or what you shouldn't," Senate HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander said in September.

Similarly, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has said she doesn’t believe “government muscle” should be used to address campus free speech issues. “A solution won’t come from defunding an institution of learning,” she said last fall.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/here- ... p-s/245943
Quote:
Here’s What Trump’s Executive Order on Free Speech Says
It specifically excludes private schools, which presumably will be allowed to exclude whoever they like, as some of the super-religious ones are prone to do.

btw, Trump supporters were recently blaming UC Berkeley because a conservative activist got punched in the face on campus. Don't ask me to explain their logic - the university gave his group space on campus to do their thing, like they do for most groups. Maybe they're also supposed to post a guard besides each and every conservative person, just in case he/she provokes someone? Needless to say, it got little attention from the conservatives when university police found out who did the punching - not a student - and charged him with assault. (hey, that doesn't suit the narrative of the big bad university that's mean to conservatives. Neither does the fact that the university immediately condemned the assault.) And, of course, Trump made a big hero of the guy who got punched and is pushing the illogical line that the university is at fault. This is supposedly part of the excuse for this executive order.

The guy who got punched was recruiting for Turning Point USA, which might explain Trump drooling over this kid. Apparently they're big Trump supporters.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/20 ... d-authors/
Quote:
Conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk is offering a $50,000 reward for information on the anonymous White House official who published a blistering anti-Trump New York Times op-ed.

Mr. Kirk also declared war on “the deep state,” which some have said is behind the chaotic portrayal of President Trump’s administration.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ech-debate
Quote:
I went inside a rightwing safe space to find out the truth about universities
Quote:
To find out, I attended an event at my own university, the University of Georgia (UGA), a public university in a deep-red state. Like most of the universities I have taught at in the US, UGA has a fairly apolitical campus, where only a few usual suspects organize small events around issues like LBTQ rights and the occupation of Palestine....

This week, the local chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) hosted Charlie Kirk, who promised to “expos[e] leftist lies and progressive propaganda”. Kirk founded the organization in 2012, at the tender age of 18. Today, TPUSA claims a multimillion dollar budget and “a presence” on over 1,000 college campuses and high schools across the country”. It is most infamous for its “Professor Watchlist”, a list of professors that are accused of advancing “radical agenda in the lecture halls”...

After a quick pandering to the home crowd, saying he supported Georgia against Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship, he starts his attack on the universities. The story is simple, really: universities are full of Marxist professors, who force students to take irrelevant courses, which indoctrinate them with postmodernism and socialism – the fact that these two are diametrically opposed is but a detail...
And, of course, Kirk has never actually attended any university... :) But he's pretty good at propaganda and fooling people, according to the article, at least when his opponents are poorly informed college kids.

_________________

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 22 Mar , 2019 5:13 pm
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4353 ... ore-to-fed
Quote:
President Trump said Friday he is appointing Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to his 2016 campaign, to a spot on the Federal Reserve Board.

...Moore has been one of the fiercest defenders of the president’s economic agenda. He authored a book released last year entitled “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy,” with prominent conservative economist Arthur Laffer. The appointment of Moore will be seen as an effort to add a loyal supporter of the president's agenda to the Fed, as well as a figure opposed to interest rate hikes.

...While Moore had criticized the Fed for keeping interest rates low during the Obama administration, he’s recently rebuked the central bank for raising rates during Trump’s presidency.
EDIT:
Here's more information on Moore.
https://archives.cjr.org/united_states_ ... p?page=all
Quote:
Why one editor won’t run any more op-eds by the Heritage Foundation’s top economist
Quote:
“I won’t be running anything else from Stephen Moore.”

So says Miriam Pepper, editorial page editor of the Kansas City Star—and not just because she’s retiring this week. Pepper’s no-Moore stance comes after her paper discovered substantial factual errors in a recent guest op-ed by Moore, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

...It all began a month ago, when the Star ran a piece by the Nobel Prize-winning economist-turned- liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, as it does regularly. The column named Moore as one of the “charlatans and cranks” who have influenced policymakers at all levels to enact low-tax, supply-side economic policies—with ruinous effects, according to Krugman. ....

After the column ran, Pepper told me, “I was contacted by Moore’s people saying they wanted to run a response.” In the interest of fairness, she agreed.

...The Star ran Moore’s column on July 7. It wasn’t until weeks later that Pepper realized there were problems with it. The bad news came from one of her own columnists, Yael Abouhalkah, who had taken another look at Moore’s op-ed while researching an editorial he was writing, and realized that one key paragraph—the one containing the most specific data in support of Moore’s claim—didn’t check out...



Reactions to Trump's move to legitimize Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights:
https://www.france24.com/en/20190322-re ... ump-pledge
Quote:
For Marla van Meter, like many Israeli settlers on the Golan Heights, US President Donald Trump has simply faced facts by pledging to recognise Israeli ownership of the occupied plateau, changing nothing in practice.... Van Meter, who describes herself as a socialist, told AFP that the move would not sway her to vote for Netanyahu, who is under threat of indictment for corruption."Netanyahu is over for me," she said.

Druze Arab Golan resident Ghassan Abu Jabal, on the other hand, sees the Trump declaration as a denial of reality, meant to boost Netanyahu's election prospects."It's an idiotic decision, from an idiot, who makes a gift of something that does not belong to him to another idiot even more corrupt than himself," he said...

https://www.france24.com/en/20190322-fr ... nald-trump
Quote:
...international reaction was overwhelmingly critical.

“The Golan is a territory occupied by Israel since 1967. France does not recognise the Israeli annexation of 1981,” the French ministry said in a daily briefing, adding that UN Security Council resolutions had recognised the annexation as null and void.

...The Gulf Cooperation Council regional group of six Arab monarchies [said]...Trump’s statement “will not change the reality that (...) the Arab Golan Heights is Syrian land occupied by Israel by military force in 1967", ...“The statements by the American president undermine the chances of achieving a just and comprehensive peace.”

...Russia, an ally of President Bashar al-Assad with forces in Syria, said Trump’s comments risked seriously destabilising the region, and it voiced hope the statement was just declaratory.

Iran, Assad’s main regional ally and which also has forces in Syria, condemned the statement as illegal and unacceptable.

Turkey, a US-allied state and an adversary of Damascus, said the statement had brought the Middle East to the edge of a new crisis and the legitimisation of the occupation of the Golan Heights could not be allowed.

The German government were also quick to respond. A spokeswoman confirmed that they respected that the Golan Heights is Syrian territory occupied by Israel.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/ ... an-heights
Quote:
Syria has vowed to retake the Golan Heights as Donald Trump’s call for the US to recognise the occupied territory as part of Israel elicited strong responses from Russia, Turkey and Iran.

The president ended half a century of US foreign policy and broke from post-second world war international consensus that forbids territorial conquest during war with a tweet on Thursday that said it was time “to fully recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights”.
I suppose the one thing that might defuse this mess is that everyone recognizes the current US president is a moron.





https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... -point-usa
Quote:
President Donald Trump gleefully pressed on another culture war hot button Thursday afternoon, issuing an executive order that’s supposed to address allegedly serious threats to free speech on America’s college campuses.

The order itself does very little in practical terms: As my colleague Ella Nilsen explains, it basically amounts to reminding universities about existing law. But that doesn’t mean the order is insignificant.

It reflects, instead, the degree to which the conservative movement, joined by a few prominent anti–political correctness crusaders, has created a panic about the limitation of free speech on college campuses...

... Certainly, campuses are not perfect havens of free speech — it really is true that conservatives are underrepresented in campus political discussions — but a few problems do not warrant a major panic. Most of the conversation about campus censorship and free speech violations stemmed from a handful of high-profile incidents, inflated by right-wing campus watchdogs and breathless media coverage about the kids these days, in a country with thousands of college campuses and millions of college students.

...But the fact that Trump issued the executive order at all shows just how central universities are in the conservative cultural imagination, and how devoted the current right is to a political vision in which radical professors and left-wing students are responsible for America’s problems. ...

That’s because this isn’t a battle about free speech. it’s a fight over political power and cultural control...

Last edited by aninkling on Fri 22 Mar , 2019 7:15 pm, edited 3 times 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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Jude
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 22 Mar , 2019 5:40 pm
Aspiring to heresy
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aninkling wrote:
I suppose the one thing that might defuse this mess is that everyone recognizes the current US president is a moron.
I wish that were true, but the number of people that still support him is scarily high.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Fri 22 Mar , 2019 5:56 pm
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What I meant is that the people in power internationally know he's a fool and might choose to ignore him, beyond statements of condemnation from most countries and some rhetoric from a few countries like Syria.




King Donald Speaks:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... sed-by-his
Quote:
President Trump said Friday he would reverse sanctions against North Korea that were recently announced by the Treasury Department, a surprise declaration that sparked confusion in Washington.

In a tweet, Trump wrote that “it was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions” would be imposed in addition to “already existing Sanctions on North Korea.” “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!”

And Dear Leader is not pleased at a Fox reporter who had dared to criticize his majesty's pet conspiracy theory:
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4353 ... -me-before
Quote:
Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts reported Friday that President Trump “glared at me like I’ve never seen him glare at me before” over questions on criticism of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

...The glare Roberts was referring to was captured by ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl in a video he posted on Twitter...“Just now on the South Lawn, the President took questions from several reporters, but ignored @johnrobertsFox, avoiding eye contact with him until he started walking away and glared at him,” Karl wrote to his more than 200,000 followers.

In an interview that aired Friday morning, Trump told Fox Business anchor Bartiromo that McCain gave a controversial dossier of claims related to Trump and Russia to the FBI for “very evil purposes.”


https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... estigation
Quote:
Robert Mueller has delivered his confidential report to Attorney General William Barr, signaling the end of a two-year investigation that has dominated President Trump’s term in office. Barr told the House and Senate Judiciary Committees that he is reviewing the report and "may be in a position to advise you of the Special Counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend," according to a letter circulated by the Justice Department.

Barr said he intends to consult with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller "to determine what information from the report can be released to Congress and the public consistent with the law."

_________________

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 23 Mar , 2019 2:34 pm
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https://www.propublica.org/article/trum ... be-coming?
Quote:
Six Tips for Preparing for the Mueller Report, Which Just Landed
Quote:
We don’t know what Mueller will report, when he will report it or even whether we’ll be able to read it. That’s because Congress changed the law after special prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s salacious tell-all on President Bill Clinton. ...Attorney General William Barr... can choose to keep the report confidential.

...Stop Focusing on “Collusion.”
“Collusion” has come to be a kind of shorthand for ... basically doing something bad with Russia. But the term is both too vague and too narrow. For one thing, “collusion” is not itself a clearly defined crime. It is a crime to commit a conspiracy against the United States — for which there is a high bar: proving an intent to undermine the government.

...Remember: We Already Know a Lot.
We already know Trump had a hidden conflict of interest involving Russia during the campaign. Despite publicly denying it, Trump was negotiating to develop a tower in Moscow while he was running for president...We also know that ...at least one Trump ally, Roger Stone, was in touch with Wikileaks.

...Don’t Expect Answers to Everything, or Even Most Things.
That’s not Mueller’s job. He is a prosecutor. His job is first and foremost to look for crimes...

...Mueller Is Not Alone.
There are lots of active investigations looking into all these issues. A partial rundown of just the ones we know about:...

.... The Final Judgments on Trump’s Actions Will Be Political, Not Legal. (Caveats Apply.)
Whatever Mueller ultimately files, he is very unlikely to charge the president with a crime. Since Watergate, the Department of Justice has had a policy that a sitting president should not be indicted. And Mueller is a stickler for the rules. Having said that, Trump does face significant legal jeopardy...
I think it's also important to remember that, before he was appointed, Barr had a history of opposing the Mueller investigation. It sounds like there still might be a bunch of sealed indictments and, from what I understand (I could be wrong), it might be Barr's call on whether or not to use them. So far, we only know that there are no new indictments to come. I don't know if that means the sealed ones will stay sealed.

And that, in many cases (for instance, various US actions in Latin America, the CIA's secret "black sites" AKA torture facilities, the government spying on Americans' communications, etc.), we don't find out the truth until much later, often thanks to whistleblowers. Yet, to date, the Republicans have been ignoring everything whistleblowers have revealed about the Trump administration - for instance, granting security clearances to people considered not fit to have them after the usual vetting, secret meetings between Trump and Putin where Trump went to great lengths to make sure no one else would know what they talked about, his first meeting with the Russians where he inadvertently revealed classified information, that administration officials considered taking 25th amendment concerns to Congress, the unprecedented and mind-blowing letter from Trump administration officials where they publicly revealed how they try to counteract Trump's constant imbecilic actions, etc.

Hell, Trump just openly used a fake "emergency" to overrule Congress's power over the budget, and enough Republican members of Congress blindly supported Trump that they let him get away with it (unless the courts rule otherwise). Even better, this was in aid of a wall that most of the public doesn't even want. And that apparently started as a visual aid intended only to get Trump to remember to talk about illegal immigration during his presidential campaign!

And yet Americans as a whole have not demanded this garbage stop immediately and our representatives get rid of this clown, but pinned their hopes on Mueller. While Nancy Pelosi openly said she won't support impeachment efforts unless the Republicans are on board. So, call me cynical, but I won't be the least bit surprised if we're stuck with Trump and his merry band of crooks for the next 2 years. And we'll find out the consequences later. Like the Iraq war, where most Americans let themselves be led into it (there were plenty of signs it was a bad idea from the start, if you were paying attention) and later said "oh, but we didn't know."



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ler-report
Quote:
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a lawsuit on Friday to obtain special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report on his investigation into possible obstruction of justice by President Trump and possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

..."The public has a right to know the full scope of Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election and whether the President of the United States played any role in such interference," EPIC said in its lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

"The public also has a right to know whether the President unlawfully obstructed any investigation into Russian election interference or related matters," the group added. "The requested records are vital to the public’s understanding of these issues and to the integrity of the political system of the United States."
This is an editorial slanted by Kenn Starr's personal opinions (FYI: he was the independent counsel during the Clinton investigation), but he give the background and facts about how Mueller is gagged by the rules put in place after the Clinton investigation and Barr can choose what to reveal or not reveal.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ss/585577/
Quote:
Mueller Cannot Seek an Indictment. And He Must Remain Silent.
Quote:
Under the regulations that governed his appointment and now guide his final acts, Mueller is to provide a confidential report to one person only: the attorney general. The regulations, which were promulgated 20 years ago during the final months of the Clinton administration, do not contemplate any sort of report sent directly from the special counsel to Congress or the general public. To the contrary, the regulations call upon the attorney general, William Barr, to receive the confidential report and then do two things: First, to notify Congress of the investigation’s completion and, second, to provide an explanation for certain specifically enumerated actions. There is no requirement for a Barr-edited version of the Mueller report.

In short, there may be no Mueller report at all, save for the confidential document that lands on Barr’s desk. And these same regulations do not require the attorney general to simply pass along a “confidential” report that may very well contain unflattering information about one or more individuals. Including the president.

The fact that this prosecutor, unlike other prosecutors, cannot indict if he finds an indictable offense...


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/fli ... en-n986351
Quote:
A Mesa Airlines flight attendant, who as a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipient is barred from traveling outside the United States under the Trump administration's rules, was released from immigration detention Friday after being taken into custody when she returned to the U.S. on a flight from Mexico that she had worked.

Selene Saavedra Roman, 28, who works for the regional airline based in Phoenix, walked out of the immigration facility Friday evening... She had been held for more than a month.

...Mesa erroneously reassured Roman that she could fly to Mexico. But she was taken into custody Feb. 12, upon landing at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston...

Shortly after NBC News reported Saavedra Roman’s detention, news came of her pending release.

...Saavedra Roman is married to a U.S. citizen and is in the process of applying for legal residency status, but Arroyo said the federal government had threatened to revoke her DACA status while she was in custody.

Under the Obama administration, DACA recipients could apply to travel outside the country. But when President Donald Trump ended the program, such travel was canceled...

And how many more of these cases will we hear about? Or never hear about because no one took up their case and sent it to the media? The repeated theme seems to be that ICE/ CBP takes someone into custody over something that should be settled easily with a fine or a warning (for instance, the Canadian jogger who strayed into the US), keeps them imprisoned for weeks, and keeps everything as quiet as possible. Then, when the injustice hits the news, things are abruptly settled - they are released, or the visa is no longer denied, or the technical error in their immigration application is solved, or they get to see their child again...

This is unacceptable.



Off topic, but there's more Boeing news, too.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/busi ... harge.html
Quote:
As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits.

One reason: Boeing charged extra for them.

For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons. Sometimes these optional features involve aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane’s operations.

Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia’s Lion Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don’t require them.

...Boeing’s optional safety features, in part, could have helped the pilots detect any erroneous readings. One of the optional upgrades, the angle of attack indicator, displays the readings of the two sensors. The other, called a disagree light, is activated if those sensors are at odds with one another

...Boeing is making other changes to the MCAS software. When it was rolled out, MCAS took readings from only one sensor on any given flight, leaving the system vulnerable to a single point of failure.
Some US carriers bought the safety features, some didn't. The disagree light will be standard in new MAX planes. Airlines will still have to pay extra for the angle of attack feature. The FAA is apparently OK with this. And it was OK with the planes relying on ONE sensor to evaluate the angle of the plane and override the pilot before the 2 crashes. No wonder the EU and Canada say that airline manufacturers will now have to satisfy them, too, and they're not going to just assume the FAA is overseeing everything properly.

And all for a problem Boeing created themselves by putting an extra-large engine on an old frame. Apparently, Airbus did the same thing, but they didn't have any problems because their frame had the clearance and they didn't have to change the usual position of the engines, then jury-rig it with a sensor and software system to compensate.

_________________

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 25 Mar , 2019 1:20 pm
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Posts: 2048
Joined: Fri 10 Aug , 2012 4:42 pm
 
https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... -questions
Quote:
Attorney General William Barr has notified Congress that special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence during his inquiry that President Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election. The bombshell disclosure appeared to resolve a core question of the Mueller investigation. It sent shock waves through Washington, with Trump and his allies claiming total vindication of the president after the investigation dogged the White House for just shy of two years.

However, Barr’s four-page letter sent Sunday has raised new questions, and the full contents of Mueller’s final, confidential report to the Justice Department remain shrouded in mystery.

...Why didn’t Mueller make a judgment on obstruction of justice?

...What investigations did he refer to other districts?

... What does the report actually say?

The conclusion of Mueller’s investigation has set the stage for a potentially bruising showdown between the legislative and executive branches over Mueller’s closing documentation if House Democrats are unsatisfied with the information Barr gives them.


https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... rt/585631/
Quote:
The Mueller Probe Was an Unmitigated Success

The scandal is how much corruption it exposed—and how much turns out to have been perfectly legal.
Through his investigation, Mueller has also provided a plausible answer to the question that first bothered me. Trump’s motive for praising Putin appears to have been, in large part, commercial. With his relentless pursuit of Trump Tower Moscow, the Republican nominee for president had active commercial interests in Russia that he failed to disclose to the American people. In fact, he explicitly and shamelessly lied about them. As Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen implied in his congressional testimony, Trump ran his campaign as something of an infomercial, hoping to convince the Russians that he was a good partner. To enrich himself, Trump promised to realign American foreign policy.

This is the very definition of corruption, and it provides the plot line that runs through the entirety of Trump’s political life. The president never chooses to distinguish—and indeed, may be temperamentally incapable of distinguishing—his personal interests from the national interest...

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house ... s-behavior
Quote:
The dots did not connect.

That appears to be at the heart of special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion that, as quoted in a letter from Attorney General William P. Barr to congressional leaders, members of the Trump presidential campaign did not conspire or coordinate with “the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

Separately, Mueller’s investigation did not find that President Trump committed obstruction of justice, but it did not “exonerate” him either. Nonetheless, Barr wrote that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had determined that the evidence did not establish that Trump committed obstruction of justice (more about that later).

Certainly, the Mueller investigation of conspiracy with Russia did not lack for suspicious dots...

So, many are asking, how could there not have been a conspiracy? Largely overlooked during the Mueller investigation is the most exacting legal standard in all of American law, which is the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt burden that a prosecutor must meet to convict a defendant of a crime...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... er/585628/
Quote:
Barr’s Startling and Unseemly Haste

The attorney general’s letter will do little to bridge the partisan divide.
Ken White
Attorney and former federal prosecutor
Quote:
We cannot yet see the report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted to Attorney General William Barr on Friday. But we can see its shadow in the four-page letter Barr sent to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Sunday afternoon. The letter will be touted as vindication by President Donald Trump and his supporters, but will do little to bridge the partisan divide over Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation, and will inspire more vociferous demands to release the entire report.

... The letter revealed that Mueller closed his investigation without recommending more criminal charges, and that no further indictments are under seal, as some had speculated. That’s a great relief for Trump and his family and associates, but it’s not the end of their federal criminal jeopardy...

Next, Barr reported that the special counsel concluded that Russia attempted to interfere with the 2016 presidential election... But crucially, Mueller reported that his investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” whether expressly or tacitly. ...Trump’s triumphant supporters notwithstanding, we don’t yet know what that means. ... Without seeing Mueller’s full report, we don’t know whether this is a firm conclusion about lack of coordination or a frank admission of insufficient evidence....

The other big reveal in Barr’s letter is that Mueller “determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment” about whether the president obstructed justice over the course of the two-year investigation of Russian interference in the election. Instead, Mueller laid out the relevant evidence “on both sides” of the issue, ....

Mueller’s report “does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it does not exonerate him.” Mueller punted....

The attorney general showed no such circumspection.... this conclusion reflects startling and unseemly haste for such a historic matter....

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... ry/585634/
Quote:
In a letter to Congress on Sunday, Attorney General William Barr declared that while Robert Mueller’s report found evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and did not exonerate President Donald Trump, it also did “not conclude that the president committed a crime.” And so the special counsel’s months-long investigation into Trump’s dealings with Russia ended with an inconclusive conclusion: No smoking gun would result in Trump’s hasty removal from office.

Not just Democratic lawmakers had been banking on a final blow to the Trump administration. Pundits, commentators, and opportunistic entrepreneurs had all held up Mueller as a hero for their cause—and, in the process, constructed a cottage industry of Mueller-pegged media content and accessories....
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... ed/585625/
Quote:
Good news, America. Russia helped install your president. But although he owes his job in large part to that help, the president did not conspire or collude with his helpers. He was the beneficiary of a foreign intelligence operation, but not an active participant in that operation. He received the stolen goods, but he did not conspire with the thieves in advance.

This is what Donald Trump’s administration and its enablers in Congress and the media are already calling exoneration. But it offers no reassurance to Americans who cherish the independence and integrity of their political process.

The question unanswered by the attorney general’s summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report is: Why? Russian President Vladimir Putin took an extreme risk by interfering in the 2016 election...


btw, I saw a great election bumper sticker this weekend. On a red, white and blue background, it said "Any Competent Adult 2020." That says it all.

IMO, we already know more than enough to get rid of Trump via impeachment or the 25th amendment, regardless of what Barr has revealed. He's incompetent, ignorant, unwilling to learn and arrogant, a dangerous combination. The reason more than one member of his administration has called him a moron. Not to mention that he seems perfectly comfortable with cruelty and unethical behavior as long as it serves his ends. Most other civilized countries would have removed him long before now, on those grounds alone. But too many Americans are poorly informed, tribal and complacent.

I have to admit, I'll be curious what we'll know about the full Mueller report in 10 years, once it all comes out. I suspect there was evidence of illegality in the Trump campaign - there's too much coincidence and too many Trump lies otherwise (like not knowing anything about the Trump tower meeting) - but Trump's associates were too sure of their eventual pardons to turn on him. At this point, I'm predicting that Trump will pardon Manafort, Gates, Stone et al. shortly before he leaves office. Maybe earlier. If it's earlier, I also predict that Congress is unlikely to have the spine to boot Trump out as he deserves.



EDIT: There still seem to be some loose ends in Mueller's investigation.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... jury-fight
Quote:
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a mystery company over a grand jury subpoena tied to special counsel Robert Mueller’s now completed Russia probe.

...The federal grand jury subpoena, which is being kept under seal along with related court filings, seeks information from a corporation owned by a foreign government, known in court filings only as “Country A.”

The Supreme Court in January refused to block the contempt order, which forced the company to comply with the subpoena...In refusing to turn over the requested information, the company faces $50,000 per day in fines.



https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4355 ... control-of
Quote:
President Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan Heights will be formalized Monday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House, Israel’s ambassador to the United States said Sunday.

Ambassador Ron Dermer made the announcement at the opening night of this year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C., after having been asked about the threat Israel faces from Iran in Syria.

“If we’re going to talk about Syria, I think it’s important for me to thank President Trump for recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Dermer said to applause from the crowd.

“I think that deserves a standing ovation,” he added, with the crowd following suit by standing to applaud...
AIPAC is the very successful pro-Israel lobbying group that connects politicians with pro-Israel donors. Though it seems that they no longer sponsor the all-expenses-paid (and no doubt carefully controlled) trip to Israel for freshmen in Congress - that bit of lobbying has been passed off to another group. Most politicians, from Trump to Pelosi, seem to attend AIPAC conferences, though most of the Democratic candidates for president seem to be avoiding it this year. I expect most of them will come to heel later.

(btw, My cynicism doesn't apply to Bernie Sanders, who is unusual among politicians in that he seems to have principles and stick to them. Despite being Jewish and having spent time in Israel, he's not into blind allegiance and agreement. From The Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/What ... ver-448803
Quote:
What Sanders said on Israel in AIPAC speech that he was not allowed to deliver
Democratic presidential candidate sought to address conference remotely, but lobby group turned him down.



EDIT: Not surprisingly, Trump and cronies are treating Barr's synopsis of the Mueller report as a full vindication, never mind that it is nothing of the sort, and an opportunity to attack.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47699611
Quote:
Trump hints at payback for 'evil' enemies over Mueller report
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... rats-media
Quote:
Trump set to weaponize Mueller report in war on Democrats and media
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... mlin-warms
Quote:
President Donald Trump, cleared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election, on Monday vented his anger at the inquiry and vowed investigations into unnamed political enemies who did "evil" and "treasonous things."

...Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and a Trump ally, said he would ask Barr to appoint a special counsel to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, which was first handled by the FBI and then by Mueller after the president fired the agency's director, James Comey, in May 2017.

The Republican president pledged new investigations but did not specify who would conduct them or who should be targeted. Trump in the past has called for investigations of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate he defeated in 2016.

...White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders called for congressional hearings to investigate prominent Trump critics including former U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, Comey and other FBI figures.
Not that I expected anything different from Trump. In fact, I expect him to be bolder and to act even more like a king. That weird attack last week on his own Treasury Dept. on behalf of Kim Jong Un was already beyond bizarre.



https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4357 ... s-of-putin
Quote:
Fox News host Steve Hilton on Monday accused a list of people and entities, including CNN and MSNBC, of being the "real agents" of Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Hilton, a former director of strategy for ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron, made the comments on Fox News while speaking about Attorney General William Barr's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
Which makes this even more ironic:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... guests-who
Quote:
The Trump campaign on Monday called on various TV producers to challenge their guests' "outlandish, false" accusations about alleged collusion between Trump's associates and Russia now that the claim has "proven to be false."

Tim Murtaugh, the director of communications for Trump's campaign, made the request in an email just a day after Attorney General William Barr said that the special counsel investigation did not uncover evidence to conclude the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.





And here we go. Mitch McConnell has blocked a nonbinding resolution in the Senate to release the full Mueller report. Lindsay Graham, another Trump ally, blocked this resolution the last time.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/435 ... e-released
Quote:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday blocked a resolution calling on special counsel Robert Mueller's report to be released publicly.

Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked for unanimous consent for the nonbinding resolution, which cleared the House 420-0, to be passed by the Senate following Mueller's submission of his final report on Friday.
His excuse is "leave it up to Barr."

_________________

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 26 Mar , 2019 1:56 pm
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Posts: 2048
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ion-report
Quote:
Vice President Mike Pence persuaded Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats not to resign from his post last year, according to a report from NBC News.

Coats had reportedly grown increasingly frustrated with President Trump after the president pressured him to find evidence that President Obama wiretapped him, told him to question the impartiality of the U.S. intelligence community and accused him of leaking classified information.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... re-invalid
Quote:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday announced that it is siding with a district court ruling that found the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The move is an escalation of the Trump administration's legal battle against the health care law.

The DOJ previously argued in court that the law's pre-existing condition protections should be struck down. Now, the administration argues the entire law should be invalidated.
Needless to say, there is no replacement planned. If they succeed, this will create chaos.




https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4357 ... order-wall
Quote:
The Pentagon has approved the transfer of up to $1 billion to build 57 miles of President Trump's southern border wall, according to a Defense Department statement released Monday night.

...The Trump administration plans to use roughly $8 billion to build barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, with $6.1 billion of that pulled from Pentagon accounts. A total $2.5 billion is expected to be taken from counter-drug programs and $3.6 billion from military construction funds.
To be honest, I won't mourn if the money comes from the bloated Pentagon budget (we spend far more each year on the military that anyone else), but still, this is simply cheating to get your pet project done when Congress won't give you the money. And that money could be spent in far better ways than Trump's Wall.


https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... n-abortion
Quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday announced an expansion of the so-called Mexico City policy that bans U.S. aid from going to foreign groups that promote or provide abortions. The expansion closes a loophole, Pompeo said at a press conference, that allowed nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign aid to fund other groups that support abortion.

...Referred to by critics as the "global gag rule," the Mexico City policy was established by President Reagan in 1984 and is typically rescinded and reinstated by Democratic and Republican administrations, respectively. Trump reinstated and expanded the policy after his inauguration in 2017 to apply to more global health assistance programs, like those for HIV, maternal and child health and malaria. To qualify for the funding, groups have to certify that they won't perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning, even with funds from other non-U.S. sources.
Pompeo calls this the "decent" and "right" thing to do and says he's proud to announce it.



https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... to-college
Quote:
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has reportedly opened an investigation into several universities at the center of a college admissions bribery scandal.

Politico, citing individuals familiar with the investigation, reported Monday that the Department of Education is looking into whether the universities broke laws or rules “governing the Federal student financial aid programs” or “any other applicable laws."

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors charged dozens of people allegedly implicated in a scheme to buy admission to eight universities including Yale University, Stanford University and UCLA. The scandal involved several celebrities and CEOs, who allegedly payed [sic] money to ensure their children were accepted into the schools

....penalties could include eliminating a school's ability to access Pell Grants and federal student loans, according to Politico.
This looks politically motivated. Trump and the GOP have been going after universities (except private religious schools) in any way they can, claiming they are indoctrinating students with liberal attitudes. Needless to say, there is no way for a college to know that the SAT scores or essays they receive are rigged, since they were provided through normal channels. Any coaches that were involved in the sports rigging should, of course, face penalties, but that has nothing to do with student loans. And I'm quite sure the schools are already investigating those coaches.

The whole point of this scheme was to fool the admissions department and committees. What's next? Prosecuting a store for having accepted a bad check?

btw, stories like this one in The Hill are misleading because they imply that the parents paid bribes to school administrators to get their kids in. This is what really happened.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/us/c ... probe.html
Quote:
The accusations against Mr. Singer, also known as Rick Singer, pose potential problems for the organizations behind the two most widely used college admissions tests, the SAT and the ACT, which most colleges weigh in evaluating prospective students.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Singer bribed test administrators and proctors to tamper with students’ answer sheets, or in some cases to take the whole test in a student’s place, to obtain the scores that were agreed in advance with the parents who paid him.

The conspiracy relied on the parents getting medical documentation that would entitle their children to extra time on the test, an accommodation normally made for students with disabilities. Students who need extra time generally take the test alone, supervised only by a proctor — providing the opportunity for a bribed proctor to rig the outcome. Mr. Singer advised parents on how to get the medical documentation needed to qualify.

According to court filings, in a conversation with Mr. Caplan, Mr. Singer explained that for $4,000 or $5,000, a psychologist he worked with would write a report saying Mr. Caplan’s daughter had disabilities and required special accommodations.
The SAT and ACT are not run by the colleges but by separate testing organizations. Some parents also paid bribes to certain coaches to claim their children had been accepted onto sports teams. This isn't necessarily a ticket to admission alone (unless it's something like football) but it would give them an advantage over a candidate who has equal academic qualifications - schools often consider outside activities such as volunteering, sports, etc. as evidence of a well-rounded person.

Also, this whole scheme doesn't surprise me. Ethics overall have gone to hell among some college students in the last 20 years. My husband used to fume for weeks when he caught a student cheating in a class. These days, it's become so routine he doesn't even mention it, just starts the usual process to deal with them.



EDIT:
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... k-study-on
Quote:
David Bernhardt, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Interior Department, helped block the release of a study at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service examining the impact of pesticides on endangered species, according to a new report from The New York Times.

...The report detailed the impact two pesticides had on more than 1,200 endangered bird, fish and other wildlife, saying the chemicals were so toxic they “jeopardize the continued existence” of the species, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

Before the intervention, the Times reported that the study was to have led to tighter restrictions on the use of the pesticides malathion and chlorpyrifos. After the intervention by Interior political appointees, including Bernhardt, a more narrow standard was imposed to determine the potential risks of the chemicals.

The approach that the political appointees directed Fish and Wildlife Service to take was one that the pesticide industry had pushed for


And that Trump tweet where he undid his own Treasury dept's sanctions against North Korea? There's a new twist.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... anies-with
Quote:
President Trump reportedly meant to undo sanctions imposed by his own Treasury Department on two Chinese shipping companies with an abrupt tweet referring to North Korea, but officials convinced him to ease off as they sought to explain away the post.

...Bloomberg reported Tuesday that there were no additional sanctions on Pyongyang in the works at the time of Trump’s announcement.

The news outlet said that Trump was in fact referring to penalties on Chinese shipping companies, but White House officials convinced him to back off and devised a “cover story” for the president’s tweet.
And this idiot who confuses North Korea and China is in charge of foreign policy ...

_________________

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 28 Mar , 2019 12:47 pm
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I swear, the GOP would probably confirm Kim Jong Un to a government position if Trump asked them to:
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/4361 ... gop-senate
Quote:
President Trump’s controversial nomination of conservative economist and former campaign adviser Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve Board is slowly winning support from Republican senators.

Economists across the political spectrum recoiled at Trump’s choice of Moore, a commentator fiercely loyal to the president and a sharp critic of the Fed, raising questions about his independence and academic gravitas.

But a number of GOP senators are declaring their support for Moore, an opinion contributor for The Hill, while others have signaled openness to his nomination.
I also saw a news report somewhere that Moore owes something like $70,000 in back taxes.

btw, the Republican members of Congress gave Trump a standing ovation the other day.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/435 ... ng-ovation
This pleased his majesty immensely, of course.




Some people have been very upset that Trump's budget plan cuts government funding for the Special Olympics. I can't say I agree with them - if DeVos was told to cut the education dept's budget, I'd much rather have her cutting sports events than something like Head Start or disability money focused on the students' actual educations. And the Special Olympics already gets 90% of its money from private donors (their budget is apparently > $100 million/ year) so they'll certainly survive even if Congress goes along with this cut. But when you combine the Special Olympics funding cut with the following story, something is not right.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/ ... us-1259949
Quote:
The White House's proposed budget includes funding for a small children's health program sought by one of President Donald Trump's golfing buddies: Jack Nicklaus.

Under the administration's fiscal 2020 funding plan released Monday, HHS would steer $20 million toward a mobile children's hospital project at Miami's Nicklaus Children's Hospital, named for the legendary golfer.

Nicklaus had lobbied Trump on the golf course in Florida.... Trump personally directed HHS to earmark the funds to help Nicklaus develop mobile children's hospitals, one individual said.
Regardless of the merits of these mobile children's hospitals, cronyism is just wrong.



Trump has also been on a rampage against his political enemies since he was "vindicated" by Mueller and Barr. Among other things, he wants to oust members of Congress who oppose him:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... -to-resign
Quote:
President Trump said Thursday that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) should be forced to resign from Congress.

...The tweet comes after Schiff told The Washington Post that he believes evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia "undoubtedly" exists and can be found by his committee, even though a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation said there was not evidence to support that conclusion.
Schiff could be right. Mueller needed to get enough evidence to be pretty sure Trump committed a criminal offense. The bar for impeachment is set far lower.


And Schiff isn't the only one who thinks so.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4361 ... bstruction
Quote:
Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano said Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report “undoubtedly” has “some” evidence of collusion and obstruction of justice.

...“In the 700-page summary of the 2 million pages of raw evidence, there is undoubtedly some evidence of a conspiracy and some evidence of obstruction of justice,” he said. “Just not enough evidence.”

“So once the 700 pages comes out — and this is my criticism of the attorney general; he shouldn’t have even tipped his hands on this — but once the 700 pages comes out, the Democrats and other Trump opponents will have a field day with what is in there,” he continued. “If there were no evidence of conspiracy and no evidence of obstruction, the attorney general would have told us so. He didn’t.”


https://www.businessinsider.com/barr-mu ... ?r=US&IR=T
Quote:
Attorney General William Barr will send the special counsel Robert Mueller's report in the Russia investigation to the White House before the public sees it, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday.
Graham said Barr told him he would send the report to the White House first in case they want to claim executive privilege over any parts of it.
...Trump's defense lawyers have previously said they want a chance to review and "correct" the Mueller report before it's made public.
So, are we going to send the prosecution's findings to all subjects of an investigation now so they can remove the bits they don't like?




EDIT:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ork-report
Quote:
Energy Secretary Rick Perry reportedly approved six authorizations for U.S. companies to sell Saudi Arabia nuclear technology.... the companies will be authorized to divulge certain details about nuclear technology and the specifics of plans for working in Saudi Arabia, according to The Daily Beast. A firm would need such an authorization to transfer documents, electronic media or “knowledge and expertise” to the nation, the news outlet noted.

...a source told it that U.S. firms can request their authorizations be kept private and the companies receiving the Part 810s have requested this option.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ion-report
Quote:
Liberty University landed Pentagon contract after inauguration: report
Quote:
The Defense Department signed a contract to buy jet fuel from Freedom Aviation, which is wholly owned by the university, in May 2017, according to the publication, and has since bought more than $400,000 worth of fuel from the company.

Freedom Aviation owns six planes, which is maintains at the university’s Lynchburg, Virginia flight school. It provides both charter flights and private aircraft used by the university’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr. The Trump campaign reportedly paid the company more than $19,000 in air travel expenses in 2016 after Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump.
Falwell has also prevented students at Liberty University from writing anything in their student newspaper that is critical of Trump.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ony-report
Quote:
An attorney for Ivanka Trump was reportedly involved in reviewing Michael Cohen's testimony before he appeared on Capitol Hill. Vanity Fair reported Thursday that Abbe Lowell urged President Trump's former personal lawyer to emphasize in his remarks in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee that Ivanka Trump was not involved in a deal to construct a Trump Tower in Moscow.


https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... lling-plan
Quote:
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the U.S. government's study of drilling projects in Colorado wasn't in compliance with federal law and ordered the government to do further analysis.

_________________

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 29 Mar , 2019 1:30 pm
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... uring-2017
Quote:
President Trump discussed using the "nuclear football," a briefcase that can be used to authorize a nuclear attack, on North Korea during a 2017 visit to Puerto Rico, CNN reported Thursday.

Trump was visiting the island to survey damage from Hurricane Maria but was distracted with the situation with North Korea, according to people familiar with the trip... "This is what I have for Kim," he said, CNN reported, citing three people who witnessed the remark.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... crowd-hell
Quote:
Pesident Trump said at rally on Thursday that he backed the “full funding” for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative .."I support the Great Lakes. Always have. They're beautiful. They're big. Very deep. Record deepness,” Trump said during his rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday night. “And I'm going to get, in honor of my friends, full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative,” he continued.

In the president’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which was unveiled earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed a $270 million cut to the $300 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative ...The proposed spending cut marks the third year in a row the president has proposed making cuts to the program, which was launched in 2010 to protect and restore the Great Lakes.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/budg ... l-segments
Quote:
The Pentagon has begun surveying sites along the southern border to put up new physical barriers, according to CNN.

Two Defense Department officials told the network that teams of experts and engineers are currently looking at sites in Yuma, Ariz., and the New Mexico portion of the El Paso sector, which also includes Texas. Each assessment will reportedly take roughly seven days and will likely be followed up in April by contracts being sent to builders and formal engineering surveys.

When asked for comment, the Pentagon directed The Hill to the Army Corps of Engineers, which did not immediately respond to an inquiry.


And, according to Republicans, educational institutions must support free speech... unless it's critical of Dear Leader:
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... lasts-anti
Quote:
A Texas teacher has reportedly been receiving death threats since Texas State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R) called for the instructor to be fired over what he called an anti-Trump assignment that questioned whether the president should be in office.

A Goose Creek CISD 7th-grade teacher, who was not identified, handed out an assignment that included 10 student-written essays that were each paired with a set of critical-thinking questions, The Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

Cain’s objections center around one essay by a student named Parker entitled “Trump Against American Values” from the website Youth Voices.
How the hell can we expect students to think critically, with this kind of nonsense? As far as I can see, no one said the students must agree with this particular essay; they just had to consider a set of critical-thinking questions which presumably allowed them to disagree.

The school, of course, did not vigorously defend the teacher and claimed he/she made an error in judgement in using this particular essay. Everyone seems to be terrified of standing up to whoever gets outraged, these days.


Edit:

King Donald strikes again. No federal judge is going to tell him what to do. :
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... eystone-xl
Quote:
President Trump on Friday signed a presidential permit to jumpstart construction of the Keystone XL pipeline with a facility in Montana, a move seen as a way to circumvent previous court orders halting construction.

...The order supersedes a March 2017, order. That permit was invalidated by a Montana federal judge in November...Morris’s ruling faulted the Trump administration for reversing former President Obama’s 2015 denial of the pipeline permit without proper explanation. He said the State Department “simply discarded” climate change concerns related to the project.



https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4 ... nt-to-anti
Quote:
The Trump administration announced Friday it would award a $1.7 million family planning grant to a chain of crisis pregnancy centers that oppose abortion and don’t offer contraceptives, while at the same time cutting funds to some Planned Parenthood affiliates.

_________________

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 01 Apr , 2019 7:19 pm
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This has been reported before, but more information came out during testimony at the House oversight committee meeting - the number of security clearances that were denied during the normal process and overruled by Trump are jaw-dropping:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- ... ce-n989511
Quote:
A whistleblower has told the House oversight committee that the Trump administration overruled at least 25 security clearance denials made by career government employees...
In other words, we currently have at least 25 people with access to secret information who were deemed too high risk to have that access...


https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... aso-bridge
Quote:
Hundreds of families of asylum-seekers are no longer being detained in an enclosure beneath an El Paso, Texas, bridge, according to The New York Times.

Following public outcry, officials have moved processing for some migrants to a site on the other side of the bridge near a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility, according to the newspaper. CBP said on Sunday that the agency is in the process of transferring all the migrants temporarily held in the enclosure to a northeast El Paso processing station.

_________________

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 02 Apr , 2019 5:27 pm
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I've been ignoring this story, assuming that even Trump couldn't be stupid enough to shut the border and even the Republicans wouldn't go along with it. It seemed most likely to be a feed-the-crisis-at-the-border-story move and/or attempt to pressure people into doing whatever Trump wants.

But according to our Minister of Propaganda, the White House is planning for it. And she claims it could be a good thing.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administra ... ern-border
Quote:
The White House on Tuesday said it has begun studying options to close down different parts of the U.S. southern border, but expressed hope the drastic move could be avoided.

“Eventually, it may be that it’s the best decision that we close the border,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, while adding that “this isn’t our first choice.”

Sanders said President Trump “is not working on a specific timeline” to decide whether to close down the border with Mexico, as he threatened to do last week.

But she said the White House Council of Economic Advisers has begun studying the impacts of shuttering certain entry points in anticipation of briefing Trump on his options.


https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4369 ... uve-got-to
Quote:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) quipped that President Trump broke the "cardinal rule of childish nicknames" by giving him several instead of sticking with just one. "This is nothing new," Schiff told CNN. "We've seen these childish nicknames for a year and a half, but he is violating the cardinal rule of childish nicknames, which is you've got to pick one and stick with it."

Trump in recent weeks has called Schiff names including "little shifty Schiff" and "Little pencil neck Adam Schiff." Trump's 2020 reelection campaign has also begun selling "Pencil-Neck Adam Schiff" shirts.
Good for Schiff. :) Though it still boggles the mind that the US president sounds like a playground bully who never advanced past the 4th grade, most of the time.

_________________

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 02 Apr , 2019 8:57 pm
A green apple painted red
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If the borders are outlawed, only the outlaws will cross the borders.

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aninkling
Post subject: Re: You've been Trumped!
Posted: Thu 04 Apr , 2019 4:19 pm
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Yeah, everyone knows that (probably including Trump, which is why he's playing will he/won't he, now that he's got everyone's attention by pushing the suggestion). Not to mention it would be hell on the economy and create a mess for no good reason.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/us/p ... eport.html
Quote:
Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.

At stake in the dispute — the first evidence of tension between Mr. Barr and the special counsel’s office — is who shapes the public’s initial understanding of one of the most consequential government investigations in American history. Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public.



https://thehill.com/policy/national-sec ... s-concerns
Quote:
The Justice Department defended Attorney General William Barr’s decision to release a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Thursday...

DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said in a statement Thursday that each page of Mueller’s report was marked saying that it may contain confidential grand jury information “and therefore could not be publicly released.”

“Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report’s bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately – without attempting to summarize the report – with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redactions process,” Kupec said.

...The Washington Post also reported Wednesday that members of Mueller’s team believe their evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice was stronger than how it came across in Barr’s summary to Congress.
And Trump is, of course, using his tiresome old complaints of "fake news" to try to discredit the new reports.


Interesting observation from the Washington Post, related to the Justice Department's defense of Barr:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... story.html
Quote:
Some members of the office were particularly disappointed that Barr did not release summary information the special counsel team had prepared... Summaries were prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could made public, [a US] official said.

The report was prepared “so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately — or very quickly,” the official said. “It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.”

btw, Republican senators continue taking turns to block the Senate from voting on a nonbinding resolution to release the Mueller report:
https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/ ... ler-report




https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... ing-he-had
Quote:
David Bernhardt, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of the Interior, continued to lobby even after saying he had stopped, according to a report in The New York Times.

...Bernhardt continued work for Westlands Water District, a major agribusiness group in California, as late as April 2017, the month he was nominated to his current role as deputy secretary of the department. He filed paperwork to end his status as a federal lobbyist in November 2016.

Bernhardt spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort said the invoice resulted from inappropriate billing and that the deputy secretary “engaged in various legal services” to support Westlands — not lobbying.
I predict the GOP will still confirm him.

_________________

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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