The Trump Presidency – 2016

[BBT]

I think they would in this case. Sessions was one of them for a long time and has allies in the Senate. They want leverage over Trump to keep him in check and this is one area where they have leverage over him.

[PilotMan]

Not really sure where else to put this, but here seems appros.


How are we not talking about this today?


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...iev/654823002/


Russia has it's hands dirty in this entire thing now. It's been no secret that they've been assassinating opponents for years, and it's no secret that Trump also views the media with similar disdain and would love the kind of power that Putin wields. Here now, a sting to catch Russia in the act. It's an incredible story.

[Thomkal]

I had heard about the journalist being killed, but not about his "rebirth" Not sure I have much problem with this-seen a few journalist group and of course Russia be critical, but what was he just supposed to let the assassin kill him?


It's made people in the West more aware of the lengths Russia will go to influence world events-can't say there's anything wrong with that either.

[Thomkal]

Cohen's lawyers/Avernatti appeared in court today to argue whether Avernatti should be admitted to the government's Cohen trial. Judge told him he would have to quit "his publicity tour" if he wanted to be admitted. About an hour later, he withdrew his request to be admitted.


Meanwhile the FBI is reconstructing documents from a shredder and expect to enter them to be reviewed by the Special Master.


FBI is reconstructing shredded documents from 'raid' on Michael Cohen: 'This will not end well for the defense'


https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/polit...our/index.html

[PilotMan]

1 million pieces and counting. Cohen is likely super fucked.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Just leaving this here for when Trump makes her a liar at some point in the next 24 hours. Because we all know how focused he remains at all times on the important things in this country. (And to be fair, the media should have many more important questions to ask than this as well)

and here you go

Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that “ABC does not tolerate comments like those� made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?"

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

I had heard about the journalist being killed, but not about his "rebirth" Not sure I have much problem with this-seen a few journalist group and of course Russia be critical, but what was he just supposed to let the assassin kill him?


It's made people in the West more aware of the lengths Russia will go to influence world events-can't say there's anything wrong with that either.

It's more the extent that the Ukraine went to prove that it was indeed Russia that is behind these hits. The fact that his wife wasn't in on it must have been a brutal thing and could have really hurt his marriage. Ukraine is the testing ground for Russia's new attacks on the west and the cyber war. I posted a great article about this earlier. That they caught the person responsible for making the payments and ordering the hit, and got more information pertaining to multiple planned hits on opposition journalists that makes it more damning.



This is the kind of government that is a direct threat to the Republic we have. You can make direct parallels between trump's desires and this style of strong man leadership where assassinations of opposition voices are a regular thing. How many times has trump suggested that anyone who opposes him should 'go away'?

[Julio Riddols]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Grietens went out swinging. Blaming everyone else and taking no responsibility. Good riddance.

It is too bad Gowdy is leaving. He needs to be around. Ima fan of his. He doesnt go down political lines. He speaks how he sees it.

It is always weird seeing Gowdy when he shows up in the interviews on some episodes of Forensic Files. Speaking how he sees it seems to be true to how he was on there as well.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Grietens went out swinging. Blaming everyone else and taking no responsibility. Good riddance.

Kind of crazy to see how far he fell. Navy sea, Rhodes Scholar, believe he received a Bronze Star, and was doing a bunch of charitable work. Guy could have been a Presidential candidate with that resume in 2024.

[whomario]

Also got some expert opinion on crucial subjects today:

Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 30. Mai 2018

[NobodyHere]

At least someone is talking about it

[NobodyHere]

Trump's steel tariffs provoke retaliation from biggest US allies

Can someone comfort me and tell me that this is good for the US?

[digamma]

Because we've been soft and sissy for the last 240 years and Trump is here to show them who is boss. And this is showing them. #MAGA

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by whomario

Also got some expert opinion on crucial subjects today:

Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 30. Mai 2018

After meeting Kim Kardashian to discuss prison reform, Donald Trump reveals schedule for the rest of the week: pic.twitter.com/TYIcihnYKO

— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) May 31, 2018

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by whomario

Also got some expert opinion on crucial subjects today:

Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 30. Mai 2018

I am sure I am in the minority on this one, but it brings me such joy that the daughter of a member of OJ Simpson's Dream Team was in the White House discussing these issues.

[BBT]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Trump's steel tariffs provoke retaliation from biggest US allies

Can someone comfort me and tell me that is good for the US?

It’s good if you own a steel producing business...not so much if you don’t.

[tarcone]

It sounds like Kardashian was discussing a singular case. There is a 63 year old woman in prison for the rest of her life on her first drug offense. KK is trying to get her pardoned.

Not sure if it expanded out from there to what the tweet presents, but I wouldnt doubt it.

[RainMaker]

I don't see what the uproar is over Kardashian. She had an issue and talked about it.

The Blagojevich thing would be bad. He was treated fairly and committed those crimes.

[BBT]

Good old Ted Cruz using his influence to get a racist felon pardoned.

NEW: @DineshDSouza tells me the backstory of his pardon. @tedcruz told him at dinner approx 1 month ago he would pitch it to Trump and that it all came together in recent days. Trump called him last night to tell him "you got screwed" and pardoned him. https://t.co/xNPk3UJ2xy pic.twitter.com/ZSJtvFq5in

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) May 31, 2018

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I don't see what the uproar is over Kardashian. She had an issue and talked about it.

The Blagojevich thing would be bad. He was treated fairly and committed those crimes.

Because American society respects Kim Kardashian's intellect on prison reform or any other issue?

Public opinion must have changed on her. If that is the case, I stand corrected.

[tarcone]

Did you see the candidate for congress running in VA? He is an admitted pedophile, and said he raped his wife and there is a grain of truth about an incestuous relationship with his daughter.
He called Hitler a "White supremacist hero."
His platform includes legalizing incest and child pornography.

Where is a our society going?

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Did you see the candidate for congress running in VA? He is an admitted pedophile, and said he raped his wife and there is a grain of truth about an incestuous relationship with his daughter.
He called Hitler a "White supremacist hero."
His platform includes legalizing incest and child pornography.

Where is a our society going?

wow how did he get past the primary? Sounds more like he should be in jail than Congress.

[tarcone]

He is running as an independent

[BBT]

This has got to be one for the record books. Oil industry joins with solar and wind industry to condemn Trump admin plan to prop up coal industry by forcing electric grid to buy coal power. Oil/wind/solar as allies? Fascinating times. pic.twitter.com/PmTRyw70SK

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) June 1, 2018

[JPhillips]

lol Trump folks are trying to find a low visibility way to pay for Kim's 5 star hotel in Singapore.

[PilotMan]

To be fair, the oil companies are investing heavily in alternative energy.

[tarcone]

The government is really holding this country back. What happened to free enterprise/ Why is government propping up a 2 century old industry when their are energy ideas that would be fantastic.

Sometimes I wonder.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by BBT

This has got to be one for the record books. Oil industry joins with solar and wind industry to condemn Trump admin plan to prop up coal industry by forcing electric grid to buy coal power. Oil/wind/solar as allies? Fascinating times. pic.twitter.com/PmTRyw70SK

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) June 1, 2018

Oh boy, I bet Paul Ryan is furious too!

Elites in Washington should NOT be picking winners & losers—that’s a recipe for a closed economy—for cronyism.https://t.co/AcHJfVRwTE

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) July 28, 2016

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by tarcone

What happened to free enterprise/ Why is government propping up a 2 century old industry when their are energy ideas that would be fantastic.

Same reason why politicians never get frank about many things, including in this case the direction economics are inevitably going to go in with globalization. You just aren't, in any modern political environment, going to win by telling people unfriendly truths. It's much easier by comparison to prop up their particular sector with myopic policy.

There are many flaws relatively unique to Trump, but this isn't one of them.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Did you see the candidate for congress running in VA? He is an admitted pedophile, and said he raped his wife and there is a grain of truth about an incestuous relationship with his daughter.
He called Hitler a "White supremacist hero."
His platform includes legalizing incest and child pornography.

Where is a our society going?

Holy sh*t

Pedophile can run for Congress, thanks to McAuliffe decision restoring felons' rights | Fox News

As for Larson, he hasn't backed away from his extreme, even repugnant views.

Larson has written frequently on so-called “incels” -- people who have struggled with being “involuntary celibate.” HuffPo said Larson confirmed writing online posts – they've since been taken down -- titled “Advantages of Father-Daughter Incest” and “The Justifiability of an Incel’s Kidnapping a Girl and Keeping Her as His Rape-Slave for Sex and Babymaking.”

In its story, the news organization said Larson was open about his pedophilia, but claimed he has never committed any crimes. It also uncovered an online post in which Larson expressed a desire to have sex with his daughter, though he doubted it would happen because he doesn’t have custody. He told the outlet he has a 3-year-old daughter who lives with relatives.

According to Larson’s campaign platform, he is for the legalization of child pornography and restoring “benevolent white supremacy” and “patriarchy.” He also refers to Adolf Hitler as a “white supremacist hero.”

HuffPo said Larson seemed unfazed during a phone interview.

“A lot of people are tired of political correctness and being constrained by it,” Larson said. “People prefer when there’s an outsider who doesn’t have anything to lose and is willing to say what’s on a lot of people’s minds.”

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by tarcone

The government is really holding this country back. What happened to free enterprise/ Why is government propping up a 2 century old industry when their are energy ideas that would be fantastic.

Sometimes I wonder.

This is such a fallacyof thinking. As long as there has been government this has existed. In fact, the American west would never have been explored, settled and developed without substantial subsidies from the government. They did choose, for the benefit of the nation. Private enterprise, would have taken decades longer. There was simply no incentive to do it outside of the already developed areas. The government is responsible to help technology get off the ground if it's advancing humankind. It can't all be done though a profit motive.

[PilotMan]

Now, what I said doesn't really go with what you said though. In this case, coal is on the outs. I was more addressing the government's need to help pick winners and losers and the fallacy that it's somehow new or socialist, when it's in fact, what helped this country evolve as quickly as it did.

[tarcone]

I agree. Im not saying the federal government has always been a roadblock. But these days it seems to be more of a roadblock than an enhancer.

I love the alternative energy people trying to poin that out.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

Same reason why politicians never get frank about many things, including in this case the direction economics are inevitably going to go in with globalization. You just aren't, in any modern political environment, going to win by telling people unfriendly truths. It's much easier by comparison to prop up their particular sector with myopic policy.

There are many flaws relatively unique to Trump, but this isn't one of them.

There can't possibly be nearly as many people/voters in the US still attached to or dependent from the coal industry as are other branches of energy production ?* I know that minority is more likely to vote for him, but it still seems weird that he seems to concentrate on niche industries so persistently (i mean, the whole steel tarrif thing is similar, isn't it ? In that it benefits a comparatively small number of businesses compared to those projected to struggle due to this)

* Honestly curious. I lived throught a pretty major process of deindustrialization in my home region (Ruhr region, around Dortmund), which was one of the biggest coal mining and steel producing regions in the World for a long time and those industries absolutely dominated live around here until pretty much the 1970s/80s but then got shut down bit by bit until like the early 00s. So i know how much of a hot button issue this can be. Heck, i went on protest marches with my dad and grandfather who both worked in coal mining.

[BBT]

Speaking of the steel tariffs...interesting coincidence:

Trump’s 10% tariff increase on Canadian aluminum (among other metal tariffs on US allies) comes weeks after he saved Russia’s aluminum giant, Rusal, from disaster by granting a sanctions reprieve to its oligarch owner, Oleg Deripaska. https://t.co/C1dnJhy9k5

— Zev Shalev (@ZevShalev) May 31, 2018

By the way, after seeing this, and yesterday's pre-job report tweets, I'm wondering if Trump is doing some "insider trading" from the White House. He knows the markets will raise and lower based off what he says and does so why not put money into it ahead of time.

[Thomkal]

It's been 22 days since there was a public sighting of Melania Trump. She was supposed to go to Camp David this weekend with Trump but did not go. Everybody come up with their best Trump-like conspiracy story about where she is now.

[jeff061]

Sticking with my overdose assumption, followed by rehab.

[Groundhog]

I guess the whole thing about her husband banging a porn star while she was pregnant is really hitting her hard.

[Ben E Lou]

Since the moment we were told on a Monday that she was going to spend the rest of the week in the hospital, I've been operating on the assumption that whatever medical issue she had in mid-May was significantly worse than we were led to believe. Seemed fairly obvious that it was more than a routine procedure on a benign problem.

[CarterNMA]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Since the moment we were told on a Monday that she was going to spend the rest of the week in the hospital, I've been operating on the assumption that whatever medical issue she had in mid-May was significantly worse than we were led to believe. Seemed fairly obvious that it was more than a routine procedure on a benign problem.

Ben, you're doing it wrong. CONSPIRACY! (You're explanation is probably dead-on, though.)

She tried to cut off Cheeto Mussolini's ding-dong, got shot by the SS and has been in recovery ever since. Orange Julius has already given her a pardon so there won't be any investigation. Now that's how you do a conspiracy!

(Sorry for all the food references...I'm hungry.)

[Thomkal]

Carter for the win

[BBT]

New internet accounts are Russian ops designed to sway U.S. voters, experts say
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nati...212299529.html

A website called usareally.com appeared on the internet May 17 and called on Americans to rally in front of the White House June 14 to celebrate President Donald Trump’s birthday, which is also Flag Day.

FireEye, a Milpitas, Calif., cybersecurity company, said Thursday that USA Really is a Russian-operated website that carries content designed to foment racial division, harden feelings over immigration, gun control and police brutality, and undermine social cohesion.

The website’s operators once worked out of the same office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency had its headquarters, said Lee Foster, manager of information operations analysis for FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence.

The USA Really website contains a mix of articles taken from U.S. sources or carrying a USA Really credit and written in poor English. One article suggested that Louisiana should secede. Louisiana’s economy would still place it 45th out of 211 countries around the world, it said.

Another article said rabid squirrels were terrorizing Florida. One headline suggested that the U.S. government is preparing for World War III.

“New bloodshed in Wisconsin. Thousands of victims,” read the headline of one article that was actually about a mosquito invasion.

A posting from May 25 said the “USA Really” campaign officially starts on June 14 with the slogan, “USA as it is.”

“We invite all Americans - all who cares(sic) about the country - to celebrate this. Come up to the White House on June 14th at 2:00 p.m. to congratulate America,” it said.

A short YouTube video posted April 17, purportedly from the Federal News Agency, said USA Really “will focus on promoting information and problems that are hushed up by major American publications controlled by the U.S. political elite.”

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Sticking with my overdose assumption, followed by rehab.

Didn't think of this but good possibility.

I'm surprised nothing has leaked yet.

[Thomkal]

yeah given the huge amount of people who would have to keep the "conspiracy" quiet, hard to believe really that its anything but harmless/not a story. But then given we are talking about the Trumps...

[cuervo72]

How long do bruises typically take to heal?

[stevew]

We got a weekend at donald's type situation.


I bet she tried to kill herself, which is really sad

[kingfc22]

In tofay’s version of Trump logic, the FBI is to blame for him hiring Manafort 🤦🏻‍♂️

[tarcone]

With our Gov resigning and the talk of him giving clemency and pardons on hos last day in office, I was wondering if a Gov or President could pardon themselves? I assume no looking back at Nixon and the Illinois governors, but Im wondering if they could.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by tarcone

With our Gov resigning and the talk of him giving clemency and pardons on hos last day in office, I was wondering if a Gov or President could pardon themselves? I assume no looking back at Nixon and the Illinois governors, but Im wondering if they could.

No, Nixon's own people in the justice department told him he couldn't.

[molson]

Originally Posted by tarcone

With our Gov resigning and the talk of him giving clemency and pardons on hos last day in office, I was wondering if a Gov or President could pardon themselves? I assume no looking back at Nixon and the Illinois governors, but Im wondering if they could.

There's a strong constitutional argument that he could not, but, nobody's ever tried it. So, Trump certainly could pardon himself, then it's just a matter if it got in front of the Supreme Court and what they thought (and he could appoint another justice or two by then).