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Porn Users Forum » WHY DOESN'T POTUS ARREST BILL CLINTON, HILARY CLINTON, AND OBAMA?
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12-24-17  08:19pm - 2554 days #51
Loki (0)
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Posts: 395
Registered: Jun 13, '07
Location: California
Trump was totally unqualified to be president. No other American has reached the presidency without either being in elective office or running an army.

His policies may have the stock market booming, but the DJIA is not a reflection of the underlying strength of the economy. I had to correct many of my clients about that when I was a financial professional.

Many of the policies you mention (repealing the individual mandate, opening up Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling, the appointment of Gorsuch, the Keystone Pipeline) are deeply dependent on one's political viewpoint. Every one of those is a negative to almost everyone I know, regardless of party.

Furthermore, Trump supports autocrats instead of our allies, praises those who repress a free press, belittles individual citizens, and is undoing the hard work of previous administrations both Democratic and Republican to build a rules-oriented financial and military order in the world.

He's deeply polarizing, but so were Carter, Reagan, Bush (sr), Clinton, Bush (jr), and Obama. But at least all of those people were qualified when elected and behaved in a responsible manner both on the campaign trail and in office.

The hate is reflective of the venomous bullshit that President Trump tweets out every day. "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

12-24-17  09:50pm - 2554 days #52
Onyx (0)
In-Activated by Staff

Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:18pm

12-25-17  11:12am - 2554 days #53
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Donald Trump, the greatest President who ever lived.
He's won the war on Christmas.
Never before, did any U.S. President save Christmas from the unbelievers who doubted that Christmas is real (I'm not sure exactly who President Trump defeated, but he is claiming victory for saving our most holy holiday).

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New TV Ad Thanks Trump For Ending War On Christmas That Never Existed
Sebastian Murdock Sat, Dec 23 12:30 PM PST



It’s the battle over semantics that conservatives have long been up in arms about: the war on Christmas.

The war is finally over. No, not the one in Afghanistan. And no, it’s not even the war on drugs. It’s the battle over semantics that conservatives have long been up in arms about: the war on Christmas.

President Donald Trump has been patting himself on the back in recent weeks for apparently bringing Christmas back. For those not familiar, Christmas is a little-known holiday where worshippers celebrate the birth of Jesus while being simultaneously outraged at anyone else who might not.

“Remember I said we’re bringing Christmas back?” Trump bragged at a rally earlier this month in Utah. “Christmas is back, bigger and better than ever before. We’re bringing Christmas back.”

America First Policies — a nonprofit started by former Trump campaign aides ― is set to air a new Christmas day commercial in which “everyday Americans are standing to thank President Trump.”

That includes “letting us” say “merry Christmas” again, according to a cherubic child in the ad being used to gain political points.

As The New York Times pointed out last year, there’s no actual evidence of anyone declaring a war on Christmas, but the partisan issue took solid root in 2012 with conservative Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who constantly attacked then-President Barack Obama for having the nerve to say “happy holidays.”

Liberals are “tying the Christmas situation into secular progressive politics” because they wanted “a new America, and traditional Christmas isn’t a part of it,” O’Reilly said in 2012.

For all his bloviating about the importance of Christmas, Trump’s own children don’t seem to care about the the phrase that started the war: Happy holidays.

“Happy holidays!” daughter Ivanka Trump tweeted earlier this month, clearly unaware her father had won the war and she could finally say merry Christmas.

Trump’s son, Eric, had a similar reaction.

12-25-17  12:14pm - 2554 days #54
Loki (0)
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Posts: 395
Registered: Jun 13, '07
Location: California
Originally Posted by Onyx:


If you think the policies are harmful all I can say is that I believe time will show their benefits despite what the media says. I think there is reason for great optimism.


I don't get "talking points" from media. I read a lot of different sources and then filter out what I can of the politically biased bullshit.

I see Trump as a symptom in the decline and rot of American democracy. It didn't start with him, but he sure isn't doing anything except speed its happening. "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

12-25-17  09:32pm - 2553 days #55
Onyx (0)
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Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:19pm

12-26-17  07:56pm - 2552 days #56
Loki (0)
Active User



Posts: 395
Registered: Jun 13, '07
Location: California
I feel the anti-Trump hysteria from the left is as bad or worse than the anti-Obama hysteria.

Presidents cannot do too much without Congress, and Congress has been inept the last few sessions. There's a reason why Trump polls at about 40%, and Congress at less than 10%.

I don't like Trump, and would have preferred he not have run, but I don't see it as the end of the world. Not watching TV or following social media really helps keep me more optimistic about our country.

@Onyx, I'm glad you find reason to be optimistic. Here in Silicon Valley it's always doom and gloom about politics. It's nice to be reminded that that's not the feeling everywhere. "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

12-26-17  09:27pm - 2552 days #57
Onyx (0)
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Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:19pm

12-27-17  01:04pm - 2552 days #58
Loki (0)
Active User



Posts: 395
Registered: Jun 13, '07
Location: California
Even low unemployment gets negative views here because the tech employment boom has resulted in soaring rents and horrendous traffic. It seems that newspapers can't print anything good. "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

12-27-17  06:14pm - 2551 days #59
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Maybe it's a matter of viewpoint, or perspective.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, after seeing the movie "The Darkest Hour", a film about Winston Churchill, regarded as one of the greatest British politicians who ever lived, tweeted that President Donald Trump is the Winston Churchill of the United States,
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Mike Huckabee Says Trump Is Like Churchill. Historians Disagree.

By MAGGIE ASTORDEC. 26, 2017
www.nytimes.com

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas drew a swift and intense response with a provocative claim on Tuesday: President Trump, he wrote, is similar to Winston Churchill, one of history’s most iconic leaders.

Mr. Huckabee had just watched “Darkest Hour,” a film about Churchill. It was, he wrote on Twitter, a reminder of “what real leadership looks like.”

“Churchill was hated by his own party, opposition party, and press,” he tweeted. “Feared by King as reckless, and despised for his bluntness. But unlike Neville Chamberlain, he didn’t retreat. We had a Chamberlain for 8 yrs; in @realDonaldTrump we have a Churchill.”

Likening modern leaders to Chamberlain and Churchill — something Mr. Huckabee has done before — is always a loaded proposition. Chamberlain, who preceded Churchill as prime minister of Britain, tried to appease Hitler by conceding Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland region to Nazi Germany in the 1938 Munich Agreement, and his name has come to be synonymous with weakness in the face of evil.

Churchill, by contrast, was an officer in the British Army during World War I; led Britain through World War II as prime minister from 1940 to 1945; and handled several foreign policy crises in a second term as prime minister from 1951 to 1955. He was known for his skill as an orator and writer, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.

So it was unsurprising that the comments by Mr. Huckabee, whose daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the White House press secretary, stirred up Twitter.

“Sure. Churchill served his country 55 years in parliament, 31 years as a minister and 9 as pm,” Kristian Tonning Riise, a member of Norway’s Parliament, wrote in a tweet liked more than 19,000 times. “He was present in 15 battles and received 14 medals of bravery. He was one of history’s most gifted orators and won the Nobel Literature Prize for his writing. Totally same thing.”

Mr. Huckabee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday evening.

Historians said that while Churchill and Mr. Trump shared certain characteristics, the broader comparison was unsupported.

It is true that Churchill made many political enemies before World War II, said Susan Pedersen, a professor of British history at Columbia University. He was also “more self-regarding and less inclined to compromise than most successful British politicians,” she said, and “had a hard-right view of British national and imperial interest.”

“He was basically in the wilderness in 1939, and had world history and circumstance not found him, that would have been the end of the story,” Dr. Pedersen wrote in an email. “Luckily for him, and for many of us, his peculiar attributes and the needs of the time came together. But that happened partly because, for all his idiosyncrasy, he had real intellectual and political strengths: He was intelligent, literate, well-versed in history, had long experience in government, and knew what he stood for.”

The comparison to Mr. Trump, she wrote, is “ridiculous” — the same adjective David Del Testa, a historian at Bucknell University, used to describe the accompanying comparison of President Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain.

Timothy Riley, director and chief curator of the National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Missouri, said that Churchill “was bold and passionate about his beliefs” and, much like Mr. Trump, “was not afraid to speak his own mind and ruffle a few feathers along the way.” But for Churchill, Mr. Riley said, “the greatest task, his ‘supreme task,’ was to bring countries together to support peace and prosperity and, during the Second World War, to defeat tyranny.”

And Dr. Del Testa said that after World War I, Churchill’s “self-celebratory style” was tempered by a newfound humility.

“He was trying to keep Britain strong and create a world order that was strong for Britain, but he was also conscious increasingly in the 1920s and 1930s of a world order that could be destroyed by populist dictators,” he said. “His own tendency toward self-celebration softened when he became aware of the larger world around him, that it really wasn’t a game, but it was humanly important.”

Perhaps more significant than any of these specific contrasts, Mr. Riley said, is the timing of Mr. Huckabee’s comparison. It is much too early, he said, to try to draw a comparison between Churchill — whose career in public service spanned more than half a century and two world wars — and Mr. Trump, who has been in office for less than a year.

Among the qualities Churchill is known for are “his perseverance, his resilience and his long-term view of history,” Mr. Riley said, and “all of those qualities, I think, are best judged after some time.”

Sandra E. Garcia and Matt Stevens contributed reporting.

12-28-17  08:38am - 2551 days #60
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Trump is supposed to be hard on criminals.
But here's a story that shows US Cost Guard letting a criminal found with bales of cocaine free.
This shows that Trump is weak on crime!

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http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/12/2...oast-guard-says.html

December 20th
Sea turtle found entangled in cocaine bales worth $53M, Coast Guard says
By Katherine Lam | Fox News


The sea turtle was found entangled in bales of cocaine worth $53 million, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

A sea turtle was rescued after a boat crew found it entangled in bales of cocaine worth $53 million, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The crew of the cutter Thetis encountered the loggerhead turtle in the eastern Pacific during a 68-day mission, the Coast Guard said on Tuesday.

“Coast Guard Ens. Mark Krebs, the pursuit mission commander, said that as his team arrived on scene with the jettison field, they immediately noticed the entangled sea turtle,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. “They saw significant chaffing from the lines on his neck and flippers.”

The boat crew worked to free the sea turtle and seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine — worth $53 million.

The cutter crew was part of Operation Martillo that targeted criminal organizations involving 18 countries. The crew seized 14,800 pounds of cocaine and 14 pounds of marijuana by the time it returned to the Key West port on Sunday, according to the news release.

Katherine Lam is a breaking and trending news digital producer for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @bykatherinelam

12-28-17  11:03am - 2551 days #61
Onyx (0)
In-Activated by Staff

Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:19pm

01-03-18  01:30am - 2545 days #62
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Finally, we have an honest President of the United States of America who is exposing the fake news organziations of the United States.

Hooray, for Trump!!!


The Wrap

Trump Becomes First President to Unveil ‘Dishonest Media Awards’

Tim Kenneally | Last Updated: January 2, 2018 @ 6:12 PM


MSNBC

At the end of a very busy day on Twitter for the 45th President, Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he’ll be holding his own personal awards ceremony for what he deems “dishonest and corrupt media” — but as far as his critics are concerned, he might have already taken away the honor for Most Immature 71-Year-Old President.

“I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o’clock,” Trump wrote. “Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!”

Trump’s detractors didn’t feel the need to stay tuned before laying into the Leader of the Free World.

“Grow the f— up. You’re 71 going on 7,” read one response to Trump’s announcement.

“What are you, five?” read a similar response.

Yet another Trump critic asked, “Is this what you call going back to work?”

“Is this something ur spending time on when u should be running the country?” asked another Twitter user. “What does Mueller have on u? Must be something big coming down with all these desperate, childish tweets.”

“Very appropriate considering you are the MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT dotard to ever occupy our White House,” read another reply. “You’ll be gone soon enough. Stay tuned.”

01-03-18  09:46am - 2545 days #63
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Before he became President, Trump constantly criticized Obama for playing golf, saying Obama was neglecting his serious job to play.
Trump vowed that as President, Trump would not take vacations. Nor would Trump play golf when President.

But once Trump became President, Trump's promises faded away:
Trump has played far more golf than Obama ever did, in the same amount of time as President.
And Trump has taken vacations far more than Obama ever did, in the same amount of time as President.

Can you depend on Trump to tell the truth? Maybe you should realize that this is a man who can change his mind, and that his promises are just words he speaks.

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White House Says Secret Rounds Of Golf Make Donald Trump A Better President
HuffPost
Amanda Terkel
2018-01-02



He has spent at least 91 days of his presidency at golf courses and has been confirmed golfing at least 35 times.

Donald Trump loves golf. He has spent at least 91 days of his presidency at golf courses and has been confirmed golfing at least 35 times. Presumably, he has golfed more times, but the White House is often tight-lipped at what in the world the president is doing at these golf courses.

On Christmas Day, Trump tweeted that he was taking the day off then getting “back to work” after the holiday.

But Trump then spent the next seven days at the golf course. Reporters confirmed that the president was golfing during at least some of this time.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s time on the links when asked by Yahoo News reporter Hunter Walker what his biggest accomplishment there has been.

“I think it would certainly be developing deeper and better relationships with members of Congress in which those relationships have helped push forward the president’s agenda ― specifically when it comes to helping get the tax reform and tax cuts passed,” Sanders said, adding, “He has played golf with a number of senators and used that time certainly to accomplish that.”

Yet the White House is rarely willing to tell the press when this relationship-building is happening. Officials often don’t release details about whether Trump is golfing, and with whom, and reporters have a tough time confirming what he’s doing.

Sanders, however, denied that the White House was at all skittish about the time Trump is spending at his golf courses.

“I think it’s the press that has an issue with his time on the course,” she said. “The president is extremely proud of the accomplishments we had during 2017. ... It was probably one of the most successful first years in office ― passed major legislation, reworked the court system and got a Supreme Court justice nominated and approved and on the bench in the first year. A booming economy, massive gains against the war on ISIS.”

Presidents golf. Being commander in chief is a tough job, and everyone needs a way to unwind. But the reason Trump’s time on the golf course is an issue is because he frequently went after President Barack Obama for golfing, saying he was lazy and not doing his job.
Trump has admitted that he loves golf, but insisted there was a distinction between his golf and Obama’s golf.

There’s zero indication that every time Trump has been on the golf course, he’s spent it with members of Congress.

01-03-18  11:19am - 2545 days #64
lk2fireone (0)
Active User



Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Trump violates the law.
He should be arrested, and put in jail.
Citizens For Free And Democratic US

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World
Trump Backs 'Fight' For Control Of Iran, Then Deletes His Tweet, A Possible Violation Of Records Law
Newsweek Zachary Fryer-Biggs,Newsweek 3 hours ago


President Donald Trump appeared to back a "fight" to overthrow of Iran’s theocracy by the growing ranks of protesters on Wednesday, only to delete the post a minute later and rephrase it using more diplomatic language—the latest controversial deletion for a president accused of violating laws to protect administration records.

Trump replaced the early morning tweet supporting protesters' "fight" with one that praised Iranians as they “try” to combat corruption in Iran. Both tweets had promised that the U.S. would provide support.

It was the second time in the past 24 hours that Trump had deleted a tweet, previously hyping Sean Hannity’s television program on Tuesday evening, but deleting that tweet without replacing it the next morning.

And in December, Trump tweeted about a drop in territory held by ISIS during his tenure, but the math was wrong and he deleted the tweet several hours later, replacing it with a retweet from a supporter.

Experts are split over whether deleting tweets is against the law, with the issue depending on whether one considers the tweets part of Trump's statements as president or merely as a private citizen. If they are presidential announcements, then Trump would have to preserve the tweets as part of the Presidential Records Act passed by Congress after President Richard Nixon tried to withhold records during the Watergate investigation.

But if they are personal messages, then Trump would not be obligated to save them.


Even if Trump isn’t holding onto the tweets, other groups are.

ProPublica, a not for profit investigative reporting group, tracks deleted tweets on the website Politiwoops. The group has tracked five deleted tweets since the beginning of December including the Hannity tweet and the Iran tweet deleted in the last day.

Trump is facing a lawsuit from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive over deleting tweets based on the Presidential Records Act requirement. On Wednesday, the organization also quickly criticized Trump for deleting the Hannity tweet, saying it was "an official statement and must be archived."


When the organization first filed its lawsuit in June it used a similar argument, saying that Trump couldn't delete tweets because "the president and his office are legally required to maintain these records for eventual public access."

The tweet about Iran protesters could ignite an already tense situation.

Protests and counter-protests have spread across the country, authorities have blocked social media access to prevent activists from organizing, and Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei has blamed the U.S. for the discontent.

“The main U.S. strategy towards Iran is to create division between the united ranks of the revolutionary and devoted Iranian people,” Khamenei said in a press release issued on Monday. “In order to foment discord, they are calling one group ‘reformists’ and some other group ‘conservatives.’ While claiming to support the first group, they are disseminating negative propaganda against the other group.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly applauded the protesters’ expression of free speech, but has stopped short of directly backing violence like that implied in Trump's tweet Wednesday.

This article was first written by Newsweek

01-06-18  09:47am - 2542 days #65
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Why waste good taxpayer money investigating Clinton and Obama?
Throw them in prison for life, without parole.
Then Trump will be free to lead America to greatness, as he fights to drain the corruption in Washington.

Donald Trump, hero of the common man, leader of the free world.

01-06-18  10:01am - 2542 days #66
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Trump: I'm a 'very stable genius'
Jerry Adler 3 hours ago


President Trump, in Camp David for a weekend of meetings with Republican leaders and Cabinet members, was up early Saturday to fire off a series of tweets boasting about his intelligence and mental stability.

Not only is the president a genius, according to him, but “a very stable genius at that.”

After warming up with an attack on ABC News reporter Brian Ross, Trump in three tweets over 11 minutes took on “the Democrats and … the Fake News Mainstream Media” who are “taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.”

“Actually,” he continued, “throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. … I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!”

A provocative new book by journalist Michael Wolff, “Fire and Fury,” paints a picture of Trump as disengaged from the presidency, confused by his job, unable to absorb new information and given to childish demands and tantrums. The White House has disputed the book and charged that former adviser Steve Bannon, one of Wolff’s main sources, “lost his mind” when he was fired last summer.

Similar questions were raised about Reagan in his second term, especially after he admitted in a 1987 speech that his “mind” and “best intentions” on the Iran–Contra arms-for-hostages deal were contradicted by “the facts and the evidence.”

In 1994, five years after leaving office, Reagan announced he had Alzheimer’s disease. His son Ron later said he saw signs of dementia in his father while he was in office, although that was disputed by his doctors.

In claiming he won the presidency on his first try, Trump appears to have forgotten that he had run once before, in 2000, when he was briefly a candidate for the Reform Party nomination. He dropped out of the race after a few months with poll support of around 7 percent.

01-07-18  02:34am - 2541 days #67
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Ellen DeGeneres exposed as a member of Deep State.
Eric Trump, President Donald Trump's second son, has exposed Ellen DeGeneres as a member of Deep State.
He took this risk because he's a son who puts loyalty above his own personal safety.
Deep State, for those unaware, is a conspiracy that fights to undermine the Trump presidency.


Can President Trump, fighting for a democratic United States, put these criminals and lawbreakers in prison, where they belong?
Or will the Deep State conspirators hide behind their wealth and influence while committing crimes against the United States?

Note: prominent members of Deep State include Ellen Degeneres, Hilary Clinton, and Barack Obama. This is why it's so powerful.

Stay tuned!

http://ew.com/tv/2018/01/03/eric-trump-e...egeneres-deep-state/

01-07-18  12:24pm - 2541 days #68
lk2fireone (0)
Active User



Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
CNN cuts off Trump adviser Stephen Miller during interview: 'I'm wasting my viewers’ time'
The Independent Emily Shugerman,The Independent 2 hours 9 minutes ago



CNN’s Jake Tapper cut off a Trump administration official during an interview and accused him of “wasting my viewer’s time" as the adviser tried to defend Donald Trump from claims contained in an explosive new book.

Top White House policy adviser Stephen Miller appeared on CNN’s State of the Union to field questions about Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a controversial new account of the Trump presidency by journalist Michael Wolff.

Mr Miller, however, avoided questions about a certain, controversial Trump campaign meeting – one that former White House strategist Steve Bannon told Mr Wolff was “unpatriotic” and “treasonous”. Mr Miller called the comments “grotesque,” and claimed Mr Bannon could not be a credible source on the meeting because he “wasn’t even there when it went down”.

"It reads like an angry, vindictive person spouting off to a highly discreditable author," Mr Miller said of the book. "The author is a garbage author of a garbage book."

Mr Bannon later walked back his comments about the meeting in a statement to Axios.

Mr Miller quickly turned to praising the President, calling him “a political genius” who had "tapped into something magical that's happening in the heart of this country." Mr Trump previously described himself as “a very stable genius” in tweets contesting Mr Wolff’s depiction of him.

When Mr Tapper brought up the President's self-flattery, Mr Miller called it "a very true statement," adding that Mr Trump was "a self-made billionaire who revolutionized reality TV and changed the course of our politics".

"I'm sure he's watching and he's happy you said that," Mr Tapper responded.

Mr Miller persisted, claiming he needed only three minutes to defend the President from "24 hours of negative anti-Trump, hysterical coverage” on CNN.

That's when Mr Tapper cut him off, saying: “I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time.”

“Thank you, Stephen,” he added, and cut to commercial break.

Mr Trump weighed in on the interview on Twitter, calling Mr Tapper a "CNN flunky" and claiming he was "destroyed" by Mr Miller. Mr Tapper tweeted out a link to the interview and invited viewers to judge for themselves.

Mr Wolff also also took to the airwaves on Sunday, defending his reporting to NBC’s Chuck Todd against criticism from Mr Miller and other White House officials. Mr Wolff, who claims to have conducted more than 200 interviews with Mr Trump and his senior staff, said he did not have a bias against the President going into the project.

"I would have been delighted to have written a contrarian account here: Donald Trump, this unexpected president is actually going to succeed," Mr Wolff said. "Ok, that’s not the story. He's not going to succeed. This is worse than everyone thought."

"If I left out anything, it's probably stuff that was even more damning,” he added, when asked if he purposefully omitted positive anecdotes about the President.

Lawyers for Mr Trump sent cease and desist letters to Mr Wolff and his publisher last week, telling them to halt publication of the book or face possible libel charges. The publisher responded by moving the book’s release up three days.

01-09-18  07:17pm - 2538 days #69
lk2fireone (0)
Active User



Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
President Donald Trump forgets the words to the national anthem.
But his first-born son says that's the way to sing the anthem (without all the words).
It's the thought that counts.
And his father is a stable genius.
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After Dad Fails To Sing Anthem, Trump Jr. Tweets That's 'How It's Done'
HuffPost David Moye,HuffPost 9 hours ago


President Donald Trump may have fumbled through the national anthem at the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Monday night, but he’s getting at least one rave review.

Not surprisingly, it comes from his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Hours after clips of the president not even mouthing all the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” went viral, the younger Trump took to Twitter to sing his father’s praises.

Predictably, the tweet opened the door to lots of snark.

01-09-18  07:31pm - 2538 days #70
Onyx (0)
In-Activated by Staff

Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:20pm

01-09-18  08:29pm - 2538 days #71
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
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Location: CA
Why is the FBI chief so stupid?
Arrest the CEO of Apple, throw him in jail, until he agrees to let the FBI spy on all Apple products.
The FBI defends strong encryption and information security broadly, FBI Director Christopher Wray says.
Except that the FBI needs to be able to break any encrypted devices in the search for criminals.
So arrest Apple's CEO, and maybe the Microsoft CEO, and any other persons guilty of helping criminals doing crime.
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FBI chief calls unbreakable encryption 'urgent public safety issue'
Reuters By Dustin Volz, Reuters 7 hours ago


By Dustin Volz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The inability of law enforcement authorities to access data from electronic devices due to powerful encryption is an "urgent public safety issue," FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday as he sought to renew a contentious debate over privacy and security.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was unable to access data from nearly 7,800 devices in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 with technical tools despite possessing proper legal authority to pry them open, a growing figure that impacts every area of the agency's work, Wray said during a speech at a cyber security conference in New York.

The FBI has been unable to access data in more than half of the devices that it tried to unlock due to encryption, Wray added.

"This is an urgent public safety issue," Wray added, while saying that a solution is "not so clear cut."

Technology companies and many digital security experts have said that the FBI's attempts to require that devices allow investigators a way to access a criminal suspect's cellphone would harm internet security and empower malicious hackers. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, have expressed little interest in pursuing legislation to require companies to create products whose contents are accessible to authorities who obtain a warrant.

Wray's comments at the International Conference on Cyber Security were his most extensive yet as FBI director about the so-called Going Dark problem, which his agency and local law enforcement authorities for years have said bedevils countless investigations. Wray took over as FBI chief in August.

The FBI supports strong encryption and information security broadly, Wray said, but described the current status quo as untenable.

"We face an enormous and increasing number of cases that rely heavily, if not exclusively, on electronic evidence," Wray told an audience of FBI agents, international law enforcement representatives and private sector cyber professionals. A solution requires "significant innovation," Wray said, "but I just do not buy the claim that it is impossible."

Wray's remarks echoed those of his predecessor, James Comey, who before being fired by President Donald Trump in May frequently spoke about the dangers of unbreakable encryption.

Tech companies and many cyber security experts have said that any measure ensuring that law enforcement authorities are able to access data from encrypted products would weaken cyber security for everyone.

U.S. officials have said that default encryption settings on cellphones and other devices hinder their ability to collect evidence needed to pursue criminals.

The matter came to a head in 2016 when the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to force Apple Inc to break into an iPhone used by a gunman during a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

The Trump administration at times has taken a tougher stance on the issue than former President Barack Obama's administration. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in October chastised technology companies for building strongly encrypted products, suggesting Silicon Valley is more willing to comply with foreign government demands for data than those made by their home country.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Will Dunham)

01-09-18  08:47pm - 2538 days #72
Onyx (0)
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Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:20pm

01-10-18  03:48am - 2538 days #73
lk2fireone (0)
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@Onyx,
I use Firefox almost exclusively.
Stopped using MSFT internet explorer many years ago.
To simplify my computer usage.
I've never used Chrome.

As regards David-Nudes:
I'm not a member of the site.
I created the thread as a point of information for the PU members.
Not that David-Nudes is important or extra-ordinary, just as a small tidbit of information for someone might be interested in the site, and that the PU members would be better served if PU continues to list sites that were formerly covered--so that if a PU member wanted to check on the David=Nudes site, he (or she) would have some data about the site, instead of having PU erase all history of the site from its records.

Just my thoughts, because I wasn't planning on joining David-Nudes as a member.
(I have too many memberships because of the Black Friday low prices, and I'm wasting my money because I don't have the time or energy to visit my memberships properly.

Whew.
Diarrhea of the mind.

Sorry for the extended ramble.

I haven't used Chrome, and I can't access the David-Nudes site.
But at least you and another PU member have pointed out that the site is available, if one is interested in it.

And that's all I was trying to discover, in the first place.

Again, sorry for the extended reply.
My dream is to be clear and precise.
Which seems to be the Impossible Dream (from Don Quixote-which I appreciate more as time goes by).

01-10-18  04:50am - 2538 days #74
iknowwazzup (0)
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Location: United States
It is insane to me to be collecting any tax from someone not making at least $10,000 a year. I didn't have much luck getting specifics, but googling to see what a Canadian, for example, might pay seemed to show that the person would receive money back from both the federal and provincial governments.

I just don't see how any government would expect to stimulate people to get off welfare if they're going to tax so little income. Well, I imagine that there are controls planned or already in place to insure welfare recipients lose their benefits one way or the other.

Nevertheless, I just think that for some folks it will still make more sense not to work at all than to get part-time employment or some other low-paying position. Moreover, it will cost something to administer the collection of these taxes - one wonders if it is really worth the effort?

01-10-18  01:50pm - 2538 days #75
lk2fireone (0)
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Trump is not the only one accused of being a Dirty Old Man.
He has company.

====
====


Stan Lee: Marvel comic book legend accused of sexual harassment

Ilana Kaplan
The Independent
9 January 2018


Marvel creator Stan Lee has denied sexually harassing his caretakers at his Los Angeles home.

The 95-year-old has been accused of groping and harassing his nurses.

Because of these claims, the nursing company is in a legal dispute with Lee, although it is understood no legal claim has been filed.

Lee's nurses claimed he requested oral sex in the shower and to be “pleasured” in his bedroom.

According to a representative from the nursing company, many of the nurses have complained about Lee.

The same representative also said the owner of the company talked to Lee directly.

The company ceased working for him at the end of 2016.

Lee's lawyer has responded to the allegations in a statement saying,“Mr. Lee categorically denies these false and despicable allegations and he fully intends to fight to protect his stellar good name and impeccable character. We are not aware of anyone filing a civil action, or reporting these issues to the police, which for any genuine claim would be the more appropriate way for it to be handled. Instead, Mr. Lee has received demands to pay money and threats that if he does not do so, the accuser will go to the media. Mr. Lee will not be extorted or blackmailed, and will pay no money to anyone because he has done absolutely nothing wrong.”

A representative for the new nursing company caring for Lee said he has been “polite, kind and respectful” to the nurses.

Lee's wife of 69 years passed away in 2017 at 93-years-old.

01-10-18  09:52pm - 2537 days #76
lk2fireone (0)
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Location: CA
Sex, Sin, the Age of Donald Trump.

Two Florida state senators admit having extramarital affair.
(That means they were fucking each other.)

But do not worry: they are asking for the forgiveness of their constituents and God.

====
====




Two Florida state senators admit having extramarital affair

New York Daily News
ELIZABETH ELIZALDE
Jan 10th 2018 7:34PM

Call it bipartisan love.

Two Florida state senators admitted they were having an affair after a website claimed to have exposed their relationship.

Sens. Anitere Flores (R-Miami) and Oscar Braynon (D-Miami Gardens), both of whom are married, confessed they cheated on their spouses before the legislative session began Tuesday.

“We do not want gossip and rumors to distract from the important business of the people,” the senators said in a joint statement to the Sun-Sentinel.

“That's why we are issuing this brief statement to acknowledge that our longtime friendship evolved to a level that we deeply regret,” the statement continued. “We have sought the forgiveness of our families, and also seek the forgiveness of our constituents and God.”


The website floresbraynonaffair.com emerged early Tuesday with videos claiming to show Flores entering Braynon’s apartment at The Tennyson complex, which is close to the Capitol in Tallahassee.

01-11-18  04:30am - 2537 days #77
lk2fireone (0)
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FAKE PRESIDENT.

SEND IN THE FBI AND THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT.
ARREST DONALD TRUMP AS THE FAKE PRESIDENT.

CHARGES TO BE FILED LATER.

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.

01-11-18  05:54am - 2537 days #78
lk2fireone (0)
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Trump vows to examine libel laws.
If someone says or write a lie, that person should be held liable.
The problem is, that most of what Trump tweets is a lie.
So he could spend years in court, if the libel laws are strengthened.
Maybe: Trump just wants the laws changed, so that if anyone says or write something Trump doesn't like, then Trump can sue them. That makes more sense.
----
----




Trump Vows ‘to Take a Strong Look’ at Libel Laws in Wake of ‘Fire and Fury’ Release
Variety Ted Johnson
Variety 19 hours ago



WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump vowed to “take a strong look” at libel laws in the wake of the release of Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which he has attacked as “boring and untruthful.”

“We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about a person, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts,” Trump, reading from a piece of paper, told reporters on Wednesday. “If someone says something that is totally false and knowingly false, that the person who has been abused, defamed, libeled, will have meaningful recourse.”

Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, sent a cease and desist letter to Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt & Co., threatening legal action if they moved forward with the publication of the book. They did.

Attorneys for the publisher pushed back on the legal threat, writing to Harder that his letter “stops short of identifying a single statement in the book that is factually false or defamatory.” They defended the accuracy of the book.

But Trump called the current libel laws “a sham and disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness, so we are going to take a strong look at that. We want fairness — can’t say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account.”

“Fire and Fury” has zoomed to the top of bestseller lists. He told The New Yorker that the book has sold 1 million copies in four days.

It’s unclear what Trump could do to change libel law, which are at the state level and governed by Supreme Court precedent. Trump sued author Tim O’Brien in 2007 over his book “TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald,” but the lawsuit was dismissed.

In the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump also threatened to sue women who accused him of misconduct, as well as the New York Times, but he never followed through on those threats, either.

As a public figure, he would have a high threshold to prove a libel claim. His attorneys would have to show that Wolff and the publisher acted with actual malice — they had a reckless disregard for the truth or knew the information was false, but published it anyway. Moreover, the book’s characterization of Trump’s fitness for office could conceivably be argued as a statement of opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment.

Trump would also face months, if not years, of depositions and even a public trial in which the claims of the book would be at the heart of litigation.

Trump also threatened to “open up” libel laws during the 2016 campaign.

01-11-18  09:28am - 2537 days #79
lk2fireone (0)
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/shepard-smith...rutal-033037905.html

Shepard Smith Hits Trump With A Brutal Fact Check On Russia Investigation
HuffPost Ed Mazza,HuffPost 13 hours ago


President Donald Trump on Wednesday once again dismissed the Russia investigation as a “Democratic hoax,” but Fox News host Shepard Smith was standing by with a fact check.

“The president again calling the Russia investigation a ‘Democratic hoax.’” Smith told viewers. “It is not. Fox News has been reporting and will continue to report that two people have pleaded guilty.”

Smith was referring to guilty pleas from former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos in relation to the Russia investigation.

Smith also slammed Trump for saying he planned to “take a strong look at our country’s libel laws.”

Trump has made similar claims in the past, saying he wants to make it easier to sue the media.

“You can’t say things that are false ― knowingly false ― and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account,” Trump said Wednesday.

The president has made 2,001 false or misleading claims in his first 355 days in office, according to The Washington Post.

On Fox News, Smith pointed out that Trump doesn’t have the power to change libel laws.

“All of that about libel laws, that was just a word salad of nothingness, because none of that means anything, except ‘look over here,’” Smith said. “He couldn’t change the libel laws if he wanted to change the libel laws, he couldn’t change them if he got the Congress in there. These are state laws, and that was nothing.”

Later, Smith got even more heated.

“He’s not a dictator. He’s not a king,” Smith said. “He can’t change the libel laws. That’s preposterous.”

Smith has called out Trump repeatedly on Fox News, last year debunking the president’s “inaccurate” claims about Uranium One and slamming his administration for “lies” and “deception” on Russia.

01-11-18  10:26am - 2537 days #80
lk2fireone (0)
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My understanding (which is limited) is that before the new tax bill was signed, President Trump said it was for the lower and middle class. That he would not benefit.
That was a lie.
First, he will save tens of millions of dollars (or more) on the inheritance part of the new tax bill.
But--he is also raking in millions of dollars in tax savings from a last-minute tax break that was added for real estate investors who use LLCs, partnerships and S corporations to make deals.

Trump can say he is not benefiting. Because he turned the business over to his sons.
So the sons are benefiting.

You want to believe that shit?


=====
=====

After Becoming President, Trump Has Reportedly Sold Millions in Real Estate In Secret Deals
Newsweek Grace Guarnieri, Newsweek
21 hours ago



Even after taking office, President Donald Trump has sold more than $35 million worth of real estate last year to secretive buyers.

Trump sold 41 luxury condo units in Las Vegas last year to people who used limited liability companies (LLCs), which allow them to hide their identities, a USA Todayreport found. The president can withdraw profits from these sales at any time using a trust that names him as the sole beneficiary but is managed by sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

Before Trump signed the GOP tax bill into law in December 2017, a last-minute tax break was added for real estate investors who use LLCs, partnerships and S corporations to make deals.


The number of buyers using LLCs to purchase property from Trump climbed even before the tax break was announced last year. A mere 4 percent of buyers used the secretive shell companies in the two years before Trump became the Republican nominee. A year later, the number dramatically increased to nearly 70 percent, according to USA Today.

A Chicago neurosurgeon, Ramis Ghaly, told the paper that he used an LLC to purchase a Trump condo in Las Vegas on the advice of his financial consultant. Ghaly said the advantages of owning the property outweighed his concerns about being associated with president's politics.

But with a majority of buyers choosing to remain anonymous, liberal watchdog groups, including the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have raised questions about the transparency of Trump's foreign deals. The sale of Trump's Palm Beach mansion to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2008 resurfaced last year amid speculation that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during his 2016 presidential race.

Moreover, a Reuters report found that at least 63 people with "Russian passports or addresses" have purchased nearly $98.4 million worth of Trump's property in South Florida. In addition, Trump sold his personal Park Avenue penthouse in Manhattan to Chinese investor Angela Chen.


About 70 percent of those who bought property from President Donald Trump's companies in 2017 chose to conceal their identities using limited liability companies.


“If someone wants to do business with the Trump entities in the form of an LLC, we look behind the LLC to see who the owner of it is and where the funding is coming from,” Bobby Burchfield, the ethics adviser at the Trump Organization, told the newspaper. “If we can’t determine that, we won’t sign off on it.”

Before his inauguration, Trump announced that he would turn over his companies to his sons but would not divest his properties and assets.

“While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses,” Trump said in a series of tweets in November 2016. “Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations. The Presidency is a far more important task!”



The tax break for LLCs, S corporations, limited partnerships and other businesses allow owners to avoid paying business tax rates by allowing income to pass through to partners, who pay an individual tax rate on the money.

In December, New York real estate mogul Steve Witkoff told Newsweek that the tax bill benefits reaped by real estate investors will trickle down to the economy.

“I think you've got to create all those conditions that get the private sector to want to invest,” Witkoff said. “The president's game plan is more growth. Let's add several trillion more dollars of GDP, expand the tax net, lower the amount that you pay, but expand it. More tax revenue means we're going to pay down the deficit.”

This article was first written by Newsweek

01-11-18  10:42am - 2537 days #81
lk2fireone (0)
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When you want to hear the real news (not the fake news that President Trump keeps complaining about), tune in to what President Trump is saying (or tweeting).

For example: Here's the latest news about U.S-made F-52s fighter aircraft delivered to Norway, as reported by the US President:
---
---

The Washington Post


Trump lauded delivery of F-52s to Norway.
The planes only exist in ‘Call of Duty.’

By Alex Horton January 11 at 12:05 PM

Trump says U.S. delivered ‘F-52 and F-35 fighter jets’ to Norway

President Trump announced on Jan. 10 that the U.S. has started delivering F-52 fighter jets to Norway, but the jets don't exist. (The Washington Post)

President Trump’s announcement of U.S-made F-52s fighter aircraft delivered to Norway may have rattled its neighbor Russia, the source of rising tension among NATO allies.

Was it a secret advanced jet capable of beating its Russian counterparts? A ruse to fool intelligence analysts?

Neither, it turns out. The “F-52” is a fictional jet only available to fly if you’re a gamer at the controls of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”

Trump lauded the sale of the fictional planes alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House on Wednesday, remarking on the very real and growing defense relationship with America’s Northern Europe ally.

“In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets,” Trump said. “We have a total of 52 and they’ve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule.”

Trump was reading from a statement, and it appears he combined the figure of 52 planes with the “F” designation assigned to fighter jets in the U.S. inventory, such as the F-35 Lightning II.

Lockheed Martin, the defense company that produces the actual aircraft, said in a statement that the Norwegian government has so far authorized funding for 40 F-35s, and has taken delivery of 10 to date. Three arrived at Ørland Air Base in November, spokeswoman Carolyn Nelson said.

The company did not say if it had an F-52 program in development.

That plane, at least in pixilated form, exists in 2014’s installment of the popular Call of Duty franchise. In the game, players are at the helm of the jet soaring through a canyon, firing a chaingun and missiles in a scene reminiscent of another fantasy dogfight — the Death Star run in “A New Hope.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not return a request to comment on the issue and did not respond to a question asking whether Trump was a Call of Duty fan.

Lockheed Martin and the developer of the game, Sledgehammer Games, did not return requests for comment.

The stealth F-35 is the most advanced jet in the U.S. inventory, honeycombed with sensors and loaded with technology to fulfill its multi-role capability — to defeat other planes, but also to provide close air support to troops on the ground, scoop up vital surveillance and conduct electronic warfare attacks.

The jet has been an albatross around the neck of Pentagon acquisition officials, with years of cost-overruns, delays and concerns over pilot safety. The program will cost $1 trillion dollars over its 60-year life span — the most expensive agency program ever. Trump targeted the price tag before he was commander in chief, saying he would save billions, and Lockheed Martin responded with commitments to lower its costs.


Since then, Trump has highlighted the aircraft, saying in September: “When our enemies hear the F-35 engines, when they’re roaring overhead, their souls will tremble, and they will know the day of reckoning has arrived.” Air Force variants of the plane arrived in the U.K. in April for the service’s first overseas operational deployment, with the Marine Corps already fielding them in Japan.

Norway, which shares a maritime and land border with Russia, has relied on the United States to bolster its defense in the face of tension in Europe after Russia’s incursion into the Ukraine 2014, which followed its annexation of Crimea. The State Department approved a possible sale of 60 guided air-to-air missiles to Norway in November, an agency release said. Those missiles are compatible with the F-35, which will replace Norway’s aging stocks of F-16s.

The country is also home to a rotational force of 300 U.S. Marines training for cold weather and mountainous warfare, mirroring a rotational armored brigade fanned out across Eastern Europe. The head of the Marine Corps told personnel in December that a “big ass fight” was looming while he visited Oslo.

“I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a war coming,” Gen. Robert Neller told Marines in December. “You’re in a fight here, an informational fight, a political fight, by your presence.”

01-11-18  12:15pm - 2537 days #82
Onyx (0)
In-Activated by Staff

Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:20pm

01-11-18  05:08pm - 2536 days #83
mbaya (0)
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Location: new jersey
Walmart abruptly closes 63 Sam's Club stores, lays off thousands.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companie...AAuzd4Y?ocid=U452DHP

01-11-18  05:10pm - 2536 days #84
Onyx (0)
In-Activated by Staff

Posts: 149
Registered: Nov 28, '17
Edited on Mar 20, 2018, 10:21pm

01-11-18  07:01pm - 2536 days #85
lk2fireone (0)
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Trump is not negative.
He is fighting for the American people.

In the past he has stated that he is the least racist and least anti-semitic person you will ever meet.
But that does not stop him from telling the truth: Which is that Haiti and Africa are shitholes.
Liberals are saying: Shame on Trump. What a racist comment.
But Trump disagrees.
He is only speaking the truth. That Haiti and Africa are "shitholes."

What a man. What a leader!


HuffPost
2018-01-11

In an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on Thursday, President Donald Trump described Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries and slammed the idea of restoring protections for immigrants from those regions.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” the president said, sources told The Washington Post. Trump reportedly followed up suggesting the U.S. should welcome more immigrants from countries like Norway.

The exchange was confirmed by NBC News, BuzzFeed and CNN.

Trump’s remarks sparked immediate outrage from progressive organizations and Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.), Jim McGovern (Mass.) and Karen Bass (Calif.).

Haiti’s Ambassador to the U.S., Paul Altidor, has also formally summoned an American official to explain the president’s comments and said the government “vehemently” condemned them, NBC News contributor Yamiche Alcindor reported.

“Either the president has been misinformed or he is miseducated,” Altidor was quoted as saying

Despite the criticism, the White House did not walk back the president’s remarks. “Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement to CBS News.

The president “will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway,” Raj added.

The statement did not directly address the reported “shithole” remark.

Trump is currently negotiating with congressional lawmakers over how to help so-called Dreamers, young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The president put many of them at risk of losing their protection from deportation when he ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In exchange for helping Dreamers now, Trump wants various border security measures ― including his wall ― and restrictions on legal immigration that would largely affect people of color.

During the negotiations, some lawmakers have proposed granting visas to individuals from Haiti, El Salvador and multiple African nations who are in the U.S. on temporary protected status. The Trump administration has already terminated that status for people from Haiti, El Salvador and Nicaragua, which means more than 200,000 people currently living in the U.S. have a matter of months to either leave or face deportation.

Trump reportedly scoffed at “shithole countries” in response to that proposal.

“As our nation fights to move forward, our President falls deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of racism and xenophobia,” the NAACP said in a statement. “The United States’ position as a moral leader throughout the world has been thoroughly damaged by the continuous lowbrow, callous and unfiltered racism.”

Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Trump’s comments were yet another “confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views.”

“It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President’s slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again,” Richmond said in a statement.

Rep. Coleman echoed those calls, calling the president a “cowardly racist who has no business being President of the United States.

“Shame on him and those who don’t hold him accountable,” she tweeted.

Elisa Massimino, president and CEO of Human Rights First, called the president’s reported remark “disgusting and disgraceful.”

“That the President of the United States would talk this way about people who are fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries is shameful,” she said in a statement. “Congress must not give in to this hateful, racist, and divisive narrative coming out of the White House. America is counting on you to defend human dignity by standing firm for our commitment to protect the persecuted.”

This wouldn’t be the president’s first racially charged remark. He spent years furthering the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, was not born in the U.S. He launched his presidential campaign with a speech that accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the border and proposed banning all Muslims from entering the country before settling for barring individuals from certain Muslim-majority nations. He has repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as “Pocahontas,” including at an event to honor Native Americans who served in World War II.

Trump previously said in private meetings that Haitians “all have AIDS” and that people from Africa would never “go back to their huts” once they had seen the U.S., The New York Times reported in December. The White House has denied that he made either of those comments.

Jack Davidson, executive director of the American Haitian Foundation, said Trump’s latest comment was “ignorant [and] racist with a complete disregard for the human dignity of the Haitian people.”

“[Haiti] has been struggling with its democracy and extreme poverty for many years,” Davidson told HuffPost. “The people of the country of Haiti are hardworking but many have given up hope. I am embarrassed that he is the president of the United States.”

The president has criticized black athletes for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality, calling for NFL owners to “get that son of a bitch off the field.”

He has been reticent at times to criticize white nationalists who support him. In August, the president said there were “very fine people” participating in a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counter-protester was killed.

Trump is demanding an end to the diversity visa lottery, which grants up to 50,000 green cards to people from countries that send comparatively few immigrants to the U.S., many of them in Africa. Those individuals are chosen by the U.S. and then vetted, and there is no indication that they pose a greater threat than other immigrants or native-born citizens. But Trump has nonetheless made the baseless claim that through the visa lottery, foreign governments “give us their worst people … really the worst of the worst.”

The president also wants to limit what he and many proponents of slashing legal immigration call “chain migration,” the process by which Americans and legal permanent residents can sponsor certain family members for green cards. That, too, could largely affect people of color, because recent immigrants are more likely to come from Asian or Latin American countries.

For Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, however, his business has reportedly requested hundreds of visas to bring in foreign workers, including from Haiti.

Nick Wing and Nick Visser contributed reporting.

01-12-18  09:56am - 2536 days #86
lk2fireone (0)
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New movie: Black Panther.
After the death of his father, T,Challa returns home to Wakanda, the technlogically advanced African nation.

President Trump calls all African countries shitholes.

But he is not aware of Wakanda.
Where a new king, T,Challa, is strong and proud.

Will T,Challa accept the challenge and fight the evil US President?

Or will T,Challa bow down before the Imperialist US, which has Tony Stark embracing US policies?

Stay tuned, for the February 16 movie release date, where we can find out if President Trump's reign will last or Trump go down in history as the most bigoted President of the 21st century?

01-12-18  10:42am - 2536 days #87
lk2fireone (0)
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-...m_term=.da9e98584033

The Washington Post
January 4, 2018
By Aaron Blake


Sarah Huckabee Sanders kills irony dead, once and for all


White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the tell-all book by Michael Wolff is "complete fantasy." (Reuters)

For the second straight day Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fought back against Michael Wolff's Trump tell-all. And in doing so, she may have finally killed off what's left of irony in the White House briefing room.

“The president,” Sanders told reporters, “believes in making sure that information is accurate before pushing it out as fact, when it certainly and clearly is not.”

Yes, we all know what a stickler Trump is for making sure what he says is accurate before he says it. It may be his defining trait.

In all seriousness, it's not just the nearly 2,000 false and misleading things Trump has said as president. It's that the White House and Trump himself have acknowledged that Sanders's standard doesn't really apply to them.

A little more than a month ago, after Trump retweeted anti-Muslim videos pushed by a leader of a fringe political group in Britain, Sanders made almost precisely the opposite argument about the veracity of the videos; she said that didn't really matter. “Whether it's a real video, the threat is real,” Sanders said. “His goal is to promote strong border security and strong national security.”

Trump disproved Sanders's Thursday comment shortly after being inaugurated. At a White House news conference, he was confronted with his repeated claim that he had registered “the biggest electoral college win since Ronald Reagan” — one of many factually incorrect claims Trump has made about his 2016 win. Trump said in response, “I was given that information, I don’t know.” A fact too good to check, apparently!

During the 2016 campaign, Trump at one point alluded to a National Enquirer story suggesting that the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) may have been involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination. His defense? Not that it was true or even plausible but that Cruz's campaign never denied it (even though it actually had). “I have no control over anything,” Trump said. “I might have pointed it out, but they never denied — did anybody ever deny that it was the father? They're not saying, 'Oh, that wasn't really my father.'" So here, the standard seems to be not whether something is accurate but whether someone has denied it.

Then there was the time Trump suggested that a protester who had rushed the stage at one of his rallies was affiliated with the Islamic State. When NBC's Chuck Todd pointed out that this was an Internet hoax, Trump didn't back down. “I don’t know what they made up,” he said in March 2016. “All I know is what’s on the Internet.”

But perhaps the most telling Trump comments about this kind of thing came in a March interview with Time magazine. While talking about his baseless claim that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election, Trump was asked why he said such things without factual evidence.

“I’m a very instinctual person,” he said, “but my instinct turns out to be right.”

That's a far cry from “I believe in making sure that information is accurate before pushing it out as fact.” And whatever you think about Wolff's book — and there's plenty to be skeptical of — the White House long ago forfeited the moral high ground when it comes to pre-fact-checking.

(h/t Igor Bobic)

01-12-18  11:04am - 2536 days #88
lk2fireone (0)
Active User



Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Fake news hits again.
President Trump tweets that he never said Haiti was a shithole country.
Why is everyone picking on him?
Why do they make up fake news stories that put him in a bad light?
Commies. Pinkos. Homos. They are all to blame (my guess as to who is criticizing our beloved President).


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President Trump disputes reports of remarks on Haiti
Dylan Stableford 3 hours ago


President Trump speaks during a meeting at the White House on Thursday. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Amid a torrent of outraged criticism from around the country and the world, President Trump disputed multiple reports that he referred to Haiti as a “shithole” country during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers on Thursday about U.S. immigration policy.

“Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country,” Trump tweeted early Friday morning. “Never said ‘take them out.’ Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings — unfortunately, no trust!”

Earlier, the president did not deny using “tough” language at the meeting, which was focused on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era immigration program that was rescinded by the Trump administration last year. But Trump suggested he did not make the “shithole” remark as reported.

“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used,” he tweeted. “What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made — a big setback for DACA!”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was among the lawmakers at the meeting, refuted Trump’s denials.

“You’ve seen the comments in the press. I’ve not read one of them that’s inaccurate,” Durbin told reporters on Friday. “To no surprise, the president started tweeting this morning denying that he used those words. It’s not true. He said these hateful things, and he said them repeatedly.”

GOP Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton, who were also in the room, issued a joint statement saying they “do not recall the president saying these comments specifically.” But Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that fellow South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham — who was in the room, too — told him the reported comments are “basically accurate.”

The Washington Post reported that Trump “grew frustrated” with lawmakers while discussing a possible bipartisan deal protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to the newspaper, which cited “several people briefed on the meeting.”

“Why do we need more Haitians?” Trump continued. “Take them out.”

According to the Post, Trump suggested that the U.S. “should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with” the day before.

On Thursday night, the White House did not deny Trump made the disparaging comments.

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement to the Post. “Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation.”

According to CNN’s Jake Tapper, though, Trump did not refer to Haiti as a “shithole” country, but did refer to African countries that way.

“There was a conflation of two different remarks by the president,” Tapper explained in a series of tweets, citing a “source familiar with the meeting.”

“First, when talking about ‘temporary protected status’ countries as part of the immigration deal it was mentioned that Salvadorans, Hondurans and Haitians have that status. ‘Haitians?’ the president said. ‘Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out’ — meaning take them out of the deal. Then in a separate part of the conversation when they were referencing the diversity visa lottery, President Trump referred to people coming from Africa as coming from ‘shithole countries.’”

The Post report about Trump’s comments during Thursday’s meeting drew widespread condemnation from lawmakers and commentators from all sides. At an event in Milwaukee on Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump’s comments “unfortunate” and “unhelpful.” Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, whose family came from Haiti, said Trump’s comments are “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation.”

“President Trump’s comments are yet another confirmation of his racially insensitive and ignorant views,” Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement. “It also reinforces the concerns that we hear every day, that the President’s slogan Make America Great Again is really code for Make America White Again.”

At the top of his CNN show Thursday night, host Don Lemon called Trump a “racist.”


Trump’s reported inflammatory comments came almost eight years to the day after a devastating earthquake in Haiti killed more than 300,000 people and displaced around 1.5 million others. Late last year, the Trump administration announced that it would end an Obama-era program that gave temporary residency to 60,000 displaced Haitians that allowed them to live and work in the U.S.

The Haitian government said on Friday that Trump’s “shithole” comment reflects a “racist view of the Haitian community.” Paul Altidor, the Haitian ambassador to the U.S., told NPR that the president was either “misinformed” or “miseducated.”

African Union spokesman Ebba Kalondo told the Associated Press that he was “frankly alarmed” by the president’s remarks.

“Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behavior and practice,” Kalondo said. “This is particularly surprising as the United States of America remains a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity.”

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, also condemned the remarks.

“If confirmed, these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the United States,” Colville said. “There is no other word you can use but ’racist.’”

Durbin told reporters: “The most disheartening thing to me is that it’s my belief that is the first time words that hateful have been spoken in the Oval Office.”

But Trump reportedly used similar language about Haitian and Nigerian immigrants during a June 2017 meeting with his national security team.

The New York Times reported that the president said 15,000 Haitians who arrived in the U.S. last year “all have AIDS,” and complained that Nigerians would never “go back to their huts” after seeing America.

After issuing a proclamation in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the White House on Friday, Trump ignored a number of shouted questions from reporters as he was leaving the room. Among them: “Mr. President, are you a racist?”

01-12-18  11:23am - 2536 days #89
lk2fireone (0)
Active User



Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
The truth you see and hear depends on your political party.
That's been true for hundreds of years.
But now we can see it in action in today's politics.

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Few Republicans Acknowledged Trump's 'Shithole' Slur
Carla Herreria
HuffPost 7 hours ago



Democrats were quick to denounce President Donald Trump after reports that he referred to Haiti and some African nations as “shithole countries” while discussing immigration reform with lawmakers at the White House.

Most Republicans, on the other hand, were notably silent on the president’s shockingly vulgar remark, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and GOP chair Ronna McDaniel.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called Trump’s comments “very unfortunate” and Sen. Marco Rubio posted a long Twitter thread about the many ways Haitians have made an impact in the U.S.

But by Friday morning, long after Trump reportedly asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here,” most GOP lawmakers had still not said anything publicly about the president’s racially charged remark. He was said to have made the comment when lawmakers pressed to restore protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and multiple African nations.

In a series of early morning tweets, Trump denied using such language, while continuing to denigrate some nations. But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) ― who was in the room at the time ― swiftly contradicted him, saying that the president had in fact “said these hate-filled things and he said them repeatedly.”

Under the immigration plan being discussed, the U.S. “would be forced to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly,” Trump tweeted. He added that “language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used.”

At least one GOP congressman even used the moment to attack Democrats. “The rhetoric coming from leaders in both parties does nothing to advance the kind of reforms that are best for America,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) tweeted on Thursday, without specifying what was said by Democrats that was as offensive as Trump’s remarks. HuffPost’s requests for comment from Davis’ office were not returned.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), who both attended Thursday’s meeting, said in a joint statement Friday that they didn’t recall Trump “saying these comments specifically.”

“What he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest,” they said.

Here are the Republicans who spoke out against Trump for his reported remark:
Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah)

Rep. Mia Love was one of the first Republicans in Congress to issue an official statement demanding the president apologize. Love made history in 2014, when she became the first Haitian-American woman and first black Republican woman elected to Congress.

“This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation,” Love, whose parents immigrated from Haiti to the U.S., said in a statement Thursday.

“My parents came from one of those countries but proudly took the oath of allegiance to the United States and took on the responsibilities of everything that being a citizen comes with,” she added. “They never took a thing from our federal government.”
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.)

Rep. Carlos Curbelo took a softer approach, tweeting his support for individuals under temporary protected status and asking the White House to explain the context behind Trump’s comment.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen took to her local media to air frustrations with Trump’s comments. She tweeted: “The president calling #Haiti a ‘shithole country’ ignores the contributions thousands of Haitians made to our #SoFla community and nation.”

She later told CBS Miami that “no country deserves to be called a ’shithole.” Speaking to WSVN 7 news, Ros-Lehtinen said that Trump “needs to understand that lives are at stake when he makes such reckless comments.” According to her tweets, she invoked an inscription on the Statue of Liberty: ”‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’ not ‘go back to your shithole.’”

She told Univision 23 Miami, a Spanish-language news channel, that Trump’s comments on Haiti “do not reflect our country.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)

Without denouncing Trump’s insult, Sen. Orrin Hatch called for the White House to explain what Trump meant with his remark.
Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.)

Rep. Mike Coffman issued a statement late Thursday celebrating the accomplishments of Colorado’s diverse immigrant communities, “from El Salvador to Ethiopia.”

“The President could learn a thing or two from them,” Coffman said.
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.)

Rep. Erik Paulsen called Trump’s remarks “completely inappropriate” and said the White House should issue an apology.

The White House didn’t deny Trump’s remark. Instead, the administration said in a statement that Trump is focused on “American people.”

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement, according to CBS News.

The president “will always reject temporary, weak and dangerous stopgap measures that threaten the lives of hardworking Americans, and undercut immigrants who seek a better life in the United States through a legal pathway,” Shah added.

Sen. Jeff Flake on Friday tweeted his displeasure with Trump’s choice of words.

Though the president may have been trying to be “tough,” his comment was instead “abhorrent and repulsive,” Flake said.
Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele

Michael Steele, a conservative pundit who frequently appears on cable news, harshly rebuked Trump on Friday, saying the “evidence is incontrovertible” that the president is racist.

“There are a whole lot of folks like Donald Trump,” Steele said on MSNBC. “White folks in this country who have a problem with the browning of America. When they talk about [wanting] their country back, they are talking about a country that was very safely white, less brown and less committed to that browning process.”

This article has been updated to include additional Republicans commenting on Trump’s remarks, and Durbin’s assertion that Trump used those specific words.

CORRECTION: A previous version referred to Rep. Mia Love as the first black Republican in Congress. She is the first black Republican woman in Congress.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

01-13-18  12:30am - 2535 days #90
lk2fireone (0)
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Posts: 3,618
Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Eric Trump, President Trump's son, has no problem with fake news.
Or with fake truth.
But maybe what he means is that the Trump name is worth millions, and Trump businesses are charging his charity far less than they should be charging, so that's why he thinks his expenses are "free".


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New Filing Shows Eric Trump Raised Millions, Lied About His Foundation's Expenses
Dan Alexander, Forbes Staff


Jan 12, 2018 11:46 AM


Eric Trump’s old foundation donated $2.9 million in 2016 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading cancer center in Memphis, Tennessee, according to a new filing first obtained by the Daily Beast. That document also shows that the president’s son lied to the press about how his organization spent its money.

The Eric Trump Foundation, which changed its name to Curetivity in May 2017, hosts an annual invitational at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, where the president’s son previously claimed the charity could use the course for free. “We get to use our assets 100% free of charge,” he told Forbes last year. The filing shows that the charity actually paid $99,000 to the golf club for goods and services it claims were worth $184,000.

Another $13,000 went to Trump Golf Links Ferry Point, a nearby course that hosted additional golfers for the annual fundraiser, according to the document. Trump SoHo, where the charity had previously offered shuttles to attendees, got another $23,000. And the president’s Florida club Mar-a-Lago got another $11,000 for goods the charity claims were worth $47,000. The charity said the goods and services rendered were worth more than the amounts paid. Altogether, those payments add up to a total of $145,000 from Eric’s nonprofit charity to his family’s for-profit properties in 2016.

In June 2017, the New York attorney general opened an investigation into the charity following a Forbes report that exposed apparent violations of federal tax rules and state laws that ban self dealing and misleading donors. That investigation remains ongoing.

The new document reveals the finances of the foundation during the presidential run of Donald Trump, the man who commanded that the charity pay his business, according to two people directly involved. Former Trump National Westchester employee Ian Gillule previously told Forbes that Eric’s organization was not billed in its first few years of operation. “Mr. Trump had a cow. He flipped. He was like, ‘We’re donating all of this stuff, and there’s no paper trail? No credit?’ And he went nuts. He said, ‘I don’t care if it’s my son or not – everybody gets billed.”

The filing breaks down more specific expenses that also do not seem to line up with previous statements by Eric Trump. “Things like wine we were normally able to get donated,” he told Forbes last year. The filing shows food and beverage expenses of $118,000.

Every golf fundraiser also included live entertainment from comedians or musicians. “They did it for free,” Eric Trump said. The document shows entertainment expenses of $117,000. It lists an additional $138,000 worth of unspecified “other direct expenses.”

The new filing also adds to concerns about whether the Eric Trump Foundation, which helped raise more than $16 million for St. Jude since 2007, has been up front with its donors about where else it was giving away money. Two former board members, Katrina Kaupp and Doug Reinhardt, previously told Forbes they believed all of the money went to the hospital. A “donate now” page on an archived page of the charity’s website once said, “All donations solely benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.” Eric Trump hammered in the point, talking about the 2014 event in a video. “We just raised an inordinate amount of money, and it all obviously goes to St. Jude,” he said.

But tax filings from that year showed that only $1.2 million of the $1.8 million raised went to St. Jude. Another $240,000 paid for expenses and $200,000 went to other organizations.

According to the new filing, the Eric Trump Foundation continued to sprinkle a small portion of its funds to charities other than St. Jude in 2016.

Animal organization Big Dog Ranch Rescue got $10,000. Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, is co-hosting an event for that group at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in March. The Staten Island Zoo got $15,000. It once said that the Eric Trump Foundation had helped to donate three arctic foxes. The Eric Trump Foundation also gave to Chai Lifeline, a children’s cancer charity that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hosted at the White House in October.

“Relevant donors whose money was given to causes other than St. Jude were made aware the funds would be donated elsewhere,” a spokesperson for the charity wrote in an email to Forbes in June. “All donations made via the website were given to St. Jude.”

Tikva Children’s Home received $16,600. The New Jersey charity cares for children in Odessa, Ukraine. Mikheil Saakashvili, who helped Trump begin a licensing project in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, once served as the governor of Odessa. It is not clear why the Eric Trump Foundation gave to the charity, or if the Saakashvili connection had anything to do with it.

Representatives of Eric Trump’s old foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

01-13-18  06:15pm - 2534 days #91
lk2fireone (0)
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Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
Trump has God on his side for describing brown and black nations as shithole countries.
However, not everyone agrees.
Some people believe that brown and black people are not shitholes.


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CNN panel erupts after black televangelist Pastor Mark Burns gives biblical defense for Trump


TheGrio
Jan 13th 2018 6:21PM

In a recent segment on CNN, Pastor Mark Burns, a member of the president’s evangelical board, attempted to offer a biblical defense for Trump’s comments regarding brown and black nations being “sh**hole countries.”

In mere moments he was shot down. Hard.

“The Bible clearly says, in First Timothy, chapter 5, verse eight,” Pastor Mark Burns began, before Urban Radio’s White House correspondent April Ryan, cut him off.

“I’ve grown up in church so let’s be clear!” Ryan said, which got a “praise God” from Pastor Mark Burns.

“A man who does not take care of his own home, his own home, their own people, is worse than an infidel,” the televangelist stated, paraphrasing a Bible verse. “We have somehow forgotten that in America.”

Once scripture was brought up, Ryan and Burns were competing to get their points across. Ryan brought up another famous verse from the Bible, “love thy neighbor as thyself.”


“Pastor, please,” host Erin Burnett said before turning to CNN analyst Kirsten Nelson.

“What you just were quoting was about the government,” Nelson stated.

“We’re talking about the people coming over. What you’re basically saying is if you come from a sh**hole country that you’re a sh**hole person. That’s not correct.”

“This country is filled with people who came from terrible countries, terrible governments and they fled here and they came here,” the analyst went on.

“That’s the exact kind of people I think a pastor would be saying, we would want them to come to the country, and they’ve been major contributors to this country.”

Pastor Mark Burns was forced to admit that as a church leader, it is his job to help the poor and the homeless.

“But don’t let them into your home, God forbid,” Burnett said sarcastically.

01-13-18  07:27pm - 2534 days #92
lk2fireone (0)
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Location: CA
White House says false ballistic missile threat was a state-fuckup, and the White House had nothing to do with it.
Trump was briefed on the issue, while at his Mar-a-Lago luxury resort in Florida.
Trump was aware of the situation, but the White House states "this was purely a state exercise."
Trump had nothing to do with the fake alert.
(But maybe this is an outgrowth of Trump's fake news line.)


However, I live in California.
I did not receive any notification of an incoming ballistic missile alert.
Why do the people in Hawaii get an alert, and the people in California are left in the dark?
Shouldn't we have the chance to crawl into our bomb shelters, as well?
(I don't have a bomb shelter.
But with Trump mouthing off with North Korea, maybe the US Government should give me funds to build my own personal bomb shelter.
The US Government has a bomb shelter for Trump.
Where is mine?)
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White House says false ballistic missile threat was 'purely a state exercise' in Hawaii

Jan 13th 2018 6:34PM


The White House appeared to distance itself from a colossal mix-up that resulted in a false alert being sent out in Hawaii warning of an impending ballistic missile threat.

President Donald Trump was on his golf course at the Mar-a-Lago luxury resort in Florida when the situation unfolded. The White House deputy press secretary, Lindsay Walters, released a statement afterward saying Trump had been made aware of the situation.

"The President has been briefed on the state of Hawaii's emergency management exercise," the statement said. "This was purely a state exercise."


The White House said Trump was meeting with Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative, on Saturday. It came as officials quickly worked to reassure the public that an alert sent to people's phones in the state was a false alarm.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted, "NO missile threat to Hawaii." An official from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the agency in charge of providing aerospace warnings in North America, told BuzzFeed News that there was "absolutely no incoming ballistic missile threat" and that they were working to find out why the first alert was sent.

A second alert went out about 45 minutes later.

"There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False alarm," the message said.

01-13-18  07:40pm - 2534 days #93
lk2fireone (0)
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Hollywood Goes Ballistic on Trump Over Hawaii Missile Scare: ‘Load of Bullshit’

President was enjoying a game of golf at the time of the incident
Itay Hod | Last Updated: January 13, 2018 @ 5:49 PM




After a false ballistic missile threat alert was sent to cell phones in Hawaii on Saturday morning that panicked the islands and beyond, Hollywood placed the blame on one person: President Donald Trump.

The short-lived Hawaii missile crisis was triggered after someone “pushed the wrong button” during an employee shift change, according to Gov. David Ige. Those not fond of Trump or his policies already had their dander raised from Thursday, when The New York Times published a damning report saying that the president had described certain nations as “shithole countries.” And the sustained tension had people directing anger squarely at the POTUS once again.

“Great to know the button saying there is a nuclear war is right next to the one saying this is a test,” Judd Apatow tweeted. “This is a load of bullshit. This is not what happened. Keep digging. This isn’t about a f–king shift change.”

Also Read:
Panic in Hawaii: Residents Wake Up to Ballistic Missile Emergency Alert Sent by Mistake

It didn’t help matters that CNN reported that Trump was on the golf course when the false alarm was sent.

“Anyone else wondering why the hell @realDonaldTrump didn’t tweet about this morning’s false alarm in Hawaii?” asked Montel Williams. “To [sic] busy with golfing or doesn’t care since it’s not about him?”

“I woke up this morning in Hawaii with ten minutes to live. It was a false alarm, but a real psychic warning,” tweeted Jim Carrey. “If we allow this one-man Gomorrah and his corrupt Republican congress to continue alienating the world we are headed for suffering beyond all imagination.”

Meanwhile, Pedro Pascal posted a meme that read: “Dear rest of the world, we’re sorry for our shithead president, Sincerely, the United States of America.”

Hawaii residents got the jolt of a lifetime Saturday morning, as they woke up to frightening mobile push alerts warning island residents of an incoming missile and instructing people to seek shelter.

Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency then quickly announced that the message was a mistake.

Also Read:
Hawaii Missile Mess Explained (Video)

“This Hawaii missle scare is on YOU Mr. Trump. The real FEAR that mothers & fathers & children felt is on YOU. It is on YOUR ARROGANCE. HUBRIS. NARCISSISM. RAGE. EGO. IMMATURITY and your UNSTABLE IDIOCY,” tweeted Jamie Lee Curtis. “Shame on your hate filled self. YOU DID THIS!”

01-14-18  04:48am - 2534 days #94
lk2fireone (0)
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Registered: Nov 14, '08
Location: CA
I finally figured out why President Trump hates Obama.
It's because Obama was a fake President.
Obama (according to Trump) was not born in the United States.
So Obama was not eligible to become President.
And that's why Trump hates Obama.
Obama disrepected the Presidency.
He took away from the greatness of our wonderful country.
And Trump is fighting to make America great again.
End of story

There's another story where Trump, while running for President, stated that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Trump proved his claim because Ted Cruz did not deny it.
(Cruz did deny his father was involved in the assassination, but Trump said Cruz was a liar, so that proved Cruz's father was an assassin).

Trump is the man.

(I'm not sure why Trump didn't put Ted Cruz in jail.
Along with Hilary Clinton and Obama.)

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Good Morning America
Arpaio not surprised by erroneous Hawaiian missile alert, points to state's handling of 'phony' Obama birth certificate


Good Morning America DAVID CAPLAN,Good Morning America 2 hours 52 minutes ago


Arpaio not surprised by erroneous Hawaiian missile alert, points to state's handling of Obama birth certificate (ABC News)

Arizona Senate candidate Joe Arpaio, the controversial former sheriff of Maricopa County and an outspoken "birther," said Saturday he is not surprised that Hawaiians received an erroneous emergency mobile alert about an imminent ballistic missile attack because "there's something wrong with that government."

Case in point, according to Arpaio? Former President Barack Obama's "fraudulent" Hawaii birth certificate.

Arpaio claims Obama was not born in the U.S., despite what the birth certificate says.

But Obama was indeed born in the U.S., in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961.

During an interview Saturday night with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro, Arpaio was asked for his thoughts on the alert, which turned out to be false and the result of human error.

"I don’t want to get into it," Arpaio said, "but I know doing a certain investigation on a fake, fraudulent government document. They can’t even solve that case. They don’t even want to look at it. So either they’re incompetent or there’s something behind it."

Pirro didn't let those remarks go unchallenged, telling Arpaio, 85, "I got to push back on that a little bit. That document, the long-form, was filed. Let’s put that way. Let’s talk about what happened today in Hawaii. You had some specific thoughts about today."

Arpaio said, "Well, the only thing I’m saying is they can’t even solve a phony document. So now they’ve got a problem. There’s something wrong with that government."


Arpaio is running for the Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Jeff Flake, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term.

Once again he was met with resistance by Pirro, who countered, "Well, let’s keep moving, because they did solve that, and I’m going to keep pushing back on that."

President Donald Trump last year pardoned Arpaio for criminal contempt of court, a misdemeanor. Arpaio had been convicted of the crime for disobeying a federal judge's order to stop racial profiling in detaining "individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally"

01-14-18  05:45am - 2534 days #95
lk2fireone (0)
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Location: CA
I love the way that the US government says that by increasing our nuclear weapons we can drive down the threat of nuclear war.

Just like the FBI says it wants strong encryption while demanding at the same time methods to disable the encryption of all devices (for the good of everyone, of course).

Of course, the US states that North Korea and Iran are criminals for trying to develop nuclear weapons.

I thought that Russia and China were supposed to be our allies.
Why are we increasing our nuclear weapons to use against our allies?

Allies. Threats. What is the difference?

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Administration plan sees deterrence in new nuclear firepower
Associated Press ROBERT BURNS,Associated Press 8 hours ago



FILE - In this July 20, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump stops to answer a reporter's question after greeting military personnel during a visit to the Pentagon. Watching is Vice President Mike Pence. With Russia in mind, the Trump administration is aiming to develop new nuclear firepower that it says will make it easier to deter threats to European allies. The plan, not yet approved by President Donald Trump, is intended to make nuclear conflict less likely, but critics argue it would do the opposite. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Russia in mind, the Trump administration is aiming to develop new nuclear firepower that it says will make it easier to deter threats to European allies.

The plan, not yet approved by President Donald Trump, is intended to make nuclear conflict less likely. Critics argue it would do the opposite.

The proposal is spelled out in a policy document, known officially as a "nuclear posture review," that puts the U.S. in a generally more aggressive nuclear stance. It is the first review of its kind since 2010 and is among several studies of security strategy undertaken since Trump took office.

In many ways it reaffirms the nuclear policy of President Barack Obama, including his commitment to replace all key elements of the nuclear arsenal with new, more modern weapons over the coming two decades.

It says the U.S. will adhere to existing arms control agreements, while expressing doubt about prospects for any new such pacts. The Trump nuclear doctrine is expected to be published in early February, followed by a related policy on the role and development of U.S. defenses against ballistic missiles.

Where the Trump doctrine splits from Obama's approach is in ending his push to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy. Like Obama, Trump would consider using nuclear weapons only in "extreme circumstances," while maintaining a degree of ambiguity about what that means. But Trump sees a fuller deterrent role for these weapons, as reflected in the plan to develop new capabilities to counter Russia in Europe.

The Huffington Post published online a draft of the nuclear policy report Thursday, and The Associated Press independently obtained a copy Friday. Asked for comment, the Pentagon called it a "pre-decisional," unfinished document yet to be reviewed and approved by Trump, who ordered it a year ago.

Russia, and to a degree China, are outlined as nuclear policy problems that demand a tougher approach.

The administration's view is that Russian policies and actions are fraught with potential for miscalculation leading to an uncontrolled escalation of conflict in Europe. It specifically points to a Russian doctrine known as "escalate to de-escalate," in which Moscow would use or threaten to use smaller-yield nuclear weapons in a limited, conventional conflict in Europe in the belief that doing so would compel the U.S. and NATO to back down.

The administration proposes a two-step solution.

First, it would modify "a small number" of existing long-range ballistic missiles carried by Trident strategic submarines to fit them with smaller-yield nuclear warheads.

Secondly, "in the longer term," it would develop a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile — re-establishing a weapon that existed during the Cold War but was retired in 2011 by the Obama administration.

Together, these steps are meant to further dissuade "regional aggression," which means giving Russia greater pause in using limited nuclear strikes.

Interest in the condition and role of U.S. nuclear weapons has grown as North Korea develops its own nuclear arsenal it says is aimed at the U.S.

The Trump administration views the North Korean threats, along with what it sees as provocative nuclear rhetoric from Russia, as evidence that security conditions no longer support the idea that the U.S. can rely less on nuclear weapons or further limit their role in national defense.

The nuclear report also makes rare mention of a newer Russian weapon: a nuclear-armed drone torpedo that could travel undersea to far-off targets.

Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, questions whether the administration is overstating the Russian threat and responding with the right solution. But he said it is clear that Moscow has raised fears in the West by its aggression in Ukraine.

"Clearly, the Russia situation is much more of a direct confrontational situation," he said. "The gloves are off."

Bruce Blair, a former nuclear missile launch officer who co-founded Global Zero, which advocates the elimination of nuclear weapons, called the report "basically a status quo document" except for the plan to develop new nuclear options for countering Russia. He worries these could lead the U.S. into "blundering into a nuclear war with Russia." Blair based his comments partly on knowledge of the report's content before it appeared online.

"The Pentagon's underlying motivation," Blair said, "is fear of Russia's new option for striking U.S. and Western European civilian infrastructure — financial, energy, transportation and communications — with cyber and conventional forces."

Moscow developed this doctrine in recent years to exploit vulnerabilities in vital Western infrastructure, such as communications networks, he said. This falls into a category of threat the Trump administration calls "non-nuclear strategic," meaning it could inflict unacceptably high numbers of casualties or costs.

Authors of the Trump nuclear doctrine argue that adding new U.S. nuclear capabilities to deter Russia in Europe will lessen, not increase, the risk of war. They worry the nuclear-capable aircraft that are currently the only Europe-based nuclear force to counter Russia have become less credible, in part because they may be vulnerable to Russian air defenses. Thus, the focus on adding sea-launched U.S. nuclear weapons to the mix.

"This is not intended to, nor does it, enable 'nuclear war-fighting,'" the draft report said. Instead, the goal is to make nuclear conflict less likely by ensuring that "potential adversaries" see no possible advantage in escalating a conventional conflict to the nuclear level.

01-14-18  06:09am - 2534 days #96
lk2fireone (0)
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Protesters Try To Arrest London's Mayor For Disrespecting Donald Trump
HuffPost Mary Papenfuss,HuffPost 6 hours ago



A group of right-wing protesters wheeled a home-made gallows outside a hall where London’s Muslim mayor was about to speak and tried to arrest him for disrespecting Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported.

Mayor Sadiq Khan laughed it it off, calling the protesters “very stable geniuses.” The crack was a dig at Trump, who said earlier this month in a tweet amid concerns about his mental fitness that he is a “very stable genius.”

The half-dozen protesters calling themselves the White Pendragons managed to delay Khan’s planned speech on gender equality before members of the liberal Fabian Society for several minutes, The Guardian reported. They accused the mayor of “treachery” and “treason,” though it wasn’t entirely clear why. The gallows was decorated with a white dragon and the words: “Take Back Control.” The men waved an American flag and shouted pro-Brexit slogans.

One of the protesters, David Russell, was identified by the British press as a member of the far-right British Defense League and the host of an anti-Islam radio program.

The group failed to make a citizen’s arrest of the mayor and were escorted from the venue by security guards.

As for disrespecting Trump, Sadiq has long butted heads with the president and declared himself “no fan.”

Trump in turn has mocked Khan on Twitter because of terror attacks in his city.

After Trump announced Thursday he was cancelling his trip to Britain, Khan said that the president “got the message” that Londoners don’t agree with his policies and that he would have been met with “mass protests.”

Trump claimed he was cancelling his trip because he could not support an Obama administration deal to sell the US Embassy there. The decision to sell the real estate was actually made by Bush administration officials.

01-14-18  08:02pm - 2533 days #97
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The Washington Post

For the second time in three days, Trump plays catch-up with what his White House is doing
By Philip Bump January 11, 2018


President Trump is not a policy wonk. And if there’s a Hall of Fame for understatement, that sentence is a first-ballot entrant.

On the campaign trail, Trump waved away detailed policy proposals as something the “press wants” and about which voters don’t care — an attitude that, frankly, was pretty on-the-money. But there is a reason that the media like detailed policy proposals: They illustrate that candidates have detailed policies that they hope to enact, and knowing what those policies are both helps to inform the public and serves as a touchstone after elections. Trump entered office unburdened by past policy positions because he was elected without having to reveal any, just like his tax returns.

But that meant that he was also elected without having to do much homework on the issues that he would certainly face as president. And twice this week — a week during which the White House has been desperate to rebut suggestions that Trump has only a loose grasp on his presidency — he has been publicly revealed as not knowing what he’s talking about.

The most recent example was on Thursday morning. During his “executive time” — those times when he’s sitting around watching Fox News and tweeting — he likely watched a negative report about an impending reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Why “likely watched”? Because as Media Matters’s Matthew Gertz notes, he tweeted the actual chyron from Fox when he decided to publicly state his opposition to the measure.

There was just one problem with this: The Trump administration supports the FISA renewal. It sent out a statement from the press secretary to that effect on Wednesday night, less than 12 hours before Trump’s tweet. And so, a few minutes later, the White House got Trump to do a little cleanup.

Again, this is the second time in three days that Trump has publicly demonstrated an unfamiliarity with a critical policy issue.

The first time came on Tuesday, when, during a televised meeting with congressional leaders, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked Trump if he would support a “clean DACA bill” — that is, a renewal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Admissions program that didn’t include any ancillary funding or policy components. It was a proposal that ran counter to Trump’s rhetoric, which has centered on getting money for a border wall as part of any deal.

Trump’s reply didn’t reflect that.

“Yeah, I would like to do it,” he said — forcing House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to intervene and clarify his position. When the White House first released a transcript of the day’s conversation, Trump’s initial agreement with Feinstein was excluded.

Earlier that morning, the New York Times’s David Brooks had written a much-discussed column arguing that critics of Trump should separate out the president’s own behavior and comments from the hard work that his team was doing on conservative principles. Brooks drew a bright line between the two, but never implied that Trump himself was not part of the White House team that was getting things done. The meeting later that day and Trump’s tweets on Thursday suggest that he might not be — or, perhaps, that he is to his White House what the Queen of England is to decision-making in Britain: He’s there, and he weighs in on it, but it happens largely outside of his grasp.

It’s not like this is an emergent trend this week. There have been two major policy pushes undertaken by the White House that bore no resemblance to what Trump said he wanted to see from those policies during the campaign.

The first was the health-care fight in the spring and summer, during which Republicans in Congress advocated a policy that would dump millions from the ranks of the insured — after Trump pledged to cover everyone. It would also have raised costs over the short term (until the more expensive patients dropped coverage because they couldn’t afford it). This, too, ran counter to what Trump had said. Yet he championed it, fervently. It was only after the House bill passed that he disparaged it as “mean.”

The second effort was his push for a tax overhaul. This, too, was driven on a policy level by Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump pledged repeatedly to bolster the middle class and to infuriate his rich friends. Instead, he signed into law a bill that made temporary and modest reductions in middle-class income tax rates and permanent cuts to the rates paid by businesses. On top of that, the bill included a number of other reductions that benefited business, including businesses like the ones that still benefit Trump in the private sector. Trump assured everyone repeatedly that the bill would hurt him when it came time to pay his taxes, but no expert analysis reinforces that.

Was Trump lying? Or did he not know what the bill does?

Even in the earliest days of his administration, this divide between what was happening in the White House policy machine and what Trump knew was happening was apparent. Two weeks after he took office, the Times reported that Trump was angry to learn that he’d signed an executive order putting then-adviser Stephen K. Bannon on the National Security Council. That same month, his State Department (not for the last time) publicly disagreed with Trump’s opposition to an agreement with Australia to resettle a number of refugees.

For the Republican establishment, a president who goes along with what’s presented to him isn’t the worst thing in the world. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seem to have learned quickly that Trump wasn’t likely to pick out a sub-bullet of their policy proposals for clarification or amendment. This indifference to policy and general acquiescence was one reason that the establishment found him more palatable than Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) early in the primary process.

The problem is that having the most powerful person in the world only vaguely aware of how he’s wielding that power is, for lack of a better word, embarrassing. It’s also confusing. The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes reports that House leaders reacted to Trump’s initial tweet on FISA by considering pulling the vote.

Again, it’s important to remember the context of the week. The release of the book “Fire and Fury” last week left Trump and his team scrambling to rebut the insinuation that his ability to lead was compromised. That was a central reason for the meeting on Tuesday: Show the media and the American people a dealmaking president who was in command of what was going on.

The meeting didn’t necessarily show that. And Trump, left to his own devices — meaning his own phone and its Twitter app — showed again on Thursday morning that he is still the guy he was in 2015: More interested in reacting angrily to what he sees on TV than understanding the nuances of policies his administration is erecting like scaffolding around him.


Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Post based in New York.

01-15-18  01:21am - 2533 days #98
lk2fireone (0)
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Trump praises Hawaii for admitting responsibility in fake missile warning.
However, as the Donald is an expert on fake news, the federal government will help in examining the issue.
Trump is the man.
Some federal officials stated Hawaii did not have reasonable safeguards to prevent fake news from happening.
Trump is an expert in fake news, he tweets about it all the time, and hopefully, he will send in a team of experts to dig out the truth and put the offenders in jail.
Our borders must be safe.
That is why Trump wants to build a wall to keep out rapists and criminals from shithole countries.

And if Trump labels a fake news warning in Hawaii as a states-right issue, he is right: because only residents of Hawaii were affected. And that is a state outside of mainland U.S.
Hawaii is not part of Trump's responsibility. Let the state handle the problem.
(Maybe Hawaii should declare war on North Korea, to help solve the Korean problem.)



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The Washington Post

As panic subsides, Trump officials call Hawaii missile scare a state issue
0:56
Trump on North Korea: 'We have great talks going on'

President Trump spoke about Hawaii's false missile alert, talks with North Korea and his disputed quote in a Wall Street Journal article on Jan. 14. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/The Washington Post)
By Todd C. Frankel and Amy B Wang January 14 at 8:15 PM

The Trump administration Sunday pointed to the state of Hawaii for answers about a panic-inducing false alert of an incoming missile attack but said it would now get involved after an incident that raised broader questions about the national state of nuclear preparedness at a time of escalating tensions with North Korea.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen called the Saturday panic an “unfortunate incident” during her appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” indicating the problem must be handled by Hawaii state officials. And Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai reported that a full investigation was “well underway,” adding that “it appears the government of Hawaii did not have reasonable safeguards or process controls in place to prevent the transmission of a false alert.”

President Trump, off for a golf weekend at Mar-a-Lago, told reporters that he was pleased that Hawaii officials “took responsibility.” Although he said the federal government would now “get involved,” he did not say how.

“That was a state thing, but we are going to now get involved with them. I love that they took responsibility. They took total responsibility. But we are going to get involved. Their attitude and their — I think it is terrific. They took responsibility. They made a mistake.”

Tensions have been high in ­Hawaii over the president’s charged exchanges with Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, as it builds and tests its nuclear capabilities.
Vern Miyagi, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, left, and Gov. David Ige address the media Saturday following the false alarm of a missile launch. (George F. Lee/AP)

A North Korean missile launch would pose dire threats to Hawaii and take about 30 minutes to reach the islands, experts have predicted.

Regarding the North Korea threat, Trump said: “Well, we’ll see what happens. They have got a couple of meetings scheduled, couple of additional meetings scheduled, we’re going to see what happens. Hopefully, it’s all going to work out.”

Hawaii Emergency Management System officials said the incident was caused by human error — an employee pressing the wrong ­button during a training exercise.

Hawaii officials said the problem occurred about 8:05 a.m. Saturday when a worker faced two options from a drop-down computer menu: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.”

“In this case, the operator selected the wrong menu option,” agency spokesman Richard Rapoza said.

The result was a terse warning of a “missile threat” sent to mobile phones, televisions and radios across Hawaii. Reports from the scene suggested that many residents panicked, scrambling to seek shelter.

A White House official said Trump was quickly briefed by deputy national security adviser Ricky L. Waddell, who accompanied Trump from Washington to the president’s Palm Beach club. He later discussed the episode with national security adviser H.R. McMaster and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, the official said.

The federal government tracks North Korean missile launches through several means, including satellite surveillance, and officials around Trump would have known that no missile was detected.

Trump issued no statements about the incident Saturday. The only public mention came from deputy White House press secretary Lindsay Walters, who was with Trump in Florida and made clear that the federal government was not involved.

“The president has been briefed on the state of Hawaii’s emergency management exercise. This was purely a state exercise,” Walters said.

While there is no protocol that applies directly to such a mistake, past presidents have often weighed in to reassure the public at times of stress or threat.

The situation in Hawaii was made worse by the 38-minute gap between the initial alert and a follow-up message stating that the missile warning was a mistake.

Wireless emergency alerts are dispatched during critical situations — to warn the public of dangerous weather, missing children and security threats — and are a partnership of the FCC, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the wireless industry. Responsibility for sending those messages typically falls to emergency management officials.

Part of what worsened the situation Saturday was that there was no system for correcting the error, Rapoza said. The state agency has standing permission through FEMA to use civil warning systems to send out the missile alert — but not to send out a subsequent false-alarm alert, he said.

The state agency posted a follow-up tweet at 8:20 a.m. saying there was “NO missile threat.” But it was not until 8:45 a.m. that a cellphone alert was sent telling people to stand down.

“We had to double back and work with FEMA [to craft and approve the false-alarm alert], and that’s what took time,” Rapoza said.

The agency said it has also suspended all internal drills until the investigation is completed. It will issue a preliminary report and corrective actions next week. The employee in question has been temporarily reassigned, Rapoza said, but there are no plans to fire him.

Mistakes with the emergency alert system are not uncommon.

In May, a training exercise in New Jersey led to a dire “NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WARNING” being broadcast to two counties near the Hope Creek nuclear power plant in Salem County. State officials blamed “a coding error” for that mishap.

In August, Guam residents were shocked by an alert of a “civil danger warning” broadcast by radio stations late at night. Guam is the closest U.S. territory to North Korea, and the country has explicitly threatened to attack Guam with missiles.

But Guam Homeland Security said the alert was a mistake and blamed human error.

Brian Fung and Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

01-15-18  01:39am - 2533 days #99
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Trump Presidency good for Trump family business
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http://www.newsweek.com

U.S. Edition

Mon, Jan 15, 2018


'Ivanka Suite' At Trump International Hotel Cost $2,134 Per Night, More Than Doubling in Price in a Year
By Lauren Gill On 1/14/18 at 5:09 PM


The price of the “Ivanka suite” at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. has more than doubled since Donald Trump became president, and a watchdog group says this is just the latest evidence of the first family cashing in on its time in the White House.

The suite, named after Trump’s oldest daughter and adviser, now goes for $2,134 per night, compared to just $914 at the same time in 2017, according to a new post by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which is led by former Obama ethics attorney Norm Eisen. A Newsweek review of the hotel’s listings on Sunday showed the room going for $2,054 for a one-night stay.

It used to be one of the hotel’s cheapest suites and now it is the most expensive, a chart detailing the prices of each of the swanky lodge’s multi-room offerings shows. During the same period of time, the price of an executive one-bedroom suite has been almost sliced in half.

But the reason behind the sharp increase is unclear. A year later, the suite hasn’t been upgraded and still has a similar description.

“At 860 sq. ft., this luxurious two level suite, with an internal staircase, has an upstairs private sitting area. Sophisticated and classically furnished decor with signature blues complement the rich wood and fabrics. The ground floor features a king size bed, custom luxurious bed and bath linens including plush robes, 55” high definition television with enhanced sound system, complimentary VOIP phone calls, refreshment center, bedside charging for all smartphones, executive desk, dressing closet, and spacious marble bath with separate deep soaking tub and shower and luxurious toiletries,” reads the description currently on the hotel’s website.

In fact, the only thing that really seems to have changed with the price jumped was the removal of a Nespresso machine, CREW said.

“So other than an attempt to profit off of Ivanka’s raised profile, what reason could they possibly have for drastically raising the price of the room while changing nothing about it?” the group wrote.

Critics have accused the Trump family of using its role in the White House for financial gain. Some experts have argued that the president’s retention of his business empire violates the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits the federal government from receiving gifts from foreign states.

Since becoming president, business at the Trump International Hotel has been booming and there have been several reports of foreign dignitaries choosing to stay there in a bid to curry favor with the president.

Ivanka’s name has also been at the center of these arguments. She was found to be wearing items her Ivanka brand sells in more than two-thirds of her social media postings about official appearances, The Wall Street Journal found. And last year, adviser Kellyanne Conway urged television viewers to go buy the first daughter’s clothing from Nordstrom— a move that drew fierce criticism for using an official stage to promote Trump.

Trump International Hotel did not immediately return a request for comment.

01-15-18  04:49am - 2533 days #100
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Trump says 'I'm not a racist.'

Maybe that's why this Christian school teaches pupils that slavery is the way to go.

School homework asks kids to give 3 'good' reasons for slavery



HuffPost US
Taryn Finley
Jan 11th 2018 3:28PM

A private Christian school in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, is under fire after asking fourth-graders to lay out three “good” reasons for slavery as part of a homework assignment.

On Monday, the students at Our Redeemer Lutheran School were handed a social studies worksheet that told them to “give 3 ‘good’ reasons for slavery and 3 bad reasons.”

Trameka Brown-Berry, who has a 9-year-old son in the class, told Fox 6 that she was in “shock” over the “highly offensive and insensitive” assignment.

“I couldn’t believe they sent something like that home,” Brown-Berry said. “Not only was my son in an awful position, but the students who weren’t black ― that’s what keeps racism going.”

She posted a photo of the homework on Facebook.

“I feel there is no good reason for slavery that’s why I did not write,” her son answered, as shown in the post.

Principal Jim Van Dellen sent a letter to parents with an apology and said that the teacher didn’t properly describe the task to students, according to the station WISN.

“We understand that, as presented, the words used showed a lack of sensitivity and were offensive,” Van Dellen wrote. “The purpose of the assignment was not, in any way, to have students argue that ANY slavery is acceptable ― a concept that goes against our core values and beliefs about the equality and worth of people of all races.”

The assignment was intended to spark debate in the class, he told Fox 6, adding that it has been pulled from the curriculum.

Brown-Berry shared an update on Facebook stating that she met with the principal and that he agreed to mandate “cultural diversity/cultural competency inservice [training for faculty] to prevent this from happening again.”

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