Donald J. Trump: President of the USA Part II Covfefe

[greg0205]

FBI opened Inquiry into whether Trump was secretly working on behalf of Russia

Over at Lawfare, Ben Wittes has thoughts...

What if the Obstruction Was the Collusion? On the New York Times’s Latest Bombshell

Shortly before the holidays, I received a call from New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt asking me to meet with him about some reporting he had done. Schmidt did not describe the subject until we met up, when he went over with me a portion of the congressional interview of former FBI General Counsel James Baker, who was then my Brookings colleague and remains my Lawfare colleague. When he shared what Baker had said, and when I thought about it over the next few days in conjunction with some other documents and statements, a question gelled in my mind. Observers of the Russia investigation have generally understood Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s work as focusing on at least two separate tracks: collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, on the one hand, and potential obstruction of justice by the president, on the other. But what if the obstruction was the collusion—or at least a part of it?

 

[Techne]

The longest shutdown? What? No impeachment, virtue signaling or stock market crash?

The chances of some sort of big event happening and to be blamed on the shutdown is increasing by the second

 

[TysonRoux]

What Trevor Noah found - Trump tells students that walls, concrete walls, should not stand in their way.

'If there is a wall in front of you, go through it,' says Trump in 2004 speech – video

An old video of Donald Trump has been unearthed in which he says 'If there is a concrete wall in front of you, go through it'. The clip, unearthed by the Daily Show with Trevor Noah, shows Trump speaking at Wagner College in New York

 

[greg0205]

I mean, who amongst us hasn't, answered: "I think it's the most insulting thing I've ever been asked. I think it's the most insulting article I've ever had written... and If you've read the article, you'd see that they found absolutely nothing. But the headline of that article... it's called the failing New York Times for a reason... They've gotten me wrong for three years. They've actually gotten me wrong for many years before that."

Instead of: "No"

When Jeanine Pirro asks: "Are you now, or have you ever worked for Russia?"

 

[Techne]

, a national emergency and then drawing money from the Pentagon budget to build the wall may actually be a good way of exposing the gross irregularities in terms of spending at the Pentagon. Building the wall and draining the swamp at the same time? Trump is obviously too stupid to think of that.

 

[theratman]

, a national emergency and then drawing money from the Pentagon budget to build the wall may actually be a good way of exposing the gross irregularities in terms of spending at the Pentagon. Building the wall and draining the swamp at the same time? Trump is obviously too stupid to think of that.

Think Trump's swamp has become a place where anyone that does not agree with him resides. A national emergency to get Wall funding would give Trump what he wants (if the process is possible) but it'll hurt him in the long run as it's the wrong way of dealing with the shutdown imo.

 

[cerebus]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

 

[Gingerbeardman]

https://www.vox.com/2019/1/10/18171912/tucker-carlson-fox-news-populism-conservatism-trump-gop

Tucker Carlson, 2024.

 

[rietrot]

I mean, who amongst us hasn't, answered: "I think it's the most insulting thing I've ever been asked. I think it's the most insulting article I've ever had written... and If you've read the article, you'd see that they found absolutely nothing. But the headline of that article... it's called the failing New York Times for a reason... They've gotten me wrong for three years. They've actually gotten me wrong for many years before that."

Instead of: "No"

When Jeanine Pirro asks: "Are you now, or have you ever worked for Russia?"

If only talking nonsense was an impeachable offence.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

The wall should be funded and is not a massive ask. It is not because this will be a massive political win for Trump. Everything else around this is unnecessary noise. Trump was even willing to make amnesty concessions for illegal migrants in the country to get his wall. That is quite a concession, and just shows how politics is driving this.

No, that bill passed. Trump scuppered it after saying he would support it. He's to blame for that not happening, either.

The gist of it is that the US Constitution doesn’t contain any national emergency provision that would allow Trump to spend money on the wall which as not been allocated by Congress. And it does not look like wall funding will be granted by Congress either.

Also, it's really a stretch and, IMO, does not fall within the spirit of such declaration, nor would it conform to the definition of an emergency. It would be a very ambitious overreach of power. No matter how much we support someone, we shouldn't be happy with the idea of any government reaching for so much power and getting away with it.

Yes, exactly.

Although I find it highly amusing that no one has done more to make it plain that conservative ideals are empty than the arch-conservatives (like the House Freedom Caucus) themselves, who railed for years about Obama's overreach, while now gleefully calling for the President to use a blatantly fabricated 'emergency' declaration to hijack funds appropriated for other things and use the military to seize private land.

Nice whataboutisims there. But, I do agree blocking those funding requests was a dick move. The drug crisis (not only opioids) is reaching epic proportions in the USA. It's so bad, that many places have special bins for needle disposal. But, you know, politicians will politician. They are not actually working for the people, but rather to stay in power, and the result? Ever more polarised politics, and lack of delivery.

I mean, I understand the impulse towards 'both sideism' generally, but in this case it really isn't both sides.

When the Democrats take the Presidency again (which I cannot wait for, because it's going to be fun to pick apart every word, action and past of that President), it's going to be even more polarised and difficult to get anything done, because the Republicans are going to do exactly what is happening right now, but by turning up the dial even more.

Again, how is it possible that you can be so completely unaware of how the GOP behaved during Obama's presidency? This stuff started with Newt Gingrich, but got ramped up to hyperspeed when Obama was president.

Some reading if you're interested in the roots of this dysfunction.

https://www.thenation.com/article/how-newt-gingrich-crippled-congress/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/

And some stats about just how obstructionist the GOP was during Obama's terms.

https://sites.temple.edu/lawdcsummer/2016/11/22/898/

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I love how this is panning out. Democrats trying to block Trump's wall. The Government institutions shut down as they can't agree. Dems crying and want Trump to pay these workers because of the Shutdown caused by the Democrats. Trump refuses. Democrats are looking the fool more and more. Best of it all, Trump will still get the wall as he can just declare a State of Emergency and use Army funds to fund the wall, or at least part of it.

Democrats are getting schooled HARD

Sorry Pitbull, it's Trump's shutdown.

"So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it…. I will take the mantle of shutting down.”

 

[OrbitalDawn]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...f6686c-1434-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

Seems odd.

She's trying to introduce a bill that would prevent shutdowns permanently

https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/M...e-End-Government-Shutdowns-Act-504218081.html

The bill, called the End Government Shutdowns Act, was introduced Friday by U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Mike Enzi (R-WY), John Barrasso (R-WY), Jim Risch (R-ID), and Mike Lee (R-UT).

According to them, the bill will "permanently prevent the federal government from shutting down, ensuring that essential government services aren’t disrupted and protecting taxpayers who must bear the resulting cost."



Seems like a huge rebuke of Trump.

Strikes me as a very cynical way to stealthily cut funding (want to guess where they'd cut?) to key programmes.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

And in the least surprising news ever... The GoFundMe to build the wall is a scam.

Man behind 'Build the Wall' GoFundMe has reportedly made a potentially lucrative contact list thanks to a shadowy email-harvesting operation

NBC News reported that Kolfage, who was associated with websites that published false stories and had pages shut down by Facebook, claims to have gathered 3.5 million email addresses through his border wall campaign.

 

[ponder]

I love how this is panning out. Democrats trying to block Trump's wall. The Government institutions shut down as they can't agree. Dems crying and want Trump to pay these workers because of the Shutdown caused by the Democrats. Trump refuses. Democrats are looking the fool more and more. Best of it all, Trump will still get the wall as he can just declare a State of Emergency and use Army funds to fund the wall, or at least part of it.

Democrats are getting schooled HARD

I honestly don't understand. Trump shut the gov down. The majority of citizens agree, people are pissed (irrespective of political allegiance), gov workers are not being paid, businesses transacting with gov are really suffering. Irrespective of party they blame trump and the reps for this. I'll go with general populous on this one.

 

[cerebus]

I honestly don't understand. Trump shut the gov down. The majority of citizens agree, people are pissed (irrespective of political allegiance), gov workers are not being paid, businesses transacting with gov are really suffering. Irrespective of party they blame trump and the reps for this. I'll go with general populous on this one.

Pitbull's just grasping at 46-dimensional straws, as usual.

 

[greg0205]

And in the least surprising news ever... The GoFundMe to build the wall is a scam.

Man behind 'Build the Wall' GoFundMe has reportedly made a potentially lucrative contact list thanks to a shadowy email-harvesting operation

Oh, and before Gingerbeardman pops in to say, at least he paid the money back... He didn't. GoFundMe did 'cos he was planning on diverting funds to a new "non-profit" he'd set up, breaking his own promise to refund.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Cable news is bad.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib cursing got 5 times more coverage on cable news than Rep. Steve King embracing white supremacy

 

[Emjay]

Although I find it highly amusing that no one has done more to make it plain that conservative ideals are empty than the arch-conservatives (like the House Freedom Caucus) themselves, who railed for years about Obama's overreach, while now gleefully calling for the President to use a blatantly fabricated 'emergency' declaration to hijack funds appropriated for other things and use the military to seize private land.

Not all Conservatives or Libertarians are in favour of this. There have been a few that have spoken out against such overreach.

Again, how is it possible that you can be so completely unaware of how the GOP behaved during Obama's presidency? This stuff started with Newt Gingrich, but got ramped up to hyperspeed when Obama was president.

I didn't place blame anywhere.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Not all Conservatives or Libertarians are in favour of this. There have been a few that have spoken out against such overreach.

I don't think any actual conservatives or libertarians are in favour. The grifters and cultists are, though. They run the GOP.

I didn't place blame anywhere.

I did it for you.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

US trade deficit with China grows to a record and it's likely even worse than the data show

China announced Monday that its 2018 trade surplus with the United States was its largest in more than a decade, despite the tariff war initiated by President Donald Trump against Beijing.

China's surplus with the U.S. grew 17 percent from a year ago to hit $323.32 billion in 2018, according to government data. It was the highest on record dating to 2006, according to Reuters. The deficit that the U.S. has with China is likely even bigger than these figures indicate since China calculates the numbers using different methods, sometimes excluding goods that end up in the U.S. via other countries.