Donald Trump 2019

[Francisco 2.0 32421]

So, the President may have been shaking down a foreign government, by implying that favors extended toward himself and his properties could lead to  improved relations between that country and the US.  Right?  

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/was-trump-threatening-our-uk-allies-with-this-tweet-about-his-scottish-golf-course/

 

Quote

On Saturday morning, as he lashed out at his political enemies on Twitter, President Donald Trump shared a post promoting one of his Scottish golf courses with his 58.8 million Twitter followers: “Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!” Trump tweeted. Trump’s tweet sparked an immediate outcry from critics who pointed to it as yet another example of Trump using the platform of the presidency to further his private business interests. But some glimpsed something more sinister in Trump’s message linking his club to international relations—a diplomatic threat. 

 

Quote

By all accounts, the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland, is indeed a beautiful and challenging course. It’s also a money pit. Trump dumped more than $60 million into purchasing and developing the property, which has bled money each year since he opened it in 2014. In other words, it could use the boost in business that a tweet from the world’s most visible Twitter account can stimulate.

 

Quote

The money-losing project has long been a thorn in Trump’s side. After purchasing the land for the course in 2008, Trump immediately met resistance to his plans to build a large resort on the property. He clashed with locals who rebuffed his efforts to buy their land, calling one of his opponents a “village idiot” who lived in a “pigsty” and battling local planning authorities who initially rejected the project. The golf resort was only built after Scotland’s then-first minister intervened, overruling the local government. Trump soon turned on the Scottish government, too, after it refused to block the development of an offshore wind farm that Trump claimed ruined the views from his course. 

 

Quote

Trump unsuccessfully sued the Scottish government over the wind firm. And last week, a Scottish court ruled that he must pay the Scottish government’s legal fees. (It’s yet to be determined how much he owes.) Shortly thereafter came Trump’s tweet, which not only plugged the Aberdeen course but suggested the property was somehow part of the relationship between Great Britain and the United States. 

 

 

Spoiler

The connection between the ruling and Trump’s tweet was not lost on observers in the UK. 

“It’s hard to imagine why Trump would choose to tweet about that particular golf course on that particular day—except if the rationale was to lash out against the recent court ruling,” says Brian Klaas, a former American political consultant and an assistant professor of global politics at University College London. “Trump’s tweet explicitly and deliberately tied the fate of his Scottish golf club to the UK/US Special Relationship—an alliance that underpins NATO and the West’s international security.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Aberdeen course is a glaring example of the conflicts of interest posed by Trump’s refusal to divest himself from his business interests. The Trump Organization’s plans to upgrade the course to include 550 luxury villas—potentially a major source of revenue for the in-the-red venture—have once again brought Trump and his company into conflict with local planning officials, who have deemed the proposal “weak.” Environmental authorities have also opposed the expansion plans. But whereas previously Trump was just a loud-mouthed real estate developer, he is now the American president. In that sense, Trump’s tweet may have captured a troubling reality: His personal business interests are indeed intertwined with American foreign policy.  

 

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Francisco 2.0

[Lurch 5931]

NSIAP

[Mo Horn 8853]

I heard a story on npr today about Trump Jr. He is evil incarnate, but all I could think about during the story was he's going to run in 2024 or even in 2020 should Dotard choose to not run. The base would go crazy and the Fox political machine would crank in full force. Stephen King couldn't write a scarier novel. 

[David Dennison 18945]

1 minute ago, Mo Horn said:

I heard a story on npr today about Trump Jr. He is evil incarnate, but all I could think about during the story was he's going to run in 2024 or even in 2020 should Dotard choose to not run. The base would go crazy and the Fox political machine would crank in full force. Stephen King couldn't write a scarier novel. 

I support Donald Trump Jr. running for president with every fiber of my being.

[Jack Straw 2954]

2 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

I support Donald Trump Jr. running for president with every fiber of my being.

He would win, easily. 

[Mo Horn 8853]

2 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

I support Donald Trump Jr. running for president with every fiber of my being.

I made the same statement countless times about Senior during the last election and here we are. This country is so fucked up right now it wouldn't surprise me if he carried every state. We live in bizzaro world. 

[Clackles 276]

McDotard Jr 2020!

[jimmyjazz 46109]

32 minutes ago, Jack Straw said:

He would win, easily. 

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by jimmyjazz

[Jive Turkey 12642]

4 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

First reply:

the new and improved version comes with an AOC Card.  She's replaced Hillary.

[triplehorn 2664]

33 minutes ago, Jack Straw said:

He would win, easily. 

People talking, living their lives, then the Trump Org asteroid collision.

[Bama Chick 28596]

Yep.

Notice the “HRC Will Never Be President” thread is all but dead?

And notice where the usual suspects from that thread are posting their drivel now?

It’s a really interesting case study on a certain type of dude and how obsessed and terrified they are by a certain type of woman.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

1 hour ago, David Dennison said:

We made it through two terms of Ronald Reagan.

We'll be OK.

Reagan had some decent people working with him, and he wasn't openly trying to gut the country to line his own pockets. I'm no huge fan of Reagan, but I know he thought he was doing what was best for America. That should be a given for a President, but the current White House doesn't give a fuck about our country at all. 

I think with only 4 years of Trump, we will be fine. But 8 years is a long time and a lot of the people who actually know what the fuck they are doing in our law enforcement and regulatory agencies will be out the door by 2024. In 2020, there will be enough of them left to right the ship. Needs to be 2020.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

41 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

I made the same statement countless times about Senior during the last election and here we are. This country is so fucked up right now it wouldn't surprise me if he carried every state. We live in bizzaro world. 

Nah. Even die hard Trumpers don't like Jr really. Sr knows how to spout the rhetoric properly. Jr pisses off the Trump crowd just as much as he does the "libs."  

[Mo Horn 8853]

5 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

Nah. Even die hard Trumpers don't like Jr really. Sr knows how to spout the rhetoric properly. Jr pisses off the Trump crowd just as much as he does the "libs."  

He's more of a true conservative and the right/ evangelicals/ Fox crowd will fall right in line. To paraphrase his dad, he could shot 10 people in the middle of Time's Square and he'd gain 20 points in the polls. 

[Mdhorn 5984]

12 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

Nah. Even die hard Trumpers don't like Jr really. Sr knows how to spout the rhetoric properly. Jr pisses off the Trump crowd just as much as he does the "libs."  

It's not about liking him. He's an idiot that they can use.  

[Mdhorn 5984]

3 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

He's more of a true conservative and the right/ evangelicals/ Fox crowd will fall right in line. To paraphrase his dad, he could shot 10 people in the middle of Time's Square and he'd gain 20 points in the polls. 

As long as he shoots liberals or Californians, he's got a Christian base.  

[F250 28817]

15 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

Reagan had some decent people working with him, and he wasn't openly trying to gut the country to line his own pockets. I'm no huge fan of Reagan, but I know he thought he was doing what was best for America. That should be a given for a President, but the current White House doesn't give a fuck about our country at all. 

I think with only 4 years of Trump, we will be fine. But 8 years is a long time and a lot of the people who actually know what the fuck they are doing in our law enforcement and regulatory agencies will be out the door by 2024. In 2020, there will be enough of them left to right the ship. Needs to be 2020.

True, I believe the Reagan administration was sincerely attempting to make America great while seeking and destroying the enemies of America, both real and imagined. Whether one agrees with their strategy is a separate conversation but the administration was sincere in it's attempt to make America kick ass.

The Trump administration uses the Reagan era patriotism as a marketing ploy to grift. They are the Froot Loops of patriotism, it sounds kinda healthy but it lacks nutrition and is actually pretty bad for your health.

 

[Red Five 40881]

I had dinner tonight with a family member I like a lot, and who is very intelligent. He also always votes republican, and is super religious. We spoke very briefly about politics, and he told me how much he hates AOC, and how the Mueller investigation is being shut down because “they have nothing on Trump”. I said “if nothing else, don’t you just find him to be a completely despicable human being?”. He just kind of shrugged and we changed the subject. I really hate what politics does to some people’s brains.

[mdmost 43035]

He's the ends that justify the means. They need him to put judges on the Supreme Court, sign for tax cuts, and annoy libtards so they'll put up with him being a terrible human being. The Daily had a great show today on what happened to Lindsey Graham where he admits the reason he supports Trump wholeheartedly now is Trump gives him the attention and influence he's always craved. He wants relevancy and Trump gives him that. 

Edited March 6, 2019 by mdmost

[jimmyjazz 46109]

If Lindsey Graham isn't on the hook for some dirty NRA rubles I'll eat my hat.

[F250 28817]

6 minutes ago, mdmost said:

 The Daily had a great show today on what happened to Lindsey Graham where he admits the reason he supports Trump wholeheartedly now is Trump gives him the attention and influence he's always craved. He wants relevancy and Trump gives him that. 

So Graham is Stevie from Eastbound and Down after teaming up with Trump?

[shnsajax 3591]

 

[Francisco 2.0 32421]

Pretty good story from the Times.  There are copies of the checks on the website; also, initially, the checks came from the Trump Organization.  Later, they came from Donald's personal checking account.  

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/us/politics/trump-michael-cohen-checks.html

Quote

On a busy day at the White House, President Trump hosted senators to talk about tax cuts, accused a Democratic congresswoman of distorting his condolence call to a soldier’s widow and suffered another court defeat for his travel ban targeting Muslim countries.

And at some point on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017, Mr. Trump took the time to sign a $35,000 check to his lawyer, who had made hush payments to prevent alleged sexual misconduct from being exposed before the 2016 presidential election. It was one of 11 occasions that Mr. Trump or his trust cut such checks, six of which were provided this week to The New York Times.

 

Quote

At the heart of last week’s congressional testimony by Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, was the sensational accusation that the sitting president of the United States financed an illegal cover-up from inside the White House. The dates on the newly available checks shed light on the parallel lives Mr. Trump was living by this account — at once managing affairs of state while quietly paying the price of keeping his personal secrets out of the public eye.

 

Quote

The president hosted a foreign leader in the Oval Office, then wrote a check. He haggled over legislation, then wrote a check. He traveled abroad, then wrote a check. On the same day he reportedly pressured the F.B.I. director to drop an investigation into a former aide, the president’s trust issued a check to Mr. Cohen in furtherance of what federal prosecutors have called a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws at the direction of Mr. Trump.

Spoiler

The White House on Tuesday referred questions about the payments to Mr. Trump’s private lawyers. Jay Sekulow, one of the president’s personal lawyers, had no comment and a lawyer for the Trump Organization declined to discuss the matter.

Other defenders of the president said that the checks proved only that Mr. Trump paid his personal lawyer, not that he necessarily knew the money was meant to reimburse Mr. Cohen for hush payments to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress who has claimed to have had an extramarital affair with Mr. Trump. The president has denied the affair.

“I think it’s news we knew about,” Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and one of the president’s staunchest allies, told reporters during a break in last week’s hearing. The payments, he said, could have been for services based on a retainer, although Mr. Cohen said there was no such retainer.

The president’s critics said that the checks, mostly with Mr. Trump’s distinctive up-and-down signature, in fact bolster the prosecutors’ conclusion about his involvement in the scheme. Mr. Cohen has pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws as well as lying to Congress and faces three years in prison starting in the spring.

“The $35,000 is an indication of the quality of that evidence, and it both shows the extent of Trump’s leading role and now leaves little doubt that he faces criminal prosecution after he leaves office for the same offenses for which Cohen will serve time,” said Robert F. Bauer, a law professor at New York University and former White House counsel for President Barack Obama.

Indeed, some people close to Mr. Trump have privately predicted that he will ultimately choose to seek a second term in part because of his legal exposure if he is not president. While there is no legal consensus on the matter, Justice Department policy says that a president cannot be indicted while in office.

The checks to Mr. Cohen were sent on a more or less monthly basis throughout 2017, Mr. Trump’s first year in office. Mr. Cohen provided two checks to the House committee last week and his lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, provided the additional six checks to The Times this week. Mr. Cohen’s team said it was searching for three others.

Of the eight checks now available, seven were for $35,000 and another was for $70,000 to cover two months’ worth of payments. Six were signed by Mr. Trump himself while he was president and the other two were signed by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and his company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

Altogether, Mr. Trump or his trust paid Mr. Cohen $420,000, according to federal prosecutors. Of that, $130,000 was to reimburse paymentsmade shortly before the 2016 election to Ms. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, so she would not tell her story. Another $50,000 was for Mr. Cohen’s effort to manipulate online polls to inflate Mr. Trump’s reputation as a businessman.

That $180,000 was then “grossed up” with another $180,000 to offset taxes that Mr. Cohen would have to pay on the original money since it was being treated as income. Another $60,000 was added as a “bonus,” prosecutors have said.

Mr. Trump has offered conflicting accounts about the matter. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One in April 2018, he said he did not knowabout the payment to Ms. Daniels. But a month later, his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, hoping to refute the suggestion that it might be a campaign finance violation, told Fox News and The Times that the president had in fact reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment.

Citing Mr. Cohen and other evidence, prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said in court papers that Mr. Trump directed the scheme, essentially making him an unindicted co-conspirator.

A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news cycle, telling you what you really need to know.

“We’re talking about a felony committed by the president of the United States where there’s no dispute,” said Mr. Davis, the lawyer for Mr. Cohen.

People close to Mr. Trump have suggested that he may not have been aware of what Mr. Cohen was doing in real time, despite an audiotape that Mr. Cohen recorded of him discussing with Mr. Trump payments that The National Enquirer had made to a second woman who claimed to have had an affair with the candidate.

A person close to Mr. Trump said that he may have believed the checks were payment for general legal fees, but may not have known why. The president’s associates stressed that the payment to Mr. Cohen was one of several he made privately each month.

Mr. Davis scoffed at that. “You denied the Stormy Daniels affair and that was a lie,” he said. “Now you’re denying that you knew about this payoff and reimbursement that Giuliani says you knew about. So your claim of ignorance doesn’t have any credibility.”

One person who without question was involved, according to multiple people briefed on the events, was Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization chief financial officer. Mr. Cohen told Mr. Weisselberg about the $130,000 wire transfer to Ms. Daniels. Mr. Weisselberg suggested repaying it in installments and told Mr. Cohen to send invoices once a month, according to the people.

By Mr. Cohen’s account, the checks began in February 2017, just weeks after Mr. Trump was inaugurated as president. When Mr. Cohen visited the Oval Office for the first time, he said, Mr. Trump raised the issue of the hush payments in the same room that symbolized the United States’ seat of power.

“Don’t worry, Michael, your January and February reimbursement checks are coming,” he quoted Mr. Trump telling him. “They were FedExed from New York and it takes a while for that to get through the White House system.”

The first check was signed Feb. 14, 2017, for $70,000 to cover both January and February. It was issued by the president’s trust and signed by Mr. Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr.

The payment came at a fraught moment in the president’s early weeks, just a day after he forced his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, to resign for lying about his contacts with Russia. On the same day the check to Mr. Cohen was signed, Mr. Trump pulled aside James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, and suggested “letting Flynn go,” according to a contemporaneous memo by Mr. Comey.

The next check, for $35,000, came from the trust on March 17, even as the president hosted Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the Oval Office and aides were grappling with a firestorm over unfounded assertions aired by the White House that the British had spied on Mr. Trump when he was a candidate.

A check for April has not been located; Mr. Cohen’s records were seized by federal agents. But after the initial payments, Mr. Trump was instructed that he should write Mr. Cohen checks from his personal checking account instead of the trust. It is not clear why he was told this, but in so doing, he removed his son’s name from future checks.

On May 23, the president signed a personal check on the same day he was overseas meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem, before flying that night to Rome.

Checks for June and July have also not been located. The next one, on Aug. 1, came as Mr. Trump invited small business owners to the White House and an aide confirmed that the president had dictated a misleading statement about a 2016 meeting that his campaign team held with Russians.

On Sept. 12, Mr. Trump hosted the prime minister of Malaysia even as his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was telling reporters that the Justice Department should “certainly look at” prosecuting Mr. Comey. Mr. Trump signed another $35,000 check that day.

After the Oct. 18 check came one on Nov. 21, just two days before Thanksgiving when Mr. Trump pardoned a turkey, saying, “I feel so good about myself,” and then defended Roy S. Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama who had been accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls. Mr. Trump also spoke by telephone that day with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The last check made public was signed on Dec. 5, the same day that Mr. Trump called Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Abbas and Arab leaders to tell them that he had decided to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

 

[Bama Chick 28596]

[Nope 3121]

49 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

 

 

 

Need Mueller’s face shopped onto that gif

Edited March 6, 2019 by Nope

[RPM 26342]

7 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

 

6 hours ago, retread said:

 

 

5 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

5 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

2 hours ago, shnsajax said:

 

imgur>

[SKJ 1311]

That's a fucking funny shop

[Francisco 2.0 32421]

Perfectly normal behavior from a President and his administration:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vengeful-trump-is-blackballing-disloyal-conservative-operatives-like-rick-tyler

 

Quote

Republican political consultant Rick Tyler had been on Mississippi Senate candidate Chris McDaniel’s payroll for only a few months last summer, as a behind-the-scenes communications adviser, when the White House called to complain.

The complaint included an explicit threat: If Tyler was permitted to stay on Team McDaniel, a White House political operative warned in early July 2018, the president would have no choice but to endorse McDaniel’s primary opponent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, a relatively weak incumbent who’d been appointed in April to fill the Senate seat vacated by the ailing, 80-year-old Thad Cochran.

 

Quote

The incident, which is being reported here for the first time, is evidence of a White House that prizes petty vengeance over thoughtful political strategy, according to half a dozen longtime Republican consultants and strategists interviewed for this article; they say Donald Trump’s White House operates as a cult of personality, insisting on lockstep loyalty above every other consideration—even at the expense of competent political practice.

 

[Fudge Nuggets 19215]

22 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Perfectly normal behavior from a President and his administration:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/vengeful-trump-is-blackballing-disloyal-conservative-operatives-like-rick-tyler

 

 

 

I like how these articles are always "being reported here for the first time" after an election is over.

[HenryJames 66163]

 

[Lurch 5931]

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13587]

11 hours ago, Message Board User said:

Don't be intentionally intellectually dishonest.  You know there's a difference in saying "hey we need to not treat the environment like a garbage dump and we should do what we can to lower health care costs" versus Green New Deal + Medicare for All.  The Dems are going further and further left while the pragmatists (like Hickenlooper & Klobuchar and her projectile binders) are the objects of derision and scorn.

Hear me now and believe me later, but Trump's going to win a 2nd term in a close election.

Oh JFC, just run Hillary again. It's amazing anyone STILL states as a fact what will happen in the future after the 2016 elections. That peacocking Dunning Krueger confidence just makes my skin crawl like the sound of Trump's voice. If the GND and Medicare For All looks less appealing than a dictator- loving, violence inciting, ludicrously corrupt authoritarian wannabe untethered to reality for enough voters to sway the electorial college, then this country gets what it deserves.

 

 

[4th&Five 41586]

 

[retread 2951]

 

[pyrohornIII 4817]

 

 

34 minutes ago, Lurch said:

 

And they keep hitting the bankrupt slot.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

6 minutes ago, retread said:

 

@Johnny Sack sees strong, principled trade policy that’s making America great again. He’s also impressed with Trump’s willingness to tackle the national debt, an issue @Johnny Sack has long seen as the greatest threat to America’s future. 

[Blotto 23568]

8 minutes ago, retread said:

 

 

[Grade of D as in David 13253]

1 hour ago, Lurch said:

 

[David Dennison 18945]

 

[Biff Tannen 45714]

1 hour ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

Oh JFC, just run Hillary again. It's amazing anyone STILL states as a fact what will happen in the future after the 2016 elections. That peacocking Dunning Krueger confidence just makes my skin crawl like the sound of Trump's voice. If the GND and Medicare For All looks less appealing than a dictator- loving, violence inciting, ludicrously corrupt authoritarian wannabe untethered to reality for enough voters to sway the electorial college, then this country gets what it deserves.

 

 

Pretty much this.  I'm starting to think our fate is inevitable and necessary.  We had a good run.  Kinda.  Didn't even make it 100 years at the top, but the 20th century was pretty good.

[retread 2951]

You're looking live at R core values

[Fudge Nuggets 19215]

2 hours ago, HenryJames said:

Republicans love to tout that Lincoln was one of them, but for some reason they don't mention much about McCarthy being an (R).

[Fudge Nuggets 19215]

1 hour ago, retread said:

 

Promises kept, mother fuckers!!!!!1111121!!1!!!!!

 

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

1 minute ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Republicans love to tout that Lincoln was one of them, but for some reason they don't mention much about McCarthy being an (R).

Nobody waved a Confederate flag at the Gettysburg Address. The Republicans today aren't the party of Lincoln. They're the party of George Wallace. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

Y'all should see how the Trumpers feel about Abraham Lincoln today.

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

15 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Pretty much this.  I'm starting to think our fate is inevitable and necessary.  We had a good run.  Kinda.  Didn't even make it 100 years at the top, but the 20th century was pretty good.

The Dark Ages set us back 500 years. But enlightenment will ultimately win out as long as we don't destroy ourselves first. It just might take a little longer than we'd hoped. People forget their history and have to be reminded. 

[WhatTheBuck 28797]

2 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Y'all should see how the Trumpers feel about Abraham Lincoln today.

I'll bet it has nothing to do with being dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

[4th&Five 41586]

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

13 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I'll bet it has nothing to do with being dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

They (some not all) consider him one of the worst presidents and the cause of the Civil War. 

Edited March 6, 2019 by Hugo Stiglitz

[DigglerontheHoof 21218]

2 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

They (some not all) consider him one of the worst presidents and the cause of the Civil War. 

States' rights!!!!!