Trump 10: Orange Voldemort Rises

[fraurosena]

This article has news we already know, but I thought I'd share it anyway because of the significance of very last sentence. Is it the first mention that there is an actual war going on right now?

Spoiler

BOB Ferguson looks like the man least likely to go into battle with the President, but their David and Goliath encounter has stopped Donald Trump in his tracks.

The Washington State Attorney General and former chess champion filed the challenge to Mr Trump’s travel ban from Seattle last Monday, after the ban triggered protests across the US.

On Friday, that complaint saw a federal judge freeze the implementation of the President’s executive order — meaning thousands of previously “banned” people are able to travel to and from the country.

Mr Ferguson, left, with Solicitor General Noah Purcell, is suing the President over his “unlawful and unconstitutional” travel ban. 

The President was understandably furious, saying the “so-called judge” had “taken law enforcement away” from the country, and insisting his “ridiculous” decision would be overturned. But a federal appeals court turned down the White House’s emergency request to resume the order, which stops citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US.

Mr Ferguson, a keen mountain climber and birdwatcher, has become the first person to get results by suing the President, in a daring strategy to rein in the billionaire businessman.

The Washington State AG decided Mr Trump’s immigration ban was “unlawful and unconstitutional” and unfairly targeted Muslims.

But the 51-year-old hit upon a different and bolder approach to the problem to that used by other predominantly Democratic states. Instead of using individual cases to challenge the order, he drafted a complaint arguing that the ban would damage the whole of Washington State.

The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017

The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017

Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017

BOB’S TRUMP CARD

In an ingenious move, Mr Ferguson enlisted the help of tech giants Expedia and Amazon, while Microsoft said it was also willing to testify if necessary.

“Our employees come to us from every corner of the United States and every corner of the world,” Amazon, which employs 40,000 people in the state, said in a statement. “We believe this is one of the things that makes Amazon great — a diverse workforce helps us build better products for customers.”

The retailer said the order had “immediately — and negatively — impacted employees, dependants of employees, and candidates for employment with Amazon”. It said 49 employees were born in the countries in question, and two do not have citizenship in any other country. Seven more candidates born in Iraq have been offered jobs with Amazon and the company is now looking at other countries in which they could be placed.

A senior Amazon lawyer who was born in Libya but is a citizen of the UK was told to cancel a visit to the US planned for this month, and an Iranian director whose film, distributed by Amazon Studios, has an Oscar nomination is unable to go to the ceremony.

Donald Trump is furious at the temporary freeze on his executive order, attacking the judge who implemented it on Twitter. 

Travel booking firm Expedia, which employs 3500 people in Washington, said it was “crucial that Expedia hire talent from around the world to provide a broad spectrum of insights, ideas and perspective to the travel services and destinations that it offers” and that at least two employees in Washington were now at risk if they travelled.

It said 1000 customers holding passports from the seven countries had already booked flights to, from or through the US and the company was being forced to spend money researching and assisting them.

“Expedia believes that the Executive Order jeopardises its corporate mission and could have a detrimental impact on its business and employees, as well as the broader US and global travel and tourism industry,” it wrote.

‘I BELIEVE IN CALCULATED RISK’

The Attorney General’s legal strategy was largely untested, but he told the New York Times: “I am someone who believes in calculated risk ... And when it comes to the constitutional rights of my people, the people I represent, I’m prepared to take a calculated risk on their behalf.”

His 14-page complaint quotes some of Mr Trump’s campaign statements, including his pledge of “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”, as evidence the order was motivated “by animus and a desire to harm a particular group.” It said 7279 non-citizen immigrants in Washington state are from the targeted countries.

Washington State Governor Jay Inslee said he backed Mr Ferguson all the way, and that the President’s order was a unique threat to the state’s economy, which depends heavily on international trade and a diverse population.

Federal district judge James Robart on Friday ordered the temporary nationwide suspension of the President’s order until the merits of the complaint ares studied by the court. “The Constitution prevailed today,” said Mr Ferguson. “No one is above the law — not even the President.”

He invited other states to join the lawsuit, with Lori Swanson of Minnesota the first to take up the offer, and federal judges in California, Viriginia, Massachusetts and New York also challenging the executive order, although Judge Robart’s ruling was the most dramatic.

Former chess champion Mr Ferguson is the first to win a battle with the President, and others may now try to follow his lead. 

On Saturday, a State Department spokesperson announced that “individuals with visas that were not physically cancelled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which has authority over border police, said it was reverting to “standard policy and procedure.”

Late the same day, the Justice Department officially challenged the ruling. The Trump administration filed an emergency motion with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals saying that suspending the ban was causing “irreparable harm” to the American public.

It argued that Judge Robart had run afoul of constitutional separation of powers, and “second-guesses the president’s national security judgment.” The appeals court rejected the request for an emergency stay, and asked both sides to present additional documents by late Monday.

Vice President Mike Pence called the decision “frustrating”, but it is nothing new. Barack Obama also had an order regarding immgrants — in his case, deferring deportation — blocked by the courts, with the Republicans accusing him of an abuse of power.

The case could go to the Supreme Court, and will take days to resolve.

Mr Trump’s open attack on Robart may have been a mistake, undermining judicial independence and potentially encouraging further defiance. “It’s not exactly contempt of court, but it certainly is contemptuous, and it conveys a lack of respect for the independent judiciary,” said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional scholar and Harvard Law professor.

Mr Ferguson is the first to win a battle with the President, and others may be inspired to follow in his footsteps. One thing is certain, the war is far from over.

 

Here's another article I found, in which Dr Alan Finkel, Australia's chief scientist, compares the tangerine toddler to Stalin on account of his mandate on political review of EPA's data before any publication can be made. Near the end there's mention of Sean Spicer, making a mess of things again.

Spoiler

Australia's chief scientist compares Trump to Stalin over climate censorship

Alan Finkel warns that forcing EPA data to undergo political review before publication will ‘cause long-term harm’

 Dr Alan Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist, has urged his colleagues in the US to remain ‘frank and fearless’ even though science is ‘literally under attack’.

Australia’s chief scientist has slammed Donald Trump’s attempt to censor environmental data, saying the US president’s behaviour was comparable to the manipulation of science by the Soviet Union. Speaking at a scientific roundtable in Canberra on Monday, Alan Finkel warned science was “literally under attack” in the United States and urged his colleagues to keep giving “frank and fearless” advice despite the political opposition.

“The Trump administration has mandated that scientific data published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency from last week going forward has to undergo review by political appointees before that data can be published on the EPA website or elsewhere,” he said. “It defies logic. It will almost certainly cause long-term harm. It’s reminiscent of the censorship exerted by political officers in the old Soviet Union. Every military commander there had a political officer second-guessing his decisions.”

Last month Trump’s administration mandated that any studies or data from scientists at the EPA undergo review by political appointees before they can be released to the public.

The communications director for Trump’s transition team at the EPA, Doug Ericksen, said the review also extended to content on the federal agency’s website, including details of scientific evidence showing the Earth’s climate was warming and human-induced carbon emissions were to blame.

Finkel compared the Trump administration’s attempt to censor science to the behaviour of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

“Soviet agricultural science was held back for decades because of the ideology of Trofim Lysenko, who was a proponent of Lamarckism,” he said. “Stalin loved Lysenko’s conflation of science and Soviet philosophy and used his limitless power to ensure that Lysenko’s unscientific ideas prevailed. Lysenko believed that successive generations of crops could be improved by exposing them to the right environment, and so too could successive generations of soviet citizens be improved by exposing them to the right ideology. So while Western scientists embraced evolution and genetics, Russian scientists who thought the same were sent to the gulag. Western crops flourished. Russian crops failed.

“Today, the catch-cry of scientists must be frank and fearless advice, no matter the opinion of political commissars stationed at the US EPA,” he said.

A day after the EPA was told to limit its public communications, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, added a layer of confusion to reports that the Trump administration had directed the communications crackdown.

“That’s nothing that’s coming from the White House,” he told the press during his daily briefing. “They haven’t been directed by us to do anything.” But his comments were at odds with statements made by Ericksen, who said the Trump administration was scrutinising studies or data published by scientists at the EPA, and new work was under a “temporary hold” before it could be released.

Finkel was appointed chief scientist by Malcolm Turnbull, replacing former chief scientist Prof Ian Chubb in December.

(For some reason I can't embed the links, so I copied the texts under spoilers.)

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Trump administration has sprung a leak. Many of them, in fact."

Spoiler

Every presidential administration leaks. So far, the Trump White House has gushed.

Unauthorized transcripts of phone conversations between President Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Australia went public last week. So did details about the administration’s stage-managing of Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Drafts of executive orders, including one that would grant legal protection to people and businesses that discriminate against same-sex married couples on moral or religious grounds, also slipped out before they were ready for prime time.

The leaks have been a bonanza for news organizations, particularly mainstream outlets such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC and the Associated Press. The pattern of leaks to these organizations suggests the leakers are seeking not just wide distribution of confidential information but are hoping to gain the credibility conveyed by establishment news organizations — the very news outlets that Trump has frequently derided as purveyors of “fake news.”

They also suggest the extent of rivalries and some possible misgivings within Trump’s inner circle about policies and would-be policies. Leaks, after all, are often designed to isolate a rival or to whip up public pressure to derail a decision.

The Post was first to report on Trump’s conversation with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, in which Trump blasted a refu­gee resettlement agreement and bragged about his election victory before abruptly ending the call.

The Times broke the news that the administration was preparing an order permitting the CIA to reopen secret “black site” prisons in which terrorist suspects were once tortured. The newspaper also described the White House’s attempt to set up a reality show-like competition to gin up the suspense about Trump’s Supreme Court appointment.

AP was first with a story that Trump, in a call with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, had threatened to send U.S. troops to Mexico to stop “bad hombres down there.”

Smaller news outlets have tapped into the leaky pipeline, too. The Nation magazine, primarily known for its liberal commentary, reported last week that the White House was circulating the draft of an executive order that would permit “sweeping” discrimination against gay and transgender people based on religious or moral objections; the Nation even reproduced a copy of the leaked draft document.

The breadth of the leaks has surprised — and, of course, delighted — journalists, who say it gives the public an unfiltered view of what those in power are thinking and doing. The leaks of Trump’s calls to Turnbull and Peña Nieto may have been the most surprising of all; it’s rare for transcripts of presidential phone calls or details of meetings with foreign leaders, especially potentially embarrassing exchanges, to leak so soon afterward.

“Given Trump’s erratic nature and lack of experience, especially in foreign affairs, these leaks may be more important than ever,” says David Corn, a reporter with the muckraking Mother Jones magazine. “They give us a sense of how he’s doing his job” and what important advisers such as Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner are telling him to do.

Other reporters say the leaks reflect a certain degree of chaos within the new administration, with factions warily circling one another. At the top of the organization is an executive who has himself flouted White House norms, which may be setting a certain tone. “I tend to think chaos begets chaos begets chaos, and that’s what we’re seeing here,” said a reporter familiar with some of the senior players.

But others see the leaks as whistleblowing — an effort to expose Trump’s initiatives before they become policy.

The draft executive order expanding religious objections to gay and transgender people was probably leaked because the leaker was alarmed that such a policy might be enacted, said Sarah Posner, who broke the story for the Nation. She notes that there was no leak of Trump’s most controversial order to date, a ban on travel and immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, and the secrecy caused disruption and controversy. “I think [the proposed religious order] was very concerning to a lot of people inside and outside of government,” she said.

If so, mission accomplished. Trump hasn’t signed the religious-objection order, and the White House hasn’t indicated when or if he will. Similarly, the administration appears to have pulled back its plans to revive the “black site” prisons after the Times disclosure of it incited pushback from Congress and Cabinet officials.

Of course, the leaks could also be trial balloons launched by the administration.

Neither Trump nor his top officials have challenged the veracity of any of the major leaks. A few weeks before taking office, however, Trump demanded an investigation into who leaked to NBC News a top-secret report about Russian hacking of Democratic officials during the campaign.

This record suggests that mainstream news organizations are getting a reliable flow of unauthorized information. But reporters say such information needs to undergo the journalistic equivalent of extreme vetting.

“Careful news organizations don’t just throw unverified leaks into the world,” said David Sanger, a veteran White House and national security reporter for the New York Times. “Reporters want to understand the motives [of the leaker] and the context of what’s leaked so that you’re not just simply becoming the handmaiden to someone’s private agenda. You have to dig into it and ask questions about it, starting with, ‘Why am I seeing this?’ ”

Given Trump’s management style and the competing “power centers” within his administration, “I don’t see [leaks] simmering down anytime soon,” said Corn. “It’s going to be a continuing problem for him and his administration. But it’s going to be good for the public. And it’s going to be very good for journalists.”

It would be nice if this so-called administration drowns in the leaks, but I wonder if, as the author asserts, at least some of the leaks are trial balloons sent up to test the waters.

[Penny]

Glad there are leaks, but the die hard followers will not be persuaded. I wonder how long it will take before someone quits or gets fired and gives us more details. The leaks will help bring him down.

[47of74]

5 minutes ago, Penny said:

Glad there are leaks, but the die hard followers will not be persuaded. I wonder how long it will take before someone quits or gets fired and gives us more details. The leaks will help bring him down.

And Branch Trumpvidians are busily gaming Twitter;

Quote

Daniel John Sobieski, 68, climbed the stairs in his modest brick home and settled into a worn leather chair for another busy day of tweeting. But he needn’t have bothered. As one of the nation’s most prolific conservative voices on Twitter, he already had posted hundreds of times this morning — as he ate breakfast, as he chatted with his wife, even as he slept — and would post hundreds of times more before night fell.

The key to this frenetic pace was technology allowing Twitter users to post automatically from queues of pre-written tweets that can be delivered at a nearly constant, round-the-clock pace that no human alone could match. In this way, Sobieski — a balding retiree with eyes so weak that he uses a magnifying glass to see his two computer screens — has dramatically amplified his online reach despite lacking the celebrity or the institutional affiliations that long have helped elevate some voices over the crowd.

Sobieski’s two accounts, for example, tweet more than 1,000 times a day using “schedulers” that work through stacks of his own pre-written posts in repetitive loops. With retweets and other forms of sharing, these posts reach the feeds of millions of other accounts, including those of such conservative luminaries as Fox News’s Sean Hannity, GOP strategist Karl Rove and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), according to researcher Jonathan Albright.

Some of the most prolific political tweeters complain that the company doesn’t have clear enough rules of the road. Lewis Shupe, a conservative Las Vegas-based retiree who runs @USFreedomArmy, a 61,000-follower account, said that he had received warnings from Twitter for posting too often. He now limits his scheduler to 150 tweets per hour, a number he thinks allows him to fly under the company’s radar.

Jesus.

 

 

[VelociRapture]

A helpful cheat sheet on the immigration ban. Thanks SNL! 

 

[iweartanktops]

Hey guys, if anyone has anything negative to say about me, sorry, it's fake. I'm perfect and everyone approves of me. 

You can't make this up! 

[Cleopatra7]

If only we still had the sharp tongue of Julia Sugarbaker to help us during our time of national crisis:

https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=9PtU_zfvQSI

 

[Dark Matters]

17 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Lets not forget that Chao's family owns a shipping company that got caught smuggling cocaine a few years ago. You'd think the family values crowd would want to distance themselves from people with these sort of affiliations.  

I'm sure the Trumphumpers bend themselves into pretzels to justify supporting him and any of his cronies.

[AuntK]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"The Trump administration has sprung a leak. Many of them, in fact."

  Reveal hidden contents

Every presidential administration leaks. So far, the Trump White House has gushed.

Unauthorized transcripts of phone conversations between President Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Australia went public last week. So did details about the administration’s stage-managing of Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Drafts of executive orders, including one that would grant legal protection to people and businesses that discriminate against same-sex married couples on moral or religious grounds, also slipped out before they were ready for prime time.

The leaks have been a bonanza for news organizations, particularly mainstream outlets such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC and the Associated Press. The pattern of leaks to these organizations suggests the leakers are seeking not just wide distribution of confidential information but are hoping to gain the credibility conveyed by establishment news organizations — the very news outlets that Trump has frequently derided as purveyors of “fake news.”

They also suggest the extent of rivalries and some possible misgivings within Trump’s inner circle about policies and would-be policies. Leaks, after all, are often designed to isolate a rival or to whip up public pressure to derail a decision.

The Post was first to report on Trump’s conversation with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, in which Trump blasted a refu­gee resettlement agreement and bragged about his election victory before abruptly ending the call.

The Times broke the news that the administration was preparing an order permitting the CIA to reopen secret “black site” prisons in which terrorist suspects were once tortured. The newspaper also described the White House’s attempt to set up a reality show-like competition to gin up the suspense about Trump’s Supreme Court appointment.

AP was first with a story that Trump, in a call with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, had threatened to send U.S. troops to Mexico to stop “bad hombres down there.”

Smaller news outlets have tapped into the leaky pipeline, too. The Nation magazine, primarily known for its liberal commentary, reported last week that the White House was circulating the draft of an executive order that would permit “sweeping” discrimination against gay and transgender people based on religious or moral objections; the Nation even reproduced a copy of the leaked draft document.

The breadth of the leaks has surprised — and, of course, delighted — journalists, who say it gives the public an unfiltered view of what those in power are thinking and doing. The leaks of Trump’s calls to Turnbull and Peña Nieto may have been the most surprising of all; it’s rare for transcripts of presidential phone calls or details of meetings with foreign leaders, especially potentially embarrassing exchanges, to leak so soon afterward.

“Given Trump’s erratic nature and lack of experience, especially in foreign affairs, these leaks may be more important than ever,” says David Corn, a reporter with the muckraking Mother Jones magazine. “They give us a sense of how he’s doing his job” and what important advisers such as Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner are telling him to do.

Other reporters say the leaks reflect a certain degree of chaos within the new administration, with factions warily circling one another. At the top of the organization is an executive who has himself flouted White House norms, which may be setting a certain tone. “I tend to think chaos begets chaos begets chaos, and that’s what we’re seeing here,” said a reporter familiar with some of the senior players.

But others see the leaks as whistleblowing — an effort to expose Trump’s initiatives before they become policy.

The draft executive order expanding religious objections to gay and transgender people was probably leaked because the leaker was alarmed that such a policy might be enacted, said Sarah Posner, who broke the story for the Nation. She notes that there was no leak of Trump’s most controversial order to date, a ban on travel and immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, and the secrecy caused disruption and controversy. “I think [the proposed religious order] was very concerning to a lot of people inside and outside of government,” she said.

If so, mission accomplished. Trump hasn’t signed the religious-objection order, and the White House hasn’t indicated when or if he will. Similarly, the administration appears to have pulled back its plans to revive the “black site” prisons after the Times disclosure of it incited pushback from Congress and Cabinet officials.

Of course, the leaks could also be trial balloons launched by the administration.

Neither Trump nor his top officials have challenged the veracity of any of the major leaks. A few weeks before taking office, however, Trump demanded an investigation into who leaked to NBC News a top-secret report about Russian hacking of Democratic officials during the campaign.

This record suggests that mainstream news organizations are getting a reliable flow of unauthorized information. But reporters say such information needs to undergo the journalistic equivalent of extreme vetting.

“Careful news organizations don’t just throw unverified leaks into the world,” said David Sanger, a veteran White House and national security reporter for the New York Times. “Reporters want to understand the motives [of the leaker] and the context of what’s leaked so that you’re not just simply becoming the handmaiden to someone’s private agenda. You have to dig into it and ask questions about it, starting with, ‘Why am I seeing this?’ ”

Given Trump’s management style and the competing “power centers” within his administration, “I don’t see [leaks] simmering down anytime soon,” said Corn. “It’s going to be a continuing problem for him and his administration. But it’s going to be good for the public. And it’s going to be very good for journalists.”

 

Looking at the photo of Cheeto sitting at the desk with the people standing around him, I noticed the women apparently are following orders regarding attire. And the tops of their dresses are rather snug with their assets prominently displayed. All of those women make me ill. In fact, if I were the woman in the green dress in the first photo standing next to him, I certainly wouldn't want my "girls" so close - clearly within grabbing distance!  Gag!

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Cleopatra7 said:

If only we still had the sharp tongue of Julia Sugarbaker to help us during our time of national crisis:

https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=9PtU_zfvQSI

 

YES! I miss Designing Women, what a great show. I remember an interview where Dixie Carter said that she was much more conservative than Julia, but those were the lines written for her. She certainly was a great actress. The episode about Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill was one of my favorites. I wish it was on YouTube, but I guess I'll have to suck it up and buy the DVD.

 

From this columnist's words to every deity's ear...

Spoiler

There are already plenty of grounds to impeach Donald Trump. The really interesting question is when key Republicans will decide that he’s more of a liability than an asset.

If Trump keeps sucking up to Vladimir Putin, it could happen sooner than you think.

The first potential count is Trump’s war with the courts. The Supreme Court is likely to give expedited review to the order by the 9th Circuit upholding Judge James Robart’s order that tossed out Trump’s bans on immigrants or refugees from seven countries, even permanent US residents and others with valid green cards.

It’s encouraging that the agencies of government, such as the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, immediately deferred to the court order, not to a president who thinks he can govern by decree.

But suppose the Supreme Court finds against Trump? Will he try to defy the high court? That would be a first-class impeachable offense. Even Richard Nixon deferred to a Supreme Court order to turn over the Watergate tapes. 

A second category of impeachable offense involves his mixing his personal profits with his official duties as president. That describes his bizarre romance with Vladimir Putin, who presides over a nation where Trump has extensive business interests, as well as Trump’s double standards in determining which Muslim nations were exempted from his executive order.

What are the odds that Trump randomly excluded Muslim nations in which he has business interests? These were precisely nations that did send terrorists. The covered countries sent no terrorists, and had no Trump investments.

Meanwhile, the CIA investigation of Trump’s bizarre coziness with Putin continues.

I know, I know ― impeachment requires charges by the House, and then a trial by the Senate. And these chambers are of course controlled by Republicans.

However, Republican alarm at Trump continues to increase at an accelerating rate.

What is most appalling Republicans right now is Trump’s weird habit of apologizing for Putin. The dam broke Sunday morning, when Trump compared Putin’s Russia with America one time too often.

Even Bill O’Reilly pushed back: “Putin’s a killer,” O’Reilly said.

“You got a lot of killers,” Trump shot back. “What, you think our country’s so innocent?”

This claim of equivalence, usually limited to the far left in the Soviet era, was too much for even the most loyal of Republicans.

“He’s a thug,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of Putin (though he could have been describing Trump.) Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” McConnell added, “The Russians annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine and messed around in our elections. No, I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does.”

It was also too much for the Wall Street Journal editorial page: “Trump puts US on moral par with Putin’s Russia,” the Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens tweeted. “Never in history has a President slandered his country like this.” 

Several other Republican senators quickly followed suit.

Something is just plain fishy about Trump’s Putophilia. It can’t just be one thug’s admiration for another. Either Trump is looking to his business deals, or it’s a valentine for Putin’s help with turning the election, in expectation of more such help. Or maybe both.

So here is an impeachment scenario that looks increasingly plausible:

Republicans stick with Trump for a while, as he delivers goodies like deregulation of gas, oil and Wall Street, tax cuts, school privatization, gutting of labor protection, and at least one rightwing Supreme Court justice. But at some point, the GOP leadership concludes that he is just too bizarre, too much of a hazard for setting off wars, both trade wars and hot ones, and too much of a risk for 2018.

So they decide to ditch him in favor of Vice President Pence, who is a more conventional far-right conservative and not a certifiable whack-job. I’m told by one source that this is already being discussed in senior Republican circles.

Republicans could do this either via impeachment, a protracted process that plays out while a wounded Trump can do even more impulsive and vengeful damage. Or they could move more quickly via the 25th Amendment to have Trump certified as impaired, and take him out in a net.

The wager is that Republicans would then get credit for ridding America of an unstable would-be dictator, and they could regroup under Pence in time to limit damage in the 2018 election. Trump was never their guy anyway.

Hold on, do we really want President Pence? Well, we certainly want to be rid of President Trump. That might actually be something the two parties could agree upon.

As for Pence, he took what looked to be the doomed job as Trump’s running mate, mainly because it offered him an exit from Indiana, where he was a monumentally unpopular and inept governor. Democrats could do a lot worse than having Pence as the opposition.

Also, the dwindling hard core of Trump zealots did not exactly vote for tax cuts for the rich and cuts in Social Security and Medicare when they voted for Trump. They didn’t vote for Goldman Sachs running the economic team, and they didn’t vote for Putin. Then again, neither did they vote for Mike Pence, not exactly Mr. Populist.

Replacing the impeached Nixon with the well-liked Gerald Ford in 1974 did not work out so for the Republicans, who lost record seats in that November’s mid-term.

This is totally uncharted territory, people.

 

@AuntK, I'd wear a suit of armor anytime I had to be in reach of his tiny hands. Of course, he probably wouldn't grab me, I'm not his type.

[47of74]

1 hour ago, iweartanktops said:

Hey guys, if anyone has anything negative to say about me, sorry, it's fake. I'm perfect and everyone approves of me.

You can't make this up! 

Yeah I saw that too.  Jesus Fornicating Christ what a 70 year old man-baby.  Yeah I know I've said that plenty of times before too.

Meanwhile Bill-O-the-Blow-Hard is in a bit of trouble for being mean to Donald J. Putinfluffer's sugar daddies in Russian;

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-foxnews-kremlin-idUSKBN15L0XC

Quote

The Kremlin said on Monday it wanted an apology from Fox News over what it said were "unacceptable" comments one of the channel's presenters made about Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly described Putin as "a killer" in the interview with Trump as he tried to press the U.S. president to explain more fully why he respected his Russian counterpart. O'Reilly did not say who he thought Putin had killed.

"We consider such words from the Fox TV company to be unacceptable and insulting, and honestly speaking, we would prefer to get an apology from such a respected TV company," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

 

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, AuntK said:

Looking at the photo of Cheeto sitting at the desk with the people standing around him, I noticed the women apparently are following orders regarding attire. And the tops of their dresses are rather snug with their assets prominently displayed. All of those women make me ill. In fact, if I were the woman in the green dress in the first photo standing next to him, I certainly wouldn't want my "girls" so close - clearly within grabbing distance!  Gag!

I'd never make it in the Trump administration. If I were in there, using Alternative facts, I think I would dress professionally- like in a lot of those 1990s women's suits that wouldn't be form fitting like the dresses. I'm not referring to the business suits of the 80s, which would have any football player salivating over the shoulder pads. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"World’s Saddest Trump Rally Draws Just 8 Supporters". You have to see the Twitter response and pictures. It's too funny.

 

Not about Trump, but fitting in with the idiots who think we should go back to the 1950s: "Lawmaker Wants Women To Spend Sundays Making Husbands Breakfast In Bed"

Quote

Two North Dakota Representatives have some pretty outdated ideas for how women should be spending their Sunday mornings. 

In their defense of North Dakota’s “Blue Laws” ― which require some businesses to open late on Sunday mornings and some businesses to stay closed altogether  ― Representatives Bernie Satrom and Vernon Laning seemed to express that Sunday mornings should be spent time traveling back to the norms of the 1950s rather than running errands.

According to Satrom, women should spend their Sunday mornings bringing their husbands breakfast in bed. 

Satrom said that Sundays should be devoted to “spending time with your wife, your husband...Making him breakfast, bringing it to him in bed and then after that go take your kids for a walk.”

Rep. Laning also chimed in with some sexist commentary. 

“I don’t know about you, but my wife has no problem spending everything I earn in 6 and a half days,” he said. “And I don’t think it hurts at all to have a half day off.” 

“It’s hurtful, to know that that’s the reasoning that they’re using,” one young woman told Valley News Live. Another woman said that it’s frustrating to have representatives whose “backwards” views are so different from her own. “It’s frustrating personally because when you know those are the people representing you,” she told Valley News. “And you don’t feel like you’re being represented and those kind of backwards ways of thinking are still present, it’s really, it’s upsetting.”

Laning told Valley News Live, the news outlet that originally reported on the representatives’ comments, that people were simply taking the comments too seriously, and that anyone who is upset lacks a sense of humor. 

Good gravy.

[onekidanddone]

4 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"World’s Saddest Trump Rally Draws Just 8 Supporters". You have to see the Twitter response and pictures. It's too funny.

 

Not about Trump, but fitting in with the idiots who think we should go back to the 1950s: "Lawmaker Wants Women To Spend Sundays Making Husbands Breakfast In Bed"

Good gravy.

For the tru****mp supporters https://www.sadtrombone.com/

For the women in North Dakota  ----STOP VOTING FOR THESE ASS HATS

[Audrey2]

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"World’s Saddest Trump Rally Draws Just 8 Supporters". You have to see the Twitter response and pictures. It's too funny.

 

Not about Trump, but fitting in with the idiots who think we should go back to the 1950s: "Lawmaker Wants Women To Spend Sundays Making Husbands Breakfast In Bed"

Good gravy.

Wait a minute- if they really wanted to go back to the 1950's, wouldn't they try to get everyone in church? Breakfast in bed on Sunday mornings doesn't work well when trying to make a 9 o'clock service. 

[47of74]

10 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Wait a minute- if they really wanted to go back to the 1950's, wouldn't they try to get everyone in church? Breakfast in bed on Sunday mornings doesn't work well when trying to make a 9 o'clock service. 

Unless they're Catholics and go to Saturday evening services.  But I'd say to these fornicating idiot Representatives regardless of what time religious service is guys, get out of the G-D bed and make your own G-D breakfast. 

[47of74]

Herr Orange will not be allowed to address the British Parliament;

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/donald-trump-uk-state-visit-speaker-address-parliament-a7565651.html

Quote

Donald Trump will be blocked from addressing Parliament on his state visit to the UK, the Speaker of the House of Commons has said.

John Bercow, the Speaker, said he was "strongly opposed" to Mr Trump speaking in the Commons and that being invited was "not an automatic right" but "an earned honour".

In a dramatic intervention cited the Commons' opposition to "racism and to sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary" as his reasons.

Parts of the Commons erupted into rare spontaneous applause in support of Mr Bercow's statement.

How long until the Tweet storms get going over that?  I suppose now Herr Orange will be all upset that John Bercow isn't kissing his ass and instead stood up to him.

[Audrey2]

Well, we've already angered Australia and Mexico. Might as well add Great Britain to the list. 

[Childless]

2 hours ago, AuntK said:

Looking at the photo of Cheeto sitting at the desk with the people standing around him, I noticed the women apparently are following orders regarding attire. And the tops of their dresses are rather snug with their assets prominently displayed. All of those women make me ill. In fact, if I were the woman in the green dress in the first photo standing next to him, I certainly wouldn't want my "girls" so close - clearly within grabbing distance!  Gag!

If I worked for him, I would wear the ugliest, most ill fitting dress I could find.  I'd totally go old school Duggar.

[onekidanddone]

13 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

Well, we've already angered Australia and Mexico. Might as well add Great Britain to the list. 

My grandmother was a Brit. If she were alive she would be dancing.

[Childless]

3 hours ago, iweartanktops said:

Hey guys, if anyone has anything negative to say about me, sorry, it's fake. I'm perfect and everyone approves of me. 

You can't make this up! 

I just ignore his tweets anymore.  How many times can you listen to someone whine before it gets old.  We know Trump.  You fragile ego was hurt.  Wah, wah, wah.

Jesus.  The guy's pathetic.

[onekidanddone]

12 minutes ago, Childless said:

If I worked for him, I would wear the ugliest, most ill fitting dress I could find.  I'd totally go old school Duggar.

Mild inappropriate assault err  touching.

[Dark Matters]

Libby Anne has a post up about Trump and media censorship.  Make sure you watch the 84 lumber Superbowl ad - it'll have you in tears.

 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2017/02/censored-super-bowl-ads.html

[47of74]

20 minutes ago, Childless said:

I just ignore his tweets anymore.  How many times can you listen to someone whine before it gets old.  We know Trump.  You fragile ego was hurt.  Wah, wah, wah.

Jesus.  The guy's pathetic.

Yeah I've blocked Twitler's accounts - both the officials white house one and his own account.  Along with the VP account as well. 

Orange Ferret Face and Penceler have nothing to say that I have the slightest interest in hearing anyways.

[Gemini]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38884604

Resistance to Trump is growing in the U.K.

House of Commons speaker Bercow says he's strongly opposed to Trump addressing Westminster. 

 "Before the imposition of the migrant ban, I would myself have been strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall," he said.

"After the imposition of the migrant ban I am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in Westminster Hall." 

as far as this place is concerned, I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons."

 

It's not much, but hopefully it will be enough to send a message to both Trump and prime minister may, that resistance should and will happen!