Trump 20: Sauron Doesn't Seem So Bad After All

June 28, 2017

Wow, just wow: "Trump attorney Jay Sekulow’s family has been paid millions from charities they control"

Spoiler

President Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow was on his weekday radio show earlier this month, defending the president vociferously, when he took a pause to highlight a charity that has brought Sekulow and his family millions of dollars.

“Let me take off the hat of the president’s lawyer and put on the ACLJ hat,” he said, using the acronym for the American Center for Law and Justice. His June 16 program then cut to a plea for donations from audience members listening on 850 stations nationwide. “Now, more than ever,” a narrator said, “you need the ACLJ on your side.”

The segment illustrates how Sekulow, the most visible member of the legal team defending Trump in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is poised to capitalize on his new role.

Before Trump hired him, Sekulow had built a powerful charity empire, leading a team of ACLJ attorneys who jump into high-profile court battles over such hot-button conservative issues as religious liberties and abortion. The ACLJ promotes its work zealously, noting that its representation is free of charge and dependent on the donations of supporters.

That brought in nearly $230 million in charitable donations from 2011 to 2015 — and millions of those dollars ended up going to the members of the Sekulow family or their companies, a Washington Post analysis of IRS tax filings and business records in five states and the District found.

...

Through a complex arrangement involving ACLJ and another charity, $5.5 million was paid directly to Sekulow and five family members in salary or other compensation, tax records covering those years show. Another $7.5 million went to businesses owned by Sekulow and his sister-in-law for producing and consulting on TV, movie and radio shows, including his weekday program, “Jay Sekulow Live!” And $21 million went to a small law firm co-owned by Sekulow, records show.

The public face of the two nonprofits is the ACLJ, the charity started by televangelist Pat Robertson in 1990 and known for its defense of Christian causes before the Supreme Court. Sekulow is its chief counsel.

But in 2011, the ACLJ formalized an arrangement that first routes donations solicited in its name to the other nonprofit, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, or CASE, tax filings show. CASE is controlled entirely by Sekulow, his wife and his two sons, who serve as the only voting members on the board. The ACLJ relies on CASE for nearly its entire budget, $53 million in 2015, meaning the Sekulows effectively control both charities, nonprofit experts said.

Sekulow and his family members did not respond to messages seeking comment.

There has been no accusation that CASE or the ACLJ has violated federal law, which bars people with influence over nonprofits from deriving “excess benefits” from them. Robertson, who remains president of the ACLJ board, defended the arrangement in a statement to The Post.

Independent accountants review the nonprofits annually, Robertson said, and the IRS has found them to be “in full compliance with all applicable tax law.”

“The financial arrangements between ACLJ, CASE and all related entities have been reviewed by outside independent compensation experts and have been determined to be reasonable,” he said.

Over two decades, Sekulow and his charities have faced criticism from watchdog groups. The charities have not responded to annual requests by the Better Business Bureau and CharityWatch to voluntarily release financial data and to clear up inquiries that members of the public have sent to the watchdog groups.

The ACLJ and CASE are not accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a financial standard-bearer for over 2,000 Christian charities nationwide.

Tax and nonprofit experts who reviewed recent disclosures by the charities’ at the request of The Post raised concerns about the family members’ salaries and said the charities do not meet the highest standards for transparency and accountability.

The composition of the board of CASE — four members of the same family, all paid — violates BBB standards calling for at least five independent board members and no more than one who receives a financial benefit from the charity, said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the BBB’s Wise Giving Alliance.

Also, they said, it is highly unusual for a group’s chief counsel to receive money in the many ways Sekulow and his firms do.

“It’s more like a family business than a public charity,” said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, which runs CharityWatch. “You would have to have a lot of trust in this family in order to want to give them your money.”

The Post left voice-mail messages for the Sekulows compensated by CASE or the ACLJ: Jay Sekulow; his wife, Pam; sons Logan and Jared Sekulow; as well as his brother Gary Sekulow and Gary’s son Adam. None returned calls. A person who answered the door Monday morning at the ACLJ’s Washington office, in a stately townhouse behind the Supreme Court, declined to comment.

An ACLJ spokesman directed questions about how Sekulow would be compensated for his work defending Trump to the president’s legal team and then did not respond to subsequent messages. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team did not return emails or phone calls.

Feeling like ‘Rocky’

A Supreme Court case in 1987 launched Sekulow, a former IRS attorney struggling through bankruptcy, on the path that made him a folk hero of the Christian right, a person who could be entrusted with a steady stream of charitable donations.

As general counsel for the nonprofit Jews for Jesus, Sekulow — who himself had been born into a Jewish home and converted to Christianity — argued before the nation’s high court that the group should be allowed to pass out leaflets at Los Angeles International Airport. When the court struck down the airport’s ban on First Amendment activity, he basked in the success.

“I felt like ‘Rocky’ after the fight,’” he wrote on his personal website.

Sekulow soon had other Supreme Court cases. He created CASE and began attracting donations to keep up his work. He gained the admiration of Robertson and, soon, an invitation to join the ACLJ as its chief counsel.

The perch gave Sekulow an opportunity to argue 12 cases before the Supreme Court, but it was his forays into presidential politics, notably during the George W. Bush presidency, that appeared to elevate Sekulow and his charity into a fundraising juggernaut.

As Sekulow’s exposure on television increased, CASE’s annual fundraising jumped from $14 million to $24 million over a period of about two years.

Then, during the term of President Barack Obama, Sekulow’s role as a legal pundit on Fox News further amplified his reach. As Sekulow questioned whether Obama’s IRS had unfairly targeted conservative nonprofit and tea party groups, revenue for CASE jumped another $10 million, eclipsing that of the ACLJ.

At the same time, the work of the ACLJ increasingly moved in step with causes of the political right.

The group joined legal challenges to Affordable Care Act mandates and Obama’s executive order on immigration. It defended an antiabortion activist who was sued in California over undercover videos at a Planned Parenthood clinic. It also argued that the corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, a Republican, should be overturned.

Gregory M. Lipper, a partner in private practice and former senior litigation counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he saw the change in cases he fought against the ACLJ.

“We litigated against a number of religious organizations, and they all, generally, have similar or slightly different angles. But the ACLJ seemed to become much more like a movement right-wing organization,” Lipper said. “They were very noisy on Islamic terrorism . . . and they started to sound more like Fox News than focusing specifically on free speech or religious liberty issues.”

On May 9, when Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey, Sekulow was one of the president’s first and most vocal supporters, both in television appearances and on social media.

Sekulow tweeted that Trump had made “the right decision” — and a similar assessment later came from the ACLJ’s Twitter account. “There is NO evidence of collusion between Pres #Trump and #Russia. Trump says it’s ‘a total hoax’ ” read a tweet from the nonprofit.

On June 9, a day after Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sekulow announced to his radio listeners that he had accepted a position on Trump’s personal legal team, calling it his patriotic duty to defend against “an attack on the presidency.”

Borochoff, of CharityWatch, said Sekulow’s proximity to Trump could boost fundraising.

“He has far more attention than he normally would have to raise money — so there is the question of profiting from his relation to the president,” Borochoff said. “Are people listening to his radio program because he’s the president’s adviser? Then they get hit on to donate.”

‘Do people even know?’

CASE has no public website and only a dozen employees, at least half of them Sekulows. Yet it commands a budget of more than $53 million, according to its most recent tax filings — an amount that rivals annual fundraising for PETA or the Anti-Defamation League.

Weiner, of the BBB’s Wise Giving Alliance, said the arrangement between CASE and the ACLJ makes it unlikely that donors know where the money is going. “Do people even know who is actually soliciting them?” he said.

At the same time as he is chief counsel of the ACLJ, Jay Sekulow is a director of CASE; the other directors are his sons, Logan and Jordan, and his wife, Pam.

Since 2011, CASE has paid Sekulow and his family members a combined $4.2 million in salary and other compensation. That includes Sekulow’s two sons, his wife, his brother and his nephew. A New York Times wedding announcement for Jordan Sekulow in 2011 indicated that his future wife also worked at the nonprofit.

Jay Sekulow’s brother, Gary Sekulow, is the head of finance for both CASE and the ACLJ. Tax filings indicate that he works 40 hours a week at CASE and another 40 hours at the ACLJ, making $631,000 and $272,000, respectively, in 2015.

Additionally, CASE has paid $3.1 million since 2011 to PFMS, a company owned by Gary’s wife, Kim Sekulow, for “TV and radio agency fees,” IRS filings show. The firm’s website describes it as full-service agency specializing in Christian radio and television. The six clients listed on its website are: “Jay Sekulow Live!,” “Jay Sekulow Weekend,” “ACLJ Weekly,” “Law and Justice Feature,” “The Jordan Sekulow Show,” and “The Messianic Hour,” featuring Rabbi Scott Sekulow, Jay Sekulow’s brother.

“All this interfamily relationship raises potential issues as to whether some or all of them are being overpaid,” said David Nelson, a specialist on nonprofits and a former tax partner at the Ernst & Young accounting firm. He noted, however, that it is difficult to prove that compensation is unreasonable unless it is far outside norms.

CASE has also spent $2.5 million on chartered vehicles, business-class flights and other travel for the Sekulows and its handful of employees, tax documents show.

From 2011 to 2016, the ACLJ did not pay Sekulow as a staff member. But its largest outside expense was $21 million sent to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, the for-profit legal firm in which Sekulow has a 50 percent stake, according to tax filings.

It is not clear from public documents why the ACLJ, which has attorneys on staff, outsources work to a firm half-owned by the ACLJ chief counsel. The charity gets “various legal and legal related TV, radio, and certain publication services” from the law firm, an independent auditor wrote in one filing.

The Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group does not show up in a search of a national database that includes details about attorneys and law firms involved in local, state and federal cases. A Labor Department document offers some of the few public details about the firm: It shares a phone with the ACLJ, and its pension plan has four participants.

When Sekulow himself files an appearance in a court case, it is often as a representative of the ACLJ.

The ACLJ has worked on more than two dozen cases over the past two years, court records show, in many instances filing friend-of-the-court briefs supporting freedom of religious expression or conservative causes.

Robertson has long touted the ACLJ as a rampart protecting Christians against the secularization in civic life.

“A prayer was taken out, then Bible reading was taken out, then the Ten Commandments were taken out,” Robertson said in a 1998 speech, describing court rulings that sought to strip religious freedoms. “We have received last year at the American Center for Law and Justice 102,000 complaints of religious persecution in the United States of America. And we have about 1,000 active cases right now going on.”

Like Jay Sekulow, Robertson does not claim any compensation as the ACLJ’s president.

Since 2013, CASE has forwarded $500,000 each year to a small charity called the Law and Justice Institute that has no employees and relies almost exclusively on CASE for its revenue, tax filings show. Sekulow is president of the Law and Justice Institute. The Law and Justice Institute, in turn, has paid $500,000 each year to Advocacy Services. Robertson is president of that firm, according to Virginia state records. Robertson’s spokesman did not address written questions about the payments from The Post.

‘I could bill $750 an hour’

In 2005, the Legal Times first traced unusual spending by CASE and the ACLJ, including leasing a private jet Sekulow acknowledged using for golfing trips and forgiving loan payments for real estate purchased by the Sekulows. Around that time, the ACLJ had begun paying Sekulow’s law firm about $700,000 a year, and Sekulow acknowledged to the Legal Times that his salary from that arrangement was “above $600,000” a year.

The publication said Sekulow shrugged off criticism and made no apologies. “I wouldn’t pretend to tell you we don’t pay our lawyers well,” including himself, the Times quoted Sekulow as saying. “As a private lawyer, I could bill $750 an hour, but I don’t.”

The Guardian reported on the fundraising efforts and spending of Sekulow’s charities earlier Tuesday.

The Post found that in addition to CASE surpassing the more well-known ACLJ for fundraising, recent spending by the nonprofits has expanded across the globe. The ACLJ has given more than $9 million to three independent organizations that Sekulow launched overseas.

It is not clear from publicly available documents if Sekulow draws a salary from these organizations. He is the chief counsel of each, records show.

Yet another shady person in the Agent Orange orbit who is poised to make money off his notoriety.

June 28, 2017

15 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Wow, just wow: "Trump attorney Jay Sekulow’s family has been paid millions from charities they control"

Yet another shady person in the Agent Orange orbit who is poised to make money off his notoriety.

Ah @GreyhoundFan we are like FJ twins as I was just about to post this. Once again Orange Shit Stain's people sink lower than the earth's molten core.

June 28, 2017

5 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Ah @GreyhoundFan we are like FJ twins

I'm honored to be your FJ twin!!

My house representative trolled the TT's fake Time magazine cover:

June 28, 2017

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

My house representative trolled the TT's fake Time magazine cover:

Wish I had photo shop on my home computer so I could put my cat's face on his own Time cover.

Wallace the Wonder Cat: He is cute, fuzzy and likes to cuddle, but will take a crap in your tub if his box is not clean.

June 28, 2017

6 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Wish I had photo shop on my home computer so I could put my cat's face on his own Time cover.

Here ya go! I hope we get to see Wallace's "cover". I'm sure it will be 1,000,000,000,000,000 times nicer than the faux TT cover.

June 28, 2017

How very true.

This should prerequisite reading before every election, and preferably be mandatorily taught in schools.

June 28, 2017

The level of creepiness and arrogance is beyond belief. It makes me want to

And then there is this. What's that saying again about the company you keep?

Trump lawyer's firm steered millions in donations to family members, files show

From the article:

Quote

Documents obtained by the Guardian show Sekulow [in June 2009] approved plans to push poor and jobless people to donate money to his Christian nonprofit, which since 2000 has steered more than $60m to Sekulow, his family and their businesses.

Telemarketers for the nonprofit, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (Case), were instructed in contracts signed by Sekulow to urge people who pleaded poverty or said they were out of work to dig deep for a “sacrificial gift”.

I've put a part of those instructions under a spoiler. It's sickening.

Spoiler

More details in the article itself.

June 28, 2017

This is a good opinion piece: "What happens when the whole world becomes selfish"

Spoiler

ERBIL, Iraq

Here in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, the mood is “Kurdistan first” with the announcement of a referendum on independence in September. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, it’s “Saudi first,” as a brash young crown prince steers the kingdom toward a more assertive role in the region. In Moscow, where I visited a few weeks ago, it’s “Russia first,” with a vengeance. And so it goes, around most of the world.

The politics of national self-interest is on steroids these days. For global leaders, it’s the “me” moment. The nearly universal slogan among countries that might once have acted with more restraint seems to be: “Go for it.”

The prime catalyst of this global movement of self-assertion is, obviously, President Trump. From early in his 2016 campaign, he proclaimed his vision of “America first” in which the interests of the United States and its companies and workers would prevail over international obligations.

Trump has waffled on many of his commitments since becoming president, but not “America first.” He withdrew from the Paris agreement on climate change and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to name two multinational accords that Trump decided harmed American interests, or at least those of his political supporters.

Trump’s critics, including me, have been arguing that this selfish stance is actually weakening America by shredding the network of global alliances and institutions on which U.S. power has rested. But let’s put aside this issue of self-inflicted wounds and focus instead on what happens when other leaders decide to emulate Trump’s disdain for traditional limits on the exercise of power.

Nobody wants to seem like a chump in Trump world. When the leader of the global system proclaims that he won’t be bound by foreign restraints, the spirit becomes infectious. Call the global zeitgeist what you will: The new realism. Eyes on the prize. Winning isn’t the most important thing, it’s the only thing.

Middle East leaders have been notably more aggressive in asserting their own versions of national interest. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates defied pleas from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to stop escalating their blockade against Qatar for allegedly supporting extremism. Their argument was simple self-interest: If Qatar wants to ally with the Gulf Arabs, then it must accept our rules. Otherwise, Qatar is out.

For the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan, the issue has been whether to wait on their dream of independence. They decided to go ahead with their referendum, despite worries among top U.S. officials that it could upset American efforts to hold Iraq together and thereby destabilize the region. The implicit Kurdish answer: That’s not our problem. We need to do what’s right for our people.

Trump has at least been consistent. His aides cite a benchmark speech he made April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, in which he offered an early systematic “America first” pitch. He argued that the country had been blundering around the world with half-baked, do-gooder schemes “since the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union.”

Trump explained: “It all began with a dangerous idea that we could make Western democracies out of countries that had no experience or interest in becoming a Western democracy. We tore up what institutions they had and then were surprised at what we unleashed.”

What’s interesting is that this same basic critique has been made, almost word for word, by Russian President Vladimir Putin. That’s not a conspiracy-minded argument that Trump is Putin’s man, but simply an observation that our president embraces the same raw cynicism about values-based foreign policy as does the leader of Russia. (It’s an interesting footnote, by the way, that in the audience that day as Trump gave his framework speech was Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.)

Who are the outliers in this me-first world? Perhaps the Europeans. Despite body blows to the European Union over the past few years, France and Germany, the two dominant players, retain the conviction that their destinies involve something larger than national self-interest. Fear and nationalism have shaken Europe but not overwhelmed it. An enlightened center is holding at Europe’s core.

China, too, manages to retain the image that it stands for something larger than itself, with its “one belt, one road” rhetoric of Chinese-led interdependence. The question, as Harvard University’s Graham Allison argues in his provocative new book, “Destined for War,” is whether the expanding Chinese hegemon will collide with the retreating American one.

The politics of selfishness may seem inevitable in Trump world. But by definition, it can’t produce a global system. That’s its fatal flaw.

We don't need more selfish people in charge.

June 28, 2017

11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

My house representative trolled the TT's fake Time magazine cover

That's beyond awesome! Would your rep consider moving to Texas?

June 28, 2017

15 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Ah @GreyhoundFan we are like FJ twins as I was just about to post this. Once again Orange Shit Stain's people sink lower than the earth's molten core.

And I will remain the worshipful acolyte of both of you as you fuel me daily with candy and sweet drinks! And tales of the apocalypse.

And @fraurosena, stop scaring the shit out of me! I have to live here!

June 28, 2017

24 minutes ago, Howl said:

That's beyond awesome! Would your rep consider moving to Texas?

No, you can't have him!!!

There have been lots of great memes from the faux Time cover. Some are beyond hilarious.

June 28, 2017

I see fornicate head is going to France for Bastille Day

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/donald-trump-france-visit-bastille-day-240042

Quote

President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to visit the nation on Bastille Day next month, the White House said Wednesday.

Uh....does fornicate head realize exactly what Bastille Day is about? It's about a triumph of regular people over people who were very much like him and his wealthy buddies. I wonder if he'll cancel his plans once the French people decide to protest his being there?

June 28, 2017

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

I see fornicate head is going to France for Bastille Day

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/donald-trump-france-visit-bastille-day-240042

Uh....does fornicate head realize exactly what Bastille Day is about? It's about a triumph of regular people over people who were very much like him and his wealthy buddies. I wonder if he'll cancel his plans once the French people decide to protest his being there?

Oh my! I wouldn't be surprised if Macron purposely invited him on Bastille Day with just this in mind. Epic trolling if so!

@GrumpyGran, I'm sorry if my posts scare you. Things are quite scary right now, aren't they. But wouldn't you rather know all these frightening things so you can do something about them?

Here's the latest Keith Olbermann for your enjoyment. He's taking on the MSM, and saying the very things I was thinking when I learned about the latest idiocy surrounding the WH press briefings - no cameras! no audio! I hope the MSM does what he suggests. No audience for their lies!

June 28, 2017

You know Donnie, if you use the word great so many times in one sentence, diminishes the meaning of the word.

Oh and SHS is full of shit. The Repugnantians have just been moving the time line, each time they don't meet it.

Trump promises ‘big surprise’ on stalled health-care bill

Quote

A day after Senate Republicans pulled plans to vote on their health-care bill this week, President Trump promised a surprise on the matter, though he did not specify what.

“Health care is working along very well. . . . We're going to have a big surprise,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “We have a great health-care package.”

Trump offered no details, only reiterating, “We're going to have a great, great surprise.”

The president met with Republican senators at the White House on Tuesday after the vote was called off. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is said to be preparing new revisions to the bill to be evaluated by the Congressional Budget Office as soon as Friday.

“I think it's really simple: Republicans have been talking about doing this for a number of years and they're committed to getting it done and this is part of the process,” said White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “This is one of the reasons that we've never been focused on a timeline or having to get it done on a certain day, by a certain holiday or anything else. It's about getting it right.”

Several Republicans have voiced opposition to both the timing and the substance of the bill. It is unclear how it might be changed to meet the differing demands of conservative and moderate wings of the Republican Party.

Party leaders have kept Senate Democrats at arms length, hoping to convince enough of Republicans to push the bill through with a 50-vote threshold.

Asked whether he might negotiate with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Trump criticized the New York Democrat as lacking seriousness.

“I don't think he's serious. He hasn't been serious,” Trump said. “Obamacare is such a disaster. And he wants to try and save something that's hurting a lot of people. It's hurting a lot of people.”

June 28, 2017

3 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

“This is one of the reasons that we've never been focused on a timeline or having to get it done on a certain day, by a certain holiday or anything else.

Hmmm. I distinctly remember the then candidate for presiduncy and then the presidunce-elect stating - quite emphatically, I may add - that he would repeal and replace Obamacare on DAY 1 in office...

So, SHS, you're a liar, liar...

June 28, 2017

"Trump is outsourcing White House media relations to his personal lawyer"

Spoiler

In the hours after the Supreme Court allowed partial implementation of President Trump's travel ban on Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not have much to say about the decision.

During an off-camera briefing with reporters in which live audio broadcasting was banned, Spicer said the president was “honored” by the ruling but declined to elaborate on how much authority Trump believed he had been granted by the court.

“The decision obviously just came down a few hours ago, so we'll probably have further guidance for you as it becomes available,” Spicer said. “In the meantime, I would suggest you reach out to the Department of Justice.”

Or just talk to Trump's private lawyer.

Before Spicer briefed reporters, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow appeared on live television to do exactly what the White House spokesman would not — deliver the president's understanding of the power vested in him by the Supreme Court.

Does the decision mean, asked Fox Business host Stuart Varney, “that we can keep some people out in the immediate future?”

“Yes,” Sekulow replied. “The 90-day pause, the 120-day pause, all of those stay in place.”

For weeks, the White House has referred questions related to investigations of Russian election meddling to Trump's personal attorneys. That practice is at least somewhat understandable because investigators probing for possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia are scrutinizing a time period when the president was a private citizen.

But the travel ban is unrelated to Russia. It is a White House policy enacted via executive orders. Naturally, journalists and voters expect statements about the ban to come from the White House.

What difference does it make?

Well, remember that Spicer is — as CNN's Jim Acosta noted during a testy exchange over the prohibition on filming Monday — “a taxpayer-funded spokesman for the United States government.” There are certain responsibilities that come with that status.

“I believe the press secretary needs to work for both the press and the president,” Mike McCurry, who held the post under Bill Clinton, said in a Q&A with the White House Historical Association. “I like to say the geography of the West Wing is a metaphor for the relationship — the press secretary's office is exactly half way between the Oval Office and the briefing room. The press office has to be an advocate for the press and the public's right to know inside the White House.”

By contrast, Trump's personal lawyers are loyal only to Trump. They have no obligation to represent the interests of the press or the public.

Thus it matters a great deal whether information comes from the White House press secretary, who owes a duty to voters, or from an attorney working for Trump, who does not. In recent weeks, Sekulow has become increasingly visible, while Spicer has receded into the background.

Okay, tell me again why we are paying Spicey and SHS?

June 28, 2017

"Trump’s pledge to keep the world from laughing at us hits another setback"

Spoiler

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was supposed to attend this week’s Economic Council of the Christian Democratic Union meeting in Berlin, but suddenly canceled his travel plans on Tuesday. Ross was scheduled to give an address at the conference immediately before German Chancellor Angela Merkel, so he instead gave his remarks by teleconference from Washington.

Ross was allotted 10 minutes to speak. After he spoke for more than 20, the conference organizers cut his feed mid-sentence. The audience “laughed and clapped” in response, according to Bloomberg News. Merkel then rose and, during her remarks, disagreed with one of Ross’s points.

The relationship between President Trump and Merkel has been strained since his inauguration. His repeated insistence that Germany owes money to NATO and his unusual reticence to embrace that alliance has been one point of friction. His disparagement of Germany as “very bad” in a closed-door meeting was another. That claim centered on what Trump (and Ross) viewed as a trade disparity between the two countries and was the point with which Merkel took issue.

In most other contexts, a laughing reaction from a small group of America’s economic and geopolitical allies would be odd but not particularly noteworthy. In the context of the Trump administration, though, it’s telling.

Trump’s campaign rhetoric repeatedly centered on the idea that America was being laughed at internationally. His evidence for this claim was lacking, but it was a point he raised repeatedly.

During his campaign launch, he said Mexico was “laughing … at our stupidity” on the border. In a speech before the Iowa caucuses, Trump claimed that the Islamic State was laughing at our leaders, a claim he repeated in a March debate. The whole world was laughing at us because of Barack Obama, he said in an interview in May of 2016 — and in speeches in June and October. As Election Day approached, he made the claim over and over.

When he announced that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord last month, Trump claimed that it was necessary because we’d gotten a bad deal — so bad that we were being laughed at.

“The Paris agreement handicaps the United States economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense. … The same nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and, in many cases, lax contributions to our critical military alliance,” he said. “At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens, and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won’t be. They won’t be.”

On Tuesday, The Post highlighted new survey data from the Pew Research Center showing that perceptions of America and our president have decreased substantially in most parts of the world following Trump’s election. That includes Germany — a country to which Trump was pointedly referring in his Paris remarks and where Trump’s commerce secretary was laughed at literally.

Views of the American people have held fairly constant over the years among Germans, Pew’s polling revealed. But views of our government and president slipped during the George W. Bush administration, rose under Obama — and then collapsed this year.

...

German confidence in the American president followed the same pattern. Last year, 86 percent of Germans had a lot of or at least some confidence in America’s president. This year, more than half have none at all.

...

It’s easy to read too much into the reaction Ross prompted this week. But as a symbol of the relationship between the two countries at the moment, it’s hard not to — particularly given how often other countries’ laughter was raised by Trump as something we should be concerned about.

Yeah, so we're a laughingstock.

June 29, 2017

Guys, he had the Cubs BACK to the whitehouse to celebrate the world series. Like for someone who hated President Obama, he sure wants to basically be like him!

http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/trump-welcomes-cubs-to-oval-office/

June 29, 2017

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Trump’s pledge to keep the world from laughing at us hits another setback"

Hide contents

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was supposed to attend this week’s Economic Council of the Christian Democratic Union meeting in Berlin, but suddenly canceled his travel plans on Tuesday. Ross was scheduled to give an address at the conference immediately before German Chancellor Angela Merkel, so he instead gave his remarks by teleconference from Washington.

Ross was allotted 10 minutes to speak. After he spoke for more than 20, the conference organizers cut his feed mid-sentence. The audience “laughed and clapped” in response, according to Bloomberg News. Merkel then rose and, during her remarks, disagreed with one of Ross’s points.

The relationship between President Trump and Merkel has been strained since his inauguration. His repeated insistence that Germany owes money to NATO and his unusual reticence to embrace that alliance has been one point of friction. His disparagement of Germany as “very bad” in a closed-door meeting was another. That claim centered on what Trump (and Ross) viewed as a trade disparity between the two countries and was the point with which Merkel took issue.

In most other contexts, a laughing reaction from a small group of America’s economic and geopolitical allies would be odd but not particularly noteworthy. In the context of the Trump administration, though, it’s telling.

Trump’s campaign rhetoric repeatedly centered on the idea that America was being laughed at internationally. His evidence for this claim was lacking, but it was a point he raised repeatedly.

During his campaign launch, he said Mexico was “laughing … at our stupidity” on the border. In a speech before the Iowa caucuses, Trump claimed that the Islamic State was laughing at our leaders, a claim he repeated in a March debate. The whole world was laughing at us because of Barack Obama, he said in an interview in May of 2016 — and in speeches in June and October. As Election Day approached, he made the claim over and over.

When he announced that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord last month, Trump claimed that it was necessary because we’d gotten a bad deal — so bad that we were being laughed at.

“The Paris agreement handicaps the United States economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense. … The same nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and, in many cases, lax contributions to our critical military alliance,” he said. “At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens, and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore. And they won’t be. They won’t be.”

On Tuesday, The Post highlighted new survey data from the Pew Research Center showing that perceptions of America and our president have decreased substantially in most parts of the world following Trump’s election. That includes Germany — a country to which Trump was pointedly referring in his Paris remarks and where Trump’s commerce secretary was laughed at literally.

Views of the American people have held fairly constant over the years among Germans, Pew’s polling revealed. But views of our government and president slipped during the George W. Bush administration, rose under Obama — and then collapsed this year.

...

German confidence in the American president followed the same pattern. Last year, 86 percent of Germans had a lot of or at least some confidence in America’s president. This year, more than half have none at all.

...

It’s easy to read too much into the reaction Ross prompted this week. But as a symbol of the relationship between the two countries at the moment, it’s hard not to — particularly given how often other countries’ laughter was raised by Trump as something we should be concerned about.

Yeah, so we're a laughingstock.

Oh dear! Germans laughing at you? That's worse than you think. I mean, the stereotypical German has the reputation (at least here in Europe) of being very serieus and hardly ever spontaneously laughing.

The Germans laughing at Ross is really

June 29, 2017

@fraurosena, thank you for posting this Elizabeth Butler quote. I think I realized for the first time that our president is a coward, a fool, a thief, a liar AND a tyrant. It really is a breathtaking suite of malfeasance.

14 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Oh my! I wouldn't be surprised if Macron purposely invited him on Bastille Day with just this in mind. Epic trolling if so!

Oh, yes. I think Macron could effortlessly humiliate Trump, with Trump having zero insight into what was happening.

June 29, 2017

18 minutes ago, Howl said:

@fraurosena, thank you for posting this Elizabeth Butler quote. I think I realized for the first time that our president is a coward, a fool, a thief, a liar AND a tyrant. It really is a breathtaking suite of malfeasance.

Oh, yes. I think Macron could effortlessly humiliate Trump, with Trump having zero insight into what was happening.

If a world leader made it a point to invite me to his country on one of their largest national holidays, you bet your ass I'd be doing research on said holiday and trying to determine why I was invited on that specific day. I don't see Trump or his sorry excuse of a staff being savvy enough to figure out something is afoot though.

June 29, 2017

On 6/27/2017 at 7:38 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

Here ya go! I hope we get to see Wallace's "cover". I'm sure it will be 1,000,000,000,000,000 times nicer than the faux TT cover.

Thank you! I'm in the process of putting my cat on a Time cover. Going to have lots of fun with this site.

June 29, 2017

Schiff: If Trump doesn't act on Russia, could be dereliction of duty

Quote

Earlier Wednesday, former US ambassador to NATO and George W. Bush administration official Nicholas Burns had accused Trump of "dereliction of the basic duty to defend the country" for what he said was Trump's apparent disinterest in Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

CNN's Jake Tapper read the statement to Schiff, then said: "That seems rather strong. What do you think?"

"I would completely agree with that," the California Democrat said on "The Lead" Wednesday. "The national security needs of the country have to come first, they certainly have to come as a higher priority than whatever effect this would have on how he views the legitimacy or the size of his election victory."

Serious question:
Does "dereliction of duty" by a sitting president have any political consequences? Or is this just a pumped up fluff piece using compelling phraseology?

June 29, 2017

19 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Schiff: If Trump doesn't act on Russia, could be dereliction of duty

Serious question:
Does "dereliction of duty" by a sitting president have any political consequences? Or is this just a pumped up fluff piece using compelling phraseology?

I don't know the answer to that question.

But I will believe that something is being done about this idiocy once I see it, unfortunately.

June 29, 2017

1 hour ago, Childless said:

If a world leader made it a point to invite me to his country on one of their largest national holidays, you bet your ass I'd be doing research on said holiday and trying to determine why I was invited on that specific day.

Yeah, won't happen. Remember that the TT doesn't do research or listen to research done by others; he's "smarter" than everyone else and just knows everything he needs to know. <insert rolling eyes emoji here>

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Does "dereliction of duty" by a sitting president have any political consequences? Or is this just a pumped up fluff piece using compelling phraseology?

Well, in a normal presidency, it likely would have political consequences. However, in this shit show, probably not. Remember, it would require the Repug "leadership" to actually act on behalf of the country, not their own self-interest.

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