Trump 30: Donald Trump and the Deathly Comb-Over

[47of74]

I just saw this about Fornicate Face's lawyer whining about not being reimbursed...

Quote

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen complained to friends he had not been reimbursed for a six-figure payment to a porn star alleged to have had an affair with Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Cohen previously said in a statement that he had facilitated a payment to Stephanie Clifford, better known as the porn star Stormy Daniels, but has denied that Trump and Clifford had an affair in 2006, as The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Cohen confirmed in a statement following Common Cause's complaint that he used his "personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford," and that he did so without the Trump Organization or campaign as a party to the transaction. He said in the statement that neither entity reimbursed him for the payment.

The statement did not say if Trump personally reimbursed him for the payment, and The Wall Street Journal's story on Monday cited people familiar with the matter who said Cohen complained after the election that he had not been reimbursed.

Hey Cohen....fornicate you.  

[AmazonGrace]

Well Trump stiffs everyone else, why wouldn't he stiff his lawyer.

[GreyhoundFan]

(I tried to find a vomiting emoji, but this will have to suffice) "Another Mar-a-Lago perk for the president: Trump superfans who wait to wave as he passes by"

Spoiler

PALM BEACH, Fla. — They call themselves the Bridge Family.

When President Trump visits Palm Beach, this loyal coterie of superfans tries to be there to greet him each time he travels to or from his Mar-a-Lago Club. They’re connected by a fanaticism for the president — and by their willingness to show up whenever they hear that his motorcade will cross the Southern Boulevard Bridge.

“I thought I was going to faint,” said Portia Dumond, a first-timer almost in tears Saturday afternoon after Trump’s car slowed down and he smiled through his window as he headed to Palm Beach International Airport.

“I thought she was too,” said Mary Jude Smith, a veteran Bridge Family member who held up her friend when she nearly collapsed. “I can’t believe how close he got this time.”

On the other side of the street, about a dozen protesters waved signs reading “Corruption” and “Impeach.” But on the side the president could see, it was all fans — about 60 of them, including Smith and Dumond. They waved to Trump as he left Mar-a-Lago after a trip of less than 24 hours to his so-called “winter White House,” during which he spoke to about 200 Republican National Committee donors at Mar-a-Lago and visited the golf course.

Smith brought a poster from a Trump rally nearly two years ago. It’s weatherworn — she, like others in the group, will stand in the rain to greet the president, if that’s what it takes — and bound with clear packing tape where it’s about to fall apart.

“It’s very precious to me,” Smith said.

Bridge Family member Paula Magnuson can relate. She once plucked an empty plastic water bottle from the causeway to recycle it but stopped just in time.

“It was Trump water,” said Magnuson. “That bottle has his name on it. I rinsed it out and put it in my cabinet. I’m not going to throw something like that away.”

Trump himself has referred to supporters like Magnuson as “bridge people,” according to Vanity Fair.

“ ‘Bridge people’ didn’t sound so good to me at first,” said Christy Moore, who was there Saturday with an “I heart Trump” sign. “But when I heard that President Trump was the one who said it, I was like, yes, okay, that’s fine with me, we’re his bridge people.”

Moore sees it as a patriotic duty to show her support of the president. “He loves America as much as we do,” she said.

“We text each other, we have a group text, so we keep each other informed about when to meet here,” said Gene Huber, a Bridge Family member. “We’re not going to miss a chance to show our president that we support him.”

They also coordinate which side of the road to be on, so they’re always facing the passenger side of the motorcade — the Trump side. On Friday, as the long line of black SUVs and sheriff’s office trucks and Secret Service cars and other vehicles whizzed by, carrying the president from Air Force One to his Palm Beach club, the Bridge Family stood on the southeast corner, wearing Trump T-shirts and waving American flags.

“He gave us two thumbs up today. Did you see?” Huber asked. “He puts his face up to the window and smiles.”

On a few occasions, Trump has gone beyond the smiles and thumbs up. He’s been known to stop the motorcade and jump out of his armored SUV to greet fans on the bridge. And last year, in March and December, he ordered his staff to bring some of the Bridge Family to Mar-a-Lago.

During his Christmas trip, he twice sent a van for his supporters at the bridge. After getting swept by the Secret Service, the stunned bridge fans posed for photos poolside with Trump — who was still in his golf course garb — and got a short lesson on the estate’s history from the president. They were served snacks including meatballs and chocolate chip cookies — and given Trump-labeled plastic water bottles as well.

“It was cool,” said engineer Donald Tarca Jr., who said he believes Trump’s dealmaking will improve the economy. “We talked about NAFTA.”

Seven “bridge people” were brought to Mar-a-Lago on March 19. This time, they chatted not only with Trump, but also his then-strategist Stephen K. Bannon. They talked for 20 minutes, Ronald Zuniga told the Palm Beach Daily News, including a discussion about the president’s meeting two days earlier with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Bridge Family lives for moments like those. Magnuson likes to bring her three rescued Shih Tzu dogs in their stroller to the bridge gatherings, but twice they’ve kept her from meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

“They told me no dogs allowed,” a rueful Magnuson said.

Sometimes, the president catches the Bridge Family off guard. On Saturday morning, they didn’t realize he’d be heading out to his golf course and missed the trip. But one fan was there when the motorcade returned. Corey Inganamort, 31, wearing a white Make America Great Again cap with a Trump banner draped over his shoulders, was still grinning in disbelief five minutes after Trump had passed.

“That was awesome. He smiled at me and gave me two thumbs up,” Inganamort said. He’d read on Twitter that Trump might be heading out to the links.

Inganamort is from Arlington, Va., and was visiting family in Palm Beach County.

“I read about the bridge people and how he had invited them back to Mar-a-Lago,” Inganamort said. “At first I thought they might be a little territorial, but they were really welcoming. They’re just like a big family.”

He said he might try to start a similar tradition in Virginia, for when Trump goes to his golf course in Sterling, but he’s not sure if he can find as supportive of a group.

“It’s my dream to meet the president,” Inganamort said. “It seems like it might be easier down here. It’s more personal. You wear a Trump hat up there, and you get all kinds of evil stares.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[Howl]

10 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Oooooh, epic smack down! 

[GreyhoundFan]

A great piece by Eugene Robinson: "The Trump presidency could cost the nation more than we realize"

Spoiler

As the saying goes, you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry: This deeply aberrant presidency threatens to cost the nation much more than even some of President Trump’s harshest critics may realize.

From 1988 to 1992, I was The Post’s correspondent in Buenos Aires, covering all of South America. It was a time when countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Chile — emerging from years of authoritarian rule — were struggling to reestablish democratic norms, and I learned one important lesson: It’s easy to lose the habits and values of democracy, but incredibly hard to get them back.

Perhaps most difficult is to recover lost faith in the rule of law. That is why Trump’s very public desire to use the legal system as a weapon against his political opponents is so damaging. “Lock her up” is more than a call to imprison Hillary Clinton. It is, potentially, a tragic epitaph for the consensus view of our legal system as a disinterested finder of fact and dispenser of justice.

In the countries I covered, military rulers had imprisoned, exiled and assassinated their internal foes. It was understandable that democratically elected governments would struggle — sometimes successfully, sometimes not — to find ways to hold the murderous generals and admirals accountable. Decades later, however, the pattern persists.

Democratically elected presidents such as Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil have been hit with serious criminal charges since leaving office. Alberto Fujimori of Peru was extradited from Chile, tried and imprisoned for years before the current president pardoned him on humanitarian grounds. In the United States, we do not seek to jail our out-of-power leaders. Trump, with his repeated calls for the Justice Department to go after Clinton, is determined to establish the custom.

Those former leaders were charged not just with political offenses but also with corruption — another bad habit that Trump is trying to instill.

In most of the South American countries I covered, transparency was a joke. Public officials were assumed to be in the pocket of some special interest — rewarded not just with campaign donations but also with secret offshore bank accounts and the occasional suitcase full of cash. I reported on a coup in Paraguay that was led by a general — a lifelong public servant — who, even before seizing the presidency, had built himself a mansion that looked like the Petit Trianon palace at Versailles.

Trump and his family have refused to divest themselves of their businesses or even draw more than a flimsy veil between their official actions and the impact those actions have on their personal finances. Does the administration’s policy toward Panama really have nothing to do with a bitter dispute over the Trump-branded hotel in Panama City? Does the administration’s tough new attitude toward Qatar really have nothing to do with that nation’s refusal to invest in Jared Kushner’s debt-laden real estate company?

It’s not the potential answers to those questions that are so corrosive; it’s the questions themselves. As in many countries whose governance we scoff at, Americans must now wonder whether policy is being tailored for our leaders’ personal gain.

When the rule of law and financial probity can no longer be assumed, the vacuum is filled with conspiracy theories. The president himself is a conspiratorialist par excellence; he was, after all, the chief purveyor of the birther nonsense. Since neither his words nor those of his press office can be believed, it is natural — but incredibly damaging — to assume that the real story is being hidden from us, for reasons that must be nefarious.

During my years in Buenos Aires, every once in a while some renegade military officer would make a pathetic attempt to stage a new coup; once, when I called home at the end of a long reporting trip, my wife matter-of-factly advised that from the airport I take the long way to our house because a would-be generalissimo was blocking the shortcut with a bunch of tanks, making traffic simply a mess.

I came to cherish the long American tradition of civilian control of the military. Now we are forced to rely on three current or retired generals — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster — to keep an ignorant and impetuous president from triggering Armageddon.

Despite his recent joke about making himself president for life, Trump won’t be around forever. But the damage he is doing will remain — and it may take years of hard work to repair.

 

[fraurosena]

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A great piece by Eugene Robinson: "The Trump presidency could cost the nation more than we realize"

  Hide contents

As the saying goes, you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry: This deeply aberrant presidency threatens to cost the nation much more than even some of President Trump’s harshest critics may realize.

From 1988 to 1992, I was The Post’s correspondent in Buenos Aires, covering all of South America. It was a time when countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Chile — emerging from years of authoritarian rule — were struggling to reestablish democratic norms, and I learned one important lesson: It’s easy to lose the habits and values of democracy, but incredibly hard to get them back.

Perhaps most difficult is to recover lost faith in the rule of law. That is why Trump’s very public desire to use the legal system as a weapon against his political opponents is so damaging. “Lock her up” is more than a call to imprison Hillary Clinton. It is, potentially, a tragic epitaph for the consensus view of our legal system as a disinterested finder of fact and dispenser of justice.

In the countries I covered, military rulers had imprisoned, exiled and assassinated their internal foes. It was understandable that democratically elected governments would struggle — sometimes successfully, sometimes not — to find ways to hold the murderous generals and admirals accountable. Decades later, however, the pattern persists.

Democratically elected presidents such as Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil have been hit with serious criminal charges since leaving office. Alberto Fujimori of Peru was extradited from Chile, tried and imprisoned for years before the current president pardoned him on humanitarian grounds. In the United States, we do not seek to jail our out-of-power leaders. Trump, with his repeated calls for the Justice Department to go after Clinton, is determined to establish the custom.

Those former leaders were charged not just with political offenses but also with corruption — another bad habit that Trump is trying to instill.

In most of the South American countries I covered, transparency was a joke. Public officials were assumed to be in the pocket of some special interest — rewarded not just with campaign donations but also with secret offshore bank accounts and the occasional suitcase full of cash. I reported on a coup in Paraguay that was led by a general — a lifelong public servant — who, even before seizing the presidency, had built himself a mansion that looked like the Petit Trianon palace at Versailles.

Trump and his family have refused to divest themselves of their businesses or even draw more than a flimsy veil between their official actions and the impact those actions have on their personal finances. Does the administration’s policy toward Panama really have nothing to do with a bitter dispute over the Trump-branded hotel in Panama City? Does the administration’s tough new attitude toward Qatar really have nothing to do with that nation’s refusal to invest in Jared Kushner’s debt-laden real estate company?

It’s not the potential answers to those questions that are so corrosive; it’s the questions themselves. As in many countries whose governance we scoff at, Americans must now wonder whether policy is being tailored for our leaders’ personal gain.

When the rule of law and financial probity can no longer be assumed, the vacuum is filled with conspiracy theories. The president himself is a conspiratorialist par excellence; he was, after all, the chief purveyor of the birther nonsense. Since neither his words nor those of his press office can be believed, it is natural — but incredibly damaging — to assume that the real story is being hidden from us, for reasons that must be nefarious.

During my years in Buenos Aires, every once in a while some renegade military officer would make a pathetic attempt to stage a new coup; once, when I called home at the end of a long reporting trip, my wife matter-of-factly advised that from the airport I take the long way to our house because a would-be generalissimo was blocking the shortcut with a bunch of tanks, making traffic simply a mess.

I came to cherish the long American tradition of civilian control of the military. Now we are forced to rely on three current or retired generals — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster — to keep an ignorant and impetuous president from triggering Armageddon.

Despite his recent joke about making himself president for life, Trump won’t be around forever. But the damage he is doing will remain — and it may take years of hard work to repair.

 

Although it's not entirely true, I believe that people in America are laying the blame for the current destruction of democracy in the US solely at the feet of the Republican party. It's almost inevitable that a blue tsunami will wipe out the Repugs in November. When the Democrats regain the majority on the Hill, the restoration process of democratic values will be initiated immediately (starting with impeachment procedures against everyone in this administration, validated and backed by the results from the Mueller investigation).

The damage is great, yes, but it hasn't completely obliterated democracy as of yet, and it isn't irreparable by any means. The loss of trust is another question altogether, but could be countermanded in large part by a surge of hopefulness if the Dems get their shit together and pick up the reigns of the runaway horse and lead the cart back to its safe stables once again.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

You couldn't make this shit up: "‘Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway’ meets ‘Stormy Daniels rampway’"

Spoiler

Some Republican lawmakers in Utah are so pleased with President Trump’s decision to shrink two Utah national monuments that they want to honor him with his own road, the “Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway.”

The proposal would put the Trump brand on the existing Utah National Parks Highway, some 631 miles of scenic roads through southern Utah’s stunningly beautiful canyons, a stretch that includes Zion National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Canyonlands National Park. It was authored by Republican Rep. Mike Noel and passed out of the House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Standing Committee on a party-line vote Monday.

Republicans praised Trump for shrinking the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in December, opening them up for oil, gas and coal mining potential. Noel said Trump wasn’t getting enough credit for his efforts. Passing this proposal, he said, was a chance to give it to him.

“I think he’s done a tremendous amount [since taking office], and I think with seven more years we can turn this country around,” Noel said during the hearing. “I think it’s a small price to pay to name a highway after him when he does in fact protect public lands.”

Democratic State Sen. Jim Dabakis responded with his own renaming proposal: If the House passes the bill, then Dabakis threatened to attach an amendment in the Senate that would rename the frontage road that runs along the would-be Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway.

He will seek to call it the “Stormy Daniels rampway,” named for the former porn star to whom Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her relationship with then-candidate Trump.

It’s unclear whether the highway renaming bill will be enacted.

The Stormy Daniels rampway amendment has no chance, for many reasons, among them the fact that Democrats are outgunned in the Senate five to 24.

“Guests to our state will not want to drive on a highway with this name,” Democratic Rep. Patrice Arent told the Salt Lake Tribune. “Frankly, some of them could be offended.”

Trump’s executive orders that reduced the monuments, while backed by mining interests and most of Utah’s senior Republicans, drew intense backlash and protest from environmental groups and Native American tribes, who collectively filed five lawsuits against the Trump administration to block them.

Trump stripped roughly 1.1 million acres from Bears Ears, reducing its protected area by 85 percent. He reduced 800,000 acres from the Grand Staircase-Escalante’s, cutting it by 46 percent. As The Washington Post reported, no president has sought to modify national monuments established under the Antiquities Act in more than half a century.

Conservatives, including Noel, have praised Trump’s decision for eliminating various restrictions that come with lands designated national monuments. Noel said that just because Trump shrank the monuments doesn’t mean he removed protections.

“You get people who stand up and say that he took away protections of these lands. It’s absolutely false,” Noel said of Trump’s orders during the committee hearing on the bill. “And the letters you’ve been getting saying, ‘he’s the worst president in history; he has decimated the public land — why would you recognize him?’ We should recognize him, because that’s an absolute lie. And if we don’t stand up for the things that are right, who will do that?”

Democratic Rep. Joel K. Briscoe said during the committee hearing Monday that, of the 300 emails he received regarding the bill to honor Trump, only one was in support. Some of the complaints were from people who own property along the current Utah National Parks Highway, he said. Others offered suggestions for different notable people to honor: John Wesley Powell, known for his 19th-century expeditions along the Green and Colorado Rivers; Aldo Leopold, a renowned American ecologist; and Ernest Yazhe, a Navajo code talker.

“Normally we reserve these honors for people have served a full term, sometimes posthumously,” Briscoe said.

Democrats also highlighted the estimated cost to install all new signs emblazoned with Trump’s name: $124,000.

 

[fraurosena]

Good grief. 

Trump just confused North and South Korea in humiliating phone call blunder

Quote

President Trump may need to check with his doctor again to see if he is showing early signs of dementia, based on his confusion about one of the most sensitive issues in the world today – the threat of nuclear war.

On Saturday, Trump said he got a phone call from North Korea and that it sought talks with the U.S., according to a report in the Washington Post [link]. 

Trump said at the time he “won’t rule out direct talks with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un.”

“Now we’re talking,” Trump said with enthusiasm. “They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago. They said, ‘we would like to talk.’ And I said, ‘so would we, but you have to denuke.'”

Such a communication would be a major breakthrough, especially as it comes only a short time after North Korea backed out of a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence when he was in South Korea for the Winter Olympics.

And it was only last month that North Korea again insisted it will never give up its nuclear weapons.

On Sunday night at the annual Gridiron Dinner, Trump repeated his big news as part of the lighthearted banter, per a tradition at the dinner where the president and the press dress up and insult each other.

“I would not rule out direct talks Kim Jong Un,” said Trump again. “I just won’t. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine. He must be a fine man.”

Trump then declared with all seriousness that he “saved the Olympics” by taking such a hard line with North Korea.

He said. “That’s true, whether people want to hear it. And they had a very successful Olympics. That was heading for disaster.”

However, it turns out it is premature to get Trump fitted a golden lasso off of which to hang his Nobel Peace Prize. A booby prize might be more in order.

Yonhap News, a South Korean news agency, reports today that the call Trump was referring to was not from North Korea; but rather was from South Korea. 

A White House official on the National Security Council told Yonhap that on March 1st that the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, called the White House to brief Trump on recent developments with North Korea.

Both leaders reported the South Korean news agency, “noted their firm position that any dialogue with North Korea must be conducted with the explicit and unwavering goal of complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.”

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[47of74]

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

(I tried to find a vomiting emoji, but this will have to suffice) "Another Mar-a-Lago perk for the president: Trump superfans who wait to wave as he passes by"

  Hide contents

PALM BEACH, Fla. — They call themselves the Bridge Family.

When President Trump visits Palm Beach, this loyal coterie of superfans tries to be there to greet him each time he travels to or from his Mar-a-Lago Club. They’re connected by a fanaticism for the president — and by their willingness to show up whenever they hear that his motorcade will cross the Southern Boulevard Bridge.

“I thought I was going to faint,” said Portia Dumond, a first-timer almost in tears Saturday afternoon after Trump’s car slowed down and he smiled through his window as he headed to Palm Beach International Airport.

“I thought she was too,” said Mary Jude Smith, a veteran Bridge Family member who held up her friend when she nearly collapsed. “I can’t believe how close he got this time.”

On the other side of the street, about a dozen protesters waved signs reading “Corruption” and “Impeach.” But on the side the president could see, it was all fans — about 60 of them, including Smith and Dumond. They waved to Trump as he left Mar-a-Lago after a trip of less than 24 hours to his so-called “winter White House,” during which he spoke to about 200 Republican National Committee donors at Mar-a-Lago and visited the golf course.

Smith brought a poster from a Trump rally nearly two years ago. It’s weatherworn — she, like others in the group, will stand in the rain to greet the president, if that’s what it takes — and bound with clear packing tape where it’s about to fall apart.

“It’s very precious to me,” Smith said.

Bridge Family member Paula Magnuson can relate. She once plucked an empty plastic water bottle from the causeway to recycle it but stopped just in time.

“It was Trump water,” said Magnuson. “That bottle has his name on it. I rinsed it out and put it in my cabinet. I’m not going to throw something like that away.”

Trump himself has referred to supporters like Magnuson as “bridge people,” according to Vanity Fair.

“ ‘Bridge people’ didn’t sound so good to me at first,” said Christy Moore, who was there Saturday with an “I heart Trump” sign. “But when I heard that President Trump was the one who said it, I was like, yes, okay, that’s fine with me, we’re his bridge people.”

Moore sees it as a patriotic duty to show her support of the president. “He loves America as much as we do,” she said.

“We text each other, we have a group text, so we keep each other informed about when to meet here,” said Gene Huber, a Bridge Family member. “We’re not going to miss a chance to show our president that we support him.”

They also coordinate which side of the road to be on, so they’re always facing the passenger side of the motorcade — the Trump side. On Friday, as the long line of black SUVs and sheriff’s office trucks and Secret Service cars and other vehicles whizzed by, carrying the president from Air Force One to his Palm Beach club, the Bridge Family stood on the southeast corner, wearing Trump T-shirts and waving American flags.

“He gave us two thumbs up today. Did you see?” Huber asked. “He puts his face up to the window and smiles.”

On a few occasions, Trump has gone beyond the smiles and thumbs up. He’s been known to stop the motorcade and jump out of his armored SUV to greet fans on the bridge. And last year, in March and December, he ordered his staff to bring some of the Bridge Family to Mar-a-Lago.

During his Christmas trip, he twice sent a van for his supporters at the bridge. After getting swept by the Secret Service, the stunned bridge fans posed for photos poolside with Trump — who was still in his golf course garb — and got a short lesson on the estate’s history from the president. They were served snacks including meatballs and chocolate chip cookies — and given Trump-labeled plastic water bottles as well.

“It was cool,” said engineer Donald Tarca Jr., who said he believes Trump’s dealmaking will improve the economy. “We talked about NAFTA.”

Seven “bridge people” were brought to Mar-a-Lago on March 19. This time, they chatted not only with Trump, but also his then-strategist Stephen K. Bannon. They talked for 20 minutes, Ronald Zuniga told the Palm Beach Daily News, including a discussion about the president’s meeting two days earlier with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Bridge Family lives for moments like those. Magnuson likes to bring her three rescued Shih Tzu dogs in their stroller to the bridge gatherings, but twice they’ve kept her from meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

“They told me no dogs allowed,” a rueful Magnuson said.

Sometimes, the president catches the Bridge Family off guard. On Saturday morning, they didn’t realize he’d be heading out to his golf course and missed the trip. But one fan was there when the motorcade returned. Corey Inganamort, 31, wearing a white Make America Great Again cap with a Trump banner draped over his shoulders, was still grinning in disbelief five minutes after Trump had passed.

“That was awesome. He smiled at me and gave me two thumbs up,” Inganamort said. He’d read on Twitter that Trump might be heading out to the links.

Inganamort is from Arlington, Va., and was visiting family in Palm Beach County.

“I read about the bridge people and how he had invited them back to Mar-a-Lago,” Inganamort said. “At first I thought they might be a little territorial, but they were really welcoming. They’re just like a big family.”

He said he might try to start a similar tradition in Virginia, for when Trump goes to his golf course in Sterling, but he’s not sure if he can find as supportive of a group.

“It’s my dream to meet the president,” Inganamort said. “It seems like it might be easier down here. It’s more personal. You wear a Trump hat up there, and you get all kinds of evil stares.”

 

I'd wave too if he went past.  Difference between me and these branch trumpvidians is the number of fingers I would have up when I raised.  

[fraurosena]

Did you hear that Muttley-esque sniggering just now? Yeah, that was me...

Donald Trump loses $500m, crashes in Forbes billionaires list

Quote

DONALD Trump’s wealth has taken a heavy blow, with $500 million wiped off the President’s fortune this year. The 71-year-old crashed from 544th richest on the Forbes billionaire list to 766th, leaving him with just $4 billion in assets.

It’s a far cry from Jeff Bezos’s $160 billion fortune. The Amazon boss is now the richest person on the planet, sailing past Bill Gates, who lost the top ranking for only the sixth time since 1995.

The bad news for Mr Trump comes on top of the businessman losing $762 million from his net worth in Forbes’ 2017 rankings. At the time, this was put down primarily to a drop in real estate as well as a court case and declining numbers of visitors at some of his golf resorts.

The magazine this year attributed his plunge to a fall in the value of luxury real estate around midtown Manhattan, where the core of his wealth is tied up in half-a-dozen buildings.

Trump Tower fell in value by an estimated $52 million last year as the rise of e-commerce ate into the worth of properties in previously lucrative shopping areas.

And another of his vast properties at 6 East 57th Street is facing the gloomy prospect of long-term tenant Nike moving out in the next few months.

The former reality star started out working for his real estate mogul father, Fred, before becoming the first billionaire president in history in January 2017. His two eldest sons, Donald Jr and Eric, are running his business while he is in office.

But there have long been questions over whether Mr Trump is as rich and successful as he claims to be.

In 2015, the then Republican presidential candidate unveiled documents setting his personal fortune at more than $13.5bn, with an annual income of more than $491m.

The businessman filed a financial disclosure with federal regulators but did not release the form publicly, and there was little information available on how he had calculated the figure.

Mr Trump, for example, valued his personal brand and marketing deals at $4.4bn when he announced his candidacy, while Forbes valued his brand at just $169m.

His campaign team said the federal forms are “not designed for a man of Mr Trump’s massive wealth.”

Among his sources of income were $290m in payments from NBC related to his TV show, The Apprentice.

The $13.5bn figure he cited was up nearly 15 per cent on the previous year, apparently making him the wealthiest person to run for president.

The sum surpassed previous rich candidates including business magnate Ross Perot, heir Steve Forbes and private-equity investor Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee.

“I have a Gucci store worth more than Romney,” Mr Trump told the Des Moines Register, referring to the fashion company’s flagship store in New York’s Trump Tower.

It's not the only time he has boasted about his finances. In March 2011, Mr Trump told ABC’s Good Morning America: “Part of the beauty of me is that I am very rich.”

That same month, he announced on Fox and Friends: “I dealt with [former Libyan leader Muammar] Qaddafi. I rented him a piece of land. He paid me more for one night than the land was worth for two years, and then I didn’t let him use the land. That’s what we should be doing. I don’t want to use the word ‘screwed’, but I screwed him. That’s what we should be doing.”

The President does not appreciate suggestions he may not be as ludicrously wealthy as he claims. In 2009, he sued author Timothy O’Brien for defamation after O’Brien wrote that Mr Trump’s net worth might be as low as $203m. The business mogul lost the lawsuit and an appeal.

The appeals panel noted that Mr Trump has confessed that his public disclosures of his wealth depended partly on his mood.

“Even my own feelings affect my value to myself,” he said.

 

[smittykins]

 

[GrumpyGran]

5 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You couldn't make this shit up: "‘Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway’ meets ‘Stormy Daniels rampway’"

  Reveal hidden contents

Some Republican lawmakers in Utah are so pleased with President Trump’s decision to shrink two Utah national monuments that they want to honor him with his own road, the “Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway.”

The proposal would put the Trump brand on the existing Utah National Parks Highway, some 631 miles of scenic roads through southern Utah’s stunningly beautiful canyons, a stretch that includes Zion National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Canyonlands National Park. It was authored by Republican Rep. Mike Noel and passed out of the House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Standing Committee on a party-line vote Monday.

Republicans praised Trump for shrinking the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in December, opening them up for oil, gas and coal mining potential. Noel said Trump wasn’t getting enough credit for his efforts. Passing this proposal, he said, was a chance to give it to him.

“I think he’s done a tremendous amount [since taking office], and I think with seven more years we can turn this country around,” Noel said during the hearing. “I think it’s a small price to pay to name a highway after him when he does in fact protect public lands.”

Democratic State Sen. Jim Dabakis responded with his own renaming proposal: If the House passes the bill, then Dabakis threatened to attach an amendment in the Senate that would rename the frontage road that runs along the would-be Donald J. Trump Utah National Parks Highway.

He will seek to call it the “Stormy Daniels rampway,” named for the former porn star to whom Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, reportedly paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her relationship with then-candidate Trump.

It’s unclear whether the highway renaming bill will be enacted.

The Stormy Daniels rampway amendment has no chance, for many reasons, among them the fact that Democrats are outgunned in the Senate five to 24.

“Guests to our state will not want to drive on a highway with this name,” Democratic Rep. Patrice Arent told the Salt Lake Tribune. “Frankly, some of them could be offended.”

Trump’s executive orders that reduced the monuments, while backed by mining interests and most of Utah’s senior Republicans, drew intense backlash and protest from environmental groups and Native American tribes, who collectively filed five lawsuits against the Trump administration to block them.

Trump stripped roughly 1.1 million acres from Bears Ears, reducing its protected area by 85 percent. He reduced 800,000 acres from the Grand Staircase-Escalante’s, cutting it by 46 percent. As The Washington Post reported, no president has sought to modify national monuments established under the Antiquities Act in more than half a century.

Conservatives, including Noel, have praised Trump’s decision for eliminating various restrictions that come with lands designated national monuments. Noel said that just because Trump shrank the monuments doesn’t mean he removed protections.

“You get people who stand up and say that he took away protections of these lands. It’s absolutely false,” Noel said of Trump’s orders during the committee hearing on the bill. “And the letters you’ve been getting saying, ‘he’s the worst president in history; he has decimated the public land — why would you recognize him?’ We should recognize him, because that’s an absolute lie. And if we don’t stand up for the things that are right, who will do that?”

Democratic Rep. Joel K. Briscoe said during the committee hearing Monday that, of the 300 emails he received regarding the bill to honor Trump, only one was in support. Some of the complaints were from people who own property along the current Utah National Parks Highway, he said. Others offered suggestions for different notable people to honor: John Wesley Powell, known for his 19th-century expeditions along the Green and Colorado Rivers; Aldo Leopold, a renowned American ecologist; and Ernest Yazhe, a Navajo code talker.

“Normally we reserve these honors for people have served a full term, sometimes posthumously,” Briscoe said.

Democrats also highlighted the estimated cost to install all new signs emblazoned with Trump’s name: $124,000.

 

I was actually contemplating a tour of that area in southern Utah. Not now. Nope, not coming, Utah.

[LeftCoastLurker]

Fuck the orange one! Elephant trophies are again okey dokey!

Spoiler

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has quietly begun allowing more trophy hunting of African elephants, despite President Donald Trump’s pledge last year to uphold a ban on importing parts of animals killed by big-game hunters.

The agency issued a formal memo Thursday saying it would consider issuing permits to import elephant trophies from African nations on a “case-by-case” basis, effective immediately. The new guidelines, first reported by The Hill, end U.S. bans on the import of such trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

 

[GrumpyGran]

14 minutes ago, LeftCoastLurker said:

Fuck the orange one! Elephant trophies are again okey dokey!

  Hide contents

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has quietly begun allowing more trophy hunting of African elephants, despite President Donald Trump’s pledge last year to uphold a ban on importing parts of animals killed by big-game hunters.

The agency issued a formal memo Thursday saying it would consider issuing permits to import elephant trophies from African nations on a “case-by-case” basis, effective immediately. The new guidelines, first reported by The Hill, end U.S. bans on the import of such trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

 

does "case-by-case" translate into "only Donnie, Jr."?

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Howl]

23 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

I was actually contemplating a tour of that area in southern Utah. Not now. Nope, not coming, Utah.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT deprive yourself of the astounding and transcendently mind blowing  space that is southern, southeastern and central Utah.  It is beyond time and space on this planet.  Or at least that's how I feel about it. 

We were just in central Utah last May and I had forgotten how amazing it is to drive through the San Rafael Swell on I 70.   Get yourself the Topographic Recreational Map of Utah or find a place to order a Utah highway map and get after it!  Maybe go in late spring or Fall.  Some areas get brain fry hot in the summer.  

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT deprive yourself of the astounding and transcendently mind blowing  space that is southern, southeastern and central Utah.  It is beyond time and space on this planet.  Or at least that's how I feel about it. 

We were just in central Utah last May and I had forgotten how amazing it is to drive through the San Rafael Swell on I 70.   Get yourself the Topographic Recreational Map of Utah or find a place to order a Utah highway map and get after it!  Maybe go in late spring or Fall.  Some areas get brain fry hot in the summer.  

I went to Bryce many many years ago and it was beautiful. Just don't know if I can drive on the Donald J Trump Tremendous Highway.

[fraurosena]

Ok, guys, take this test and fess up. Which one are you?

Which Ex–Trump Administration Official Are You?

Apparently, I'm Sean Spicer 

Let's just say I'm the Melissa McCarthy version, ok?

[Howl]

Watching Jake Tapper re: Stormy Daniel's law suit.  It made me think back to potential Russian kompromat on Trump, and now I'm convinced that there is a bulging Trump kompromat file on Putin's desk.  Putin probably looks through it when he's feeling especially perverse. 

And Rufus? I don't ask for a lot, but puhleeeeeze, please let there have been sexting and dick pics that are still in Stormy's possession! 

[GreyhoundFan]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Ok, guys, take this test and fess up. Which one are you?

Which Ex–Trump Administration Official Are You?

Apparently, I'm Sean Spicer 

Let's just say I'm the Melissa McCarthy version, ok?

Yikes, I got Bannon. I guess it was the Dumpy brand vodka that did me in.

[GrumpyGran]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Yikes, I got Bannon. I guess it was the Dumpy brand vodka that did me in.

Whoops, I'm Omarosa.