The Trump Presidency 13: The (James) Baker's Dozen

[Ladewig]

And yet he complains about Kaepernick:

United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 §8. Respect for flag

b. The flag should never touch anything beneath it.

Handsomely phrased.

 

[Aridas]

Mmm. A few more things that might be of some interest.

Congress is looking into the FBI building plan selection and Trump's intervention.

As written about in 2018 to little effect, Congress returns to the storied changes in the plan for the DC FBI building now that the midterm elections have happened.

Aside from Trump’s criticism of the existing design of the Hoover building, it appears that Trump changed the plan for relocating FBI headquarters.

This happened once he discovered that new competition for his existing hotel might emerge if the building were replaced with private commercial development.

Now various committees are finally getting to look at the possibility of corruption where Trump quashed a public project in order to gain private profit.

Trump tells Senate Republicans they can ignore the Constitution in voting for his 'emergency'

Trump tweets

Senate Republicans are not voting on constitutionality or precedent, they are voting on desperately needed Border Security & the Wall. Our Country is being invaded with Drugs, Human Traffickers, & Criminals of all shapes and sizes. That’s what this vote is all about. STAY UNITED!

Post-Hurricane Harvey, NASA tried to fly a pollution-spotting plane over Houston. The EPA said no. Instead, the EPA decided to trust a guy who also argues that pollution is good for humans, as part of his support of the energy industry.

...Yeah, take a moment to let that sink in. That actually happened.

Martha McSally just can't seem to properly report or follow campaign finance rules without oversight. This time, the FEC apparently flagged at least 50 improper donators that needed to be refunded for about $120,000 total, making this at least the forth year in a row of seriously problematic accounting.

And... Trump sons quietly fire hunting retreat caretaker after 18 years of (undocumented) service.

Funny how that just keeps happening now that attention's on them.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Trump just referred to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple as "Tim Apple". "Mark Facebook" and "Jeff Amazon" are currently trending on twitter.

Video embedded in this tweet

Pro tip - watch Ivanka's face.

 

[zooterkin]

Several posts moved to AAH.
Israel and anti-semitism are not the topic of this thread; there are plenty of other threads where they would be appropriate, please take any such discussion there, thank you.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: zooterkin

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Mitch McConnell explains why the Senate won't vote on the House's anti-corruption election reform bill: "Because I get to decide what we vote on"

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

https://twitter.com/TimOBrien/status/1103037635864551425

Trump took $17 million in insurance for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago in 2005 that few remember. The @AP looked into it in 2016 and found little evidence of damage. Trump couldn't say how much he spent on repairs; acknowledged pocketing some of the money

Article embedded in tweet.

 

[ponderingturtle]

From the guy who called the Nazis in Charlottesville "Good People",
Physician , heal thy freaking self.

There is nothing antisemitic in republican mindset about supporting white people not wanting to be replaced by jews.

 

[newyorkguy]

...And... Trump sons quietly fire hunting retreat caretaker after 18 years of (undocumented) service. Funny how that just keeps happening now that attention's on them.

The only thing I can think of that would be worse than working for Donald Trump would be working for Donald Trump, Jr.

Trump took $17 million in insurance for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago in 2005 that few remember. The @AP looked into it in 2016 and found little evidence of damage. Trump couldn't say how much he spent on repairs; acknowledged pocketing some of the money.

That would certainly explain-
Recent survey shows 64% of Americans consider Trump to be a criminal. And 65% of Americans polled said they thought Trump was "dishonest."

 

[phiwum]

Highest rate of arrests doesn't mean highest rate of attempted crossings.

In fact I keep seeing stats saying crossings are historically low.

Manufactured "crisis."

Rate of arrest is the only measure we have, far as I know.

The numbers are still lower than in W's presidency, but they are significantly up, if I read the Times's graph correctly.

 

[Belz...]

Trump Tweets
It is shameful that House Democrats won’t take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it’s inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!

It's amazing how much of politics is just words nobody believes in.

 

[newyorkguy]

This is from Congressman David Price's staff, in regard to Price's claim border apprehensions are at a record low.

Katelynn Vogt, Price’s communications director, pointed to a January 2019 FAQ from the Congressional Research Service, an article from USA Today, and related fact-checks from The New York Times and NPR as evidence in support of the claim. "Since peaking in the year 2000, there has been a distinct downward trend in apprehensions at the southern border," she said. "While the specific number has fluctuated year-to-year, including a slight uptick for 2018, it remains at historically low levels." Link

.

 

[Horatius]

Fox will host him, of course. But would any other candidate with scruples bother debasing themselves to appear on that same channel to debate with Trump? He will look fairly silly debating with himself...although he would inevitably lose that debate too.

I have to wonder what the point of this debate would be. Even in typical elections, they rarely make a big impact on the core supporters, and this next election will be anything but typical.

And remember the debate last time between Clinton and Trump? That was already a near ready-made Saturday Night Live parody, and that was when Trump only suspected that he could do whatever he wanted to do, and not lose his core supporters. Can you imagine what that debate would have been like after nearly four years of him having absolute proof that his supporters won't care about how he acts?

Because that's what we're going to get.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

This is from Congressman David Price's staff, in regard to Price's claim border apprehensions are at a record low.


.

Southwest border. They could have done the whole southern border, but they didn't, and he just says "the border," not "a specific subset of the border." Been a while since I've seen a good lie through statistics like that. I don't know what the whole chart would show, but I do know that this isn't it.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Senate Republicans are not voting on constitutionality or precedent...

Words not in Donny's vocabulary. I sincerely doubt he can pronounce them let alone say what they mean. So someone else authored that tweet. Who...?

Also, this business of Trump's twitter feed being co-authored by presumably his PR team means we need to consider that source of Trumpiness as veritable "Fake Trump".

 

[BobTheCoward]

Southwest border. They could have done the whole southern border, but they didn't, and he just says "the border," not "a specific subset of the border." Been a while since I've seen a good lie through statistics like that. I don't know what the whole chart would show, but I do know that this isn't it.

Isn't the entire Mexico border the southwest?

 

[Stacko]

If he's referring to the Presidential Debates, then he of course has the right to not participate. That would put significant pressure on choosing a venue, I'd think.

He says general election but then mentions multiple "radical left Democrats," it's tough to tell given his vast ignorance and idiocy. He just really hates the first amendment.

 

[phiwum]

He says general election but then mentions multiple "radical left Democrats," it's tough to tell given his vast ignorance and idiocy. He just really hates the first amendment.

It is tough to tell what he means or whether he means anything specific at all. The mention of "radical left Democrats" is just odd -- does he think he'll debate more than one of them? Is he speaking about the primaries? Who the hell knows?

That's why my response was explicitly conditional. The man has a talent for ambiguity. Might be cleverness, might be stupidity. The line between the two is pretty fine.

 

[Beelzebuddy]

Isn't the entire Mexico border the southwest?

No.

 

[Belz...]

It is tough to tell what he means or whether he means anything specific at all. The mention of "radical left Democrats" is just odd -- does he think he'll debate more than one of them? Is he speaking about the primaries? Who the hell knows?

He probably doesn't even know, himself.

 

[Mumbles]

Handsomely phrased.

But...

when I was in a private school, one of the feel-good jobs that we had was Flag duty. We learned how to fold the flag properly, how to unfurl it properly, and so on. And due to that, there's an admittedly irrational part of me that holds some reverence for the US flag.

When Kaepernick kneels, or just sits, for the anthem, I get what he's saying, I understand why. I can deal with that. When Dolt 45 walks up to a flag and hugs it, I'm just...disgusted. I can't even imagine Obama doing anything so crass, or GHWB, GWB, or Clinton, much less any of the people who actually served in the military. I know what he's saying, I know he doesn't believe it and he's only doing it for applause. It's fake patriotism, it's really nationalism, and I despise it. It's beneath the flag.