The Trump Presidency: Sweet/Sweat 16

[Skeptic Ginger]

So it ends with the Christmas shopping boost?

 

[Norman Alexander]

Interesting bit of news that got buried: at the same event at which he accused Democrat-voting Jews of "disloyalty", just before that statement grabbed all the press; apparently Trump conceded that there might be a "small, two-month recession" on the way, but that it's okay because it's necessary in order to ultimately win the trade war. This despite him and his advisers in recent days expounding that there's absolutely no evidence of an impending recession.

Trump's Daily To-do List

1. Ramp up a trade war with China.
2. Buy Greenland from the Danes because they make nice pastries.
3. Say "BUILD THAT WALL!" one more time just to keep that wheel spinning.
4. Encourage a Nazi somewhere. Anywhere will do.
5. Accuse the Yids of disloyalty and being Democrats, or preferably both.
6. Deny that his stupidity caused a global recession.
7. Rage against the black Democrat Muslim women for any reason at all.
8. Lose his way between the car and the plane.
9. Drop an umbrella at the door.
10. Cheat at golf.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Trump's Daily To-do List

1. Ramp up a trade war with China.
2. Buy Greenland from the Danes because they make nice pastries.
3. Say "BUILD THAT WALL!" one more time just to keep that wheel spinning.
4. Encourage a Nazi somewhere. Anywhere will do.
5. Accuse the Yids of disloyalty and being Democrats, or preferably both.
6. Deny that his stupidity caused a global recession.
7. Rage against the black Democrat Muslim women for any reason at all.
8. Lose his way between the car and the plane.
9. Drop an umbrella at the door.
10. Cheat at golf.

Beautiful!

 

[Susheel]

Why would anyone want to get this clueless lout involved in discussions any more complicated than "So what'll we serve, Chocolate or Vanilla"?

Re: India...birds of a feather and all that. The right wing BJP that currently forms the government is a big supporter of Trump to the extent that party workers actually celebrate his Birthday and they actually performed religious ceremonies to ensure his win in the elections in 2016.
As for being clueless, the current cabinet can equal, if not outdo, Trump in that area.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Re: India...birds of a feather and all that. The right wing BJP that currently forms the government is a big supporter of Trump to the extent that party workers actually celebrate his Birthday and they actually performed religious ceremonies to ensure his win in the elections in 2016.
As for being clueless, the current cabinet can equal, if not outdo, Trump in that area.

OK that's really weird.

 

[The Atheist]

Kim has always been firing missiles into the ocean; Trump's "tactics" have not had a meaningful effect on the situation.

He has changed his position from "Imma nuke you!" to exchanging love letters.

It's also notable that Kim has ceased making threats against USA, and is firing missiles on trajectories not towards US and its allies.

The situation is completely different to what it was in 2017.

 

[Susheel]

He has changed his position from "Imma nuke you!" to exchanging love letters.

It's also notable that Kim has ceased making threats against USA, and is firing missiles on trajectories not towards US and its allies.

The situation is completely different to what it was in 2017.

Was Kim ever considered a real threat to the US? Wasn't it more to US interests in East Asia. He is still trying to undermine US relations with East Asia and he has got a willing participant in Trump.

 

[thaiboxerken]

The situation is worse. South Korea and Japan are substantially at more risk now.

 

[Arcade22]

Trump was probably so worked up and excited about buying Greenland, and then this sick bitch came along to crush his dreams. SAD!

 

[Aridas]

It can’t?

The money didn’t come out of President Trump’s pocket, did it?
President Trump didn’t decide that these people should be plaplaced in this position, did he?

I have a hard time placing this in top 300 most discussion-worthy comments and actions from DJT.

It's related to Trump, but... it would be Shell that should be condemned, pretty obviously, right?

Reading through your explanation, it made me wonder if there's a legal requirement for something like this. As far as getting paid that is, since it's not technically a "rally" it was considered a government function of the POTUS.

Are the contractors\employers required in any way to give them payment given that the plant had to close (I assume for security reasons)?

This is one of those cases where... if this somehow wasn't actually a campaign finance law violation, it really should be. It's also a case where we can reasonably expect Republicans to do their best to make sure there will be no legal consequences.

This is unfair. He allowed that they could be displaying "a total lack of knowledge".

So not all Jews who support Democrats are disloyal. Some of them may be stupid.

Given that Jews have consistently and overwhelmingly been voting for Democratic Party candidates for quite a while now... how long do you predict until he starts outright calling them vermin?

Holy mother of **** he was actually serious about it.

My god, when will this nightmare end?

Of course he was serious? What would have made you think he wasn't? Before you answer that, of course, take into account that this is Trump that we're talking about.

In other news...

Tipster Claims ‘Inappropriate Efforts to Influence’ Presidential Tax Audit

An unnamed tipster gave a House panel “credible allegations” about potential attempts to influence the Internal Revenue Service’s audit of the president’s tax returns, according to a Tuesday court filing.

The filing comes in a lawsuit filed by the House Ways and Means Committee against the Trump administration, seeking to force the government to comply with a statutory demand from committee chair Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) for President Trump’s tax returns.

In an Aug. 8 letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Neal wrote that his committee had “received an unsolicited communication from a Federal employee setting forth credible allegations of ‘evidence of possible misconduct.'”

Those allegations go to “potential ‘inappropriate efforts to influence'” the IRS’s mandatory audit of every president, Neal wrote.

It's unfortunate that we're in a position where it would actually be more of a surprise for said tipster to be lying.


Trump Inflating Scottish Golf Resorts’ Value By $165 Million, Per UK Filings
The president told British authorities the properties are a combined $65 million in the red. His U.S. disclosures say they’re worth at least $100 million.

His U.S. disclosure statement also fails to mention $199.5 million in loans Trump has made to those resorts: $54.9 million from him personally to Trump International, Scotland in Aberdeenshire; $144.6 million from his trust to Trump Turnberry in Ayrshire.

Knowingly providing false or incomplete information on that form is a violation of the Ethics in Government Act punishable by up to a year in jail. Signing the form attesting to the untrue information constitutes making a false statement, punishable by up to five years in prison.

“The numbers don’t appear to add up,” said Virginia Canter, an ethics law expert with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. She added, though, that OGE regulations give filers a fair amount of latitude in determining asset value. “That said, it’s not at all clear after reviewing the U.K. balance sheet for Aberdeen how they came to $50 million. … I think it raises legitimate questions.”

 

[TofuFighter]

Trump's Daily To-do List

1. 
   .....

Tweeted to trump.

 

[Checkmite]

He has changed his position from "Imma nuke you!" to exchanging love letters.

Trump has changed his position, but he changes positions like people change underwear so that doesn't really matter.

And everywhere North Korea fires a missile is at a US ally, the country is essentially surrounded by South Korea and Japan.

 

[Belz...]

Right, but just because you explain something every way you can think of doesn't mean that other people will agree with your explanation or your viewpoint. It doesn't mean you're right.

No, it just means that I don't know how else to get through to you guys. Agree with me, already!

Ok, did he say that? I haven't seen anyone here claim that Trump was paying them, or even imply it. I might have missed some ****.

I quoted him directly:

This seems relevant.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...xtra-for-attending-trump-speech-a9064066.html

Trump (or his rich backers) are paying people to attend his rallies.Once it comes down to paying people to attend your rallies ... you lost. Period.

McHrozni

 

[Belz...]

You did, you said they get their regular pay (some pay), just not the overtime.

And how does that translate into "so what?"?

I specifically said that I probably consider it even worse than the misleading title.

Nope, those that attended were clocked in and were paid for that time. That's paying them to attend as well as letting those know who didn't attend that they wouldn't be making their normal pay.

In the same way that if my attendance to a seminar at work is mandatory I'm paid to attend, but not in the same way that if I'm minding my own business and someone approaches me to attend a seminar for money.

 

[Ladewig]

Who exactly does he think they're being "disloyal" to?

The assumption is Trump was referring to Israel, but last time I checked, Israel was a separate country from the U.S., and being a citizen of one did not automatically make you a citizen of the other.

Has President Trump ever used the phrase “great disloyalty” to apply to anyone or anything other than himself? His entire worldview is to measure each entity’s loyalty to himself at that particular moment. It doesn’t matter how many bullets you took for him last year or how many sacrifices you’ve made for him in the past, it is all based on how loyal someone is right now. No shade of gray, no scales used to consider the whole of one’s loyalty. If you say I agree with him on 99% of everything he says, but I disagree on this one point, then you are a traitor. There are small children who have more emotional maturity than President Trump.

 

[jeremyp]

Wait. Was that really the purpose of the meeting?

No.

It was a state visit. He was invited by the Queen of Denmark. The sale of Greenland would never have been on the agenda.

Holy cow. I just thought he had a meeting planned and the news about Greenland was mostly coincidental. Do you suppose that until the news broke, the Danes had no idea he wanted to meet in order to talk real estate?

I see two possible explanations for the current narrative:

1. Trump wanted to get out of going to Denmark, so he floated this crazy idea that Denmark was sure to reject and then used their rejection as his excuse for not going.

2. Trump was serious about buying Greenland and has cancelled as part of his tantrum resulting from the rejection.

 

[TofuFighter]

No.

It was a state visit. He was invited by the Queen of Denmark. The sale of Greenland would never have been on the agenda.

I see two possible explanations for the current narrative:
1. Trump wanted to get out of going to Denmark, so he floated this crazy idea that Denmark was sure to reject and then used their rejection as his excuse for not going.
2. Trump was serious about buying Greenland and has cancelled as part of his tantrum resulting from the rejection.

I'd say it's much more likely he feels angry about being laughed at and having had the Danish PM reject his daft idea outright and his cancelling/postponing the meeting was done out of spite, because that's the way he reacts to pretty much everything.

 

[Arcade22]

Note that an estimated 80% of Jewish-American voters cast their vote for a Democratic candidate in the midterms. Apparently a very large majority of American Jews are "disloyal" to Israel, which is bad since they are Jews first and foremost.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

In 100 years time, Trump is going to be an absolute goldmine for people who write "Crazy (But True, We Swear!) Facts From History!" clickbait articles.

 

[Arcade22]

The Republican Jewish Coalition, meanwhile, rallied to defend Trump, arguing that the president was speaking about people being disloyal to themselves rather than to Israel.

“President Trump is right, it shows a great deal of disloyalty to oneself to defend a party that protects/emboldens people that hate you for your religion,” the group said in a tweet. “The @GOP, when rarely confronted w/anti-Semitism of elected members always acts swiftly and decisively to punish and remove.”

That defense, however, stood in contrast to the group’s sharp denunciations of recent remarks made by Democrats.

Last week, for instance, coalition executive director Matt Brooks criticized Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) for saying that U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman “doesn’t seem to understand that his allegiance is to America, not to a foreign power.”

“The issue of ‘dual loyalty’ is classic antisemitism,” Brooks said in a tweet at the time. “@USAmbIsrael deserves an apology. Shame on you @RepTedLieu.”

In a phone interview Tuesday, Brooks said “there’s a big difference” between Trump’s remarks and what Lieu and Omar have said in the past. Lieu, he said, was questioning whether Friedman was “making these decisions based on his being a Jew and his support for Israel as opposed to what is in America’s best interest.”

Trump, by contrast, was talking about “being true to yourself,” he said.
“I don’t think it invokes those tropes,” Brooks said, describing Trump’s message to Jewish people as, “You’re being disloyal to yourself to say, ‘Hey, I support somebody who is known to espouse anti-Semitic comments.’”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...d7b532-c339-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html

Note that Trump said:

“Where has the Democratic Party gone?” Trump asked. “Where have they gone, where they’re defending these two people over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

Since he mentioned that "they’re defending these two people over the state of Israel" it's pretty hard to to claim he's suggesting anything other than that these Democrat voting Jews are disloyal to the state of Israel, which is bad because good American Jews are loyal to Israel...?