Trump II

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... the primary issue is that another American Russian - one who is then became now President - collaborated with that entity in an attempt to sway the election....collaborated with foreign powers against a fellow American Russian.  Not at all Exactly the same thing, and you know it.

The real difference is that Yeltsin apparently knew and actively participated... which is something yet to be proven for Trump. Other than that, I agree with you: "both Russia and the US did what you correctly believe every other nation does - attempt to bend foreign powers to favorable circumstances."

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... it's a huge error to compare the level of interference then and now...

"This time it is different" - the oldest fallacy in the world.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

"This time it is different" - the oldest fallacy in the world.

Wow, such an underestimation of 'improved' capabilities, is amazingly naive. It also totally ignores the criminal cooperation/collusion side.

Cheers,
Bart

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Wow, such an underestimation of 'improved' capabilities,...

Which is exactly the underpinning of the fallacy (the naive belief in "improved" capabilities).

[Schewe]

Seems a fitting look at American culture from across the pond...in light of the fact major networks felt compelled to break into regularly scheduled programing to bring you OJ's parole hearing (like that was somehow something important).

How OJ Simpson paved the way for Donald Trump


Was OJ Simpson's arrest and trial the beginning of reality TV - and Donald Trump's rise?

It seems entirely fitting that OJ Simpson should reappear at this surreal juncture in American life because many of the trends that culminated in the election of Donald J Trump can be traced back to his arrest and trial.

Consider first of all the impact on the US media of that slow-motion car chase, as "The Juice" headed down the 405 freeway in the back of his white Ford Bronco pursued by a small armada of police cars and a squadron of news helicopters. With viewers glued to their televisions ­that day, Domino's recorded a record spike in pizza deliveries.

It was the moment arguably that real-time, rolling news truly came of age.

That chase and the gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 1995 trial on CNN and Court TV demonstrated a voracious appetite for cable news. The OJ "trial of the century", with its blend of tabloid sensationalism and serious analysis, established the formula for ratings success.

In last year's presidential election, the media fixation with Donald Trump demonstrated how that recipe still works now. His candidacy could almost have been tailor made to fit the requirements of real-time cable news and Twitter, its digital equivalent.

In ratings terms, his road to the White House became the political equivalent of that freeway chase, an improbable journey we couldn't take our eyes off partly because we were fascinated to learn how it would end. Donald Trump exploited this. The billionaire reality TV star, sensing immediately his media pulling power, became the ringmaster of an OJ-style circus.

America's celebrity culture predates OJ Simpson, but his trial unquestionably fuelled it. Johnny Cochran, Marcia Clark, Robert Shapiro. The attorneys became stars in their own right. So, too, did Judge Lance Ito. Kato Kaelin, a minor player, parlayed his witness stand limelight into various appearances on reality TV shows.

[Schewe]

And the hits keep coming...least popular president EVER...well, at least he's "special"...

POLLS SHOW TRUMP, THE LEAST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER, IS PLUNGING EVEN LOWER

Things aren't looking up for President Donald Trump.

There's the growing investigation into his administration's connections to Russia, the country the intelligence community assesses hacked the election to get the Republican billionaire elected. There's the flailing attempt from the GOP, led by Trump, to gut Obamacare and replace it with a new health care system that the Congressional Budget Office has determined would leave tens of millions more Americans without coverage. There's his press secretary resigning over the president's latest hire and constant reports of infighting in the White House.

And the American people seem to be tired of the constant whirlwind of controversy that Trump has created. The latest polls of his approval rating have pretty much uniformly brought bad news for the president. Gallup pegged his approval at just 37 percent Friday, while 58 percent of Americans disapproved. That's not quite the all-time low for Trump in the Gallup tracking poll—he sunk to just 35 percent in late March when the GOP's first health care plan flopped before the House could even vote—but it's getting close and earlier this month the president had briefly risen back to 40 percent.

Another poll from the American Research Group put Trump's approval at a new low of 35 percent. That's down from 37 percent approval in the group's June poll and 39 percent in both May and April. Even Trump's favorite poll, Rasmussen Reports—which is often criticized for being right-leaning—found the president's approval rating had tied his all-time-low in a survey this week.

Trump is actually nearing his all-time low in most polls—the average from data-focused website FiveThirtyEight has his approval at just 38.4 percent, just 0.4 percentage points above his lowest average ever. Overall, Trump just completed his first six months in office and he completed that half-year sporting the worst approval rating for any president in the history of modern polling.

But there does seem to remain a portion of Americans whose support for the president is unwavering despite the near-constant chaos from the White House. A poll this week found found a plurality of both Trump voters and Republicans overall would approve if the president walked onto Fifth Avenue in New York City and shot a person.

From that article:

It's a horrifying thought: A man walks down to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan—a bustling street full of New Yorkers and tourists alike—and fires a round at a passer-by.

But in the eyes of many American voters, as long as the shooter was President Donald Trump, that act would be just fine. At least that's what the findings indicate in a new poll released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling, a company that does polling for public surveys as well as for Democratic candidates.

The survey results hark back to a now-infamous claim Trump made on the campaign trail last January, when he raised his hand like a gun and said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would still love him.

Wow, gotta love those 2nd amendment people huh?

[Schewe]

Must be tough having so much money, you forget where it's all stashed :~)

Jared Kushner reveals 77 previously undisclosed assets in new filing


"Oooops" but hey, they're a cute couple, right?

July 22 (UPI) -- Jared Kushner revealed nearly 80 previously undisclosed assets in a revised version of his personal financial disclosure released on Friday.

The revised disclosure showed that Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, omitted 77 assets from his initial form that were later added during "ordinary review" by the government ethics office. His attorneys said it was an inadvertent mistake.

Emphasis mine...so it seems Jared can't remember either the money he has or the Russians he's met...but he's gonna fix the USA, right?

The story continues:

Kushner's financial disclosure has been updated 39 times since the first filing in March and the attorney to Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, who is also a senior White House aide, said the couple "followed each of the required steps in their transition from private citizens to federal officials."

Of the 77 assets that were disclosed in the new filing 60 were related to a collection of bonds. The new disclosure also included a stake in Cadre, an online real estate investment platform, worth between $5 million and $25 million.

Kushner also previously omitted an art collection worth between $5 million and $25 million, which his attorney said wasn't included because it was for "personal enjoyment" and not investment purposes.

The new disclosure shows that Kushner and Ivanka Trump hold assets valued between $206 million and $760 million, after the previous filing placed the value between $240 million and $740 million.

Emphasis mine...so, Kushner's financial disclosure has been updated 39 times since the first filing in March? It took 39 times to get to this point? What are the odds both his foreign contacts and his financial disclosures will keep being "updated"?

According to this article, theses are all the things Trump has given Jared to do (bullet points only):
Here are all the duties Jared Kushner has in the Trump administration

Jared Kushner has a hefty list of goals he's expected to accomplish within the next four-to-eight years.

Despite a lack of previous government experience, the 36-year-old senior adviser to President Donald Trump has been tasked by his father-in-law to solve some of the world's most complex and confounding political problems domestically and abroad.

He's taken on those tasks while also emerging as both a shadow secretary of state and point man for cleaning up Trump's gaffes.

The Washington Post noted at as of early February, Kushner was the point-of-contact for over two dozen countries, as many top foreign diplomats have come to view Kushner as a reasonable envoy.

Middle East peace:
Government reform/Opioid crisis management:
Criminal justice reform:
Liaison to Mexico:
Liaison to China:
Liaison to the Muslim community:

He's also gonna "innovate government"? So, how's he gonna do all that if he can't fill out his financial forms and without revising it 39 times and it takes 3 times to fill out national security questionnaire? Does anybody else sense something rotten in Denmark?

[Schewe]

Does anybody else sense something rotten in Denmark?

Sorry...didn't mean to imply Denmark has a lot of rotten stuff...it's just a line from Hamlet that came to mind :~)

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Sorry...didn't mean to imply Denmark has a lot of rotten stuff...it's just a line from Hamlet that came to mind :~)

Oh, thanks for clarifying. We, the deplorables, low-information and low education voters, would not have gotten your Denmark reference otherwise 

[Schewe]

We, the deplorables, low-information and low education voters, would not have gotten your Denmark reference otherwise 

I was actually apologizing to any of our LuLa members from Denmark, not the deplorables whom I really don't care about all that much...

 

[Alan Klein]

I think some American diplomat used that expression decades ago to make a point at the UN or some political place and got Denmark all upset.  It's OK Jeff, you're not a diplomat, so you can say it.   No one's really listening to you anyway. 

[dreed]

Distant?! You gotta be kidding me. You think we've ever stopped interfering in other countries elections and internal affairs? Taste of you or own medicine is always a bitch.

And when the meddling doesn't work, invade and "save" the country by "converting" it to democracy ... so that it can be influenced

[dreed]

Must be tough having so much money, you forget where it's all stashed :~)

hahahaha I wonder if the IRS has someone keeping an eye on this? I mean if he can "forget" to mention things like this before taking up his position in the Whitehouse, what's the bet he "forgets" to mention something in his tax return?

Traditionally I thought it was only when people had to testify that they became forgetful

"I have no recollection of that, your honor."

[scyth]

Not really, it's a huge error to compare the level of interference then and now.

indeed... there was 9/11 once =

[scyth]

with your approach it would be Japan's right to drop a nuclear weapon on New York City and perhaps Chicago because, well the USA dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

absolutely... except Chicago shall be the first place 

[Alan Klein]

Democrat Sen. Schumer, minority leader of the Senate,  finally acknowledges it wasn't Comey or the Russians, it was Hillary and the Democrats who lost to a guy with 40% favorability rating.  So now they'll copy Trump's approach.  Populism Lite.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/343337-schumer-dems-not-russia-are-to-blame-for-loss-to-trump

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Democrat Sen. Schumer, minority leader of the Senate,  finally acknowledges it wasn't Comey or the Russians, it was Hillary and the Democrats who lost to a guy with 40% favorability rating.  So now they'll copy Trump's approach.  Populism Lite.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/343337-schumer-dems-not-russia-are-to-blame-for-loss-to-trump

"If you can't beat them, join them"   

[Schewe]

It's OK Jeff, you're not a diplomat, so you can say it.   No one's really listening to you anyway.

And yet, here you are, posting in this thread. Hum...if you are not listening, how do you know what I'm posting?

 

[Schewe]

Because it really might be a 400 lbs guy sitting on his bed...

Jake Tapper rains hell on Scaramucci for denying Russian hacking: ‘Don’t you owe a duty to the truth?’

CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday called out newly-appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci for continuing to deny Russia’s interference in the U.S. election.

On Sunday’s State of the Union program, Tapper asked Scaramucci if President Donald Trump was prepared to sign a sanctions bill against Russia.

“There’s a lot of misinformation,” Scaramucci said, dismissing the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies. “Somebody said to me the other day — I don’t want to say who — if the Russian actually hacked the this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of them. Meaning that they’re super confident in their deception skills and hacking.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tapper interrupted. “I don’t know who this anonymous person is.”

“How about it’s the president, Jake,” Scaramucci revealed. “He called me from Air Force One and basically said to me, ‘This is — maybe they did it, maybe they didn’t do it.'”

So, Scaramucci didn't want to name his source about the statement that "if the Russian actually hacked the this situation and spilled out those emails, you would have never seen it. You would have never had any evidence of them. Meaning that they’re super confident in their deception skills and hacking." but it turns out that it was Trump himself...and I suspect that Trump was prolly just parroting what Putin said to him.

[Schewe]

For the #FailingNYTimes, it seems this lady gets under Trump's skin so easily–yet, Trump seems compelled to try to keep trying to convince her of, well, something. It seems he want her to accept him. Kinda weird actually–he keeps talking to the paper he claims is so terrible (but that he seems to read).

A Conversation with Maggie Haberman, Trump’s Favorite Foe


The Times correspondent Maggie Haberman, who covered Donald Trump long before he entered the White House and has received threats because of her reporting.

One of the saving graces of the Trump era is the journalism it has inspired. Maggie Haberman is a tireless, keen-eyed example. As part of the New York Times’ White House team, she has repeatedly added to the sum total of what we know about this President and the chaotic West Wing.

To hang around Haberman is to be ashamed of one’s indolence and inattention. She is a multitasker par excellence. A hummingbird effortlessly doing what she needs to do, which is everything at once. Even as she carries on a conversation in life, she is texting, fielding calls from the office and home, writing, taking edits—and when you finally get home in the evening and go to the Times Web site, you see her byline on two or three stories.

This week, after we spoke, Haberman and two of her colleagues spent nearly an hour talking with the President. He took the interview as an occasion not so much to think out loud about policy as to trash everyone within reach, including his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. Trump has called Haberman “third-rate,” and yet he is somehow obsessed with her, and the Times’, attention. Haberman first got to know Trump when she was a reporter for the New York Post; she also worked for the Daily News and Politico before joining the Times, in 2015. She is also a CNN political analyst. David Gregory, her colleague at CNN, rightly said on the air, “It’s striking that the President, who spends so much time trying to discredit the news media to convince his supporters simply not to believe outlets like the New York Times, in the end cannot quit Maggie Haberman, and that’s just the bottom line. Because he wants legitimacy and he knows you have to go to Maggie and her colleagues, who are really the journalists of record on this Trump Presidency.”

A couple of days before the Trump interview, I spoke with Haberman for The New Yorker Radio Hour, which is broadcast nationally on public radio stations and available now on newyorker.com. What follows is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

I'll let you all decide if you want to read what she has to say about Donny boy. You can also listen to the podcast. She has a lot of insight about Trump which you might not like reading if you are a Trump supporter but everybody needs some input from outside their own echo chamber (heck I even watch Fox News and read Breitbart from time to time)!