Trump II

[mbaginy]

What's to prove.  VW has admitted to cheating in America.  It is reimbursing tens of billions to VW owners here, billions in criminal fines.  There are millions more VW's in Europe than in America so more Europeans have been screwed; apparently you're not one of them.  As a German, I understand why you're protecting your auto industry.  Just like Trump is protecting our carbon industry.

There are also American criminal conspiracy (collusion) charges: "On 7 January 2017, a former top emissions compliance manager for Volkswagen in the US was arrested by the FBI on a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States. On 11 January 2017 VW pleaded guilty to weaving a vast conspiracy to defraud the US government and obstructing a federal investigation and agreed to pay a US$2.8 billion criminal fine and US$1.5 billion in civil penalties. In addition, six executives have been criminally charged.

Alan, there are two issues: VW's diesel engines and their manipulated software created with Bosch; the recent accusations of German auto manufacturers colluding to their financial benefit at the cost of customers and suppliers.  The two are separate topics - the first has been proven, then second not.  "What's to prove?" is an absolutely wrong question!

And for your information: I'm an American citizen, not German.  Born in Colorado.  Served my country as a soldier for many years.  A number of developments back home make me contemplate staying in Europe (Germany, Italy, Poland?) upon retirement in a tad under three years.

[Schewe]

They didn't self report anything.

Hum..did you actually read the CNN article you quoted?

News magazine Der Spiegel dropped the bombshell on Friday, citing a letter it said Volkswagen (VLKAY) had written to German antitrust officials last summer in which it admitted to possible anti-competitive behavior.

VW wrote a letter to German officials that admitted to possible anti-competitive behavior...VW admitted to Germain officials that VW may have engaged in anti-competitive behavior, which I would call an act of self-reporting, wouldn't you?

That's what I was congratulating VW for doing...as far as using a software hack to cheat emissions reports, no, that was a pretty egregious and despicable act to cheat the system and they got caught and are paying the price.

[Alan Klein]

Alan, there are two issues: VW's diesel engines and their manipulated software created with Bosch; the recent accusations of German auto manufacturers colluding to their financial benefit at the cost of customers and suppliers.  The two are separate topics - the first has been proven, then second not.  "What's to prove?" is an absolutely wrong question!

And for your information: I'm an American citizen, not German.  Born in Colorado.  Served my country as a soldier for many years.  A number of developments back home make me contemplate staying in Europe (Germany, Italy, Poland?) upon retirement in a tad under three years.

I welcome you're an American.  I thought you were German the way you were defending VW.  Regarding the second issue, VW collusion, they admitted to it.  Of course they admitted to it because it was about to come out anyway.  There is such a huge trail of companies involved and executives.  Worse then the collusion of Trump with Russia.  Jeff wishes there was this much on Trump.

[mbaginy]

I welcome you're an American.  I thought you were German the way you were defending VW.  Regarding the second issue, VW collusion, they admitted to it.  Of course they admitted to it because it was about to come out anyway.  There is such a huge trail of companies involved and executives.  Worse then the collusion of Trump with Russia.  Jeff wishes there was this much on Trump.

My final remark on this topic: I did not and will not defend VW.

[Schewe]

Oooops...HOT MIC (gotta love it)


Senators on hot mic: Trump is ‘crazy,’ ‘I’m worried’

Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) was unintentionally recorded talking about President Trump at the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on July 25. Collins appears to have been speaking to Democratic senator Jack Reed. (Senate Appropriations Committee)

At the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday morning, someone sitting near Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) didn’t switch off a microphone. Collins was recorded discussing the federal budget and President Trump’s lack of familiarity with the details of governing with a colleague — apparently Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittee.

After Reed praises Collins’s leadership of the hearing, she laments the administration’s handling of spending.

“I swear, [the Office of Management and Budget] just went through and whenever there was ‘grant,’ they just X it out,” Collins says. “With no measurement, no thinking about it, no metrics, no nothing. It’s just incredibly irresponsible.”

“Yes,” Reed replies. “I think — I think he’s crazy,” apparently referring to the president. “I mean, I don’t say that lightly and as a kind of a goofy guy.”

“I’m worried,” Collins replies.

“Oof,” Reed continues. “You know, this thing — if we don’t get a budget deal, we’re going to be paralyzed.”

“I know,” Collins replies.

You are not the only ones worried Susan. Considering what the Trumpeter was saying in Youngstown, Ohio, I'm thinking Trump is actually getting worse...

Trump: I can be the 'most presidential' president except Lincoln

President Trump said that he can be one of the “most presidential” presidents to hold office at a campaign rally Tuesday.

Trump told a crowd at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio that “with the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.”

And yet, psychiatrists are now free to diagnose the Big Orange One
(at least members of the American Psychoanalytic Association)

Go Ahead, Psychiatrists: Diagnose Donald Trump

Barry Goldwater wasn't crazy. He was exceedingly conservative by the standards of his time—and that sometimes got him into trouble. In 1964, when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, he suggested that maybe it wouldn't be a terrible strategy to use just a few of the atomic bombs in the U.S. arsenal to defoliate forests in North Vietnam and give Americans a fighting edge. Was that extreme? Sure. Crazy? No. And, in the face of furious blowback, Goldwater was smart and sane enough to walk back his very bad idea.

That, however, didn't stop the ironically named Fact magazine from running a sensational story with the provocative headline, "1,189 Psychiatrists Say Goldwater is Psychologically Unfit to Be President!" The story was junk: A questionnaire had been sent to 12,356 psychiatrists, nearly 10,000 of whom had simply ignored it. Of the 2,417 who did respond, a majority of 1,228 pronounced then-Senator Goldwater perfectly sane. The minority said he wasn't — and the minority got the headline. Goldwater, who went on to win the GOP nomination only to get trounced by Lyndon Johnson, later sued the editor of Fact for libel, and he won. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association responded by adopting what it straightforwardly called the Goldwater Rule, forbidding members from offering a diagnosis of a public figure they have not themselves examined — and even then, not without that person's consent.

But that was then. And then was before the age of Donald Trump. It was before the early-morning tweetstorms, before the febrile conspiracy theories, before the grandiosity and impulsiveness and the serial counter-factualism. It was before, in short, Americans made a man who at least appears unstable to a great many observers the most powerful person in the world. That has led a lot of people to argue that we may have over-learned the lesson of the Goldwater Rule and that it's time to scrap or at least suspend it.

That is precisely the position another professional group, the American Psychoanalytic Association, has now taken. In an internal email, the association urged its 3,500 members to speak their minds on the matter of presidential mental health, and if they consider Trump unwell, to say so. According to the health and medicine website STAT, some members of the group have gone so far as to conclude that not only is it alright to weigh in on the matter of Presidential sanity, but that doctors have an affirmative "duty to warn." The American Psychiatric Association quickly made clear it stands by the Goldwater Rule.

"Lock Him Up, Lock Him Up" in a psych ward....

[Schewe]

And then he said he won't say this....

Trump: 'I won't say' that I should be on Mount Rushmore

President Trump at a Tuesday evening rally floated the idea of someday being on Mount Rushmore before turning to attack the press corps.

During a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump turned to a routine talking point, saying “every president on Mount Rushmore believed in protecting American industry.”

But the president quipped that if he jokingly suggested he should be on Mount Rushmore, the media would take him seriously.

“Now here’s what I do. I’d ask whether or not you someday think I will be on Mount Rushmore,” Trump explained.
“But here’s the problem, if I did it joking, totally joking, having fun, the fake news media will say ‘he believes he should be on Mount Rushmore.’ So I won’t say it. Okay? I won’t say it.”

Well, the joke's on you big orange one Photoshop (and twitter) to the rescue

[Schewe]

Imagine if you were serving in the military and you happen to be transgender...you find out you and your type are now banned from serving in the military–FROM A FRIGGIN' TWEET BY YOUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

Kinda surprised the Pentagon as it seems Trump didn't even bother to warn them he was gonna tweet this...



The Cruelty and Cynicism of Trump’s Transgender Ban

The President’s tweets are a naked attempt to divert attention from his scandals.

Nearly a half century ago, young Donald Trump—a Wharton graduate, and an avid player of squash, football, and tennis—scored a 1-Y medical deferment. Hundreds of thousands of young men were being deployed to Vietnam. Trump had some bone spurs. He then limped happily into his father’s real-estate business without delay.

When Trump was interviewed by the Times about his deferment during the 2016 campaign, he admitted that the foot condition was “temporary” and “minor”—usually orthotics or stretching eased the pain—and yet, “I had a doctor that gave me a letter—a very strong letter on the heels.” He promised the paper that he would look for the letter. Amazingly, it never turned up. Later, however, his unforgettable physician, Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, assured the nation that Trump, if elected, “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

On Wednesday morning, the Commander-in-Chief declared by tweet-fiat that, “after consultation with my Generals and military experts,” he had decided to reverse an Obama Administration decision and bar transgender individuals from serving in the military “in any capacity.” Trump tweeted further, “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming . . . victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

Let’s begin with the retrograde cruelty. There are thousands of transgender people already serving among the 1.3 million active-duty members of the military. These are people who have volunteered their service and have potentially put their lives on the line, and yet their President, who managed to come up with a flimsy doctor’s note back in the day, denies them their dignity, their equality. He will not “accept or allow” them in the military. Imagine the scale of this insult.

However, today’s outrage—they seem to come at least once daily—is not merely one that reflects on Trump’s low character. It also reveals yet another layer of his political cynicism, and his willingness to use any tactical means available to try to emerge whole from his current predicament.

So, 15,000 active duty soldiers just got pink slip in their twitter feed, only wait, nobody in the Pentagon has a policy on this yet (since they didn't know Trump was gonna do this) so nobody knows if this ban grandfathers serving soldiers in while only banning new transgenders.

It is implausible that Trump paid much attention to his highest-ranking generals, or to experts, generally; Secretary of Defense James Mattis has supported transgender individuals joining the military. And the hardly radical Rand Corporation has published an in-depth study refuting the idea that transgender soldiers are somehow expensive, or that they undermine the morale and cohesion of the military over all. Trump’s decision to bar transgender people from the military is pure politics, cheap and cruel politics, a naked attempt to divert attention from his woes, to hold on to support from his base—a base that he believes will cheer his latest attempt to do battle with the secular-humanist coastal élites who are so obsessed with identity politics. (One Administration official told Axios’s Jonathan Swan that the move was intended to force Democrats from Rust Belt states to take “complete ownership of this issue.”) In other words, it is a decision straight out of the Steve Bannon playbook. Cue the organs of the alt-right press.

So, Secretary of Defense James Mattis supports transgenders but in Trump's tweet he says:

Donald J. Trump ‏Verified account
@realDonaldTrump

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......
5:55 AM - 26 Jul 2017

So, Trump didn't bother to talk to Secretary of Defense James Mattis?

#Trump is a Train Wreck

[scyth]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40731298

who needs Fancy Bear ?

[Littlefield]

According to a recent Rand study; around 4,000 transgender are currently serving.
Don

[Schewe]

According to a recent Rand study; around 4,000 transgender are currently serving.
Don

Yep got my number wrong...but Rand actually said between 1,320 and 6,630 and more in the reserves.

Ironically, I'm pretty sure most of our NATO allies allow transgenders but of course, it would cost so much money–wait, not really–and it would impact readiness–no, wait, not so much...

Here's a write up about the Rand study Transgender Troops: Fit to Serve and the actual report. Read Online
Assessing the Implications of Allowing Transgender Personnel to Serve Openly

[Littlefield]

This is where I got the 4,000 number from Rand info.

It is difficult to estimate the number of transgender personnel in the military due to current policies and a lack of empirical data. Applying a range of prevalence estimates, combining data from multiple surveys, and adjusting for the male/female distribution in the military provided a midrange estimate of around 2,450 transgender personnel in the active component (out of a total number of approximately 1.3 million active-component service members) and 1,510 in the Selected Reserve.

[Peter McLennan]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-transgender-military-trump-ban-1.4222787

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

In the heat of the battle, when the going gets tough, and you need someone to cover your a$$, who's better to do it than gays and transgenders?

[Schewe]

In the heat of the battle, when the going gets tough, and you need someone to cover your a$$, who's better to do it than gays and transgenders?

Ever been to a gay pride parade? There are some pretty tough looking people of all genders and persuasions that could kick your ass all around the block dooode. People who are trained to kill are trained to kill, ya know? If somebody is well enough trained and inclined to defend the USA, I say more power to them and thank you for their service...

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Ever been to a gay pride parade? ...

God, no. I don't even like horror movies, let alone...

[Alan Klein]

The military only wants healthy youngsters ready to fight and die.  If you have flat feet or don't have a high school education, they don't let you in.  Of course it would be nice to train kids who don't have high school educations so when they get out they could get a job?  Sure.  But that's not what the military is for.  Let civilian programs handle that.   When the military has to fight, they shouldn't be side-tracked with some guy who's going through a sex transition.  Let that guy serve the country in a civilian capacity. I'm all for that.  Readiness and cohesion and they survival of the country are at stake.  It's not a place to create difficult problems of any kind.  It's not about morality or anything else other than keeping the focus on readiness, esprit de corps and killing. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Nor a place for social [engineering] experiments.

[LesPalenik]

Nowadays, not too many soldiers fight in a combat theater anymore, so not every recruit needs to be a Rambo with a high sperm count. The most dangerous job in army is to drive a truck on foreign territory. More troops are killed by IDF and IEDS than with small arms fire. When it comes to enemy killing, skilled snipers and drone operators can be very effective regardless of their gender and physique.

[Schewe]

When the military has to fight, they shouldn't be side-tracked with some guy who's going through a sex transition.  Let that guy serve the country in a civilian capacity. I'm all for that.  Readiness and cohesion and they survival of the country are at stake.  It's not a place to create difficult problems of any kind.  It's not about morality or anything else other than keeping the focus on readiness, esprit de corps and killing.

Well, this is what John McCain had to say about this...

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement today on President Trump’s tweet regarding transgender Americans in the military:

“The President’s tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter.

“The statement was unclear. The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military—regardless of their gender identity. We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so—and should be treated as the patriots they are.

“The Department of Defense is currently conducting a study on the medical obligations it would incur, the impact on military readiness, and related questions associated with the accession of transgender individuals who are not currently serving in uniform and wish to join the military. I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership, and the Congress.

“The Senate Armed Services Committee will continue to follow closely and conduct oversight on the issue of transgender individuals serving in the military.”

The Big Orange Dummy stepped on his dick again and had no idea what his tweet would result in...it seems that people in the Pentagon were kinda freaked out by Trump's first tweet and the 9 minutes of radio silence that followed until his 2nd tweet.

The Pentagon Was Just As Confused by Trump’s Ominous Tweet As You Were

Do you remember what you were doing at 8:55 this morning? On the East Coast, you might have been driving to your job; maybe you were already there, settling in at your desk with a hot cup of java. On the West Coast, you were probably asleep.

But if you were at the Pentagon, maybe you were preparing to launch a nuclear attack on a foreign power. And maybe the situation was slightly surreal because it all happened in a nine-minute gap between two tweets from our lumpen president, Donald J. Trump.

Can you see how this post might be menacing?

Donald J. Trump  ✔ @realDonaldTrump
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......
7:55 AM - Jul 26, 2017

It turned out that the disallowed thing was transgender members of the military, but Trump spent nine minutes trying to put together a sentence conveying as much. He finally followed up at 8:04. In the meantime, according to BuzzFeed:

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.

And this is the guy who has his finder on the nuclear trigger...how's that make you feel?

[Otto Phocus]

You don't need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight. -- Barry Goldwater