Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[SimonNZ]

Something on another site made me wonder: are there right-wing sci-fi authors writing "dystopian" works where there's no income inequality, people welcome other cultures and religions and the environment is healthy and vibrant?

meanwhile:

Popular knitting website bans shows of support for Trump

"The popular knitting website Ravelry has banned users from sharing posts expressing support for President Trump, saying support for the administration is "undeniably support for white supremacy."

"We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry," said a Sunday statement posted on the site for knitters and crocheters, which boasts more than 8 million users. "This includes support in the form of forum posts, projects, patterns, profiles, and all other content."[/url]

[Herman]

The President Of The United States transparently lying about something easily disproved for the purpose of propping up his snowflake ego?

This example on its own is merely silly. The collective examples taken together - and doubled down on, unacknowledged as untruths, and the idea that the truth is what he alone says it is - is very much a story.

The obsession with being "bigly" is troubling, because this is the guy who can say Shoot those missiles, and it's pretty clear he's got a lot of insecurity issues.
One of the prerequisites for foreign leaders if they want to spend some time with Trump is they still need to listen to these stories about Trump drawing the biggest crowd ever at the inauguration, two years after.
The reason why he's so happy about the Putin and Kim of NK is they cater to these needs. They play the manipulation game better than honest leaders.
So even those little quirks have geopolitical ramifications.

[Muzio]

[SimonNZ]

'Tax us more': Group of ultrarich urge 2020 presidential candidates for a wealth tax

"A group of ultrarich Americans wants to pay more in taxes, saying the nation has a "moral, ethical and economic responsibility" to ensure that they do.

In an open letter addressed to the 2020 presidential candidates and published Monday on Medium, the 18 signatories urged political leaders to support a wealth tax on the richest one-tenth of the richest 1 percent of Americans. "On us," they wrote.

"The next dollar of new tax revenue should come from the most financially fortunate, not from middle-income and lower-income Americans."

Such a tax could "help address the climate crisis, improve the economy, improve health outcomes, fairly create opportunity, and strengthen our democratic freedoms," the letter said. "Instituting a wealth tax is in the interest of our republic."

Among the billionaires and multimillionaires who signed the letter were Abigail Disney, the independent filmmaker, activist and heir to the Disney entertainment empire; Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes; investor and liberal political donor George Soros; and Regan Pritzker, board chair of the Libra Foundation.

The letter, which emphasized that it was nonpartisan and not to be interpreted as an endorsement of anyone in 2020, noted that several presidential candidates, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke, have already signaled interest in addressing the nation's staggering wealth inequality through taxation.

Warren's proposal, the letter writers said, would implement a tax of 2 cents on the dollar on assets over $50 million and an additional 1 cent tax on every dollar of assets over $1 billion. It would generate nearly $3 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years, they said."

[SimonNZ]

^edit: it now occurs to me that the "extreme opponents" carrying Trump there could be the "never Trump" republicans who have rolled over for him. In which case - I agree.




I'm a Jewish historian. Yes, we should call border detention centers "concentration camps."
It isn't just accurate. It's necessary.


Tribune Editorial: Yes, we do have concentration camps


Four migrant toddlers hospitalized after time at US border facility: lawyers





also: more evidence, if it were needed, that he's mentally stuck in the 80s:

Trump appears to name the wrong Iranian leader when announcing sanctions on Iran

[SimonNZ]

livestreaming of actors reading the Meuller Report

https://lawworksaction.org/

with John Lithgow reading the Trump quotes

[SimonNZ]

White House moves to bar counselor Kellyanne Conway from testifying to Congress about alleged violations of Hatch Act

"The White House will block counselor Kellyanne Conway from testifying before a House panel about allegations by a government watchdog that she violated the Hatch Act, increasing the likelihood of another subpoena battle between the two branches of government.

White House lawyers on Monday rejected the House Oversight Committee's request for Conway to appear at a hearing Wednesday.

In a letter addressed to Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Pat A. Cipollone, counsel to the president, wrote that "in accordance with long-standing precedent, we respectfully decline the invitation to make Ms. Conway available for testimony before the Committee."

House Democrats counter, however, that the White House has no right to claim executive privilege or immunity for Conway because the alleged violations deal with her personal actions — not her duties advising the president or working in the West Wing."

[SimonNZ]

seen elsewhere: Trip to Mar-a-Lago for 1 president = $3.4 million = Toothbrush, Toothpaste, and Soap for 2.7 million kids.

also:

Trump declines to say he has confidence in FBI director

"
President Trump on Monday declined to say he has confidence in Christopher Wray and stressed that he disagrees with the FBI director, who has said he does not believe there was spying on the president's 2016 campaign.

"Well, we'll see how it turns out," Trump said in an exclusive interview with The Hill when asked about his level of confidence in Wray. "I mean, I disagree with him on that and I think a lot of people are disagreeing. You may even disagree with him on that."

Wray last month disagreed with Attorney General William Barr's use of the term "spying" to describe the bureau's surveillance of Trump campaign advisers in 2016, telling lawmakers he would not use the same language.

"Well, that's not the term I would use," Wray said at a Senate hearing.

Trump at the time called Wray's answer "ridiculous" and said Barr had described the situation "perfectly."

[SimonNZ]

New Yorker:

ICE Agents Are Losing Patience With Trump's Chaotic Immigration Policy

"Last Monday, when President Trump tweeted that his Administration would stage nationwide immigration raids the following week, with the goal of deporting "millions of illegal aliens," agents at Immigration and Customs Enforcement were suddenly forced to scramble. The agency was not ready to carry out such a large operation. Preparations that would typically take field officers six to eight weeks were compressed into a few days, and, because of Trump's tweet, the officers would be entering communities that now knew they were coming. "It was a dumb-shit political move that will only hurt the agents," John Amaya, a former deputy chief of staff at ice, told me. On Saturday, hours before the operation was supposed to start in ten major cities across the country, the President changed course, delaying it for another two weeks.

On Sunday, I spoke to an ice officer about the week's events. "Almost nobody was looking forward to this operation," the officer said. "It was a boondoggle, a nightmare." Even on the eve of the operation, many of the most important details remained unresolved. "This was a family op. So where are we going to put the families? There's no room to detain them, so are we going to put them in hotels?" the officer said. On Friday, an answer came down from ice leadership: the families would be placed in hotels while ice figured out what to do with them. That, in turn, raised other questions. "So the families are in hotels, but who's going to watch them?" the officer continued. "What happens if the person we arrest has a U.S.-citizen child? What do we do with the children? Do we need to get booster seats for the vans? Should we get the kids toys to play with?" Trump's tweet broadcasting the operation had also created a safety issue for the officers involved. "No police agency goes out and says, 'Tomorrow, between four and eight, we're going to be in these neighborhoods,' " the officer said."[...]


'She's not my type': Trump dismisses sexual assault accuser E Jean Carroll

[Karl Henning]

I have no idea who this woman is, and she's not my type.

[JBS]

Meanwhile on the Russia front
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/06/25/nato-says-russia-must-end-nuclear-ready-missile-ssc-program.html

[SimonNZ]

Judge Rejects Delay & Orders Discovery In Blumenthal V. Trump, Lawsuit Brought By Sen. Blumenthal, Rep. JerryNadler & 213 Members Of Congress

"In a victory for the Constitution and 215 Congressional plaintiffs, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied President Trump's request to delay the challenge brought by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and members of the Senate and House of Representatives to hold him accountable to the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, and ordered discovery to begin on Friday, June 28. The Members of Congress are represented in this case by the Constitutional Accountability Center.[/url]


Trump taps Melania Trump's spokeswoman as next White House press secretary

"Melania Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham will get a major new role as both White House press secretary and communications director, the first lady tweeted Tuesday.

"I am pleased to announce @StephGrisham45 will be the next @PressSec & Comms Director! She has been with us since 2015 - @POTUS & I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country. Excited to have Stephanie working for both sides of the @WhiteHouse. #BeBest" Melania Trump tweeted.

President Donald Trump didn't look far for his next press secretary in Grisham, who for the past two years has been the communications director for the first lady. Grisham will keep her current job too.

However, Trump has tweaked the job duties before handing the reins to Grisham, whose purview will include a larger scope of responsibility than that of her predecessor Sarah Sanders, and one as yet unprecedented in this administration. Trump has appointed Grisham both White House director of communications as well as press secretary, a senior White House official tells CNN. Grisham will be assuming the roles formerly held by Bill Shine, who departed as White House communications director in March, and Sanders, who has said her last day will be this Friday.

Additionally, Grisham will remain in charge of communications for the East Wing in addition to her new West Wing responsibilities, staying on as the spokeswoman for the first lady, says the official.

Grisham will be accompanying the President in her new capacity on his trip to Japan and Korea this week.

[SimonNZ]

People want to donate diapers and toys to children at Border Patrol facilities in Texas. They're being turned away.

"On Sunday, Austin Savage and five of his friends huddled into an SUV and went to an El Paso Target, loading up on diapers, wipes, soaps and toys.
About $340 later, the group headed to a Border Patrol facility holding migrant children in nearby Clint with the goal of donating their goods. Savage said he and his friends had read an article from The New York Times detailing chaos, sickness and filth in the overcrowded facility, and they wanted to help.

But when they arrived, they found that the lobby was closed. The few Border Patrol agents — Savage said there were between eight and 10 of them — moving in and out of a parking facility ignored them.

For a while, the group stood there dumbfounded about what to do next. Ultimately, they decided to pack up and head home. Savage said he wasn't completely surprised by the rejection; before he left, the group spotted a discarded plastic bag near the lobby door holding toothpaste and soap that had a note attached to it: "I heard y'all need soap + toothpaste for kids."

"A good friend of mine is an immigration attorney, and he warned us that we were going to get rejected," Savage said. "We were aware of that, but it's just the idea of doing something as opposed to passively allowing this to occur."
[...]

A slew of other sympathetic people, advocacy groups and lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have expressed a desire to lend a hand to the kids housed in the facilities. But after purchasing items like toys, soap, toothbrushes, diapers and medicine — especially as news reports circulate of facilities having drinking water that tastes like bleach and sick children without enough clothing — they've been met with a common message: No donations are being accepted.
[...]

Democratic state Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg tweeted this weekend that he wrote to Border Patrol asking for a list of acceptable items to donate. He said officials told his office by email they do not accept donations. An official with Border Patrol did not respond to a request for comment."


Cruelly detaining kids in Border Patrol camps will cost taxpayers more than it would to put the families up together in high-end hotels.

"Do you know how much it's costing America for Trump's Border Patrol agents to detain infants, toddlers, and children in the horrific 'concentration camp' facilities along the border?

It costs almost $800 each night per separated kid.

That's several times more per night than it would cost to house each family TOGETHER, adults and kids, at a high-end hotel.

"The cost of holding migrant children who have been separated from their parents in newly created 'tent cities' is $775 per person per night," reports NBC News:"


Acting CBP Chief to Resign amid Backlash over Treatment of Detained Migrants

"John Sanders, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, will resign in the coming weeks as the public outcry over the treatment of detained migrants at the southern border continues to escalate, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Sanders has served as CBP commissioner since President Trump appointed Kevin McAleenan to serve as acting secretary of homeland security following the departure of Kirstjen Nielsen in April.

News of the resignation comes as harrowing reports of unsanitary conditions at CBP holding facilities continue to emerge."


U.S. returns 100 migrant children to overcrowded border facility as HHS says it is out of space

"U.S. immigration and health authorities, facing what they say is a financial and logistical crush, have scrambled to move hundreds of migrant children out of an overcrowded Border Patrol station after lawyers who visited the facility last week described scenes of sick and dirty children without their parents, and inconsolable toddlers in the care of other children.

The alleged conditions at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Clint, Tex., raised the specter that hundreds of children — some still in infancy — who had arrived unaccompanied or had been separated from their relatives after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are being exposed to additional undue trauma as they languish for days or weeks in ill-equipped Border Patrol stations, lawyers said.

A Customs and Border Protection official disputed the allegations Tuesday morning, arguing that the child detainees in its custody receive "continuous" access to hygiene products and adequate food while awaiting placement in U.S. shelters designed for children. The official said that the agency was working closely with the Department of Health and Human Services to move the unaccompanied children to appropriate shelters and that it had cut the number held in Border Patrol facilities from 2,600 to less than 1,000 in the past week.

The official told reporters Tuesday that after moving children out of the Clint facility over the weekend and into Monday, it had to return 100 children to the station on Tuesday because of a lack of bed space in U.S. shelters and not enough funding to expand facilities for children
.
The conditions at the border facilities and the lack of bed space have become part of the Trump administration's argument for passage of its request for $4.5 billion in emergency appropriations from Congress, a proportion of which is designed to fund the housing of unaccompanied children through private contractors."

[JBS]

Warning
The first image in this link can fairly be described as disturbing.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/25/americas/mexico-photo-of-father-and-daughter-dead-in-rio-grande/index.html

[SimonNZ]

Mueller to testify in open session July 17.

[SimonNZ]

Trump tells reporters it's "none of your business" what he tells Putin


Dalai Lama: Trump has 'lack of moral principle'

[arpeggio]

I do not read every post in this thread.  It is overwhelming.

Has anyone mentioned the letter that has been signed by over 1,000 former DOJ attorneys concerning the Mueller Report?

[JBS]

I do not read every post in this thread.  It is everwhelming.

Has anyone mentioned the letter that has been signed by over 1,000 former DOJ attorneys concerning the Mueller Report?

I think that was about 200 pages ago.

[JBS]

Sparked by the debates tonight and tomorrow night...
https://betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/comic-haikus-launch-2020-election/

I will start a new thread for the Democratic primary process. That way we can keep this thread Trump focused.

[Karl Henning]

I do not read every post in this thread.  It is everwhelming.

Has anyone mentioned the letter that has been signed by over 1,000 former DOJ attorneys concerning the Mueller Report?

To read every post on this thread would be nearly as insane as going to Fox for your news every night.