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

[zamyrabyrd]

I wonder if you are talking about the person who said "Yeah, I guess so" when asked if he's "for invading Iraq" in September 11, 2002. Sure, he's also on record lying about what he thought about it before it was apparent to everyone what a colossal mistake it was.

Well, it wasn't apparent to everyone in 2004 that it was a colossal mistake, when Trump openly spoke out about it. His answering an off the cuff question in 2002 doesn't show more than a tepid reaction to it. We were still waiting, myself included, if indeed, the WMD's were going to be destroyed, which was a big reason for going into Iraq. Actually, we were lied to but war profiteering behind the scenes is typical coming from the Bushes.

This is not an illegal conflict of interest? (The article is from 2005.)

In 2003 Halliburton made $4.2 billion from the U.S. government. Cheney stated he had , "severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest." Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently asserted that Cheney's stock options which were worth $241,498 a year ago, are now valued at more than $8 million-- for an increase of 3,281% . Cheney has pledged to give the proceeds to charity. Cheney continues to received a deferred salary from the company. He was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.

The Congressional Research Service has concluded that holding stock options while in elective office does constitute a "financial interest" whether or not the holder of the options donates the proceeds to charities, and deferred compensation is also a financial interest. Calling on Cheney to sever his financial ties to Halliburton, Lautenberg points out that the company has already raked in more than $10 billion for work in Iraq, and was handed some of the first Katrina contracts.

The real crooks get away:

During Cheney's tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000, Halliburton Products and Services set up shop in Iran. The Halliburton subsidiary does approximately $40 million a year worth of oil field service work for the Iranian government. 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl visited the subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and found that it had no office and no employees. The mailing address was a local bank with which the subsidiary is registered. Stahl was met there by the bank's manager who informed her that all mail to the subsidiary is forwarded to Halliburton headquarters in Houston. Halliburton had created the subsidiary to allow itself to do illegal business with a rogue state and to skip out on its taxes in the process.

https://www.commondreams.org/views05/1117-22.htm

[Karl Henning]

I wonder if you are talking about the person who said "Yeah, I guess so" when asked if he's "for invading Iraq" in September 11, 2002. Sure, he's also on record lying about what he thought about it before it was apparent to everyone what a colossal mistake it was.
https://www.youtube.com/v/EWtVOGgqSvo

He's on record for lying in practically every second or third sentence he erupts; the die-hard Trump supporters are highly selective in their regard for the truth.

[Karl Henning]

What a presidential president would have said about Michael Cohen

[Karl Henning]

What a presidential president would have said about Michael Cohen

We can consider them distinct observations, I suppose.  (1) His behavior is not that of a President of the United States of America;  and (2) his behavior is not that of an innocent man.

[milk]

We can consider them distinct observations, I suppose.  (1) His behavior is not that of a President of the United States of America;  and (2) his behavior is not that of an innocent man.

Considering how he lies for sport, pathologically, and with contempt for the public, it seems unlikely that he would avoid illegal dishonesty and lies; it may be the little things that cause him real trouble in the end. Sure, impeachment may be beyond the stomach or calculus of congress. But, there's a lot of smart people in law enforcement who are serious about their jobs, the law and the constitution, people who now their business unlike Tump who doesn't know anything about the principles of government. If they really start cutting him, going after his business interests, prosecuting those close to him for obvious crimes, deposing him perhaps - thereby forcing him to admit treachery and details of adulteries and payoffs and lies and contradictions, well...hmm...what then? It's already a farce to those of us that despise him, but what happens when no one will work for him and the job of the executive government really gets occluded by the daily dirty details? 

[Karl Henning]

Considering how he lies for sport, pathologically, and with contempt for the public, it seems unlikely that he would avoid illegal dishonesty and lies [...]

Exactly.  You have to have drunk the Kool-Aid to default to "I'm sure he's telling the truth, where they are not falsehoods which promote my agenda."

[Karl Henning]

Considering how he lies for sport, pathologically, and with contempt for the public, it seems unlikely that he would avoid illegal dishonesty and lies; it may be the little things that cause him real trouble in the end. Sure, impeachment may be beyond the stomach or calculus of congress. But, there's a lot of smart people in law enforcement who are serious about their jobs, the law and the constitution, people who now their business unlike Tump who doesn't know anything about the principles of government. If they really start cutting him, going after his business interests, prosecuting those close to him for obvious crimes, deposing him perhaps - thereby forcing him to admit treachery and details of adulteries and payoffs and lies and contradictions, well...hmm...what then? It's already a farce to those of us that despise him, but what happens when no one will work for him and the job of the executive government really gets occluded by the daily dirty details? 

I still have hope for our zb, and I wait for that point where his sleaze crosses that as-yet-unknown line beyond which she posts, "You were all right – he's a practiced con man, he's been ripping us all off and trashing America's reputation and credibility out of nothing better than naked self-interest, and even I have to say, he has got to go."

[Turner]

"Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia,  because they will be coming, nice and new and "smart!" You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984022625440747520

[Karl Henning]

"[nyuk-nyuk] It never matters, what he says!"

[Karl Henning]

The "vehicle for attacking Dems" ROFLMAO

[Karl Henning]

Please, O Lord, let the President tweet again, late tonight.

[Turner]

The last missile strike against Syria was symbolic, with little effect.
I wonder if there´ll be more this time, also beyond the showbizz political statements, #45 is known for.

But half an hour later, after the mentioned, threatening tweet, he´s now tweeting more or less the opposite; a big contrast to his own arms race policy:

"Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984032798821568513

[Karl Henning]

Putin chugged a shot of Stoli on reading that!

[Spineur]

The last missile strike against Syria was symbolic, with little effect.
I wonder if there´ll be more this time, also beyond the showbizz political statements, #45 is known for.

But half an hour later, after the mentioned, threatening tweet, he´s now tweeting more or less the opposite; a big contrast to his own arms race policy:

Trump attention span does not go beyond 256 characters.

As far as the annouced missile shower, I am just as skeptical as you are.  If they do not have top level intelligence, it will boil down to more ruins and innocent victims.

[Karl Henning]

House Speaker Paul Ryan will not seek reelection

[drogulus]

The last missile strike against Syria was symbolic, with little effect.
I wonder if there´ll be more this time, also beyond the showbizz political statements, #45 is known for.

But half an hour later, after the mentioned, threatening tweet, he´s now tweeting more or less the opposite; a big contrast to his own arms race policy:

"Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984032798821568513

    A missile attack implies a war strategy that has missile strikes, and other military actions, in it. That would be incompatible with TrumPutin to say the least. Trump is saying more than the least.

    Nothing Trump says is true. The Cold War was often much worse than now, we can't help the Russian economy without helping the mafia that runs it, the only way we can get all nations to work together is to protect them from Russian attack, from TrumPutin itself.

[Karl Henning]

The guffaw-worthy irony of El Tupé accusing anyone else on the planet of lying.

Trump has accused Comey of lying about their conversations, although Comey has said he kept contemporaneous memos documenting the interactions.

[Karl Henning]

    Nothing Trump says is true. The Cold War was often much worse than now, we can't help the Russian economy without helping the mafia that runs it, the only way we can get all nations to work together is to protect them from Russian attack, from TrumPutin itself.

All sober observations.

[BasilValentine]

The last missile strike against Syria was symbolic, with little effect.
I wonder if there´ll be more this time, also beyond the showbizz political statements, #45 is known for.

I'm not sure the last missile strike rose to the seriousness of a symbolic action. Having forecast the impending profligate waste of military hardware days in advance, everything of value on Syrian airfields was in hardened hangers by the time the missiles arrived. Nearly all personnel had been evacuated. The same thing is happening now. This is not symbolic action, it is very expensive theater for domestic consumption and a chance for a child to play with his shiny new toys.

[Todd]

    A missile attack implies a war strategy that has missile strikes, and other military actions, in it. That would be incompatible with TrumPutin to say the least. Trump is saying more than the least.

    Nothing Trump says is true. The Cold War was often much worse than now, we can't help the Russian economy without helping the mafia that runs it, the only way we can get all nations to work together is to protect them from Russian attack, from TrumPutin itself.

As garbled and feeble a defense of NATO and Cold War thinking as has ever been scribbled.

It appears, according to my 2017 tax preparer, that we will be better off under the Trump tax plan, after all.   

That much was obvious with the first withholding changes in February.  More CDs for me now, more federal discretionary cuts later.  A true win-win.