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

[SimonNZ]

Arlington cemetery dead remind Trump Jr of his father's 'sacrifices'

"In his new book, the eldest son of the US president says the thought occurred to him during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery in 2017.

US veterans and the families of soldiers killed in combat have accused Mr Trump of not showing proper respect.

Neither Mr Trump nor any of his children have served in the military.

In his new book Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us, Mr Trump Jr describes visiting the US war cemetery where 400,000 ex-soldiers lie outside of Washington DC on the eve of his father inauguration.

His moment of reflection came as the president-elect lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns.

"As we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country, " wrote Mr Trump Jr, 41.

"In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we'd already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we'd have to make to help my father succeed - voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were 'profiting off of the office.'"

He later adds: "Frankly, it was a big sacrifice, costing us millions and millions of dollars annually. Of course, we didn't get any credit whatsoever from the mainstream media, which now does not surprise me at all."[...]


oh, and:

Putin invited Trump to Russia's Victory Day parade. Trump says he's thinking about it.

[Karl Henning]

Arlington cemetery dead remind Trump Jr of his father's 'sacrifices'

"In his new book, the eldest son of the US president says the thought occurred to him during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery in 2017.

US veterans and the families of soldiers killed in combat have accused Mr Trump of not showing proper respect.

Neither Mr Trump nor any of his children have served in the military.

In his new book Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us, Mr Trump Jr describes visiting the US war cemetery where 400,000 ex-soldiers lie outside of Washington DC on the eve of his father inauguration.

His moment of reflection came as the president-elect lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns.

"As we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country, " wrote Mr Trump Jr, 41.

"In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we'd already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we'd have to make to help my father succeed - voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were 'profiting off of the office.'"

He later adds: "Frankly, it was a big sacrifice, costing us millions and millions of dollars annually. Of course, we didn't get any credit whatsoever from the mainstream media, which now does not surprise me at all."[...]

So Unfair!!!!

[drogulus]

     Trumpkins Accused Him of Being the Whistleblower. They Were Wrong.

     Is it too late for "I am Spartacus"?

[SimonNZ]

Fox and Breitbart are still trying to get their candidate killed.

[drogulus]

Fox and Breitbart are still trying to get their candidate killed.

     That would backfire. The goal is intimidation and convincing Trump and his constituency that something is being done.

[JBS]

Fox and Breitbart are still trying to get their candidate killed.

Mr E.C. knows people who knew people who were involved in "inventing" the Steele dossier. Therefore in Breitbartland he is an integral member of the Deep State's attempted coup. (Even though he had, even by Breitbart accounts, no actual connection to compiling the dossier.)

[SimonNZ]

     That would backfire. The goal is intimidation and convincing Trump and his constituency that something is being done.

I didn't mean literally. Not quite. I meant they were being irresponsible.

And having it both ways: claiming the deep state conspiracy (or whatever) is legally obliging them to not publicly guess at names, but Fox now just lets their guests name them for them and add their criticism on air, and Breitbart have kept up their old pages so they're easily searchable.

[JBS]

I didn't mean literally. Not quite. I meant they were being irresponsible.

And having it both ways: claiming the deep state conspiracy (or whatever) is legally obliging them to not publicly guess at names, but Fox now just lets their guests name them for them and add their criticism on air, and Breitbart have kept up their old pages so they're easily searchable.

I'm not so forgiving of Breitbart especially.

[Todd]

In an example of true and admirable leadership, Trump stayed true to his word and began the formal withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement on the first day the process could begin.  Curiously, NBC Nightly News (aka, American Pravda) didn't cover the story at all in that evening's broadcast.

Oh, and yes, the walls are closing in.  The Dems are going to remove Trump outside of an election.  It's only a matter of time, and such forth.  Like so many Dems, I eagerly want to know what Pornstache has to say.

[SimonNZ]

Donald Trump Has Hit the Corruption Trifecta
Some presidents get nailed over money. Some over lust for power. Others over sex. But only one has disgraced the office on all three fronts.

[Karl Henning]

Donald Trump Has Hit the Corruption Trifecta
Some presidents get nailed over money. Some over lust for power. Others over sex. But only one has disgraced the office on all three fronts.

Which, again, is a surprise only for this who have been inattentive.

[71 dB]

Donald Trump Has Hit the Corruption Trifecta
Some presidents get nailed over money. Some over lust for power. Others over sex. But only one has disgraced the office on all three fronts.

Unfortunately the Republicans are insane and the Democrats are weak so this clown is still in the White House and if the Gods are against us this nightmare will have a four years extention... 

[BasilValentine]

Oh, and yes, the walls are closing in. The Dems are going to remove Trump outside of an election.

But isn't it nice to know that that for which Trump is being impeached, bribery, is a high crime actually cited in the constitution? You can look it up! It's listed right after lying about blowjobs.

 

[Todd]

But isn't it nice to know that that for which Trump is being impeached, bribery, is a high crime actually cited in the constitution? You can look it up! It's listed right after lying about blowjobs.

Trump is at about 86% support among Republicans.  Impeachment is not conviction.  The best part of any potential trial is that if it is timed right, and if the great and good Mitch McConnell ends up dragging it out, various Senators will be pulled away from the campaign trail right when they need to be on the ground in those early primary states.

[SimonNZ]

Joint Chiefs chair: No end to U.S. presence in the Middle East

"The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn't see a clear end to the American presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria — nations facing down the threat of the Islamic State and other dangerous groups.

Gen. Mark Milley on Sunday said the mission to ensure Afghanistan isn't a terrorist haven is "not yet complete." That mission won't be complete until the country's government and security forces are able to sustain their own internal security, he added.

"That effort is ongoing. It's been ongoing for 18 consecutive years," Milley told host Martha Raddatz of ABC's "This Week" in his first interview since assuming his new post. "I suspect it will be ongoing into the future for several more years."
Story Continued Below

Milley said it's in the national interest to also be in Iraq and Syria to prevent the resurgence of groups like ISIS: "We will be there for a significant amount of time."[...]

[SimonNZ]

Donald Trump Jr walks out of Triggered book launch after heckling – from supporters

"Donald Trump Jr ventured on to the University of California's overwhelmingly liberal Los Angeles campus on Sunday, hoping to prove what he had just argued in his book – that a hate-filled American left was hell-bent on silencing him and anyone else who supported the Trump presidency.

But the appearance backfired when his own supporters, diehard Make America Great Again conservatives, raised their voices most loudly in protest and ended up drowning him out barely 20 minutes into an event scheduled to last two hours.

The audience was angry that Trump Jr and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, would not take questions. The loud shouts of "USA! USA!" that greeted Trump when he first appeared on the stage of a university lecture hall to promote his book Triggered: How The Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us quickly morphed into even louder, openly hostile chants of "Q and A! Q and A!"

The 450-strong audience had just been told they would not be allowed to ask questions, "due to time constraints".

At first, Trump and Guilfoyle tried to ignore the discontent, which originated with a fringe group of America Firsters who believe the Trump administration has been taken captive by a cabal of internationalists, free-traders, and apologists for mass immigration.

When the shouting would not subside, Trump Jr tried – and failed – to argue that taking questions from the floor risked creating soundbites that leftwing social media posters would abuse and distort. Nobody was buying that.[...]

[JBS]

Donald Trump Jr walks out of Triggered book launch after heckling – from supporters

"Donald Trump Jr ventured on to the University of California's overwhelmingly liberal Los Angeles campus on Sunday, hoping to prove what he had just argued in his book – that a hate-filled American left was hell-bent on silencing him and anyone else who supported the Trump presidency.

But the appearance backfired when his own supporters, diehard Make America Great Again conservatives, raised their voices most loudly in protest and ended up drowning him out barely 20 minutes into an event scheduled to last two hours.

The audience was angry that Trump Jr and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, would not take questions. The loud shouts of "USA! USA!" that greeted Trump when he first appeared on the stage of a university lecture hall to promote his book Triggered: How The Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us quickly morphed into even louder, openly hostile chants of "Q and A! Q and A!"

The 450-strong audience had just been told they would not be allowed to ask questions, "due to time constraints".

At first, Trump and Guilfoyle tried to ignore the discontent, which originated with a fringe group of America Firsters who believe the Trump administration has been taken captive by a cabal of internationalists, free-traders, and apologists for mass immigration.

When the shouting would not subside, Trump Jr tried – and failed – to argue that taking questions from the floor risked creating soundbites that leftwing social media posters would abuse and distort. Nobody was buying that.[...]

Trump administration has people who apologize for mass immigration?  These people seem to live in a universe that is not the one I live in.

[SimonNZ]

US elections 2020: When are the debates, primaries, conventions?
A guide to all the important dates for the 2020 US presidential election.

looking down that list: what comes from the American Samoa, Puerto Rico and Guam primaries and Virgin Islands caucuses?

[BasilValentine]

Like so many Dems, I eagerly want to know what Pornstache has to say.

Not sure what he has to say, but I know why he's giving mixed signals about testifying: He's writing a book and afraid public testimony will steal his thunder and tank his sales. Which suggests to me he is going to gleefully skewer Trump.

[SimonNZ]

Quoting in full:

Every Non-Billionaire American Is A Better Person Than All These Sobbing Billionaires

"For the last several weeks, we have been hearing a lot from billionaires. Billionaires who are very, very sad and disappointed that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are going around suggesting that maybe they should give back more so that the rest of America can be a little less miserable. So we can all have things like health care and child care and education, all of which will help to create a society in which the distribution of wealth is slightly less ridiculous.

Absurdly rich human beings like hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon are going on TV wailing about these proposed taxes and the way in which they feel they are being vilified. They're out there begging their fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg to run for president so they at least have some representation in government. You know, other than the kind they buy.

I mean, seriously. This motherfucker is openly weeping.[video of crying billionaire in link]

Elizabeth Warren is very nice about all of this. She says she's not vilifying anyone and that she just wants them to pay their fair share so that other people can live their dreams, too. She is much nicer than I am. I am more than happy to vilify them. I will vilify them all day! Because at some point, it becomes an act of deliberate cruelty to have more money than you could ever spend while kids don't have school lunches and diabetics are hustling for insulin on GoFundMe sites.

I am with Bernie on this one. Billionaires should not exist. I see no reason to sugarcoat it. I'm not saying "off with their heads," I am not trying to kill them, but also I don't think there is anything anyone can possibly do in one lifetime that could conceivably be worth a billion dollars. I do believe that people having billions of dollars is a sign that the system is bad.

And the more I hear these ingrates sobbing, the further I get pushed to the Left. You know, like how Republicans get pushed to the Right every time someone tells them they've just insulted someone? I get "pushed left" every time a Bill Gates wants me to be sad at the prospect of him having to live off of just seven billion dollars, while I'm out here trying to figure out the optimum timing for my big toaster oven purchase. Another week of this and I will be Emma Goldman.

If you can look around this country and see all the shit everyone else has to deal with and expect all of those people to cry for you because the idea of of having to pay six percent of your absurd wealth so that people don't have to spend 30 percent of theirs to cover childcare makes you feel like you are being "punished for your success," then you are a bad person and probably a sociopath. In fact, I would say that this would make you a worse person than 99 percent of the rest of the country.

If you have more money than could be conceivably spent in your lifetime, your children's lifetime, and your children's children's lifetime, there comes a point at which that money is purely decorative.

According to Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax calculator, Walmart heir Jim Walton -- who currently has 53 billion American dollars -- would pay $3 billion. What, experientially, is the difference between $53 billion and $50 billion? Is there anything he'd have to cut down on? Probably not. Jim Walton could accidentally leave $3 billion in his winter coat pocket over the summer, not even notice it was gone, and then simply be pleasantly surprised when he unpacked it in late fall.

Jamie Dimon would pay significantly less, as he's only got $1.6 billion in the bank. He'd pay $55 million under Warren's tax. This is a tiny fraction of the $12 billion that we, the taxpayers, gave to JPMorgan when they needed to be bailed out under whom? Oh, it was Jamie Dimon!

This is one of the ways in which billionaires do have a lot in common with us regular folks. Lots of us have things we own but know we are never going to use. Gimmicky kitchen appliances that looked like a great idea when we were at Bed, Bath & Beyond, clothes that don't fit us anymore that will surely fit as soon as we go to the gym as often as we've been planning to, shit we bought at Michael's that weekend we decided we were going to be crafty, heels we can no longer walk in, etc.

Where we differ is that if someone were to say, "Hey Robyn, if you give us that Fry Daddy you bought because you had too much to drink and decided that 2016 was gonna be the year you were going to try to make clam cakes at home (and then never actually opened), then millions of people could have health care," I would hand it right over. I would not think twice about it.

That's not just me being an especially good or decent person. I actually think that if almost any non-billionaire in this country —Republicans included — were told that if they gave up one thing that they weren't using anyway, that people could have health care, child care, education, etc., that they would not think twice about it.

This is not my version of Joe Biden's "Oh boy, when Trump isn't president anymore, all the Republicans will have epiphanies and suddenly become good people who want to compromise and stuff!" schtick. I don't believe that at all. I do believe, however, that when most people are told about something they can do directly, as a person, that will not significantly inconvenience them but will really help someone else out, that they will do that thing. Especially if the ask occurs in front of other people. That's why those "Hey, do you want to add a dollar to your grocery order to help starving children?" campaigns work so well.

Each year, non-billionaire Americans contribute $650 million to GoFundMes for medical expenses. And, unlike the money billionaires give to their bullshit foundations, that money isn't even tax-deductible. That $650 million is just a gift from Americans, purely out of the goodness of their collective hearts, because they see a sick or injured person in a bad financial situation and they want to help out.

Billionaires are being told that there is a direct way that they can impact the lives of literally every person in this country, that a sacrifice that would not even make a dent in their vast fortunes or require them to change their lifestyle in any way whatsoever could actually provide the rest of the entire country with healthcare, childcare, education, and they have the gall to be frightened? To cry on national television? To be horrified at the prospect of living on $7 billion a year, like a peasant?

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are not the ones vilifying these billionaires. They're doing a perfectly good job of it themselves."