Trump Is Giving This Country Its Identity Back

[GMDino]

(06-23-2017, 11:02 PM)Dill Wrote: They aren't shutting out ALL media. One station provides a proper counter-narrative to MSM reports of Russian hacking and collusion.

They will listen when they lose their Medicare.  

Ah!  There's the rub!  No they won't.

They'll blame "the government" and will believe that "the government" is the problem so they have to vote Republican because they want a smaller government.

Somehow that will make sense to them.

[GMDino]

Trump is keeping his promise to look out for the forgotten and the little guy!*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-repeals-regulation-wage-theft_us_58d9408ee4b03692bea814c9

Quote:Trump Repeals Regulation Protecting Workers From Wage Theft
The regulation was meant to ensure that shady employers don’t benefit from taxpayer dollars.

[/url]


WASHINGTON ― Companies that commit wage theft and put their workers in harm’s way just received a favor from the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump signed a bill Monday [url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-are-about-to-erase-one-of-obamas-major-workplace-protections_us_5894caf8e4b09bd304bb359c]repealing a regulation that had encouraged federal contractors to follow labor laws. Under the Obama-era rule, companies with an egregious record of violating wage and safety laws would lose their government contracts if they didn’t come into compliance.

The idea behind the rule was to make sure unscrupulous employers didn’t receive taxpayer dollars. But Republicans in Congress thought the rule was too punitive and unfair to businesses. They used an arcane tool known as the Congressional Review Act in an effort to kill the regulation, which was called the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule.

KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS

By approving the legislation sent to him by the Senate, Trump has ensured not only that the regulation will die, but also that no similar regulation can be put forth by the Labor Department again. Trump signed the legislation at a White House ceremony in front of the press. 

“When President Trump has a chance to stand with workers, he chooses not to,” Heidi Shierholz, a labor policy expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said in a statement. “By blocking this rule, the president and congressional Republicans will ensure that taxpayers will continue to support contractors with a history of wage theft and health and safety violations.”

The repeal of the rule is part of a broader assault on federal regulations carried out by Republicans with the support of the new White House. The GOP has used the Congressional Review Act to repeal more than a dozen federal rules implemented by the Obama administration. Trump, meanwhile, has issued executive orders that limit agencies’ abilities to roll out new regulations on corporations, including an order that requires officials to repeal two existing rules for every new one.

Labor groups and advocates for low-wage workers pressured the Obama administration to issue the contracting rule. Numerous reports have shown that federal contractors continue to receive federal money even after cheating employees out of pay or endangering them on the job. Democrats have sought for years to tighten the rules on contracting when it comes to lawbreakers.

Under the Obama rule, firms that bid on federal contracts would have to disclose their labor violations from the previous three years, including any times they were found to have broken laws pertaining to collective bargaining, civil rights, health and safety, or minimum wage and overtime. But violations wouldn’t necessarily prevent a firm from winning a contract, so long as it took steps to take care of the problem.

The Labor Department estimated that the rule would apply to 14,000 contractors each year, but “only a small share of these companies is expected to have reportable violations, and even fewer are expected to have serious, repeated, willful, or pervasive violations to report,” the agency noted. Business groups, however, vilified the regulation as a “blacklisting rule,” and they enlisted GOP members to kill it. 

Just last week, Republicans dismantled a different workplace safety regulation, one that required large employers to keep an accurate record of any injury for a period of five years. Workplace safety experts say repealing that rule would make it easier for companies to hide health and safety problems. Trump has not yet signed that legislation.

*If the little guy is a company who has broken rules that took advantage of their employees and/or put them at risk.

[GMDino]

This older story got shared on Facebook today because some people just share anything that makes a Trump sound awful...took a few clicks to get to the original story but given some recent events it seemed appropriate to post.  And since it's not new news I'll just add it here.

http://gazette.com/eric-trump-defends-his-father-in-colorado-blasts-the-clintons/article/1587505

Quote:Eric Trump, the presidential candidate's 32-year-old son, came to Colorado Monday to talk business and energize volunteers, but he was armed and ready to defend his father's personal reputation.

He blamed Hillary Clinton's campaign for releasing a 2005 "Access Hollywood" audio tape in which his father made lewd comments about kissing and groping women against their will, and getting away with because he's a celebrity.

"I think that's Hillary going low," the younger Trump said in the campaign's Denver office, after he greeted volunteers. "I think you've seen that for a long time. If you look at her track record with women, I think you saw that yesterday with some of the people we had sitting at the debate. It's horrible. She'll dig out dirt on someone from 15 years ago when someone is in entertainment.

"And, listen, my father apologized for it. He was right to apologize for it, and I'm glad he apologized for it. At the same time, if you look at her track record with women, it's horrible. It's absolutely horrible."

There has been no evidence that the Clinton campaign released the damaging tape.

Eric Trump said he was "surprised it came out."

"At the same time, I think it's locker room banter," he said, repeating his father's description of it. "I think sometimes when guys are together they get carried away, and sometimes that's what happens when alpha personalities are in the same presence. At the same time, I'm not saying it's right. It's not the person that he is."

Billy Bush.



Alpha!

[Dill]

(06-28-2017, 04:35 PM)GMDino Wrote: This older story got shared on Facebook today because some people just share anything that makes a Trump sound awful...took a few clicks to get to the original story but given some recent events it seemed appropriate to post.  And since it's not new news I'll just add it here.

http://gazette.com/eric-trump-defends-his-father-in-colorado-blasts-the-clintons/article/1587505

Billy Bush.  


Alpha!

This forum has ruined me. Now I can't see the word "alpha" without thinking of Jesus.

[GMDino]

(06-28-2017, 05:50 PM)Dill Wrote: This forum has ruined me. Now I can't see the word "alpha" without thinking of Jesus.

And I can only picture Billy Bush.  

[Dill]

(06-28-2017, 05:55 PM)GMDino Wrote: And I can only picture Billy Bush.  

  Standards have so dropped since Trump's election.

[GMDino]

There is being "non-PC" and then there is this puke coming from President of the United States.

I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

He should be ashamed but he doesn't have that capability.

[*wildcats forever*]

(06-29-2017, 10:05 AM)GMDino Wrote: There is being "non-PC" and then there is this puke coming from President of the United States.

I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

He should be ashamed but he doesn't have that capability.

Further evidence that this person's existence merely serves as a warning to all as to how not to be. 

[GMDino]

(06-29-2017, 10:30 AM)wildcats forever Wrote: Further evidence that this person's existence merely serves as a warning to all as to how not to be. 

But seriously it's great to see Melania's cyberbullying initiative is off to an amazing start.

— Slade Sohmer (@Slade) June 29, 2017

[GMDino]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/media/mika-brzezinski-donald-trump-tweet/

Quote:On Thursday morning, while MSNBC's "Morning Joe" was on the air, Trump posted a pair of hateful tweets about co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.


MSNBC responded with this statement: "It's a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job."


The president's deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, defended the tweets by saying Trump was responding to the "outrageous attacks that take place" on "Morning Joe" and other shows.



Trump refuses to be "bullied," Sanders said on Fox News. "This is a president who fights fire with fire."


Trump's tweets in the 8 a.m. hour on Thursday said that "Morning Joe" is "poorly rated" (it's not) and that the hosts "speak badly of me" (that's true). He called both hosts disparaging names.

Trump claimed that Scarborough and Brzezinski courted him for an interview at Mar-a-Lago around the New Year's Eve holiday.
"She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" the president wrote.

He actually said yes, according to accounts of their meeting. Trump, Scarborough and Brzezinski mingled with guests and had a private chat.
For the record, photos from Mar-a-Lago do not show any blood or bandages on Brzezinski's face.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/06/29/donald-trump-attacks-morning-joe-hosts-mika-brzezinski-joe-scarborough/438608001/

Quote:Lawmakers also denounced the tweet, including three Republicans:

Quote:[/url] Follow
Ben Sasse 

@BenSasse
Please just stop. This isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office.
10:16 AM - 29 Jun 2017

Quote: Follow
Lindsey Graham 

@LindseyGrahamSC
Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.
10:15 AM - 29 Jun 2017

Quote: Follow
Lynn Jenkins 

@RepLynnJenkins
This is not okay. As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/880410114456465411 …
10:32 AM - 29 Jun 2017

Quote: Follow
Rep. Barbara Lee 

@RepBarbaraLee
I want my GOP colleagues to explain to my 3 granddaughters why they think these viciously sexist comments are acceptable from our President. https://twitter.com/cnn/status/880425021650472960 …
10:09 AM - 29 Jun 2017

...


According to CNN, Trump spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said of the president's tweet, "This is a president who fights fire with fire."

Quote: Follow
Vaughn Sterling 

@vplus
Sarah Huckabee Sanders on President's tweet this morning: "This is a President who fights fire with fire"
10:37 AM - 29 Jun 2017

First lady Melania Trump's communications director appeared to defend the president's comments, per CNN.

Quote: Follow
Kaitlan Collins 

@kaitlancollins
Melania Trump's comms director: "As First Lady has stated publicly...when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder."
10:20 AM - 29 Jun 2017

Thursday's attacks appeared to begin with President Trump's social media director, Dan Scavino Jr., who tweeted about half an hour before the president, "#DumbAsARockMika and lover #JealousJoe are lost, confused & saddened since @POTUS @realDonaldTrump stopped returning their calls! Unhinged."

Quote:[url=https://twitter.com/DanScavino] Follow
Dan Scavino Jr. 

@DanScavino
#DumbAsARockMika and lover #JealousJoe are lost, confused & saddened since @POTUS @realDonaldTrump stopped returning their calls! Unhinged.
8:19 AM - 29 Jun 2017

[Benton]

(06-29-2017, 01:04 PM)GMDino Wrote: http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/media/mika-brzezinski-donald-trump-tweet/



https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/06/29/donald-trump-attacks-morning-joe-hosts-mika-brzezinski-joe-scarborough/438608001/

Is the First Lady still making cyber bullying her outreach? It will be an interesting campaign if the official White House stance is "Cyber Bullying: Give it 10 times harder than you get it!"

[GMDino]

(06-29-2017, 02:14 PM)Benton Wrote: Is the First Lady still making cyber bullying her outreach? It will be an interesting campaign if the official White House stance is "Cyber Bullying: Give it 10 times harder than you get it!"

All seriousness aside: This is awful.  And the number of people willing to defend a 70 year old who acts like a 5 year old is just as bad.

I get the ones that are paid to do it...but the general public?

If I didn't hold out the belief that they are a super minority I'd feel even worse about it.

[Dill]

For those who want to talk about something other than the Russia investigation, immigration, and the Muslim ban.

"Low IQ Mika" was "bleeding from a face lift" when Trump refused to admit her to Mar A Lago on New Years, said the leader of the free world in a tweet today. When the predictable media storm blew up and leading Republicans like McCain expressed their "disappointment" in such astoundingly childish behavior, the White House rushed to defend it. Melania's publicist pointed out that when attacked, Trump "hits back 10 times harder." Sarah Huckabee said he was "fighting fire with fire." What he said was no worse that what the media says everyday, not just about Trump, but everyone on the White House staff. When asked if the president should be held to a higher standard, Huckabee responded that Americans elected a "fighter." "Everyone wants to make this about an attack on a woman, but I'm a woman and I get attacked every day." When asked if she would justify Trump's behavior to her children, she replied we all ought to have one model (Jesus). The media constantly ignores all the "winning"--employment, healthcare, immigration, etc. Was Trump creating these media storms with unnecessary behavior? No! He is responding to "attacks" and "false narrative about Russia."

Trump tweets shocking assault on Brzezinski, Scarborough
mhttp://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/media/mika-brzezinski-donald-trump-tweet/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/29/politics/lawmakers-react-trump-tweet-joe-scarborough-mika-brzezinski-morning-joe/index.html

This joins the long list of repulsive behavior which already includes mocking a reporter's disability and insulting Cruz's wife etc. etc. etc.

Response to this, I predict, will fall into three categories: wholesale condemnation of still another action indicating Trump's unfitness for office, "disappointment" in the behavior of someone still very much needed to give an unpopular Republican health and tax agenda a chance of becoming law, and full-throated excuse coupled with cheers. Trump struck back at the far left liberal hollywood elite mainstream media.
The international response will fall mainly into the first category.

The divide between Trump supporters and the rest of the US is not simply about politics and standards of journalistic accuracy. It is about civility, and the values and norms of decency which enable rational public discourse.

[GMDino]

(06-29-2017, 03:24 PM)Dill Wrote: "Low IQ Mika" was "bleeding from a face lift" when Trump refused to admit her to Mar Lago on New Years, said the leader of the free world in a tweet today. When the predictable media storm blew up and leading Republicans like McCain expressed their "disappointment" in such astoundingly childish behavior, the White House rushed to defend it. Melania's publicist pointed out that when attacked, Trump "hits back 10 times harder."  

Trump tweets shocking assault on Brzezinski, Scarborough
mhttp://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/media/mika-brzezinski-donald-trump-tweet/index.html

This joins the long list of repulsive behavior which already includes mocking a reporter's disability and insulting Cruz's wife etc. etc. etc.  

Response to this, I predict, will fall into three categories: wholesale condemnation of still another action indicating Trump's unfitness for office, "disappointment" in the behavior of someone still very much needed to give an unpopular Republican health and tax agenda a chance of becoming law, and full-throated excuse making coupled with cheers. Trump struck back at the far left liberal hollywood elite mainstream media.

The divide between Trump supporters and the rest of the US is not simply about politics and standards of journalistic accuracy. It is about civility, and the values and norms of decency which enable rational public discourse.

Got this covered in tow other threads already!  LOL!

[Dill]

(06-29-2017, 03:26 PM)GMDino Wrote: Got this covered in tow other threads already!  LOL!

OOPs, didn't realize that.

Still want to emphasize my point though--

The divide between Trump supporters and the rest of the US is not simply about politics and standards of journalistic accuracy. It is about civility, and the values and norms of decency which enable rational public discourse.

[GMDino]

(06-29-2017, 03:54 PM)Dill Wrote: OOPs, didn't realize that.

Still want to emphasize my point though--

The divide between Trump supporters and the rest of the US is not simply about politics and standards of journalistic accuracy. It is about civility, and the values and norms of decency which enable rational public discourse.

And it's a good point!

[Dill]

(06-29-2017, 04:00 PM)GMDino Wrote: And it's a good point!

It would have been a good theme for a separate thread--the divide in values and standards between those for and against Trump.  You don't get a Trump presidency unless millions of people "see no evil" when Trump violates common decency as well as standards of factual reporting and professional communication--the kind expected of a world leader.

Attempts to leverage, via false equivalencies, a claim that all the other presidential candidates were just as bad, along with the blanket claim that criticism of the president is "fake news," has taken the level of public discourse first to the ground floor, then the basement, and today, finally, the sub-basement. 

No other public figure has ever sunk to this low. No other Republican candidate would have behaved this way no matter how hard or often attacked. But the Republican base preferred the indecent candidate to all others--and continues to.

This is not just a judgment problem regarding factual determination--e.g., the inability to distinguish between professional intel products and Infowars--it is an inability to value norms of public decency, perhaps even to recognize them. Puzzling is that when the Clintons were under fire in the '90s, the Republican party claimed to distinguish itself from Democrats exactly on these grounds. They stood for standards, traditional social norms, and did not eschew core values to follow polls and popular trends.

[GMDino]

So Scarborough said WH aides told him the POTUS promised to spike a National Enquirer story if he apologized for the negative coverage.

Scarborough told them he didn't care about a story because he didn't know what it was.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/06/30/joe-scarborough-says-white-house-aides-promised-trump-would-spike-tabloid-story-exchange-apology/442127001/

AFTER Joe told the story the POTUS sent out a tweet:
 

Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017

Couple things here:

1) If he hadn't watched the show in a long time...why the tweets yesterday?

2) If Joe had called the POTUS to ask him that would imply he didn't want the story printed (don't think it has been yet) so why would he talk about it at all?

But hey, at least they're getting rid of healthcare and want all our voter roll information...right?

[Dill]

(06-30-2017, 12:19 PM)GMDino Wrote: Couple things here:

1) If he hadn't watched the show in a long time...why the tweets yesterday?

2) If Joe had called the POTUS to ask him that would imply he didn't want the story printed (don't think it has been yet) so why would he talk about it at all?  

But hey, at least they're getting rid of healthcare and want all our voter roll information...right?  

Looks like some serious lying on top of yesterday's tweet. How is it that the POTUS can stop negative news coverage of people?

Trump aids said Trump would spike a "negative story about him in the National Enquirer if Scarborough would call the president and apologize for his negative coverage of Trump.

He described the White House officials as "three people at the very top of the administration."

"They said if you call the president up and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike the story," Scarborough said.

Scarborough said his response was, "Like ‘are you kidding me. I don't know what they have, run a story, I'm not going to do it,’ Scarborough said. 

“The calls kept coming and they were like ‘you need to call, please call',” he added.

Trump has often spoken of his long-standing personal relationship with David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer. During the 2016 campaign, Trump several times referred to negative stories in the tabloid aimed at his rivals, such as Ben Carson and Ted Cruz.

After Scarborough's appearance Friday morning, Trump tweeted: "Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show"

Scarborough quickly responded with his own tweet to deny that he had phoned Trump. "Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven't spoke with you in many months."

[GMDino]

Hey guys!

Remember that time Bill Clinton played his sax on television? Or when Obama when on "Between Two Ferns"?

How the right had a fit?

Here is the current POTUS"

#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017

Someone made that for him and he posted it on the WWW.

How's that healthcare bill coming? Tax reform? The Wall? Anything?

Edit: He also retweeted it tot he official account for the POTUS.