(02-24-2017, 04:54 PM)oncemoreuntothejimbreech Wrote: I don't want to hear conservatives complain about safe spaces again after Spicer was triggered to run for his.

Cowboy the **** up. They're just reporters.  And words. Right? Can't believe Spicer and Trump let 'em get under their skin.

(02-24-2017, 06:00 PM)hollodero Wrote: You really can't? But now it seems rather obvious how pathetic that search for praise and admiration is. Donald needs to be loved, loved and worshipped, I feel that's really all there is to Trump himself. It's why he does things, and it's why he says what he says - rallies, golfing with friends, how big was my win, how great of an apprentice host was I, how many people showed me love at the inauguration etc. Love me, admire me, he needs constant external validation or he gets cranky like a neglected kid and (figuratively) smashes things. (Which probably stems from a deep insecurity, my best guess would be about his intelligence or lack thereof.) 

He couldn't get certain media to turn around and love and admire him, not with threats, not with being condescending, not with alternative truths, so now he throws a hissy fit. He lacks any non-egocentrical perspective on that or anything. It's distressing. At some point I feel even bad for him. Start to feel external shame when he talks. I don't even want to slam him. But the most distressing thing is how this man can get away with what he does. A person could not be more unfit for the job.

(02-19-2017, 05:10 PM)bfine32 Wrote: This!!!!! He is a narcissist as I have said numerous times. This doesn't make him racist or anti-semtic; as he has no motivation to be either. We've kicked the racist can down the road far enough. As I am sure no one who thought he was a racist before waking up this morning has or will change their opinion, just as I won't accept the lazy moniker of Trump's a racist 

Quote:President Trump said Saturday that he will not attend the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, escalating his battle with the news media and raising questions about the future of the annual event.

“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year,” Trump tweeted. “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"

The comment was just the latest turn in Trump’s adversarial relationship with the news media, which essentially began at the start of his campaign in July 2015 and took another questionable turn Friday.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer excluded several news organizations from an informal, but on-the-record gathering known as a “gaggle” -- held Friday in place of the regular, daily press briefing.

Among those excluded were the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico.

The Associated Press and purportedly Time magazine chose not to participate upon learning about Spicer’s move.

Those allowed to attend included Fox News and the conservative website Breitbart News. The site's former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is chief strategist to Trump.

The White House defended the decision by saying so-called “pool reporters,” who record events for others, were invited “so everyone was represented.”

Quote:[/url]

 Follow
Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump
I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!
4:53 PM - 25 Feb 2017

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Earlier Friday, in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump again railed against “dishonest” members of the media and what he calls “fake news.”



The annual black-tie dinner was already unraveling before Saturday. Some of the most prestigious news gathering groups, including Bloomberg, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, said they would not hold exclusive parties before or afterward. In addition, the casts of Veep, House of Cards and Scandal all said they would not be attending this year. 


Even before Trump was elected, the party -- known to some as the “nerd prom” -- was being criticized for becoming an event more for Hollywood types than for the journalists who cover the White House.
[url=http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/25/trump-says-not-going-to-white-house-correspondence-dinner.html#]
Jeff Mason, a Reuters reporter and president of the White House Correspondence Association, told Fox News on Saturday that the dinner has “no chance” of being cancelled and that Trump has yet to be formally invited. 


Though U.S. presidents and reporters frequently have adversarial relationships, the event is one each year in which the sides put aside their differences and give speeches that poke fun.



President Obama roasted Trump at the 2011 event.

Quote:THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE proudly announced the first FBI terror arrest of the Trump administration on Tuesday: an elaborate sting operation that snared a 25-year-old Missouri man who had no terrorism contacts besides the two undercover FBI agents who paid him to buy hardware supplies they said was for a bomb — and who at one point pulled a knife on him and threatened his family.


Robert Lorenzo Hester of Columbia, Missouri, didn’t have the $20 he needed to buy the 9-volt batteries, duct tape, and roofing nails his new FBI friends wanted him to get, so they gave him the money. The agents noted in a criminal complaint that Hester, who at one point brought his two small children to a meeting because he didn’t have child care, continued smoking marijuana despite professing to be a devout Muslim.

One of the social media posts that initially caught the FBI’s attention referred to a group called “The Lion Guard.” Hester told one of the undercover agents the name came from “a cartoon my children watch.”

But according to the DOJ press release, Hester had plans to conduct an “ISIS-sponsored terrorist attack” on President’s Day that would have resulted in mass casualties had it succeeded.

News reports breathlessly echoed the government’s depiction of Hester as a foiled would-be terrorist. But the only contact Hester had with ISIS was with the two undercover agents who suggested to him that they had connections with the group.
The agents, who were in contact with him for five months, provided him with money and rides home from work as he dealt with the personal fallout of an unrelated arrest stemming from an altercation at a local grocery store.

Hester, who had briefly enlisted in the U.S. Army before being discharged in 2013, had posted images of weapons and a flag sometimes associated with terrorist groups on a social media platform. He had also written “Burn in hell FBI” and “Brothers in AmurdiKKKa we need to get something going here all those rednecks have their little militias why shouldn’t we do the same.” In another post, he asserted that ISIS was created as part of a conspiracy by the United States and Israel.

Hester was arrested by local police in October after getting into a dispute with his wife in the parking lot of a grocery store, allegedly damaging store property. The FBI complaint says that when store employees confronted Hester “he assumed an aggressive stance, forcefully placed his hand into the diaper bag he was carrying, in a manner that appeared to be reaching for a weapon.” Police, they said, later recovered a 9 mm handgun from the diaper bag.

Hester was taken into custody and released 10 days later, placed under electronic monitoring and subject to drug testing until his court appearance.

According to the complaint, the FBI undercover agent began communicating with him a day before he was arrested and continued after Hester left jail — commenting on Hester’s anti-government social media posts (which included news articles about a U.S. military strike in Yemen) and offering to help Hester with his expressed desire of “hitting [the government] hard.” The agent told Hester that he knew some individuals he had met recently who shared these ideas.

In subsequent private messaging conversations, Hester told the agent he wanted to do something to hurt the U.S. economy, adding that “we need some big help.” The agent offered to introduce Hester to “some brothers” who could assist.

The agent also “raised the subject of firearms,” sending Hester pictures of assault rifles that “the brothers” had transported for someone else recently.

The complaint reports that a few weeks later, the first agent set up a meeting for Hester with a second agent, who posed as someone with direct terrorist connections. The meeting was in an FBI car. Hester brought his two young children, which he said “could not be avoided, given his child care responsibilities that day.”

“I don’t like America, like for my kids,” Hester said, according to a recording.

On November 30, the second undercover agent gave Hester a ride home from his job and gave him $100, telling him that “this is one job that one brother is supposed to do to another … it’s my duty to make sure that the brother is okay.” Two days later, the agent gave him a ride home from work again. Hester said he “was thinking about oil lines, hitting oil pipelines and oil markets,” or targeting “computer systems and stuff.” He also said he would be willing to help train others in the tactics that he had learned during his short stint in the Army.


The agent cautioned Hester that once he decided to proceed there was “no turning back.” He also told Hester that under no circumstances was he to conduct any sort of operation on his own. The agent, referred to in the complaint as UC-2, then “threatened to come back and find HESTER if he learned that HESTER reneged on the promise. For emphasis, and for the purpose of mitigating the security threat posed by HESTER, UC-2 displayed a knife and reminded HESTER that UC-2 knew where HESTER and his family lived, among other forceful words.”

Hester later complained to the first undercover agent that the second agent had threatened to harm him if he “talked about any plans” or “planned without letting him know.” According to the complaint, Hester told the first agent that it was wrong for the second agent to threaten his family.

During December, the second agent continued giving Hester rides home. He gave Hester a new cellphone and free minutes.
Meanwhile, a warrant was issued for Hester after he violated the terms of his bond by testing positive for marijuana. He pleaded guilty in January to charges stemming from the incident in the grocery store parking lot.

On January 31, the second agent met Hester and gave him a list of items to buy, including 9-volt batteries, duct tape, copper wire, and roofing nails, telling Hester that these would be used to build an explosive. According to the criminal complaint, the agent gave him $20 to buy the items after confirming that “HESTER could not get the money.” Hester agreed to repay the money when he could.


The next day the agent came to Hester’s house, where Hester gave him the requested items, except the copper wire, which he had been unable to find. The agent said he was planning to conduct a violent terrorist attack for the Islamic State and asked if Hester was willing to take part. Hester replied, “I’m down.” The agent then opened the trunk of his car to display several assault rifles and bomb components, all of which had been rendered inoperable by the FBI.

Hester promised that he would help buy ammunition for the weapons once he had received the money from his tax refund.

Over the next few weeks, Hester also continued communicating with the first undercover agent, messaging to say that he was “happy to be part” of the coming attack. The first agent told Hester the attack would take place on President’s Day — February 20 — “and that the targets of the operation would include buses, trains and a train station in Kansas City, Missouri.”

Hester “expressed approval,” according to the complaint, and asked if supplies were needed. The first agent said they needed shrapnel, including nails and screws.

When the second agent picked Hester up at his house on February 17, Hester had some roofing nails. The two then drove to a nearby storage facility where Hester was arrested.

While Hester clearly appears to be a troubled and volatile individual, as evidenced by the incident at the grocery store parking lot, there appears to be little to suggest that he had the wherewithal or capacity to carry out a terrorist attack without the guidance and assistance provided by the two agents. His case is similar to many others in which individuals in financial, legal, or psychological distress have been befriended by undercover FBI agents or government informants and coaxed into developing a terrorist plot.

Hester agreed to go along with the agents’ plans, even when they described to him in detail their violent intentions. But that — and buying the hardware supplies requested by the agents — appears to be all he did. There is no evidence that he had ever been in touch with actual terrorists or had developed a plot of his own. Some of what he agreed to go along with in this case also came after an undercover agent had pulled out a knife and threatened to kill him and his family.

Regardless, Hester is now in federal custody on charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. If convicted on the charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

(02-26-2017, 01:49 AM)GMDino Wrote: https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/trumps-first-terror-arrest-a-broke-stoner-the-fbi-threatened-at-knifepoint/

Quote:Bannon Admits Trump's Cabinet Nominees Were Selected To Destroy Their Agencies.

At CPAC this week Stephen Bannon, the Chief Advisor and intellectual heft behind the Twittering infant that sits in the Oval Office, provided a little glimpse of the future he has planned for all of us. 

In the clearest explanation for why nearly all of Trump’s cabinet choices are known mostly for despising and attacking the very Federal agencies they’ve been designated to lead, Bannon explained—in very clear language--that they weren't appointed to lead these agencies, but to destroy them:

Quote:Atop Trump’s agenda, Bannon said, was the “deconstruction of the administrative state” — meaning a system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president and his advisers believe stymie economic growth and infringe upon one’s sovereignty.

“If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction,” Bannon said. He posited that Trump’s announcement withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history.”

The crippling or wholesale elimination of Federal agencies that ensure we receive such things as clean air, clean water, fair labor laws, fair housing standards, anti-discrimination laws, financial protections, food and drug safety, national education standards and the like, has been a goal of far-right “thinkers" for decades. Their rationale, propagated by corporate and industry-funded think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, has always been that that the existence of these “unelected" agencies represents a mortal threat to American “sovereignty and self-government."  This is exactly the line Bannon was peddling at CPAC today. It is delusional, right-wing garbage.

The reality is that these extensions of the Executive Branch—the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, for example-- exist to serve the interests of all the American people, performing the painstaking and complex  task of regulating the very things that make all Americans’ lives worth living. They perform this function because history has clearly shown that neither the Congress nor the states are remotely up to the task of doing it. They have neither the time, the expertise, the manpower, or the ability to handle such mammoth responsibilities in a country of 330 million people.

For example, these are the Department of Labor’s core functions:

Quote:The purpose of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. In carrying out this mission, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws and thousands of federal regulations. These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers.

When EPA responds to a massive toxic waste spill or a Deepwater Horizon explosion, or simply tells a coal company that it can’t pollute the surrounding air and water with its carcinogens, it is taking on a task on behalf of all Americans, not just the locals who happen to be affected.  When the Department of Health and Human Services administers a nationwide program of medical care for the elderly, it is responding to the needs of all Americans, not just the well-off.  

The nature of “Federal” agencies is just that—to preserve uniformity throughout the country so that (in theory at least) no single state or locality is treated with preference over others. The hundreds of thousands of people who work for these agencies are there because of their expertise and their dedication. They are not politicians.  They are not “elected." But they do work for all of us.

Bannon knows that there is no realistic substitute for these Federal agencies. When Bannon talks about dismantling the "Administrative state,” what he's really talking about is allowing corporations and industry the absolute right to do whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want, regardless of its harmful impact on American citizens. “Deconstruction," in the pie-in-the sky fevered dreams of the Heritage Foundation, means exactly what it sounds like, as the report linked above illustrates— a process by which no Agency regulation for protection of the public may occur without
Congressional approval. In practice, with the current composition of the Republican-dominated Congress, this amounts to complete corporate predation, the absolute elimination of our ability as citizens to halt corporate malfeasance. In essence, he’s talking about corporate-enforced slavery, aided and abetted by a Congress corrupted through and through with corporate largesse.

Bannon is a fanatic, a clear and present danger to the America we all know and care about. Unfortunately, his fanaticism, poured into the ear of someone as fundamentally incurious and vain as Donald Trump, brings us closer to the wholesale destruction of this country than any of us could have expected in our lifetimes.

(02-26-2017, 01:54 PM)GMDino Wrote: Main story here

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/23/1637009/-Bannon-Reveals-His-Intention-To-Deconstruct-The-Administrative-State-i-e-Destroy-The-Country

Quote:Trump Wants Credit for Cutting the National Debt. Economists Say Not So Fast

• Debt can fluctuate by billions a day as spending, income vary
• President notes $12 billion debt reduction in first month
  

President Donald Trump asked on Twitter why the media hasn’t reported that the national debt has dropped since his inauguration. One explanation, some economists said: Trump couldn’t have had anything to do with it.

“Anything that has happened to the debt has been on autopilot since Obama left," said Laurence Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University. “If anything, he is taking credit for something Obama did." 

The president took to Twitter on Saturday morning to say that the national debt declined by $12 billion in his first month in office compared with a $200 billion increase in Barack Obama’s first month in office. The tweet followed a Fox News segment on which former presidential candidate Herman Cain made the same statement.

Quote:[/url]

 Follow
Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump
The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.
8:19 AM - 25 Feb 2017

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Trump’s numbers are accurate. The national debt of $19.9 trillion did decrease $12 billion -- six-hundredths of 1 percent -- from his first day in office until his 30th. It’s also true the debt fluctuates by billions of dollars each day, and the current spending and tax revenue levels that drive those short-term variances were set by the last administration. Trump hasn’t had a chance in his first weeks to change the level of revenue collected through higher taxes or cut federal spending through a new budget.

The $14.4 trillion in debt held by the public, rather than as securities in government trust funds, was $94 million lower on Feb. 21 than on Jan. 20, when Trump was inaugurated. But the following day, the debt level popped back up more than $1 billion due to regular changes in spending and revenue. 

“We applaud the president for focusing on the debt as an important metric of success and economic health, but would point out that the improvement this early in his term has to do with normal fluctuations in spending and revenues rather than new policies he has implemented," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

A White House spokesman wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Read more on Trump’s budget quandary

Former President Barack Obama took office during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Tax revenue was falling and the U.S. was taking on debt to try to get the economy out of a tailspin, Kotlikoff said.

Trump said this week that his team has “enormous work to do” to assemble a federal budget that will bring down deficits and deliver on priorities such as a military buildup, public infrastructure investments, expansion of immigration enforcement and tax cuts.

His administration is also working on a tax plan that it has said would be revealed by early March that will revamp business taxes. Trump may give further details on both in his joint address to Congress Tuesday. 

While it is too soon to project Trump’s impact on the debt, the Council on Foreign Relations expects the debt will grow under Trump given his pledge not to cut entitlements, to increase spending on defense and infrastructure, and to cut corporate taxes.

(02-26-2017, 08:56 PM)bfine32 Wrote: It is much too early to focus on any positive things that have happened since Trump has taken office.

(02-26-2017, 09:37 PM)GMDino Wrote: Or to look at actual facts rather than what your boy tweets.

(02-26-2017, 09:56 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I definitely disagree with this statement as folks should be more worried about facts that what he tweets. Unfortunately, there is a population out there obsessed with what he does and does not tweet. You know the type don't you? 

(02-26-2017, 10:02 PM)GMDino Wrote: The kind that think transgender people should be in the Special Olympics?

Quote:Okla. AG's office confirms Pruitt used private email for state business


OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) - The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office confirms former Attorney General Scott Pruitt used a private email for state business. The information comes a week after FOX 25 first revealed the emails that appeared to be sent from Pruitt’s private email account.

FOX 25 requested answers about Pruitt’s private email use and whether that account was searched for records in accordance with state law. It took one week for the office to return our multiple calls and emails and confirm it did search the account.

A spokesman for the agency, Lincoln Ferguson, said that attorneys within the office conducted the search of Pruitt’s private, personal email account and did not find any documents that had not been captured in the search of official Oklahoma attorney general accounts.

Open government advocate and media professor Dr. Joey Senat said the state law regarding open records indicates that private accounts cannot be used to shield government officials from transparency laws. Senat said one of the weaknesses of Oklahoma’s law on open records relies on trusting public officials that they have conducted appropriate searches of private accounts.

It is not illegal to use a private email account for state business, as long as those records are included in searches for public documents.

However, the revelation is in direct conflict with Pruitt’s written and oral testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee during the confirmation process. Pruitt, who is now the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told lawmakers he had never used private email for state business.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., asked Pruitt directly, “Have you ever conducted business using your personal email accounts, nonofficial Oklahoma attorney general email accounts, text messages, instant messenger, voicemails, or any other medium?”
“I use only my official OAG [Office of the Attorney General] email address and government-issued phone to conduct official business,” Pruitt replied.

Pruitt’s former office is still facing a legal challenge over open records from the Center for Media and Democracy. The AG’s office was ordered to turn over thousands of records that had been withheld for more than two years. The AG’s office is now appealing that ruling as it seeks to keep more records from public release, claiming they are exempt from release under exemptions to the Open Records Act.

Pruitt promised members of the Senate EPW Committee that as EPA administrator he would only use official government email to conduct the business of the agency. It is against federal law to use private email for official business.

(02-26-2017, 10:33 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Not sure of the relevance; however; anyone that thinks transgender should participate in the Special Olympics is closed-minded. Personally I would have no issue with the organization being inclusive of those that suffer with Gender Identity and wish to compete with those on a level playing field. Unfortunately others feel this is an insult to either the Special Olympics or transgenders, depending on which population they have the more negative view of. 

(02-26-2017, 10:33 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Not sure of the relevance; however; anyone that thinks transgender should participate in the Special Olympics is closed-minded. Personally I would have no issue with the organization being inclusive of those that suffer with Gender Identity and wish to compete with those on a level playing field. Unfortunately others feel this is an insult to either the Special Olympics or transgenders, depending on which population they have the more negative view of. 

(02-26-2017, 05:06 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Sure, it could be new classes in the Special Olympics.

(02-27-2017, 12:06 PM)GMDino Wrote:

(02-27-2017, 12:11 PM)Griever Wrote: i think hes schizo, and cant keep track of what his other personalities post