Trump Presidency

[madhatter]

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/10/24/t ... ssia-probe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[deadheadskier]

Hook, line and sinker every time! red pen and all. Lol

There is perhaps no person on the internet so easy to troll into some dark inane diatribe. I honestly find it fascinating. Open book into the insane workings of a crazy person. A mental health worker would have a field day with you.

As for Weinstein? Of course I think he's a piece of sh*t. Is your expectation I comment on every creep in the news? I also haven't commented on the two NH Republican State Reps in the past year who have had to step down for soliciting minors or the Red Pill Ahole. Does that mean I don't think they should rot in hell too? I guess by your attempts at logic, maybe so.

One thing we do know is your wife's pussy probably hasn't reached out and grabbed your hand in years. That's the only reasonable explanation for someone who let's politics consume their life to the point of spending all day posting the stupid sh*t you do and whines when no one gives you the attention you want. As your idol would tweet, "SAD!"

[Nikoli]

Hatters gold play! I forgot about that one.

[Bubba]

This is taken from an opinion piece on the NBC News website. I can't disagree.


"But Trump’s populist base doesn’t support him because of his ideology or his policies. They support the man. They admire Trump as someone who is defiant of the establishment and won’t be pushed around. And who understands their grievances. They believe that he sees them and hears their problems while the media and other politicians don't."

[madhatter]

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/10/24/t ... ssia-probe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While media reports describe former "Black, Manafort & Stone" principal Paul Manafort as Trump's main tie to the investigation, the source said it is Manafort's role as a liaison between Russia and the Podesta Group that is drawing the scrutiny.

The "vehicle" Manafort worked for was what Carlson called a "sham" company with a headquarters listed in Belgium but whose contact information was linked to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

Manafort was, at the time, representing Russian business and political interests during the Obama era.

The source said the Podesta Group was in regular contact with Manafort while Hillary Clinton was America's chief diplomat.

In 2013, the group hired away one of Clinton's deputies, David Adams, effectively establishing contact between the Washington firm and Clinton's office in Foggy Bottom, D.C.

The source said Tony Podesta spoke regularly with Clinton and was the one who personally hired Adams.

During this time, the Uranium One deal was being facilitated by the White House.

According to Carlson, "Manafort was clear that Russia wanted to cultivate ties to Hillary" because she appeared to be the presumptive 45th president.

Carlson said the media's description of the probe being focused on Trump as an individual is "mostly bogus" if the source's explanation pans out.

Carlson said he has checked out some of the information given by the source, and it has thus far proved accurate.

John Podesta was Clinton's campaign chairman, and Manafort served as Trump's campaign chief during the summer of 2016.

[madhatter]

Hook, line and sinker every time! red pen and all. Lol

There is perhaps no person on the internet so easy to troll into some dark inane diatribe. I honestly find it fascinating. Open book into the insane workings of a crazy person. A mental health worker would have a field day with you.

As for Weinstein? Of course I think he's a piece of sh*t. Is your expectation I comment on every creep in the news? I also haven't commented on the two NH Republican State Reps in the past year who have had to step down for soliciting minors or the Red Pill Ahole. Does that mean I don't think they should rot in hell too? I guess by your attempts at logic, maybe so.

One thing we do know is your wife's pussy probably hasn't reached out and grabbed your hand in years. That's the only reasonable explanation for someone who let's politics consume their life to the point of spending all day posting the stupid sh*t you do and whines when no one gives you the attention you want. As your idol would tweet, "SAD!"

more projection...it's all you have...enjoy...

[madhatter]

This is taken from an opinion piece on the NBC News website. I can't disagree.


"But Trump’s populist base doesn’t support him because of his ideology or his policies. They support the man. They admire Trump as someone who is defiant of the establishment and won’t be pushed around. And who understands their grievances. They believe that he sees them and hears their problems while the media and other politicians don't."

following up on that...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... newcomment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, putting my Nostradamus hat on again, here are 10 reasons why I think Trump can pull it off again:
1) He’s the most resilient, uncompromising man in America. Love him or loathe him, Trump hasn’t changed or pivoted one iota from the candidate who ran for office. He is both absurdly thin-skinned AND absurdly thick-skinned – incapable of ignoring any slight, however small, but also showing quite extraordinary strength of character in repelling what even Jimmy Carter just called the most frenzied media attack on a serving president in US history. Yes, Trump’s an inveterate bulls**tter, the by-product of life as a shameless salesman, but to date he hasn’t lied us into an illegal war like one of his most recent critics George W. Bush did in Iraq – so political fibbing is all relative.
2) Trump’s enemies are bailing out from the fight like conscientious objectors in the war. Yesterday, two Senators, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake made grandiose media-grabbing attacks on the President, effectively branding him a lying useless goon. Both are standing down, and in (Snow) Flake’s case, he’s only doing so because he knows he’s going to get an absolute drubbing in the next election. This, remember, is a guy so principled that he wrote to a Sandy Hook relative saying he agreed with her about introducing background checks on gun sales, then voted AGAINST it just months later. That was a major reason why his poll numbers collapsed. So spare me the sanctimony now, Senator. You’re a fraud.
3) Hollywood’s liberal elite, Trump’s most vociferous, influential and vicious opponents, have exposed themselves to be a bunch of shocking hypocrites whose high moral and ethical plinth now lies in a pile of ruins.
The Weinstein scandal was just the tip of the unedifying iceberg. Today we learned that Woody Allen, a man who ran off and married one adoptive daughter and was accused of sexually abusing another adoptive daughter when she was just seven, is currently making a movie about a pedophile who preys on a 15-year-old girl. Meanwhile, Trump’s most indignant Hollywood opponents like Meryl Streep continue to celebrate convicted fugitive child rapist Roman Polanski. Middle America is watching all this and thinking: ‘Don’t you lot DARE lecture us about anything ever again.’
4) The Democrats don’t have anyone yet who can run against Trump and actually beat him. Say what you like about the man but he’s proven himself to be a formidably fierce political campaigner who wipes away opponents with the flick of a mocking ‘Low Energy Jeb’ nickname switch. My preferred choice last time, Joe Biden, will be 78 by 2020 – surely, sadly, too old by then to mount a winning challenge? If not Joe, then who? The clock is ticking.


5) Hillary Clinton’s still hanging around like a malodorous failure to remind everyone on a daily basis of the world’s biggest and most shocking political defeat. Her global loser tour, in which she continues to blame everyone but herself, is a vote-destroying disaster for the Democrats. She needs to be pushed out into the political long grass, but who will tell her? Every day Hillary stays in the limelight is another win for Trump. Today, it was shockingly revealed that after all her pontificating about Russia, it was ‘Halo’ Hillary who secretly paid for the dirty Russian dossier on Trump to try to smear him. She’ll collude with the worst of them when it suits her, and voters know it.
6) Trump’s doing very well with the crucial election-deciding issue: the economy. The stock markets keep roaring to record highs (Lest we forget, top liberal economist Paul Krugman told us on election night, when the markets tanked, that they would never recover under Trump!), growth continues around a steady 3%, and unemployment numbers have fallen consistently in the past year. If Trump gets his game-changing tax plan through, and I think eventually he will, then the US economy will likely surge forward just in time for his 2020 campaign. As Reagan and Clinton proved, when an incumbent president runs with a strengthening economy behind him, he’s pretty much unbeatable.
7) His base is rock solid. The polls suggest everyone who voted for Trump last time would do so again. I’ve spent time down in states like Florida and Texas recently and they’re revelling in Trump’s presidency. Everything the screaming liberals loathe about him, from The Wall and travel ban to his ‘Fake News!’ mantra and attack on kneeling NFL players, they love.


On the foreign stage, far from being the disaster that Corker and Flake claim, I’d argue that Trump’s proven himself to be rather effective in re-establishing America’s status as the world’s No1 superpower. He slapped Syria dictator Bashar al-Assad round the chops when he tested him with a chemical weapons attack, he’s got ISIS on the run from places like Raqqa exactly as he promised, and he’s stood up to North Korean lunatic Kim Jong-un and told him if he messes with America, he and his country will be vaporized. I very much doubt bellicose self-preservationist Kim will now test that theory. Trump’s visits to places like Saudi Arabia, Poland and France were all huge successes, and I confidently predict now that his trip next week to Japan and China will be too. For all his faults, Trump’s a world-class schmoozer when he needs to be, and a savvy negotiator. By all accounts, most foreign leaders have enjoyed their interactions with him.

9) Trump’s Twitter feed continues to dominate the world’s news agenda.

It remains astonishing that a 70-year-old man is the best social media practitioner on the planet, but he is. Trump uses his tweets to refute damaging stories, promote positive ones, take down enemies and talk up friends. More importantly, he’s been able to by-pass mainstream media to get HIS message out to millions of people, exactly how HE wants to, and in an often brutally frank manner that his supporters thoroughly enjoy. That is Utopia for any politician. By 2020, Trump will have trebled or quadrupled his current social media follower counts, giving him an unprecedented and incredibly powerful platform to fight the next election.

10) Trump’s the incumbent president and historically, 70% of those who run again get re-elected. The stats are on his side.

So scream all your like next week, hysterical Trump-hating liberal snowflakes, but I’d save some of your voice for Wednesday, November 4, 2020.

Because that’s when, as things stand, I predict Donald J. Trump will be re-elected President of the United States.

Altogether now: AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[Mister Moose]

following up on that...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... newcomment" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1) He’s the most resilient, uncompromising man in America. Love him or loathe him, Trump hasn’t changed or pivoted one iota from the candidate who ran for office.

2) Trump’s enemies are bailing out

3) Hollywood’s liberal elite, Trump’s most vociferous, influential and vicious opponents, have exposed themselves to be a bunch of shocking hypocrites whose high moral and ethical plinth now lies in a pile of ruins.

5) Hillary Clinton’s still hanging around like a malodorous failure to remind everyone on a daily basis of the world’s biggest and most shocking political defeat. Her global loser tour, in which she continues to blame everyone but herself, is a vote-destroying disaster for the Democrats.

6) Trump’s doing very well with the crucial election-deciding issue: the economy.

7) His base is rock solid.

8] On the foreign stage, far from being the disaster that Corker and Flake claim, I’d argue that Trump’s proven himself to be rather effective in re-establishing America’s status as the world’s No1 superpower.

10) Trump’s the incumbent president and historically, 70% of those who run again get re-elected. The stats are on his side.

I predict Donald J. Trump will be re-elected President of the United States.

Yeah, yeah, probably written by some staunch right wing hyper partisan, sister kissin, cousin marryin, bible thumpin, gun totin, gap toothed, PBR swillin type like .... like....


Piers Morgan ???

That surprised me.

Seems to me an interesting poll would be the number of vote regretters on both sides. How many Trump voters regret their vote now, and would switch to Hillary? How many Hillary voters regret their vote and knowing what they know now, would change their vote?

Piers Morgan's comments of "malodorous failure, global loser tour, [she] is a vote-destroying disaster for the Democrats" indicate there might be more Clinton regret than Trump.

[Bubba]

While Democratic presidential hopes require a viable candidate (none currently evident) Trump poll numbers don't (at the moment) appear encouraging. November 2018 and November 2020 are still a long way off.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/29/trump-a ... enate.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[madhatter]

While Democratic presidential hopes require a viable candidate (none currently evident) Trump poll numbers don't (at the moment) appear encouraging. November 2018 and November 2020 are still a long way off.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/29/trump-a ... enate.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

have they ever?

[XtremeJibber2001]

Manafort and Gates indicted.

[Bubba]

This is taken from an opinion piece on the NBC News website. I can't disagree.


"But Trump’s populist base doesn’t support him because of his ideology or his policies. They support the man. They admire Trump as someone who is defiant of the establishment and won’t be pushed around. And who understands their grievances. They believe that he sees them and hears their problems while the media and other politicians don't."

CNN Opinion interview "Are Democrats Clueless On Class?" ties in well with the above quote.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/29/politics/ ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Highway Star]

Manafort and Gates indicted.

I'll just leave this here, really activates the almonds:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/09/politics/ ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Podesta lobby group did not disclose extent of work for Ukrainian campaign advised by Paul Manafort

By Thomas Frank, CNN Investigates

Updated 10:35 AM ET, Tue May 9, 2017

(CNN) — One of Washington's most powerful lobbying firms did not disclose the wide extent of its lucrative political work for a Ukrainian group tied to both onetime Trump adviser Paul Manafort and to pro-Russian politicians, new records show.

The firm, the Podesta Group, said nothing in a 2012 lobbying report to Congress about at least 32 meetings, emails and other communications it had with the State Department, at a time when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scrutinizing Ukraine's upcoming election, records show.

The new disclosures shed light on the web of contacts between Russian-leaning Ukrainians, Washington lobbyists and U.S. policymakers during the Obama administration. The Podesta Group filed new, detailed lobbying disclosures in April to augment lobbying reports from 2012 to 2014 that had given little detail.

The firm is run by Tony Podesta, whose brother, John, is a longtime adviser to Clinton and was chairman of her 2016 presidential campaign. John Podesta was a senior counselor to President Barack Obama in 2014 and had previously been lobbying partners with his brother. He is not currently affiliated with his brother's firm.

The Podesta Group was representing a Ukrainian nonprofit, the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, as it sought to counter the Obama administration's critical stance toward Ukraine's pro-Russia government and Congress' growing annoyance with Ukraine's leaders.


In addition to its undisclosed contacts with the State Department, the Podesta Group did not disclose some contacts it had between 2012 and 2014 with Vice President Joe Biden's office, the National Security Council and Congressional offices, the records show.

The Podesta Group said some of those contacts were not "lobbying" efforts but public relations, which firms are not required to report to Congress.

"These would not constitute lobbying if there was no advocacy component," Podesta spokesman David Marin said.

By contrast, in 2013 the Podesta Group disclosed on reports that it lobbied the State Department and the NSC.

Marin declined to explain why the firm disclosed some contacts but not others. "We are simply not in a position," he said, "to comment on the reasoning behind decisions that were made over four years ago."

Several legal experts challenged the Podesta Group's interpretation, saying in interviews that any meeting with State Department officials monitoring a foreign election constitutes lobbying that must be reported to Congress under federal law.

Joseph Sandler, a Washington attorney who advises Democratic and Republican lobbyists, said it's a narrow distinction between public-relations work and lobbying, and that giving the State Department information about a foreign election would constitute lobbying.

"For what other purpose would they be providing this information if not to ultimately influence a policy or position of the U.S. government in this election?" Sandler said.


Seven meetings at a crucial time

The European Centre for a Modern Ukraine was formed in 2012 by three senior members of the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia party led by President Viktor Yanukovych and advised by Manafort.

At the time, Ukraine's government faced rebuke by the Obama administration and Congress for jailing political opponents.

The center, based in Brussels, said its mission was to strengthen Ukraine's relations with the West.

The Podesta Group said in the 2012 lobbying disclosures that the center "provides information about Ukraine to governments, business and other interested parties." Podesta lobbyists were working on "issues pertaining to relations between Ukraine and the United States."

But those descriptions mask the scope of the center's mission, said Sergii Leschenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker who investigated its origins.

"It was created to launder the reputation of Yanukovych in Europe and the United States," Leschenko told CNN. The Belgium headquarters was a ruse "to pretend like it was an international European organization."

Officials at the center could not be reached for comment.

The Podesta Group said in the new filings that it did not know who funded the center, and provided a written statement in which the center's executive director says it is not "supervised, directed, controlled, financed or subsidized" by a foreign government or political party.

The Podesta Group's work for the center peaked in October 2012 at a crucial time in U.S.-Ukraine relations. Europe's leading election observer reported in early October 2012 that candidates in Ukraine were being attacked, opposition leaders were imprisoned, and that reports were circulating of intimidation, bribery and vote-buying.

Clinton, then secretary of state, voiced concerns about the election four days before it was held and called it "an important bellwether" of the Ukrainian government's commitment to democratic institutions.

The Podesta Group went to work.

In the two weeks before and after Ukraine's election, the firm had near-daily contact with the State Department, holding seven meetings, conducting "outreach" on seven days and having conversations or email exchanges on 11 days, including with top department officials. The Podesta Group also had contact with the National Security Council on seven days in that same period.

"They were pretty open about their purpose being to give a positive perspective on the upcoming election," said a former State Department employee whom the Podesta Group met.

But the firm disclosed none of that work with State and the NSC in the lobbying report it filed with Congress for the fourth quarter of 2012. The report says the firm contacted only the House and the Senate.

"Clearly they're not disclosing everything," said Craig Holman, a lobbying expert at Public Citizen. "Money was being spent to influence State Department public policy and we are oblivious to that."

It was not until April of this year that the Podesta Group retroactively filed new lobbying reports with the Justice Department that reveal far more about its work for the center.

The Podesta Group filed the new reports after deciding that its work for the center could qualify as lobbying for a foreign government or foreign political party, which must be disclosed to the Justice Department and list many activities that do not have to be disclosed in reports filed with Congress. That includes contacts with non-profit groups and journalists, as well as meetings with officials in which a lobbyist only provides information that is not intended to affect government policy.

Other lobbying can be reported to Congress and requires disclosure only of agencies lobbied and issues discussed.


A front for Ukraine's President

The center played both sides of the aisle in US politics, also hiring Manafort's consulting firm and a Republican-leaning lobbying firm, Mercury Public Affairs.

Manafort faces scrutiny from Congress as it investigates whether Trump associates conspired with Russia to tilt the 2016 election toward Trump. Trump ousted Manafort as his campaign chairman in August after reports, which Manafort denies, that he may have received $12.7 million in illicit payments from Ukraine's government.

Manafort himself had four meetings in late 2012 and early 2013 on behalf of the center, talking with a congressman and experts in international elections and Ukraine, according to a lobbying report filed last week by another Washington firm, Mercury.

Manafort declined to comment for this story.

Manafort referred the center to Mercury in 2012, said Michael McKeon a Mercury partner. "Our task was to bring Ukraine closer to the West," McKeon said.

Marin, the Podesta spokesman, said his firm's work for the center was supervised by Manafort's consulting associate Rick Gates.

The center paid Mercury $720,000 and the Podesta Group $1 million from 2012 to 2014.

Although both the Podesta Group and Mercury have said they believed the center was an independent group that was not funded or directed by Ukraine's government, lobbying reports show extensive work for Ukraine's government.

Mercury arranged 17 meetings for Ukrainian officials with lawmakers, Congressional staffers and nonprofit group in 2012 and 2013, records show.

The Podesta Group said it arranged meetings with unnamed "Ukrainian officials."

One of those meetings connected Ukraine's foreign minister Leonid Kozhara met with Senator Christopher Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Europe subcommittee, Murphy spokesman Chris Harris said. Kozhara was a founder of the center and a close adviser to President Yanukovych.

The Podesta Group said it was not trying to conceal the Kozhara meeting, and that it named only former heads of state for whom it arranged meetings.

As Podesta Group lobbyists met privately with officials in Washington, they left a clear impression that they were representing Ukraine's government, according to seven people who were lobbied.

"It seemed pretty clear (the center) was just a front for Yanukovych," said Dan Harsha, who was lobbied in 2013 while he was communications director for Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It wasn't just an independent think tank in Europe. There are not too many nonprofits with the wherewithal or the resources to hire perhaps the most prestigious Democratic lobbying group."

Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, which promotes democracy internationally, recalled meeting with Tony Podesta in April 2012 as his group was focusing on the upcoming Ukrainian election. "That's when I found out there was a connection between the Podesta Group and the Ukraine government," Wollack said.

The Podesta Group did not dispute that its employees said they were representing the Ukrainian government's interests.

"We are obviously not in a position to speculate about the contents of any conversations that took place three to five years ago," Marin said.

Marin said the firm made a "good-faith effort at the time to file complete and accurate reports" with Congress, and disclosed in several reports filed with Congress that it had lobbied the State Department and the NSC for the center.

"It's not as if the firm had any hesitancy in listing that agency [State] or any other on its reports," Marin said.

[Highway Star]

Hunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn........

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/ ... obe-244314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tony Podesta stepping down from lobbying giant amid Mueller probe

Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.



By ANNA PALMER
| 10/30/2017 01:02 PM EDT


 Share on Facebook  Share on Twitter

Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.

[Bubba]

Op-Ed from the New York Times on why Trump supporters will not be moved by indictments or almost anything else.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/o ... 7&referer=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;