Idiocracy

[CarltonTheBear]

yesterday was a total embarrassment..

Donald Trump said 17 false things at press conference where he called media ?dishonest?

WASHINGTON?U.S. President Donald Trump summoned reporters to the East Room of the White House on Thursday for a press conference. His primary purpose: bashing the media, an entity he called ?so dishonest? and ?out of control.?

He did not model the kind of truthfulness he said he was seeking ? making 17 separate false claims over 77 minutes.

...
[My favourite one]:
5. The claim: ?We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban.?

In fact: We don?t usually fact-check claims like ?smooth? ? it?s vague, and it?s a matter of opinion ? but the rollout of the travel ban was so obviously not smooth that we?re making an exception here. The implementation of the ban resulted in mass confusion among U.S. allies like Canada, caused travel problems for thousands of visa-holders and permanent residents, necessitated a series of clarifications and reversals by U.S. officials, and appeared so hasty that a federal appeals court has found that the administration may have violated residents? constitutional right to due process.

Per the author, Daniel Dale, Trump is on pace to say over 4,160 false claims over a four-year term.

 

[herman]

Lies/60 is through the roof.

 

[Kin]

Lies/60 is through the roof.

And the cap hit is ridiclous:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/17/trumps-florida-trips-cost-taxpayer-money.html

The Trump family's costs go well beyond the Mar-a-Lago trips. Police officials estimate that they spend $500,000 a day on security for Trump Tower in New York, where first lady Melania Trump and son Barron live.

The Secret Service also protects Trump's eldest sons Donald Jr. and Eric when they travel for Trump Organization business. The Post reported that Secret Service and U.S. Embassy officials paid almost $100,000 for hotel rooms when Eric Trump went to Uruguay to promote a Trump-branded property.

Trump's time in office could cost taxpayers "hundreds of millions of dollars or more," topping the estimated $97 million of travel-related expenses during the Obama administration, the Post reported.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

[tweet]833502278007058434[/tweet]
www.twitter.com/deray/status/833502278007058434

Good for Don.

 

[herman]

Let me get this straight.

Trump goes on a campaign rally his first month into his presidency, and makes passing mention of immigrant tensions in Sweden and refers to an incident the previous night.

Sweden responds with question marks. News media responds with question marks. Late night shows respond with ridicule. Twitter responds as Twitter does.

Trump clarifies that he was referring to a segment he saw on Fox News, which referenced the concerns of Ami Horowitz.

Last night, apparently a riot broke out near Stockholm following a drug-related arrest, and now Trump supporters are feeling extremely vindicated.

 

[Arn]

An interesting read on the potential impact of Trump and Brexit on the island of Ireland

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/23/ireland-border-brexit-trump-eu

 

[Kin]

An interesting read on the potential impact of Trump and Brexit on the island of Ireland

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/23/ireland-border-brexit-trump-eu

That was a good read, thanks. I suppose I'm a bit confused as to how the proposed solution would work in real time. It strikes me as unlikely that Northern Ireland could get a sort of dispensation to still be a de facto member of the EU without creating a lot of tension in Scotland where support for remain was even stronger.

That said as an outsider with really only a passable knowledge of the relevant history the whole partition business has always struck me as being fairly unwieldy in a practical peaceful sense.

 

[Arn]

The situation as we are now is probably as peaceful as it's been in hundreds of years. Obviously in the course of my lifetime I've been (un?)lucky enough to have experienced what it was like when there was an armed struggle and virtual civil war and see that end and some kind of sense of normality begin to evolve.

Right now on the island of Ireland there is effectively no border. Apart from a change from MPH to KMPH on road signs and the lines painted on the roads changing from dashed to solid you don't even know when you go over the border on the motorway.

Thousands of people live on one side of the border and work in villages just up the street but across the border, so to all intents and purposes it doesn't really exist other than as an ideology.

The British government, despite the sycophancy of the largest party in NI, doesn't really care about NI. There just can't be a way that anyone with any sense can see that the border can stay open as is. The UK won't want the ability for goods  or "foreigners" to be able to arrive in Ireland, cross a non existent border into RoI and then walk openly into the UK via NI. The EU won't want goods imported into NI then easily walked into the EU via RoI.

And putting up a border, ideologically, could easily cause animosity and who knows where that could lead considering the simmering volatility that still lingers under the surface. And as you say, it could have repercussions on the whole United Kingdom union also. Worrying/interesting times ahead.

 

[herman]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-familys-elaborate-lifestyle-a-logistical-nightmare--at-taxpayer-expense/2017/02/16/763cce8e-f2ce-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc_story.html

Trump?s three Mar-a-Lago trips since the inauguration have probably cost the federal treasury about $10 million, based on figures used in an October government report analyzing White House travel, including money for Coast Guard units to patrol the exposed shoreline and other military, security and staffing expenses associated with moving the apparatus of the presidency.

[...]

In New York, the city is paying $500,000 a day to guard Trump Tower, according to police officials? estimates, an amount that could reach $183 million a year.

This month, The Post reported that Secret Service and U.S. Embassy staffers paid nearly $100,000 in hotel-room bills to support Eric Trump?s trip to promote a Trump-brand condo tower in Uruguay.

[...]

For Trump, the costs come with an additional perk: Some of the money flows into his own pocket. While Trump has removed himself from managing his company, he has refused to divest his ownership, meaning that he benefits from corporate successes such as government contracts.

[...]

Presidential families have for decades been guaranteed round-the-clock protection, no matter the expense or destination. Every presidency has brought new operational challenges and lifestyle habits, from George W. Bush?s frequent stays at his remote ranch in Texas to Obama?s annual trips to Martha?s Vineyard and his native state of Hawaii. Judicial Watch estimated that Obama-related travel expenses totaled nearly $97 million over eight years.

TL;DR: In Trump's first month, his expenses have cost as much as, if not more than, one year of Obama's. Those expenses are also flowing into Trump's own pocket.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

It's early, but I think we have a front-runner for 'Best Tweet of 2017':

[tweet]834678063292116992[/tweet]
www.twitter.com/SammyAlbon/status/834678063292116992

 

[hockeyfan1]

Now this....

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said in television interviews that he had been authorized ?by the top levels of the intelligence community? to denounce reports on Trump campaign contacts as false.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-enlist-intelligence-officials-key-lawmakers-to-counter-russia-stories/2017/02/24/c8487552-fa99-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html

 

[CarltonTheBear]

"Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

-The President of the United States

 

[Kin]

"Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

-The President of the United States

I was a low level employee in the Ontario Ministry of Health's media division for a couple years and the one thing I took away from that job? "Health care is mind bogglingly complicated".

I honestly think a random person off the street would do a better job as President.

 

[L K]

"Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

-The President of the United States

I was a low level employee in the Ontario Ministry of Health's media division for a couple years and the one thing I took away from that job? "Health care is mind bogglingly complicated".

I honestly think a random person off the street would do a better job as President.

Personally I think he has it completely backwards.  Health care is easy to understand.  It's insanely complicated, is bogged down with excessive bureaucracy and when the majority party wants to actively prevent a large percentage of the country from accessing it, it becomes far more difficult.

Only idiots say stuff like Trump.  He is quite clearly an idiot.  The US elected an idiot to run their country.  The idiot does and says idiotic things.  It would be modestly amusing if it wasn't damning children and innocent people to a lack of education and a lifetime of medical debt.

 

[Bender]

Yeah but America doesn't want taxes or government getting in the way of their hard earned beer and gun money.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

[herman]

Is anyone else following this Jeff Sessions thing?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html

Also this:
Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/obama-trump-russia-election-hacking.html

 

[Zee]

Sounds like fake news to me.  Sad.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

Is anyone else following this Jeff Sessions thing?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-spoke-twice-with-russian-ambassador-during-trumps-presidential-campaign-justice-officials-say/2017/03/01/77205eda-feac-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html

Also this:
Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/obama-trump-russia-election-hacking.html

Good timing.  The media seemed like they were ready to give him some kind of award for the fact that he made it through a speech without sounding completely unhinged. 

 

[Boston Leaf]

I can only imagine what would have happened if Sessions what part of Obama's team and this stuff was going on.. Both sides are so hypocritical.

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

I can only imagine what would have happened if Sessions what part of Obama's team and this stuff was going on.. Both sides are so hypocritical.

 

hypocrisy is definitely part of the human condition.  The old adage of judging oneself by their intent and others by their actions.  But if you're saying that it makes both sides in this the same.  then I think you're wrong.  Somehow the democrats have lasted 8 years with a very hostile republican opposition looking for anything and everything to use against Obama and they weren't able to discover anything like the scandals that trump has wracked up in two months of office.  If the democrats are just as bad at the republicans then it's amazing how much better they are at keeping it under wraps.