Trump

[Tolvo]

It actually sounds like Trudeau may have gotten really fucked over. Trump so far is still not removing the tariffs on Canada and workers are incredibly pissed that Trudeau signed that without getting the tariffs removed that are ruining them.

And it seems like Trump and Putin are not having a meeting, but are going to say hello and shake hands, Russia just wants to make it sound like Trump is having the full meeting so they don't lose face.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/us/politics/federal-employees-hatch-act-trump-impeachment.html

Also more on the new rules banning Federal Employees from speaking against Trump in any way, mentioning impeachment or Resistance, or even saying anything negative about his 2020 campaign.

[gaggedLouise]

It actually sounds like Trudeau may have gotten really fucked over. Trump so far is still not removing the tariffs on Canada and workers are incredibly pissed that Trudeau signed that without getting the tariffs removed that are ruining them.

Well, at least Trump didn't get to force Canada to "Americanize" its labour/unions legislation, did he? (I can imagine what a feather in his cap he would feel it to be if he could wring the arm even of other major industrailized countries and force them to change their labour laws to "the way we do it in the US Aaaay").

I'm not that familiar with the details of the US/Canada feud over economy, trade and workers' rights though. I just know Canada tends to have some less rough, less Friedmanesque labour legislation than the US. :)

[Tolvo]

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/11/30/canada-us-mexico-sign-new-nafta-that-trump-says-changes-the-trade-landscape-forever.html

This covers a lot of it.

[TheGlyphstone]

Will the Mexican law call it MUSCA, to fit with the theme?

[Tolvo]

I don't think so.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/11/30/trump-administration-approves-seismic-tests-in-atlantic-that-could-kill-marine-life.html

Also they just announced that they are allowing seismic testing and acoustic testing and drilling closer to the East Cost in the Atlantic. Many believe this will heavily damage the economies of the East Coast and the environment and endangered species and the fishing industry. But Trump wants oil.

[TheGlyphstone]

The Pacific coast and Gulf coast regions have both suffered environmentally destructive and economy-wrecking disasters from drilling accidents. I guess he thinks its only fair to let the Atlantic coast get in on the 'fun'?

[Tolvo]

God dammit Trump, I could take all of the fascism and evil you do. But now you may increases the prices of my North Atlantic Cod Sandwiches from Culver's? This is too far. Impeach now!

[TheGlyphstone]

I'll start adding artificial oil flavoring to my chowder recipes.

[Tolvo]

The Bostonians are gonna revolt. Again. Trump messes with the clams they're coming to his tower. Then they'll come to his golf course when they realize he's not at his big dumb tower.

[Oniya]

The Bostonians are gonna revolt. Again. Trump messes with the clams they're coming to his tower. Then they'll come to his golf course when they realize he's not at his big dumb tower.

Boston's dealt with tyrants before, as I recall. 

[Tolvo]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/nov/30/trump-walks-off-leaving-mauricio-macri-standing-alone-at-g20-video

I really don't get how this man has had people who find his public image good. He can't even stand for a group photo without fucking up. Almost every photo op he does he screws up something.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/6-trump-officials-engaged-political-activity-violated-hatch-act-n942286

Also it has now been ruled that multiple of Trump's people have violated the Hatch Act. Which Trump's admin just changed to include any opposition to Trump or his election as violating the Hatch Act.

Trump's admin members though will receive no disciplinary actions.



Oh yeah he has been mad on twitter about Mueller too.

[gaggedLouise]

Presidents Bush Sr and Jr on Donald Trump: https://news.sky.com/story/bush-presidents-join-to-slam-trump-presidency-11114329

The comment "I don't know much about him, but I know he's a blowhard" is a winner. Especially coming from the normally diplomatic George H W Bush.  :)

Meanwhile, Trump is using the death of the Bush patriarch as an excuse to skip any press briefing at or just after the G20. "Out of respect for the Bush family" and the funeral of Bush Sr. Yeah, yeah.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1068887938761662465

[Tolvo]

To be fair they are strong allies. George W Bush for instance was one of the biggest people campaigning for Brett K on the Supreme Court. Though I imagine this yeah is a good opportunity for him to avoid having to do anything else at G20.

Also since it is World AIDS day.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/11/30/world-aids-day-donald-trump-congress-needed-continue-fight-column/2147788002/

And it is related to both since Trump is proposing to continue George Bush Sr and Reagan's complacency about AIDS and willingness to watch queer people die.

https://www.apnews.com/211f31bcfa8d495192edb82243d662e2

Though recently they've done something a bit good. Which is strange having Mike Pence announce it given the AIDS crisis he caused in his own state and how much he hates LGBTQIA+ people.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fires-all-of-hivaids-panel-without-explanation

Over a year ago Trump fired the HIV/AIDS panel members.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/01/politics/michael-cohen-court-trump-tower-moscow/index.html

Michael Cohen has asked a US judge for no prison time, citing, as he reveals in a new court filing, more details about his conversations with then-candidate Donald Trump about plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Cohen's attorneys argued that his cooperation with multiple investigations, including the special counsel's Russia probe, and the impact and suffering on Cohen and his family merits avoiding jail. But the filing late Friday night goes even further in tying the President to Cohen's actions.

"In fact, Michael had a lengthy substantive conversation with the personal assistant to a Kremlin official following his outreach in January 2016, engaged in additional communications concerning the project as late as June 2016, and kept Client-1 apprised of these communications," the lawyers wrote. Trump is referred to as "Client-1" throughout the filing.

What? But Trump said he didn't know, and that everything was done by then. And besides everything is legal right?

On Friday morning, Trump defended his business dealings in a tweet, saying his dealings during the campaign were "very legal and very cool."

Very legal and very cool? Seriously what kind of English is that? This is what our president is tweeting. It is either legal or not, wtf is very legal?? Oh right, everything about Trump has to be the best! The greatest, well we got the greatest scandals out of him that is for sure.

[Tolvo]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cohen-trump-knew-i-called-kremlin-for-help-with-trump-tower-moscow

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/01/cohen-contact-trump-false-statement-congress-1037036

Yeah I'm guessing at this point that we have enough evidence that Trump did know.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-intelligence-committee-has-referred-cases-of-suspected-lying-to-mueller/2018/11/30/4e7a2428-f4d9-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.00eb47c281cd

Also here is some fun, it looks like more and more republicans are flipping on Trump and his people. Referring them to Mueller for prosecution and further investigation.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1068911659325026307

And if you want to see how Trump deals with being confronted about saying he respects someone's family who just died who he previously spoke very ill of publicly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBzJGckMYO4

[Sara Nilsson]

Trump:

"You know all of the rhetoric you see. 'Thousands points of light.' What the hell was that by the way?" Trump said.

"At a rally in Montana, Trump took aim at Bush's slogan "thousand points of light," which he popularized during his presidential campaign. It later became the titular phrase for Bush's volunteerism organization

Thousand points of light," he said. "What does that mean? I know one thing. 'Make America Great Again' we understand. Putting America first we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? It was put out by a Republican, wasn't it?"

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/07/06/politics/bush-trump-thousand-points-of-light/index.html

Stay classy Mr President

[Tolvo]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/02/james-comey-house-subpoena

So James Comey is ready to talk it looks like. It is a shame it won't be fully in public though.

[Tolvo]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/03/trump-used-really-unfortunate-phrase-while-hailing-progress-with-china/?utm_term=.bc4b793d4005

So Trump is apparently trying to make some callbacks to famines in China that the Chinese government is not happy about. Oddly enough, when reporting they said it was unclear based on that tweet if Trump meant to evoke The Great Leap in regards to China. But I checked his twitter, the tweet right after is about Chinese farmers so this seems intentional? Maybe?



Though when looking at his twitter I did also see Trump tweeted a bit ago about Mueller and how he believes no one should testify against Trump and how anyone who testifies against Trump is a weak coward, and those who refuse to have guts. After he had previously been hinting that those who protect him will get pardons.

[gaggedLouise]

And for now, Trump is "looking forward to" burying President Bush. That's a bit like saying "i was invited by the felon to attend his execution". A funeral isn't something you look forward to, certainly not if the deceased person called you "a blowhard" in public, not long ago. 

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069631759573225474

[Tolvo]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/4/18125359/wikipedia-trump-admin-account-security-hack

Trump related, I was a bit scared to click the story at first like "Oh god I do not want to see any part of that man's body."

https://news.yahoo.com/mueller-preparing-end-game-russia-investigation-225720798.html

So it's time for Flynn. And Manafort's stuff will be public.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/03/trump-roger-stone-tweet-witness-tampering-experts

Also some believe Trump's tweets could amount to witness tampering. I think they do personally, but it is basically unprovable in court.

[Tolvo]

https://apnews.com/8335d630f04248fe9175f893c6641729?utm_medium=AP&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

I do wish I could edit a post, Subpoenas are going to be filed today by the Attorney Generals of DC and Maryland for records from Trump Organizations to see if he is profiting from the presidency.

[Mithlomwen]

At this point, it's probably only a matter of time before Trump gets the boot. 

[Tolvo]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/04/robert-mueller-sentencing-memo-for-former-trump-advisor-michael-flynn.html

Well Flynn did talk. Which from the sounds of it went a bit like this.

Mueller: "He Can talk?"
Others murmuring: "He can talk, he can talk he can talk he can talk he can talk?"
Flynn: "I can siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n8BPv43vhE

Also Trump wrote out the protections for LGBT workers from the Canada Mexico deal for the USA. So US LGBT workers won't have those protections.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-erases-lgbtq-protections-usmca-e4698f729c1f/

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/rudy-giuliani-falsely-blames-twitter-after-typo-points-anti-trump-n944136

As well Juliani, who has worked as Trump's head on cybersecurity, doesn't understand basic functions of scripting or what URL's are. And now Juliani believes that it is part of a conspiracy to hack into his twitter account somehow and that Twitter is anti-republican.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4CKLDO8f0

Also Trump signed the agreement wrong. For the Mexico US Canada trade deal, there were three copies, each leader had to sign them all, and each person gets their own copy. Donald Trump first signed in sharpie(He has a special made sharpie he signs most things with since he says he can't write with anything else), but they made him sign it with a pen after the first signature. He then signed his name in the lines for the other world leaders, thinking he was supposed to sign just one copy that was for the USA. But since the leaders have to sign them all, beneath two of Trump's signatures are the other two leaders' signatures. I believe that copy went to Canada so in Canadian law is a document with Trump's name in all three signatures, with the signatures of the other two leaders underneath his name.

If you want to learn more about Trump's special Sharpie that he loves, here.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-uses-personalized-sharpie-pen-2018-11

[Oniya]

At least it's Sharpie, and not Crayola.

[gaggedLouise]

At this point, it's probably only a matter of time before Trump gets the boot.

But if he is listed for impeachment hearings, will he actually answer the questions under oath in a meaningful way? And if Pelosi actually gets to tell him "Mr Trump, you are fired!" would he obey and leave the White House in a helicopter (like Nixon did when he was about to face an impeachment trial) or would he tweet "this is a shocking COUP D'ETAT by the OBAMA DEEP STATE!!"?.  Even if Mueller's investigation and the testimonies of Cohen, Flynn and others might offer conclusive evidence that Trump's campaign did collude with people close to the Kremlin, and that Trump put his own business interests ahead of the integrity of his coming presidency - would his core fanbase accept these as facts and turn away from him?

The answers to those questions could all be no, which would have been unthinkable towards the end of Nixon's days in the White House. TRump got where he is by faltly ignoring some of the key rules of American democracy, so why should he stop doing so if he were beginning to get cornered?

Happened to read this op-ed piece in the NYT this afternoon, and it brings out some tough questions. Ultimately this one: even if Trump is finally evicted, what will the US political landscape look like after him?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/opinion/trump-mueller-russia-investigation.html