Trump

[TheGlyphstone]

Yep, there was a keyboard glitch allright. I hope one of the Purples will remove that one in time - here's the complete take:

CNN actually had a live discussion this afternoon with a guy from Fox (I think he was from the actual tv division, not one of the higher-up business managers) and it laid open this conflict in a very funny way. They were discussing Trump's ban on Acosta and the court appeal, and the Fox guy said: yes, on principle Fox will support the rights of other tv networks to have their journalists do their work. The CNN guy said, like, "right, so then you and Fox will support our right to ask the president whatever questions we find appropriate, and, and..." /obviously making a declaration/. The Fox guy looked *extremely* uncomfortable, as if he had had to swallow some bad medicine, but finally said, roughly, "well, we'll support the well-understood rights of Mr.Acosta because he's one of the press corps at the White House, but uh, hang on, I am not saying that the President has to accept *any* and every question he is asked by some journalist. And by the way" (turning to the offensive) "when Obama said that a Fox journalist had been going past the limits of decorum, and blocked him from the press briefings, *your* network supported our position, remember?". Now, the CNN anchor is looking rather deflated...

Okay, that is funny.

[TheGlyphstone]

I went and looked it up, and I'm trying to find evidence that it happened now (not the video, but the Fox reporter being banned).

Snopes claims it is False, at least in the sense of a specific individual being banned: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-block-fox-news-reporters/

There was an attempt to exclude Fox from a specific shared interview. This is the incident where CNN and the other networks refused to participate unless Fox was allowed in.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-targeted-fox-news

So...technically true? I'm not sure how to call this one.

[gaggedLouise]

*nods* Sounds like the Fox guy tried to expand a bit on what had actually happened, a few years ago.

I think the word is "factoid" or "half-truth". :)

Back OT: Trump says he can't listen himself to the surveillance audio tape of Khashoggi being smothered and killed, because it's too horrific to hear. Has he ever listened to a tape of a person being waterboarded by US personnel (whose chief he is)? Or watched video of a hanging that "didn't go according to plan", and where the sentenced person was slowly being strangled? :(

[Tolvo]

Hell I've listened to those sorts of things before(I used to research Domestic Terrorism a lot and it unfortunately can come up) so I guess I have a stronger stomach than the president.

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/trump-answers-special-counsel-mueller-s-russia-probe-questions-1374318147858?v=railb&

I know that entrapment is a thing but Trump is really really worried about accidentally perjuring himself.

[gaggedLouise]

I know that entrapment is a thing but Trump is really really worried about accidentally perjuring himself.

One of the sources for Woodward's recent Trump book said that the man is simply incapable of sticking to answering the questions, not talking back and keeping with a consistent story: his mind just doesn't respond that way... :(

They had tried making a dry-run interview with him, internally at the White House, and it just went off the bend. ^_ ^

[Tolvo]

That supports my desire for him to try and answer the questions. ^_^

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/19/pleasure-what-a-name-trump-confused-over-fire-hit-town-paradise-video

Also I know its a minor slip up but this is a bit amusing, forgetting the name of a place you were just told all about and visited.

[gaggedLouise]

That supports my desire for him to try and answer the questions. ^_^

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/19/pleasure-what-a-name-trump-confused-over-fire-hit-town-paradise-video

Also I know its a minor slip up but this is a bit amusing, forgetting the name of a place you were just told all about and visited.

Mmm. I was wondering, too, if the song Paradise City will ever sound quite the same again to young people in California.  The tone of jubilant excess in the song is the very antithesis of what happened to the town of the same name.

[Tolvo]

https://www.apnews.com/3179a22c09714899aace1c8b6265e9c5?utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

By the way according to the Finnish president Trump made up the whole "Raking the forests to prevent forest fires" thing. I am very shocked that Trump made up a very dumb thing.

[gaggedLouise]

https://www.apnews.com/3179a22c09714899aace1c8b6265e9c5?utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter

By the way according to the Finnish president Trump made up the whole "Raking the forests to prevent forest fires" thing. I am very shocked that Trump made up a very dumb thing.

Also, Finland *does* experience major forest fires from time to time. As do Sweden and Russia, who are in the same huge conifer forested belt.

[Tolvo]

Didn't Finland have a really dry for them year this year as well?

[gaggedLouise]

Didn't Finland have a really dry for them year this year as well?

We all had. This summer was a spectacularly hot and dry one across all of Europe (except Iceland, where it turned out colder and wetter than usual). Heat records and sales records for cold soda and mineral water  were smashed all over the place - by August, Spain and Portugal almost broke the all-time heat record for the continent, they could have gone past 50 C (eq. 122 F). I think most Europeans who lived through this summer will remember it for decades. It was so hot some of the time that it was difficult to think, rather suffocating really... :(

[Tolvo]

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/417309-trump-rejects-suggestion-he-would-do-away-with-presidential-term

Well Trump has stated he won't try to change the Constitution so he can run for a third term if he wins a second.

Wait a second though he almost always lies, so can we trust this?

*Begins playing mental chess*

[Oniya]

It would still need ratification by 2/3 of the existing states.  This is why the ERA still hasn't been passed.

[Tolvo]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/19/media/cnn-acosta-emergency-hearing/index.html

So there is some good news and bad news. Trump and the White House are giving Acosta his press pass back permanently.

Bad news is, now they are making it a rule that if you ask more than one question, a follow up question without being granted one, or refuse to yield the floor, that they will then suspend or revoke that journalist's press pass.

[gaggedLouise]

Can't wait to see if Trump will honour the old tradition of pardoning a turkey - it doesn't really feel like his kind of thing. And whether he can do it without mixing in some political bluster.

[Tolvo]

I like to imagine the camera falls upon him eating a turkey and they go "Wait weren't you going to pardon the turkey?" Then Trump goes "Pardon the turkey?" Belches loudly. "Pardon me!" And everyone laughs and they talk about how he's a lovable goof as a journalist who isn't allowed to be called on looks at a notepad in their hands with "Child Internment Camps" circled on it with a question mark next to it.

[Various]

One of the sources for Woodward's recent Trump book said that the man is simply incapable of sticking to answering the questions, not talking back and keeping with a consistent story: his mind just doesn't respond that way... :(

They had tried making a dry-run interview with him, internally at the White House, and it just went off the bend. ^_ ^

Russia is great. Vladimir Putin is my friend. Who's Vladimir Putin? I've never even heard of Russia. It's a lie made up by the Democrats. Guccifer 2.0 gave me a whole bunch of e-mails. E-mails are why Hillary Clinton should be impeached. MAGA.

[gaggedLouise]

Russia is great. Vladimir Putin is my friend. Who's Vladimir Putin? I've never even heard of Russia. It's a lie made up by the Democrats. Guccifer 2.0 gave me a whole bunch of e-mails. E-mails are why Hillary Clinton should be impeached. MAGA.

*shares a few beer with Various*

[Tolvo]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-standing-saudi-arabia/

So Trump released a briefing, with a lot of exclamation points, about how Saudi Arabia has lots of oil and money and the tortured and killed Journalist maybe was a bad guy and basically a lot of crap. It's almost surprising how blatant he is about just wanting the oil.

[TheGlyphstone]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-standing-saudi-arabia/

So Trump released a briefing, with a lot of exclamation points, about how Saudi Arabia has lots of oil and money and the tortured and killed Journalist maybe was a bad guy and basically a lot of crap. It's almost surprising how blatant he is about just wanting the oil.

One of John Oliver's recent episodes was about this, but Saudi oil is one of the few things that I can't specifically jump at Trump for. He's following in a very long line of US presidents who will put up with pretty much anything that the Saudis do in order to retain the alliance (and the oil). If anything, it's practically anti-Trumpian in that he's being more honest about the whole thing than presidents tend to be.

[RedPhoenix]

Right, Obama/Bush would have just made a vague statement about how it was complicated and a banal wish for the best for fairness and then never mentioned it again.

[gaggedLouise]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-donald-j-trump-standing-saudi-arabia/

So Trump released a briefing, with a lot of exclamation points, about how Saudi Arabia has lots of oil and money and the tortured and killed Journalist maybe was a bad guy and basically a lot of crap. It's almost surprising how blatant he is about just wanting the oil.

There's a hilarious passage in Michael Woolf's book where Trump is making a rambling speech at the CIA during one of his very first days in office, to introduce Mike Pompeo to the staff (and no doubt the speech as given by Woolf is taken from somebody's phone recording). Trump loses track at once and begins strumming around about how America was great and invincible when he was a kid, about the media and stuff, and out of nowhere he declares: "You know what they say in a war: to the winner the spoils! Well, me, I always said: keep the oil!"

At that point, Woolf adds, someone mumbled a question in the crowd down on the floor: "Who should keep the oil?" (good question!)

That speech now almost feels like a premonition of Trump's attitude to the Saudi royal house today.

Besides, Trump's impromptu press briefing on the White House lawn was his usual kind of angry monologue. It was almost funny how he lambasted the wicked judge from the Ninth Circuit - "every time somebody wants to harm America, they sue us at the Ninth Circuit", on and on. I bet that was the judge who blocked Trump's attempt to change asylum legislation with an exec order, right? :)

[gaggedLouise]

Trump has been trying to revisit the "Lock her up!" line of action, aiming to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the business of Hillary Clinton, especially her famous personal e-mail server, as well as Comey. The idea being to put them both on trial and try to get them jailed as traitors and/or grave security risks.

President Trump told the White House counsel in the spring that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute two of his political adversaries: his 2016 challenger, Hillary Clinton, and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

The lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, rebuffed the president, saying that he had no authority to order a prosecution. Mr. McGahn said that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. To underscore his point, Mr. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo for Mr. Trump warning that if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could face a range of consequences, including possible impeachment.

The encounter was one of the most blatant examples yet of how Mr. Trump views the typically independent Justice Department as a tool to be wielded against his political enemies. It took on additional significance in recent weeks when Mr. McGahn left the White House and Mr. Trump appointed a relatively inexperienced political loyalist, Matthew G. Whitaker, as the acting attorney general.

It is unclear whether Mr. Trump read Mr. McGahn’s memo or whether he pursued the prosecutions further. But the president has continued to privately discuss the matter, including the possible appointment of a second special counsel to investigate both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Comey, according to two people who have spoken to Mr. Trump about the issue. He has also repeatedly expressed disappointment in the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, for failing to more aggressively investigate Mrs. Clinton, calling him weak, one of the people said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/us/politics/president-trump-justice-department.html

[Tolvo]

Yikes, I'm someone who even believes Hillary should be in jail(Among many many other government officials, completely unrelated to her emails) but this is a very disturbing thing for him to keep trying to follow through on.

[gaggedLouise]

Yikes, I'm someone who even believes Hillary should be in jail(Among many many other government officials, completely unrelated to her emails) but this is a very disturbing thing for him to keep trying to follow through on.

Yep, blatantly trying to use the judicial system to get back at his rivals. Also, there's a nagging suspicion that he wants her not only in jail, but to be exposed to some abuse behind bars, and of course to make her go down in history as a crook and a traitor.