NurembergVillan Posted July 31, 2017 Moderator Share Posted July 31, 2017 If arse-licking was an Olympic sport, Piers Morgan would have a knighthood by now. He's an absolute valve. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Get a Patrick Bateman vibe from that Scaramucci. Bet he listens to Phil Collins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 22 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said: If arse-licking was an Olympic sport, Piers Morgan would have a knighthood by now. He's an absolute valve. I always think of Lewis Prothero from V for Vendetta when I see or hear him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islingtonclaret Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 "Although his job tenure was short, he managed to do a lot of order-disrupting. Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigned to give Mr Scaramucci a "clean slate". Then, like a heat-seeking missile powered by foul language, Mr Scaramucci went after Reince Priebus, who was unceremoniously cashiered on Friday." They have all, -all- forgotten that the posts they've been given are actual jobs, that require actual work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted July 31, 2017 Moderator Share Posted July 31, 2017 37 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said: If arse-licking was an Olympic sport, Piers Morgan would have a knighthood by now. He's an absolute valve. Trump is a spunk trumpet and Morgan is blowing hard as he can trying to get a tune. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted July 31, 2017 Author Share Posted July 31, 2017 3 hours ago, peterms said: Escorted from the premises...it gets better...tee hee By four SS agents. Not those SS.....but might as well be.... So many imbeciles to choose from Trump's roster of sycophantic flunkies to wear the crown of King of the Imbeciles. I guess Trump gets it by default, but the Mooch gives him a run for his Russian-laundered money. Watch him land a gig at Fox and then run for NY senate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted August 1, 2017 Author Share Posted August 1, 2017 3 hours ago, coda said: Get a Patrick Bateman vibe from that Scaramucci. Bet he listens to Phil Collins. Nope. Gotta be Bon Jovi. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted August 1, 2017 Share Posted August 1, 2017 And today's latest from the alternative reality that is the White House, here. More important than the latest sacking, if less entertaining. Quote Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last month, President Trump’s advisers discussed how to respond to a new revelation that Trump’s oldest son had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — a disclosure the advisers knew carried political and potentially legal peril. The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be for Donald Trump Jr. to release a statement to get ahead of the story. They wanted to be truthful, so their account couldn’t be repudiated later if the full details emerged. But within hours, at the president’s direction, the plan changed. Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.” The claims were later shown to be misleading. Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign. The extent of the president’s personal intervention in his son’s response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy. As special counsel Robert S. Mueller III looks into potential obstruction of justice as part of his broader investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, these advisers worry that the president’s direct involvement leaves him needlessly vulnerable to allegations of a coverup. “This was . . . unnecessary,” said one of the president’s advisers, who like most other people interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. “Now someone can claim he’s the one who attempted to mislead. Somebody can argue the president is saying he doesn’t want you to say the whole truth.” Trump has already come under criticism for steps he has taken to challenge and undercut the Russia investigation. He fired FBI Director James B. Comey on May 9 after a private meeting in which Comey said the president asked him if he could end the investigation of ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats told associates that Trump asked him in March if he could intervene with Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on Flynn. In addition, Trump has repeatedly criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the FBI’s Russian investigation — a decision that was one factor leading to the appointment of Mueller. And he has privately discussed his power to issue pardons, including for himself, and explored potential avenues for undercutting Mueller’s work. Although misleading the public or the news media is not a crime, advisers to Trump and his family told The Washington Post that they fear any indication that Trump was seeking to hide information about contacts between his campaign and Russians almost inevitably would draw additional scrutiny from Mueller. Trump, they say, is increasingly acting as his own lawyer, strategist and publicist, often disregarding the recommendations of the professionals he has hired. “He refuses to sit still,” the presidential adviser said. “He doesn’t think he’s in any legal jeopardy, so he really views this as a political problem he is going to solve by himself.” Trump has said that the Russia investigation is “the greatest witch hunt in political history,” calling it an elaborate hoax created by Democrats to explain why Clinton lost an election she should have won. Because Trump believes he is innocent, some advisers explained, he therefore does not think he is at any legal risk for a coverup. In his mind, they said, there is nothing to conceal. The White House directed all questions for this article to the president’s legal team. One of Trump’s attorneys, Jay Sekulow, declined to discuss the specifics of the president’s actions and his role in crafting his son’s statement about the Russian contact. Sekulow issued a one-sentence statement in response to a list of detailed questions from The Post. “Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate, and not pertinent,” Sekulow’s statement read. Trump Jr. did not respond to requests for comment. His attorney, Alan Futerfas, told The Post that he and his client “were fully prepared and absolutely prepared to make a fulsome statement” about the meeting, what led up to it and what was discussed. Asked about Trump intervening, Futerfas said, “I have no evidence to support that theory.” He described the process of drafting a statement as “a communal situation that involved communications people and various lawyers.” Peter Zeidenberg, the deputy special prosecutor who investigated the George W. Bush administration’s leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity, said Mueller will have to dig into the crafting of Trump Jr.’s statement aboard Air Force One. Prosecutors typically assume that any misleading statement is an effort to throw investigators off the track, Zeidenberg said. “The thing that really strikes me about this is the stupidity of involving the president,” Zeidenberg said. “They are still treating this like a family-run business and they have a PR problem. . . . What they don’t seem to understand is this is a criminal investigation involving all of them.” Advocating for transparency The debate about how to deal with the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting began weeks before any news organizations began to ask questions about it. Kushner’s legal team first learned about the meeting when doing research to respond to congressional requests for information. Congressional investigators wanted to know about any contacts the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser had with Russian officials or business people. Kushner’s lawyers came across what they immediately recognized would eventually become a problematic story. A string of emails showed Kushner attended a meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in the midst of the campaign — one he had failed to disclose. Trump Jr. had arranged it, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort had also attended. To compound what was, at best, a public relations fiasco, the emails, which had not yet surfaced publicly, showed Trump Jr. responding to the prospect of negative information on Clinton from Russia: “I love it.” Lawyers and advisers for Trump, his son and son-in-law gamed out strategies for disclosing the information to try to minimize the fallout of these new links between the Trump family and Russia, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Hope Hicks, the White House director of strategic communications and one of the president’s most trusted and loyal aides, and Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works closely with Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, huddled with Kushner’s lawyers, and they advocated for a more transparent approach, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. In one scenario, these people said, Kushner’s team talked about sharing everything, including the contents of the emails, with a mainstream news organization. Hicks and Raffel declined to comment. Kushner attorney Abbe Lowell also declined to comment. The president’s outside legal team, led by Marc Kasowitz, had suggested that the details be given to Circa, an online news organization that the Kasowitz team thought would be friendly to Trump. Circa had inquired in previous days about the meeting, according to people familiar with the discussions. The president’s legal team planned to cast the June 2016 meeting as a potential setup by Democratic operatives hoping to entrap Trump Jr. and, by extension, the presumptive Republican nominee, according to people familiar with discussions. Kasowitz declined to comment for this article, as did a Circa spokesman. Consensus overruled Circumstances changed when the New York Times began asking about the Trump Tower meeting, though advisers believed that the newspaper knew few of the details. While the president, Kushner and Ivanka Trump were attending the G-20 summit in Germany, the Times asked for White House comment on the impetus and reason for the meeting. During breaks away from the summit, Kushner and Ivanka Trump gathered with Hicks and Raffel to discuss Kushner’s response to the inquiry, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Kushner’s legal team joined at times by phone. Hicks also spoke by phone with Trump Jr. Again, say people familiar with the conversations, Kushner’s team concluded that the best strategy would be to err on the side of transparency, because they believed the complete story would eventually emerge. The discussions among the president’s advisers consumed much of the day, and they continued as they prepared to board Air Force One that evening for the flight home. But before everyone boarded the plane, Trump had overruled the consensus, according to people with knowledge of the events. It remains unclear exactly how much the president knew at the time of the flight about Trump Jr.’s meeting. The president directed that Trump Jr.’s statement to the Times describe the meeting as unimportant. He wanted the statement to say that the meeting had been initiated by the Russian lawyer and primarily was about her pet issue — the adoption of Russian children. Air Force One took off from Germany shortly after 6 p.m. — about noon in Washington. In a forward cabin, Trump was busy working on his son’s statement, according to people with knowledge of events. The president dictated the statement to Hicks, who served as a go-between with Trump Jr., who was not on the plane, sharing edits between the two men, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. In the early afternoon, Eastern time, Trump Jr.’s team put out the statement to the Times. It was four sentences long, describing the encounter as a “short, introductory meeting.” “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up,” the statement read. Trump Jr. went on to say: “I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.” Over the next hour, word spread through emails and calls to other Trump family advisers and lawyers about the statement that Trump Jr. had sent to the Times. Some lawyers for the president and for Kushner were surprised and frustrated, advisers later learned. According to people briefed on the dispute, some lawyers tried to reach Futerfas and their clients and began asking why the president had been involved. Also on the flight, Kushner worked with his team — including one of his lawyers, who called in to the plane. His lawyers have said that Kushner’s initial omission of the meeting was an error, but that in an effort to be fully transparent, he had updated his government filing to include “this meeting with a Russian person, which he briefly attended at the request of his brother-in-law Donald Trump Jr.” Kushner’s legal team referred all questions about the meeting itself to Trump Jr. The Times’ story revealing the existence of the June 2016 meeting was posted online about 4 p.m. Eastern time. Roughly four hours later, Air Force One touched down at Joint Base Andrews. Trump’s family members and advisers departed the plane, and they knew the problem they had once hoped to contain would soon grow bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted August 2, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 2, 2017 So now Sarah Huckabee Sanders has basically admitted that Trump provided input on the response based on the "limited information that he had" about the situation "as any father would". Oh, and it's still all fake news and nothing important because....Hillary! You can't make it up. "Mr. Trump, we realize that you don't really know anything about this, but we'd like you to give advice on what to do anyway. And no, we're not going to fill you in on any details that would provide you better insight into the situation so you can give the most effective advice." Unfortunately, too many of his decisions are made based on "the limited information that he has." And it's always important to get the President of the U.S. involved in crafting a statement about how meaningless an obviously unimportant meeting is. And then there's the lawsuit by the detective hired to try to find a bogus link between a murdered DNC staffer and wikileaks to turn attention away from Russia as the source of the e-mails. Claims that Fox News fed him a statement from an anonymous source with no evidence and then tried to pass it off as something he uncovered in his investigation. Wealthy Trump supporter who paid him claimed Trump had reviewed and wanted it to go to print. There is no chaos in the White House. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 I like how Trump keeps contradicting his lawyer's statements. There must be a lot of face palm moments if you are Trump's lawyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 So he was in the building on the day of the meeting, he started tweeting about Hillary's emails later that day, but he wasn't aware of the meeting and only found out about it in the last few days, though before finding out about it he was able to draft a statement falsely describing what it was about because he was just pitching in to help his son. Sounds legit. Which of us has not helped our child with some homework despite knowing nothing about the subject? If only he'd actually known about the meeting when writing his description of it, then he could have given an accurate account and wouldn't have had to make up something which in hindsight now appears incorrect. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 It's hilarious that Trump is such a megolomaniac that he has to have his finger prints on almost everything that goes wrong. People talk about a smoking gun but when the whole house is on fire who really cares about the gun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 21 out of 26 weekends have been spent at his own properties, with the taxpayer covering the bill for him and his presidential entourage. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted August 2, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted August 2, 2017 The cost of which is sobering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villakram Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 (edited) Empire being run like an Empire by an Emperor. Edited August 2, 2017 by villakram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurembergVillan Posted August 2, 2017 Moderator Share Posted August 2, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 According to "The Donald", the White House is "A dump". A real man of the people. So inspirational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post peterms Posted August 3, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted August 3, 2017 10 hours ago, NurembergVillan said: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 (edited) The transcripts of Trump's phone calls with Turnbull (Australia PM) and Pena Nieto (Mexico president) He isn't capable of talking properly. Here's some highlights: Pena Nieto: Quote The only thing I will ask you though is on the wall, you and I both have a political problem. My people stand up and say, “Mexico will pay for the wall” and your people probably say something in a similar but slightly different language. But the fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to. I have been talking about it for a two year period, and the reason I say they are going to pay for the wall is because Mexico has made a fortune out of the stupidity of U.S. trade representatives. Quote Pena Nieto: But my position has been and will continue to be very firm saying that Mexico cannot pay for that wall Trump: But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances. Turnbull (it's all me, me, me, me) Quote Malcom [sic], why is this so important? I do not understand. This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week. Quote Look, I spoke to Putin, Merkel, Abe of Japan, to France today, and this was my most unpleasant call because I will be honest with you. I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people. The local milk people Quote Look, I do not know how you got them to sign a deal like this, but that is how they lost the election. They said I had no way to 270 and I got 306. That is why they lost the election, because of stupid deals like this. You have brokered many a stupid deal in business and I respect you, but I guarantee that you broke many a stupid deal. This is a stupid deal. This deal will make me look terrible. Quote Okay, this shows me to be a dope. I am not like this but, if I have to do it, I will do it but I do not like this at all. I will be honest with you. Not even a little bit. I think it is ridiculous and Obama should have never signed it. The only reason I will take them is because I have to honor a deal signed by my predecessor and it was a rotten deal. I say that it was a stupid deal like all the other deals that this country signed. Quote Give them to the United States. We are like a dumping ground for the rest of the world. I have been here for a period of time, I just want this to stop. I look so foolish doing this. It [sic] know it is good for you but it is bad for me. It is horrible for me. Quote TURNBULL: These guys are not in that league. They are economic refugees. TRUMP: Okay, good. Can Australia give me a guarantee that if we have any problems – you know that is what they said about the Boston bombers. They said they were wonderful young men. TURNBULL: They were Russians. They were not from any of these countries. TRUMP: They were from wherever they were. Quote I do not know what he got out of it. We never get anything out of it – START Treaty, the Iran deal. I do not know where they find these people to make these stupid deals. I am going to get killed on this thing. Quote Yes, I will be seen as a weak and ineffective leader in my first week by these people. This is a killer. Quote I have no choice to say that about it. Malcom [sic], I am going to say that I have no choice but to honor my predecessor’s deal. I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made. It is an embarrassment to the United States of America and you can say it just the way I said it. I will say it just that way. As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcom [sic]. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous. Quote It is important to you and it is embarrassing to me. It is an embarrassment to me, but at least I got you off the hook. So you put me back on the hook. Embarrassing. Snowflake in chief. An absolute narcissist. A complete moron. Edited August 3, 2017 by StefanAVFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 17 hours ago, NurembergVillan said: Slowly morphing into The Goblin King from that god awful Hobbit movie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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