[Discussion] Hope to Remember The Trump Administration Thread as being 'transparent and honest'

Let's follow and discuss what our newest presidential administration gets up to, the good, the bad, the lawsuits, and the many many indictments.

I didn’t know it would be MY face!!

I understood so much more about American politics when I realized that the pre-Southern Strategy political slogan in North Carolina was literally the n-world.

I'd thought Lee Atwater was using a metaphor or something, but no--they were literally yelling the n-word.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

I didn’t know it would be MY face!! :(

"They're eating the WRONG faces!"

Gremlin wrote:

I understood so much more about American politics when I realized that the pre-Southern Strategy political slogan in North Carolina was literally the n-world.

I'd thought Lee Atwater was using a metaphor or something, but no--they were literally yelling the n-word.

[/b]

It's come up a couple times here in the past few weeks but: In NC they literally gang murdered the entire local government infrastructure in a county during reconstruction when POC were elected into those positions.

Homeland Security investigating who drew a swastika inside one of its buildings

CNN wrote:

A hand-drawn swastika was found on the third floor of a Department of Homeland Security building on Friday in Washington, a government official told CNN.

Some staffers in the building, on the Nebraska Avenue Complex in Washington, were notified about the Nazi symbol in an email from Principal Deputy Undersecretary for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Brian Murphy, which was obtained by CNN.

"Unfortunately, today a hand drawn swastika was located on the third floor," Murphy wrote in the email, sent out shortly after 5 p.m. Friday. "First, I want to repeat what (Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis David Glawe), the Secretary, and many others in the Department have said in the past: there is no room in the workplace for such symbols of hate. And there is no room in the workplace for those who ascribe to such a thing. I have communicated with USIA Glawe, who is currently in Israel, and he is disgusted by what has happened."

And the Nebraska Avenue Complex isn't just *one* of the DHS's building. It's the headquarters of the DHS.

Was it drawn with a sharpie?

DHS general counsel fired

Washington (CNN)The Department of Homeland Security's general counsel, John Mitnick, has been fired, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN, the latest in a series of recent changes at the department.
"We thank John for his service and wish him the best in the future," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. The source did not say why Mitnick was fired or provide additional details.
The New York Times first reported Mitnick's firing. Joe Maher, principal deputy general counsel, will take over as DHS' general counsel, the department spokesperson said.
CNN reported in April that Trump was facing pressure to fire Mitnick from Stephen Miller, the White House senior adviser who has long channeled Trump's hardline immigration views.

It is tiring how everything is about him.

trump on Cokie Roberts' death:

She never treated me nicely. But I would like to wish her family well'

It is pathetic. Or it would be if millions of American's didn't worship him.

The Trump administration is sending immigrants bogus court date notices so it can sleaze around a SCOTUS ruling and deport them

Miami Herald wrote:

...

So why are made-up court dates getting issued in the first place by agencies like USCIS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement?

Immigration authorities send notices to people who have been denied residence or citizenship. But until June of last year, USCIS would send the notices without dates, because the function of putting the cases on the calendar was left for the local courts to do at a later time. The forms just said the time and place was “to be determined,” which often occurred years later.

The reason USCIS sends the notices is because it is the official charging document that makes a foreign national deportable. Immigration lawyers sued, saying notices without court dates and times are defective. Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, ruling that in order for the government to claim that an immigrant is deportable, the notices have to list a date and place to appear in court.

In order to comply with the ruling, immigration officials began sending notices with a time and place — even if they were fake. The reason, lawyers say, is because having a notice with a date and place allows the government to stop immigrants from qualifying for deportation relief.

According to immigration law, a foreign national is eligible for relief from deportation if the person has lived in the U.S. for a period of 10 years prior to the receipt of the notice to appear. That’s why the date that’s printed on a notice to appear is important: If an immigrant gets a notice to appear that provides a date and time anytime before the 10 years are up, the government can claim that it’s enough to begin the process of deportation and stop the clock toward eligibility for deportation relief.

Also, Trump just had the EPA revoke California's Cleans Air Act waiver that allowed the state to have vehicle emission standards that were lower than those set by the federal government.

In a series of tweets, Trump argued that nixing California's lower emission standards will make cars "far less expensive" for consumers while simultaneously making them "substantially SAFER." He then went on to say that "Many more cars will be produced under the new and uniform standard, meaning significantly more JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!" which doesn't make any sense because auto manufacturers aren't going to produce more cars--and hire more workers to make those cars--just because there's a single emissions standard (not to mention that four auto manufacturers--Ford, Honda, BMW, and Volkswagen--already agreed over the summer to make cars that met California's standards).

Any claim for reducing the cost to consumers by Trump should be ignored since his tariffs and threats of tariffs have contributed to an increase in the price of new cars.

Claims of increased safety should also be viewed with skepticism because that rests solely on the assumption that more Americans will replace their older cars with newer cars because they are slightly cheaper and--because newer cars are safer than older cars--overall safety will increase. Their own internal communications, though, found that the lower emission standards would increase highway fatalities. Safety claims also conveniently ignore how vehicle emissions contribute to the premature deaths of 30,000 Americans every year.

Either way, this is all headed to the courts.

Well, at least everyone on the right is supporting California, and they are maintaining their staunch support of the inviolability of state's rights.

OG_slinger wrote:

Either way, this is all headed to the courts.

Which the GOP has just spent the past 5-10 years systematically filling with Republican-friendly judges. The hundreds of judicial appointments that have been held and then pushed through now that there is a Republican president I believe are going to have much more long term consequences than Trump's evil incompetence.

SallyNasty wrote:

Well, at least everyone on the right is supporting California, and they are maintaining their staunch support of the inviolability of state's rights.

That's what I pointed out last night when a friend posted on Facebook that this was coming today. Party of states rights only gives a sh*t when it lets them defend the Confederacy and be racist

LeapingGnome wrote:
OG_slinger wrote:

Either way, this is all headed to the courts.

Which the GOP has just spent the past 5-10 years systemically filling with Republican-friendly judges. The hundreds of judicial appointments that have been held and then pushed through now that there is a Republican president I believe are going to have much more long term consequences than Trump's evil incompetence.

Yes Moscow Mitch is the real problem.

Gross... Just gross

(CNN)First lady Melania Trump is scheduled to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City on Monday, her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham confirmed to CNN.
"Mrs. Trump will be taking part in an iconic New York City tradition, and encouraging children to be best, through her initiative," Grisham said.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/l3E6uhDAN3W7vylji/giphy.gif)

Holy moley, Cory Lewandowski is a horrible, horrible trash fire of a human being. I had no idea natural selection could go that low, even considering the current occupant of the White House.

Or Stephen Miller, actually, now that I think of it.

Actually, never mind.

This was an interesting development out of Lewendowski's performance. I missed it yesterday, but Ari Melber showed the value of getting the lying liars on record, even if it is exacerbating to have to listen to Deplorables be deplorable on national TV.

Melber does a nice job in this segment setting up the topic and showing just how willing to lie Trump supporters really are. The idea that this f*cker is running for senate is horrifying.

"Donald Trump’s promise to a foreign leader so troubled an official in the US intelligence community that it prompted the person to file a whistleblower complaint, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...

With the Princess Bride remake talk going around some politicians commented. Then I saw a tweet about prince Trumperdink, and I'm going to call him that from now on.

Reading this stuff, and knowing that he still probably has about a 50/50 shot of being reelected, hits me with a miserable mixture of impotent rage and sadness.

Watching American citizens cheer the dismantling of our government, encourage our increasing international isolation by turning on our allies, rejection of globally accepted science and fact, and chanting "make America great again" while instigating a humanitarian crisis based on racism is what is most concerning to me. Trump is the face and he made this craziness "acceptable" to be voiced openly but we're now looking at large percentage of the United States that thinks this is how the country should be run and they're still going to be here after he's gone. For over 60 years US propaganda was built on how "we" beat the nazis, ended the spread of fascism and that we were the nation that cared about the rest of the world and it's people. We're not even pretending any more. The party of "screw you, I got mine" has taken over and we seem perfectly happy to be standing on the back of a flaming plane that's heading nose-down to the ground while we flip the rest of the world off and scream "F-yeah! Murica! You wish you could be this awesome!". It has just gone past making sense to me. We've seen where this road ends but all half the population is doing is screaming to give it more gas.

Kehama wrote:

Watching American citizens cheer the dismantling of our government, encourage our increasing international isolation by turning on our allies, rejection of globally accepted science and fact, and chanting "make America great again" while instigating a humanitarian crisis based on racism is what is most concerning to me. Trump is the face and he made this craziness "acceptable" to be voiced openly but we're now looking at large percentage of the United States that thinks this is how the country should be run and they're still going to be here after he's gone. For over 60 years US propaganda was built on how "we" beat the nazis, ended the spread of fascism and that we were the nation that cared about the rest of the world and it's people. We're not even pretending any more.

It's something that needed to happen, though. Trump's "say the soft parts loud" racism has prevented conservatives from replenishing the ranks of 'white people' with Latin American Catholics the way Reagan replenished them with European Catholics.

That's the paradox of America. Welcoming to immigrants, but only if they aspire to become white. (edit) Trump may have fouled up that process long enough for America to seriously embark on becoming what its propaganda always advertised it as.

I'm really super duper excited that there's even a chance that Lewendowski will be running for Senate in NH. That should make the race an utterly terrifying look at the ugliest side of the residents of the state, and possibly my neighbors.

He's a trash person who shouldn't even be a serious contender to be a nominee, let alone in the general, but here in the darkest timeline, it's more likely that it'll actually be really close in the general.

Every now and then I like to imagine whether mandatory voting would make things better it worse. As things currently stand, primaries often result in the most extreme right/left choice and the general election is along party lines

Clumber wrote:

Every now and then I like to imagine whether mandatory voting would make things better it worse. As things currently stand, primaries often result in the most extreme right/left choice and the general election is along party lines

I think the use of a single transferable vote via ranked choice voting and the elimination of primaries would be a better solution to the problem of only extreme candidates making it to the general. Maine recently tried this and it actually swung a congressional election.

Simply asking who people want to throw their weight behind if their #1 candidate fails seems a lot more robust.

Clumber wrote:

primaries often result in the most extreme right/left choice and the general election is along party lines

While it’s true that most people vote along party lines I’m not certain what you’re getting at about the primaries... Republicans maybe but Democratic primaries almost always spit out milquetoast centrist candidates into the general election. This election cycle and the 2016 elections have been the first time in metaphorically forever that a leftist has had a reasonable chance at the general, and neither Sanders nor Warren are particularly far left. Center-left at best. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and most of this year’s crop of candidates all range from centrist to center-right.

As a single person I guess I should rejoice in the knowledge that there's somebody out there for everyone with the news that the human-shaped piece of sh*t and concentrated evil Stephen Miller is dating Pence's new press secretary.

That or I should feel absolutely horrible because the human-shaped piece of sh*t and concentrated evil Stephen Miller has found someone with which he can celebrate his victories, like stripping brown children from their parents and locking both of them up indefinitely, and who shares his dream of an all-white America while I haven't had a decent date and years, which probably means I'm somehow worse than the human-shaped piece of sh*t and concentrated evil Stephen Miller.

I would say that categorically, yes, you are worse than Stephen Miller. Worse at dating people who would be willing to date Stephen Miller than Stephen Miller is.

I think you should be able to make your peace with that one, buddy.

OG_slinger wrote:

As a single person I guess I should rejoice in the knowledge that there's somebody out there for everyone with the news that the human-shaped piece of sh*t and concentrated evil Stephen Miller is dating Pence's new press secretary.

That or I should feel absolutely horrible because the human-shaped piece of sh*t and concentrated evil Stephen Miller has found someone with which he can celebrate his victories, like stripping brown children from their parents and locking both of them up indefinitely, and who shares his dream of an all-white America while I haven't had a decent date and years, which probably means I'm somehow worse than the human-shaped piece of sh*t and concentrated evil Stephen Miller.

I would totally date you, if I were unmarried, on the same continent and attracted to men.