[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.

W.
T.
F.
?!

Oh yeah. John Kelly is a straight up villain. He was never the hero nobly protecting the country.

I am sorry but that is a shock to me. I am certainly no fan of his, but this level of assholitude is much higher than expected.
How many hispanics were under this sh*tbag's command? Died under his command? And it means nothing?

Anyone that serves in this administration, for however long, is highly suspect.

It’s a black hole.

Morality is comparative.

Kelly could read this job description and conclude that this is LESS evil than his previous gig, and consider his soul slightly burnished.

Lol.

I know what the source is. His diseased brain.

Trump - putting the "con" in "confabulation."

Trump is like that dumbass teenager that oversells a completely unbelievable story that only serves to alert their parents that they are hiding something bigger.

Obama's photographer noticed the timestamp on the war room image allegedly taken during the raid means the photo is likely staged

IMAGE(https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2019/10/trump_sit.jpg)

The photo being staged was the first thing that I thought.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Obama's photographer noticed the timestamp on the war room image allegedly taken during the raid means the photo is likely staged

IMAGE(https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2019/10/trump_sit.jpg)

He's backing off any claim that it was staged, especially as more information about the raid's timing comes out. 5:00 PM EST would be 11 PM in Syria, which was when multiple sources in country reported that a helicopter raid was going down.

But we can still take Trump to task for selling out the Kurds even as they provided vital intelligence about al-Baghdadi's location, for endangering the lives of US servicemen because rashly pulling out of Syria forced the military to accelerate the timing of the raid, and for failing to inform Democratic Congressional leaders because he insinuated they'd betray the country if they knew about the raid (put another way, the guy who tweeted "Something very big has just happened!" on Saturday night was worried that Democrats would leak information...).

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Obama's photographer noticed the timestamp on the war room image allegedly taken during the raid means the photo is likely staged

IMAGE(https://www.snopes.com/tachyon/2019/10/trump_sit.jpg)

Of course the photo was staged / posed. Trump has his "I look like a tough guy in photos" face on. It could be done when the thing was going on, but it has no relationship to what the room looked like the moment before or after. It's a "for mass consumption" photo for PR purposes.

If it was mid-op, they wouldn't have let the photographer step in front of the mission display. Of course it was staged. Everything about Trump is fake.

The risk of lying every single day about everything leads to exactly this. Trump has what he thinks will be a presidency saving moment, maybe even re-election saving, and no one believes him.

His apologists act like the constant lying is a just a style, and not to take him so serious. Then they get mad when people stop taking his statements as facts.

It is so fake looking but the trumpers are going to eat it up.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

It is so fake looking but the trumpers are going to eat it up.

they won't eat it up, they'll just say it's no big deal and Trump does this kind of thing deliberately to trigger the lefties

House to take first vote on impeachment inquiry of Trump, forcing lawmakers on record

WaPo wrote:

The House will take its first vote on the impeachment inquiry of President Trump on Thursday, forcing lawmakers to go on record in support or opposition of the investigation and dictating the rules for its next phase.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday that the vote would “affirm” the existing probe, now in its sixth week, and establish which hearings would be open and how the transcripts from witnesses who have already testified in closed sessions would be released. Pelosi said the vote also would grant due process to the president and his attorney, countering a repeated criticism by Trump that he has been treated unfairly.

“We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives,” Pelosi said in a letter to Democrats. “Nobody is above the law.”

Can't wait to see how far the 'process' goal posts get moved by Republicans.

Did Air Force One Trick Trump Into Eating Vegetables?

According to Tessa Berenson, the Time magazine White House correspondent who took the photo, the vegetable-forward meal was served aboard Air Force One today — notably, on Trump’s flight to Chicago. “The wonderful chefs aboard AF1 were full of the Halloween spirit today with the presentation of these stuffed peppers,” she said per a press-pool report. “Trick or treat!”

It'd be quite a feat, given his tendency to survive on mostly fast food. (Which he apparently started years ago, out of fear of being poisoned?)

Rates at Trump's DC Hotel Spike During Republican Retreat It's Hosting

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote:

The cost of a basic room at Trump’s DC Hotel is nearly three times its average rate on November 7th. Conspicuously, that’s the night between Senate Republicans’ two day retreat at Trump’s Hotel. Filling the hotel with a who’s who of Republican power players serves as an invitation for anyone looking to influence the government, and the hotel’s role as a hot spot for influence peddling has helped to make it one of the few bright spots in Trump’s financial portfolio. Since Trump never divested from his businesses when he became president, he stands to profit from the decision to host the Republican retreat at his hotel, and even more massively because of the spike in rates that evening.

“Premier” and “deluxe” rooms at the hotel—the least expensive rooms offered—cost $1,345 and $1,395, respectively, for the night of November 7th, according to searches performed on October 23rd, 25th and 28th. That’s nearly three times the average cost of the cheapest room available at the hotel, according to Google. Hotel rates are responsive to a number of factors, and it’s not uncommon for costs to fluctuate, but the contrast is stark between average rates and the rate on the night of November 7th.

The Intercept reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee will host a “Save the Senate” retreat for Republican Senators and candidates on November 7th and November 8th at Trump Hotel in Washington, DC. According to the invitation, the president himself will attend, along with at least eight Republican Senators. The invitation says that the event is not a fundraiser but an event for existing large donors, though it appears that at least the Trump Hotel will be making money in connection with the event⁠—and therefore so will the president.

Major Coal Producer And Trump Booster Files For Bankruptcy

NPR wrote:

The Trump administration has spent three years trying to help the coal industry by rolling back environmental regulations and pushing for subsidies for coal-fired power plants. Still, the long list of coal company bankruptcies has continued, and dozens more plants have announced their retirement since President Trump took office.

Now the list of bankruptcies includes a company headed by one of Trump's most vocal supporters. Murray Energy Corp. filed for Chapter 11 on Tuesday morning.

The company says it reached an agreement to restructure and continue operating. As part of that, Bob Murray — the chairman, president and CEO — will relinquish two of his roles. His nephew, Robert Moore, will become president and CEO while Murray will stay on as chairman.

"When you're a private company and you're in financial failure, the first person that loses everything is the owner. And that's what will happen," Murray tells NPR.

Murray has had a close relationship with the Trump administration. He donated $300,000 to Trump's inauguration and has met with administration officials to advance the coal industry's interests.

At Murray's headquarters in St. Clairsville, Ohio, there's a photo in the lobby of Murray with President Trump, who's giving two thumbs-up. And in Murray's big corner office there's a replica of Air Force Two, signed on the wing by Vice President Pence.

A few months after Trump was sworn in, Murray met with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and delivered an "action plan" for helping coal. It included 16 proposals that became a "to-do list" for the Trump administration, including replacing former President Obama's Clean Power Plan and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.

I gotta ask if that's a real bankruptcy or if it's just the shell company that they shoveled all their debt into along with the employee pension funds. Because there should be less than zero trust left for those people at this point.

qaraq wrote:

I gotta ask if that's a real bankruptcy or if it's just the shell company that they shoveled all their debt into along with the employee pension funds. Because there should be less than zero trust left for those people at this point.

if it's a shell company, i expect John Oliver will tell the world all about it on sunday. Bob Murray might as well be under a microscope

qaraq wrote:

I gotta ask if that's a real bankruptcy or if it's just the shell company that they shoveled all their debt into along with the employee pension funds. Because there should be less than zero trust left for those people at this point.

According to their press release it's Murray Energy as well as ten of its subsidiaries. Eight other subsidiaries aren't filing for bankruptcy now. Among those is Foresight Energy--which Murray owns a majority of--and it missed a payment to its debtors earlier this month.

A vulture capital company is ponying up $350 million to keep the those subsidiaries on life support (their debt will take precedence over all existing debt) while the company restructures which really means everyone who's not the vulture capital company, the restructuring lawyers, and Murray himself are going to get screwed.

OG_slinger wrote:
qaraq wrote:

I gotta ask if that's a real bankruptcy or if it's just the shell company that they shoveled all their debt into along with the employee pension funds. Because there should be less than zero trust left for those people at this point.

According to their press release it's Murray Energy as well as ten of its subsidiaries. Eight other subsidiaries aren't filing for bankruptcy now. Among those is Foresight Energy--which Murray owns a majority of--and it missed a payment to its debtors earlier this month.

A vulture capital company is ponying up $350 million to keep the those subsidiaries on life support (their debt will take precedence over all existing debt) while the company restructures which really means everyone who's not the vulture capital company, the restructuring lawyers, and Murray himself are going to get screwed.

If a vulture capital company is the one doing the deal i would expect something similar to the K-mart/JC Penny fiasco where the whole conglomerate is just stripped for parts.

Trump judicial nominee cries over scathing letter from the American Bar Association

WaPo wrote:

The American Bar Association had no shortage of criticism in its assessment of the Trump administration’s new judicial nominee.

Colleagues found Lawrence VanDyke to be “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice,” the chair of an ABA committee wrote in the scathing letter, the result of 60 interviews with lawyers, judges and others who worked with the Justice Department attorney. Acquaintances also alleged a lack of humility, an “’entitlement’ temperament,” a closed mind and an inconsistent “commitment to being candid,” the letter said. It deemed VanDyke “not qualified” for a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The strongly worded review drew equally strong reactions at a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee — from Democrats who called the ABA findings unusual and troubling as well as from Republicans who called it a low attack from a group they’ve long accused of bias against conservatives. But one charge was particularly upsetting to VanDyke himself: The ABA’s report that he “would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community.”

Asked if that was correct, the nominee struggled almost 15 seconds to find his words.

He started to cry.

I mean it worked for Kavanaugh.