Meanwhile, the top story on FoxNews.com is the Obamas' trademark dispute with an e-book publisher.

Below is a list of construction projects that were cut from military installations to build the wall. The plan appears to be to take the money now and then go back to congress at some point in the future to ask for the money back so they can complete these projects.

Alex Moe on Twitter: "Just In: The military construction projects the Department of Defense is cutting from – totaling $3.6 billion – that will be diverted to the US-Mexico border… https://t.co/HEq0q4lzYB"

Well in the military 3.6 billion dollars is about the cost of a bowling alley.

That’s actually a pretty smart move politically. Take the money from a popular project, ask for it back later, and then blame the person voting against the popular thing.

Definitely brilliant strategy.

It may end up backfiring. It will end up in front of the Supreme Court, which trump has stacked with pro-congressional powers justices, and may result in a clearer definition of the president's emergency powers over funding.

I think that was true initially, but he has a history of making people bend to his "truth."

Good for him in getting a small win here.

I know, I know, he could have gotten a lot more if he had been willing to deal (and he didn't get Mexico to pay for it) but we are where we are, so happy for some movement here.

looking at where he started it is absolutely laughable to call this a win.

"We're gonna build half a wall, and the military is going to pay for it"

Liberals always did want less spending on the military, so win-win!

But kneeling really was about disrespecting the military.

$6B for a nuclear submarine. $12B for an aircraft carrier. Plenty to go around.

Except we'll never take money away from the development of things like that because it enriches the businesses that administration officials jump into.

Instead it means no new barracks for soldiers, no new elementary schools for military children, along with other infrastructure projects being canceled. We're not taking away tanks and planes. We're taking desperately needed things away from soldiers and their families for a wall on the border that's effectiveness is at best questionable.

Nah, it was just about a really rich, spoil athlete trying to make a point at a stage that didn't belong to him when he could really have spent his millions helping those he profess to stand up for.

You're certainly not going to get any argument from me there, but it does seem like we've shattered another pane of the looking glass when conservatives are willing to paint back-door cuts to defense spending as some kind of significant win for the Republican agenda.

He has

I don't dispute many Trumpers (vs traditional Republicans) think this is a significant win. I'm thinking its a small win, baby steps in the right direction.

I do wish he had focused more on the Wall in his first couple years vs trying to tear down Obamacare and tax cuts. Many presidents do tax cuts, only one would have built a Wall.

Holy shit.

Talk about hitting all the breitbart talking points.

I thought it was about a biracial Christian, who leveraged his status to lift up a group that has been racially targeted, in an effort to raise awareness and question our ability to do a better job?

Before or after the backlash?

Nah, sticking to the rich, spoil athlete tag. I'd toss in wine sipping, west coast liberal elites in there somewhere also.

Ahhh lets see what did dumbass do this week?


Oh yeah, he congratulated Poland on their great start in WW2, 80 years ago.



When asked about FARC calling for the end of the peace deal in Columbia that ended the longest war in Latin America, he asked if it was Columbia they were asking about, then said that Columbia was doing great, except for Venezuela, and that we have great relations with Columbia.



From the Post article;

They'll eliminate every benefit armed service members have before they take a dime away from a defense contractor.

Military Benefits has become a real punchline.


its a fucking joke in todays military.

DOLA: Hell it was a fucking Joke in MY military 30 years ago....

There's a disconnect there somewhere, and I'm curious where it is. Every single ex-military person I know has gotten lots of help from the military with their benefits, and I don't know a single one who isn't happy. I know this really isn't the case across the board, but the question I have is why is there the gap? Why are so many being treated well, and so many others not?

I think it depends on the categories of "ex-military" you are dealing with. A few simple ones.

1. Retirees vs Non-Retirees
2. Those who were in combat vs. those who were not in combat.
3. Those who have had access to those benefits vs. those who have not.

That last one alone can drag you into a myriad of directions and includes benefits while the vet was in the military.

Of all the insanity in this Presidency, the Alabama hurricane foolishness is certainly one of the more inane "controversies," but in another way, it truly captures who he is in a nutshell. If he'd just said "oops..got that wrong" or had said nothing else about it, it would have gone away in less than 12 hours. Instead, he apparently CANNOT let this go.

Alabama was going to be hit or grazed, and then Hurricane Dorian took a different path (up along the East Coast). The Fake News knows this very well. That’s why they’re the Fake News!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2019

Dola:


This has gone beyond comical to being truly sad. Something is broken in this man.

I agree, Ben.

It is the least consequential mistake possible.

But watching his inability to let it go is like shining an X-ray into his diseased mind.

I mean, there are actual American citizens still in the path of this thing, and you know that in the various briefings about it where they should be talking about Charleston and Wilmington and the like, he's taking up all of the time getting everyone to agree with him over and over that he was right about Alabama.

Some of the variables:

When you served
Which branch you served in
Where you served
How long you served


If you were transitioning out of the Army pre-2006ish they were handing out VA ratings like candy. It was fairly common where I was at the time (San Antonio) for people to brag about the ridiculous rating they received for rather mundane issues. At that time it came down to knowing the system and a bit of luck. However, around 2006 they realized that because of Iraq and Afghanistan they were looking at paying a generation of soldiers a lifetime of VA benefits. Because of that, they started lowballing nearly everyone on their VA ratings.

Some Army installations had great support systems to help you navigate the VA process and still get what you were entitled to. Others not so much. I transitioned from Fort Sam Houston in September of '06. I had 2 bulging and degenerative disks in my back, an MRI to prove it, and extensive documentation showing that this was something that would get worse over the course of my life rather than better. I met once with a person at the VA to help file my paperwork and received notification in the mail a few months later that my back was rated at 10% disability. That was it. An appeals process was never explained to me at any point.

My wife transitioned out of the military 2 years ago and was assigned a person to help with her case throughout the process. She met with this person multiple times over the course of a month to make sure everything in her packet was as up to date and thorough as possible. She explained the process. She explained the appeal process, if it came to that. She also set her expectations.

The Army has started to acknowledge the inconsistencies in the system. They're in the process of closing Physical Evaluation Boards with the plan of cutting it down to 2 locations where all packets will go. Here, Fort Lewis is one of those closing and has been notorious for low percentages. Someone my wife served with received a rating from PEB they weren't happy with, appealed, and they came back with a 0% rating. Those are rare, but are also the reason soldiers fear the appeals process and tend to take what they're given.

So what it comes down to is not everyone has the same experience with benefits because not everyone has the same level of support as they transition out of the military and navigate that process. My experience is on the Army side and seeing my transition and comparing it to my wife's is interesting. Aside from what I mentioned above, she had a required week-long class to attend to help with the transition to civilian life. It covered available benefits, taught resume writing skills, and highlighted job fairs and veteran friendly corporations you can apply to. I received none of that.


EDIT: My experience has obviously been Army. I do want to point out that a friend of mine was transitioning out of the Air Force a couple months after me in San Antonio. We worked the same job. Had cubicles next to each other. Since he was Air Force he went through the same process through Lackland AFB and came back with higher ratings despite no long-term or permanent issues and received a lot of the same support my wife received.

We have to be pretty close to Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio saying the hurricane was a threat to Alabama.

edit: lol

Counter terrorism adviser releases a statement saying the hurricane was indeed a threat to Alabama.

Trump is the best at keeping people occupied with stupid crap.

I think this stuff hurts Trump. When he's a super villain, that can play to people's admiration for strength, but this ridiculous crap makes him look like a clown. Every time a voter decides Trump is a fraud, he's that much further from re-election.

So it's looking more and more likely that Trump will need a pardon at some point.

If he loses in 2020 and the dems get their hands on his taxes, which I believe is inevitable, I actually believe he ends up indicted.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trum...r-jones-2019-9

This would require the Dems to have a spine.

Don't buy it. His followers blame the media and totally believe him. If he said God actually drew on the map with a sharpie, they would believe him.

If push came to shove, Trump leaves during the lame duck period in winter 2020 because he wouldn't want to talk to whoever beat him anyway and he can go to Mar-a- Lago. Pence then gives him a blanket pardon.

Doesn't the IRS already have access to his taxes? Wouldn't they report any potential crimes?

I think releasing his taxes will be embarrassing but I don't think there will be any criminal prosecutions.

I just can't quite believe that the GOP really seems to want to run on cuts to Social Security and Medicare. This is one area where Trump is far more politically attuned than the other party leaders.

They do have access to his returns but if there's no auditing then there's no discovery of crimes.

House Democrats say whistleblower bolsters case for getting Trump's tax returns - POLITICO

They've been auditing his returns for over 3 years now :p

On a macro level, hard to say who is "winning" (or losing less) in this trade dispute. Hope the October talks are productive ... and good the markets are somewhat optimistic for now. Definitely more unpredictability and swings to come in this grand game of chicken.

FWIW, Trump is up 31% vs Obama at 51% same time at presidency.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/econo...cut/index.html

Eh, even if there are things found in the audits, there'll be enough grey areas where at most it'll be fines.

Pence is too ambitious for that, I think. I'm not saying there's no circumstance under which he'd ever pardon Trump, but a three-week lame duck Presidency? He wants to be President for realsies. I can't see him being bold enough to risk that to cover Trump's ass in that scenario.

Yeah, during a potential lame duck period, the only people cozying up to Trump are those that want pardons before he leaves.

How many primaries will the GOP cancel so that Trump doesn't have to face any opposition? SC, NV, AZ and KS are all expected to cancel theirs this weekend.

It's a gutless move by the GOP, sure. That said, there are SO many reasons that I'd love to see both major Parties just ditch the primary process altogether and go back to determining their nominees in smoke-filled rooms.

If you make it weed filled rooms, I'd be for it. :D

Can I supply the weed?

I'd also argue if this change was to happen immediately then Marianne Williamson's odds just doubled.

Maybe if they were LSD filled rooms.

To 2%? :D

Having just gotten home from a local NXT event and this whole thing seems like a work, I think the appropriate chant for this is "THIS IS AWESOME!"

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/polit...ama/index.html

He obviously confused Georgia and Alabama on the map, right?

Sharpiegate is the single dumbest 'scandal' that I can recall ever seeing. And that's saying something. I agree with the fact that Trump needs to just let it drop, but the same thing can be said of the media. Another fine example that a free country always, always gets the government it deserves.

I think he just mis-spoke, He was getting lots of briefings. At some earlier point, Alabama was in the path. That had changed, but Alabama was still in his head.

What makes the whole thing so fascinating is just how harmless and understandable his mistake was.

The slow news week will be the death of us all :-)

I think this whole sharpie thing is just a case of Trump dangling his keys and the media/internet jumps...again.

The essence Conservatism in 2019 captured in a picture.

This is art. pic.twitter.com/0ZnaNoSNEW

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) September 7, 2019

Brian's right. We really need to let more slide with djt. Constantly trying to hold him to a standard... any standard, as low as you can conceive is really asking a lot. He's old, senile, has some major racist tendencies, best to just pretend he's like a powerless, dottering, old fool king and know that the real adults in the room know better. It's just not fair otherwise.

Straight PWNED! The libs are so fucked!

So this would mean Trump was thinking ahead and a possible impeachment battle coming at some point, but he's going to need every Republican senator he can find then-so was this to show the great state of Alabama that he was their friend, not the Democrats and should vote out the Democrat in the next election? Crazy I know but in today's political world, maybe not?

No way in hell. He's not capable of strategizing that far ahead.

Plus, that would call for him seeing impeachment as a real possibility, and his ego would never accept that.

LOL. I've been taken to task by multiple people on this board for being too pro-impeachment, have opposed Trump's nomination and election from the start, and so on. It's absolutely hilarious that anyone would think I don't want him held to any standard at this point.

I think this is mental deterioration combined with Trump's stubbornness and inability to accept defeat.

This would normally be a case to at least explore using the 25th amendment, but for Trump it's out there but not so far out there to cause that level of alarm yet.

Isn't holding to standard exactly what is happening? It's like the my dog ate my homework and then it's found out that you don't have a dog, so you get one 2 days later, then say you were right because you were thinking about getting one and that's why your homework didn't get done, so you were right all along and people are just making up lies about you and being mean and unfair.

So the President of the United States of America invited the Taliban to meet with him at the Presidential retreat four days before September 11th?

All right then.

Remember, there is always a tweet

While @BarackObama is slashing the military, he is also negotiating with our sworn enemy the Taliban--who facilitated 9/11.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2012

Not sure I believe this meeting was really going to happen or at the level he seem to imply but assuming its accurate, I'll give Trump credit for trying to end the war and move the dial.

I do want to understand what was being negotiated but pretty obvious to me its time to end it somehow.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/07/polit...ent/index.html

Is there anything he could do where you would jerk off his "effort" or "ideas"?

In general, I'm supportive (nothing is 100% but let's say 70-80%) of his foreign policy including China & immigration (I would have included the initial NK outreach but that seems to have fizzled out). Definitely against his domestic health care, gun policy, over turning Roe v Wade. Won't call this a policy but will add his overall antagonistic approach to everything.

How about yourself, see any Trump policy that you would support 70-80% of?

Trump smiling and thumbs upping in photos with the Taliban just before 9/11 would have been obscene. Yes, end the war, but don't bring the people that still defend 9/11 to American soil and never let the President convey legitimacy on them by appearing with them.

That is a good point, I don't know why Trump thought it was a good idea to bring them to US to do this, plenty of other neutral third party countries that would have accomplished the same thing.

I assume its because of the photo op but would have to believe his advisers told him otherwise. In the big scheme of things, does it really matter if it did result in a nice deal? IMO its less harmful than Obama's line in the sand with Syria.

Why would anyone trust the Taliban to abide by a deal. If Obama had proposed a "truce" and negotiating peace, they would move to impeach. This is not a foreign government, but a terrorist organization. Maybe pull out, maybe end it on some terms of your own, but negotiating with the Taliban seems pretty stupid.

Now if he can only bully Mexico in paying for the Wall.

Trump’s plan to stem border crossings gets results - POLITICO

I honestly disagree. Can we trust them? I think the odds are against it.

But I don't see a choice with negotiating with Taliban unless the plan is to (1) stay and help support Afghanistan government for another 20 years and/or (2) ramp up war effort and try to destroy Taliban once and for all.

AQ and like, Islamic terrorism have expanded beyond the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Generally Bahamians can come to the U.S. with a passport, but now we're denying entry to anyone without a visa. Bahamians trying to evacuate Freeport were told to leave the ferry if they don't have a visa.

Shameful.

What the second person said. As to the first …

No that's not exactly what's happening, except in very small part. Trump said something that was wrong and refused to admit it. Something that isn't even close to the 100 worst things that he's said as President. Then the media made it a focus of their coverage, often overshadowing the hurricane itself, for a solid week. And then you have the fact that so much of it has not just criticized the really dumb things Trump actually said on this, but gone out of their way to claim falsely that Dorian was never headed towards Alabama, imply Trump doesn't know where the state is, etc. When the media lets Trump control the narrative and then can't even stick to the facts on those subjects, they're not doing anything resembling reporting the news - they're being useful enablers.

Muslims... check
Mexicans...check
Bahamians... check

Brian, c'mon, you know as well as I do, that by the time he had tweeted the storm was categorically going to make a hard right. That board from the briefing was not the most up to date forecast. There's not even an ounce of truth in the idea that bama was a target. Maybe a few days earlier, but c'mon.

This whole thing makes me wonder if someone had to answer a question like, why won't the hurricane just keep going across the us? Because stupid, ignorant questions like that are exactly the kind this president is knowledgeable enough to ask.

It's a sort of parlor trick. Mr. Miller can reliably determine where a country lies on the Norway-to-shithole spectrum merely by looking at the color of its residents' skin. Very efficient.

The big problem is not the map, but the fact that NOAA officials sent out at least two letters telling the NWS folks not to contradict the President. If he's willing to screw around with the NWS, what other agencies is he willing to demand loyalty from? What will we not be able to trust in the midst of an election year?

We already know the answer to this.

Good opportunity to "buy" the Bahamas, make it our 51st state, and cement Trump's legacy.

JFC, other countries aren't for sale.

That's a pretty good one!

Jerry Falwell Jr not having a good day:


‘Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth’: Jerry Falwell’s Aides Break Their Silence - POLITICO Magazine

Not really Trump or politics (anymore), FWIW ...

Todd Palin files for divorce from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin - Anchorage Daily News

Did you read what I posted?


Pretty sure we're on the same page on that.

I also think you're doing the same thing the media did when you say 'maybe a few days earlier … ' … given that the forecasts didn't show the northward turn until less than 48 hours prior to Trump's original tweet. He also mentioned four other states, all of which were forecasted to get hit. But nevermind that, we've got to have wall-to-wall coverage of the one part he did get unambiguously wrong, exaggerate the wrongness of it, and engage in a juvenile playground dispute containing the precise maturity of 'Yes you did - no you didn't - yes you did' with the petulant adult child occupying the Oval Office.

Stuff that has been mentioned rightly by others; strong-arming the NOAA, the Bahamas visa issue, etc - these are exactly the kind of things along with tracking reports on the hurricane, recovery efforts in the Bahamas … if the media had focused on that stuff instead they'd have my applause.

New tonight: Given NYT has now made details on Russian spy public, I can now report additional info we had withheld. Asset had direct access to Vladimir Putin, including the remarkable ability to take photos of presidential documents, and had served US for more than a decade. 1/ https://t.co/gyk8hA79k1

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) September 10, 2019

Almost as impressive as the Russians elevating one of their assets to President of the United States

Every time someone complains about the media focusing on trivial stuff or claims that Trump purposely does stupid stuff to distract the media from serious scandals, I see tons of media coverage of all the stuff people say the media isn't covering.

In case you're not depressed enough... thread worth reading. Nothing really new here, but his synthesis is pretty effective.

Ian Bassin on Twitter: "This tweet is far more disturbing then it appears on the surface (which is already disturbing). Let me explain with a thread. /1… https://t.co/zCYwVcrcYG"

NC-09 re-election finally happens today. McCready still running on the Dem side, Republicans replaced Harris with Dan Bishop (the unrepentant author of HB-2 & a full on Trump supporter.) It'll be interesting.

From the even a stopped clock is right twice a day category, Trump cans Bolton. Probably the second most dangerous guy in this administration, good riddance!

Oh my. Trump and Bolton are going to have a public break-up war.

This is amazing:

"John Bolton just texted me. Just now, he's watching. He said 'let's be clear: I resigned.'" pic.twitter.com/ebMIM1oUhV

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) September 10, 2019

Let's see who the replacement is before we celebrate this. Bolton was awful, but it can get worse.

Good point, curbing my enthusiasm!