I would venture a guess you are significantly more intelligent than many who voted for him my friend.

Or as he would put it. "JIMGA is very, very smart, an amazing, great thinker. I mean, I don't know if you have noticed, but there is some great, great thinking going on there folks, it's beautiful."

Yep. Still a lot of hate and hubris up in this one.

Yeah. I disagree with JIMGA's opinions on a lot of things, but I do listen and respect him because he's put thought into his opinions. He's not gonna be like, "Blah blah blah because Trump!!! MAGA!!!"

That's a pretty low bar to clear for respect.

Just sayin'.

What counts as "significant"? All?

28% increase removal orders and historic low flow of border crossings. Seems like it is, at the very least, trending in the white way. ;)

Intentional spelling at the end there or freudian slip?

Just another Monday where the President lies repeatedly in a news conference.

...about things so easily refutable with readily available facts.

The ultimate Trump quote:

Like this:

Trump just claimed no President has ever called families of fallen troops, insulting thousands of Gold Star Families pic.twitter.com/G3gW160Wfn

— Vets Against Trump (@commondefense) October 16, 2017

I'm sure he was just joking

Not only is it a blatant lie, he's using the death of soldiers to brag.

At least he stopped short of claiming he invented the telephone just so he could call the families of fallen soldiers.

Don't know the legalese but not sympathetic. Any collusion (likely IMO) happened before Trump stepped into it.

Report: Colin Kaepernick's Collusion Grievance to Center on Donald Trump | Bleacher Report

Well Kap and Trump have one thing in common:

They both tried to sue their way into the NFL

Trump's, Fuck the GOP, strategy is going swimmingly. A new CNN poll gives Dems a +16 advantage on the generic ballot.

Don’t worry. “Fake news”, “build the wall”, “5.2M off the national debt”, “Obamacare is dead”, “amazing tax cuts”, and other mantras with no basis in fact will stir up (R) votes.

Almost best for the media to not publish polls to not allow Trump to rail against them.

I don't believe polls anymore.

He said that was what he was told and I don't doubt it honestly. I'm sure the way his administration gets him to do things he doesn't want to do is to tell him Obama didn't do it.

Does he know Obama never resigned?

Well fuck, that should open up a whole new playbook.

Obama wanted to Nuke NK
Obama thought Iran was not adhering to the nuke agreement
Obama was against tax cuts for the middle class and only wanted to give rich folks a break
Obama wanted to build a wall
Obama wanted to eliminate subsidies
Obama was on twitter too much
Obama listened to everything Hannity told him to do
Obama thought climate change was a lie
Obama was a white supremacist

Damn, they get good enough at this and we may end up with a serviceable President afterall.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Federal judge blocks Trump's third travel ban - The Washington Post

At least it succeeded in damaging relations with other countries before being blocked.

This is actually a friend of mine.

Exhausted Trump Supporter Just Decides Massive Cuts To Healthcare Subsidies Reason He Voted For Him - The Onion - America's Finest News Source

I asked POTUS today why he keeps saying "We're the highest taxed nation in the world" when it's objectively false. Here's how he answered: pic.twitter.com/2EHa0nbm5p

— Mike Sacks (@MikeSacksEsq) October 17, 2017

DOLA:

We aren’t the highest taxed “developed” nation in the world either and it’s not really even close.

For the third time, Donald Trump, U.S. is not 'highest taxed nation in the world' | PolitiFact

But he believes we are, and so do his followers. That overrules any stats you have that can prove otherwise.

Isn't that how a cult works as well?

So thank god other "No other Presidents called the families of fallen Soldiers" if this is what they are told.

Seriously, this is who you allegedly comfort a grieving family?

Frederica Wilson says Trump told widow of fallen soldier 'he knew what he signed up for'

Disgusting remarks from a guy that avoided military service on 5 different occasions and now treats the military as a toy he can play with.

Yesterday, he also used his Chief of Staff’s, General Kelly’s, dead son as the reason why he hadn’t called the families since Obama didn’t call Gen Kelly after his son died in combat. Just gross that he would use someone’s dead son as an argument to cover up for his lie. The man has no shame.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn...all/index.html

As a former military member, I didn’t sign up to be ambushed and/or die; I signed up to serve and protect my country. I knew that I could possibly be in situations where my life would be taken, and I was prepared to lay down my life if the situation called for it. Hell, I had that conversation with my wife on many occasions. I also expected my family to be comforted after the fact with the knowledge that I didn’t die in vain. Telling a pregnant spouse, that just lost her husband after being ambushed, “he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurts” is just appalling and shows the lack of empathy or caring that he truly has for anyone that serves. We aren’t toys that you can move around on the floor, Don; we’re people too.

But, hey, flags and kneeling is disrespectful to the military or some bologna.

But he says he has proof that he didn't say that (of which will never see/hear of I'm sure)

And your comment here illustrates your agenda.

Thanks for your service ... but having served doesn't mean you can't be a clueless git either.

So he's calling a gold star family liars over something they have no reason to lie about.

But the anthem guys!6

Saying "that's what he signed up for" to a widow almost sounds exactly like fake news from the DNC. It's almost too good to be true from an oppositional standpoint. I wouldn't be surprised if he indeed did not say any such thing (just as I wouldn't be surprised if he did). But, here's the deal: it's been proven on a daily basis that he lies about things, so there's no benefit of the doubt here.

And thanks for your citizenship, but being an American doesn’t mean you can’t be one as well.

His benefit of a doubt card expired about 6 months ago. Guess we will see when the family finally comments, but he is so fucking awkward when he has to talk off script I am not even the least bit shocked he would say something so insensitive. I will also be curious if the other families that he called comment.

I am probably too late and I am coming at this from a very biased place.

Leaders of our Country,

Please leave this death out of your political discourse. I am begging you. Please.

RIP Wheelie King.:(

The widow involved has now confirmed Trump lied when he indicated he didn't say anything offense ..

Mother of fallen soldier: 'Trump did disrespect' my family | TheHill

What in the fuckity fuck?

WaPo is reporting that in June Trump called the father of a deceased soldier and offered him a 25K check.

Which of course he didn't send until the report was public.

He's a deeply broken man.

Already enjoying the delicious tears of people who are upset about this.

Mississippi school named after Jefferson Davis to change name to Barack Obama: report | NOLA.com

The anthem thing is totally about respecting our troops though. Trump and his supporters have the utmost respect for them which is why they are so offended when someone kneels.

Now this is a conspiracy theory I can get behind!

People Think Trump Just Used a Melania Body Double and Everyone Is Freaking Out

(Edit: I love how Trump mentioned his wife, and then unnecessarily emphasizes that she is, in fact, allegedly, standing next to him at that current time)

I think we can all assume Melania Trump has fallen into a coma and has been secretly replaced by Calvin Kline?

Here's the (possible) start of Trump's Benghazi.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politi...nse/index.html

GOP controls Congress. We'll see another investigation of the actual Benghazi before any fingers are lifted to supervise whatever happened in Niger.

T can literally say anything he wants, true or not, without any ramifications. This is learned behavior and thus far, he's right and likely has been his entire life so until he's proven otherwise bet on the trend.

D-d-d-d-d-drain the swamp?

Corporations to keep tax break lost by millions of Americans - CBS News

Glad Gen Kelly is in the White House to help keep an eye on things. Very good press conference today on the “Trump phone call to Gold Star family” situation and helped put things in perspective a bit. Trump was wrong, the congresswoman who ran to the media was wrong, the staffers in the White House who doubled down and brought Kelly into it were wrong. Sad that Kelly had to be the one to, hopefully, put this thing to bed considering what he’s had to go through with losing his own son.

The fact that he can willingly work for a man who has denigrated others in his position, as a gold star parent, causes me lose nearly all respect for him.

Only calling on reporters that personally knew a gold star family was bush league.

So is calling a gold star family liars. The faux-patriotism from an office that has shown nothing but contempt for the military is pathetic.

My FB feed is full of liberal folks praising W's speech from earlier today like a bunch of fanboys, and conservative folks saying things like, "other than the "white" part (in calling out white supremacy), okay. All supremacy is bad."

Would not have predicted this turn of events 10 years ago. It's like Jimmy Carter opposite day.

Bush was raising funds for Gillespie, who has gone to a full time MS13 and Confederate statues campaign. If he's so worried about nativism, maybe he could say something about that.

Earlier today I read a conservative praising Trump for protecting all of the poor Southerners on Welfare, which brought up a few questions for me: A) What? B? WHAT??

Literally everything is a con.

Retired ‘Navy SEAL’ praising Trump on Fox News was a fake - The Washington Post

All supremacy is bad. Like there are many other kinds of supremacy? It amazes me that the right wing could complain for years that Obama wouldn't say "fundamentalist islamic terrorism" but they can't mouth the words white supremacy.

I'm curious, what can someone do then?

We tell people to get active, and try to make a difference, yet this guy, because he works for Trump and is trying to make a difference, you lose respect for him?

I don't doubt Kelly's good intentions. I am grateful he is in there right now. There is no doubt that he is a tempering force and if there is an armed conflict/escalation with NK, I certainly feel alot better with him there helping make decisions (regardless of Trump's Twitter bluster).

I do think the Congresswoman being in the same room during the call indicates some sort of setup. She was going to find something wrong with what Trump said one way or another.

I can easily believe Trump flubbed his words (e.g. Kelly said it much better) but in this case, I really don't think Trump meant to be insulting.

Reminds me of this segment from Aziz Ansari's SNL monologue:
Aziz Ansari Stand-Up Monologue - SNL - YouTube

I agree that this is the most likely interpretation, but for God's sake, just apologize and offer condolences. The wife apparently was greatly upset by the word choice. Why is the President still ranting about the fairness of the reaction?

[The White-Minstrel Show](White Working-Class Populism & Conservatism Are Incompatible | National Review)

Thought some of you would like this essay by Kevin Williams, a lot of food for thought.

Or was paid off to be. Or was previously inclined to be & this is just being used since it's available.

I had a pretty good notion of the situation before Kelly spoke. I have a darned good one now.

As much as I hope for Trump to suffer from some type of fatal ailment... I don't get the building furor over what happened in Niger, just like I didn't get it in Bengazi.

These are people doing dangerous things in dangerous politically sensitive areas. They know this. Despite our best efforts, sometimes shits going to happen. It was clearly an intelligence failure and sloppy contractors(if that part proves to be true), I'm sure the military is going to review in order to mitigate the possibility of the same errors happening again.

For how active our special forces have been for the past several years, I'm surprised this hasn't happened more.

Trying to pin it directly on Trump(or Hilary) really rings hollow and irrelevant.

I doubt she was paid, I'm sure she wasn't a fan and wasn't taking the call with an open mind. Was looking for a reason to re-enforce her perception of him.

Agree with you for the most part. Its just Dems paying back for Benghazi.

I would like to see the timeline of events for Niger. I don't doubt there were some misses, mistakes made.

Sun-Sentinel got a cop of Wilson's speech that Kelly spoke about the other day that showed Kelly lied about what she said. So Kelly lied about a member of Congress to discredit the widow of a service member killed.

Frederica Wilson 2015 video shows John Kelly got it wrong - Sun Sentinel

Do these people not understand that there are cameras at everything these days?

The only people that care about him lying are not the people he's pandering to. Facts are just opinions after all.

Your modern GOP.

Sanders: "If you want to go after General Kelly, if you want to go after a four-star Marine General, that’s highly inappropriate."

— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) October 20, 2017

Again, a tweet for everything.

General John Allen, who I never met but spoke against me last night, failed badly in his fight against ISIS. His record = BAD #NeverHillary

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2016

New executive order signed today:

Presidential Executive Order Amending Executive Order 13223 | whitehouse.gov

This EO allows the federal government to recall into service any retired member of the Regular Army, Regular Navy, Regular Air Force, or Regular Marine Corps.

Just another step in going to "war" with NK to distract from his ever growing list of fuckery. What happened to "A Vote for Hillary is a Vote for War"?

Hadn’t seen that part of the speech from Gen Kelly. I retract my earlier post commending him. Sad to see him allowing himself to be used as a pawn by this administration.

Sorry for the DOLA.

Being able to recall retired troops has always been something the president has been able to do, going back to the beginning of our country. The original order was signed under Bush after 9/11 and he actually did recall troops, but there’s been laws on the books for some time.

This order is a bit confusing, but I’m not sure it means anything. Looks like he’s delegating authority of recalling retirees to each of the branch secretaries, but he’s also limiting them to their budget and not allowing them to exceeed it.

Bush got a lot of heat for the recall so Trump’s trying to ensure that if troops get recalled, he’s not the one doing it to avoid the heat and he’s also ensuring that the branches don’t go crazy if they do have to recall...which the military tends to do if given the chance. Considering the lack of fanfare on this one, guessing this was one Kelly slipped in.

Could be in relation to Niger. Maybe they need some more air support over there and this allows them to be more flexible in case something bad happens with NK.

Remember when W was, like, the worst president anyone could imagine? Puppet of Cheney, violator of human rights, pushed us into a stupid war that is still getting Americans killed, botched Katrina response, mortgage crisis, automotive crisis...etc. You saw 1/20/08 bumper stickers everywhere.

After 10 months of Trump the dude looks like Abraham fucking Lincoln

No, he's still the worst. Trump sucks, but Bush had 8 years to fuck up.

I love that Trumps tweets about the UK this morning have been reported as 'hate crimes' over there :)

W is the absolute worst for me because of the Iraq War and the Great Recession. Trump hasn't reached that level of suckitude yet but obviously he still has time. To me he's been pretty impotent so far (like on the health care issue). Much more bark than bite.

I can't blame the Recession on Bush. Luck of the draw.

Trump is clearly the worse in my lifetime.

Everything's a con.

I don’t think it would be Niger, not big enough in scope. May be gearing up for Korea though. Only thing is that if that’s what it’s for, I’d expect Trump to make a scene about it to show strength. Unfortunately, I think that’s the direction we’re heading; question is when.

If we start a war in Korea it may take one hundred years to repair the damage to our global standing. It will easily be the single worst decision ever made by a sitting president.

Eh, depends upon the circumstances

Removing an asshole dictator(not Trump) won't cause anyone to cry except China

I think you greatly underestimate the loss of life that would be involved in removing said dictator. We wouldn't be able to do it alone and that entire region would be great impacted.

Everyone wants KJU removed from power. No one thinks is worth doing or it would have been done already.

Again, depends on the circumstances

The hundreds of thousands in South Korea and Japan that would die would cause some tears. Not to mention massive political and economic instability.

I don't dispute the great loss of life.

I do think US Presidents would initiate actions (precision strike, war etc.) against NK if they believe there was an imminent threat to the US regardless of innocent SK civilian lives lost.

I support this and think most of US support this. It's just that the devils in the details and most of us differ on where to draw the line and how we define "imminent threat".

With Trump, we know he's the type of guy to "jump the gun" but that's why Kelly and Matthis is reassuring to me.


With that said. I know why US is in SK but I don't know why we are still in the front lines at the DMZ. SK is strong enough of a nation, has great wealth, can buy all the weapons they need etc. and the US can be the supporting cast.

Looks like he was wrong. I'm still not believing he lied intentionally, doesn't seem like his nature, in that part of the speech he was just parroting what was given to him.

I'm more inclined to believe someone gave him (or wrote) that into his speech intentionally and that person lied.

Kelly should have not gone there with the congresswoman. If he stopped at the first part, I think the matter would have subsided.

Have to google to see if any of Kelly's friends have leaked any info on what Kelly thinks about his "lie".

Here's the WH explanation so far.

Fact-checking the John Kelly-Frederica Wilson controversy - CBS News

It does really sound to me that Trump just flubbed his lines. I'm giving Trump a pass on this.

And now for some humor. I like the Boehner and Bannon ones best.

Speaker Paul Ryan Roasts President Trump at Al Smith Dinner - NBC News

Haven't found any inside accounts of Kelly's reaction yet.

But did come across this article on a Sanders briefing. She seems to be turning into a Spicer, becoming more combative. Herself insulting a congresswoman seems inappropriate, she didn't need to go there.

Not that I really blame her, its a very tough job and can certainly understand how it can warp you always defending lies, inaccuracies, exaggerations etc. I'd spend my one year and then leave for bigger and better things.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/20/politi...ate/index.html

Number would actually be in the millions, possibly tens of millions. Seoul has almost 52 million citizens and would be devastated if war broke out. American military loss of life would be in the tens of thousands almost immediately.

There is no way to surgically strike North Korea as our intelligence doesn't know where all the artillery sits and we don't have a network of spies in the country that can provide good intel. Most of the artillery is hidden in mountainous regions where they've dug holes to hide it to avoid satellite detection. North Korea also has a million+ man army sitting right near the DMZ and numerous operatives throughout South Korea and Japan that would immediately attack key targets if North Korea is attacked. I'd say that we'd eventually win, but 1) I don't know if we would if other entities engage (China/Russia) and 2) No one would really "win" if war broke out, especially if Nukes start getting set off.

We stayed initially in order to deter China from gaining a strategic foothold. Over time, our role changed to deter North Korea and South Korea from attacking each other and destabilize the region (thoughts were that any war would include China and Japan and possibly the Soviet Union). Now we are there to deter the nuclear threat of North Korea.

So Steve Bannon is calling George W Bush the most destructive president. My brain simply cannot handle this.

To live in a world where GW Bush is coming out looking like an elder statesman. Has anybody ever done more for his predecessor's public standing than Trump is currently doing ?


Not to take away from your post in general, but that number is the number of citizens for the whole country. About half those live indeed in the larger metropolitan area of Seoul (crazy enough) with about 10 in the "city proper".

Two things there.

1) The law actually requires the release of those documents, but allows the Executive to redact those which might still have national security repercussions.

2) From the articles I've read, there's some confusion as to whether any of those documents will be held or redacted for the aforementioned national security reasons.

A whole bunch are almost certainly coming, but that's pursuant to an act of Congress from the '90s, not a magnanimous thing that Trump is doing for his conspiracy theorist buddies.

Yep knew all that, besides Trump loves a good conspiracy, and like Obama's "birther" one, he will proudly proclaim that he ordered the release of the documents while not mentioning of course that the law required them.

WHO is even more incompetent than Trump. That wasn't a question.

Robert Mugabe's WHO appointment condemned as 'an insult' - BBC News

Both SK and Japan are vital pieces of land in that part of the world. They keep China in check and are the first lines of defense in a war with either China, North Korea, or Russia. It's why Cuba would have been so important to the Soviet Union.

If we choose not to be on the front lines, why would SK need us at all? At that point we lose a vital piece on the map and likely add another country to the nuclear club.

I do think it's fair to wonder whether 30k is too much though. Whether we could streamline it to save money. But I do think the presence prevents NK from fucking with SK and China from positioning themselves better in the region.

More of that swamp draining.

Why Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots - NYTimes.com