What stupid shit has Trump done today?

[Corax]

no, that's the azores

Am interesting place for corporation tax lawyers, funnily enough.

 

[Pickman's model]

Am interesting place for corporation tax lawyers, funnily enough.

very nice place for a holiday too, and if the sea's calm you can go whale watching

 

[1%er]

very nice place for a holiday too, and if the sea's calm you can go whale watching

 

[Pickman's model]

Of the aquatick variety

 

[CrabbedOne]

In Politico Trump tweets propel Europe into new military age

...
One senior EU diplomat said the EU’s ambitions would be judged more on its ability to coordinate security and defense policy and less on its ability to reform the eurozone.

“The real test is going to be on defense and not on the euro,” the diplomat said, noting that if a conflict were to develop in, say, the Balkans, the EU should have the capability to intervene without turning to London or Washington to take the lead.

This ability to put EU boots on the ground will depend heavily on decisions over the next few months on financing for existing EU battlegroups, comprised of approximately 1,500 soldiers, which have never been deployed, mainly because of funding disputes.

Until now, defense cooperation in Europe has existed mainly at the bilateral or regional level. According to a study by the European Parliament, there were nearly 400 ongoing military cooperation projects in Europe in early 2015.

Among the existing partnerships is a joint procurement program for ammunition for an anti-tank system used by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland.
...

I'm not sure wether it's his Twittering little hands or the appearance of the US being run by an unreliable Putin fan who thinks Europeans are in rent arrears to him but he's having an effect on European defence spending.

This will probably all go pear shaped, whatever the precise EU standard is for that, military affairs hasn't been their thing. However the Brexiting Brits have gone all quiet about these EU Johnnies sidelining NATO. Rather eager for some juicy defence contracts it seems.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later:

 

[Streathamite]

Not Trump but US news - the primaries for New Jersey Governor race have just been held and the Democrats have decided on Phillip Murphy, a bloke with a 23 history at Goldman Sachs and who

Lovely, what a generous man.

by banking standards - and corporate standards - the guy's positively saintly

 

[MightyTibberton]

I'm not certain it would. A lot of the companies that service voting machines are owned by Republicans. There's already something called "red shift" that's been happening with voting machines. I don't think the Republicans, who are in control of both those bodies, want anyone to know.

Red Shift: why it's important

Wisconsin: None dare call it vote rigging

Are you following Mike Farb. He's on Twitter and I believe he has a website where he is collating lots of evidence on vote fraud and hacking in the last election. There are also some good accounts of the recounts that are just shocking - basically a blizzard of high-priced GOP lawyers squelched a bunch of well-meaning volunteers, delayed like masters, and the recounts were essentially a complete waste of time. It's almost like El Trumpo administration were desperate for them not to be carried out! Heaven forfend!

I'm grateful that the intergrity of UK elections has never been seriously questioned. Media coverage, fake news, money spent all that sort of stuff is crooked as a seven pound note, but the actual crosses on papers things seems OK.

 

[Streathamite]

Donald Trump To Dine With Two Senators Who Will Question James Comey



I'm sure the timing is merely a coincidence. Nothing to see here.

Hey, maybe they just felt hungry!

 

[MightyTibberton]

Comey has released his "prepared remarks" that will be the start of the testimony tomorrow.

Initial Comments on James Comey’s Written Testimony

That includes the full Comey docs as well as some legal commentary, which paints it as very bad for Trump.

Of course, there is now a war going on online as to whether it is fact very bad for Trump, or very good for Trump, or completely exonerates Trump, or predicts the next Ice Age. . . As you'll gather.

 

[MightyTibberton]

Should add. It's being put about that Comey did this in order to pre-empt any Tweeting by Trumpo about the testimony and just in case he did invoke executive privilege in order to stop it at the last minute (I have no idea how that works, and I gather it's very hotly disputed as to whether or not he could do that).

There's also quite a lot of legal upset today about the testimony from acting FBI Director, deputy AG, DNI, and NSA blokey who refused to answer a load of questions about conversations with Trump on grounds that the Senate committee thought were bollocks.

 

[coley]

very nice place for a holiday too, and if the sea's calm you can go whale watching

What species of Whale?

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/…/…/os-jcomey-060817.pdf

Oooh....ahhh...

It's Comey's written statement in advance of tomorrow's hearing at the senate.

 

[coley]

Precisely

It won't, the money is on RE, let TTT encourage the Koch Bros et all to continue to push for FFs, hopefully they will go the way of Peabody coal, left with millions in stranded assets.

 

[coley]

While a big part of his base (and indeed the general public) would applaud a big infrastructure bill, those Tea party republicans in the house and Senate, will figuratively die before passing any big spending agenda.

He'll get fucked in both holes by this one. Marvelous.

Tasteless comment...........but I can't help liking it, as per this one individual

 

[coley]

Important point. Worth reading this thread on the nature of Trump's support and how it's fading. Most significantly he's losing the Clinton hating conventional Republicans he needed to win the election.

Occurs to me that means he's in trouble. He'll need to rally the respectables to win a second term in 2020. There'll be no pre-demonised Dem hate figure that the GOP have been throwing shit at for decades to run against.

Silver also pointed out earlier things like ditching Paris are pretty bad politics. Republicans will mostly approve of the affront to tree huggers but a lot of them only weakly. For a broad swath of Dems piously obsessed with things eco on the other hand its like he killed Bambi. 2020 will be all about turnout and Trump's mobilising the wrong side.

Honestly, do you think he will still be around in 2020?

 

[coley]

In Politico Trump tweets propel Europe into new military age
I'm not sure wether it's his Twittering little hands or the appearance of the US being run by an unreliable Putin fan who thinks Europeans are in rent arrears to him but he's having an effect on European defence spending.

This will probably all go pear shaped, whatever the precise EU standard is for that, military affairs hasn't been their thing. However the Brexiting Brits have gone all quiet about these EU Johnnies sidelining NATO. Rather eager for some juicy defence contracts it seems.

"This will probably all go pear shaped, whatever the precise EU standard is for that, military affairs hasn't been their thing. However the Brexiting Brits have gone all quiet about these EU Johnnies sidelining NATO. Rather eager for some juicy defence contracts it seems"

Can you expand on your last paragraph?
Any EU 'army' will certainly go 'pear shaped' without a U.K. Involvement.
Mebbes the next time, we should just keep our noses out, and let our continental cousins sort themselves out

 

[Nylock]

Any EU 'army' will certainly go 'pear shaped' without a U.K. Involvement.

...how so?

 

[coley]

...how so?

Have a look at the various 'suggestions' Re; European army/defence force, and The French ambivalence towards NATO membership.
TBH, Putin only needs to fart and the country's formerly in the Warsaw Pact would be shitting themselves.

 

[gosub]

"This will probably all go pear shaped, whatever the precise EU standard is for that, military affairs hasn't been their thing. However the Brexiting Brits have gone all quiet about these EU Johnnies sidelining NATO. Rather eager for some juicy defence contracts it seems"

Can you expand on your last paragraph?
Any EU 'army' will certainly go 'pear shaped' without a U.K. Involvement.
Mebbes the next time, we should just keep our noses out, and let our continental cousins sort themselves out

UK has been sand in the vaseline for the last decade, together with uncertainty of French roleand a half they have been trying to do this. Unusually politico is wrong , EUrocorps has previously been deployed.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann - Wikipedia - seem to be the ones pushing. Greece now has more tanks than France & UK combined (all of them German built)

 

[CRI]

More "what shit are Republicans doing to cover Trump's shiny ass," but . . .

GOP senators interrupt Kamala Harris – and reactions flood social media

Harris was questioning Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, asking him if he would send a letter to Special Counsel Robert Mueller giving him unlimited authority in his probe into possible ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The exchange was tense, with Harris interrupting Rosenstein as he started to say there wasn’t enough time to explain the answer. When she asked for a yes or no answer, he demurred, and she said, “either you are willing to do that or not.”

Republican Sen. John McCain first interjected, out of turn, with a plea to the committee chairman, Sen. Richard Burr: “Mr. Chairman, they should be allowed to answer the question.”

As the exchange between Harris and Rosenstein continued, Burr interjected and asked Harris to suspend.

“The chair is going to exercise the right to allow the witnesses to answer the question, and the committee is on notice to provide the witnesses the courtesy – which has not been extended all the way across – extend the courtesy for questions to get answered.”

Other male senators were similarly brusque in their questioning, but funnily enough, they weren't reprimanded by the Intelligence Committee Chair as Harris was. Gee whizz. Wonder why?

 

[bimble]

Comey's written account of their one on one dinner is quite something. More Shakespearian than house of Cards sort of.

“It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks ...
A few moments later, the President said, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’ I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence.”..

 

[phillm]

Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later:

and Trump has just 'bukkaked' the world - <<shudders>> - horrible thought that I can't now unthink. Sorry for sharing.

 

[CrabbedOne]

"This will probably all go pear shaped, whatever the precise EU standard is for that, military affairs hasn't been their thing. However the Brexiting Brits have gone all quiet about these EU Johnnies sidelining NATO. Rather eager for some juicy defence contracts it seems"

Can you expand on your last paragraph?
Any EU 'army' will certainly go 'pear shaped' without a U.K. Involvement.
Mebbes the next time, we should just keep our noses out, and let our continental cousins sort themselves out

I was not implying that absent the Brits a European effort would fall apart. In general I tend to share the French opinion that London often pushed the EU in really dysfunctional directions.

What I've heard is EU activities around the military have always been a particularly nasty cluster fuck. I don't know the details just that it is a subject much groaned about.

The British military are pretty much an American auxiliary these days. Having watched Afghanistan and Iraq unfold I'm a lot less confident in the British military's organisational abilities. These wars have gone badly but I would not like to see what happened if the Brits were left to fight a war on their own. The US officer corps borrows heavily from a superior culture of management, is rather academic and intellectually streets ahead of their British peers. It may be more a matter that absent that American core of leadership to build around things won't go so well.

But then look who is US Commander In Chief which rather buggers up that idea.

 

[LIc'd Deviant]

Related to that, also claimed a president who died years before the civil war could have prevented it if he had postponed taking office until that period (Jackson, zombie POTUS)...

We, the apathetic AMerican assholes that brought the world this idiot, call him "RoadKill" as he looks as though he has a dead critter found alongside the road,placed upon his bald pate'. When I found out he had won all I could say was :"Oh, this should be interesting" not to disappoint he fired off 40 or 80 cruise misses into Soriano, whom we had communication with,but now think to old RoadKill Isis is now running Seria. The NSA runs the country anyway. PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE HAVE BROKEN THE WORLD. SORRY BOUT THAT ALL.

 

[MightyTibberton]

I think I should make it clear to everyone on this thread that I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.

 

[CrabbedOne]

I think I should make it clear to everyone on this thread that I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.

How about "honest loyalty" and maybe a reduced sentence if you rat out Jared?

 

[CrabbedOne]

On The Hill Poll: Trump job approval falls to 34 percent

...
In a poll released at the end of last month, 37 percent of respondents approved of the job the president was doing and 55 percent disapproved.

The new poll also finds 31 percent of voters think Trump did something illegal regarding his relationship with Russia.
Another 29 percent of respondents think the president did something unethical, but not illegal, regarding his relationship with Russia. Thirty-two percent think the president did nothing wrong.

Forty percent of voters think Trump's campaign advisers did something illegal in their relationships with Russia, while another 25 percent think they did something unethical, but not illegal.

A majority of voters, 54 percent, think Trump is too friendly with Russia, compared to 38 percent who think he has the right attitude toward Russia.

Nearly 70 percent of voters are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about the president's relationship with Russia.

The poll was conducted from May 31 to June 6 among 1,361 voters. The margin of error is 3.2 percent.
...

A lot of voters smelling something fishy here.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On Politico Christie: Trump's talk with Comey is ‘normal New York City' conversation

“There are three sides to every story. Mine, yours and the truth.” ~ Joe Massino

“Honest people have no ethics” ~ Sam DeCavalcante

Linky.

 

[8den]

James Comey testimony: time, live stream and how to watch the former FBI director testify before Congress

Testimony starts around 3pm and Trump has said he'll live tweet.


Man I miss the popcorn smilie