President Donald Trump

Trump Speaks At Fourth-Grade Level, Lowest Of Last 15 U.S. Presidents, New Analysis Finds

Quote :

President Donald Trump—who boasted over the weekend that his success in life was a result of “being, like, really smart”—communicates at the lowest grade level of the last 15 presidents, according to a new analysis of the speech patterns of presidents going back to Herbert Hoover.

[img]http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/full/public/2018/01/08/flesch-scale-trump-use.PNG[/img
I'd bet his reading level is probably in the same ball park,maybe even lower.

The "stable genius" strikes again...
Trump lauded delivery of F-52s to Norway. The planes only exist in 'Call of Duty.'

Quote :

By Alex Horton January 11 at 12:05 PM

President Trump caused a stir with his announcement that the United States had delivered F-52 fighter jets to Norway.

Was it a secret advanced jet capable of beating its Russian counterparts? A ruse to fool intelligence analysts? Neither, it turns out. The “F-52” is a fictional jet only available to fly if you’re a gamer at the controls of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”

Trump lauded the sale of the fictional planes alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg at the White House on Wednesday, remarking on the very real and growing defense relationship with America’s Northern Europe ally.

“In November we started delivering the first F-52s and F-35 fighter jets,” Trump said. “We have a total of 52 and they’ve delivered a number of them already a little ahead of schedule.”

I got my hands on a copy of "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff. It's a fascinating read and I'm only 3 chapters into it. Every day Trump proves that the anecdotes in the book are true.

Remember Trump's dark inauguration speech? When it ended,George W Bush said "That's some weird shit". Oh,and Trump thought the Obama's were "disdainful and arrogant" towards him and Melania during the WH meeting that precedes the inauguration.

In Trump’s first year, science advice sees a marked decline

Quote :

Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, expert panels that provide key federal agencies with science advice have had fewer members and met less often than at any time since 1997, when the government started tracking such numbers, a new analysis concludes.

At least some of the decline appears to be attributable to a deliberate effort by the Trump administration to exclude scientists from the policymaking process, argues Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’s (UCS’s) Center for Science and Democracy, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which issued today’s report.

Heretic wrote:

In Trump’s first year, science advice sees a marked decline

Quote :

Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office, expert panels that provide key federal agencies with science advice have had fewer members and met less often than at any time since 1997, when the government started tracking such numbers, a new analysis concludes.

At least some of the decline appears to be attributable to a deliberate effort by the Trump administration to exclude scientists from the policymaking process, argues Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’s (UCS’s) Center for Science and Democracy, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which issued today’s report.

What intereferes with greed? Science & Logic #TrumpTrainWreck

Gangster POTUS AKA Cadet Bone Spurs claimed he would have run into the school in Florida even if he didn't have a weapon. This coming from a man who has previously stated that he can't stand the sight of blood and who made jokes about an 80 year old man who fell on a Trump property while Trump ignored him.
Colbert's take on it...

All in favor of changing the title of this thread to "Individual 1" say Aye!

Inside Catch and Kill: Cohen, a Porn Star and 'Individual 1'  By The Associated Press

Quote :

Aug. 22, 2018

WASHINGTON — His name is Donald John Trump, but federal prosecutors have a simpler moniker for the 45th president: Individual 1.

Dry legalese and generic aliases could do nothing to tone down the tale of the scheme to protect Trump outlined in court documents Tuesday. The criminal campaign finance case against the president's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, revealed a complex, illegal operation to stifle sex stories and distribute hush money. The documents also lay out new details about the involvement of Trump's real estate company.

Cohen's plea agreement and the details it revealed now pose a direct threat to the president, perhaps one even more damaging than the separate special counsel investigation examining whether the president's campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the 2016 election.

The colorful cast of characters depicted in documents includes a Playboy model and a porn actress who reported having sex years earlier with the married Trump; a tabloid executive who relished juicy scandals but also his own friendship with the candidate; and a lawyer eager at all costs to protect the interests of his star client. At the center of the intrigue is Trump himself, referenced obliquely but unmistakably as "Individual 1" — a man who prosecutors note, in formulaic but wry phrasing, began his bid "on or about June 16, 2015."

Just two months later, as Trump stunned the political world with his rise, the chairman of a tabloid media company offered the campaign some assistance, the documents said.

The company agreed to flag for Cohen and the campaign unflattering, unpublished stories about Trump's relationships with women "so they could be purchased and their publication avoided," prosecutors said. The company eventually did exactly that, allowing for Cohen throughout the campaign to arrange for the stories to be bought and suppressed with the express purpose of "influencing the election." The strategy is known in tabloid circles as "catch and kill."

The company is not named in the court filings and neither are the women, but description matches that of American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, and its chairman, David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend and ally. The timing and amount of the payments line up with those paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to buy their silence in the weeks and months leading up to the election.

Although the plan was in place nearly a year earlier, the first arrangement began in June 2016, weeks after Trump had clinched the Republican nomination.

McDougal, prosecutors allege, began attempting to sell a story of a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007.

As promised, it didn't take long for Cohen to be notified — and to take action, promising to reimburse his tabloid friends for the purchase of her tale. That August, prosecutors allege, AMI struck a $150,000 deal with McDougal to buy her story, feature her on two magazine stories and publish more than 100 of her stories.

"Despite the cover and article features to the agreement, its principal purpose, as understood by those involved, including Michael Cohen, the defendant, was to suppress Woman-1's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election," prosecutors wrote.

The pattern repeated that October, this time with Daniels, who had her own story of a sexual relationship with Trump that she was prepared to tell in the National Enquirer.

In that case, Cohen and a lawyer for Daniels, whose real name is Clifford, negotiated a $130,000 payment to buy her silence.

According to the government, the deal nearly fell apart just weeks before the election. Cohen was slow in finalizing the payment and was warned that Daniels was close to completing a separate deal with another outlet to make her story public. Cohen received an encrypted telephone message from someone matching Pecker's description and from another top editor at the publication before agreeing to make the payment and calling Daniels' lawyer to finalize the arrangement, prosecutors said.

On Oct. 26, 2016, just weeks before the election, Cohen drew down $131,000 from a home equity line of credit he obtained by lying about his debt and cash flow. He wired funds to a lawyer for Daniels, falsely saying that it was for a "retainer," and soon after received copies of a signed confidential agreement with the actress.

Prosecutors allege that Trump Organization executives ultimately reimbursed Cohen for both the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and another $50,000 for "tech services" that Cohen had solicited on the Trump campaign's behalf. Prosecutors cited an email in which one unnamed Trump Organization executive told another to pay Cohen $420,000 out of "the trust," according the indictment, disguising the money as payment owed to Cohen under a legal retainer agreement.

"In truth and in fact, there was no such retainer agreement," prosecutors wrote.

For federal prosecutors who have spent months investigating the president's lawyer, the timing of the payments was no accident.

They don't say specifically that Trump directed Cohen to make the payments — an allegation Cohen made in court. The documents do note that Cohen "coordinated with one or more members of the campaign."

The money, the government says, was intended "to influence the 2016 presidential election."

The intent is essential to the government's case. Corporations are not permitted to contribute to campaigns and money intended to influence an election must be reported as a contribution. The money to Daniels and McDougal was not.

All told, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight crimes, including a campaign finance violation, tax evasion and making false statements to a bank. He could get about four to five years in prison at sentencing Dec. 12.

As for Trump, his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said there "is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen."

It's true the Justice Department did not go as far as Cohen did in pointing the finger at Trump, but legal experts say the allegations bring the president closer into his associates' criminal conduct, especially if it can be established that he conspired with Cohen to knowingly violate campaign finance law.

"The president has certain protections while a sitting president, but if it were true, and he was aware and tried to influence an election, that could be a federal felony offense," said Daniel Petalas, a former Justice Department public corruption prosecutor. "This strikes close to home."

____
Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report.

Bob Woodward’s New Book Scorches Earth Under Donald Trump, With John F. Kelly Proclaiming, “We’re In Crazytown”

Quote :

In a scorching tease of Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book about President Donald Trump, which lands next week, the Washington Post has published a sampling of its charges. The damning catalog appears to paint a far worse picture than that in Michael Woolf’s mega-selling Fire and Fury.

Among its allegations, the book says Trump did a mock-interview with his then-lawyer John Dowd, as preparation for testifying for Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. During that session, he contradicted himself and lied. “You are not a good witness,” Dowd told Trump the day before resigning, according to Woodward. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”

The book, Fear: Trump in the White House, will officially be published on September 11 by Simon & Schuster. Woodward says it is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with White House figures and witnesses. Many interviews were conducted on “deep background,” meaning the information is used without an explanation of who provided it. He also drew from meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents.

In the book, Trump also flames Attorney General Jeff Sessions in more coarse terms than he ever has on Twitter. “This guy is mentally retarded,” Woodward says Trump raged. “He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”

Echoing the central theme of Wolff’s book, Woodward quotes Chief of Staff John F. Kelly during a small meeting on the subject of Trump. “He’s an idiot,” Kelly said. “It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

While the in-fighting and anxiety about Mueller have been covered elsewhere, Woodward also raises other issues about Trump’s foreign-affairs dealings. After a chemical weapons attack in Syria, Woodward reports, Trump said he wanted to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “Let’s f–king kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f–king lot of them.”

Also, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis once told associates that Trump “acted like — and had the understanding of — ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader,’ ” in the paraphrased account of Woodward.

Included in the Post‘s wave of reporting about the book was an audio recording of Woodward speaking with Trump after completing the manuscript. On the call, Trump claims that he never received a formal interview request from Woodward, but the journalist said he asked six separate people for access over a period of months, to no effect. White House advisor Kellyanne Conway, one of the people he approached, is in the room when Trump and Woodward are speaking. “Why didn’t you tell me about him?” Trump asks. “I would have gladly talked to him.” Conway breezily asserts she followed protocol. “I put in the request,” she says. “It’s OK, I’ll just end up with another bad book,” Trump shrugs. “What can I tell you?”

Despite the anonymity of some sources, Post political writer Aaron Blake said the account should not be automatically dismissed.

“Some people will still doubt the claims in the book, because 35 to 40 percent of the country is predisposed toward doing that and has been for the better part of three years. These are also anonymously sourced anecdotes,” Blake wrote. “But the book also paints a portrait that is likely to be filled out by others in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.”

Here is the audio of Woodward’s conversation with Trump:



Audio is not much to listen to other than the undisputed fact that Woodward tried multiple times with several different WH staff to get an interview with the racist in chief. Other than that it was the unindicted co-conspirator going on and on about how he's the greatest.

Popcorn anyone?

Psychiatrist: Trump admin officials contacted me because president was ‘scaring’ them

Quote :

Officials from the Trump administration reportedly contacted a Yale University psychiatrist last year because President Trump was "scaring" them.

Dr. Bandy Lee told Salon and The New York Daily News on Thursday that two White House officials flagged Trump's behavior last October.

"[They] said that Trump was 'scaring' them, that he was 'unraveling," Lee, who wrote the book, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” told Salon.

"Not wishing to confuse the role I chose, as an educator of the public, and a potential treatment role, I referred them to the local emergency room without inquiring much further," Lee added to Salon.

Lee also wrote an op-ed declaring that Trump is a "dangerous leader."

Lee repeated to The Daily News that she did not mention this development before because "I did not want to confuse my role an an educator to the public."

"I thought I would be more effective by retaining my public role then getting involved in either the treatment of those who were feeling scared or in the actual intervention with the President," she added.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

The claim from Lee comes during a week in which scrutiny increased on both the president and staffers who might be working against him.

More hilarious tweets coming soon from the unindicted co-conspirator My favorite Twitter reply to him:

While I was looking for something specific about another subject in prior posts, I found this instead...

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

 

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

   
The "grand coronation" that you seem so obsessed with was because the election of the first black President was an
event of historical significance... it's like what Biden said about the Affordable Care Act... it was a "fucking big deal!"

The “grand coronation” of which I speak is not the election itself;
it was His elevation to demigod after having served a scant two unremarkable years as a junior senator,
and having done nothing else of consequence to qualify Himself for that elevation.

Yeah. Well, according to Article 2, Section 1 of the US Constitution, he was qualified. A candidate wins an election by persuading voters to vote for him. Obama is a skilled politician who succeeded despite being black.

I really don't get why you believe that being black is an advantage. What are you basing that opinion on?

How is being black an advantage?

I asked you this question earlier, but you gave a non-answer.

happy jack wrote:

     
On the other hand, can you name even one white man who would have been so grandly coronated after having served only 2 years as an unremarkable junior senator?
Even one?

No white man with the record listed below, and only 2 years into his first senate term, would have been hoisted upon the shoulders of the Democrats (or, much more importantly, of the media), elevated to nationwide status, and paraded around as a serious presidential candidate. We both know that, though only one of us will admit it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama

In light of Trump's nomination and election, don't you think that you should revisit these statements, Jack?

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

While I was looking for something specific about another subject in prior posts, I found this instead...

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

 

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

   
The "grand coronation" that you seem so obsessed with was because the election of the first black President was an
event of historical significance... it's like what Biden said about the Affordable Care Act... it was a "fucking big deal!"

The “grand coronation” of which I speak is not the election itself;
it was His elevation to demigod after having served a scant two unremarkable years as a junior senator,
and having done nothing else of consequence to qualify Himself for that elevation.

Yeah. Well, according to Article 2, Section 1 of the US Constitution, he was qualified. A candidate wins an election by persuading voters to vote for him. Obama is a skilled politician who succeeded despite being black.

I really don't get why you believe that being black is an advantage. What are you basing that opinion on?

How is being black an advantage?

I asked you this question earlier, but you gave a non-answer.

happy jack wrote:

     
On the other hand, can you name even one white man who would have been so grandly coronated after having served only 2 years as an unremarkable junior senator?
Even one?

No white man with the record listed below, and only 2 years into his first senate term, would have been hoisted upon the shoulders of the Democrats (or, much more importantly, of the media), elevated to nationwide status, and paraded around as a serious presidential candidate. We both know that, though only one of us will admit it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama

In light of Trump's nomination and election, don't you think that you should revisit these statements, Jack?

Seriously?
What is there to revisit?
You have noticed the press coverage he's gotten, haven't you?
His ascension, candidacy, and nomination were ridiculed from Day One - that is why his actual election had everybody stunned.
Trump was elected in spite of the media, not because of the media.

https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/15/media/trump-free-media-coverage/index.html

Quote :

Donald Trump has earned close to $2 billion worth of free media attention during the 2016 campaign, eclipsing the total value of media attention given to all of his Republican competitors combined, a new study finds.

The findings show that Trump earned more than six times as much free coverage as his closest competitor, Ted Cruz, and more than two-and-a-half times as much free coverage as Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side.

The media fixation with Trump was arguably the biggest reason for his success - especially during the primaries.

You had said that Obama had an advantage because he was black.  Then you asked me this...

happy jack wrote:

On the other hand, can you name even one white man who would have been so grandly coronated after having served only 2 years as an unremarkable junior senator?
Even one?

That question has now been answered... and this white guy is not just "unremarkable"  ... he's totally unfit to serve as President.

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

You had said that Obama had an advantage because he was black.  Then you asked me this...

happy jack wrote:

On the other hand, can you name even one white man who would have been so grandly coronated after having served only 2 years as an unremarkable junior senator?
Even one?

That question has now been answered... and this white guy is not just "unremarkable"  ... he's totally unfit to serve as President.

"This" white guy was not grandly coronated by the media.
"This" white guy has been ridiculed by the media, many times rightly so, from the time he announced his candidacy through the present day.
"This" white guy did not have the Nobel Prize dumped in his lap before he even set foot in the Oval Office.

So what, exactly is your point?

First, you say that Obama only got elected because he was black  - Unqualified!

Then, you say no white guy who was so Unqualified! could ever get elected with that kind of record....

You even go so far as to say...

happy jack wrote:

No white man with the record listed below, and only 2 years into his first senate term, would have been hoisted upon the shoulders of the Democrats (or, much more importantly, of the media), elevated to nationwide status, and paraded around as a serious presidential candidate. We both know that, though only one of us will admit it.

I don't know, jack... but maybe you should consider walking back your original remarks a bit?

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

 
First, you say that Obama only got elected because he was black  - Unqualified!

I said he had an advantage because he was black. And I did not say that the fact that he was black made him unqualified, so don't be spinning it that way. I said that his previous meager record would not have been considered sufficient qualification for a relatively unknown white man.

Huh? Are you saying that Obama was a "relatively unknown black man?" That isn't what you're saying, is it?

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

happy jack wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

 
First, you say that Obama only got elected because he was black  - Unqualified!

I said he had an advantage because he was black. And I did not say that the fact that he was black made him unqualified, so don't be spinning it that way. I said that his previous meager record would not have been considered sufficient qualification for a relatively unknown white man.

Huh?  Are you saying that Obama was a "relatively unknown black man?"  That isn't what you're saying, is it?  

Probably a poor choice of words, although he didn't really become a well-known national figure based upon any stellar accomplishments. He became one only after being anointed by the media. The possibility of a black man in the White House was way too juicy for them to resist, and they did what they needed to do to put him there...

Damn. You really don't know much about politics, do you? What you describe above is such an unrealistic version of the events that actually occurred that it's not even worth discussing.  I might feel differently if I hadn't already attempted, many times, to bring you up to speed on the history, but it's clear at this point that I've completely wasted my time.

So,have at it, Hoss! Just go on believing that it's somehow advantageous to be born black in this country.

Trump Worshiping Racist wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

 I might feel differently if I hadn't already attempted, many times, to bring you up to speed on the history, but it's clear at this point that I've completely wasted my time.

You may have told me your same fairy tale many, many times, but in the end, it remains what it is - a fairy tale.

^The angry ignorant white homophobic racist who helped put Trump in office sets us straight ^