Everything you didn't want to know about Trump and were not afraid to ask

[pErvinalia]

Unfortunately a number of these banned or de-platformed users are showing up on Steem and its youtube equivalent. I hope like fuck Alex Jones doesn't show up there.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Some interesting information may come out of this. The Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors. He was mentioned in a previous incarnation of this thread because he was the treasurer of the Trump Foundation (accused of a "pattern of persistent illegal conduct") and apparently didn't know it.

'The Trump Organization executive who knows all about the business has been subpoenaed'

Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization finance chief, was name-dropped on the September 2016 secretly recorded tape in which Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, discusses a payoff to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. At one hard-to-decipher point in the tape, Cohen can be heard telling Trump that he’s “spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with …”

Weisselberg’s name appearing hints at the possibility that the Trump Organization was directly involved in the discussions to pay the National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc. (AMI). In August 2016, AMI paid $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal — who alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007 — to get the rights to her story and prevent it from going public. (AMI’s chief, David Pecker, is a friend of Trump’s.) Cohen and Trump appear to be discussing the use of a shell company to buy the rights to the story from AMI.

Now, it turns out, federal prosecutors have some questions for Weisselberg. The Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Rebecca Ballhaus, Michael Rothfeld, and Alexandra Berzon reported Thursday that Weisselberg has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury, likely appearing as a witness in the Manhattan US attorney’s office investigation into Cohen.

[Seabass]

Defend this, Coito Deux. I won't even argue with you. I just want to bear witness to whatever insanity that you spew forth.

Trump's EPA Targets California’s Environmental Regulations — Despite Their Effectiveness

California is once again in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, with the EPA proposing to strip the Golden State of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and roll back environmental standards, per Bloomberg.

Under the proposal, fuel-economy standards would be frozen at the 2020 level of 35 miles per gallon, significantly less than the Obama administration’s proposed 50 mpg by 2025 standard. California would no longer be able to set its own emissions standards (SB32 required a cut to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030) nor its electric vehicle sales mandate for automakers.

The ironic timing and naming of the Safer and Affordable Fuel Efficient Vehicles Rule suggests more than a little cognitive dissonance, even by the standards of the Trump administration’s unorthodox (read: at times nonsensical) approach to governance.

Mere weeks ago, the California Air Resources Board announced that greenhouse gas pollution in California had dropped below 1990s levels for the first time, 13 percent below the state’s peak in 2004. Per-capita emissions fell 23 percent, to about half the national average, and carbon pollution emitted per $1 million of gross state product plummeted 38 percent. Perhaps most important, these improvements, which improved public health and could potentially save thousands of lives, were coupled with a 26 percent growth in California’s economy.

more: https://www.laweekly.com/news/epa-targe ... ns-9687245

Trump’s plan to revoke California’s car pollution waiver makes a mockery of conservative principles

Earlier this week, Bloomberg broke the news that the Trump administration plans to press ahead with its plans to roll back the new national fuel economy standards established under President Obama and to freeze standards at current levels through 2030.

That’s not all. The White House also plans to try to nullify the waiver California has under the Clean Air Act to set its own standards — effectively forcing the state, and the dozen states that have aligned their standards with it, to roll back their standards back as well.

This is the most aggressive position the administration could possibly take, which seems to be its default mode. If successful, the plan would wipe out one of Obama’s biggest accomplishments on both air pollution and greenhouse gases. As I described in more detail in this post, the fuel economy of the US fleet would virtually stagnate through 2030. And according to new research from Energy Innovation, it would cost American consumers hundreds of billions of dollars.

more: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environm ... nservative

[pErvinalia]

He's already stated as a positive Trump ripping up x thousands of regulations. When pressed multiple times as to whether it matters what type of regulation it was, he's refused to answer. So we can only be left to assume that he thinks tearing up effective greenhouse gas regulation is one of Trumps finest achievements.

[Seabass]

More American greatness courtesy of the quisling-in-chief.

The Government’s Rush to Deport Reunited Families
https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-ri ... d-families

The family separation crisis took a turn yesterday, when the Trump administration revealed in a federal court filing its intention to deport families immediately upon reunifying them. The ACLU had sought a court order blocking the deportation of any parent with a final order of removal until one week after notification that they have been reunited with their children.

This waiting period is crucial to ensure that parents have an opportunity to make an informed decision about whether to fight their own removal cases, leave their children (who may have their own asylum claims) behind in the United States, or make some other decision. In short, families will be making life-altering decisions after months of traumatic separation — and the fact that the government is trying to shortchange them a matter of days to do so is galling.

On Tuesday in court, we argued that given reports of a chaotic reunification process — not to mention the trauma caused by prolonged involuntary separation — families require a waiting period of seven days after notification of reunion, so that they can meet with attorneys and be fully apprised of their rights before any deportations occur. A Justice Department attorney pushed back, saying “The government takes issue with the assertion that there is a mess on the ground. We have many reasons to be proud of this effort."

Well, here’s what we take issue with:

A mother being told that signing a government form would lead her to be reunified with her 16-year-old son, and then finding out she had just allegedly signed away her rights to see him again. She could not read the form herself because her Spanish literacy is minimal.
ICE officers telling a mother who stated her wish to seek asylum that “applying for asylum would take six to eight months and that she would not see her daughter during that time period,” even though she has a right to be reunified under the court order.
Parents being taken to rooms with 30-50 other people and being forced to fill out forms with only a few minutes to decide whether or not to leave their children behind in the United States.
A father who was told that the only way for his daughter, who faced mortal danger in Guatemala, to remain in the United States was for him to sign “this document.” He had no opportunity to review the document or ask questions about it. He had no idea that by signing it, he agreed to voluntary departure and relinquished his right to be reunited with her. The entire interaction lasted one minute.
These are only some of the stories emerging from on the ground where advocates and attorneys are diligently trying to reach hundreds of parents at risk of deportation — 900 by the government’s latest tally.

Separated Parents Were "Totally Unaware" They Had Waived Their Right To Be Reunified With Their Children
In affidavits filed in federal court, attorneys say parents separated from their kids at the border are telling stories of being misinformed, coerced, or tricked by immigration agents.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ad ... ived-their

Immigrant parents who were separated from their children at the border told attorneys they were misinformed, coerced, or tricked into waiving their rights to be reunified with their kids.

In court documents filed in San Diego on Wednesday, a father from Guatemala said immigration officials told him he was definitely going to be deported and asked if he wanted to be deported with his daughter or by himself. They did not ask him if he wanted to be reunited with his daughter in the US.

Without an opportunity to review the document, he signed a form that officials told him was the only way his daughter could stay in the United States, according to a declaration signed by attorney Sofia Reive.

"He told me it is not safe for his daughter to return to Guatemala due to extreme and specific threats from a powerful and dangerous man who has demanded to 'buy' her," Reive said. "He signed the document because he felt pressured to do so and because he felt like he had no other choice. This entire interaction lasted approximately one minute."

The declarations from attorneys working with detained parents who were separated from their kids describe people who don't speak English being pressured into signing documents; being forced to make a decision in a room full of dozens of people with only a few minutes to decide whether to leave their kids in the US; or incorrectly believing they were signing a form that would reunite them with their children.

[Seabass]

European Commissioner Used Colorful, ‘Very Simple’ Cards to Explain Trade to Trump
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... cards.html

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, came to Washington to try to persuade President Trump to stop his trade war with the European Union. Juncker’s approach, reports The Wall Street Journal, involved dumbing the material down just short of the point of using finger puppets to explain what “trade” means:

Backing up his points, Mr. Juncker flipped through more than a dozen colorful cue cards with simplified explainers, the senior EU official said. Each card had at most three figures about a specific topic, such as trade in cars or standards for medical devices.

“We knew this wasn’t an academic seminar,” the EU official said. “It had to be very simple.”

The Journal does not report if the cards employed pictures. In any case, even if Trump was not able to fully absorb the simplified analysis, he no doubt was able to appreciate the color and the motion.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Winning! Deregulating industries that pollute and despoil the environment in the US is just the day job, for now. Other fish to fry elsewhere when the opportunity arises. Spreading joy all over the world, or something.

'Trump golf resort wrecked special nature site, reports reveal'

The spectacular dunes system picked by Donald Trump for his golf resort in Aberdeenshire has been “partially destroyed” as a result of the course’s construction, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.

Scottish Natural Heritage, which has been under pressure for years to speak out on the issue, now acknowledges that serious damage has been done to the site of special scientific interest (SSSI) at Foveran Links on the Menie estate, north of Aberdeen, since the course opened in 2012, the documents show.

...

“These documents show that considerable damage has been done to Foveran Links, and that it is very unlikely that it will retain its SSSI status,” said Bob Ward, the policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, who obtained the reports under FoI. Ward has also asked the Scottish government to investigate whether proper environmental monitoring has been carried out at the site since 2012.

...

Many local residents and councillors believe that the development did not justify destroying the delicate ecosystem at Foveran. They say Trump failed to honour promises he made in 2008 to protect the site as much as possible when he encouraged a planning inquiry to ignore the dunes’ SSSI status.

Normally the site’s conservation status would have prevented any significant development. But Trump said that, if he was refused permission to develop on the southern end of the SSSI, he would withdraw from the entire scheme. He also claimed that, when completed, the land there would be “environmentally enhanced and better than it was before”. The Trump Organization said last year its environmental approach to the course had been “first class”.

[Sean Hayden]

when he encouraged a planning inquiry to ignore the dunes’ SSSI status.

--and how does one do that?

[Sean Hayden]

It's disheartening to know that when it comes to development it's apparently shitheads the world over. Some yahoo recently started clearing here without all the proper 'okays' and of course he's clearing in the path of flood waters.....I foresee yet more terrible 'acts of god' in our near future.

[Seabass]

Mike Pence, Holy Terror
Are you sure you want to get rid of Donald Trump?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opin ... error.html

There are problems with impeaching Donald Trump. A big one is the holy terror waiting in the wings.

That would be Mike Pence, who mirrors the boss more than you realize. He’s also self-infatuated. Also a bigot. Also a liar. Also cruel.

To that brimming potpourri he adds two ingredients that Trump doesn’t genuinely possess: the conviction that he’s on a mission from God and a determination to mold the entire nation in the shape of his own faith, a regressive, repressive version of Christianity. Trade Trump for Pence and you go from kleptocracy to theocracy.

That’s the takeaway from a forthcoming book by the journalists Michael D’Antonio, who previously wrote “The Truth About Trump,” and Peter Eisner. It’s titled “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence,” it will be published on Aug. 28 and it’s the most thorough examination of the vice president’s background to date.

I got an advance look at it, along with a first interview about it with D’Antonio, and while it has a mostly measured tone, it presents an entirely damning portrait of Pence. You’ve seen his colors before, but not so vividly and in this detail.

The book persuasively illustrates what an ineffectual congressman he was, apart from cozying up to the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos and other rich Republican donors; the clumsiness and vanity of his one term as governor of Indiana, for which he did something that predecessors hadn’t and “ordered up a collection of custom-embroidered clothes — dress shirts, polo shirts, and vests and jackets — decorated with his name and the words Governor of Indiana”; the strong possibility that he wouldn’t have won re-election; his luck in being spared that humiliation by the summons from Trump, who needed an outwardly bland, intensely religious character witness to muffle his madness and launder his sins; and the alacrity with which he says whatever Trump needs him to regardless of the truth.

In Pence’s view, any bite marks in his tongue are divinely ordained. Trump wouldn’t be president if God didn’t want that; Pence wouldn’t be vice president if he weren’t supposed to sanctify Trump. And his obsequiousness is his own best route to the Oval Office, which may very well be God’s grand plan.

“People don’t understand what Pence is,” D’Antonio told me. Which is? “A religious zealot.”

And D’Antonio said that Pence could end up in the White House sooner than you think. In addition to the prospect of Trump’s impeachment, there’s the chance that Trump just decides that he has had enough.

“I don’t think he’s as resilient, politically, as Bill Clinton was,” D’Antonio said. “He doesn’t relish a partisan fight in the same way. He loves to go to rallies where people adore him.”

There’s no deeply felt policy vision or sense of duty to sustain him through the investigations and accusations. “If the pain is great enough,” D’Antonio said, “I think he’d be disposed not to run again.”

So it’s time to look harder at Pence. “The Shadow President” does. It lays out his disregard for science, evident in his onetime insistence that smoking doesn’t cause cancer and a belief that alarms about climate change were “a secret effort to increase government control over people’s lives for some unstated diabolical purpose,” according to the book.

continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opin ... error.html

[Tero]

Yeah but, Pence is not liked by even Trumpsters. Other than evangelicals. So he will just finish the term, lame duck.

[Animavore]

[Scot Dutchy]

Yeah but, Pence is not liked by even Trumpsters. Other than evangelicals. So he will just finish the term, lame duck.

Exactly. Which is why Pence can be contained.

[Tero]

Trump Bill Clinton sex
https://twitter.com/pittgriffin/status/ ... 1179115522

[Tero]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... ssion=true
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday dismissed the investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, saying that collusion is “not a crime.”

“I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime,” Giuliani said on “Fox & Friends.” “Collusion is not a crime.”

The president’s attorney maintained that his client is “absolutely innocent” and said that the recently released tapes of conversations between Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen prove that he “didn’t do anything wrong.”