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Francisco 2.0

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Francisco 2.0

  1. More from Rudy this morning:

     

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    THE WEEKLY RUDY ... RUDY GIULIANI to CHUCK: "Truth isn't truth." CHUCK responds: "This is going to become a bad meme."

    -- GIULIANI: "Well, because the meeting was originally for the purpose of getting information about, about Clinton. The meeting turned into a meeting..." TODD: "Which in itself is attempted collusion. I understand..."

    GIULIANI: "No it's not." TODD: "You just said it. The meeting was intended to get dirt on Hillary Clinton from a criminal lawyer." GIULIANI: "No, it wasn't." TODD: "That was the intention of the meeting, you just said it."

    GIULIANI: "That was the original intention of the meeting. It turned out to be a meeting about another subject and it was not pursued at all. And, of course, any meeting with regards to getting information on your opponent is something any candidate's staff would take. If someone said, I have information about your opponent, you would take that meeting."

     

  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/climate/trump-clean-power-rollback.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

     

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    The Trump administration next week plans to formally propose a vast overhaul of climate change regulations that would allow individual states to decide how, or even whether, to curb carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants, according to a summary of the plan and details provided by three people who have seen the full proposal.

    The plan would also relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades. That, combined with allowing states to set their own rules, creates a serious risk that emissions, which had been falling, could start to rise again, according to environmentalists.

    The proposal, which President Trump is expected to highlight Tuesday at a rally in West Virginia, amounts to the administration’s strongest and broadest effort yet to address what the president has long described as a regulatory “war on coal.” It would considerably weaken what is known as the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s signature regulation for cutting planet-warming emissions at coal-fired plants.

     

  3. The. Best. People.™

     

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-fundraiser-broidy-under-investigation-for-alleged-effort-to-sell-government-influence-people-familiar-with-probe-say/2018/08/17/c9e55792-a185-11e8-8e87-c869fe70a721_story.html?utm_term=.47d73f9873e4

     

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    The Justice Department is investigating whether longtime Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy sought to sell his influence with the Trump administration by offering to deliver U.S. government actions for foreign officials in exchange for tens of millions of dollars, according to three people familiar with the probe.

    As part of the investigation, prosecutors are scrutinizing a plan that Broidy allegedly developed to try to persuade the Trump government to extradite a Chinese dissident back to his home country, a move sought by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to two of the people.

    They are also investigating claims that Broidy sought $75 million from a Malaysian business official if the Justice Department ended its investigation of a development fund run by the Malaysian government. The Malaysian probe has examined the role of the former prime minister in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the fund.

    A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. Christopher Clark, an attorney for Broidy, declined to comment.

    Broidy’s alleged activities were detailed in news reports earlier this year that cited hacked emails. The Los Angeles-based venture capitalist, who served as top fundraiser for the Republican Party and President Trump, has said that allegations against him are an effort by his enemies to smear him.

    Rudolph W. Giuliani, an attorney for Trump, said he had no knowledge of any request for records related to Broidy. The White House referred a request for comment to the Republican National Committee, which declined to comment.

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    In recent weeks, prosecutors with the Justice Department’s public integrity section — which examines possible political and government corruption — have sought documents related to Broidy’s business dealings.

    Among the information sought by investigators are details about Broidy’s work on behalf of and interactions with the Chinese and Malaysian officials, according to two people familiar with the document requests.

    As part of their efforts, prosecutors have subpoenaed casino magnate Steve Wynn, the former RNC finance chairman and longtime Trump friend, for copies of records and communications related to Broidy.

    An attorney for Wynn, Reid Weingarten, declined to comment, saying only that Wynn is cooperating with the Justice Department.

    “Steve Wynn is completely cooperating with the investigation and he certainly has no reason to believe that anyone acted improperly in anything he knew about or was involved in,” Weingarten said in a statement.

    Wynn was tapped by Trump to serve as the RNC’s lead fundraiser after the election. Earlier this year, he stepped down from that post and from his executive role at his resort company after reports of sexual misconduct. Wynn has denied the allegations of inappropriate behavior.

    The public integrity probe is the latest legal challenge for Broidy, who helped corral big donors to support Trump’s presidential campaign, throwing a lavish fundraiser for the then-nominee at his Los Angeles-area home during the 2016 campaign. After the election, he was appointed to serve as a national deputy chairman for the RNC.

    Broidy sought to parlay his party role and connections to the White House and on Capitol Hill in pitches to foreign governments, according to a person with direct knowledge of his activities.

     

     

  4. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/death-spiral-why-omarosa-totally-triggered-trump

     

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    In recent days, Trump has called Manigault Newman “crazed,” a “lowlife,” and a “dog” on Twitter. His campaign filed an arbitration suit against her seeking “millions.” And Trump told advisers that he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to have Manigault Newman arrested, according to one Republican briefed on the conversations. (It’s unclear what law Trump believes she broke.) Another Republican recounted how over the weekend Trump derailed a midterm-election strategy session to rant about Manigault Newman’s betrayal. In an effort to change the narrative, the White House announced yesterday that Trump had revoked former C.I.A. director John Brennan’s security clearance. But that only ignited a new public-relations crisis. A former West Wing official compared Trump’s erratic behavior this week to the P.R. nightmare he created by attacking grieving Muslim-American Gold Star parents during the 2016 campaign. It’s a “death spiral,” the former official said.

     

  5. 8 hours ago, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

    Being a Gary Johnson voter and/or Libertarian has fuckall to do with being an anti-vaxxer. While I'm confident there is overlap, Libertarians don't have a problem trusting science or scientists especially when it comes to the health of our children. I voted for Gary Johnson and hold strong Libertarian values but don't align perfectly with that party or its platform on all things. This is a false equivalency and a salacious accusation of Libertarianism at best.

    My daughter has received every single recommended shot that her pediatrician had for us because it is in her best interest.

    Nope.....

    8 hours ago, Js1 said:

    I thought his post was tongue-in-cheek.   The posters who say over and over they voted for GJ when it's quite obvious they voted for Trump based on how they defend him = the anti-vaxxers who would never admit it but may just show up "asking questions" and "debating the science." 

    Yep......

  6. 21 minutes ago, ndawg said:

    Everyone knows that Eisenhauer warned us about the military industrial complex. What most don't know is that later on that night, he drunkenly coined the term "military intelligence industrial infrastructure," which oddly enough never stuck.

    Boomhauer's cousin?

     

     

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  7. On 8/7/2018 at 4:46 PM, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

    Who is Gorka?

    Speaking of:

    https://splinternews.com/sebastian-gorka-is-giving-out-fake-fox-news-business-ca-1828317850

     

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    Our favorite Nazi-linked Hungarian and former Trump staffer Sebastian Gorka has apparently been handing out fake Fox News business cards. A journalist who received one of the cards from Gorka tipped off Mediaite, who posted a photo of the knockoff.

    jci4urejhvqpthz8ayw1.jpg

     

     

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    Aside from the terrible design and font choice, there are a few details that tip us off to this card’s ersatz nature. Below, another photo from Mediaite shows what a true Fox News card looks like.

     

    pfj3w5lfuglztlm5bfcn.jpg

     

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    First of all, no one who actually works full time for a company would list their Gmail account on their business card—even contractors, like me, often have emails with their employer. It’s also clear that the address Gorka lists on his card is not the actual Fox News headquarters. In fact, from what we can see, the address on Gorka’s card seems to be his home address. 

    Then, of course, there are the visual differences. The real Fox News card isn’t exactly classy, but it at least looks like it was created by someone who has familiarity with basic graphic design. Gorka’s card looks like something a freelancer would whip up in Photoshop (it seems his design skills haven’t improved since he completed his Ph.D). And of course, the logo is different. The real card has the latest version of Fox’s logo, including the word “channel,” while Gorka’s card features a rare version the Fox logo that seemingly hasn’t been used since 1996.

     

  8. Absolutely nothing in this story surprises me.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/13/trump-world-knowledge-diplomatic-774801

     

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    Several times in the first year of his administration, President Donald Trump wanted to call Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the afternoon. But there was a problem. Midafternoon in Washington is the middle of the night in Tokyo — when Abe would be fast asleep.

    Trump’s aides had to explain the issue, which one diplomatic source said came up on “a constant basis,” but it wasn’t easy.

    “He wasn’t great with recognizing that the leader of a country might be 80 or 85 years old and isn’t going to be awake or in the right place at 10:30 or 11 p.m. their time,” said a former Trump NSC official. “When he wants to call someone, he wants to call someone. He’s more impulsive that way. He doesn’t think about what time it is or who it is,” added a person close to Trump.

    In the case of Abe and others, Trump’s NSC staffers would advise him, for instance, that “the time is messed up, it’s 1 o’clock in the morning” and promise to put the call on his calendar for a more diplomatically appropriate time. Former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster would assure him: “We can try to set it up.”

    Trump’s desire to call world leaders at awkward hours is just one of many previously unreported diplomatic faux-pas President Trump has made since assuming the office, which go beyond telephone etiquette to include misconceptions, mispronunciations and awkward meetings. Sometimes the foibles have been contained within the White House. In one case, Trump, while studying a briefer’s map of South Asia ahead of a 2017 meeting with India’s prime minister, mispronounced Nepal as “nipple” and laughingly referred to Bhutan as “button,” according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.

     

     

  9. Yep, that pesky First Amendment.  Such a nuisance.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-poll-43-of-republicans-want-to-give-trump-the-power-to-shut-down-media?ref=home

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    Freedom of the press may be guaranteed in the Constitution. But a plurality of Republicans want to give President Trump the authority to close down certain news outlets, according to a new public opinion survey conducted by Ipsosand provided exclusively to The Daily Beast.

    The findings present a sobering picture for the fourth estate, with respondents showing diminished trust in the media and increased support for punitive measures against its members. They also illustrate the extent to which Trump’s anti-press drumbeat has shaped public opinion about the role the media plays in covering his administration. 

    All told, 43 percent of self-identified Republicans said that they believed “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Only 36 percent disagreed with that statement. When asked if Trump should close down specific outlets, including CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, nearly a quarter of Republicans (23 percent) agreed and 49 percent disagreed. 

    Republicans were far more likely to take a negative view of the media. Forty-eight percent of them said they believed “the news media is the enemy of the American people” (just 28 percent disagreed) while nearly four out of every five (79 percent) said that they believed “the mainstream media treats President Trump unfairly.”

     

  10. 12 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

    Then white uneducated women must be a huge group, because the Census puts "white" and "uneducated" at 43% of voters.  ("Uneducated = "without a college degree".)

    Childbirth gets in the, um, way.  

  11. Yeah, that's it Donald.  

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/400413-trump-believes-mueller-is-using-manafort-trial-to-embarrass-him

     

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    President Trump has reportedly been privately venting about the trial of his former campaign head Paul Manafort, believing that it is an attempt by special counsel Robert Mueller to embarrass him.

    The Washington Post reported Saturday that Trump thinks both the media and Mueller are using this week's trial on Manafort's bank and tax fraud charges to try to undercut his presidency.

    “He is completely outraged by the way Manafort has been treated, with the solitary confinement and all of that,” Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani told The Post. “It’s obvious to him that they’re all but torturing Manafort in order to try to get him to flip.”

    The trial is the first in Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference, which the president has long claimed is rigged against him and is a “witch hunt.” Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    The Post reported that Trump has approved of Judge T.S. Ellis, who is presiding over the trial: Ellis chided federal prosecutors for presenting too much evidence on Manafort’s spending, and told attorneys on both sides to "rein in their facial expressions."

     

  12. Gee, imagine that.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/400414-trump-fears-trump-jr-may-have-accidentally-gotten-in-legal-trouble?__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true

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    President Trump reportedly fears that his son Donald Trump Jr. may have inadvertently gotten himself into legal trouble.

    The Washington Post reported Saturday that Trump has told advisers and close confidantes he doesn’t believe his son knowingly broke any law, but said Trump Jr. could have unwittingly crossed a legal line.

    Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining Trump Jr. for his role in arranging a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower between a Russian lawyer and Trump campaign officials, including himself.

    Music publicist Rob Goldstone told Trump Jr. in an email that the Russians were offering damaging information on Hillary Clinton as part of their support for Trump.

    “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. replied to Goldstone.

    Trump Jr. later called the meeting a waste of time and said they only discussed Russian adoption policies.

     

  13. Another day, another alternative fact.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-claims-queen-elizabeth-kept-him-waiting-uk-us-media/

     

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    U.S. President Donald Trump told supporters that Queen Elizabeth II kept him waiting during his first official visit to the United Kingdom, blaming the media for reporting he’d been the one who was late for their meeting.

    Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Trump claimed he had actually arrived 15 minutes early for his meeting with the “incredible” queen, slamming the “fake, fake, disgusting news” media reports that noted he had been the one who was late.

    The president’s visit to Britain was broadcast live on television, including footageof the 92-year-old queen waiting for Trump for 12 minutes and looking at her watch.

    “I landed and I’m on the ground and I’m waiting with the king’s and the queen’s guards,” Trump told his supporters. “I’m waiting. I was about 15 minutes early and I’m waiting with my wife and that’s fine. Hey, it’s the queen, right? We can wait. But I’m a little early.”

     

    GettyImages-997846460-714x476.jpg

  14. 6 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:
    1 hour ago, Newdoc said:
    I realize Twitter continues to give Trump enough rope to hang himself but come on, this country would be a better place if someone took away his account.

    Why would we want that? Then we wouldn't know what he is up to

    Eh, he would just start using Facebook or Instagram.  

  15. 6 minutes ago, retread said:

    He'll compliment LeBron and the audience will pretend like the tweet never happened.

    Nah, he won't even mention it.  But he sure as hell will go after the NFL, since that season is around the corner.  

  16. 11 minutes ago, horncyclist said:

    Have to think LeBron is pretty damn popular in Ohio even after the move to LA. He brought them a championship and has made clear Cleveland will always be home.

    Yeah, like I said on the previous page....I just have this feeling that the Trump fans at tonight's klan rally  campaign event probably aren't LBJ fans to begin with.  

    • Like 1
  17. 8 minutes ago, Js1 said:

    Isn’t he heading to Ohio to campaign for the special election tonight? And just dissed Ohio’s golden boy, LeBron? 

    Smart. 

    To be fair, the audience at his rally tonight probably aren't LBJ or NBA fans.

     

    There will be an NFL reference tonight, however.  I'm fairly confident of that.  

  18. 9 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

    I’ve been saying the Republicans will have to deal with a never ending stream of Trump whataboutisms thrown back in their face for the rest of their lives. 

    Winning.

    They'll all magically develop amnesia, and blame whatever actions they had taken during the Trump administration as "fake news". 

  19. Whatever you are doing, if you loathe Facebook as I do, just read:

    https://qz.com/1342757/everything-bad-about-facebook-is-bad-for-the-same-reason/

     

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    The decision is one of many recent Facebook actions that may have left a bad taste in your mouth. The company unknowingly allowed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to collect personal data on millions of Americans. It failed to notice Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election; facilitated ethnic and religious violence in several countries; and allowed advertisers to target such noble categories of consumers as “Jew haters.” Not to mention that fake news, conspiracy theories, and blatant lies abound on the platform.

    Facebook didn’t intend for any of this to happen. It just wanted to connect people. But there is a thread running from Perkins’ death to religious violence in Myanmar and the company’s half-assed attempts at combating fake news. Facebook really is evil. Not on purpose. In the banal kind of way.

    Underlying all of Facebook’s screw-ups is a bumbling obliviousness to real humans. The company’s singular focus on “connecting people” has allowed it to conquer the world, making possible the creation of a vast network of human relationships, a source of insights and eyeballs that makes advertisers and investors drool.

    But the imperative to “connect people” lacks the one ingredient essential for being a good citizen: Treating individual human beings as sacrosanct. To Facebook, the world is not made up of individuals, but of connections between them. The billions of Facebook accounts belong not to “people” but to “users,” collections of data points connected to other collections of data points on a vast Social Network, to be targeted and monetized by computer programs.

    There are certain things you do not in good conscience do to humans. To data, you can do whatever you like.

     

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