Donald Trump Presidency-Day One

[buttslinger]

Is it considered a bad sign when the FBI breaks into your Lawyer's Office?

[blackchubby38]

This is a fascinating post, because it raises a profound question: what are cities for? We may have to re-configure the urban environment if e-commerce does lead to the decline of shops, though I think that a balance may be found because I do think people love the physical act of 'going into town' to browse and maybe buy stuff, and although fruit and veg even a carton of milk can be bought online from the supermarket in town, I still believe that seeing and touching things matters a lot, though I make the observation as an older man.

The CEO and Murdoch it seems to me have missed their chance with e-commerce. We know from past reports that Murdoch is attached to newsprint because he inherited so many Australian titles from his father, much as the Boy from Queens inherited a property empire from his father and grandfather and must have some emotional attachment to 'bricks and mortar' or in his case, 'concrete and glass' even if the concrete is provided by a firm -'a legitimate business'- owned by the New York Mafia. I don't know how cities will change, I think there will always be a place for bookshops as well as coffee shops, and designer outlets where Sears no longer stands, but the city-scape will be different. And so far away from the Norman Rockwell America of David Dennison that he seeks to revive.

Nordstrom's maybe on to something:

[Stavros]

Is it considered a bad sign when the FBI breaks into your Lawyer's Office?

Apparently it is an attack on the USA...is it a bad sign when the President believes he is the embodiment of the country and not just its Chief Executive officer?

[Stavros]

Nordstrom's maybe on to something:

I don't think we have Nordstrom in the UK at the moment, although I have seen their stories in Canada. I am not going to browse the internet at 2am looking for trousers and then get on a train to go to London to buy them, but I see the point about retaining a retail presence in the city. I guess in the end it is about customer satisfaction -and affordability. I don't know how it works in Manhattan, but in a lot of small towns in the UK there is a vicious circle where declining revenues mean local council seek the compensate by increasing rents and rates on commercial properties. Chain stories can often take the hit, even in this small town Starbucks used to have two outlets and although it has rationalized to one, Caffe Nero and Costa both have two outlets, but an independent trader I have spoken to complains about the margins as they are squeezed not just by rents and rates on the property but charges for tending the street outside. That she runs a coffee shop which is popular with young people gives her a base but other independent outlets are visibly struggling and at least three or four have closed since the New Year. And I don't see councils making it any easier, but this is not really relevant to the this thread on the President.

[Stavros]

From The Guardian:
Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to I Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to vice-president Dick Cheney under George W Bush.
Libby was convicted in 2007 of obstruction of justice and perjury, in connection with an investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame. His conviction was the result of an investigation by the special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who was appointed by the then deputy attorney general, James Comey.

The report ends:

Matthew Dowd, an ABC political analyst who was chief strategist on Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, wrote: “This pardon of Scooter Libby is simply outrageous. “I worked for President Bush from 1999 to 2005, and Scooter is a felon whom President Bush would not even pardon. He was convicted of obstruction of justice, lying, and perjury. This is a dark day for the rule of law in America.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...f-lying-to-fbi

But the man concerned, who now appears to be leader of a cult rather than the President, has regard the rule of law with contempt for so long nobody can remember the last time he obeyed it. A higher purpose motivates him, it is called revenge.

[peejaye]

& you & that fucking poodle bitching about him every single fucking day is going to change everything, right?

[buttslinger]

Nobel! Nobel! Nobel!
This is what BAD looks like.

[buttslinger]

So, what's up with Trump's Medicine Man, he went from A+......to Candyman, now I think he's a potted plant in the West Wing, seems like tying your wagon to Trump's star is career suicide for most folks. Trump is like the Hindu God that dances on the flames but is not consumed by the fire. I guess we need a bigger fire. Can Trump sell North Korea on the Lybian Model for Nuclear de-Escalation? If he can sell that he most definitely wins some kind of prize. Did they confiscate Trump's private cellphone? Who's he talking to, Cohen, Sarah Palin, Sherriff Joe? Dennis Rodman?
What was that Kevin Costner movie, "No Way Out" where he is looking for the Russian Mole, but the Mole is HIM. Too bad Trump couldn't have found a nice girl and settled down. Maybe he could have done something with his life.

[Stavros]

The President of the USA, it is alleged, hired the intelligence services of a foreign country to investigate the staff of the President he succeeded with a view to smearing their reputations as part of his proposal to withdraw from the 'Iran Nuclear Agreement'.

My first thought was that this must be treason, but I guess as this happened in May 2017 it is the actions by the elected President rather than an action against Obama -there can only be one President at a time. Nevertheless this seems to me to close to treason as it recruits a foreign intelligence agency to operate inside the USA against American citizens.

I am not sure what the law is on this, even if it is morally outrageous, but not surprising as the President of the USA has publicly ridiculed and insulted the FBI, the CIA, the Justice Department, Congress -anyone who does not agree with him; and, as we know, twice on one day during the 2016 election campaign publicly invited a foreign country (Russia) to help attack his fellow American and rival candidate for the Presidency.

Which side is he on?

Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal.

People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...n-nuclear-deal

[buttslinger]

I can't decide which is more surreal, Trump's quest to make the glass all empty, or the millions of voters who put him in charge. I say the latter.
I guarantee you Fox News targets stupid people.