Donald Trump Presidency-Day One

[filghy2]

Should have said Australia's ambassador to U.S.

He's delusional if he thought Trump could arrange this. The Australian ambassador to the US is always a senior ex-politician from the ruling party.

Is Assange's motivation simply to get revenge on Hillary and the Democrats for pursuing him over past leaks? I always knew he was a manipulative, self-promoting egotist, but I never got the sense that he had political convictions either way.

[Stavros]

Some time ago Assange shifted from being a libertarian with a distrust of all government and their 'secrets', and became partisan. It may have started when he was accused of sexual assault and rape in Sweden and decided, being such an important person, that he need not answer to the authorities, and thus ended up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has an internet connection, receives visitors such as Nigel Farage and Pamela Anderson and is a regular broadcaster on RT.

Perhaps because he believed the Obama Presidency was conspiring with the British and the Swedish governments to have him arrested for the (alleged) crimes in Sweden and then be shipped off to the USA, he has ended up fraternising with a peculiar bunch of people such as Farage and John Pilger, united with Russia in their determination to prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming President, but also deciding this is the moment for a libertarian 'revolution' in the USA whose aim is to re-orient politics away from Central Government to the States, and in doing so diminish the powers of the Federal Government, from taxation to welfare to social legislation.

For this reason Assange supported the alt-right campaign in the US, but this is also part of Russia's attempt to discredit the democratic process, to weaken politics internally in Europe and North America through a sustained campaign of trolling that is intended to raise doubts about the quality of politicians (as if we needed prompting from the Russians!) but also sow division. One latest example being the widely circulated photo of a Muslim woman walking by one of the injured in the Westminster Bridge attack with a tagline suggesting she didn't care -circulated by a Russian troll through Facebook, Twitter and so on until it became 'news' in the press only too willing to find an excuse to attack Muslims. Brexit can thus be seen as a major step forward for Russia as it seeks to break down the EU for its purposes, while the libertarians seek to break it for their own, the two finding common cause.

[buttslinger]

I probably won't live long enough to read the very thick book on what really happened during the Bush presidency, it would be fascinating to find out everything about those hanging chads, 9-11, Iraq, the economic crash. Dick Cheney will have to be dead before they can print it.
But the story of the Trump presidency will have to be written in comic book form.
You've got Trump, his family, Kelly-Anne, Steve, Jeff, Paul, Vlad .....while the rest of Congress is just milling around in dis-belief.....
Most of his Appointments were hired to do nothing.
I wonder if Bob Mueller senses that the future of the nation is in his hands and he's wondering how far to go, or is he playing it like a straight criminal case?
Can Pence really say he had no clue?

[Stavros]

I don't know much about the appointment of Judges in the USA, as we have a different system here. What I find interesting about the report linked below that concerns a nominee called Brett Talley, is not just the fact he has never tried a case and has only been a lawyer for three years, but that

When he was nominated, the American Bar Association rated him as “unqualified” - the fourth such Trump administration judicial nominee to receive such a rating.
Now, it was been reported Mr Talley, 36, failed to disclose he is married to Ann Donaldson, the chief of staff to the White House counsel, Donald McGahn.

The New York Times said Mr Talley was asked on his publicly released Senate questionnaire to identify family members and others who are “likely to present potential conflicts of interest”. Despite this, he did not mention his wife.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a8053201.html

The point is not just that a practising lawyer doesn't know how to fill out a form, but that there seems to be a new tranche of US government officials and now it seems Judges, who simply ignore or treat with contempt the very system they are being elected or appointed to serve, to the point where 'neglecting' to tell the whole of the truth is little different from lying. Much as Roy Moore in Alabama claims to be putting 'God' back into US politics and in doing so disregarding the Constitution, I wonder where this is going, not just in terms of legal decisions, but the way in which it could undermine public confidence in the judiciary, if that is what happens. One almost thinks it is part of 'the plan' to break up US politics and deliver it back to 'the people' even if it means they support abortion in California but oppose it in Alabama.

[buttslinger]

It is very scary to me that the only thing stopping the unthinkable depends on Mueller outlasting Trump.
I hope THE TRUTH sends a lot of people straight to Hell, ....here, and in Russia.

[buttslinger]

It is chilling to see the moves that Trump has made since becoming POTUS.
Scrapping the Depts of Health, Education, Environment, Housing with brainless yes-men put in charge.
Heading the State Dept with Putin's best buddy!!
Both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to add further sanctions against Russia but Trump hasn't signed it yet. He wants "the healing" to start.
What is up with the Republicans, I thought they hated the Evil Empire!
Madness!!!

[buttslinger]

One last thought...
Usually, weird occurrences on a global stage have some kind of rhyme or reason behind them, a method to the madness, or unseen circumstances that give some kind of explanation to what happened.
In the case of Trump, the weirdness is genuine, he never intended to win, he never prepared for victory. The clowns who first endorsed him were suppose to fade away after the election as losers, and leave Trump with enough street cred to get another TV show or something.
I'm hoping, no, praying, that the slipshod decisions made throughout the election by Kellyanne and Bannon ETC ETC ETC left tons of footprints that Mueller can retrace and start turning one liar against the other. Has there ever been a bigger liar than Trump in the White House. ????? My fellow countrymen passed up the most qualified candidate ever for the least qualified ever.
Maybe Putin put something in the water. Does anybody else feel weird lately??
ha ha

[blackchubby38]

I actually want to give President Trump some credit for securing the release of three UCLA college basketball players who were accused of shoplifting while in China. Regardless of why he did it, I think those guys should be grateful considering they were looking at the possibility of 10 years in prison.

[buttslinger]

I actually want to give President Trump some credit ...they were looking at the possibility of 10 years in prison.

yeah, that was nice.

[filghy2]

I actually want to give President Trump some credit for securing the release of three UCLA college basketball players who were accused of shoplifting while in China. Regardless of why he did it, I think those guys should be grateful considering they were looking at the possibility of 10 years in prison.

Good news for those concerned, but I doubt this was due to Trump's negotiating skills. Given Trump refrained from criticising them during his visit, it would be standard procedure for the Chinese to grant him a few minor (for them) concessions.