Replies to post #269745 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Trump targets ‘negative press covfefe’ in garbled midnight tweet that becomes worldwide joke


“Despite the constant negative press covfefe” the tweet read. That was it. Within six hours, it had been retweeted more than 127,000 times and “liked” more than 162,000 times — making it one of his most popular tweets in months. By then it had become a massive Internet joke. By 5:48 a.m. EDT, the tweet had been deleted.
May 31, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/31/president-trump-tweets-despite-the-constant-negative-press-covfefe-twitter-explodes/ [with embedded videos, and comments]


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Trump Knows Words

Published on Mar 2, 2016 by vgolfoz [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcSICvlO6CueZzkqB1lmdLw / https://www.youtube.com/user/vgolfoz , https://www.youtube.com/user/vgolfoz/videos ]

Trump knows words. He has the best words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T-Eo0j092Q [with comments]


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Donald Trump: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Published on Feb 28, 2016 by LastWeekTonight [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3XTzVzaHQEd30rQbuvCtTQ / https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight , https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight/videos ]

Our main story was about Donald Trump. We can't believe we're saying that either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpO_RTSNmQ [with (over 72,000) comments] [also at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=120845421 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=124676404 and preceding and following]


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How President Trump consumes — or does not consume — top-secret intelligence
May 29, 2017
President Trump consumes classified intelligence like he does most everything else in life: ravenously and impatiently, eager to ingest glinting nuggets but often indifferent to subtleties.
Most mornings, often at 10:30, sometimes earlier, Trump sits behind the historic Resolute desk [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2017/05/06/trump-loves-his-new-desk-in-the-oval-office-but-it-also-has-its-downsides/ ] and, with a fresh Diet Coke fizzing and papers piled high, receives top-secret updates on the world’s hot spots. The president interrupts his briefers with questions but also with random asides. He asks that the top brass of the intelligence community be present, and he demands brevity.
As they huddle around the desk, Trump likes to pore over visuals — maps, charts, pictures and videos, as well as “killer graphics,” as CIA Director Mike Pompeo phrased it.
“That’s our task, right? To deliver the material in a way that he can best understand the information we’re trying to communicate,” said Pompeo, adding that he, too, prefers to “get to the core of the issue quickly.”
Yet there are signs that the president may not be retaining all the intelligence he is presented, fully absorbing its nuance, or respecting the sensitivities of the information and how it was gathered.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-president-trump-consumes--or-does-not-consume--top-secret-intelligence/2017/05/29/1caaca3e-39ae-11e7-a058-ddbb23c75d82_story.html [with embedded videos, and (nearly 4,000) comments]


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Trump’s use of private cellphone raises security concerns

In this March 24, 2017, file photo President Donald Trump speaksin the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Trump has been handing out his cellphone number to world leaders and urging them to call him directly, an unusual invitation that breaks diplomatic protocol and is raising concerns about the security and secrecy of the U.S. commander in chief’s communications.
May 31, 2017
https://www.apnews.com/11a48fde81634789b1cc361696693b68


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President-Elect Trump: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Published on Nov 13, 2016 by LastWeekTonight

Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. How did we get to this point? And what do we do now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rSDUsMwakI [with (over 45,000) comments] [also included at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126542062 and preceding and following]


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Trump University: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Published on Nov 29, 2016 by LastWeekTonight

Trump University recently settled its lawsuits for $25 million; here's some background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBUeipXFisQ [with (over 6,000) comments]


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Trump vs. Truth: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Published on Feb 12, 2017 by LastWeekTonight

Donald Trump spreads a lot of false information thanks to his daily consumption of morning cable news. If only we could sneak some facts into the president’s media diet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecEV4dSAXE [with (over 30,000) comments] [also included at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=128791397 and preceding and following]


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Putin: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Published on Feb 19, 2017 by LastWeekTonight

Vladimir Putin is known as a ruthless leader and master manipulator. John Oliver enlists a group of singing dancers to explain that to Donald Trump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0utzB6oDan0 [with (over 20,000) comments] [also included at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=128850832 and preceding and following]


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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131727083 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131730186 and following,
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131769345 and preceding (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131772217 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131786906 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131735897 and preceding and following

[BOREALIS]

Trump explained --- sort of



some images won't view

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAMoDW1UQAELMjp.jpg


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAHzxtWXgAIrn5K.jpg


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_9EMPEU0AI8S0c.jpg

[BOREALIS]

Mike Pence is hitting the campaign trail, perhaps with an eye on a Trumpless White House

By Hunter
Wednesday May 31, 2017 · 6:31 PM CST

Vice President and guy who always swears he was out of the room when everyone else on the president's senior team did all those things the FBI is now investigating Mike Pence is, four months or so after being sworn in, already heading back to the campaign trail. This may have something to do with Republican leaders being increasingly concerned that Tire Fire '18 is not, in fact, a winning ticket to keeping control of the House.
Or it might be that Pence has been picking out new drapes for the Oval Office. [ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/30/mike-pence-campaign-push-trump-gop-238921 ]

[T]he vice president’s increased electoral activity has stoked speculation that Pence is positioning himself for a post-Trump future in the party, something his advisers strenuously deny.

Pence has already formed a political action committee, the Great America Committee, enabling him to raise money for candidates who need help in 2018, an unusual move for a sitting vice president. And his upcoming effort to strengthen ties to the party’s rank and file and connect with key donors is likely to fuel the perception that Pence wants to fortify his position atop the party independent of his relationship to President Donald Trump.

That presumes, of course, that Mike Pence himself survives the Trump team downfall. As the person who was in charge of vetting ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, only to later profess to be downright surprised at the revelations of shady dealings that he had been warned about in writing, he may presume too much.

[T]he early intensity of Pence’s tour underscores the sudden urgency confronting Republicans. With Trump’s campaign under federal investigation, his approval ratings at record lows, and his agenda badly stalled, once-despondent Democrats have been jolted back to life — and are waging a serious bid to seize control of the House.

The first three phrases there are more significant than the fourth. Being under federal investigation and having sub-Nixon approval ratings and an "agenda" so unpopular that even the worst Republican Congress in a half-century is looking at it like something the dog deposited on the living room rug are, indeed, fine ways to lose an election regardless of what the opposition does.

In any event, Mike Pence is headed for Iowa. And Georgia. And appears to be the stand-in for Republican donors and groups who can't stomach being associated with the idiot man-child himself but are perfectly happy to shell out cash for the Trump agenda, no matter how unpopular it may be. Somebody's got to make sure impoverished children aren't getting food on the government dime, after all.

Although Republicans hope that Pence fills what has been a frustrating political void, his advisers are contending with talk that the vice president is looking to build his own operation or angling for a future run — speculation that is bound to intensify with his trip next week to Iowa.

Nothing could be further from the truth, says the Pence team, [...]

Which would be a truly important statement if Mike Pence's team hadn't been caught in just as many lies as the rest of Team Tire Fire. So let's just bask in that a little, because even speculation that Mike Pence is trying to inflate his own brand in anticipation of a Trump crash would absolutely infuriate the forever-twitchy Donald. He's making a move, Donny. Look out for that Pence guy, he's trouble.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/31/1667384/-Mike-Pence-is-hitting-the-campaign-trail-perhaps-with-an-eye-on-a-Trumpless-White-House

[fuagf]

Nearly half of US coal is produced by companies that have declared bankruptcy -- and Trump won't fix that

"It’s All About Trump’s Contempt"

.. if Trump knew of the bankruptcy situation in the coal industry he is condemned as having blatantly lied in promising to bring coal
jobs back .. if he didn't know then he is condemned in his ignorance .. there is no way around it, he truly is a nasty individual ..

Dana Varinsky
Dec 10, 2016, 3:09 AM


Coal MinerGetty/Justin Sullivan

A coal miner looks on as Mitt Romney speaks at American Energy Corporation in Beallsville, Ohio in 2012.

When Peabody Energy, the biggest coal producer .. https://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/pdf/table10.pdf .. in the US, declared bankruptcy .. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/peabody-energy-files-for-bankruptcy-2016-4 .. in April, it joined a long list of coal compatriots in the chapter 11 club.

Arch Coal, the country’s second biggest producer, filed for bankruptcy in January, and Alpha Natural Resources, the fourth biggest, sought chapter 11 protection in August 2015 (it emerged from bankruptcy in July 2016).

But that doesn’t mean the companies stopped mining or producing the fuel. In fact, approximately 44% .. https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-36118340-12086 .. of US coal now comes from companies that have declared bankruptcy sometime in the last four years. Those are troubling stats for President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on the promise of bringing the country’s declining coal industry back to life.

By choosing Scott Pruitt, an outspoken opponent of environmental rules .. http://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-epa-scott-pruitt-2016-12 .. and ally of the fossil fuel industry, to head the EPA, Donald Trump seems to be sending a message that, as promised, his administration will attempt to roll back air quality regulations and open more federal land to coal mining.

But those efforts won’t counteract the market trend enough to restore coal to its former prominence. Energy industry executives have suggested they aren’t likely to return to coal .. http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/michigans_biggest_electric_pro.html .. no matter what Trump does, and even Mitch McConnell warned .. http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article114197923.html .. that it’s hard to tell whether conservatives’ pro-coal efforts will really bring business back, since “it’s a private sector activity.”

Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly blamed what he called “Obama’s war on coal” for this stark decline, alleging that government regulation was killing American jobs and making the country less energy independent.

The sector is indeed in a downward spiral. Coal production in the beginning of 2016 hit the lowest level .. http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=26612 .. it’s been since a major strike in 1981, and that the current number of coal employees (approximately 66,000 in 2015) is the lowest on record .. http://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/ .. since the US Energy Information Administration began collecting data in 1978.

But while air quality rules and renewable energy subsidies have created incentives to move away from coal, the irony is that the real opponent in the “war” is the free market.


Brookings Institution

Several factors, all of which are mostly out of lawmakers’ control, have had major impacts on the coal business over the last decade. First, thanks to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technology, natural gas has become a more desirable fuel because it burns cleaner and is cheaper than coal. In 2000, half of the US’ electricity came from coal-powered plants and about 15% came from natural gas, according to a Brookings Institution analysis .. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/12/06/trump-cant-deliver-on-his-coal-promises/ ; today coal and gas each make up about a third of the country’s electricity generation.

Additionally, prices of renewables have fallen dramatically — the cost of building a solar photovoltaic plant has fallen by about 80 per cent since 2009, making it more financially feasible for states to invest in solar and wind power. Third, as buildings and other facilities have become more energy-efficient and begun gathering power from rooftop solar panels, electricity sales in the US have started to flatten. Plus, a slowing of the Chinese economy has caused exports to go down, and automation has replaced jobs in mines and coal production facilities.

In addition to sending former miners into unemployment and financial hardship, the recent slew of bankruptcies poses two other serious problems. Coal companies are legally bound to pay for cleanup around mine sites. Most are required to get a bond to insure that reclamation happens even if they go under. But a loophole allows the biggest corporations to self-bond, meaning that they guarantee their own future cleanup funds. With three of the four biggest producers in or just out of bankruptcy, that opens the possibility that they won’t pay to reclaim the land, leaving polluted water and illness-causing dust behind.

Companies in bankruptcy also often suggest that they can’t afford to keep doling out pension funds, and attempt to drop the retiree benefits they committed to pay. According to NPR .. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/12/08/504823965/retired-coal-miners-at-risk-of-losing-promised-health-coverage-and-pensions , this could be the case for 16,000 retired miners in seven states by the end of 2016. Senate Democrats have been working to pass a proposal for the government to cover these benefits .. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/opinion/retired-coal-miners-losing-their-safety-net.html?_r=0 , called the Miners Protection Act, but it has faced opposition from Mitch McConnell .. http://thehill.com/policy/finance/271326-miners-union-president-urges-senators-to-pass-pension-fix .. and other Republicans.

Even if the plan were to go through, however, it would use funds set aside for the reclamation of abandoned mines (those left behind without proper cleanup, a situation that now seems somewhat likely) and transfer the money to pay for canceled pensions.

It’s a complicated problem that simply rolling back regulations will not fix.

NOW WATCH: Trump fires back at union leader who alleged he ‘lied his a– off’ about Carrier deal
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/carrier-union-leader-boss-donald-trump-lied-usw-chuck-jones-cnn-jobs-mike-pence-2016-12

Also the video is embedded inside: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/us-coal-bankruptcy-trump-2016-12?r=US&IR=T

.. withdrawing from the Paris Agreement would not bring jobs back as the free market has moved on .. withdrawing would serve only to diminish
America's moral standing, status and leverage in the world community .. in his eyes i guess that means making America great again .. f*witish?

See also:

U.S pulling out of Paris climate agreement
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131786906

Trump will reportedly turn America into a planet-imperiling rogue state
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=131806466

[fuagf]

Where Are the United States Attorneys?

"It’s All About Trump’s Contempt"

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDJUNE 6, 2017


Nicolas Ortega

Three months after President Trump abruptly fired .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/us/politics/us-attorney-justice-department-trump.html .. half of the nation’s 93 United States attorneys, following the resignations of the other half, he has yet to replace a single one.

It’s bizarre — and revealing — that a man who called himself .. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-law-order-candidate-225372 .. the “law and order candidate” during the 2016 campaign and spoke of “lawless chaos” in his address to Congress would permit such a leadership vacuum at federal prosecutors’ offices around the country. United States attorneys are responsible for prosecuting terrorism offenses, serious financial fraud, public corruption, crimes related to gang activity, drug trafficking and all other federal crimes.

As is usually the case when confronted with his own incompetence, Mr. Trump has spent his time looking for somebody else to blame.

“Dems are taking forever to approve my people,” the president said in a statement he released ..

.@foxandfriends Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors. They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2017

.. on Twitter Monday morning. “They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.”

The problem is, the Democrats couldn’t obstruct any United States attorney nominations if they wanted to because Mr. Trump has not made any.

It’s possible that Mr. Trump is having a hard time luring competent, experienced candidates to work for an administration mired in perpetual chaos and widening scandal. Since Mr. Trump considers loyalty the highest qualification for federal office, that might be. But United States attorney is a highly coveted job under any president, and there should be no shortage of people eager to be considered.

For now, local offices are being run by acting United States attorneys, often career lawyers or deputies held over from the Obama administration. They’re able to manage day-to-day operations, but don’t have the authority to push forward major policy changes. While those changes, like Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s ordering prosecutors .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/opinion/jeff-sessions-justice-reform.html .. to seek more severe punishments, may be ill-advised, a serious president needs to have the people in place to implement the programs that supposedly matter to him.

Especially when it comes to higher-profile, long-term cases, Senate-confirmed heads are needed to work in coordination with the Justice Department.

The United States attorneys are only the tip of the iceberg. Mr. Trump has yet to nominate a new F.B.I. chief after firing the former director, James Comey, last month. The Justice Department’s criminal, civil and national-security divisions are all under temporary leadership.

These delays are strange even for a White House that ran what one former official called .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/us/politics/trump-administration.html .. the “slowest transition in decades” and that has dealt with key government posts with all the urgency of a summer barbecue.

While his hiring freeze, which is leaving many lower federal jobs unfilled, is part of a broader strategy .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/us/politics/trump-administration.html .. to hobble or suffocate entire federal agencies, this seems less deliberate and harder to understand. The prosecutors certainly won’t be coming on board anytime soon. Even in a fully functioning administration, it takes months for nominees to be screened by the F.B.I. and approved by the Senate.

One familiar rationale — that Mr. Trump wasn’t prepared because he never expected to win — may account for some of the delay, but it’s an increasingly embarrassing excuse. You don’t run for president on a major-party ticket as a lark, and you don’t pink-slip top federal prosecutors en masse without a long list of qualified candidates in your back pocket.

There are two other obvious, and perhaps simpler, explanations, and both may be correct. Mr. Trump does not actually believe in or care about his campaign claim of “lawless chaos” in our streets. And Mr. Trump is not a good manager — not of his businesses, certainly, and not of the vastly larger, more complex organization he now runs, the one that matters to the well-being of every American.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/us-attorneys-trump.html