Politico Playbook by Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman reports on the latest sightings of Donald Trump’s mind. He seems to think that the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian President demonstrates his innocence, when in fact it verified the whistleblower’s statement. Note that he once again displayed his vulgarity and lack of dignity.
WHAT’S ON THE PRESIDENT’S MIND THIS A.M.: @realDonaldTrump: “The so-called Whistleblower’s account of my perfect phone call is ‘way off,’ not even close. Schiff and Pelosi never thought I would release the transcript of the call. Got them by surprise, they got caught. This is a fraud against the American people!” …
— AND HITTING BACK AT ROMNEY: “Somebody please wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was a congenial and very appropriate one, and my statement on China pertained to corruption, not politics. If Mitt worked this hard on Obama, he could have won. Sadly, he choked!” …”Mitt Romney never knew how to win. He is a pompous ‘ass’ who has been fighting me from the beginning, except when he begged me for my endorsement for his Senate run (I gave it to him), and when he begged me to be Secretary of State (I didn’t give it to him). He is so bad for R’s!”
ABOUT THOSE PHONE CALLS … “Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have long worried aides, leaving some ‘genuinely horrified’,” by WaPo’s Carol Leonnig, Shane Harris and Josh Dawsey: “Starting long before revelations about Trump’s interactions with Ukraine’s president rocked Washington, Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders were an anxiety-ridden set of events for his aides and members of the administration, according to former and current officials. They worried that Trump would make promises he shouldn’t keep, endorse policies the United States long opposed, commit a diplomatic blunder that jeopardized a critical alliance, or simply pressure a counterpart for a personal favor.
“‘There was a constant undercurrent in the Trump administration of [senior staff] who were genuinely horrified by the things they saw that were happening on these calls,’ said one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations. ‘Phone calls that were embarrassing, huge mistakes he made, months and months of work that were upended by one impulsive tweet.'” WaPo
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Since the New York Times broke the story, we’ve been hearing a lot, lately, about the March immigration meeting in the Trump Whiter House that was supposed to last for 30 minutes but turned into an unhinged, two-hour rant in which, among other things, Trump suggested putting moats (later spelled “moots” by Trump in a tweet) filled with snakes and alligators at the border. It’s understandable that this bit of craziness from Trump is getting a lot of airtime. It rises above the general noise of the news by virtue of its sheer looniness.
But what is far, far more concerning is that according to the Times, Trump insisted that asylum seekers at the border should be shot, his advisors explained that they couldn’t legally do that, and Trump kept pressing on this, suggesting that if they couldn’t be shot (generally? killed?), they could be shot in the legs. (This man definitely watches too much television.)
He’s an utter nutcase.
Suppose that YOU held a meeting and told your staff or coworkers that they should go out and shoot people. Suppose that you got furious and demanded that they do this. They would probably ALL call the police, and you would be arrested and remanded for psychiatric evaluation and then charged with threatening a terrorist act and mass murder, and you would certainly lose your job. And it would be quite clear to everyone that you were a crazy person.
But that is just what Trump did in March, according to this story.
When is enough enough?
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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/2/20894913/trump-alligators-wall-shoot-migrants
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If this is not insane behavior warranting removal from office, what, exactly, is? And what could possibly be more egregious?
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Diane, I’m receiving a notice that two comments have been made. I can’t see either of them. What is this about?
2 Comments
Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL
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I have comments in moderation.
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Bob Shepherd: I’m getting this comment. “I have comments in moderation.”
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What Trump says in public and on the record is alarming enough (before he even campaigned, during his campaign and his mis-presidency). Who would vote for this Stephen King mad clown buffoon at this point?!
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I’m wondering how long it is going to take for the Republicans to figure this out. Can anyone imagine him, at this point, getting through a single Presidential debate in 2020? The man is a total loon.
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I just had a long ‘conversation’ with a woman who voted for Trump. She believes that ‘socialism’ will destroy this country so she will vote for Trump.
Here is one of her comments. Try to figure out how to beat this thinking. I tried.
You and I disagree on everything…EVERYTHING. My company is not “tired” of providing healthcare to our employees. America is not a Socialist Country. Apparently you like the countries that control their citizens every thought, word, and lives. Do you understand that the reason American’s fought the Revolutionary War? I WILL NEVER become a Socialist/Communist. And don’t give me the: “We don’t want to become Venezuela or Argentina.” If a Socialist is elected, the US economy collapses and then neither one of us will ever have to worry about Healthcare for All or Education for All. Do you really believe that American corporations will continue to invest in jobs for Americans when they are taxed even higher than the Obama years. You saw what happened under the Obama’s administration. Corporations simply moved their funds and jobs off shore. You’re right about one thing: Education in America is horrendous. But not because of lack of money. It’s because our educators have been indoctrinated with their Socialist ideology and it IS being taught from elementary through college. The teachers are all unionized now with three months off a year. Not a bad gig. Thanks for your efforts to try to reshape my brain but I’m going to vote for President Trump again, live my CONSERVATIE life, continue to go to church and never knowingly allow another Socialist/Communist/Democrat into my home. Obama’s “transformation of America” almost succeeded but four more years of President Trump will stop this cultural civil war as it should be.
You’ve given me a terrific idea…to move my money out of the United States so that the Socialist/Communist NEVER get their hands on the dollars I’ve saved for retirement. Socialist Warren says she’ll tax SAVINGS. Giggling, Warren says that that will be on the Billionaires. I’m not a Billionaire…just a working woman but I’ve lived long enough to know that once the Democrats get hold of anything, that tax increase will eventually filter right on down to me! And I will NEVER allow that to happen because I am not going to pay for a Socialist government.
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You’re right. You cannot change this type of thinking. I am surrounded by irrational conservatives so I do my best to ignore what I can. Even if these folks do not understand the concept of democratic socialism, I find it hard to believe they can accept #45″s lies, scapegoating, endless blaming of others and his hateful rhetoric and actions. We have to remember that in red states, “Paranoia runs deep, into your life it will creep.” Buffalo Springfield said it best.
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You are so right Carol! I also encounter this knuckle headed right wing/libertarian/Ayn Rand/LaRouche “thinking.” It takes the think out of thinking. They say that socialism will make the country collapse. No one’s arguing for full bore soviet style socialism, geez. Democratic socialism. They ignore that the 2nd biggest and richest economy in the world is Commie China, an authoritarian police state. I don’t ever want us to turn into China with its horrible human rights violations and lack of freedom. But truth be told, the US capitalists love commie China. Irony? The righties scream about socialism as they accept their Social Security checks and Medicare payments.
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IQ45 doesn’t belong in the Oval Office. He belongs in a padded room.
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I get regular emails from the elderly father of one of my former students, a fellow who reads not-so-Breitbart, The Daily Caller, the Wall Street Journal of Corporate Apologetics, and other extremist right-wing rags. He’s convinced that Donald Trump is fighting every day for ordinary blue-collar folks and is the victim of a pervasive Deep State conspiracy run by people who want to turn the United States “Socialist,” which to him means like the Soviet Union under Stalin. His emails are totally bizarre, but they keep me up on the latest right-wing conspiracy theory kookiness, and for that I am grateful. LOL.
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Wonderful expression: sightings of Trump’s mind
Politico Playbook by Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman reports on the latest sightings of Donald Trump’s mind.
UFO’s come to mind, also sightings once in a blue moon but now gone with the wind…add now you might see, but then again you might not. The guy with the fake mind is still here and trying his funhouse mirror gig again.
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This is what insanity looks like, folks. IQ45 is quite literally a madman.
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Is he a madman, a crook, or both?
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I vote for ‘BOTH’.
IQ45 is incapable of distinguishing his version of facts from truth. [madman] He does everything to make himself ‘loved’. Why else does he need ego rallies continuously? The wall is his ego wall. Facts of its worthlessness don’t matter. He has lied over 12,000 times either total lies or partial.
I has swindled people out of their earned money. [Crook]
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Both, definitely.
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Moore asks a good question. The Swamp Monster seems to have overcome people. Look at the Senate Repubs who still can’t see the monster in plain sight. I’d say Trump is sick and an aspiring mob boss.
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How Many Crimes Does He Have to Commit Before He’s Impeached, Tried and Convicted?
By Michael Moore, Michael Moore’s Facebook Page
05 October 19
Have they taken the vote to Impeach yet? I had to run downstairs to throw another load in the dryer and I didn’t want to miss anything!
Wait! What? He’s still President?! So — how many crimes does he have to commit before he’s impeached, tried and convicted? I think the rule is he has to commit 3 felonies, 2 acts of treason & have more than a dozen unpaid parking tix. I think that last one is what’s holding things up.
I just checked the Constitution. It says Congress can Impeach and the Senate can convict him immediately! What’s the hold up? He just did it again today asking China to interfere in our elections. How many more acts like this does it take? He is either sick or a political terrorist. This must end now. Why is there no urgency! Is America over? Has everyone just given up? Even our own people despise it and the rule of law. If we can’t do something as basic as removing a mob boss like Trump, who are we?
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Moscow Mitch, aka Yertle the Turtle, has vowed to shut down any impeachment process in a recent fundraising campaign.
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When is the whistleblower from the IRS going to appear?
Trump is getting increasingly fearful of the impeachment inquiry. I’m waiting to hear what his roaming Twitter fingers will say now that a second whistleblower is weighing whether to file his own formal complaint and testify to Congress.
The more whistleblowers, the happier this country will become. Expose this corrupt president.
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Perhaps if Democrats accepted that he WAS legally elected . . .
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Harlan,
No reality tv star with multiple bankruptcies has claimed he has proof that Trump was born in Kenya and is an illegitimate President. You make a good point that Democrats must accept that Trump was legally elected until a known liar and con artist tells us that Trump isn’t really an American.
Trump supporters still don’t seem to accept that Richard Nixon was legally elected in one of the biggest landslides in history! Democrats do know that Nixon was legally elected. Democrats also know that Nixon committed crimes while in office and had to step down or be impeached.
Even a “legally elected” President who wins by a landslide can’t break the law. Neither can a President who won the electoral college but lost the popular vote. Did you forget we were in America and not Russia?
And while I realize that you’d happily endorse impeaching Trump if a celebrity told you he had Trump’s Kenyan birth certificate (no other proof needed), the Democrats only impeach when real crimes and real cover-ups to conceal those crimes are committed by a duly elected President.
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My comment:
Trump is showing his true “presidential abilities”…foul language, lies and name calling.
The intelligence level of some Trump followers is hard to quantify. I just received this comment:
And you dont have the intelligence or integrity to hold his jock strap.
Here is my reply:
NO woman would want to hold his jock strap. Ewwww. Gross!! 20 women have stated that he is a sexual predicator. He paid a porn star to keep her mouth shut so she wouldn’t say anything during the campaign. Great man!
**This cult of Trump is bringing out the lowest common denominator. **
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Point taken. Real crimes, real impeachment. No argument there. Shouldn’t the crimes of Hillary and Biden and Obama receive prosecution too, no matter what happens with Trump?
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One of my favorite pastimes is listening to right wing Trump acolytes whining that HRC wasn’t investigated. Because 20+ Benghazi investigations plus FBI investigations over many years just weren’t enough. If only they had found a “crime” like the one her husband committed — a sexual affair. Then again, if Trump was impeached for his extramarital affairs like Bill Clinton, he would have been gone long ago. Shockingly, Trump has been so corruptly using his office for personal gain that his affairs are ignored. Republicans can never find any real “dirt” on Democrats so they pretend that the “crimes” that Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich do — cheating on your wife — is an impeachable offense.
I do love your reference to Obama. No doubt you are angry that Trump’s “proof” that Obama was an illegitimate President wasn’t investigated. Here is a little secret for you — Trump has the power of the Presidency to finally get the proof he has claimed he has for years. Trump was blatantly lying about Obama. I know that shakes your world view since you believe every word Trump tells you. In fact, when will you be calling for the investigation into Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz’ dad involvement in JFK’s assassination?
Poor Trump defenders. I’d feel for you if you all weren’t happy to embrace lies. Trump’s supporters are very much like Trump himself. Take that as a compliment or an insult, as you wish.
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We are not protesting that he was not legally elected even though Hillary won the popular vote by nearly 3 million people.
We are protesting that everything he does is to hurt someone or destroy the government agency that his unfit appointments do to our government.
Trump is an ignorant, a misogynistic, xenophobic, narcissistic, bigoted, demented man who never learns. He doesn’t read and doesn’t have the abilities to do a good job of representing the United States. He doesn’t have press conferences because he is too stupid to answer intelligent questions put out by journalists. He is too stupid to listen to the best intelligence briefings in the world but chooses to get his daily ‘news’ from Fox. In some instances it is Fox that is running this government.
He ‘rules’ by Twitter because his mind is so small. His decisions by his wonderful ‘gut’ are nonsense.
He brags about having the best genes in the world and that he is remarkably intelligent. Nobody who is intelligent speaks like that.
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George Conway, who (I cannot understand why!) is married to KelleyAnne Conway, wrote this great article for The Atlantic. Just about says it all….
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/george-conway-trump-unfit-office/599128/
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Mamie Krupczak Allegretti: Thank you for the great article. I just passed it onward to people.
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That article was posted here the same day it was published. Grrrr! Follow the blog.
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Opps. I’m sorry. I do follow the blog but missed something.
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Forgiven. That happens a lot.
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This demonstrates that Trump is incapable of compassion. He’s concerned about the blood on the floor when an 80 year old man falls off the stage and is badly hurt.
Trump himself has told the story of a charity ball—an “incredible ball”—he once held at Mar-a-Lago for the Red Cross. “So what happens is, this guy falls off right on his face, hits his head, and I thought he died … His wife is screaming—she’s sitting right next to him, and she’s screaming.” By his own account, Trump’s concern wasn’t the poor man’s well-being or his wife’s. It was the bloody mess on his expensive floor. “You know, beautiful marble floor, didn’t look like it. It changed color. Became very red … I said, ‘Oh, my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t, you know, he was right in front of me and I turned away.” Trump describes himself as saying, after the injured man was hauled away on a makeshift stretcher, “‘Get that blood cleaned up! It’s disgusting!’ The next day, I forgot to call [the man] to say is he okay … It’s just not my thing.”
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I love the reference in Diane’s title to the “Mad King Donald.” This is a wonderful bit of historical dark humor, as there are so many precedents of insane leaders throughout history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mentally_ill_monarchs
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RSN: Will Trump Relinquish Power?
By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
06 October 19
If the moment lawfully arrives for Donald Trump to pass from the presidency in a peaceful and orderly manner, will he do so?
The short answer is: Not if he can avoid it.
The U.S. presidency is a dream job for Donald Trump. There is no shortage of experts lining up to tell the American public that no one is above the law. But that stuff ain’t the truth. The truth, effectively, is that with William Barr as attorney general and the legally unproven OLC Memo acting as a prosecution shield, Donald Trump is in fact living above the law for all intents and purposes. It’s a place he has wanted to be his entire life.
Cutting directly to the chase, there are really only three ways Trump could resist a legally mandated exit from the Oval Office and its powers: by successfully enlisting the help of the U.S. military to maintain control, managing to incite his supporters to mount an armed insurgency, or litigating.
The various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces remain fairly professional and disciplined. The likelihood that there would be any meaningful, coordinated support for an overthrow of the U.S. government remains quite low. There are certainly Trump supporters on active duty or retired who might independently use their training to aid in his defense, but an effort that would involve organized military engagement is not in the cards right now.
Inciting an armed insurgency is quite a bit more plausible. In fact the argument can be made that a fledging campaign is already underway. At first glance, actors like Cesar Sayoc, Patrick Crusius, and James Fields might seem to have acted independently, but they and many like them are clearly inspired and emboldened by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric and are acting-out lethally with what they view as his blessing.
If Trump were facing the prospect of being removed from office by any means he protested, an uptick in violence by his supporters should be anticipated. Whether such acts would coalesce into a coordinated effort is unclear. The chance, however, does exist.
The third and arguably most likely gambit is Trump’s favorite, litigation. You can be one hundred percent certain that Trump will legally challenge any legal mandate to end his grip on the presidency short of at least eight years. That combined with even random acts of violence by his supporters could make for very tense days.
It also bears noting that any legal challenge Trump might mount to being removed from office would almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court. It’s a court that could opt for a redux of Bush v. Gore, regardless of the merits.
Once out of office, Donald Trump would have criminal exposure to a laundry list of federal and state charges. As long as he remains in power he remains functionally immune, and the statutory limits move inexorably toward their expiration date. In addition, he is becoming increasingly adept at using the powers of the presidency to enrich himself and his family members.
Trump has everything to gain by remaining in office and everything to lose by leaving office. This is not a guy who has any intention of going quietly into that good night.
Eviction will not be pretty, but it will be necessary.
Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
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These asylum seeking children have suffered. How wonderful that two women from Boise worked to help them express themselves through art. Some people care. [Mad King Donald has always had material things. He definitely doesn’t understand hardships from starvation or fear of being killed.] How beautiful that there are good people in this country.
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‘Life-changing’: 2 Boise women help children seeking asylum paint their experiences
OCTOBER 06, 2019
A rainbow. A smile. A little boy with his papa. A heart, a sunset, clouds, flowers.
Though the children spoke only Spanish, their paintings needed no words to translate: These are things that make them happy. They got to keep their happy paintings — although even at that, it was hard to coax them to smile for photos.
That’s because their life is hard. Most of them had been traveling for days and weeks — in buses and walking under the hot desert sun — fleeing life as they knew it. They arrived at the U.S. border in Juárez, Mexico, a river’s width from their promised land. Their parents are hoping against hope to live in the United States.
The children and their families are asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Violence, fear and suffering are part of their history, so the afternoon of painting was a brief respite in a strange town amid an uncertain future — though some of the paintings were dark, a reflection of difficult lives and journeys, and even death.
And Boiseans Betsy Luce and Sylvia Walker were among the group of volunteers who orchestrated the art sessions for the children…
Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/heart-of-treasure-valley/article235180557.html?#storylink=cpy
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This description of a drawing is heartbreaking. It is the will of our demented Orange Swamp Monster. People are dying and he is responsible.
HELPING ASYLUM SEEKERS AT A SHELTER
Another painting turned out to be the most powerful of them all. A wide river flows through the center, left to right. On one side of the river — the brown side — are people milling about in confusion, their eyes white and wide. In the middle of the river is the artist’s father, holding a baby, reaching for her mother, who is too far away and floats face-down in the river. “No child should ever see what (she) saw,” said Walker, tears filling her eyes.But there’s more: On the other side of the river is a wall. On the other side of the wall — in the lush green — are people with guns shooting people who are on the ground bleeding.
Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/heart-of-treasure-valley/article235180557.html?#storylink=cpy
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This isn’t a ‘Mad King Donald” topic but is one concerning teachers. I was just listening to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and he brought up that teachers are turning to sugar daddies to survive. Here is an old HuffPost article on the subject.
Have any of you heard of this? Gad. I’m really glad I’m retired.
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Teacher’s New Night Job: Sugar Baby
Updated Aug 19, 2013
About 40,000 public school teachers are supplementing their salaries with a night gig likely too scandalous for your average PTA. The job title? Sugar baby.
That’s according to dating site SeekingArrangement.com, the go-to Internet marketplace for “mutually-beneficial relationships” almost exclusively between older men and younger women. The site’s “successful and generous” sugar daddies provide pre-determined allowances to “attractive, ambitious and goal oriented” sugar babies, in exchange for their young, nubile companionship.
The website recently announced it noticed an “influx of teachers signing up last month, prior to heading back to school.”
So why are so many public school teachers cashing in on their sugar baby potential? Seeking Arrangement founder and CEO Brandon Wade has his own take.
“It’s unfortunate what is happening in the American public school system,” Wade said in a recent news release. “Teachers are placed under enormous pressures to mold the young minds of tomorrow, but are expected to do so with less wages than their peers, and by working longer hours.”
The statistics seem to agree with Wade: Teachers currently earn 50 percent less than the average American with a bachelor’s degree, according to the National Education Association. (That’s despite the fact that over half of teachers have some sort of graduate degree.) On top of that, educators work about 12 hours of non-compensated hours a week.
Given their exhausting, underpaid profession, Wade argues, “they can’t possibly be judged for whatever extracurricular activities they choose to pursue to stay afloat.”…
Article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/teachers-sugar-baby-seeking-arrangement_n_3769710.html
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Not many sink to Trump’s GREAT low on the intelligence/wisdom scale. Does he really believe that he is that wise? God help us.
Trump: “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!),” he wrote.
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Braun [R-IN] won the election for Senate by repeatedly saying he was the strongest Trump supporter. He won against two other Republicans. A second whistleblower who knew first hand what was said has just come out. How I long for a brain in this government.
Exactly how much energy has the GOP put into healthcare reform, beyond wanting to destroy ACA? How much into infrastructure? Tax breaks for the wealthy was the ONLY thing in which they sneaked into a new law.
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Office of U.S. Senator Mike Braun contact@braun.senate.gov
12:24 PM (2 hours ago)
October 7, 2019
Dear Ms. Ring,
Sincerely,
Mike Braun
U.S. Senator
P.S. This message was sent by email to save taxpayer dollars.
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The over the top lunacy of Dumpsterfire is a feature not a bug. He was elected to serve as a figurehead and a distraction. The hubris of his backers prevented them from realizing that he would get that done by being a drunken bull in their china shop, mob boss style.
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If Trump were only a figurehead, we would be safer. Unfortunately he insists on making all decisions and he is dumb as a rock and smart as a fox, cunning in his total ignorance and biased towards all but his base.
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Hmmm. The Orange Swamp Monster is preventing knowledgable people from being questioned and refuses to let the public know what is inside his tax returns. He is a crook and he will get caught. I wonder if Trump is, deep inside, regretting that he became president. He knows that he is super intelligent and doesn’t have to pay taxes. This whole thing is exploding in his face.
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In any normal administration, Gordon Sondland’s tenure as ambassador to the EU might have been unremarkable. But we’re pretty far from normal.
Congress was all set to grill Trump’s ambassador to the European Union on what he knew about the president’s alleged attempt to shake down Ukraine for Joe Biden dirt and when he knew it. But early Tuesday, Gordon Sondland announced he was ordered by the State Department to not appear before the House. “He is a sitting ambassador and employee of State and is required to follow their direction,” his lawyer told reporters.
President Trump followed up that news by tweeting he didn’t want his ambassador “testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court, where Republican’s rights have been taken away, and true facts are not allowed out for the public…”
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Sondland bought his position as ambassador to the EU by giving $1 million to the Trump Inauguration.
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