Posts made by Drwas

The payments—for catering, lodging and parking—were disclosed by the public relations firm MSLGroup last week in paperwork filed with the Justice Department documenting foreign lobbying work on behalf of Saudi Arabia and other clients.

As part of a lobbying effort against the bipartisan Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, Saudi Arabia’s Washington lobbyists and consultants spent about $190,000 on lodging, $78,000 on catering, and $1,600 on parking at the Trump International Hotel. The Daily Caller website first reported on the payments.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-hotel-received-270-000-from-lobbying-campaign-tied-to-saudis-1496700739

President Trump's job approval rating has fallen to a new low, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The new Quinnipiac University poll finds Trump has a job approval rating of 34 percent, compared to 57 percent who disapprove of the way the president is handling his job.

In a poll released at the end of last month, 37 percent of respondents approved of the job the president was doing and 55 percent disapproved.

The new poll also finds 31 percent of voters think Trump did something illegal regarding his relationship with Russia.

Another 29 percent of respondents think the president did something unethical, but not illegal, regarding his relationship with Russia. Thirty-two percent think the president did nothing wrong.

Forty percent of voters think Trump's campaign advisers did something illegal in their relationships with Russia, while another 25 percent think they did something unethical, but not illegal.

A majority of voters, 54 percent, think Trump is too friendly with Russia, compared to 38 percent who think he has the right attitude toward Russia.

Nearly 70 percent of voters are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about the president's relationship with Russia.

The poll was conducted from May 31 to June 6 among 1,361 voters. The margin of error is 3.2 percent.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Trump has a job approval rating of 39.4 percent, while 55 percent disapprove of the job the president is doing.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336751-poll-trump-job-approval-rating-falls-to-34-percent

Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday hit President Trump for his criticism of media outlets' coverage of his Twitter habits.

“Mr. President, it’s not the fake news media that’s your problem,” he said on Fox. “It’s you. It’s not just your tweeting, it’s your scapegoating. It’s your refusal to see that sometimes you’re the one who’s feeding your own beast and acting beastly with your own guys.

“Look at the critiques you’re now hearing from usually friendly and supportive allies as sort of like an intervention. Because firing off these angry missives and tweets risks your political discussion.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336679-fox-host-to-trump-fake-news-media-isnt-the-issue-its-you

The media would likely be excluded from a potential upcoming meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Trump, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The two leaders are likely to meet during the G20 summit in Germany in July, a Kremlin spokesman said, but no firm plans have been made so far.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia interfered in last year's presidential election specifically to help Trump.

Russian election interference and potential links between Trump's campaign and Moscow are the subject of investigations by the FBI, Department of Justice and House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Putin has denied any involvement in the U.S. election. Trump has dismissed the allegations as "fake news."

http://thehill.com/homenews/336692-media-likely-to-be-excluded-from-trump-putin-meeting-report

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was grilledGLAAD condemned DeVos:

“By once again turning a blind eye to LGBTQ students who experience discrimination in school, Secretary DeVos continues to prove why she was the wrong choice to lead our nation’s education system,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “DeVos once claimed she was an LGBTQ ally, but has now supported back to back policies that would erase LGBTQ students from classrooms. If she wants to be known as more than an anti-LGBTQ activist the time is now to reverse course.”

Since her controversial confirmation hearing process, which included a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has fallen in line with the Trump Administration’s attempt to erase LGBTQ Americans from the fabric of this nation. In February, DeVos joined the President and Attorney General Jeff Sessions by rescinding guidance that provided protection to transgender students at our nation’s schools.

DeVos’s anti-LGBTQ record extends well before her confirmation as Education Secretary. From contributing more than $200,000 toward efforts to add a marriage equality ban to Michigan’s Constitution to donating money to Focus on the Family, an anti-LGBTQ organization which openly advocates for so-called “conversion therapy” practices, Betsy DeVos’s record shows she will do anything to prevent LGBTQ acceptance from becoming a reality.

President Trump's charity foundation funneled $100,000 in donations meant for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital into revenue for the Trump Organization by using his son's charity, Forbes reported Tuesday.

For 10 years Eric Trump hosted an annual golf tournament that raised millions of dollars in donations for the hospital. According to the Forbes report, $100,000 of the donations was funneled through the Eric Trump Foundation back into Trump's golf courses for expenses incurred during the tournaments, despite donors being told that all their money would be used for charity.

In addition, more than $500,000 of donors' money over 10 years was re-donated to other charities, including some that were connected to Trump family members. At least four of those organizations also used Trump golf courses for charity tournaments.

According to the report, President Trump himself gave the order for the Trump Organization to begin billing the Eric Trump Foundation for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If the report is true, the practices would violate both New York state law and federal law on self-dealing and misleading donors. To date, Eric Trump has raised more than $11 million for St. Jude's hospital.

In December, President Trump announced plans to dissolve his charitable foundation in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. But New York's attorney general said that was impossible until a criminal probe of the charity was completed.

"The Trump Foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dissolve until that investigation is complete,” Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, said in a statement to The Hill in December.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336564-trump-foundation-funneled-100k-in-donation-into-revenue-for-trump

President Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget would eliminate a Department of Homeland Security laboratory dedicated to countering bioterrorism and providing the science behind response and recovery efforts should an attack occur.

The proposal to eliminate this lab without creating replacement capabilities elsewhere could place the U.S. at risk at a time when biotechnology proliferation is increasing access to the knowledge and capabilities for developing bioterror weapons. To further emphasize this point, consider that Bill Gates — who has given billions of dollars to global public health causes — recently said a bioterror attack could “wipe out 30 million people” and such an attack is becoming more likely.

The president’s proposed budget, if it were to be adopted by Congress, would zero out funding for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) at Fort Detrick, halting all science as of March 2018 and closing the facility by September 2018. NBACC was created in the aftermath of the anthrax attacks of October and November 2001 which sickened 22 people, five of whom died, and caused some 30,000 people exposed to the highly pathogenic anthrax to begin a regiment of high strength antibiotics. It also required the decontamination of several office buildings and postal handling facilities at a cost of approximately $320 million.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/336565-cuts-to-us-bioterror-funds-risk-peril-in-event-of-attack

plummeting Monday morning, well below the margin of error compared to the rising level of support for impeachment. The results follow Trump's controversial decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord; the ongoing investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to the Kremlin is also a factor.

The president's approval rating dipped from nearly 42 percent to just 36 percent over the weekend, according to a Gallup daily tracking poll published Monday. Trump's declining popularity is inching closer toward his all-time low of 35 percent as president in March, when Gallup had the president’s approval at just 35 percent. What's more, nearly 43 percent of American voters support the idea of beginning the official impeachment process for Trump, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll published Wednesday.

http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-impeachment-support-odds-removal-approval-rating-white-house-620913

Seventy-two percent of U.S. adults think America should take “aggressive action” against global warming caused by climate change, according to a new poll.

Forty-six percent in the Reuters/Ipsos survey released Tuesday “strongly agree” the U.S. should take “aggressive action” on climate change, while 26 percent “somewhat agree.”

Eighteen percent disagree, with 8 percent “strongly” disagreeing and 10 percent “somewhat” disagreeing. Ten percent were unsure.

Pollsters found 47 percent disagree with President Trump’s recent decision to remove the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, while 39 percent agree with Trump’s decision. Fifteen percent were uncertain.

Tuesday’s results found that respondents believe the U.S. should lead the global fight against climate change, with 68 percent agreeing with that idea to some extent.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/336558-poll-most-want-aggressive-action-on-climate-change

Four top law firms reportedly turned down requests to represent President Trump in the investigation into ties between his administration and Russia.

Lawyers from the firms declined to represent Trump in the probe over concerns that he would not take their advice, Yahoo News reported.

Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly, Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Paul Clement and Mark Filip of Kirkland & Ellis and Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell are reportedly among those who turned the White House down. None of them returned requests for comment to Yahoo.

Some lawyers familiar with the situation cited existing commitments, upcoming trials, possible damage to a firm's reputation and potential conflicts with clients as part of their reasoning for not representing Trump.

But those lawyers reportedly said they were concerned Trump would make public statements against their legal advice that hurt his position in the investigation.

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’ ” one lawyer close to the White House told Yahoo.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/336489-four-top-law-firms-turned-down-trump-report

President Donald Trump is lashing out at Democrats for allegedly stalling his appointments and agenda, but it’s his own administration that is frequently sitting on the necessary paperwork for nominees.

Trump tapped Kevin McAleenan on March 30 to lead Customs and Border Protection, a critical position for his drive to revamp U.S. immigration policy. But the White House didn’t formally submit his nomination to the Senate for confirmation until May 22, nearly eight weeks later.

And McAleenan’s nomination is far from alone in taking weeks to be sent to the Senate, where Republicans are growing impatient and bewildered with the Trump White House’s historic lag in filling administration posts.

Trump’s two nominees for the Export-Import Bank board — ex-GOP Reps. Scott Garrett and Spencer Bachus — haven’t been submitted to the Senate, despite being named April 14. Trump rolled out a batch of 10 judicial nominations to much fanfare on May 8, but two of them have yet to arrive on Capitol Hill.

And Dan Brouillette, nominated by Trump to be Rick Perry’s chief deputy at the Energy Department, was announced on April 3, yet his nomination wasn’t sent by the White House until May 16.

“Do I know why it’s taken so long for any of them?” responded Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), when asked about Brouillette’s delay.

“I don’t know what happens,” the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee added. “They go into some dark hole. And eventually they come out. But still.”

It’s unclear exactly why the Trump White House has been so slow to officially submit some nominees’ paperwork, but it comes amid broader struggles by the new president to vet senior officials and staff his administration.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/06/trump-administration-nominees-paperwork-239124

@Frederick:

There is a certain libturd who is currently spamming the forum with their absurd complaints that Trump is taking too long to fill positions in government.

It's not worth anybody's time to read all of DrWas' pointless rants, so I will skip them and tell you what is really going on.

There are thousands of positions to fill in government, Chuck Schumer has been intentionally doing everything in his power to arbitrarily prevent Trump from filling those positions.  Wuss is complaining that Trump is taking too long searching for people who will be loyal to him.  Imagine that!  Trump want's people who are loyal?  Gee whiz!  Why not just fill a plane with terrorists and give each one a position in the White House?  Bada Bing, Bada Boom, Bada Bang!  All the positions filled!

It's beyond incredible that people like Schumer do everything possible to prevent Trump from filling positons.. and at the same time criticize Trump for not filling those positions.

Are people really that stupid?  Apparently democraps are.

Hiring has been slow across the board, bogged down by an overwhelmed personnel office and disagreements among aides. In some cases — especially at State, where Trump named a secretary and deputy secretary but left many other posts open — Cabinet secretaries are still mulling a reorganization that might do away with certain positions.

Trump announced in January that he planned to nominate Robert "Woody" Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, which has been hit by two deadly terrorist attacks in recent weeks. But Trump has yet to formally send Johnson's nomination to the Senate after more than four months in office.

@Frederick:

Blocking Trump's travel bans could hamper anti-terror plans you libturd!

Here in America we have this thing called the Constitution. You should look it up some time!

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday said he does not think Republicans can put together a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare before the end of the year.

“I don’t think there will be. I just don’t think we can put it together among ourselves,” Graham told Bloomberg News.

In May, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he is not sure how the Senate can corral enough votes to pass a repeal bill.

“I don’t know how we get to 50 at the moment,” he told Reuters.

And Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said last week that he is not optimistic about the odds of any health care bill making it through Congress in 2017.

“I don’t see a comprehensive health-care plan this year,” he said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-05/obamacare-repeal-s-latest-obstacle-is-native-american-subsidies

@Frederick:

@Drwas:

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States needs to be "smart, vigilant and tough" after a terrorist attack rocked London. But the president's counter-terrorism strategy could be hindered by dozens of vacancies across the government, not least a permanent FBI director.

Top ranks at the State Department remain largely unfilled, as are some key ambassadorships. Trump has not named anyone to lead the Transportation Security Administration, which screens people at airports, or to run the Homeland Security office charged with protecting the country's physical and cyber infrastructure. His choice to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency is awaiting Senate confirmation, but Trump has not named a deputy.

At the Justice Department, Trump has not nominated an assistant attorney general for the national security division.

And, perhaps most crucially, Trump has not yet named a permanent leader of the FBI, which plays a central role in combating domestic terrorism. The president has continued to interview candidates for the job nearly a month after he fired James Comey.

"This is a team sport," said Max Stier, the head of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, which advised Trump's presidential transition on hiring. "It's critical to have a full team."

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/04/trump-london-terror-hiring-239120

Trump's sluggish hiring?   Or Chuckie Schumer obstructing Trump in every way imaginable?  Do you actually believe your own crap MrWuss?

But hiring has been slow across the board, bogged down by an overwhelmed personnel office and disagreements among aides. In some cases — especially at State, where Trump named a secretary and deputy secretary but left many other posts open — Cabinet secretaries are still mulling a reorganization that might do away with certain positions.

Trump announced in January that he planned to nominate Robert "Woody" Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, which has been hit by two deadly terrorist attacks in recent weeks. But Trump has yet to formally send Johnson's nomination to the Senate after more than four months in office.

@Frederick:

@rawr:

Can the media hype up Jim Comey a little more? …

"The Russia maelstrom raging around Donald Trump's presidency reaches a momentous plot twist this week with a quintessential Washington drama set to unfold when ex-FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate."

It sounds like a movie trailer. Read it out loud in the "epic movie guy voice."

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/05/politics/comey-testimony-trump/index.html

Oh and, did anybody notice that Trump used twitter? Okay, well the media did.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/5/15739346/muslim-ban-trump-tweets
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/amp/tweeting-fuming-trump-spirals-further-crisis-n768211
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN18U0YC
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/336274-london-mayor-i-have-more-important-things-to-do-than-respond-to-trumps-ill
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/06/05/trumps-latest-unhinged-tweetstorm-could-hasten-his-downward-spiral/
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/04/politics/donald-trump-london-terror-tweets/
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336346-trump-tweets-might-undercut-travel-ban-case
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/06/04/with-his-london-tweets-trump-embarrasses-himself-and-america-once-again/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-tweets-favor-original-travel-ban-not-watered-down-version-n768191
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2096992/trump-new-twitter-tirade-urges-tougher-us-travel-ban
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/new-opposition-emerges-as-trump-pushes-for-travel-ban/2017/06/04/5914e7fa-4973-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-latest-tweets-could-hurt-effort-to-restore-travel-ban/2017/06/05/c8eb5940-49e8-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-london-terror-promote-travel-bans-twitter-article-1.3222344
https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2017/06/05/trumps-latest-twitter-barrage-could-hurt-his-effort-to-have-travel-ban-restored/
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/06/trump_pushes_travel_ban_on_twitter_following_londo.html
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/05/trump-tweets-criticism-of-his-own-travel-ban-with-comey-looming/
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2017/jun/05/trump-criticizes-justice-dept-travel-ban/431742/
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/trump-monday-twitter-seeks-quick-supreme-court-review-of-travel-ban/
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-travel-ban-tweets-supreme-court-case-2017-6
http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/trump_launches_early_morning_muslim_travel_ban_twitter_tantrum

There's so much more, I just didn't feel like spending an hour cut and pasting it all.

Media hysteria?

Just a little …

I wonder how long they will drag this crap out. 
The most bizarre thing is.. Trump isn't even being accused of doing anything illegal!

Benghazi probe is Congress' longest investigation ever

The Select Committee on Benghazi came into existence in May 2014, charged with investigating the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in the Libyan city that left four Americans dead. Costing $4.5 million so far, with no final report in sight, critics see the committee as a waste of taxpayer dollars and a partisan witch hunt aimed at Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton is slated to testify before the committee later in October.

In recent days, the claim that this is the longest-running investigation ever has gone somewhat viral. We saw it in The Hill, Salon, The New York Times, Esquire, MSNBC, ABC News and, notably, a Twitter account belonging to Clinton’s campaign.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States needs to be "smart, vigilant and tough" after a terrorist attack rocked London. But the president's counter-terrorism strategy could be hindered by dozens of vacancies across the government, not least a permanent FBI director.

Top ranks at the State Department remain largely unfilled, as are some key ambassadorships. Trump has not named anyone to lead the Transportation Security Administration, which screens people at airports, or to run the Homeland Security office charged with protecting the country's physical and cyber infrastructure. His choice to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency is awaiting Senate confirmation, but Trump has not named a deputy.

At the Justice Department, Trump has not nominated an assistant attorney general for the national security division.

And, perhaps most crucially, Trump has not yet named a permanent leader of the FBI, which plays a central role in combating domestic terrorism. The president has continued to interview candidates for the job nearly a month after he fired James Comey.

"This is a team sport," said Max Stier, the head of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, which advised Trump's presidential transition on hiring. "It's critical to have a full team."

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/04/trump-london-terror-hiring-239120

President Donald Trump is still looking for a new FBI director more than three weeks after he fired James Comey, and sources familiar with the recruiting process say it has been chaotic and that job interviews led by Trump have been brief.

Three close associates of three contenders for the job, all of whom have been interviewed by Trump, said the candidates were summoned to the White House for 10- to 20-minute conversations with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Those conversations, which followed initial interviews at the Justice Department, have been light on questions about substantive issues facing the agency, the three associates said.

While the department has compiled a long list of candidates for the White House, there has been no “clear framework or logic for who was interviewed and why,” said one of the sources.

Another of the three sources described the process as chaotic and said that in one interview, Trump spoke mostly about himself and seemed distracted.

The White House declined to comment on the nature of the interview process. Spokesman Sean Spicer said on Friday that Trump continues to meet with candidates but would not give a timeline for choosing a nominee.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-fbi-idUSKBN18T2S8

The Kushner family real estate company is seeking a $250 million loan to pay back Chinese investors in a New Jersey luxury tower, but it is finding some major US banks wary of the controversies around its White House links and the visa program used to attract the investors.

Kushner Cos. is sending out feelers for the loan against its 50-story Trump Bay Street in Jersey City. It would keep $50 million and use the rest to repay the investors and pay off a mortgage on the building, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

The company, which belongs to the family of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, funded about a quarter of the $194-million development through the EB-5 visa program that grants wealthy foreigners green cards in exchange for investing in US projects.

Some large US banks are shying away from the transaction because of the property’s connection to Kushner and the visa program, the person said. Unregulated lenders and non-US banks will probably step into the breach. A Kushner Cos. spokesman declined to comment.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/06/05/the-kushners-are-having-trouble-finding-million-repay-chinese-investors/4OEdVeIPVUudluinL96LVO/story.html

Four months into his presidency, Donald Trump has filled only five of the 53 top jobs at the Pentagon – the slowest pace for nominations and confirmations in over half a century.

Several of his high-profile picks, including Navy and Army secretary nominees, have had to withdraw because of their business entanglements. In other cases, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has clashed with the White House, which has blacklisted national security and defense leaders who publicly disagreed with Trump during the 2016 campaign, according to several current and former defense officials.

“In the vetting process there is a lot of scrutiny of social media accounts, Twitter . . . any hint of something negative about Trump as a candidate can be disqualifying, and a lot of people haven’t made it through that filter,” said Christine Wormuth, who served as the Pentagon’s top policy official from 2014 to 2016, under former President Barack Obama’s administration.

The investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials is also scaring off people who had been on the fence about joining the administration. Even the opportunity to work under Mattis, who many of the potential picks know and respect, may not be enough.

“With, frankly, the chaos that is happening, people who might have been open to it are asking themselves ‘Do I want to join this administration? How much of an impact will I have? Will I have to get a lawyer?’” Wormuth said.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article154052384.html]http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article154052384.html