trump catch all - part 7

'Trump tweeted early Tuesday that "Chuck and Nancy want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime ans want to substantially RAISE taxes," adding "I don't see a deal!"

This was prior to the meeting scheduled with Trump, GOP leaders and Pelosi and Schummer to discuss a deal to keep the government open as government funding expires next week.

As a result Pelosi and Schummer canceled the meeting and stated that "Given the president doesn't see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead."

If the president , who already said earlier this year that 'our country needs a good shutdown,' isn't interested in addressing the difficult year end agenda, we'll work with those Republicans who are, as we did in April.

So much for the great negotiator in chief

Grassley rips up 'blue slip' for a pair of Trump court picks

The blue slip process is a century-old Senate tradition that says the Judiciary Committee doesn’t hold a confirmation hearing for potential judges without approval from the candidate’s home-state senators. Senators return an actual blue slip to the committee.

The Iowa Republican announced Thursday that he is going ahead with a confirmation hearing for a nominee to the powerful appellate courts despite the objections of a Democrat who had been blocking the nomination for months.

At least four Democrats have not returned blue slips for Trump’s circuit nominees: Franken, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

But Democrats pointed out that Grassley, as chairman during the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency, declined to hold hearings for nine of Obama's judicial picks because of the blue slip policy. Four were to the appellate courts, while five were district court nominees.

Two years ago, when he assumed the chairmanship, Grassley pledged to uphold Senate traditions, including respecting the blue slips.

“Senators from both parties have used the blue slip process to demand meaningful consultation when it comes to choosing nominees for their own states," said Marge Baker, executive vice president for People For the American Way. "And Republicans used blue slips for years to block President Obama’s nominees for the flimsiest reasons. Simply put, this was a test of Charles Grassley’s moral character. He failed.”

"Throughout the Obama Administration, [McConnell] demanded meaningful consultation between the White House and home-state senators on judicial nominees. The chief instrument in that consultation process was the blue slip," Nan Aron, president of Alliance for Justice, said in a statement Wednesday. Besides upending a century of Senate tradition, she said, McConnell "is apparently poised to make a hypocrite of his own Senate Judiciary Chairman, who is on record saying he will absolutely honor the blue slip in his committee."

Chuck Grassley, 84 years old, Senator since 1981

Mitch McConnell, 75 years old, Senator since 1985

THERE ISN'T A COMPLETE SPINE IN THE WHOLE REPUBLICAN PARTY!

I also understand that they have discovered a direct connection between Erik Prince (Betsy DeVos's brother) acting on behalf of Trump with another Russian close to Putin in January of this year to set up a back channel communication, shortly before the inauguration.

How about adding Traitor Thursday to the mix?

Blackwater founder held meeting to establish Trump-Russia back channel: report
BY OLIVIA BEAVERS - 04/03/17 05:12 PM EDT

Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin in early January in what The Washington Post reports was an apparent effort to create a back channel line of communications between Moscow and the incoming Trump administration.

The meeting, on the Seychelles islands, reportedly occurred less than two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to arrange the meeting in order to see if Russia might roll back its support for Iran, including in the Syrian civil war, the Post reports.

The full agenda of the meeting, however, is still unclear.

The Post reported that Prince, who donated to the Trump campaign and is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy Devos, presented himself as an unofficial envoy for Trump.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer told the Post, however, that Prince played no role in the transition and that the administration was not aware of the meeting.

thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/327074-blackwater-founder-held-meeting-to-establish-trump-russia
Oh well.................

Trump still privately questions Obama's birth certificate: report
BY JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 11/28/17 09:10 PM EST

President Trump is still privately questioning the authenticity of former President Obama’s birth certificate, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

A senator, who asked not to be named, told The Times that Trump is having difficulty moving on from his past claims that Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

Trump led the "birther" movement against Obama, claiming for years that the former president was born outside of the U.S.

Obama eventually released his birth certificate to counter Trump’s claims.

Trump said that Obama was born in the U.S. during a campaign stop last year.

thehill.com/homenews/administration/362264-trump-still-privately-questions-obamas-birth-certificate-report

It will NEVER end!!

dt does not/can not understand people working for the government/the people vs him working only for his personal interests.  Yes, there are certain number of political appointments and he hasn't even filled all of them (thankfully).

From the meeting regarding the potential shutdown with Ryan and McConnell that Pelosi and Schummer did not attend following trump's earlier tweet "I don't see a deal."

"any government shutdown that happened on his watch, Trump said from the Roosevelt Room, would ultimately not be his fault. "if that happens," he told reporters, it's going to be over illegals pouring into the country."

Well of course, Donnie Dumbass, you would never accept responsibility for anything.

So much for that claim that you are the greatest negotiator.

Donald Trump takes the lowest of low roads on Matt Lauer

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 10:26 AM ET, Wed November 29, 2017

Wow, Matt Lauer was just fired from NBC for "inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace." But when will the top executives at NBC & Comcast be fired for putting out so much Fake News. Check out Andy Lack's past!

— Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) November 29, 2017

Then just after 9 a.m. ET, Trump went at it again.

"So now tha[t] Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the 'unsolved mystery' that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!"

That Trump saw opportunity in the news of Lauer's dismissal to make a point about the so-called "Fake News" is not terribly surprising. It's the one consistent through line of his presidential politics.

But, that's not the truly stunning part. The truly stunning part is Trump's urging to "Check out Andy Lack's past."

Lack is the chairman of NBC News. What the President of the United States seems to be suggesting -- with absolutely no evidence to back up the claim -- is that Lack, like Lauer, has skeletons in his closet.

www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/trump-lauer-tweet/index.html
It is a longer article......

I do believe dt has a bigger problem with HIS past!!

Wow, he's on a roll today: retweeting anti-Muslim videos from a hate group...recommending a boycott of CNN...using Matt Lauer's situation to imply a radio host was involved in a murder AND a network honcho has skeletons in his closet?

And his sidekick, Sarah (unprofessionally gloating that CNN's understandable boycott of WH holiday party is an early Christmas present), is quickly becoming as loony as he is.

He's definitely crazy.  The endless insane posting is the mark of a mad man. And yet, I'm dismayed to see his tribe standing by their man. The Whataboutism with them is ripe.

I'm hoping this means something 'bigly' bad is about to break on Russia.