THE TRUMP DISASTER AREA

Trump Rescinded Obama’s Flood Risk Rules Weeks Before Hurricane Harvey Hit.

Donald Trump signed away Obama-era flood standards just weeks before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in a bid to get infrastructure projects approved more quickly.

The rule signed by former president Barack Obama in 2015 had not yet come into effect but aimed to make infrastructure more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and flooding.

Those who backed Obama’s rules believed they would make people safer by putting roads, bridges and other infrastructure on safer ground, NPR reported, but Trump rescinded the rule several weeks ago in an attempt to speed up the time it takes for infrastructure projects to be approved. More at link.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-rescinded-obama-flood-risk-192411092.html

Trump's business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president.

While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.

As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested he could get President Vladimir Putin to say "great things" about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.

The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump's election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange.

Sater wrote to Trump Organization executive vice president Michael Cohen, "something to the effect of, 'Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?' " said one person briefed on the email exchange. Sater emigrated to the United States from what was then the Soviet Union when he was 8 and grew up in Brooklyn.

Trump never went to Moscow as Sater proposed. And although investors and Trump's company signed a letter of intent, they lacked the land and permits to proceed and the project was abandoned at the end of January 2016, just before the presidential primaries began, several people familiar with the proposal said.

Nevertheless, the details of the deal, which have not previously been disclosed, provide evidence that Trump's business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president — and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations. The new details from the emails, which are scheduled to be turned over to congressional investigators soon, also point to the likelihood of additional contacts between Russia-connected individuals and Trump associates during his presidential bid.

White House officials declined to comment for this report. Cohen, a longtime Trump aide who remains Trump's personal attorney, and his lawyer have also declined to comment.

In recent months, contacts between high ranking and lower level Trump aides and Russians have emerged. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, then a U.S. senator and campaign adviser, twice met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Donald Trump Jr. organized a June 2016 meeting with campaign aides Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer after the president's eldest son was promised the lawyer would bring damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help the campaign.

Internal emails also show campaign adviser George Papadopoulos repeatedly sought to organize meetings with campaign officials, including Trump, and Putin or other Russians. His efforts were rebuffed.

The negotiations for the Moscow project ended before Trump's business ties to Russia had become a major issue in the campaign. Trump denied having any business connections to Russia in July 2016, tweeting, "for the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia" and then insisting at a news conference the following day, "I have nothing to do with Russia."

Discussions about the Moscow project began in earnest in September 2015, according to people briefed on the deal. An unidentified investor planned to build the project and, under a licensing agreement, put Trump's name on it. Cohen acted as a lead negotiator for the Trump Organization. It is unclear how involved or aware Trump was of the negotiations.

As the talks progressed, Trump voiced numerous supportive comments about Putin, setting himself apart from his Republican rivals.

By the end of 2015, Putin began offering praise in return.

"He says that he wants to move to another, closer level of relations. Can we really not welcome that? Of course we welcome that," Putin told reporters during his annual end-of-the year news conference. He called Trump a "colorful and talented" person. Trump said afterward that the compliment was an "honor."

Though Putin's comments came shortly after Sater suggested that the Russian president would speak favorably about Trump, there is no indication that the two are connected.

There is no public record that Trump has ever spoken about the effort to build a Trump Tower in 2015 and 2016.

Trump's interest in building in Moscow, however, are long-standing. He had attempted to build a Trump property for three decades, starting with a failed effort in 1987 to partner with the Soviet government on a hotel project.

"Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment," he said in a 2007 court deposition.

"We will be in Moscow at some point," he promised in the deposition.

Sater was involved in at least one of those previous efforts. In 2005, the Trump Organization gave his development company, the Bayrock Group, an exclusive one-year deal to attempt to build a Moscow Trump Tower. Sater located a site for the project — an abandoned pencil factory — and worked closely with Trump on the deal, which did not come to fruition.

In an unrelated court case in 2008, Sater said in a deposition that he would personally provide Trump "verbal updates" on the deal.

"When I'd come back, pop my head into Mr. Trump's office and tell him, you know, 'Moving forward on the Moscow deal.' And he would say, 'All right,' " Sater said.

In the same testimony, Sater described traveling with Trump's children, including joining Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. on a trip to Moscow at Donald Trump Sr.'s request.

Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the Washington Post last year that Sater happened to be in Moscow at the same time as Trump's two adult children. "There was no accompanying them to Moscow," he said.

Neither Sater nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.

Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Sater, who served time in jail after assaulting a man with the stem of a broken margarita glass during a 1991 bar fight and then pleaded guilty in 1998 to his role in a organized crime-linked stock fraud. Sater's sentencing was delayed for years while he cooperated with the federal government on a series of criminal and national security-related investigations, federal officials have said.

During that time, Sater worked as an executive with Bayrock, whose offices were in Trump Tower, and brokered deals to license Trump's name for developments in multiple U.S. and foreign cities. In 2010, Trump allowed Sater to briefly work out of Trump Organization office space and use a business card that identified him as a "senior adviser to Donald Trump."

Still, when asked about Sater in 2013 court deposition, Trump said: "If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like." He added that he had spoken with Sater "not many" times.

http://www.beaches.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/trumps-business-sought-deal-on-a-trump-tower-in-moscow-while-he-ran-for/2335371

Trump expected to decide soon on fate of young immigrants.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of delays, President Donald Trump is expected to decide soon on the fate of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children as he faces a looming court deadline and is digging in on appeals to his base.

Advocates on both sides of the issue are bracing for the possibility that Trump will halt the issuance of new work permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, a move that would effectively phase out a program that gave hundreds of thousands of young people a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work legally in the U.S.

The Trump administration faces a Sept. 5 deadline from a group of Republican state lawmakers hoping to force the president's hand. The White House, however, insisted Sunday that it had no announcement on an issue the president has openly wrestled with for months. More at link.
https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5471920-trump-expected-to-decide-fate-young-immigrants.html#.1258-stage-hero1-9

I think we can take it for granted that Trump is going to do the stupid, nasty thing....

bb1 wrote:I think we can take it for granted that Trump is going to do the stupid, nasty thing....

Of course - his grandfather, father and mother were immigrants so you would expect him to empathise with those kids who didn't choose to end up illegally in the US, but no. I'm not going to say what I really think he is .... LL

Trump set to roll back limits on military gear for police.

President Donald Trump is preparing to lift restrictions on surplus military equipment that can be passed on to local law enforcement agencies in spite of past concerns that armored vehicles and other gear were escalating confrontations with protesters.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press indicate Trump was preparing to sign an executive order undoing an Obama administration directive that restricted police agencies' access to grenade launchers, bullet-proof vests, riot shields, firearms, ammunition and other surplus military equipment.

Trump's order would fully restore the program under which "assets that would otherwise be scrapped can be repurposed to help state, local, and tribal law enforcement better protect public safety and reduce crime," according to the documents.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions could outline the changes during a Monday speech to the national conference of the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Tennessee, a person familiar with the matter said. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss the plan ahead of an official announcement.

The changes would be another way in which Trump and Sessions are enacting a law-and-order agenda that views federal support of local police as a way to drive down violent crime.

National police organizations have long been pushing Trump to hold to his promise to once again make the equipment available to local and state police departments, many of which see it as needed to ensure officers aren't put in danger when responding to active shooter calls and terrorist attacks. An armored vehicle played a key role in the police response to the December 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

In 1990, Congress authorized the Pentagon to give surplus equipment to police to help fight drugs, which then gave way to the fight against terrorism.

Groups across the political spectrum have expressed concern about the militarization of police, arguing that the equipment encourages and escalates confrontations with officers. President Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2015 that severely limited the surplus program, partly triggered by public outrage over the use of military gear during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Police responded in riot gear and deployed tear gas, dogs and armored vehicles. At times they also pointed assault rifles at protesters.

Obama's order prohibited the federal government from providing grenade launchers, bayonets, tracked armored vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, and firearms and ammunition of .50-caliber or greater to police. As of December, the agency overseeing the program had recalled at least 100 grenade launchers, more than 1,600 bayonets and 126 tracked vehicles — those that run on continuous, tank-like tracks instead of wheels — that were provided through the program.

Trump vowed to rescind the executive order in a written response to a Fraternal Order of Police questionnaire that helped him win an endorsement from the organization of rank-and-file officers. He reiterated his promise during a gathering of police officers in July, saying the equipment still on the streets is being put to good use.

"In fact, that stuff is disappearing so fast we have none left," Trump said.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund said in a statement Sunday night that it is "exceptionally dangerous and irresponsible" for the administration to lift the ban.

"Just a few summers ago, our nation watched as Ferguson raised the specter of increased police militarization. The law enforcement response there and in too many places across the country demonstrated how perilous, especially for Black and Brown communities, a militarized police force can be," the LDF said.

"The President's decision to make this change in the wake of the tragedy in Charlottesville and against a backdrop of frayed relations between police and communities of color further reflects this administration's now open effort to escalate racial tensions in our country," the organization said.

The documents, first reported by USA Today, say Trump's order would emphasize public safety over the appearance of the heavily equipment. They describe much of the gear as "defensive in nature," intended to protect officers from danger.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the expected move.

Most police agencies rarely require military equipment for daily use but see a need to have it available, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.

"It is hard to imagine any situation where a grenade launcher or bayonet would be something that a major police department would need, but defensive shields and armored vehicles kept on reserve will be welcome," he said.

Sessions has said he believes improving morale for local law enforcement is key to curbing spikes in violence in some cities. The plan to restore access to military equipment comes after Sessions has said he intends to pull back on court-enforceable improvement plans with troubled police departments, which he says can malign entire agencies and make officers less aggressive on the street. Consent decrees were a hallmark of the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul certain law enforcement agencies, sometimes after racially charged encounters like the one in Ferguson.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-set-roll-back-limits-military-gear-police-49462793

Yes, well, how could it not be a good thing for the police to have grenade launchers? *Shakes head*

Donald Trump Is Being Warned by Advisers About Impeachment.

Donald Trump's presidency already has been one of the most controversial in U.S. history, and its ending could be just as action-packed and unpredictable as his first seven months in office.

As the 45th president deals with his stalled agenda, his sinking approval ratings and the investigations into his presidential campaign's ties to Russia, White House advisers have reportedly been warning Trump about his potential political doom: the exhaustive impeachment process that could result in his removal from the Oval Office. And he isn’t doing himself many favors.   More plus video at link.
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-impeachment-warning-republicans-advisers-white-house-removal-odds-655951

The sheer scale of Trump's incompetence is staggering - and don't forget, he's trashed his own business brand along the way.

bb1 wrote:The sheer scale of Trump's incompetence is staggering - and don't forget, he's trashed his own business brand along the way.

Four bankruptcies as a starter for 10 .... he's a 'reality star', a shyster, a flim-flam man, a crook - however you want to put it. All he wants is his 4 years of fame and sod the American people. In earlier times they would have run him out of town on a rail. Instead he is appealing to the racists, nazis, jew-baiters, queer bashers etc and they are seizing on his deeds and hanging on his every word. This can only end in disaster. LL

Trump unusually silent after aides challenge him.

Some close to the president, who has seen his approval ratings plummet, say he needs Tillerson and Cohn more than they need him.

President Donald Trump is not happy with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, for publicly criticizing his response to violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. But it appears there is little he is planning to do about it, according to people who have spoken to him.

The unusually direct challenges from a Cabinet secretary and senior administration official seemed to make little more than a surface ripple in the swirling melodrama of the Trump White House, even as the president fumed privately about it.

Tillerson, when asked over the weekend whether Trump represented American values with his comments, gave a succinct response: “The president speaks for himself.” When asked whether he was separating himself from the president’s comments, Tillerson noted that he gave a speech to the State Department denouncing hate.

Cohn’s comments last week, saying the president could do better, came after several days of weighing whether to leave his position, including writing draft resignation letters.

The repudiations by Tillerson and Cohn were not nearly as sharp as some other criticisms of the president, who publicly waffled for days on how to respond to neo-Nazis and white supremacists who marched in the streets of Charlottesville and clashed with opposition protesters.

Still, said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, “In the normal course of things, a secretary of state would be fired an hour after saying such a thing on national TV.”

The president, whose approval ratings have dropped into the 30-percent range and who has lost a raft of senior staff members, is loath to get rid of anyone right now, one adviser said. Some close to Trump note that he needs Cohn and Tillerson, seen as stabilizing forces in his administration, more than they need him at this point.

But he has stewed, this person said, as the comments from his own staff have dominated the news. Trump has repeatedly said that he doesn’t feel that others on his staff and Republicans on Capitol Hill are defending him enough.

“He feels like when you back down, people will just keep coming at you,” the adviser said. “Even if he knew he was wrong, I don’t think he’d back down.”

Longtime observers of Trump say he makes it difficult for others to defend him. He often makes incendiary comments, only to ratchet up the rhetoric after coming under criticism. Advisers and aides are then in an untenable position — having to decide whether to agree with him and face the backlash, or to artfully distance themselves, dodge or deny.

The president could still lash out and publicly criticize Cohn or Tillerson, something Cohn told others wouldn’t have surprised him in the immediate aftermath of his interview last week.

Tillerson visited the White House early Monday, and several senior administration advisers said he was involved in responding to the hurricane in Texas, his home state. He was seen in the front row of a news conference at the White House on Monday afternoon and laughing with Vice President Mike Pence afterward. And Cohn told associates that he hadn’t heard a word from the president about his supposed anger — and that he didn’t regret one bit having made his comments.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday, “The president has confidence in his team, and we are working hard to accomplish our goals and make America great again.”

A State Department spokesman declined to comment.

Matt Schlapp, a conservative activist close to the White House, said that Tillerson’s comments were “perfectly valid” and that some were reading too much into his words. “They came from the heart,” he said.

“‘The president speaks for himself’ is a response I’ve given multiple times,” Schlapp said. “The president is his own best spokesperson.”

Tillerson has told people he has no plans to depart the administration immediately. Cohn is working on a tax-reform speech that Trump is expected to give Wednesday. “If Trump wants to fire him, he will, or he won’t,” one person familiar with the president’s thinking said. Or, this person said, Trump will say something “crazy” and Cohn will quit.

Cohn has told people he will have plenty of options should he leave the White House.

Ryan Williams, a GOP consultant who worked for Mitt Romney, said: “It’s highly unusual for senior aides and Cabinet officials to openly critique the president. To some degree, they were likely fed up with the current situation and don’t fear the consequences. What’s the worst that can happen? He fires you.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/28/trump-silent-tillerson-cohn-challenge-242119

Trump Punishes Longtime Aide After Angry Phoenix Speech, Sources Say.

Donald Trump was in a bad mood before he emerged for a confrontational speech in Arizona last week.

TV and social media coverage showed that the site of his campaign rally, the Phoenix Convention Center, was less than full. Backstage, waiting in a room with a television monitor, Trump was displeased, one person familiar with the incident said: TV optics and crowd sizes are extremely important to the president.

As his surrogates warmed up the audience, the expanse of shiny concrete eventually filled in with cheering Trump fans. But it was too late for a longtime Trump aide, George Gigicos, the former White House director of advance who had organized the event as a contractor to the Republican National Committee. Trump later had his top security aide, Keith Schiller, inform Gigicos that he’d never manage a Trump rally again, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Gigicos, one of the four longest-serving political aides to the president, declined to comment.

Even by his standards, Trump was remarkably strident in Phoenix. After introductory speakers, including Vice President Mike Pence, lauded him for his commitment to racial harmony, the president came on stage and lambasted the media for what he called inaccurate reporting on his remarks about violence between hate groups and counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Anger and Threats

He threatened to shut down the federal government unless Congress funds construction of the Mexican border wall he promised in his campaign. He telegraphed that he’d pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted of defying a court order to stop racial profiling by his deputies. And in their home state, he assailed Arizona Senator John McCain for the failure of Obamacare repeal and Senator Jeff Flake for being "weak" on illegal immigration, without mentioning their names. Both are fellow Republicans.

Gigicos had staged the event in a large multipurpose room. The main floor space was bisected by a dividing wall, leaving part of the space empty. There were some bleachers off to the side, but otherwise the audience was standing -- and the scene appeared flat, lacking the energy and enthusiasm of other rallies.

Although the crowd looked thin when Trump arrived at about 6:30 p.m., rallygoers filled in the space while Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Alveda King,  Franklin Graham and Pence delivered introductory speeches. A city of Phoenix spokeswoman told the Arizona Republic newspaper that about 10,000 people were inside the room when Trump took the stage.

Gigicos’s Role

A week later, Trump was still reminiscing about the event.

“You saw the massive crowd we had,” he said at a White House news conference on Monday with Finland President Sauli Niinisto. “The people went crazy when I said, ‘What do you think of sheriff Joe?’ Or something to that effect.”

Gigicos organized all of Trump’s signature campaign events and his occasional rallies since entering office. He left his White House job as director of advance on July 31 to return to his consulting business. But he continued to work for Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Over the past two years, Trump had often assigned the blame -- rightly or wrongly -- to Gigicos when his rally logistics weren’t perfect. But his irritation usually blew over quickly. When his microphone had problems at a rally in Pensacola, Florida, in January 2016, Trump bellowed: "The stupid mic keeps popping! Do you hear that, George? Don’t pay them! Don’t pay them!"

Gigicos is the latest high-profile departure from Trump’s inner circle. Since July 21, press secretary Sean Spicer, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Stephen Bannon, and national security aide Sebastian Gorka have all resigned or been fired. Former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci’s tenure lasted less than two weeks.

Two outside advisory councils comprised of corporate CEOs dissolved after Trump’s Charlottesville remarks, and the White House severed ties with billionaire Carl Icahn, a semiformal Trump adviser.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-punishes-longtime-aide-angry-234155939.html

And on and on the trainwreck rolls....it rather reminds me of something-

“Let all the poison that lurks in the mud, hatch out.”
― Robert Graves, I, Claudius

http://news.sky.com/story/tropical-storm-harvey-rescuers-fear-texas-death-toll-will-rise-dramatically-11011243

ropical Storm Harvey: Dams and levee that protect Houston overflow
Donald Trump arrives in Texas as the National Guard rescues more than 3,500 people from devastating flooding in the state.

A levee south of Houston has been breached and two reservoir dams that protect the centre of the city have begun overflowing as floodwaters continue to rise following storm Harvey.

Brazoria County authorities warned residents on Tuesday to "get out now!" after a levee at Columbia Lakes began overflowing following five consecutive days of heavy rain.

Engineers began releasing water from the 70-year-old Addicks and Barker reservoirs on Monday to ease the strain on the dams.

But the releases were not enough to relieve the pressure after one of the heaviest downpours in US history, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

Jeff Lindner, of the Harris County Flood Control District, said the release of water means more homes and streets will flood, with some houses under water for up to a month.

President Donald Trump has arrived in Texas to survey the damage caused by the storm in the first major natural disaster of his White House tenure.

He flew into Corpus Christi, where Harvey first made landfall, and will also meet rescue officials in Austin.

Poor souls IMO, any home that is swamped by filthy floodwater for weeks will have to be pulled down - especially as so many American houses are wooden.

Harvey Exposes Trump's Empathy Deficit.

The president has excelled at celebrating America’s resilience, but struggled to express sympathy or consolation for Harvey’s victims.

Crises, and especially natural disasters, create a special kind of challenge for any politician, but especially for a president. There’s very little that a national leader can do in the early days of a disaster; much of the initial response is organized ahead of time or devolved to state and local authorities. While later on, White House muscle can be important, the first days are a time when there’s little to do but play the role of president.

Most presidents try to strike two modes: sympathy and inspiration. They go to the site, they shake hands, they hug victims, and they offer words of consolation; they also offer soaring rhetoric about the power of community, the resilience of Americans, and the determination to bounce back. More at link.

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/538404/

The Trump Administration's Evolving Rhetoric on North Korea.

From “fire and fury” to “all options are on the table”.

The White House’s response Tuesday to North Korea’s latest missile test was, in a way, measured.

“The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” President Trump said in a statement. “Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”

That last line—“All options are on the table”—appears ominous with its implied threat of military force, but it actually represents a reiteration of longstanding U.S. policy. For Trump, in fact, it’s a more subdued tone on the crisis in East Asia, and it came via a White House statement rather than the medium Trump often uses for foreign-policy pronouncements: Twitter.

Trump’s missives about North Korea can be classified into two broad categories: threats against the North for its actions and frustration at what he perceives to be China’s failure to pressure Pyongyang to change its behavior. Some of these are made on Twitter; others in public appearances. He has also specifically discussed Kim Jong Un, referring to the North Korean leader at various points in time as a “wack job” and a “smart cookie” whom he’d be honored to meet.

Trump’s most recent threats against North Korea came this month after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to tighten international sanctions against Pyongyang. Shortly after that development, news reports said North Korea had succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear warhead that could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. Trump then said “any more threats” by North Korea would be met with “fire and fury,” words he later said weren’t “tough enough,” prompting fears of a military response. He also tweeted the U.S. nuclear arsenal “is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” adding he hoped the U.S. would never have to use it. North Korea’s response: a detailed plan to fire an intermediate-range ballistic missile at Guam, the U.S. territory in the Pacific that is home to military bases. When the North did not follow through on that plan, Trump tweeted: “Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision. The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!”

Trump was noncommittal Tuesday when asked what he was going to do about the latest North Korean test: “We'll see. We’ll see,” was all he said before traveling to Texas to inspect the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he spoke to Trump for 40 minutes on the issue, saying the two countries were in “total agreement” that the UN Security Council must increase pressure on North Korea. For her part, Trump’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley declared that “something serious has to happen” following the latest missile test, but did not elaborate.

“President Trump and Prime Minister Abe committed to increasing pressure on North Korea, and doing their utmost to convince the international community to do the same,” the White House said in a readout of the call between Trump and Abe, suggesting the U.S. was planning coordinated diplomatic action. But any such action against Pyongyang must include China, a permanent veto-wielding member of the Security Council, which is also North Korea’s main benefactor. Trump has during his presidency said Beijing is doing “nothing” on North Korea, cited increased trade between North Korea and China, and said China’s attempt to persuade Kim to change his behavior “has not worked out.” (China says its influence over Kim is limited, and points to reduced trade between the two countries.)

Nor is Trump the only person in his administration whose rhetoric on North Korea has fluctuated. On July 5, Haley urged Russia and China to vote for tougher sanctions on North Korea, warning: “If you choose not to, we will go our own path.” On July 30, she said there was no point to an emergency Security Council session “if it produces nothing of consequence.” (The U.S. ultimately succeeded in persuading China and Russia to sign on to the sanctions—though it’s unclear what impact those sanctions will actually have on Pyongyang, which has found multiple ways to evade sanctions in the past, as I’ve reported here.) Rex Tillerson, Trump’s secretary of state, had declared the Obama-era policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea over, though the Trump administration’s stated policy of ‘maximum pressure and engagement’ resembles the Obama-era approach. Tillerson, who has spent much of the past month dialing down Trump’s North Korea-related rhetoric, has also said the U.S. is willing to talk to North Korea and is not interested in regime change. On the other hand, in April when Pyongyang tested a medium-range ballistic missile, he said: “The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.”

By Tuesday, that rhetoric, too, had shifted. In the morning, Tillerson said: “We’ll have more to say about it later.”


https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/08/trump-north-korea/538323/

I assume diplomatic moves are being made behind the scenes, because I can't see neighbouring nations being any too thrilled by the bombast coming from Fattie AND Trump?

How about this fine upstanding member of the human race, you know the racist barsteward pardoned by Trumper? Read the truth. LL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio

Donald Trump Went to Texas for Harvey and Didn't Meet a Single Flood Victim.

This is not what leadership looks like.

Yesterday Donald Trump flew to Texas as it faced the wrath of Tropical Storm (née Hurricane) Harvey. Now there's an argument that the president actually going to the site of an ongoing disaster is a bad idea. That argument claims that the president and the government should be more worried about helping people than posing for photo ops. Is there truth to that? Probably. But I'm going to give Trump a pass on that one. Times of disaster call for many different types of responses and though tangible contributions of money, supplies, and the time of rescue workers are certainly most important, a response designed to improve morale and keep people calm isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So I guess this is all to say that I think it's a good thing that President Trump went and met with victims of the storm and provided them some reassurance that their government hasn't forgotten them. And so with that, here's Politico about President Trump's trip.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It was a presidential trip to a deluged state where the president didn’t meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street.

Of course. Look, I do think there's a real argument to be made that it is gross to use people who are suffering as political props, but that's just it. I think it's an argument. There are two sides to that and both have legitimate points. But this? Donald Trump went down to Texas for photo ops that made him look like a leader while not actually taking the time to meet any people hurt by the storm? That is next level craven.

There were few interactions with people who hadn’t been screened, and the president spent far more time flying Tuesday — at least eight hours — than on the ground, where he spent about three hours. Reporters traveling with Trump saw little more than he did, often quickly whisked from rooms or away from survivors or volunteers.

Perhaps Trump should take some advice from conservative pundit Laura Ingraham (now that's a sentence, I never thought I'd write) and fill more government jobs, especially those that would be related to the recovery effort. But Donald Trump doesn't care about what the "best thing" to do is. He just cares about what makes him look like what he imagines a president should look like. And because we're dealing with Trump's projection of what a president should look like, we're left with a craven photo op on dry Texas streets while people are still stranded only a few miles away.
https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-harvey-texas-visit?mbid=social_twitter

Arpaio's been around for decades, LL, lots of documentaries have been made about him. Not least because he was re-elected time after time - he was something of a celebrity.

I had never heard of Arpaio, bonny, so the wiki article had me rather gobsmacked, and knowing all that, Trumper pardoned him?      LL   

I am genuinely surprised you hadn't heard of Arpaio before, LL, I've seen several documentaries about him. There was nothing secret about what he was doing, his pink-clad work parties were a familiar sight in the area.

Thing is, he was popular locally - it took a helluva lot of money to get him voted out of office. By pardoning him, Trump has stuck two fingers up at the law - but it's gone down well with the Right-wing hardliners in the Trump camp.

Arpaio has many admirers in the US.

I am genuinely surprised you hadn't heard of Arpaio before,

Maybe I have but I don't remember and I don't watch political stuff anyway.   I have no connection with Arizona; if it had been about the areas of the US I knew when I was there then maybe I would have taken an interest.    But Europe has always been first for me.   LL

Understandable, LL. Thing is, this poison was always there - Trump's just brought it to the surface.

Trump donation will help restore historic home near Confederate statue.

SHARPSBURG, Md. — During the presidential campaign last year, Donald Trump said he wouldn’t accept a salary if elected. In April, the White House said he would donate his first quarter salary to the National Park Service. And in July, the agency announced some of those funds would be used to restore a historic home at Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland.

Work is scheduled to begin next summer on property that includes a 24-foot statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee astride his horse, Traveller. The statue, built by a Confederate enthusiast in 2003, sits on a bluff about 250 feet from the Newcomer House that will benefit from Trump’s donation.    More at link.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trump-donation-will-help-restore-historic-home-near-robert-e-lee-statue/2017/08/30/76ef9eb6-878d-11e7-bf6f-85492789e0aa_story.html?utm_term=.4ff3fb69765c