THE TRUMP DISASTER AREA

Does he seriously think the rest of the world will stand by and do nothing while the US slaughters millions of people?

Trump wants to punish Iran, but he could end up isolating the United States.

President Donald Trump says he has made his decision on whether to declare Iran in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Decertification of the agreement would lead the U.S. into "uncharted waters," says a former member of the U.S. National Security Council.
Leaving the deal could isolate the United States and lead to "a decline in U.S. global power".

President Donald Trump won't say yet whether he is going to "decertify" the Iran nuclear deal — but his decision could impact America's international standing as much as Iran's.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he has already made up his mind on the international agreement next month, though he did not reveal what the decision is. He has taken a much harder line toward Iran than his predecessor President Barack Obama.

Under a law passed by Congress, the president must certify every 90 days whether Iran remains in compliance with the landmark, 2015 pact, which lifted severe economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country freezing its nuclear activities. NBC reported Wednesday that Trump is leaning toward decertifying the agreement.    More at link.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/21/iran-nuclear-deal-us-could-isolate-itself-and-damage-its-credibility.html

Donald Trump says he has 'maybe the best shot' at Israeli-Palestinian peace .

Speaking at the outset of a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Trump’s displayed some of his customary swagger in asserting he had a strong chance of solving one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

Framing diplomatic negotiations in business terms, Mr Trump said peace would be the “toughest deal of all” - he has formerly referred to it as the “ultimate deal” - but nevertheless projected confidence.

“We are looking seriously at peace and maybe ultimately peace for the whole of the Middle East and I think we have a pretty good shot, maybe the best shot ever,” the president said. “It's a complex subject, always been considered the toughest deal of all: peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the toughest of all,” Mr Trump added. “I think we have a very, very good chance”.

If he does achieve a breakthrough, Mr Trump will succeed where a long line of predecessors have failed. There have been few concrete signs of progress since Mr Trump had dispatched his son-in-law Jared Kushner to conduct negotiations.

On other issues, Mr Trump’s confident declarations have run up against the complexity of the task at hand.

As Republicans struggled to uproot a much-reviled federal healthcare law, Mr Trump mused that “nobody knew health care could be so complicated” - a claim that baffled some healthcare policy experts and elected officials.

Donald Trump's comments on Africa at the UN were, um, odd.

President Donald Trump continued to make the rounds at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. At lunch, he attended a gathering of African leaders and made a few remarks.

And almost immediately he said this:

"Africa has tremendous business potential, I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they're spending a lot of money. It has tremendous business potential, representing huge amounts of different markets. ... It's really become a place they have to go, that they want to go."

So.....

As I've pointed out a lot of late, there is a tendency to become inoculated to odd or controversial things Trump says because, well, he says them a lot. But, it's important to take note of moments -- like this one -- in which Trump says something that, coming out of the mouth of any previous modern president would have caused a medium-to-large international controversy.    (Yes, as the Internet was quick to note, Trump also mispronounced Namibia as "Nambia.")

What Trump is congratulating the assembled African leaders on feels a whole lot like the colonialism of the continent by European powers in the latter part of the 19th century. As the New York Public Library notes in its "Africana Age" exhibit:

"By 1900 much of Africa had been colonized by seven European powers -- Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italy. After the conquest of African decentralized and centralized states, the European powers set about establishing colonial state systems. The colonial state was the machinery of administrative domination established to facilitate effective control and exploitation of the colonized societies. Partly as a result of their origins in military conquest and partly because of the racist ideology of the imperialist enterprise, the colonial states were authoritarian, bureaucratic systems."

In previous centuries, the African people have been exploited, repeatedly, by multiple western countries including the US, and the relationship bears the stain of slavery and the slave trade. Many, many books have been written on this topic.
The motivations for colonialism then -- as for business interests now -- were primarily economic. The rich natural resources of Africa attracted the European titans. But the impact of colonialism on Africa -- the partitioning of countries' borders, the loss of indigenous African culture etc. -- has proven to be hugely long-lasting and intractable.

Giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, he was simply congratulating African leaders on the economic growth in their countries in the over-the-top and odd way he often lavishes praise on people.

But, when you use words like "I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich," it borders on invoking the image of exploitation -- and being totally clueless about the history of colonialism in Africa.

Trump sounded a more politically correct note later in his remarks when he said: "Africa, I have to say, is a continent of tremendous, tremendous potential. The outlook is bright."

Still: He could have done without the first part of his speech.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/20/politics/donald-trump-africa/index.html?CNNPolitics=Tw

Trump claims Chinese banks won't do business with North Korea.

President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that China has ordered its banks to stop doing business with North Korea -- the rogue regime's principal trading partner.

"I'm very proud to tell you that as you may have just heard moments ago, China, their central bank has told their other banks --that's a massive banking system-- to immediately stop doing business with North Korea," Trump said at the United Nations alongside South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"Again, I want to just say and thank President Xi of China for the very bold move he made today. That was a somewhat unexpected move and we appreciate it."

The remarks came a short time after Trump signed an executive order aimed at companies and financial institutions that do business with North Korea.

“Foreign banks will face a clear choice to do business with the United States or facilitate trade with the lawless regime in North Korea,” Trump said.

Trump argued that the new presidential action taken will “cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea's efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to human kind.” Early this month, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date and, last week, fired a missile over Japanese airspace. Prime Minister Abe welcomed the new sanctions enforced by the United States.

According to Trump, the U.S. Treasury Department will also begin identifying new industries that it can target with strong sanctions, like the manufacturing, fishing, and textiles industries.

“For much too long, North Korea has been allowed to abuse the international financial system to facilitate funding for nuclear weapons and missile programs,” said Trump.

Trump said the U.S. seeks a “complete denuclearization of North Korea."

The new sanctions from the Trump administration come two days after Trump told the United Nations that the U.S. would "totally destroy" North Korea if leader Kim Jong Un does harm to the U.S. or its allies.

"The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," Trump said Tuesday in his first address to the United Nations General Assembly.

"Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime," Trump said, using an epithet he has recently adopted to refer to Kim Jong Un.

Trump had teased the announcement earlier in the day, during his bilateral meeting with President Moon, and told reporters to “stay tuned.”

During that meeting, President Moon praised Trump's speech Thursday as "strong" and said he believes it will "help contain North Korea."

"North Korea has continued to make provocations and this is extremely deplorable and this has angered me and our people," President Moon said. "The United States has responded firmly and in a very good way."

“I'm happy you used the word deplorable,” Trump said, getting some laughs from the room. “I promise, I did not tell them to use that word.”

“That’s been a very lucky word for me and many millions of other people,” Trump said, referencing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s once characterizing some of Trump’s supporters as “deplorable” during the election.
Video of speech at link.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-announces-sanctions-north-korea/story?id=50002489

Donald Trump and the Depressing Politicization of Everything.

One reason the president cannot resist commenting on every issue in American life is that he seemingly cannot stand the actual work of American politics.

In a flurry of comments historically unsuited to any head of state, yet hardly shocking for the current American president, Donald Trump this weekend targeted the two most popular sports in the country and elicited sharp criticism from some of their most important figures.

On Friday, Trump encouraged franchise owners in the National Football League to fire players who protest during the national anthem. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired,’” the president said at an Alabama rally.

Trump’s comment provoked Roger Goodell, the typically reticent commissioner of the NFL, to issue a strong statement condemning the president’s divisive language. The comment was particularly surprising, since most NFL owners who elect the league commissioner are staunch Republicans. Many of the most prominent owners donated to the Trump campaign.

Trump was undeterred. On Saturday, he disinvited the NBA champion Golden State Warriors from the White House, in a tweet. This came after several players, including star guard Stephen Curry, suggested that they would skip the ceremonial visit.

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!

In response to Trump, LeBron James, the basketball superstar whose Cleveland Cavaliers are rivals of the Warriors, called the president a “bum” on Twitter. The basketball star also pointed out the fecklessness of revoking an invitation after the other party has already declined. (Trump’s you-can’t-fire-me-because-I-quit instinct here recalls his earlier announcement to dissolve several business advisory councils, only after one of them had already disbanded.)

LeBron James@KingJames
U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!

What is the meaning of these seemingly frivolous skirmishes with athletes and sports leagues? His true motivations aren’t clear, but his behavior does fit a pattern.

As Adam Serwer wrote here, there is a clear racial element to Trump’s pronouncements. When the NFL star Tom Brady, a white player, skipped his championship team’s White House visit, the president was silent. (Brady has described Trump as a “good friend,” and at one point displayed a “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker.) When Warriors star Stephen Curry, a black man, announced his intention to do the same, the president called him out on Twitter and rescinded the team’s invitation. In calling for NFL owners to fire protesting players, the president encourages an overwhelmingly white ownership group to disemploy members of overwhelmingly black NFL players union. As Serwer wrote, Trump’s instant criticism of Curry and black NFL players stands in stark contrast to his infamous hesitation to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Another reason that the president cannot resist commenting on every non-political issue in American life is that he seemingly cannot stand the actual work of American governance—a preference made salient at a moment when lawmakers are busy trying to repeal the signature legislative achievement of Trump’s predecessor. Several Republican lawmakers said the president never mastered the details of health care policy. The president’s recent NFL commentary suggests that national anthem protests, on the other hand, are a debate he can engage with.

As a candidate, Trump promised to take a firm leadership role in changing American health care, tax policy, infrastructure spending, drug abuse, and regional inequality. But as president, Trump has given no national address endorsing a specific health care plan. He has given no national address endorsing a specific tax reform plan. His administration has no clear plan to begin rebuilding American infrastructure, no real urgency to address the opioid crisis, and no outline to confront the economic issues that supposedly buffeted his candidacy, like regional inequality. Instead, the president has been more inclined to reserve the precious power of his bully pulpit to target his nemeses, by name, as in the case of Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry.

It has been said that the age of Trump is the politicization of everything. The claim is impossible to dispute, especially one week after an Emmy’s ceremony that felt like an extended presidential roast. But it’s important to note that Trump is choosing to politicize sports and entertainment, not only because he is inclined toward controversy, but also because he is so demonstrably uninterested in actual policy and the political process.

Nobody is forcing the president to morph into a sports radio commentator. It is merely the role that best suits the skills that come most naturally to the former game-show host. Consider the simple, uncontroversial fact that in his ninth month in office, the  U.S. president has a clearer position on Stephen Curry’s White House clearance than on any single detail of health care or tax reform. Trump is so bored by the quotidian demands of his surprisingly “complicated” job, which requires guiding policy through a complex political process, that he uses his position to instead harass Americans on the internet. Judging by the attention his sports commentary received this weekend, one can assume that Trump’s shock-jock-in-chief routine will be a long-running show.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/donald-trump-and-the-politicization-of-everything/540915/?utm_source=yahoo&yptr=yahoo

Trump warns North Korea 'won't be around much longer' if threats continue to escalate.

President Donald Trump continued to escalate threats to North Korea late Saturday as he responded to their foreign minister with a warning "they won't be around much longer" if the country continues provocation.

Trump took to Twitter just after 11 p.m. to respond to statements made earlier Saturday by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who said bombing the U.S. mainland was "inevitable."

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!

Ri is currently in New York at the United Nations General Assembly and spoke on Saturday in a much-anticipated rebuttal to Trump's message delivered on Tuesday in which he said the U.S. would "totally destroy" North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.

"Due to his lacking of basic common knowledge and proper sentiment, he tried to insult the supreme dignity of my country by referring it to as a rocket," Ri said, referring to Trump's new penchant for referring to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as "Rocket Man." "By doing so, however, he committed an irreversible mistake of making our rockets' visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the more."

Kim and Trump have spent the better part of the last few months hurling insults back and forth at each other. Trump tweeted early Friday morning that Kim was "obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people."

Ri referred to the president as "a mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency" in Saturday's address.

The war of words has continued to escalate as North Korea advances its development of a nuclear weapon. The country has fired three intercontinental ballistic missiles over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean in the past month. They also conducted a nuclear test on Sept. 3, with U.S. officials saying the country exploded a hydrogen bomb at an underground facility.

Again, does Trump really think the rest of the world will just stand by while he slaughters millions of people - to say nothing of all the other countries in the region whose citizens will die in the resulting conflagration?

Right now, it is, IMO, the US that looks like the biggest danger to world peace, and Trump's behaviour is making Fatty look semi-sane. Horrible and cruel Fatty may be, but at least his motives - power-hungry despotism and avoiding the fate of Gaddafi and Saddam - are simple to understand.

Trump, on the other hand, gives every impression of being mentally ill and getting worse.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/22/sarah-palin-big-luther-got-senate-seat-corrupt-quid-pro-quo-old-eskimo-term-fertilizes-swamp/

Quote:

“Getting the job of the temporary Senate seat, being handed the job by the politician who’s now gone because corruption, whatever,” Palin said, trailing off. “I don’t know what you guys call it, but up in Alaska we call it quid pro quo, which I think is an old Eskimo term for that which fertilizes the swamp.”

Really? Eskimos speak Latin? Ignorant idiot.

American football stars took a knee in defiance of Donald Trump at Wembley Stadium today after he said sportsmen who 'disrespect America' should be 'fired'.
Today, players from both Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens dropped to their knees as the national anthem was played prior to the match in London.
Now similar protests have erupted across the US with at least 100 players either kneeling or sitting during the national anthem.
No players were kneeling during the playing of 'God Save The Queen' today at Wembley, which followed the Star Spangled Banner.
They did so after President Trump stoked tensions by saying NFL players who protested during the national anthem should be sacked by their team.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4914656/American-football-stars-drop-knees.html#ixzz4tfdL9nFV
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


I confess to finding it deliciously entertaining that these footballers have treated Trump's ravings about sacking players over this 'knee' business by doing everything perfectly when singing our national anthem - Trumptards are now ranting and raving about 'treason'.

The undignified, unworthy threats from Trump have had exactly the opposite intended effect.

Trump's NFL Fight Dates Back to His Failed USFL Experiment in the '80s.

President Donald Trump's war with the NFL is big news these days, but he's been waging battles with the league for decades—when he hasn't been trying to woo it.

Over the weekend and into Monday, Trump has railed against NFL players who have chosen to kneel during the national anthem to protest oppression of African-Americans in the U.S. Rather than stopping the demonstrations, the president's insults have appeared to unify the league against the commander in chief. Trump has long chased the NFL and the league has, in turn, largely rebuked him.

In 1982, the rival United States Football League (USFL) announced it intended to start playing in the spring, outside the NFL season. Trump eventually owned the New York City-area team, the New Jersey Generals. Newsweek spoke about the USFL with author Jeff Pearlman, who has a book on the league, The Useless, that's due out in 2018. Having spoken with coaches, players, owners and just about everyone involved with the league—some 420 people in total (although not Trump himself)—it's unlikely anybody has a fuller picture of the USFL's brief life than Pearlman.

It was Trump's undying need to get into the NFL that drove the billionaire to buy his way into the upstart league in the '80s, the author said. But the big league wasn't a fan.

"They just saw him as this scumbag huckster," Pearlman told Newsweek. "He was this New York, fast-talking, kind of con-man."

In the course of Trump's NFL pursuit, he made a fair number of enemies at the USFL and helped shuttle the league to an early grave. He convinced other USFL owners to challenge the NFL directly in the fall, and then led the charge on an anti-trust lawsuit against the football giant that netted a massive...three dollars. The USFL was dead by '85. More at link.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-apos-nfl-fight-dates-003002816.html

Trump revels in drama over spat with NFL.

President Donald Trump is indulging in his favorite kind of drama — personal, aggressive, culturally volatile and entirely of his own making.

During a week in which a crucial Senate health care vote, his tax plan, the North Korean nuclear threat and Puerto Rico's post-hurricane suffering vied for attention, Trump carried his feud with the NFL over players who kneel in protest into the new week with a fresh volley of tweets.

"The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!" he said in one of his Monday tweets.

But for some, Trump's argument with professional athletes had everything to do with race.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Trump a "racial arsonist" and said he was using the manufactured controversy to pander to his conservative political base.

"He uses race to advance his own ends," Jeffries told CNN.

NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart defended players' rights to peacefully protest what they view as racial inequality and police mistreatment of black males.

"Everyone should know, including the president, this is what real locker room talk is," Lockhart said in an apparent reference to the "Access Hollywood" tapes in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women. Trump had chalked up those comments as "locker room talk." More at link.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-revels-latest-war-words-professional-sports-090519728--politics.html

Oh, so this is personal, is it? Explains a lot!

Whatever one's views on this kneeling/standing business (assuming one has any) it's hard not to see that Trump's deranged behaviour has handed his foes the perfect weapon to wind him up, and provoke him to rage - most undignified.

LL was right about Trump, and I was very wrong indeed - as becomes clearer with every passing day. I have NO idea what is wrong with Trump, but he simply isn't fit for office.

North Korea accuses Trump of declaring war.

North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Monday accused US President Donald Trump of declaring war on his country by tweeting over the weekend that North Korea "won't be around much longer."

"Last weekend Trump claimed that our leadership wouldn't be around much longer and declared a war on our country," Ri said, according to an official translation of his remarks to reporters in New York.

"Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make all self-defensive counter measures, including the right to shoot down the United States strategic bombers at any time even when they are not yet inside the aerospace border of our country," Ri said.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that the US has not declared war on North Korea, adding, "Frankly, the suggestion of that is absurd."
Sanders said it is "never appropriate" to shoot down another nation's aircraft in international waters and the administration plans to continue to protect the area.
More at link.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/25/politics/north-korea-fm-us-bombers/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fedition_asia+%28RSS%3A+CNNi+-+Asia%29&utm_content=Yahoo+Search+Results

No joke: When Donald Trump hurls insults, North Korea thinks about war.

To reduce danger, we need less bombast and better communication. Right now we have a soldier with a bullhorn shouting across the demilitarized zone.

America’s top priority must be to avoid a second Korean war. Yet such a war is closer than ever and appears almost inevitable unless America changes the approach President Trump has been using since he took office. The greatest risk of war with North Korea is not sudden action by Kim Jong Un, but Kim responding to a perceived attack by Trump. North Korea foreign minister Ri Yong-ho drove that home Monday when he called Trump’s threats against his country “a clear declaration of war.”

The United States has been in a technical state of war with North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has had to navigate the risk of conflict with North Korea. What’s new is Trump’s bombastic approach to this long-standing challenge — his personal insults, crazy tweets and threat at the United Nations to "totally destroy North Korea."

Kim knows North Korea cannot win a war with the United States and that his only hope of survival is to strike fast and hard to stop a conflict before it gets going and he starts to lose. This is the strategy that led North Korea to deploy thousands of long-range artillery pieces near Seoul, and that is the thinking behind its nuclear program. Hit hard, hit first, seek a truce. More at link.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/09/26/donald-trump-hurls-insults-threats-north-korea-ponders-nuclear-war-jon-b-wolfsthal-column/701494001/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/26/trump-puerto-rico-crisis-massive-debt


Donald Trump will visit Puerto Rico next Tuesday, to see some of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria on the lives of 3.5 million Americans. As the president announced the visit, however, one Democratic congresswoman who was born in Puerto Rico warned that his lack of attention to the disaster so far risked making it “your Katrina”.


Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria – in pictures
View gallery
The White House said on Tuesday Trump had also made additional disaster assistance available, “by authorizing an increase in the level of federal funding for debris removal and emergency protective measures”.

But it took the president five full days to respond to the plight of the US territory. When he finally did so on Monday night, his comments on Twitter were so devoid of empathy it threatened to spark new controversy.

Hot on the heels of the billowing dispute he single-handedly provoked over African American sporting figures protesting against racial inequality during the national anthem, Trump effectively blamed the islanders – all of whom are American citizens – for their own misfortune.

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble,” Trump wrote. The US territory was hit by Maria soon after the two states were struck by Harvey and Irma.

Trump acknowledged that “much of the island was destroyed” but caustically went on to say that its electrical grid was already “in terrible shape” and that Puerto Rico owed billions of dollars to Wall Street and the banks “which, sadly, must be dealt with”.

.....etc.

Just what millions of people sitting with no home, no water, nothing, want to hear. And there is growing outrage because US hospital ships are still sitting at their home bases up north.

British ships left the Med ASAP and are now giving all possible aid to UK territories in the Caribbean.

Donald Trump humiliated as Senate candidate he backed loses to man who claimed 9/11 was God's punishment.

Donald Trump has suffered a major political humiliation as the man he backed in a Republican race in Alabama lost to a challenger from the far-right and evangelical wing of the party who had the support of the former top strategist to the President and populist firebrand, Steven Bannon.

After a six-week campaign during which Roy Moore and his supporters pitched him as a true insurgent - a genuine anti-establishment before Mr Trump picked up the cause - the 70-year-old former judge was declared winner in the contest to select a Republican candidate for the US Senate seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions, after he was tapped to join Mr Trump's cabinet as Attorney General.

Mr Moore defeated Luther Strange, despite Mr Strange having received the backing of Mr Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and many leading figures of the Republican establishment who poured millions of dollars into his campaign.

Judge Roy Moore‏ @MooreSenate
"There's one person you don't see on this stage that's done more for my campaign than anybody, and that's almighty God."

Appearing at a victory party on Tuesday evening after the race was called, Mr Moore underscored the religious conservatism that he will take with him to Washington.

“There’s one person you don’t see on this stage that’s done more for my campaign than anybody, and that's almighty God,” he said. “There is so much division in our society but we are all created in the image of God.”

Paul Gattis@paul_gattis
Senate Leadership Fund, which poured millions into Luther Strange campaign, concedes race to Roy Moore.

The result represents a dangerous challenge to the Republican Party leadership in Washington of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, of the Senate and House respectively, because it will be seen as a fresh rebuke to the party establishment by Republican voters in the southern state.

It will also highlight criticism from some on the right, including Sarah Palin, the former Governor of Alaska, who campaigned for Mr Moore, that Mr Trump has fallen under the spell of the old-guard Republican establishment in Washington DC.

Indeed, many of Mr Moore’s supporters voiced disappointment that Mr Trump had endorsed Mr Strange, a state prosecutor who had been appointed to fill the seat on a temporary basis by the then governor who was being investigated for ethics abuses. The governor later resigned.

A numnber said Mr Trump should have either endorsed Mr Moore, or else kept out of matters entirely and left it up to the voters of Alabama.

Mr Trump may have recognised his error, for when he appeared at a rally for Mr Strange last week in Huntsville, he voiced aloud that he should have perhaps got behind Moore. As it was, it was Mr Bannon, the street-fighting populist now back at the helm of the conservative Breitbart News, who helped steer and push Mr Moore’s candidacy - the first of many anti-establishment Republicans he intends to endorse and support in the 2018 midterms.

Mr Bannon had delivered a strident, rousing speech at an election eve rally for Mr Moore near Mobile, and he appeared briefly at the victory party on Tuesday night in Montgomery, the state capital.

Mr Bannon declared Mr Moore's win a victory for the President, and Mr Moore said he supported Mr Trump, despite the President's support for Strange.

After the race, Mr Trump tweeted his congratulations to the man who defeated his preferred candidate. "Congratulations to Roy Moore on his Republican Primary win in Alabama. Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race. Roy, WIN in Dec," he said.

Mr Moore has embraced controversy throughout much of his career. Twice, he lost his position as the most senior judge in the state, once for his insistence of installing a vast granite statue bearing the Ten Commandments into the grounds of his courthouse, and a second time after telling Alabama judges they could ignore a Supreme Court ruling that legalised same-sex marriage.

More recently he suggested the attacks of 9/11 may have been a punishment for the country’s decision to turn its back on God.

Alabama is a strongly conservative state. The last Democratic president to win here was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Mr Trump beat Hillary Clinton 62-34 in the 2016 presidential contest.

As such, Mr Moore is strongly tipped to defeat his Democratic challenger, Doug Jones, in the general election for the Senate seat in December.

At the victory party, person after person spoke of the importance to them of Mr Moore’s strong religious beliefs.

“God is who is he is. He wants to shepherd us. He wants people to represent us in all walks of life, including politics, who honour him, who know him and obey him,” said one supporter, who asked to be identified as Kathy.

Susan Crawford, one of the few people of colour at the event, said she had voted for Mr Moore because he spoke his mind - similar to Mr Trump, who she voted for last year. “I think America has got what we need,” said Ms Crawford, a entrepreneur and minister.

Mr Strange, 64, who had campaigned with Vice President Mike Pence on Monday night and who was the recipient of $9m poured into his funds by Republicans in Washington, spoke to his supporters at a rally in Birmingham, saying: “We wish [Moore] well going forward.”

In an insight to the situation many mainstream Republicans may face in 2018 in the light

of Mr Moore’s victory, he added: “We’re dealing with a political environment that I’ve never had any experience with.”

Trump Deletes Tweets in Support of Luther Strange After Alabama Primary Loss.

It seems Donald Trump would prefer everyone who follows him on Twitter just forget he doesn’t have the Midas touch when it comes to his political endorsements.

POTUS on Tuesday night deleted a series of tweets on his personal Twitter account in support of Alabama Senate candidate Luther Strange, after Strange lost a GOP primary runoff to former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore.

Strange, appointed to temporarily fill the seat left vacant after Jeff Sessions was appointed U.S. Attorney General, was endorsed by Trump after he came in second in a GOP primary in August, sparking tonight’s runoff. Trump even made a personal appearance at a rally on Friday, where he delivered the now-infamous speech calling on NFL owners to fire players who protest police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. Or, as he put it, “get that son of a bitch off the field.” More at link.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-deletes-tweets-support-luther-strange-alabama-primary-052958583.html

Trump backs off vow that private sector should help pay for $1 trillion infrastructure package.

President Donald Trump told lawmakers Tuesday he was abandoning a key element of his planned $1 trillion infrastructure package, complaining that certain partnerships between the private sector and federal government simply don't work.

Trump's comments, described by a House Democrat who met with Trump and confirmed by a White House official, reveal an infrastructure plan that appears to be up in the air, as White House officials have struggled to decide how to finance many of the projects they envision to rebuild America's roads, bridges and tunnels.

Now, the administration wants to force states and localities to foot most of the bill. The previous strategy - a push that has taken a back seat to other Republican priorities in Washington - was aimed at luring private investors with promises of federal backing. Some of that thinking appears to be changing.

The president acknowledged the new approach during a Tuesday meeting with Democrats from the House Ways and Means Committee, who came to the White House to discuss the administration's tax code rewrite set to be unveiled on Wednesday,    More at link.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-infrastructure-20170926-story,amp.html

What's the point of deleting tweets? Hasn't Trump heard of screengrabs?

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/352514-trump-on-struggle-to-deliver-aid-to-puerto-rico-this-is-a-thing


President Trump on Tuesday said providing supplies and other relief to Puerto Rico is more difficult than similar disaster efforts in Florida and Texas because the U.S. territory is a more isolated island in the Atlantic Ocean.

"We right now have our top people from FEMA, and they have been there," he said at a White House press conference with Spain's prime minister. "We are unloading on an hourly basis, massive loads of water and food and supplies for Puerto Rico."

"And this isn’t like Florida where we can go right up the spine or like Texas where we go right down the middle and we distribute," Trump said. "This is a thing called the Atlantic Ocean, this is tough stuff.”

Trump's response to the disaster in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, which has left the island without power, has come under criticism from Democrats who say the president's focus has been on protests in the NFL and not disaster relief....etc.

Odd how the Royal Navy managed to get relief so promptly to UK territories.

Or how Britain managed to rescue a third of a million men from Dunkirk, under fire, with all that wet stuff to be crossed...

Donald Trump is 'the most dangerous man in the world', claim leading psychiatrists and academics.

Donald Trump is “dangerously mentally ill”, a group of experts and commentators has claimed.

Led by Yale psychiatrist Dr Bandy Lee, 27 writers hold forth in a new book that also claims “his madness is catching”.

The Trump presidency, the authors assert, “has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond”.

But not all of the 27 are psychiatric or psychological professionals; the roster includes linguist and media analyst Noam Chomsky, and journalist Gail Sheehy.

The book appears to defy American psychiatry’s professional body, which says doctors commenting on the behaviour or alleged symptoms of a public figure violates a “fundamental principle” of consent.

Ms Sheehy wrote in her chapter: “Beneath the grandiose behaviour of every narcissist lies the pit of fragile self-esteem. What if, deep down, the person whom Trump trusts least is himself?

“The humiliation of being widely exposed as a ‘loser,’ unable to bully through the actions he promised during the campaign, could drive him to prove he is, after all, a ‘killer’.”

Dr Lance Dodes, a psychiatrist formerly of Harvard University, said Mr Trump exhibited “sociopathic qualities” and “a persistent loss of reality”.

And psychologist Philip Zimbardo, referring to Mr Trump’s decision to launch an attack on military installations in Syria after the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack, said: “We believe that Trump is the most dangerous man in the world, a powerful leader of a powerful nation who can order missiles fired at another nation because of his (or a family member’s) personal distress at seeing sad scenes of people having been gassed to death.”    More at link.
http://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/world/donald-trump-is-the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world-claim-leading-psychiatrists-and-academics/ar-AAszTbK?li=BBr8zL6

At high court and others, Trump reverses legal course.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Backing employers over employees. Backing the state of Ohio over groups involved in voter registration. Backing a narrow reading of a sexual discrimination law over a broad one. Those are just some of the legal about-faces President Donald Trump's administration is making at the Supreme Court and in lower courts.

The Trump administration has found itself in court defending a variety of new policies: the president's travel ban, the phasing out of a program protecting young immigrants, and the revisiting of a policy that had allowed transgender individuals to serve openly in the military. But it's also dealing with lawsuits that were in progress before the president took office — and asserting positions different from those of the Obama administration.

The Office of the Solicitor General, the Justice Department office that represents the federal government at the Supreme Court and determines what position it will take in federal appeals court cases, does some position switching every time the White House changes parties. But the office prizes its reputation as largely nonpartisan and switches positions with "a great deal of trepidation," said Gregory Garre, who served as solicitor general under George W. Bush.   More at link.
https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5549538-high-court-others-trump-reverses-legal-course.html#.1258-stage-hero1-10

Donald Trump Lets Tom Price Resign In Wake Of Private Plane Scandal.

UPDATED with White House statement:  About half an hour after President Donald Trump said he would make a decision tonight on the fate of HHS Secretary Tom Price in the wake of his unfolding private plane scandal, the White House released a statement:

Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price offered his resignation earlier today and the President accepted. The President intends to designate Don J. Wright of Virginia to serve as Acting Secretary, effective at 11:59 p.m. on September 29, 2017. Mr. Wright currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Around 4 PM Washington D.C. time, Trump stood on the lawn of the White House and told reporters he felt badly because Price is a “good man” but acknowledged the optics were awful. Price had flown on private and charter planes so often – two dozen times just since May, including a trip in which he had lunch with his son and another to get him from Washington to Philadelphia, which is spitting distance away and easily reached by commercial plane, train, or car.

Politico, which broke the story, has put the price tag at about $1M and counting.

Here’s Price’s resignation letter submitted today:

Donald J.Trump
The President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Re: Official Resignation of Thomas E. Price, M.D., Secretary of Health and Human Services

Dear Mr. President:

It is an honor and privilege to serve you as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Under your leadership, the Department is working aggressively to improve the health and well-being of all Americans. This includes working to reform a broken health care system, empower patients, reduce regulatory burdens, ensure global health security, and tackle clinical priorities such as the opioids epidemic, serious mental illness and childhood obesity.

I have spent forty years both as a doctor and public servant putting people first. I regret that the recent events have created a distraction from these important objectives.

Success on these issues is more important than any one person. In order for you to move forward without further disruption, I am officially tendering my resignation as the Secretary of Health and Human Services effective 11:59 PM on Friday, September 29, 2017.

You may rest assured that I will continue to support your critical priorities going ahead because failure is not an option for the American people.

Yours truly,
Thomas E. Price, M.D.

PREVIOUS, 1:31 PM: Another Donald Trump Friday Night News Dump. This time, POTUS told reporters shortly before 4 PM Washington D.C. time that his Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price is a “very fine man, but we’re going to make a decision some time tonight” as to whether Price survives his private plane scandal.

One day earlier, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made news, saying Price’s private-jet-ordering days are over and that a full review is being conducted.

Politico first broke the story Price had been taken more than two dozen private and chartered jets, just since May. More Price-plane rannygazoo has been unearthed since, and the taxpayer price tag is estimated to be about $1 million, Politico reports.

Price now says he will reimburse the cost of his seat  – not the cost of hiring the plane – which the political website calculates would be in the $50K range.

“I feel very badly, Secretary Price is a good man,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn this afternoon. “But we’re looking into it and looking into it very seriously. I will be announcing something in the pretty near future.”

“It’s not a question of confidence,” Trump said when asked. “I was disappointed because I did not like it, cosmetically or otherwise. This is an administration that saves hundreds of millions of dollars on renegotiating things…. I don’t like the optics.”

Washington political wags say Trump is plenty steamed.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/donald-trump-decision-tonight-fate-203208911.html

Another greedy trougher.