THE TRUMP DISASTER AREA

Frankly, LL, the gross, stinking hypocrisy from the US bien pensants over their own homegrown nazi wannabees is sickening me.

The US government has been arming real, live GENUINE murderous Nazis in Ukraine, sadistic scum that has massacred their fellow-Ukranians, butchered pregnant women and burned people alive.

But hey, that's OK, they're our Nazis, and they're doing it for Freedumb.

Funny how it's not so acceptable when it starts happening in your own homeland, isn't it?

I hadn't taken in just how disfunctional the modern US is under all the swagger; I suspect the Trump presidency isn't the cause of it - it's been there all the time and Trump just ripped off the fancy wrapping paper.

Trump to ramp up trade pressure on China with call for probe on Monday.

President Donald Trump on Monday will order his top trade adviser to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property, senior administration officials said on Saturday.

The move, which could eventually lead to steep tariffs on Chinese goods, comes at a time when Trump has asked China to do more to crack down on North Korea's nuclear missile program as he threatens possible military action against Pyongyang.

Trump has said he would be more amenable to going easy on Beijing if it were more aggressive in reining in North Korea.

An administration official, however, insisted diplomacy over North Korea and the potential trade probe were "totally unrelated," saying the trade action was not a pressure tactic.

"These are two different things," the official said, speaking to reporters on a conference call.

Trump will direct U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to determine if an investigation is warranted of "any of China's laws, policies, practices or actions that may be unreasonable or discriminatory, and that may be harming American intellectual property, innovation and technology," the official said.

"China's unfair trade practices and industrial policies, including forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, harm the U.S. economy and workers," a second official said. "The action being taken on Monday is a reflection of the president's firm commitment to addressing this problem in a firm way."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer took issue with that assessment.

"President Trump's pattern continues: Tough talk on China, but weaker action than anyone could ever imagine," he said in a statement. "To make an announcement that they're going to decide whether to have an investigation on China's well-documented theft of our intellectual property is another signal to China that it is O.K. to keep stealing."

Any investigation that may be launched could take as long as a year to conclude, a third official said. He said it would be premature to speculate on actions that could eventually be taken against China, and added that the issue could be resolved through "negotiated agreement."

Trump, who will interrupt a 17-day working vacation to make a day trip to Washington for the trade announcement, had been expected to seek a so-called Section 301 investigation earlier this month, but an announcement was postponed as the White House pressed for China's cooperation on North Korea.

While China joined in a unanimous U.N. Security Council decision to tighten economic sanctions on Pyongyang, Trump has kept up pressure on Beijing to do more.

"We lose hundreds of billions of dollars a year on trade with China. They know how I feel," he told reporters on Thursday. "If China helps us, I feel a lot different toward trade."

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Friday and reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, the White House said in a statement. It was unclear whether the issue of trade came up.

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a popular trade tool in the 1980s that has been rarely used in the past decade, allows the president to unilaterally impose tariffs or other trade restrictions to protect U.S. industries from "unfair trade practices" of foreign countries.

The process can bypass World Trade Organization procedures for adjudicating grievances. Though widely used worldwide, the WTO process is viewed unfavorably by the Trump administration.

"We're at the beginning of this process and no firm decisions have been made as to how that is going to work in terms of whether we would pursue WTO action or action outside the WTO," the first administration official said.

In addition to the United States, the European Union, Japan, Germany, and Canada have all expressed concern about Chinese theft of intellectual property. The technology sector has been especially hard-hit in intellectual property disputes.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/14/trump-to-ramp-up-trade-pressure-on-china-with-call-for-probe-on-monday.html

Confidence returns to markets as North Korea tensions ease

LONDON (AP) — It's all change in financial markets at the start of the new week as concerns over a potential conflict between the United States and North Korea eased following an intervention by China.

The mood in financial markets is far less febrile than last week, when an escalating war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea had caused share prices to fall and gold to rise. Trump had declared that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" while Pyongyang threatened to fire four missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam.

But the new week has brought about a turn in fortunes, with stocks rallying and gold, a typical haven for investors in times of risk, sliding back down. China's decision to slap further sanctions on North Korean products such as coal, iron ore and fish, has been interpreted as an attempt to bring the country into line over its nuclear and missile programs. China, isolated North Korea's main trading partner, had seemingly been reluctant to push leader Kim Jong Un too hard for fear his regime might collapse but its move to cut off imports points to a growing exasperation with Pyongyang.

Reassuring statements from U.S. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser that a conflict is avoidable also helped calm the mood. "All is relatively calm, all is relatively quiet on the geopolitical front and long may that last," said Kit Juckes, a global strategist at Societe Generale. "Markets are, as a result, trying to get back to biz-as-usual."

Good news after all the bluff, bluster and threats.

Trump campaign emails show aide's repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings.

Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: "Meeting with Russian Leadership — Including Putin."

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up "a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump," telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to the Washington Post.

The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.  
More at link.
http://marketplace.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/trump-campaign-emails-show-aides-repeated-efforts-to-set-up-russia-meetings/2333770

Trump plays both sides with Charlottesville response.

His delayed rebuke of white supremacists is seen as a way to placate the alt-right — and then douse the ensuing media storm.

President Donald Trump caved to pressure from his senior advisers on Monday when he rebuked neo-Nazis and white supremacists for their involvement in the rally that ended in the death of a 32-year-old Charlottesville woman — but it may have been a Pyrrhic victory.

His remarks on Monday, authored in part by chief speechwriter Stephen Miller, put some of his most ardent supporters in the cross hairs, and quelled the outrage sparked by his initial statement, which was widely considered weak and equivocal.

But the White House’s slow-footed response, which played out over three days, fit a broader pattern that has hobbled the president before. Pushed to condemn some of the ugly factions of the alt-right made prominent by his candidacy, Trump has fallen back on the same tactic: delay, delay, delay.

Political analysts said Trump’s drawn-out response was part of a double game — an effort to avoid alienating part of his base followed quickly by a pivot to tamp down the outrage.

“He feels he can keep his base happy by being mute for 48 hours, and then he can come in and mute the so-called mainstream media world,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

The White House’s response appears to have done just that. The president’s short speech on Monday earned bipartisan praise while leaving some of Saturday’s marchers still feeling a part of the Trump movement.

“He actually sounded presidential,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, told NBC News. “But I’m disappointed it took him a couple of days.”

Meanwhile, Richard Spencer, an organizer of the Charlottesville rally, told reporters that Trump had not condemned his movement. “His statement today was more kumbaya nonsense,” Spencer said. “Only a dumb person would take those lines seriously.”

The white supremacist website the Daily Stormer celebrated the president’s response over the weekend. David Duke credited the president with inspiring Saturday’s rally and lashed out at Trump for his initial remarks. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s Johnny-come-lately response to the tragedy followed the template he established during the campaign when he was pressed to disavow the endorsement of Duke — a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and a leader of the Saturday event. In August 2015, Duke declared Trump “the best of the lot” of the GOP candidates.

Over the course of several months, Trump dodged questions, feigned ignorance and stonewalled reporters to avoid directly repudiating Duke’s endorsement. “Sure, if that would make you feel better, I would certainly repudiate. I don't know anything about him,” he told MSNBC’s John Heilemann in August 2015.

Duke ratcheted up his support for Trump in February 2016, urging listeners of his radio show to cast their ballots for the real estate mogul turned politician, culminating in a testy exchange with CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists,” Trump told him. “I don't know — did he endorse me, or what's going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists.”

Pressed about the Klan in particular, Trump said, “You may have groups in there that are totally fine and it would be very unfair, so give me a list of the groups and I'll let you know.”

Trump later blamed his fumbled response on a faulty television earpiece — of course he disavowed Duke, he told NBC the following day. But that came after his remarks had become front-page news and sparked backlash on both sides of the aisle.

As the violence escalated on Saturday, the president was briefed by several aides. Homeland Security adviser Thomas Bossert told Trump that protesters on both sides white supremacists armed with torches, baseball bats and batons, as well as counterprotesters, club-wielding “anti-fas” — were inciting violence, according to a White House aide familiar with the situation. That gave the president the runway to point the finger at both sides, setting off a three-day political firestorm that didn’t subside until Monday.

“It was David Duke redux,” Brinkley said. The president's name was not attached to a statement circulated by the White House to reporters on Sunday indicating that he condemned the hate groups behind the rally, which exacerbated the situation.

Politicians and editorial pages across the political spectrum condemned Trump’s mealy-mouthed response over the weekend. National Review’s editors called it “vague and equivocal.” The Wall Street Journal editorial page labeled it a “missed opportunity.” And the New York Post, the president’s favorite hometown newspaper, declared, “It shouldn’t be that hard to summon up a few Trumpian terms like ‘losers’ and ‘really, really bad people’ to describe the hundreds of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white supremacists and the like who descended on the college town — not after one of them has killed an innocent.”

There are also signs that Trump’s response to the crisis is causing him to bleed political support — if not from the alt-right, from rank-and-file Republicans who are moving to distance themselves from the president as his daily approval rating dipped to just 34 percent, according to Gallup, the lowest level of his presidency.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, was one of the first GOP lawmakers to criticize Trump’s response on Saturday. Gardner is responsible for protecting and growing the Senate majority in 2018.

“Mr. President, we must call evil by its name,” Gardner wrote on Twitter. “These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/14/trump-plays-both-sides-with-charlottesville-response-241633

“Mr. President, we must call evil by its name,” Gardner wrote on Twitter. “These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.”

Maybe Washington shouldn't have been exporting fake 'coups' and terrorism to sovereign states for decades to suit US policy? Not so funny when it starts happening on your own soil, is it?

On the fringes of that melee, pro and anti statue demonstrators were video-ed arguing and debating like grown adults without using violence, shields, home-made flame-throwers, etc, but they were overlooked, as usual.

I simply cannot stand the antifa - Love wins and we'll kick your head in if you don't agree. Neither can I stand these revolting, rat-like nazi wannabees, every single one of as ugly and UN-superior as the originals. They want to fight? Go play Thunderdome in a sports arena, not the streets.

Killing a woman over a statue? Losing your life over a statue? Utter insanity, utter, total waste - and for all the soothing noises, not one single mind will be changed.

Frankly, those neo-nazis looked like a bunch of ugly tw@ts parading around with their made in China insect-repellent torches, and pointing and laughing would, IMO, have been a far better response - see Blues Brothers and Illinois nazis.

I would also add that, not only am I getting annoyed at the US Left trying to, Taliban-like, rewrite the Civil War, but also their pretence that the US saved the world from 'fascism' during WW2. Aye, when you eventually got round to it when YOU were attacked.

I doubt if any of the poor bloody infantry trapped at Dunkirk gave a flying one about which political system was in charge in Germany, they were fighting for their country, not a belief system.

Many, many Americans were at best neutral, at worst, acting against British interests.

The hard-core Left actively undermined the war effort till the Soviet Union was invaded, and these wailing 'progressives' busily rewriting history would do well to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Former KKK leader David Duke thanks Trump for 'condemning leftist terrorists'.

While much of the Internet reacted with revulsion to Donald Trump's latest equivocation of the violence in Charlottesville, white supremacist leader David Duke praised the president for his "honesty and courage".

After Mr Trump said there was "blame on both sides" for a car plowing into counterprotestors outside a white supremacist rally, returning to an earlier stance that spurred widespread criticism, Mr Duke lauded Mr Trump in a tweet for rejecting "leftist terrorists."

Mr Duke has been an early and ardent supporter of Mr Trump, and his continued praise for the president underscored that association in a week when Mr Trump has twice declined to decisively condemn white supremacists.

The storm of censures that Mr Trump navigated this week conjured parallels to the presidential campaign, when Mr Trump similarly sparked anger for initially failing to reject Mr Duke. He eventually did disavow the former Ku Klux Klan leader.

White nationalist groups enthusiastically embraced Mr Trump's nativist message during the election, and his Mr Trump's has been accompanied by the ascendance of a loose "alt-right" ideology founded on recognition of America as a white, Christian nation.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/former-kkk-leader-david-duke-211100866.html
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Trump's defense of the 'very fine people' at Charlottesville white nationalist march has David Duke gushing

(CNN)Here's what you need to know about President Donald Trump's wild news conference Tuesday: It drew the immediate praise of David Duke.

The President's abrupt and belligerent about-face Tuesday, in which he lashed out at the media for mischaracterizing white supremacist protesters in Charlottesville, drew the swift condemnation of a number of lawmakers, including Republicans, and shocked the people who witnessed them.    But one person who was very happy with the words of the US President was the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, who just as quickly reacted on Twitter, thanking the President "for your honesty and courage."

"Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," was the full tweet from an account that is not verified by Twitter but appears to represent Duke and features videos apparently posted by and of him.    More at link.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/15/politics/donald-trump-david-duke-charlottesville/index.html
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Donald Trump Actually Plugged His Winery Right After Defending Racists And Bigots.

President Donald Trump on Monday plugged his winery at his press conference where he blamed “both sides” for white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

As he left the podium, a reporter asked the president if he planned to visit Charlottesville.

“Does anyone know that I own a house in Charlottesville?” Trump responded. “Oh boy, it’s Charlottesville, you’ll see.”

The president was referring to Trump Winery, and said he knows a lot about the city as a result.

Trump called it a “great place that’s been very badly hurt over the last couple of days.”

Then, he boasted of his winery.

“I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States. It’s in Charlottesville,” he said.

It turns out Trump may not own the winery. And it’s not one of the largest in the nation.

Trump bought the winery in 2011, but has since handed control to one of his sons, Eric Trump, according to The Hill. A statement on the winery’s website says it’s “not owned, managed or affiliated with Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their affiliates.”

Last year, PolitiFact looked at Trump’s claim that it was the “largest winery on the East Coast,” and found the boast not true in terms of either acreage or production.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-actually-plugged-winery-025052330.html
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Video of Trump blethering on about George Washington and other POTUS being slave owners.
https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5442750-trump-defends-robert-e-lee-statue-supporters.html#.1258-stage-hero1-10
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Trump just gave the most insane press conference about Charlottesville.

Donald Trump shocked observers with an off-the-rails press conference on Tuesday in which he defended some of the people who took part in the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A planned discussion about infrastructure quickly deteriorated when President Trump took questions from the media in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York.

Immediately the white supremacist rally and deadly car ramming in Charlottesville over the weekend were brought up and Trump got in over his head justifying his delayed response to the racist demonstration.   More at link.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-just-gave-most-insane-211659111.html

Oh God, just when you think things can't get any worse....

I can't shake the feeling that the US is spinning out of control, dividing into 'tribes' that don't communicate, just yell/fight/beat each other up. And this whole 'identity politics' business is pouring petrol on the fire, setting citizen against citizen with reasonable voices being drowned out.

I can't see it ending well, I am afraid.

Trump's Alleged "Mafia Connections" Lost Him a Bid to Build Sydney's First Casino.

Australian authorities once rejected Donald Trump’s bid for a hotel casino in Queensland, stating such a project would be “dangerous” on account of “Trump Mafia connections,” it has emerged.

Cabinet minutes and a secret police report dated 1987 and published Wednesday as part of an investigation by the News Corporation-owned newspaper The Australian cast a dark shadow over Trump’s business reputation.

Thirty years ago, Trump had already secured his reptuation as a billionaire property tycoon from New York. He had also become the largest casino operator in Atlantic City, built a skyscraper bearing his name emblazoned in gold letters and even scored a Newsweek cover and article under the headline “Citizen Trump.”

Yet he was hungry for more. As rumors around his political ambitions began to swirl, he looked to Australia to expand his casino portfolio, making a bid for a joint venture with the Queensland-based Kern Corporation to build what would have been Sydney’s first casino, in the Darling Harbor.

The Kern/Trump bid was one of four under consideration, and one of three that was rejected following a Police Board investigation into all the bidders for the project, which was later abandoned.

“The board is firmly of the view that on tests of sound repute, probity and integrity, none of the three consortia discussed above (HKMS, Kern/Trump, Federal/Resort/Sabemo) can be considered acceptable; indeed each would be dangerous,” the Police Board found, according to a confidential New South Wales cabinet assessment obtained by The Australian.

“Atlantic City would be a dubious model for Sydney and in our judgement. The Trump Mafia connections should exclude the Kern/Trump consortium,” the document also stated.

A businessman involved in the bid, who was quoted anonymously by the newspaper, said he was aware of the police investigation but did not know about the report’s findings. More at link.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-apos-alleged-mafia-connections-123524029.html

Merck, Under Armour, Intel CEOs resign from Trump panel.

The CEOs of athletic wear manufacturer Under Armour, computer chip maker Intel and pharmaceutical company Merck resigned Monday from the White House’s American Manufacturing Council — with the Merck withdrawal drawing a quick and angry Twitter outburst from President Donald Trump.

Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier cited the president’s failure to explicitly rebuke the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend. He wrote on Twitter Monday that “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which runs counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal.”

Frazier’s resignation comes shortly after a violent confrontation between white supremacists and protesters in Charlottesville, Va. U.S. President Donald Trump is being criticized for not explicitly condemning the white nationalists involved in the march.    More at link.
http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20170814/merck-under-armour-intel-ceos-resign-from-trump-panel

What a mess, where do you start?

bb1 wrote:What a mess, where do you start?

Pass. I can only surmise that, at some time soon or in the future, Trumper will go under his own steam or will be pushed. Until then, we can but watch nervously as matters escalate. LL

It's just insane, LL - my personal feeling is that all this madness was bubbling under the surface all along, and Trump just knocked the lid off. It rather makes one wonder if all those old stories about the US being cursed because of what they did to the Natives had an element of truth in them, and now chickens are coming home to roost.

Meanwhile.......

Former presidents Bush rebuke Trump's neo-Nazi stance.

The last two Republican presidents -- George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush -- issued an implicit rebuke of the current president Wednesday, as party elders scrambled to limit the fallout from Donald Trump's stance on neo-Nazis.

"America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms," read the statement issued by Bush aides from Kennebunkport, Maine, site of the Bush family compound.

The Bushes have largely kept on the sidelines during the Trump presidency. The younger Bush, a Dallas resident, has maintained a strict policy of resisting the urge to inject himself into contemporary politics, deeming that unfair to the current national leader -- whether that was Trump or, before him, Barack Obama.

The elder Bush turned 93 in June.

But amid the uproar over Trump's warmth toward neo-Nazis and white supremacists, the father-son presidents apparently could not hold their tongues any longer.

Also on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., forcefully distanced himself and the party from Trump's stance.

"We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred. There are no good neo-nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head," McConnell said in a statement issued by his office, in part to denounce a rally planned by hate groups in Lexington.

The Bushes rarely issue joint statements, underscoring the importance they placed on airing their views on this controversy. Their full statement read:

"America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms. As we pray for Charlottesville, we are reminded of the fundamental truths recorded by that city's most prominent citizen in the Declaration of Independence: we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights. We know these truths to be everlasting because we have seen the decency and greatness of our country."

While the Bushes' rare joint statement didn't mention Trump, their message was clearly aimed at distancing themselves -- and the Republican Party -- from the president's comments about the violence in Virginia. On Saturday, a Nazi sympathizer rammed a car into a crowd of anti-fascist demonstrators, killing one woman and injuring 20 other people.

The neo-Nazis and white supremacists chanted anti-Semitic slogans and waved swastika flags.

Trump initially blamed clashes on agitators and bad actors on "many sides," without mentioning neo-Nazis or the Ku Klux Klan or white supremacists by name. On Monday, after aides had invoked those labels, Trump did, too, in scripted comments that were criticized as belated by welcomed as a signal that Trump had shifted away from describing a moral equivalence between fascists and anti-fascists.

He then proceeded to undo those efforts at damage control on Tuesday afternoon with a freewheeling news conference in the lobby of his glittering Trump Tower. He insisted that there were "very fine people" on that side of the clashes and accused the "alt-left" of provoking the violence.

Before the Bushes and McConnell weighed in, House Speaker Paul Ryan was the highest ranking Republican official to publicly distance himself -- and the party -- from the president. Trump's critics, and many of his fellow Republicans, viewed those comments as a wink of approval toward fringe nationalists and white supremacists.

"We must be clear," Ryan tweeted. "White supremacy is repulsive. ... There can be no moral ambiguity."

Indeed, white supremacist leader Richard Spencer of Dallas, and David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, had welcomed Trump's stance as an affirmation of their views and tactics.

Trump had denounced racism and bigotry as evil and repugnant. But in equating the actions of neo-Nazis chanting Nazi-era slogans such as "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us" to the actions of anti-fascist demonstrators, his critics say, he gave political cover to the worst fringe elements of American society.

For GOP leaders, that has presented a challenge. Trump, as president, is leader of the party. But the party's congressional majorities will be at stake in the 2018 elections and Trump's approval ratings are already at a record low for any president in decades.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- runner up to Trump for the GOP nomination last year but an ally in many areas, continued to distance himself as well.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2017/08/16/presidents-bush-bush-rebuke-trumps-neo-nazi-stance

Trump tweets that he is scrapping his business councils after the massive exodus of executives.

The members of Trump's main business council agreed to disband the group shortly before President Donald Trump tweeted he was scrapping the group himself.

In a statement following Trump's tweets, the members of the Strategic and Policy Forum said, "President and we are disbanding the Forum."

However, according to multiple reports, the members of the forum had already decided to disband the group, during a phone call prior to the president's tweet.

The members  hoped to inform the White House before publicly announcing the decision, according to Bloomberg.

Additionally, the New York Times' Landon Thomas Jr. reported nine CEOs on the forum said they were going to step down if the group was not disbanded.

Following their decision, Trump tweeted that he was doing away with the Strategic and Policy Forum and a separate manufacturing council.

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" Trump tweeted.

The move comes two days after Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier left Trump's manufacturing council, another one of the White House's meetings of business leaders, setting off a wave of departures from that group. Frazier and other business leaders cited Trump's muddled response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia as the impetus for their exits.

The Strategic and Policy Forum featured a diverse group of leaders including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. Steve Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, was the leader of the council.

The group held one White House meeting, on February 3, in which Trump promised "exciting times ahead" and declared that this administration was "coming out with a tax bill soon and a healthcare bill even sooner." Trump also said he wanted to meet with the council on a monthly or quarterly basis going forward, but another meeting never materialized.

The group said in a statement that the question of their participation was becoming a "distraction from our well-intentioned and sincere desire to aid vital policy discussion."

Here is the full statement:

"As our members have expressed individually over the past several days, intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country and are an affront to core American values. The President’s Strategic and Policy Forum was conceived as a bi-partisan group of business leaders called to serve our country by providing independent feedback and perspectives directly to the President on accelerating economic growth and job creation in the United States. We believe the debate over Forum participation has become a distraction from our well-intentioned and sincere desire to aid vital policy discussion on how to improve the lives of everyday Americans. As such, the President and we are disbanding the Forum. Job creation and and supporting an inclusive pro-growth agenda remain vitally important to the progress of our country. As Americans, we are all united in our desire to see our country succeed."

The manufacturing council also met only once, on February 23.

In addition to the prior departures, the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and United Technologies announced they were departing the other manufacturing council following Trump's tweet.

Trump, for his part, attacked those executives who left the manufacturing council, calling them "grandstanders" and said they were "embarrassed" because they manufactured their products outside of the US.

Here is a full list of Strategic and Policy Forum members:
Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone
Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
Doug McMillon, Walmart
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase
Mary Barra, General Motors
Mark Weinberger, EY
Larry Fink,BlackRock
Jack Welch, General Electric  
Paul Atkins, Patomak Global Partners
Adebayo Ogunlesi, Global Infrastructure Partners
Toby Cosgrove, Cleveland Clinic
Rich Lesser, Boston Consulting Group
Jim McNerney, Boeing
Kevin Warsh, Hoover
Daniel Yergin, IHS Markit
Ginni Rometty, IBM

Three members of the council departed prior to the announcement:

Bob Iger, Disney
Travis Kalanick, Uber
Elon Musk, Tesla

Beyond belief.

Trump’s lawyer jumps into racial controversy by forwarding inflammatory email.

President Donald Trump's lawyer on Wednesday fanned an already-incendiary racial debate by forwarding an email advocating protection of some Confederate monuments and claiming that the protest group Black Lives Matter had been infiltrated by terrorists.

Trump's lawyer John Dowd told The Washington Post he "shares a lot of things with people" and said it was unfair to equate forwarding an email with espousing its contents.

Dowd sent the email to administration allies and journalists amid a firestorm over the president's remarks about the deadly weekend protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dowd, 76, a veteran of Washington political scandals, was recently hired to help Trump respond to an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The email - entitled "The Information that Validates President Trump on Charlottesville" - appeared to echo and applaud the controversial claim the president made Tuesday defending a central goal of the protest led by white supremacists. The group said it rallied in the home town of the University of Virginia to protest the removal of a Lee statue.

Trump said at a Tuesday news conference that white supremacists and Ku Klux Klan members were not entirely to blame for the violent turn of events in Charlottesville Saturday, where a counterprotester was killed and 19 were injured. Trump's comments - and his reluctance to back off from those statements - have led to a political backlash.

The contents of the email, and the fact that Dowd shared it with government officials, conservative journalists and others, was first reported by the New York Times.

Dowd's forwarding of the email will probably stoke concerns among some presidential advisers that the administration is endorsing a position offensive to many Americans.

Trump fueled concerns by saying that some liberal, "alt-left" protesters marching through the college town Saturday were also "very, very violent."

"This week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down," Trump said about the statues of two Confederate generals that have been the subject of controversy.

"I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?"

Almon, the apparent author of the email Dowd forwarded, is a 52-year-old man who has promoted himself as a hip-hop music executive based out of Michigan.

Almon did not immediately respond to calls to his phone or an email seeking comment.

In the email Dowd forwarded, the author agreed with Trump's summary.

"You cannot be against General Lee and be for General Washington," the email read, "there literally is no difference between the two men."

It compared the two to Napoleon and Alexander the Great.

"Both were great men, great commanders and great Americans, " the email read.

Almon's email also blamed Black Lives Matter, a group that formed in the wake of several police-involved shootings of African Americans, for deadly violence against police last year in Texas and Louisiana.

Almon, who registered his business under the name Murdercap Records, was profiled by Rolling Stone in 2007 after he filed an "eyebrow-raising" $900 million federal lawsuit against the Canadian government, the U.S. State Department and then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Almon claimed that he had extensive documentation of being racially profiled and illegally detailed while trying to cross into Canada to promote his music career.

"They're treating us as if we're criminals,'' Almon said, according to the Rolling Stone report in 2007. "If the Klan had a police force, it would be the border services.''

The lawsuit was dismissed in 2009, according to federal records.

In recent years, Almon has shifted his attention to politics and has even referenced Trump in online postings.

After the San Bernardino shooting, Almon emailed reporters claiming that the shooter's iPhone was part of a vast government conspiracy and that the FBI's effort to seek access to the phone was a "charade for political reasons," according to copies of the emails posted online.

Almon claims that he has met Trump and even warned his campaign aides that he was the target of surveillance efforts.

A recent GoFundMe campaign created under the name of "Jerome Almon" seeks to raise $25,000 to combat the rise of the "Fake News Media." Five dollars were donated to the cause.

A variety of websites have popped up with petitions, news releases or fundraisers listed under Almon's name. His name also appears under several user- submitted warnings on the website Ripoff Report, which publishes allegations of fraud or online scams.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-lawyer-email-20170816-story,amp.html

Trump isolation growing as business panels dismantled.

NEW YORK (AP) — With corporate chieftains fleeing, President Donald Trump abruptly dismantled two of his White House business councils Wednesday —an attempt to manage his increasing isolation and the continued fallout from his combative comments on racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump announced the action via tweet, although only after one of the panels had already agreed to disband earlier in the day. A growing number of business leaders on the councils had openly criticized his remarks laying blame for the violence at a white supremacists rally on "both sides."

"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!" Trump tweeted from New York. The decision came as the White House tried to manage the repercussions from Trump's defiant remarks a day earlier. Presidential advisers hunkered down, offering no public defense while privately expressing frustration with his comments.

Some Republicans and scores of Democrats denounced Trump's statements as putting white supremacists on equal moral footing with counter-protesters in Charlottesville and called for an apology. Most of those Republicans, including congressional leaders, did not specifically criticize the president.

Leaders of the four major branches of the military — who typically avoid political debate — have all issued statements decrying racism and extremism. Trump himself stayed out of sight, tweeting occasionally about a primary in Alabama, the stock market and, once, his campaign slogan. Midday, he traveled from New York to his golf club in New Jersey for the night.

The president told associates he was pleased with how his press conference went, saying he believed he had effectively stood up to the media, according to three people familiar with the conversations who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about them.

Business leaders felt differently. Denise Morrison, chief executive of Campbell Soup, declared she was leaving Trump's manufacturing council, saying, "The president should have been — and still needs to be — unambiguous" in denouncing white supremacists.

CEOs had begun tendering their resignations from White House panels after Trump's initial comments following the Saturday violence. The first to step down, Kenneth Frazier of Merck, drew a Twitter tongue-lashing from the president. Later, Trump called those who were leaving "grandstanders" and insisted many others were eager to take their places.

On Wednesday, he appeared to be pre-empting the CEOs own decision to disband. Members of the Strategy and Policy group, led by Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, concluded after a 45-minute conference call in the morning that they would end the council and announce their decision in a statement, according to two people familiar with the discussions. They insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

In a subsequent call with Trump, the president agreed it was the right course of action. He tweeted before they could announce the decision they'd reached — making it appear it was his choice. Publicly criticizing the president and resigning from his councils is a significant step for big-name corporate leaders. Though the policy influence of such advisory groups is sometimes questionable, simply meeting with Trump with TV cameras going is valuable face-time for the executives — and for the president.

Though not as outspoken as the business leaders, some fellow Republican leaders are going after Trump forcefully, too. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday the president "took a step backward by again suggesting there is moral equivalency" between the marching white supremacists and the people who had been demonstrating against them.

Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney tweeted a similar slap shortly after the president's explosive press conference on Tuesday: "No, not the same. One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes."

Other leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, made forceful anti-racism statements — but steered clear of mentioning Trump and his comments. Meanwhile on a trip through South America, Vice President Mike Pence skirted questions about whether he agreed with Trump's assessment that some "fine people" participated in the Charlottesville rally. However, he said he stands by the president.

Under pressure, Trump made his condemnation of the Charlottesville violence more specific on Monday, naming white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. But he returned to his defiant self on Tuesday, effectively erasing the statement he'd read a day earlier.

In an impromptu press conference in the lobby of his skyscraper, he said there were "some very bad people" among those who gathered to protest Saturday. But he added: "You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."

Several White House aides told colleagues they were dismayed with Trump's return to the Charlottesville episode on Tuesday. But no one moved to leave the administration. Chief strategist Steve Bannon told associates he thought Trump's performance would electrify his conservative base, according to a person who spoke to Bannon and insisted on anonymity. Bannon's job has been in question, with Trump refusing Tuesday to say he had confidence in him.

In an interview posted online Wednesday by The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, Bannon dismissed white nationalists, calling them "losers," ''a fringe element" and "a collection of clowns." As Trump navigates this latest controversy, the White House on Wednesday said his longtime aide Hope Hicks would temporarily step into the role of communications director. Hicks is White House director of strategic communications, and a near-constant presence at the president's side.

She served as spokeswoman for Trump's presidential campaign and worked for years in public relations for the Trump Organization and his daughter's fashion and lifestyle brand. Trump had no public appearances on Wednesday, yet made his presence felt online.

In addition to announcing the dissolution of the business councils via tweet, he congratulated Sen. Luther Strange for advancing to a runoff in the Alabama special election to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions' seat.

He also retweeted someone complimenting him on the stock market's gains and consumer confidence highs and wrote that Heather Heyer, the woman mowed down by a car during the Charlottesville violence, was "beautiful and incredible."

Trump said Tuesday that he had planned to call her family to offer condolences. The White House did not answer questions Wednesday about whether he'd yet done so.
https://www.mail.com/int/news/world/5443702-trump-isolation-growing-business-panels-dismantled.html#.1258-stage-hero1-11

Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, is reportedly 'disgusted' and 'appalled' with Trump's Charlottesville response.

Gary Cohn, President Donald Trump's top economic adviser and former Goldman Sachs COO, is reportedly incredibly upset over Trump's press conference Tuesday in which he defended his original statement regarding the weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Multiple reports following Trump's press conference said that Cohn, who is Jewish, is troubled by Trump's statements regarding white nationalists' role in the violence in Charlottesville over the past few days.

Cohn was "upset" and "disgusted" by Trump's freewheeling press conference, according to The New York Times' Glenn Thrush, who cited three sources with knowledge of Cohn's thinking. During the Trump Tower press conference, Trump said there were "two sides to a story" of what happened in Charlottesville. During a white supremacist rally, a man drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a woman.

Trump also attacked what he called the "alt-left" for its role in the violence. Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike were quick to condemn Trump's statements.

Axios' Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan reported on Wednesday that Cohn was "somewhere between appalled and furious."

White nationalist groups and blogs, including the Daily Stormer and National Vanguard, have targeted Cohn for his Jewish heritage and his supposedly "globalist" economic beliefs on trade.

Cohn stood at the president's side in Trump Tower and took questions regarding the original intent of the press conference — infrastructure investment — after Trump left the podium.

The Times' Maggie Haberman also reported that Cohn is upset with the president, but noted that he plans to remain in the administration. Haberman tweeted that Cohn will not leave, in part due to the belief that tax reform and other parts of the GOP agenda would be "stalled permanently" if he departs.

Cohn has been a champion of tax reform and deregulation efforts within the White House since taking over as chair of the National Economic Council. The former Goldman banker has also reportedly been a more moderate voice in the Oval Office and was repeatedly floated as a possible chief of staff candidate earlier in the year.

Additionally, Cohn is also considered the frontrunner to replace Janet Yellen as Fed chair when her term expires in February.

Given his reported desire to stay, it remains unclear if any concrete action will come from Cohn's reported distaste for Trump's comments.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-top-economic-adviser-gary-133330141.html

Donald Trump's failure in Charlottesville wasn't political -- it was moral.

Donald Trump is who we thought he was.

After a campaign gestated in birtherism, Trump was slow to condemn the likes of white supremacist David Duke, routinely spoke in coded racial language to energize a segment of people angry about the changing face of the country and condoned violence against those who disagreed with him, Trump, over the last four days, has proven that he is that same person as president.

And that person is the opposite of a leader. And that person is dangerous to this country's well-being.

Trump's comments at a press availability at Trump Tower on Tuesday not only revealed, again, his remarkable blindness to the racial history and realities of this country, but also showed his willingness to stake out morally indefensible positions as the result of personal pique.

Three days after insisting that the blame for the Charlottesville protests spurred by neo-Nazis and white supremacists lay "on many sides," and just a day removed from a more fulsome condemnation of those groups, Trump returned to his original position -- that this was a situation where both sides were wrong and the only people who disagreed with that were the fake news media.

"I watched those very closely, much more closely than you people watched it," Trump lectured the assembled reporters. "And you have -- you had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent, and nobody wants to say that, but I'll say it right now."

And, again: "I think there's blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it either."

And, again: "I only tell you this, there are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country, a horrible moment. But there are two sides to (it)."

That view is factually inaccurate. Only one side with one belief system was involved in a speeding car being rammed into a group of counter-protesters -- an incident that left one woman dead and more than a dozen others injured. Only one group in Charlottesville on Saturday bases their entire "belief" system on the inferiority of other people because of their race or religion. Only one group on Saturday speaks admiringly of a murderous dictator who killed millions.

Trump knows this. He is not dumb. He is not unfamiliar with history. And the fact that he knows it and, therefore, knows what he's doing with this faux attempt at moral relativism makes him all the more dangerous. Because it means he understands the power of grievance, the power of rewriting history -- or the present -- to fit into a contorted ideology that catalyzes hate into political power.

Take Trump's attempt to make a slippery slope argument about the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville.

So this week it's Robert E. Lee," he said. "I noticed that Stonewall Jackson's coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you all -- you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?"

Equating the first president of the United States with a Confederate general who led a rebellion against his country is, um, not intellectually honest. (Trump knows that.)

Know who liked Trump's relativism on Robert E. Lee? None other than Duke, perhaps the most high-profile white supremacist in the country. "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," Duke tweeted, with a link to a clip in which Trump made the Robert E. Lee - George Washington comparison.

When David Duke is praising you, it might be time to re-examine what you're doing with your life.

What Trump has done with the campaign he ran and his unwillingness to change a single thing as President -- as illustrated starkly in this series of comments about Charlottesville -- is provide cover for Duke and all of his hate-filled compadres. "The President said both sides do it! The left is just as intolerant as we are!" they will croon.

What Trump has done over the past four days -- and especially what he said on Tuesday at Trump Tower -- ensures that the hate-mongers who protested in Charlottesville will be emboldened. They will view the ambiguity of blame from Trump as a win, as a stamp of approval by which they can grow their efforts to divide us and bring out the darkest parts of our humanity.

That outcome is more than a failure of political leadership by Trump. It is a failure of moral leadership.

It is impossible -- given the last two years of Trump -- to conclude he is simply fumbling his way around on issues of race, gender and ethnic heritage. The mountain of evidence gathered suggests just the opposite: That he is purposely saying and doing things to make murky moral questions that should be crystal clear. And why is he doing it? For political gain.

That is the opposite of what being president of the United States should be. Hell, it's the opposite of what being a citizen of this country should be.

What Trump is doing is dangerous -- for our politics and for our moral fiber. To condone white supremacists by insisting there are two sides to every coin is to take us back decades in our understanding of each other. It is to undo decades worth of progress toward a freer and better country for all people.

To do so purposely to score political points or stick it in the eye of your supposed media enemies is, frankly, despicable.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/15/politics/donald-trump-press-conference/

Trump's crisis spurs talk of White House departures.

President Donald Trump’s turnabout on the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia has rocked his administration, leading to rising speculation that some top officials may be looking for a way out.

A parade of business executives broke ties with Trump on Wednesday, a day after he blamed white nationalists and counter-protesters in equal measure for the weekend clashes that left one woman dead.

Now, frustrated aides could be next. Trump’s remarks have left some wondering if sticking by the president comes at too high a cost to their reputations.

“A lot of us joined this administration thinking we could bring to it the experience and expertise that the president didn’t have an opportunity to gain in his business career, and to encourage some restraint in what he says publicly and to our allies,” said one senior official who is contemplating whether to resign.

"After yesterday, it’s clear that there is no way for anyone, even a Marine general, to restrain his (Trump's) impulses or counter what he sees on TV and reads on the web."

It was hoped that retired General John Kelly, Trump’s new chief of staff, could impose some form of discipline on Trump that his predecessor, Reince Priebus, could not.

But Kelly stood with his eyes fixed on the floor when Trump veered off-script at his Manhattan office tower on Tuesday. The president accused the protesters, who rallied against neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, of being “very, very violent.”

In the uproar that followed, chief executives at companies such as Merck & Co Inc , Under Armour Inc , Intel Corp , Campbell Soup Co and 3M Co quit advisory councils to the White House. Trump then dissolved the councils.

The exodus of executives sparked talk that Gary Cohn, Trump’s top White House economic adviser and a key liaison to the U.S. business community, might resign in protest as well.

Cohn, who is Jewish, was upset by Trump’s remarks, though he is remaining with the administration for now, sources said.

Cohn, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, stood by Trump during his remarks at Trump Tower on Tuesday. Cohn in particular looked self-conscious and uncomfortable.

“He just did not want to be in that position ... and he was not good at hiding his body language for that,” said a former administration official who knows Cohn.

Cohn did not comment on the president’s language.

David Shulkin, U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs, told reporters on Wednesday that as a Jewish American, he was “outraged” by neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups and felt obligated to speak out against them.

“I am not going to condone in any way the behavior of Nazis. I believe this clearly cannot be tolerated,” Shulkin said when asked about whether it was appropriate to compare the actions of the white nationalists to the protesters opposing them.

Shulkin, however, defended Trump’s approach. “I think he’s been clear that this is totally unacceptable,” Shulkin said.

Cohn, who came to the White House from a successful career at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, is mindful the effect his Trump tenure could have on his professional reputation.

“He’s worried about his reputation being trashed, which is much more valuable to him than anything else,” the former administration official said.

Cohn has served as a point man on top White House priorities such as tax reform and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, but both of those efforts have been muddled by Trump's increasingly combative relationship with Congress, one that was strained even further by his comments on Charlottesville.

Cohn’s departure would further set back those efforts and perhaps give the upper hand in the White House to a group of advisers seeking to scale back foreign trade, said a Wall Street executive who asked not to be named.

“Gary knows he’s a moderating influence,” the executive said. “It may give you short-term satisfaction to see Gary go, but it may be bad for the country in the long term. The calculation is: What do you think is best for the country versus what’s best for Gary?”

Steve Bannon, a White House senior adviser with close ties to far-right groups, told the American Prospect in an interview published Wednesday that he constantly butts heads with Cohn over issues such as trade with China. “That’s a fight I fight every day here,” Bannon said.

Cowan and Company, a financial services firm, said on Wednesday that the departure of the pragmatic and business-friendly Cohn could adversely affect markets.

"For us, the biggest question is what is the tipping point that would cause National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn to quit?" the firm wrote.

Trump thinks highly of Cohn and has spoken often of the financial sacrifices he made to leave Goldman to join the administration. He is widely considered to be a leading candidate to chair the U.S. Federal Reserve should Trump choose not to retain Janet Yellen.

That decision would insulate Cohn from the day-to-day drama of the Trump White House, but likely is months away.

In the meantime, Cohn has to decide whether he can stick it out. Another Wall Street executive told Reuters that Trump’s remarks may prove to be too much for him.

“Until yesterday, Cohn did a great job insulating himself from Trump and staying in the economic lane. But all of a sudden he was standing behind him when he goes off on a rampage and the true price of working for him comes home,” the executive said. “What can you do?”
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1AX069

Lost for words.

Oh, here's a fine example of the so called 'master race'-


I'm terrified': White nationalist Charlottesville rally co-organizer who said he's disgusted to see Jared Kushner with Ivanka is seen sobbing on YouTube over his possible arrest
White supremacist who said he was disgusted President Trump 'let a Jew steal his daughter' was crying in a YouTube video talking about his possible arrest
Christopher Cantwell, a co-organizer of the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was featured in a documentary by Vice News that went viral
Cantwell told Vice he hopes somebody 'more racist' and 'capable' than the president will come along to help him spread his racist message
In the YouTube video, Cantwell admits to taking part in violence, but claimed that it was in self-defense
Cantwell posted the video Saturday after he was under the impression that Charlottesville police had a warrant for his arrest
He later told Digg that while he stood by his beliefs, he 'doesn't want violence' and that he 'wants a more peaceful society'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4797774/White-nationalist-sobs-YouTube-possible-arrest.html#ixzz4q0Gyf818
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Aye, it's all fun and games until your photo's all over the internet.

What a cowardly, snivelling piece of merde.