The Serious Side - part 2

Yes, Donnamarie, he definitely is. But they're talking of coming to some sort of deal presumably at a safe house somewhere with people he'll be happy to see. And that last point might be a pretty big one!

Another aspect. One Wilbur Ross who according to reports here, is very involved as Trump is with the Bank of Cyprus which in turn is very involved with many Russians, on of whom is known as the King of Fertilizer and he bought one of Trump's homes......Big article in the Guardian or Independent if you want more info..........Ross of course is now Secretary of Commerce

Also see that Trump visit to Britain is likely to be put back.............

PAN, I tried to post a link earlier this evening but it wouldn't work. Rachel Maddow is a political pundit who hosts a weeknight cable news program. She did a great piece of work earlier this week on the Wilbur Ross connection to the Russians, the Bank of Cyprus and the Fertilizer King. Maybe if you Google her you might find the video. It's goes on for about 20 minutes.

Oh yes. Thank you, Donnamarie. I did see it. She doesn't mince her words. Her research or researchers do a brilliant job and it's good to watch something from beginning to end in the States if you know what I mean. I do sometimes wonder tho if her lawyers are standing on the sidelines because she chooses her words so carefully...........!

Lots of 'interesting' stuff going on at the moment - a short list of headlines here:

Trump on trial

Republicans join push for tax returns

Sessions used campaign funds for Russian event

Trump victory driving domestic terrorism

Oh, and a Republican dating show starring Himself!

Louise Mensch put it well on MBSNC when she said 'How much more can the American people take?'. She also managed to mention the Russian 'contact' who dropped into the Florida parties three weekends running..........

American tourists could soon need Visa's to visit Europe

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[url=https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fhome%2Famerican-tourists-could-soon-need-visas-to-visit-europe%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F03%2Feurope-america-visa0317.jpg%3Fw%3D1024&description=American Tourists Could Soon Need Visas to Visit%C2%A0Europe][/url]

This article originally appeared on travelandleisure.com.
The European Parliament voted Thursday to end the visa waiver program with the U.S., citing the U.S. lack of reciprocity, Reuters reported.
U.S. nationals have long been able to travel throughout Europe without needing a visa for stays less than 90 days. The U.S., along with Australia and Canada, however, continued to require visas for five E.U. member states: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland, and Romania. The State Department cited security concerns for these countries, saying they did not meet the requirements for the U.S. visa waiver program.
The vote from the European Parliament is widely seen as a retaliatory move against the U.S., as Australia and Canada agreed to a 2014 E.U. request to lift visa requirements for at least some of these countries. Under E.U. law, action must be taken two years after a visa reciprocity request, triggering the vote this week.
A whopping 12.6 million U.S. citizens traveled to Europe in 2016, according to data from the U.S. National Travel and Tourism office. Some European lawmakers fear that reinstating visa requirements will slow the flow of visitors to the E.U. and cost the bloc millions in revenue.
“The effect of terrorism in Europe in recent years emphasized how fragile our appeal is as a destination in long-haul markets,” István Ujhelyi, member of European Parliament and chair of the tourism task force, told the Telegraph. “This is not a time to put unnecessary obstacles in the way of one of the sectors most capable of generating employment,” he said.
The vote puts pressure on the European Commission, the 28-country bloc’s executive branch, to further push reciprocity or to reinstate visa requirements on the U.S. If the Commission decides to reinstate visas, U.S. citizens will need to apply for a visa in advance and be approved in order to legally enter the European Union.

Well that's not good news annemarie. It's infortunate that the international travel situation may come to this. Thanks Donald! Here in the states we are still waiting for the issuance of a new and improved ban from the Cheeto-in-Chief (love that name). All quiet in the WH. Maybe because our Department of Homeland Security just issued a report back to the WH that found there was no critical need for a ban against people coming into our country...from anywhere. It seems, at least to DHS, that there is more of a threat from those born IN the U.S. and become radicalized years later. There is no imminent danger. There are no terrorists "pouring" into our country. The truth is hard to take for some.

Donnamarie, we all know old Cheeto is not going to take it he will continue to try and get his way.

Well, the DHS is right. 

You only have to look at the American on American gun crime figures to know that. It would be interesting to see what the figures are for those who have been radicalized as a percentage of the whole
.
Not rocket science.

But I guess all those folk with gun shops need to make more money - even if they sell to those with the odd mental issue...

IMO the greatest danger to our country is sitting in the oval office surrounded by his own private evil empire.

Just a thought: Maybe the cesspool they've opened up has been an awakening for those politicians who thought they could trample all over the people of this country and the Constitution in pursuit of their own power. Maybe they thought  we didn't notice or were too stupid to realise what they were doing. Maybe they were stupid enough to think we didn't care. Well, guess what - WE DO!!! Surprise!!

This is a link from David Axelrod's twitter page..........and it's very, very interesting


https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/837405916786012160

Lizzy I am worried that as long as the Republican Party and Trump's base enable Trump it kinda legitimizes him. He will just squeak by as being presidential. His poll numbers continue to show that the Republican Party and his base are hanging with him pretty strongly. I'm hoping that the rest of us who cannot ever accept Trump as our President will keep up the town halls, the rallies, and the phone calls to our legislators. One way or another I hope that on that list of American Presidents there will be an asterisk by Cheeto's name. The footnote will read unable to serve out his term as President due to _______.

PAN, this Sessions thing has me scratching my head.  I sure as hell am not a fan of that little man or his politics.  He could very well damage many of our civil rights if he remains in office.  But Sessions seems like the odd bird in this scheme.  I definitely don't believe that he honestly answered the questions at the hearing about his contact with the Russians.  But was he just trying to cover himself because admitting he met with the Ambassador would look bad even if the meeting was harmless? Who knows?  I guess anything is possible.  I've not come across a more bizarre election or presidency than this one.

Donnamarie - I know it looks bleak, but we have to keep up the effort. Day after day, call after call, meeting after meeting, march after march. It is having an effect. Even the Republicans are beginning to grow a pair. They're starting to realize that their constituents are not happy with them and they're going to have to man up if they want to keep their jobs.

I think quite a few Trump supporters - the relatively normal middle class voters who thought he would be their savior - are starting to see that he conned them. Little by little they're starting to question whether he's going to do anything for them. Building a wall and destroying Planned Parenthood and the environment won't make their lives any better. Taking away health care and letting the banks run amok like they did in the '90s will make their lives a lot worse. Though it seems like years, it's only been a few weeks. I hope time is on our side.

From my perspective, it just looks like a massively complicated web of huge sums of money, contacts (and contracts) in all sorts of possibly dodgy areas across the world but mostly in enemy territory by people who are now in theory running the country. And the crossover of embassies and trade missions in satellite countries and espionage is starting to look like a a John le Carre novel.

The FBI (and Comey!?) look to have a huge job on their hands.

And now I've just been watching a perfectly charming and witty painter who is on a variety of shows with his book of paintings of many war wounded heroes some of whom are with him because he is raising money for them.

It was not lost on me that some of those injured soldiers joining George Bush,may well have been wounded in what some would regard as a totally unnecessary war that he bore some responsiblity  for........

The Trump's path to the White House has played out like a bargain basement cheesy spy novel. Not believable on any level. Yet here we are. "Massively complicated web of huge sums of money, contacts (and contracts) ..." seems about right PAN. It would be fascinating and enjoyable to watch from some distance how this all plays out IF it wasn't so damn scary for our country. It's playing out in our own backyard.

George Bush is a conundrum to me. He seems like a likable guy and seems rational. He was just a really poor President. And he still to this day thinks the Iraq War was justified. I wonder if he really believes that to justify his presidency. He rarely spoke out against Obama and his policies and he has not said anything negative about Trump so far. But he did say in an interview this past week something to the effect that a ban on immigrants to our country is counter to our "soul".

And then this morning we have ...

'Trump accuses Obama of wiretapping him before the election'

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/04/trump-accuses-obama-wiretapping-him-before-election/98734316/

Yep, Donnamarie. He will do anything - absolutely anything - to distract from the Russian thing.

I see he's in Florida - again. Doesn't he realise that people are laughing at him now?

Loved that Arnold put the boot in.........

PAN - Now he's claiming that Arnold didn't quit - he was fired! What a crock! He's annoyed because Arnold told the truth. They're losing sponsors and viewers - not to mention willing contestants - because of Trump's involvement with the show. I hope it gets cancelled. One less revenue source for the evil empire.

It's a good show .   Many popular shows have had small  issues  but have endured .  

We can hope it doesn't endure just so Donald dumb loses.

amaretti - Anything that brings money into Trump's pockets is not a good thing for the US right now. The show's ok, but the fact that he profits from it is not.

The White House is demanding that congress investigate Trumps wire tapping allegations.

Isn't that great Annemarie. Now Congress has to take even more time away from doing their job for another investigation.

How is this wiretapping accusation by Trump any different than the birtherism story, the allegations of Muslims celebrating in NJ after 9/11 or the 2-3 million people who illegally voted for Clinton? It isn't! I think all would be wise to consider everything Trump says as a lie until HE can prove it's the truth. Unfortunately all of us, the media, government and the Congtess have to take him seriously because he is supposed to be the leader of our country. What a sorry and sad state of affairs we are in.

.......and now Comey has instructed the Justice Department to refute the wiretapping claims that Trump has made.


Is this Trump's idea to distract from the lack of any progress he's making on promises he's made? Pretty unsubtle way if so. Or maybe it's getting a bit hot........

Here is Don Cheadle's view on the President on his Twitter page

https://twitter.com/DonCheadle/status/838163171055566848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

PAN - It's more his way to distract everyone from the Russian question and the fact that it's becoming more and more obvious that he doesn't know what he's doing. If the leaks coming from the White House are true, he's not even getting along with his closest advisors, let alone Congress and the press.

I just talked to one of my collegues today. He's just returned from Florida where they had visited his daughter and her newborn baby, and he saw the 'Air Force One' landing the other day. Trump did his speech which included his infamous 'Sweden facts', and my collegue mentioned that there were more than 1,000 people protesting against his politics. One of them was a friend of his daughter and her husband, and he described everything. Interestingly, nobody reported about the protests, not even the local news.
Are these protests so normal that nobody reports about them anymore?

For anyone who's interested, here is the definitive guide to the players in the Russian thing

https://qz.com/923065/the-ultimate-guide-to-donald-trumps-russia-connections/

and now somebody else with links has died unexpectedly. He is number eight in almost as many days.........

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ukranian-businesman-russia-and-donald-trump-dies-michael-cohen-michael-flynn-donald-trump-vladimir-a7612866.html

I enjoyed this 

John Oliver on Trump Obama wire tapping

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fg4j74QwDE

http://people.com/politics/donald-trumps-new-travel-ban-6-muslim-majority-nations/

President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban will temporarily halt entry to the United States for people from six Muslim-majority nations who are seeking new visas, allowing those with current visas to travel freely, according to a fact sheet obtained by The Associated Press.
Trump was expected to sign the new executive order on Monday. The directive aims to address legal issues with the original order, which caused confusion at airports, sparked protests around the country and was ultimately blocked by the courts.
The revised order is narrower and specifies that a 90-day ban on people from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen does not apply to those who already have valid visas. The White House also dropped Iraq from the list of targeted countries, following pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House to reconsider, given Iraq’s key role in fighting the Islamic State group.
The fact sheet cites negotiations that resulted in Iraq agreeing to “increase cooperation with the U.S. government on the vetting of its citizens applying for a visa to travel to the United States.”
A fact sheet detailing the order was distributed to lawmakers and obtained by the AP.



Watch: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Assault

The mere existence of a fact sheet signaled that the White House was taking steps to improve the rollout of the reworked directive. The initial measure was hastily signed at the end of Trump’s first week in office, and the White House was roundly criticized for not providing lawmakers, Cabinet officials and others with information ahead of the signing.
Notably, Trump was not expected to hold a public signing ceremony for the new measure. Instead, several Cabinet secretaries — Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — planned to discuss the order at an event late Monday morning.
Trump administration officials say that even with the changes, the goal of the new order is the same as the first: keeping would-be terrorists out of the United States while the government reviews the vetting system for refugees and visa applicants from certain parts of the world.
According to the fact sheet, the Department of Homeland Security will conduct a country-by-country review of the information the six targeted nations provide to the U.S. for visa and immigration decisions. Those countries will then have 50 days to comply with U.S. government requests to update or improve that information.



Additionally, Trump’s order suspends the entire U.S. refugee program for 120 days, though refugees already formally scheduled for travel by the State Department will be allowed entry. When the suspension is lifted, the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. will be capped at 50,000 for fiscal year 2017.
Other changes are also expected, including no longer singling out Syrian refugees for an indefinite ban. Syrian refugees will now be treated like other refugees and be subjected to the 120-day suspension of the refugee program.
The new version is also expected to remove language that would give priority to religious minorities. Critics had accused the administration of adding such language to help Christians get into the United States while excluding Muslims.

http://deadline.com/2017/03/steven-spielberg-tom-hanks-meryl-streep-pentagon-papers-the-post-amy-pascal-1202034193/
So relevant...

So - to be provocative - because Iraqi soldiers fight ISIS together with the States, their terrorists are less dangerous than terrorists from other countries?

Carolhathaway - I'd love for the "government" (Trump) to explain publicly  exactly how they chose the countries on the list and, more important, why other countries were left off.

Exactly, Lizzy. And seemingly he has to put His Three Stooges up for the cameras. Wonder how long they'll put up with all of this...... 

Carol, I think you should join John Oliver's team of scriptwriters!

Those countries were singled out by the Obama Administration.  They weren't singled out for the purpose of banning people from the targeted countries .  They were singled out as some of the most dangerous countries that harbor terrorism.  But Trump used that list to defend his actions.  Point the finger at Obama (you know, the "bad sick guy"), not Trump.  Just like the military action that took place in Yemen.  Trump made the point of telling the press that it was a plan that was originally constructed by the Obama administration.  We all know Trump won't take responsibility for anything unless it benefits him.

I'm curious about how this wiretapping story is playing out overseas. How much credibility does Trump have in Britain, Germany, etc. after less than 2 months in office? Any comments?

Trump told Planned parenthood they can keep Federal funding if they stop providing abortion services.

Donnamarie, one indication of what we think of Trump is that people haven't changed their view that if he comes here for a state visit there will still be massive demonstations. 

Also many many articles of every aspect of what he is doing day-to-day - and definite sympathy for those who were and are hoping for more jobs to be created where there are none.
 
It is a rare front page here that doesn't have a Donald Trump article on it. Here's today's Independent front page. Some pretty amazing articles on his massive deregulation orders (90 in all). Scary stuff 

http://www.independent.co.uk/?CMP=ILC-refresh

Annemarie: Do you think the Planned Parenthood changes will have Ivanka's input all over them?

Thanks PAN. I spotted the Cheadle article in your link. Wow! No mincing words from him. Bravo! David Letterman also had some choice comments about Trump in a recent interview.

This wiretapping lie Trump has cooked up would seem to have crossed the line. A totally made up lie with no facts to back it up. There is no support from Comey or the intelligence agencies on this one. But still it is unbelievable how many Trump supporters or enablers are being very measured in their comments. It just blows my mind.

BTW Planned Parenthood doesn't use funds they receive from the federal government for abortion services. This is an accusation that has been consistently leveled against the group by the conservative right wingers who want to cut all funding for Planned Parenthood. They see PP as nothing more than an abortion facility. Couldn't be farther from the truth.

Interesting question:
How do people in other countries see Trump and his politics? How's the press coverage?

In Germany Trump dominates the headlines and covers. Some call it 'Trump bashing', critisize that he didn't get his 100 days. Others are tired of seeing him in the news every single day and think that he shouldn't get all this press coverage. 
Many simply see him as a joke and a clown.
Many others repeat endlessly: "At least he keeps his promises, our politicians should do the same."
Many - including myself - see him as a very dangerous demagogue who could destroy our world. Many think that, since Obama had wiretapped Merkel and other friendly politicians, he did the same with Trump. They're just immune to any aspects saying that that's a different thing (I'm sure that they all enjoy watching James Bond movies but he's just spying enemies, not friends, so that's different ).

The replacement of Obamacare doesn't get many comments - I think that, since we've got a quite good health care, most simply can't imagine not to be able to see your doctor every time you're sick, not to be able to go to a clinic when he can't help you anymore, not to be paid anymore when you're seriously ill, ...
They don't understand this opposition so they don't comment (or even don't start reading articles about this issue).

Planned Parenthood also doesn't get the coverage here it should get (IMO at least). Since we do have a quite good health care in Germany, every woman is able to see her gyn without having to pay for it. We do need to pay for contraceptives though, and there will always be einen getting pregnant because they can't afford to buy them (and others who are too stupid to use them). So we don't need anything like PP. If a woman gets pregnant and thinks she can't have the baby, she needs to go to an outreach clinic to talk to somebody who also will tell her alternatives like adoption. After that, she may go to a clinic for an abortion - but just until the end of the first trimester which makes it quite difficult. 

 We just had a discussion here about that:
In a local clinic in my federal state, the chief physician, said that abortion doesn't fit with his believe, so he didn't allow any abortions in his clinic. It's not run by a church, but the company who owns the clinic, agreed with him. The local politicians and people tried to change it and succeeded in the end.
But it led to quite some bizarre discussions like doctors who said: "No woman ever gets pregnant if she doesn't want so there's no need for abortion!" Of course these were men, since I'm sure that every woman who's sexually active, knows that there's no absolute safety not to become pregnant. 
I thought before that we're beyond this point...

Do all members of Trump's government have to pass a special 'non-intelligent' test?

Ben Carson described slaves as'immigrants in the bottom of slave ships' and later clarified it by saying they were 'involuntary immigrants'.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RealBenCarson/status/838922864787079169

There were quite some good answers like: 'I always thought that being a brain surgeon requires having a  brain' and 'Nobody would say that Jews immigrated to Auschwitz'.

Carol they just have to be dumberr than old Donald dumb and they get the job.

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http://www.clooneysopenhouse.com/viewtopic.forum?t=7561