The Serious Side - part 4

That wouldn't surprise me at all , remember his wife wanted to promoter her business while first lady using the White House website.

By the way:
What is Melania doing all day long?
I've just watched a Rachel Maddow show on youtube, and somebody commented it by saying: 'At least she just needs five staff members tovrun her White House offuce instead og more than twenty like Michelle Obama.' I've no idea if these numbers are correct, but Michelle actually DID something. I've never heard that Melania did anything.

And about Trump himself:
I've had the impression that the last presidents have always been very busy and worked a lot. Trump seems to see his presidency as a part-time job...

Melania Trump has not settled into a focused role for herself yet.  I’m not sure she was ready or even wanted this role as First Lady.  She doesn’t seem that comfortable with public events.  She seems reserved and somewhat robotic.  Her one social campaign endeavor of attacking cyber bullying has seemed to go nowhere ... for obvious reasons.  It’s such a joke.

Donna,
I guess you're right. Melania doesn't seem to be confortable in her role as First Lady, and I'm not sure her husband has discussed his wish to become President before he actually decided to run for office. I can also imagine that she doesn't feel secure since English is not her mother tongue (and some comedians focus on that - plus on her freezing face exprsssion).

But she is FLOTUS now and has to deal with it. I have no idea why her campaign sgainst cybrr bullying doesn't work - or even doesn't seem to start since they don't seem to be able to accept critics and see them as a good thing instead of taking it personally. But yeah, maybe she has realized tgat her husband is one of the masters in doing it himself. Or she was too busy organizing the christmas decoration for the White House...

Carolhathaway - Maybe she's treated differently outside the US, but it seems to me that for the most part comedians here leave Melania alone. Most of the jokes here are about how they feel sorry for her being stuck with Trump for a husband or how she dresses.

I don't believe she ever wanted to be First Lady. She was forced into it and doesn't seem to be any more comfortable with it now than she was at the beginning. I doubt she knows how to put a team together or how to start something like a war against bullying - and I don't think her husband is any help. I think they'd both rather she just shut up and be arm candy.

Lizzy,
in Germany there are hardly any stories about her, I don't know about Britain (as a country who shares your language) or other countries. I had just seen a few spots on - I can't remember if it was SNL or Stephen Colbert - where her appearance and accent were mocked. So my impression was that comedians focus on her, but maybe that's wrong.

Carolhathaway - It's mostly after she makes some sort of public appearance that they talk about her. She stays pretty much out of the public eye most of the time.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5218119/Kremlin-accuses-U-S-direct-interference-election.html



[size=34]You're meddling in OUR election Mr Trump! Kremlin accuses U.S. of 'direct interference' in Putin's bid for a fourth term[/size]

• The State Department criticized Russia for its refusal to put opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the ballot in the presidential contest against Vladimir Putin
  
  
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova then accused the U.S. government of engaging in the disruptive behavior it has accused Russia of 
  
  
• This State Department statement, which I'm sure will be repeated, is a direct interference in our electoral process and internal affairs' 
  
  
• Electoral commission ruled Navalny not eligible to run due to prison sentence
  
  
• He claims it was a fabricated case designed to thwart his political ambitions 
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:35 EST, 28 December 2017 | UPDATED: 10:37 EST, 28 December 2017


The Kremlin is accusing the U.S of 'direct interference' in its presidential election in a twist to election meddling charges.
In response to State Department criticism of Russia for its refusal to put opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the ballot in the contest against Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the U.S. government of engaging in the type of disruptive behavior it has accused Russia of.
A State Department representative had assaulted the Kremlin for its 'ongoing crackdown against independent voices, from journalists to civil society activists and opposition politicians.'
The U.S. government urged Russia to hold free and fair democratic elections and to respect human rights.


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The Kremlin is accusing Donald Trump's government of 'direct interference' in its presidential election in a twist to election meddling charges. The State Department had criticized Russia for its refusal to put opposition leader Alexey Navalny on the ballot in the contest against Vladimir Putin
In a Tuesday Facebook post, Zakharova said, according to Business Insider, 'This State Department statement, which I'm sure will be repeated, is a direct interference in our electoral process and internal affairs.'

The Russian-language post sought to undercut the intelligence community's assessment that Putin's government directed the hacking of U.S. election systems and attempted to shape the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.
'And these people expressed outrage over alleged Russian "interference" in their electoral process for an entire year?!' she said.
Zakharova said: 'The funniest thing is that these are the same people who just tagged RT and Sputnik as foreign agents, who are harassing Russian media around the world and who are investing huge amounts of money into 'countering Russian propaganda,' which is how they label anyone who they disagree with.'. 




Russia's election commission ruled Monday that Navalny, who was previously convicted of embezzlement, was not eligible to run against Putin due to a suspended prison sentence.
A furious Navalny, who says the sentence was part of a fabricated case designed to thwart his political ambitions, responded by calling for an election boycott. That prompted the Kremlin to demand an investigation to determine whether his statement broke the law.
On Wednesday, Navalny upped the ante, saying he and his supporters would organize nationwide rallies on January 28 in 85 towns and cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.
'We refuse to call the reappointment of Putin an election,' Navalny said in a statement on his website. 'We are not going to vote and will convince everyone around us not to vote. We are going to campaign (for a boycott) with all our might.'
The Kremlin desires a high turnout in the March 18 election to help confer legitimacy on Putin's shoo-in victory and quell signs of apathy among voters. 


[size=18]Election boycott! Putin's banned rival wants voters to stay away



[/size]




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The commission ruled on Monday that Alexei Navalny(seen at a rally on December 24) was not eligible to run against Putin due to a suspended prison sentence


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Polls show that Putin, who has led Russia for 18 years as either president or prime minister, is on course to comfortably win another six-year term. He is pictured today at a New Year reception
Under Russian law, the time and place of rallies must be agreed with the authorities who have often declined to authorise them in the past, citing conflicting events or security concerns. 
When the opposition has gone ahead anyway, the police have broken up rallies by force and detained attendees.
Polls show that Putin, who has led Russia for 18 years as either president or prime minister, is on course to comfortably win another six-year term, allowing him to rule until 2024, when he'll turn 72.


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The former KGB officer is running as an independent, a move seen as a way of strengthening his image as a 'father of the nation' rather than as a party political figure
The former KGB officer is running as an independent, a move seen as a way of strengthening his image as a 'father of the nation' rather than as a party political figure.
The ruling United Russia party, which he once led and which controls three quarters of seats in the lower house of parliament, has said it will support him, as will Just Russia, a pro-government centre-left group.
Allies laud Putin for restoring national pride and expanding Moscow's global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine.
But Navalny says Putin has been in power too long and that his support is artificially maintained by a biased state media and an unfair system which excludes genuine opponents.
Navalny has made a name for himself by successfully leveraging social media and conducting high profile corruption investigations into senior officials.
He has also organised some of the biggest anti-government protests in years.
Opinion polls, whose accuracy Navalny dismisses, put his support in single digits while giving Putin an approval rating of around 80 percent.


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Allies laud Putin for restoring national pride and expanding Moscow's global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine

.........and this is interesting................

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-russia-collusion-deny-election-campaign-robert-mueller-crime-a8133431.html

He is such a fool.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5220995/No-DACA-fix-border-wall-Trump-says.html

[size=34]Read my tweets: There will be no amnesty for Dreamers until I get my border wall AND an end to chain migration Trump harps[/size]

• Trump firmly rejected a demand from Democrats that he provide amnesty to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children with no strings attached
  
  
• Says they must fund his border wall and end chain migration or no deal
  
  
• President golfed earlier this week with Sen. David Perdue, co-author of the Senate bill that would shift the U.S. to a skill's-based visa system 
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:34 EST, 29 December 2017 | UPDATED: 10:43 EST, 29 December 2017

    

President Donald Trump firmly rejected a demand from Democrats that he provide amnesty to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children with no strings attached to the legislation.
Trump said Friday that he will not approve the Dream Act until Democrats agree to fund his border wall and support an overhaul of the federal immigration system.
'The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!' Trump tweeted.


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President Donald Trump firmly rejected a demand from Democrats that he provide amnesty to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children with no strings attached to the legislation


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Trump said Friday that he will not approve the Dream Act until Democrats agree to fund his border wall and support an overhaul of the federal immigration system


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The president sent the tweet while watching his favorite morning news program. A message he sent shortly before tagged Fox & Friends

[size=10][size=18]President Trump ended Obama-era DACA program in September 2017



[/size][/size]

The president sent the tweet while watching his favorite morning news program. A message he sent shortly before tagged Fox & Friends.
Trump has been unusually quiet as he vacations at Mar-a-Lago, staying off social media in the morning as he motorcades to a nearby golf property that he owns.
This morning he sent several before he departed for the day, touching on allegations of Russian collusion, the operations of the U.S. Postal Service and chain migration.
Yesterday, he sent a spate of tweets as he began his daily golf outing, including one that attacked China for its alleged transfers of oil to North Korea in violation of a UN embargo.
The president's agenda since Christmas has mainly been a blank slate, with the White House refusing to confirm most of his activities.



It was an impromptu New York Times interview conducted at the president's golf club that revealed the Trump's golf partners on Thursday.
Trump played with his son Eric and professional golfer Jim Herman, the Times' article said.
Tuesday the White House confirmed Trump was on the course with Republican Sen. David Perdue.
Perdue is the co-author of Senate legislation that revamps the U.S. visa system.
His bill prioritizes skills-based applicants and cracks down on avenues for extended family members of visa holders to enter the U.S.
Trump has said the changes to the system in Perdue's bill must be incorporated into any legislation protecting the Dreamers for him to sign it. 
He reaffirmed his stance in his Friday morning tweet that informed Capitol Hill negotiators there would be no deal preserving DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that former President Barack Obama instituted, unless he gets his immigration reforms, including the wall he promised his supporters along the U.S. Mexico border.
A Democratic member of Congress in the Hispanic caucus told DailyMail.com last week that Trump was in for a rude awakening. 
'Yeah, not gonna happen,' the Democrat said. 'We could litigate this in the election year, but we're not going to create a new migration system because Donald Trump created a fake emergency using Republican attorneys general or his so-called "Sophie's Choice" where he had to somehow revoke DACA

[size=34]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5220193/Republicans-lobbying-McCains-seat.html[/size]


[size=34]Fury as Republicans 'show their true character' by lobbying for McCain's seat while the Arizona Senator battles aggressive brain cancer[/size]

• Three Republicans are said to be lobbying for John McCain's senate seat
  
  
• McCain, 81, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in July
  
  
• Gov. Doug Ducey: Those lobbying have 'basically disqualified' themselves
  
  
• Former Rep. Matt Salmon, Rep. Paul Gosar, and former Sen. Kelli Ward are said to be battling it out for the seat
  
  

By DIANNE APEN-SADLER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 05:04 EST, 29 December 2017 | UPDATED: 12:30 EST, 29 December 2017

    



Republicans have sparked fury for already vying for Senator John McCain's seat as he battles an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Governor of Arizona Doug Ducey slammed those in his party who are already battling for the seat in a race to replace the 81-year-old, even though he is still in office. 
'To the politicians out there that have been openly lobbying for this position, they've basically disqualified themselves by showing their true character,' Ducey told KTAR radio. 
McCain had surgery to remove a tumor back in July, but after removing it doctors discovered that it was a form of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer that is almost always fatal.


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Senator John McCain (pictured on December 1), has been in a wheelchair for several months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer that is almost always fatal


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Gov. Doug Ducey (pictured) slammed candidates that are lobbying for McCain's seat and said: 'They've basically disqualified themselves by showing their true character'
In September, McCain revealed on 60 Minutes that his prognosis was 'very poor', and that doctors had told him his chance of survival was between three and 14 per cent.

Nevertheless, candidates quietly battling it out for the seat is seen by Ducey as 'off color', as they should instead be 'praying' and 'rooting' for him.



Ducey is said to be receiving updates on his condition from McCain's wife, Cindy.
The three candidates Ducey's comments are believed to be aimed at are Rep. Paul Gosar, Kelli Ward, who challenged McCain for the senate seat in 2016, and former Rep. Matt Salmon, according to The Hill. 
Ward attracted controversy previously by declaring shortly after McCain was diagnosed that he should resign and that she should be the one to replace him.




Former Rep. Matt Salmon (left), Rep. Paul Gosar (center) and Kelli Ward who challenged McCain for the senate seat last year
Gosar's chief of staff is said to have already emailed one of Ducey's staff about replacing McCain, despite saying in a statement to The Hill that 'There will be a time and a place for any political discussion in due course'.  
Salmon had lunch with Ducey's chief of staff earlier this month, although it is unclear what they discussed.
All three candidates may also be in the running for Sen. Jeff Flake's seat, who announced he would be resigning in October in a speech criticizing president Donald Trump.
Flake's resignation means that as there is more than six months until the next general election both McCain and Flake's seats may be put to the ballot in November.

[size=18]Cancer-stricken McCain makes impassioned plea for bipartisanship



[/size]




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Candidates quietly battling it out for the seat is seen by Ducey as 'off color', as they should instead be 'praying' and 'rooting' for him. He is receiving updates from McCain's wife, Cindy

Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5222055/Black-news-site-sums-Trumps-racist-moments-2017.html

[size=34]'If he talks like a racist and tweets like a racist, odds are he's a racist': Black news website causes controversy with video 'summing up' Trump's racist moments of 2017[/size]

• The Root reporter Felice Leon appeared in a video detailing Trump's racism
  
  
• Piece is captioned: 'Black women dwelleth in the house of receipts & they've got all the facts to further confirm that Donald Trump is racist'
  
  
• Uses evidence from January 2017 attempt to ban people from Muslim-majority countries to December reveal of alleged comment that 'Haitians all have AIDS'
  
  
• Leon concludes: 'If he talks like a racist and tweets like a racist, odds are he's a racist'
  
  
• Video has aroused some controversy on Twitter with supporters and detractors 
  
  

By DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 20:46 EST, 29 December 2017 | UPDATED: 23:48 EST, 29 December 2017

    

A reporter from African American culture magazine The Root has sparked some controversy with a video detailing President Donald Trump's 'most racist moments of 2017'.
Reporter Felice Leon appeared in a three-minute, 30-second video detailing the 45th president's first year in office.
The piece, which forcefully argues that Trump is a racist, is captioned on Twitter: 'Black women dwelleth in the house of receipts & they've got all the facts to further confirm that Donald Trump is racist.'



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Felice Leon, a reporter at The Root, appeared in a video detailing President Donald Trump's 'most racist moments of 2017'


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The video ignited some controversy on Twitter. Trump is pictured at a rally for Alabama state Republican Senator Luther Strange in September 2017. At the rally, he criticized National Football League players who do not stand during the National Anthem
Leon begins her analysis of Trump's year by revisiting his attempt a week after he took office in January to ban people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

Footage shows him uttering a quotation he told reporters when he signed the bill into action.

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He said: 'This is the protection of the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States. We all know what that means.'
Analyzing the bill's failure - it was blocked by multiple federal judges - the Washington Post noted that the latter sentence was used as evidence that Trump was really attempting to effect a general Muslim ban. Such a ban was one of his many promises on the campaign trail.


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Leon began her analysis of Trump's year with a discussion of his attempt to ban nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. Pictured are activists during a protest against another proposed ban in October


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Trump said when signing the original, failed bill in January: 'This is the protection of the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States. We all know what that means.' Pictured are activists against the ban


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The Root noted, as other outlets at the time did, that Muslim-majority countries where Trump had business ties including Saudi Arabia and Egypt were not included in the ban


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The video also brings up Trump's feud with NFL players who do not stand during the National Anthem as a means of protesting police brutality against African Americans. Pictured center is Colin Kaepernick, who inaugurated the movement last season

[size=18]Trump on NFL protests: Get that son of a b**** off the field



[/size]

Meanwhile, The Root noted, as other outlets at the time did, that Muslim-majority countries where Trump had business ties including Saudi Arabia and Egypt were not included in the ban. 
Fast-forwarding to August, Leon analyzes the Charlottesville 'Unite the Right' rally in the face of the Virginia town's decision to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee. Skirmishes between neo-Nazi and anti-fascist groups left three people dead and more than 30 injured.
Trump, in response, had spoken of 'very fine people on both sides' at a press conference about the situation.
Leon says: 'Hold up. Did Trump pretty much just pardon members of the KKK and neo-Nazis?'
She then discusses his September feud with NFL players who chose to not stand for the national anthem as a protest against police brutality towards African Americans.
Up next is his October Twitter spat with Puerto Rico's government officials, notably San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who criticized his administration's response to Hurricane Maria. 
She cited a tweet of his in which he alleged that the island territory's public servants 'want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort'.


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Leon discussed Trump's response to the Charlottesville, Virginia protests. Pictured in a now-famous photo is Peter Cvjetanovic along with other Neo Nazi, Alt-Right, and/or white supremacist protestors


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Trump, in response to the incidents, had spoken of 'very fine people on both sides' at a press conference about the situation. Pictured are rescue workers moving victims on stretchers after a car plowed through a crowd of counter-demonstrators. One person died in the incident


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Considering Trump's reaction, Leon says: 'Hold up. Did Trump pretty much just pardon members of the KKK and neo-Nazis?' Trump is pictured making his remarks about Charlottesville

[size=18]Trump: Both sides are to blame for Charlottesville violence





[/size]
Leon then proceeds to a November speaking event at which Trump appeared to imitate Asian leaders in a manner that multiple observers decried as racist.
She also discusses an incident at which Trump, who was meant to honor Navajo Code Talker veterans, used the opportunity to call Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren - an outspoken critic of the president - 'Pocahontas'.
The senator has been called 'Pocahontas' by Republican opponents because of her self-claimed - and unproven - Native American heritage.
Leon then cites Trump's retweets of video's from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, and cites the Washington Post's assessment that the organization is an 'extremist group that targets mosques and Muslims'.
Her final point is a New York Times report that Trump said that 'Haitians all have AIDS' and that Nigerians live in huts.
The White House issued a statement after the publication of the Times report denying that Trump said these things.
Leon concludes with analyses of Trump's pre-presidential track record of racism and concludes: 'Trump's racist behavior: It ain't nothing new! If he talks like a racist and tweets like a racist, odds are he's a racist.'


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Leon also criticized Trump's response to the damage Hurricane Maria wrought on Puerto Rico. He is pictured throwing paper towels to Puerto Ricans on October 3


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Also used as evidence for Trump's racism were his remarks at an event meant to honor Navajo Code Talker veterans. He made a jibe at Senator Elizabeth Warren, referring to her as 'Pocahontas'


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Leon then cites Trump's retweets of video's from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, and cites the Washington Post's assessment that the organization is an 'extremist group that targets mosques and Muslims' 


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Also in the piece from The Root was a report that Trump said that 'Haitians all have AIDS' and that Nigerians live in huts.
The piece has ignited some controversy on Twitter, with supporters affirming Leon's stance and detractors negating it.
Prince Trin wrote: 'We all know he's a racist look at his whole administration including the ones that were fired and resigned. Look at all the judges that he's giving lifetime positions to. The whole Charlottesville incident gave me confirmation that he is a racist.'
Charaun said: 'I’m adding "Black women dwelleth in the in the house of receipts" to my daily affirmations'
Opposed to the video, WARRIOR455 wrote: 'The stupidity of this woman and this piece is astounding. Do you really take yourselves seriously?'
And Katherine wrote: 'So you get your funding from #GeorgeSoros #DivideSeparateAndRule'
DailyMail.com could not independently verify that George Soros funds The Root in any capacity.  


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Tweeters were divided over the video from The Root. Prince Trin wrote: 'We all know he's a racist look at his whole administration including the ones that were fired and resigned. Look at all the judges that he's giving lifetime positions to. The whole Charlottesville incident gave me confirmation that he is a racist.' WARRIOR455 wrote: 'The stupidity of this woman and this piece is astounding. Do you really take yourselves seriously?'

RBT3 = robot? Fake news? I notice none of her detractors used facts to contradict her. They just name-called and deflected - just like their leader!

Lizzy, you would really love Lysa Heslov's twitter page at the moment


https://twitter.com/heslov_lysa

Just click on the link.

Contributors include Streisand and Barkin..........

This is all so disgusting.  And corrosive to our country. 
And it’s not ending anytime soon.

It's always easier to simply say: 'Fake News!' or 'Russian bot!' instead of really discussing issues. We have the same problems when we talk about migrants or refugees (which, by the way, are two totally different groups, but many people don't seem to be able to differ between them).
This week, a 15 year old girl was stabbed to death, her ex-boyfriend, 15 as well, was accused to have killed her. That's horrible but nothing you have in the nationwide German news because about 400 people are kolled every year, and the medias especially try to protect kids and teenagers. This seemed to have been accepted - until it became that the boy was a refugee from Afghanistan. Suddenly the medias were accused to have concealed this crime and the fact that he was an alien and a refugee, they were in the middle of a shitstorm.

So how should the medias report about crimes? In Germany, usually neither the names and pics of the victims nor the ones of criminals are published, unless there's a certain public interest or it's needed to find out about the crime.
Should every crime be recorded nationwide? Every robbery, every row, attack or burglary? Or just aggravated assaults and murders? And what does the public need to know? Nationality, heritage, age, skin color of the victims and suspects? If they are married, have kids, their height snd weight? What do we need to know?

From 2000 on, nine migrants in different parts of Germany were murdered. The police saw these crimes as separate incidents and claimed that all victimes had beee involved in criminal activities like drug deals. Years later, after a bank robbery, the police found two suspicious men who killed themselves. In their flat videos wrre found which documented that they had killed these immigrants and also a policewoman. They financed it by robbing dozens of banks and killed the people because they wanted to 'protect the white race' (in other words, they were neonazis). Four years ago, a court trial vs five remaining members of this neonazi group started which still hasn't finished. I'm not sure we'll ever get to know what really happened since members of our secret service had undermined the group as well and never reported anything about it.

But, of course, it's easier to say "The victims were immigrants, so they had to be criminals." At least that's easier than thinking about alternatives. The worst aspect is that family members were questioned endless times about possible criminal connections while they were mourning their husbands and fathers, and their families were seen as criminals in public.

Nothing to be proud of...

Carolhathaway - There isn't much to be proud of anywhere these days. As a species humanity falls far short of what we could be.I think my New Year's resolution might be to stop watching the news and try to ignore the world. It's giving me a headache.

Donnamarie - You said you read Daily Kos. Do you remember the post citing a Catholc nun who said that "pro-lifers " aren't really pro-life. They are pro-birth and don't give a damn about the babies they force into the world? I should have saved it, but I didn't and now I can't find it. Do you know the one I mean? A friend is insisting a nun would never say anything like that an I want to prove her wrong.

PAN - Sorry! I meant to thank you for the Heslov Instagram post. I'm not surprised she's followed by the A-list liberals of Hollywood.

Lizzy, I didn’t remember that story but was intrigued so I just googled it and I think I found what you referenced from DailyKos.  Here’s a link.  Hope I got it right. 

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/7/30/1407166/-Catholic-Nun-Explains-Pro-Life-In-A-Way-That-May-Stun-The-Masses

Love the Daily Kos!

But here's a really interesting piece in the Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/30/fbis-donald-trump-russia-probe-sparked-drink-london-wine-bar/

Hmmm PAN, it is interesting how a mere ‘coffee boy’ could be so impactful to a presidential campaign and the impetus for a counterintelligence investigation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5223245/Outrage-Trump-fires-16-members-AIDS-advisory-council.html

[size=34]Fury as the Trump administration fires ALL 16 members of the president's AIDS advisory council by letter[/size]

• The Trump administration fired the remaining 16 members of the top White House advisory board on HIV and AIDS-related issues 
  
  
• The firings were announced in separate letters mailed to the council members by FedEx earlier this week 
  
  
• The fired members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were all appointed to their posts during the Obama administration 
  
  
• In June, six members of PACHA resigned in protest of Trump administration’s response to treating Americans with HIV and AIDS
  
  

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:33 EST, 30 December 2017 | UPDATED: 12:42 EST, 30 December 2017

    


The Trump administration fired the remaining 16 members of the top White House advisory board on HIV and AIDS-related issues, it was reported on Thursday.
The firings were announced in separate letters mailed to the council members by FedEx earlier this week.
The fired members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS were all appointed to their posts during the Obama administration, according to The Washington Blade.
PACHA ‘provides advice, information, and recommendations to the [Health and Human Services] Secretary regarding programs, policies, and research to promote effective treatment, prevention, and cure of HIV disease and AIDS,’ according to its web site.


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The Trump administration fired the remaining 16 members of the top White House advisory board on HIV and AIDS-related issues, it was reported on Thursday. President Donald Trump (right) and Vice President Mike Pence are seen in the Oval Office on December 7
In June, six members of PACHA resigned in protest of what they felt was the Trump administration’s inadequate response to treating Americans with HIV and AIDS.

It is not uncommon for administrations to purge government agencies of holdovers from the previous presidency so that it can hire its own personnel.

RELATED ARTICLES

After Barack Obama entered office, his White House dismissed all of PACHA’s members who were appointed during the terms of President George W. Bush.
Nonetheless, HIV and AIDS activists criticized the Trump administration.
Scott Schoettes, who was one of the six members who resigned in June, is a lawyer for Lambda Legal, a national LGBT civil rights organization dedicated to those with HIV and AIDS.
He tweeted on Thursday that Trump showed ‘no respect for their service’ by firing the council members.
‘Dangerous that #Trump and Co. (Pence esp.) are eliminating few remaining people willing to push back against harmful policies, like abstinence-only sex ed,’ he tweeted.
Gabriel Maldonado, who heads a California-based organization Truevolultion, is one of the 16 dismissed council members.


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It is not uncommon for administrations to purge government agencies of holdovers from the previous presidency so that it can hire its own personnel. After Barack Obama entered office, his White House dismissed all PACHA’s members appointed during George W. Bush's term
He said that the council members still had time left to serve their terms. He said ‘the explanation is still unclear’ over why the administration chose this week to let them go.
‘I can only speculate,’ Maldonado said.
‘Like any administration, they want their own people there. Many of us were Obama appointees. I was an Obama appointee and my term was continuing until 2018.’
He said one potential reason for the firings is ‘ideological and philosophical differences’ with the administration.
‘I was co-chair of the disparities committee, so much of my advocacy and policy references surrounded vulnerable populations, addressing issuing of diverse communities, specifically looking at the impacts of the LGBT community, namely, the disproportionate impact of HIV and AIDS to people of color, gay men, transgender women,’ Maldonado said.
‘And a lot of those key vulnerable populations are not being prioritized in this administration.’
Maldonado cited a recent Washington Post report which said that the Trump administration ordered the Centers for Disease Control to avoid using certain words or phrases in official documents being drafted for next year’s budget.
The CDC was reportedly given a list of seven prohibited words or phrases, including ‘vulnerable,’ ‘entitlement,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘fetus,’ ‘evidence-based,’ and ‘science-based.’

PACHA’s executive director, Kaye Hayes, confirmed that the council members were fired, but she doesn’t think the news warranted an uproar
A spokesperson for the HHS, however, has denied this and said it was taken out of context.
PACHA’s executive director, Kaye Hayes, confirmed that the council members were fired, but she doesn’t think the news warranted an uproar.
‘[The dismissed council members] were also thanked for their leadership, dedication and commitment to the effort,’ Hayes said.
‘Changing the makeup of federal advisory committee members is a common occurrence during Administration changes.
‘The Obama administration dismissed the George W. Bush administration appointees to PACHA in order to bring in new voices.
‘All PACHA members are eligible to apply to serve on the new council that will be convened in 2018.’
But Maldonado said it doesn’t explain why the administration waited a year to fire the Obama-era holdovers.
He also noted that many of the dismissed council members whose terms expired earlier this year were sworn back in to their positions months ago – even after Trump signed an executive order which kept PACHA going for another year.
An estimated 1.2 million Americans are infected with either HIV or AIDS. Globally, there are 37 million people estimated to be carrying the disease. 

[size=18]Thursday: Trump returns from another round of golf in Florida


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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5224169/White-supremacists-liberal-Oregon-town.html




[size=34]The battle for Eugene: Chilling photos reveal how white supremacists have 'taken over' a once-liberal Oregon college town with hate crimes on the rise and swastikas plastered over the walls
[/size]

• Once-liberal college town Eugene, Oregon has been overcome with crime and emboldened white supremacists
  
  
• Some members of the group have held events during Holocaust Remembrance Day where swastika flags were flown
  
  
• One of the members allegedly baked 'cookies in the shape of swastikas' in honor of Adolf Hitler's birthday
  
  
• Some have even attacked business owners, and one owner had to hire a lawyer
  
  
• Also, this past year, hate crimes in Eugene went up by 44 since 2016 - as city officials recorded a total of 60 this year
  
  

By DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 02:02 EST, 31 December 2017 | UPDATED: 04:02 EST, 31 December 2017


    




A once-liberal Oregon college town has been overcome with crime and emboldened groups of white supremacists.
The Oregonian spoke recently with several residents in the city of Eugene about the shocking and not-so-secret neo-Nazi extremists who have made their name known across the community.
Some of the individuals include two who are said to be the 'most prominent' men - Jacob Laskey and Jimmy Marr. 
'Those guys have been hanging around the movement for years,' Carla Hill, investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism told the local newspaper.

Along with other supporters, she said Laskey and Marr see an 'opportunity to make changes they dream of.' 


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Jimmy Marr, who goes by @genocideJimmy on Twitter, is shown inside his home in December. He told the Oregonian/OregonLive that he is 'interested in the counter-extermination of the Jews'


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Marr spoke about the evolution of his ideas from his home in Springfield (pictured above)


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Jacob Laskey (pictured in December) was sent to federal prison for 11 years after throwing rocks etched with swastikas into a synagogue in Eugene. He was released in 2015


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During Laskey's time in prison, he wrote books, and one of them about his theory that the 'Holocaust was a hoax'


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Now, Laskey said he has moved past the incidents, but hasn't denied his support of the groups
'They see this as this is their time,' Hill explained, while adding that Marr has been deemed 'Genocide Jimmy' by other white supremacy supporters.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day in January, supporters gathered outside Marr's home, where swastika flags flew near an elementary school, along with sign that said, 'The Holocaust is Hokum,' The Oregonian reports. 
'I'll tell you this right now ... I'm interested in the counter-extermination of the Jews,' Marr told the newspaper during an interview inside his home.
As for Laskey, he was released from jail in 2015 after 11 years behind bars for tossing 'swastika-etched bricks through Temple Beth Israel' synagogue in the city.
During his time in prison, he wrote books, and one of them about his theory that the 'Holocaust was a hoax.' 


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Marr's address has long been public knowledge. On Holocaust Remembrance Day in January, swastika flags were flown near an elementary school, along with sign that said, 'The Holocaust is Hokum'
Now, Laskey said he has moved on from his past, but hasn't denied his support.
'Yes, I'm proud of my race. Yes, I'm proud of my heritage,' Laskey said. 'I'm not a fascist. I'm an American. Why can't we put America first?'
A woman working in the cannabis industry in the area, Bethany Sherman, was also accused of having a role in the racist group.
In honor of Adolf Hitler's birthday, one resident alleged Sherman baked 'cookies in the shape of swastikas,' the newspaper said.
Laskey previously praised Sherman on his YouTube channel and said she 'is a hero because she doesn't have white guilt.'
Shortly after the allegations, Sherman was forced to close down her marijuana testing lab after she was reproved by customers and other community members.


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Bethany Sherman sits in the window of her mother, Sue Sherman's hospital room. Sue was diagnosed a year ago with pancreatic cancer. Sherman has been forced to close down her marijuana testing lab after she was accused of taking part in white supremacy groups


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Owners of OG Analytical, a cannabis testing lab in Eugene, were alleged by Eugene activist to have participate in neo-Nazi activities

Another local business owner, who does not associate with the group, said she has been a target of hate and vandalism after she banned a group of individuals who openly expressed the white supremacist views from her bar.
Old Nick's Pub owner, Emily Nyman, told the newspaper that a swastika was painted outside her business with a message that said: 'We're watching you.'
Nyman, a supporter of the anti-fascist movement, said she was forced to hire a lawyer and contact the FBI after she was harassed online.
Along with her own protection, Nyman said she wishes to help others in Eugene - particularly ethnic minority groups.
'As a white businesswoman who has less to fear I feel like I owe it to the people in my community who can't speak out,' Nyman said. 
Hate crimes in the city of Eugene went up by 44 since 2016 - as city officials recorded a total of 60 in 2017.
'Vandalism and graffiti made up 20 percent of the hate crimes reported between January and October,' The Oregonian reports.
'This year has seen a flurry of racist and anti-Semitic activity across the city. Vandals have struck cars, storefronts and public property with painted swastikas.
'Repugnant messages and symbols have defaced schools, churches and the federal courthouse.' 


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A local business owner, who does not associate with the group, said she has been a target of hate as well as vandalism


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Hate crimes in the city of Eugene went up by 44 since 2016 - as city officials recorded a total of 60 in 2017

That's frightening and sickening!

I've read an article a while ago about a girl in the east of Germany (where right-wing politicians, parties and ideas in general find much more supporters than in the rest of our country). She realized that there was a lot of hate-speech and anti-muslim and anti-jewish speech in her class, esp in her classes whatsapp group. So she first tried to talk to her classmates about it but had to face threats against her. So she talked to her teachers and the head of her school, but this didn't lead to any consequences. So in the end she decided to go to the police which led to court action (in Germany you're not allowed to deny the Holocaust, show the swastika or other specific nazi symbols or say a certain greeting everybody had to say during the nazi regime), and she succeeded. Afterwards she received an award for her courage to stand up. 
Comments to the article called her a traitor who should be forced to leave her school and her town, should be punished, gang-raped etc. 

When people are not able to see the injustice of what had happened in this class and use the anonymity of the internet to let out their hate, something is definetely wrong...

Carol, that is horrible i don't understand what is happening in our society. The country is going backwards and the man in the White House condones this.

There is something terribly wrong going on not only in our country but obviously elsewhere.  This is what Trump insinuates when he says ‘make America great again’ ... when whites were in charge and minorities knew their secondary place.  His presidency has definitely emboldened racists in our country.  I think having our first black President also played a part in waking up the long held sentiments of bigots and racists.

Carol, your story is really a sad statement on our collective humanity.  What totally disgusting comments people will make on the internet and hide behind their anonymity.  Gang rape?  Just deplorable.  I just don’t understand this mentality of people thinking that they are actually better than others simply because of their race or ethnicity.  I was naive to think all of us had evolved from that narrow minded thinking.   How much has the huge influx of immigrants to European countries in recent years and in the U.S. contributed to this sense of ‘us versus them’ mentality and a fear that communities are being taken over by ‘others’? All problems are being scapegoated to these ‘others’. ...... Ahhh, if only we were a pure white and Christian society life would be perfect.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5229001/Trump-takes-credit-zero-deaths-commercial-aviation.html

[size=34]Trump boasts there were 'zero deaths' on commercial aviation in 2017 thanks to him - on the heels of 10 Americans dying in a plane crash in Costa Rica[/size]

• President Trump said he's been 'very strict' on commercial aviation, taking credit for there being 'zero deaths' on passenger jets in 2017 
  
  
• The president was likely referring to a new study out from Dutch aviation group to70 and the Aviation Safety Network that reported no deaths
  
  
• However, his comments come two days after a horrific plane crash in Costa Rica that killed 10 Americans on New Year's Eve  
  
  
• The plane's small size would have excluded it from this particular aviation study and likely the fact that it was being operated as a private flight 
  
  
• A spokesman for the president said Trump had 'raised the bar for our nation's aviation safety and security' 
  
  
• He cited the president's support of an air traffic control overhaul bill, which hasn't been passed, and enhanced DHS security measures 
  
  

By NIKKI SCHWAB, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 12:10 EST, 2 January 2018 | UPDATED: 12:41 EST, 2 January 2018

    

On Tuesday, President Trump took credit for 2017 being the safest year in commercial aviation, with the Dutch aviation group to70 reporting that there were zero deaths in passenger jet travel.
'Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation,' Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. 'Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!' 
While Trump's reading of the report was correct, the tweet was ill-timed as family members and friends mourn the deaths of 10 Americans killed in a New Year's Eve plane crash in Costa Rica. 
Scroll down for video   


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President Trump, seen here arriving at his New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, tweeted Tuesday and took credit for there being 'zero deaths' in commercial aviation in 2017 



The president tweeted that 2017 was the 'best and safest year on record' for commercial aviation as the Dutch aviation group To70 and the Aviation Safety Network reported that there were zero deaths in passenger jet travel


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AWKWARD TIMING: The president's boast comes on the heels of a plane crash in Costa Rica that killed 10 Americans. Because of the plane's small size it wouldn't have counted in the aviation study the president was referring to 


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The victims of the New Year's Eve plane crash in Costa Rica are seen being removed from the crash site. Ten Americans died in the crash 

[size=10][size=18]Two American families killed in Costa Rican plane crash



[/size][/size]

On Sunday, two American families, their Wisconsin-born tour guide and two local pilots were killed when their Cessna 208B Grand Caravan Nature Air charter jet went down in a wooded area of the Guanacaste Mountains. 
Witnesses said the airplane seemed to 'cartwheel' before it crashed just a minute after takeoff from the Punta Islita airport. 
High winds are potentially being blamed for the crash of the charter plane, a private aircraft owned by Nature Air airlines, Costa Rica's largest domestic airline. 
The size of the aircraft would exclude the New Year's Eve accident from to70's study, likely along with the private nature of the flight.   
'Our analysis documents accidents to passenger flights commercial air transport operations in aeroplanes with a maximum take-off mass of 5700 kg or above,' the study's note on methodology said. 'This excludes a number of small commuter aeropoanes in service around the world, including the Cessna Caravan.' 
The Cessna Caravan was the type of plane involved in the Costa Rica crash. 
Additionally, 'Accidents to military flights, training flights, private flights, cargo operations and helicopters are excluded,' the study's methodology said. 
Overall, the to70 study found that there were 111 accidents involving larger passenger aircraft, two of which included fatalities. There were also 13 lives lost in two regional airline accidents. 
'An estimated three percent growth in air traffic for 2017 over 2016 means that the fatal accident rate for large aeroplane in commercial air transport is again reduced; this time to 0.06 fatal accidents per million flights,' the study said. 'That is a rate of one fatal accident for every 16 million flights.' 



As for Trump's boast that he's been 'very strict' on commercial aviation, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah explained that the president 'raised the bar for our nation's aviation safety and security.' 
In October, the president announced that he was backing the Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization Act, which – among other things – would privatize the nation's air traffic control system. 
The bill passed committee last June, but never saw a floor vote in 2017. 
'Last year, the President announced his initiative to modernize Air Traffic Control and under his leadership, the Department of Homeland Security released enhanced security measures to ensure safer commercial air travel,' Shah said in a statement.  
Beyond that, the Trump administration spent most of the president's first year in office fighting in court over his controversial travel ban, which would limit travel into the United States from a number of Muslim-majority countries.   
'The President is pleased there were no commercial airline deaths in 2017, and hopes this remains consistent in 2018 and beyond,' Shah said.

No word that 2017 was the safest year for flights WORLDWIDE. Does he take credit for that as well? 
And perfect timing to publish this tweet while people mourned the death of ten people who had died in a plane crash.

What happens if - and that's something I really hope won't happen - two planes crashed in the states this year. Will he take credit for that as well?

You know carol, it’s a blessing that we didn’t have any fatalities on commercial airplanes last year.  But we actually haven’t had any fatal airplane crashes  since 2009.  But Trump thinks he can take ownership of this record.  In fact he told aviation executives earlier this year that he was going to get rid of a slew of airline regulations as President.  But he hasn’t done anything.  Nothing.  It’s my belief that many of those regulations provide a safety net for the proper function of our planes and for the safety of its passengers.  As usual Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Now, here's somebody who knows how to de-escalate an explosive situation:

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948355557022420992

Ah, yes. The subtle game of My Button Is Bigger Than Yours currently being played with The World.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5230353/Trump-threatens-blow-North-Korea-Kim-Jong-uns-warning.html

[size=34]Nuclear button on my desk is 'much bigger' than yours: Trump warns Kim about the size of his arsenal and how it is vastly 'more powerful' than North Korea's after despot's New Year's threat[/size]

• President Trump warned North Korea Tuesday that he has access to a 'bigger & more powerful' nuclear button than Kim Jong-Un's
  
  
• The comment follows a previous taunt from Kim that 'the U.S. should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table' in his New Year's address
  
  
• Also on Tuesday the UN warned of North Korea staging another missile test 
  
  
• US Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters that the US had heard North Korea might be planning another missile launch
  
  
• North Korea has announced it will reopen a long-closed border hotline with South Korea on Wednesday
  
  

By JESSICA FINN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 
PUBLISHED: 20:14 EST, 2 January 2018 | UPDATED: 03:13 EST, 3 January 2018



President Donald Trump fired off a warning tweet to North Korea Tuesday night, taunting leader Kim Jong Un who said in his New Year speech that Americans should be aware he has a 'button' for nuclear weapons.
Trump warned the hermit country: 'North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un just stated that the ''Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.'' Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!'
The threat came after an annual speech given by Kim, in which he cautioned: 'The U.S. should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table.'  
Kim warned America that it can 'never start a war against me and our country' and insisted his nukes are now a reality, not a threat. 

Despite the ongoing war of words, Pyongyang this morning revealed it will reopen a hotline with South Korea to discuss attending the Winter Olympics.

Scroll for video 


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President Trump shot a warning to North Korea's Kim Jong-Un about the power of the United States' nuclear weapons capabilities  


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President Trump fired off a warning shot at the hermit nation's leader that he has a 'Nuclear Button' more powerful than Kim's 


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In his annual New Year speech, Kim Jong Un warned America that he has a 'button' for nuclear weapons 


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This photo taken on November 29, 2017 and released on November 30, 2017 by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile which is capable of reaching all parts of the US

[size=10][size=18]North Korea's Kim Jong-Un: Nuclear button is always on my desk
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The hotline, which was cut by the North in 2016, is to be restored this morning after Seoul proposed high-level talks in response to an olive branch from the North's leader ahead of next month's Pyeongchang Games.
The dictator's overtures to the South marked a rare softening in tone, as tensions over its banned weapons programme have surged in recent months following a flurry of missile launches and its most powerful nuclear test yet. 
Meanwhile the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned North Korea on Tuesday against staging another missile test and said Washington would not take any talks between North and South Korea seriously if they did not do something to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

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Haley told reporters the United States was hearing reports that North Korea might be preparing to fire another missile.
'I hope that doesn't happen. But if it does, we must bring even tougher measures to bear against the North Korean regime,' Haley said.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were indications that could point towards a potential missile launch 'sooner rather than later,' but cautioned that such signs had been seen in the past and no test had resulted.
North Korea announced it would reopen a long-closed border hotline with South Korea on Wednesday.
The North's unscheduled statement, read out on state television, came a day after Seoul proposed high-level discussions amid a tense stand-off over North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes.
That followed Kim's New Year's address, in which he said he was open to speaking with Seoul and would consider sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be held just across the border in Pyeongchang in February. 
Kim gave the order to reopen the border hotline at the truce village of Panmunjom at 0630 GMT (1.30am ET) on Wednesday, said North Korean official Ri Son Gwon.

The hotline with the South was shut down by North Korea in February 2016 in retaliation against the closing of Kaesong, a border factory town that was jointly operated by the two Koreas.
'Detailed orders were given regarding setting up working measures with the South Korean government that should be taken up with a serious and sincere stance,' said Ri, chairman of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which deals with issues relating to South Korea.


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Visitors stand near the military wire fence at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Monday, January 1. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Monday the United States should be aware that his country's nuclear forces are now a reality, not a threat
The talks would aim to establish formal dialogue about sending a North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Ri said.
An official from South Korea's unification ministry told Reuters they were ready to speak with North Korean officials once the hotline was opened. Government officials check the hotline, a telephone line at the border, twice every day in the morning and afternoon.
South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said North Korea's decision to open the hotline had 'significant meaning' because it could lead to constant communication between the two Koreas. 
While appearing to open the door to discussing taking part in the Winter Olympics - which would be the first direct negotiations in more than two years - Kim also sternly warned that he would push ahead with 'mass producing' nuclear warheads in defiance of U.N. sanctions. 



U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said North Korea might be 'trying to drive a wedge of some sort' between the United States and South Korea and added that while it was up to Seoul to decide who it talked to: 'We are very skeptical of Kim Jong-Un's sincerity in sitting down and having talks.'
Trump, who has led a global drive to pressure North Korea through sanctions to give up development of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States, earlier held back judgment on Pyongyang's offer to talk, saying on Twitter: 'Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time.
'Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!'
Trump has frequently derided Kim as 'rocket man.' The U.S. president said sanctions and other pressures were starting to have a big impact on North Korea.
Kim and Trump have exchanged fiery barbs in the last year and the U.S. president has warned that the United States would have no choice but to 'totally destroy' North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.
North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States, South Korea and Japan and tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile in November, which it said was capable of delivering a warhead anywhere in the United States.


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A visitor uses binoculars to see the North Korea side from the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea on Monday

[size=18]North Korea TV shows video of ballistic missile launch




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South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon said the offer for high-level talks next Tuesday had been discussed with the United States. Nauert said she was not aware if the matter had been discussed in advance of the South Korean response.
Cho suggested the talks be held at the border village of Panmunjom and said they should be focused on North Korea's participation at the Olympics, but other issues would likely arise, including the denuclearisation of North Korea.
'I repeat: The government is open to talking with North Korea, regardless of time, location and form,' Cho said.
Should the talks be held, it would be the first such dialogue since a vice-ministerial meeting in December 2015.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomed Kim's New Year address and asked his government to move as quickly as possible to bring North Korea to the Olympics, but he stressed that an improvement in inter-Korean relations 'cannot go separately with resolving North Korea's nuclear programme'.
China, which has persistently urged a return to talks to ease tensions, said recent positive comments from North and South Korea were a good thing.
'China welcomes and supports North Korea and South Korea taking earnest efforts to treat this as an opportunity to improve mutual relations, promote the alleviation of the situation on the Korean peninsula and realize denuclearisation on the peninsula,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. 

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These two sound just like the 9 year-olds I used to teach! I don't know who has the bigger prick, but it's a toss-up who has the smaller brain!

If aliens exist, this would be a great time for them to invade - unless they already have and they're the ones running the world. That would explain a lot! (At least it would explain Trump becoming president. I think he's proof that they're already here.)

And guess what?

He'll be telling us all how he's saved the world when North Korea finally backs down - the longer he does this, the nearer the 2018 elections are - and he knows it.

I also suspect that North Korea has scores to settle after the US bombing of 75% of many cities during the Korean War.........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5231445/Palestinians-say-wont-blackmailed-Trump-threat.html

[size=34]Jerusalem is 'not for sale', Palestine's president says after Trump threatened to cut the state's $300million annual aid to force it to negotiate[/size]

• Trump sparked outrage by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital last month
  
  
• Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said US could now no longer play any role in the Middle East peace process
  
  
• US President then threatened to cut aid worth more than $300million annually
  
  
• Abbas's spokesman hit back saying Jerusalem 'is not for sale for gold or billions'
  
  

By AFP and JULIAN ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 06:02 EST, 3 January 2018 | UPDATED: 10:05 EST, 3 January 2018

    


Palestinian leaders say they will not be 'blackmailed' after Donald Trump threatened to cut aid worth more than $300million annually.
Relations between the White House and the Palestinians were already tense after the US president's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last month.
The December 6 announcement concerning the disputed city led Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to say the US could no longer play any role in the Middle East peace process.
Trump's threat in a tweet on Tuesday to try to force the Palestinians into negotiations led to further outrage, though Israeli ministers lauded the move. 


+3


Palestinian leaders say they will not be 'blackmailed' after Donald Trump (pictured) threatened to cut aid worth more than $300million annually 


+3


Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel led Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (pictured) to say the US could no longer play any role in the Middle East peace process
The Palestinians rely heavily on international aid, with many analysts, including Israelis, saying such assistance helps maintain stability in a volatile region.

'We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,' Trump tweeted.
'With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?'

RELATED ARTICLES

It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening all of the budget, worth $319 million in 2016, according to US government figures.
The United States has long provided the Palestinian Authority with much-needed budgetary support and security assistance, as well as an additional $304 million for UN programmes in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel receives more than $3 billion in military aid per year from Washington.
Abbas's spokesman said they were not against negotiations, but that talks should be 'based on international laws and resolutions that have recognised an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital'.


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The Palestinians rely heavily on international aid, with many analysts, including Israelis, saying such assistance helps maintain stability in a volatile region

[size=18]Hundreds protest Trump's Jerusalem policy in Times Square



[/size]

'Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Palestine and it is not for sale for gold or billions,' Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement that 'we will not be blackmailed'.
'President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice,' she said.
'Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions!'
However, several Israeli ministers voiced support for Trump, with the country's right-wing government having seized on the US president's support to push ahead with initiatives seen as dealing further blows to remaining hopes for a two-state solution.
Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said 'you cannot on the one hand receive $300 million in American aid per year and at the same time close the door on negotiations'.
'We are dealing with a president who says what he thinks clearly and does not resort to diplomatic convolutions that mean nothing,' Regev told Israel's army radio.
Trump came to office boasting that he could achieve the 'ultimate deal' that secures peace in the Middle East, something that has eluded presidents since the late 1960s.
For most of the past half century the United States has been seen as the indispensable - if sometimes imperfect - arbiter of the peace process.
Trump's actions are likely to cast that further in doubt.
He has heaped pressure on Palestinians to do a deal, threatening to close the de facto 'embassy' in Washington in addition to recognising Israel's contested claim on Jerusalem and now threatening aid.
Efforts to harness improved Arab-Israel relations to push a peace deal have been at least temporarily derailed by Trump's Jerusalem recognition, breaking with decades of US policy.
The decision sparked almost universal diplomatic condemnation and deadly protests in the Palestinian territories.
It also prompted Abbas - 82 years old and facing the prospect of entering the history books as the leader who 'lost Jerusalem' - to cancel a planned meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
Christian and Muslim leaders in Egypt took similar steps.
Pence was forced to delay a December visit to the Middle East until later this month, and aides on Tuesday rejected rumours of further delays.
'As we've said all along, the vice president is going to the Middle East in January,' said Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah.
'We're finalising details and will announce specifics of the full trip in the coming days.'

North Korea is never going to give up their nuclear program.  No amount of Trump’s bravado is going to change that.  He’s a self aggrandizing idiot.  He loves that the world is on edge not knowing what’s going to happen with this nuclear threat.  He loves the perceived power it gives him.

Donnamarie wrote:North Korea is never going to give up their nuclear program.  No amount of Trump’s bravado is going to change that.  He’s a self aggrandizing idiot.  He loves that the world is on edge not knowing what’s going to happen with this nuclear threat.  He loves the perceived power it gives him.

I agree.  I think the US needs to start negotiating with that in mind.  We "allow"  (if that's our role in the world) other countries to have nuclear weapons. And any country with enough money could potentially obtain the technology. Concentrate on setting up a structure where no one will use them and the goal of eventual disarmament of everyone.

Donnamarie - He doesn't just love the power. He also loves the fact that while people are losing their minds over him trying to start WW III (Korea, Iran, Israel, etc.) they aren't paying as much attention to what he's doing domestically - and Mr. Mueller's investigation fades into the background - at least for the time being. A book is coming out soon in which Bannon accuses Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner of treason. That should bring the investigation back front and center. Can't wait to see Drumpf's reaction to that!

Here's a giggle - sort of........

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/948371128845815808

and not so funny

https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/948553172129386496

https://twitter.com/Comey/status/948567341591392256

Hmmm PAN I think Comey’s Tweet says it all!

Well Lizzy it didn’t take long for Bannon’s book to be the talk of the town.  Excerpts are being talked about all over the cable news stations this afternoon.  Now back to our regularly scheduled program...the Russia investigation.

Fava, I agree.  What’s needed is first serious diplomacy to get everyone to the table and then come up with some sort of sustainable agreement that North Korea and the rest of the world can live with.  It won’t be easy.  Other Presidents haven't succeeded but we really don’t have any other choice...without going to war.


I just have to add that I just read Trump’s comments criticizing Bannon...’he lost his mind’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5231257/Trump-boasts-bigger-nuclear-button-doesn-t-really-one.html

[size=34]There is NO 'nuclear button' on Trump's desk: Here's what would actually happen if the president decides to launch a nuclear attack[/size]

• Donald Trump has boasted he has a bigger 'nuclear button' than Kim Jong Un  
  
  
• Instead, Trump has access to a 20kg (45lb) briefcase, known as the 'football'
  
  
• Inside is an instructional guide for carrying out a ranged nuclear strike, 
  
  
• The guide comes with a list of locations that can be targeted by the US arsenal of 900 nuclear weapons
  
  

By PRESS ASSOCIATION and HARRY PETTIT FOR MAILONLINE 
PUBLISHED: 05:02 EST, 3 January 2018 | UPDATED: 13:42 EST, 3 January 2018

    



Donald Trump recently boasted that he has a bigger and more powerful 'nuclear button' than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The truth, however, is the president does not have a nuclear button on his desk at all.
Instead, Trump has access to a 20kg (45lb) briefcase, known as the 'nuclear football', that is kept close to the president at all times.
Inside is a guide for carrying out a nuclear strike, alongside a list of locations that can be targeted by the country's arsenal of 900 nuclear weapons.


Scroll down for video 


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Donald Trump has boasted that he has a bigger and more powerful 'nuclear button' than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - but the US president does not actually have a physical button

HOW THE PRESIDENT FIRES A NUKE 

The process for launching a nuclear strike is secret and complex and involves the use of a portable device housed in a bulky briefcase.
1 - Get out the biscuit: If the president were to order a strike, he would first need to verify his identify with codes unique to him.
The codes are recorded on a card known as the 'biscuit' which is carried by the president at all times.
New codes are provided each day by the National Security Agency.  
2- Access the 'football': He would then access the 'football' briefcase containing secure communications equipment as well as instructions on how to verify his identity and transmit the command.
3 - Order an attack: The launch order would be transmitted to the Pentagon and Strategic Command via a radio transceiver within 'the football'.
The secretary of Defense is told about the order, but does not have the power to veto it.



Trump's most recent nuclear threats came after Kim's new year address, in which he cautioned: 'The US should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table.'
Trump mocked the claims, tweeting on Tuesday: 'Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!'
If the president were to order a strike, he would first need to verify his identify with codes unique to him.
The codes are recorded on a card known as the 'biscuit' which is carried by the president at all times.
New codes are provided each day by the National Security Agency. 
The biscuit has several fake codes, so the president has to memorise the location of the correct codes on the card.
He would then access the 'football' briefcase containing secure communications equipment as well as instructions on how to verify his identity and transmit the command.
The launch order would be transmitted to the Pentagon and Strategic Command via a radio transceiver within 'the football'.
The secretary of Defense is told about the order, but does not have the power to veto it.
The system is able to launch within minutes of the president’s order, according to Quartz. 
It is unclear how Trump's counterpart in North Korea would launch a strike, as the Kim's nuclear procedure is shrouded in mystery.
While Kim claimed in his New Year address that 'the whole territory of the US is within the range of our nuclear strike', it remains unclear whether the nation's weapons could actually reach US soil.

RELATED ARTICLES

Intercontinental ballistic missiles tested by North Korea in July 2017 are likely capable of reaching 3,400 miles (5,500 km), which could reach a US Naval Base in Guam.
Pyongyang is subject to multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its atomic and missile programs, which it says it needs to protect itself against a possible invasion.



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Instead of a stationary button, the president would use a portable gadget housed in a briefcase to launch a nuclear strike. The 20 kg (45 lb) device has been nicknamed the 'nuclear football' (pictured) because it is carried by a rotating group of military officers everywhere Trump goes

[size=34]NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR ARSENAL[/size]

While North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claimed in his new year address that 'the whole territory of the US is within the range of our nuclear strike', it remains unclear whether the nation's weapons could actually reach US soil.
Intercontinental ballistic missiles tested by North Korea in July 2017 are likely capable of reaching 3,400 miles (5,500 km), which could reach a US Naval Base in Guam.
Pyongyang is subject to multiple sets of United Nations sanctions over its atomic and missile programs, which it says it needs to protect itself against a possible invasion.


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This November photo shows the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claims is capable of reaching 'the whole territory of the US'
It regularly issues threats against its 'imperialist enemy' Washington, and has long sought a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the continental United States.
The progress has accelerated in recent years after young leader Kim Jong-Un took power following the death of his father, longtime ruler Kim Jong-Il, in 2011.
Pyongyang has staged six atomic tests - including two last year - with the regime stepping up efforts to produce a nuclear warhead small enough to fit into a missile.

It regularly issues threats against its 'imperialist enemy' Washington, and has long sought a rocket capable of delivering a warhead to the continental United States.
The progress has accelerated in recent years after young leader Kim Jong-Un took power following the death of his father, longtime ruler Kim Jong-Il, in 2011.
Pyongyang has staged six atomic tests - including two last year - with the regime stepping up efforts to produce a nuclear warhead small enough to fit into a missile. 


+6


Despite Trump ratcheting up tension with North Korea, he would not use a physical button to launch a nuclear attack. The process for launching a strike is secret and complex and involves the use of a portable device housed in a bulky briefcase


+6


In his annual New Year speech, Kim Jong Un warned America that he has a 'button' for nuclear weapons. Trump mocked the claims on Twitter on Tuesday
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump sounded open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after Kim made a rare overture towards South Korea in his new year speech.
But Mr Trump's ambassador to the United Nations insisted talks would not be meaningful unless the North was getting rid of its nuclear weapons.

In a morning tweet, Trump said the US-led campaign of sanctions and other pressure were beginning to have a 'big impact' on North Korea. 



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If the president were to order a strike, he would identify himself to military officials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. Pictured is a photo taken of the 'Knothole' US nuclear test detonated in the Nevada desert in 1953
He referred to the recent, dramatic escape of at least two North Korean soldiers across the heavily militarised border into South Korea.
He also alluded to Kim's comments on Monday that he was willing to send a delegation to the Winter Olympics, which will be hosted by South Korea next month.
'Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!' Trump wrote, using his derisive nickname for the young North Korean leader.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5233067/ICE-wants-sanctuary-citiy-politicians-charged-crimes.html

[size=34]Acting ICE Director wants to charge politicians in sanctuary cities with the crimes their immigrants commit[/size]

• Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan wants to charge sanctuary city politicians with the crimes committed by the people residing in their cities illegally
  
  
• He singled out California and Governor Jerry Brown threatening 'more special agents and deportation hours' for the newly-designated sanctuary state
  
  
• California's new law took effect Monday and prevents local law enforcement from questioning individuals about immigration status during routine checks
  
  
• Brown previously said the 'bill strikes a balance that will protect public safety' 
  
  

By STEPHANIE HANEY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:19 EST, 3 January 2018 | UPDATED: 18:36 EST, 3 January 2018

    

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan said he'd like to hold elected officials in sanctuary cities 'personally accountable' for crimes committed by individuals residing in their constituencies illegally.
'We've got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes,' Homan told Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto on Tuesday. 
Homan also singled out the entire state of California, threatening increased special agents and deportation hours, following its official declaration as a sanctuary state, with a law that took effect on Monday.


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Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan wants to charge sanctuary city politicians with the crimes committed by people residing in their cities illegally
California's new law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown in October, is titled the California Values Act.

It prevents state and local police from asking about immigration status during routine interactions with community members, and limits interaction between state and local authorities and federal officers.
'These are uncertain times for undocumented Californians and their families, and this bill strikes a balance that will protect public safety, while bringing a measure of comfort to those families who are now living in fear every day,' Brown said in statement at the time of the bill signing.


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California's new law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown in October, is titled the California Values Act and officially makes the state a 'sanctuary state'
But Homan said Brown was doing 'quote the opposite' of protecting immigrant communities. 
'[Brown] is knowingly putting law enforcement at risk,' he added.

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Brown further clarified what the new California law does not do, saying: 
'This bill does not prevent or prohibit [ICE] or the Department of Homeland Security from doing their own work in any way. They are free to use their own considerable resources to enforce federal immigration law in California.'
Homan accused Brown of putting 'politics ahead of public safety.' 


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Jose Artica, then age 19, of El Salvador, is handcuffed and removed from a house in Alexandria, Virginia in April 2007


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ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations unit is seen here in August in Riverside, California
'What they have done is forced my officers to arrest dangerous criminals on their turf, in their homes and places of business, rather than arresting them in the safety and security of a county jail,' Homan said.
'It's ridiculous to annoyingly and intentionally put law enforcement at risk.'
Brown reiterated that under the new law, immigration agents remain able to gain access to California jails to conduct routine interviews, and will still receive cooperation in deportation proceedings involving state prisoners and those in local jails that have committed serious offenses listed in the TRUST Act.
What the new law does is 'prohibit the commandeering of local officials to do the work of immigration agents,' Brown said. 


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What the new law does is 'prohibit the commandeering of local officials to do the work of immigration agents,' Brown (L) said; Homan (R) is upset the law took effect
Homan remained upset with the new law taking effect. 
'If [Brown] thinks ICE is going away, we're not,' he said.
'There's no sanctuary from federal law enforcement. I'm going to significantly increase our enforcement presence in California. We're already doing it.'
Homan added that California had 'better hold on tight.'
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has repeatedly stated his intent to deny federal funding from cities that refuse to offer extra support to federal immigration authorities, in the form of increased access to jails and additional notice when someone who is in custody, and known to be in the country illegally, is about to be released.

[size=18]'System is being gamed': Sessions on sanctuary cities



[/size]





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US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has repeatedly stated his intent to deny federal funding from cities that refuse to offer extra support to federal immigration authorities

This of course is absolutely everywhere................

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5232903/Trump-bed-cheeseburger-shouting-THREE-TVs.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5232903/Trump-bed-cheeseburger-shouting-THREE-TVs.html

[size=34]In bed with a cheeseburger at 6:30pm, shouting at staff who pick shirts off the floor and watching THREE televisions as he rants on the phone about the unfair media: Inside Trump's life in the White House[/size]

• Trump and Steve Bannon used to be so close they'd have dinner nearly every evening, according to book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
  
  
• If the two former friends weren't dining at 6:30 pm, Trump would retire to the residence, where he allegedly ate cheeseburgers from bed
  
  
• Sometimes he would be watching three television screens while ranting about the media in phone calls to friends
  
  
• Author Michael Wolff claims that Trump added a lock to his bedroom door in the early days of the administration and screamed at housekeeping staff
  
  
• Trump unloaded on Bannon Wednesday, though, after the former White House strategist dissed his son and son-in-law in the book
  
  

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 17:49 EST, 3 January 2018 | UPDATED: 06:27 EST, 4 January 2018


President Donald Trump and former chief strategist Steve Bannon used to be so close they'd have dinner nearly every evening, an explosive new book about Trump's first year in office reveals.
If the two former friends weren't dining at 6:30 pm, Trump would retire to the residence, where he allegedly ate cheeseburgers from bed, sometimes watching three television screens while ranting about the media in phone calls to friends.
Author Michael Wolff claims that Trump added a lock to his bedroom door in the early days of the administration to the chagrin of Secret Service and screamed at housekeeping staff who tidied up after him.


+14


Author Michael Wolff claims that President Donald Trump would retire to the residence to eat cheeseburgers from bed, sometimes watching three televisions as he ranted about the media in phone calls to friends
'If my shirt is on the floor, it’s because I want it on the floor,' Trump allegedly said.

Wolff writes in 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House' that Trump told staff not to touch anything - especially not his toothbrush - as he's notoriously afraid of being poisoned.
He would even strip his own bed and let housekeeping know when he wanted his sheets washed, Wolff says in a set of unsourced claims.

Trump 'eats McDonald's because he fears being poisoned' 

President Donald Trump's taste for McDonald's goes deeper than a liking for cheap meat, he prefers it because he fears being poisoned, according to an explosive new book about his first year in office. 
Michael Wolff writes one of the reasons the president prefers fast food is that no one knows he is coming to the establishment, and the food is, presumably, safely premade.
In his first days at the White House, a paranoid president gave a very specific order that the housekeeping staff touch nothing in his room, 'especially not his toothbrush.'
 

An excerpt of Wolff's book ran on Wednesday in New York Magazine as other tidbits began to leak elsewhere in news publications that obtained advance copies.  
Wolff writes that Trump was often the source of the embarrassing information that was later printed about him, complaining day and night on the phone to people he should not have trusted.
'He was a river of grievances, which recipients of his calls promptly spread to the ever-attentive media,' Wolff's excerpt says.
In one call, on Feb. 6, Trump complained about New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman - 'a nut job- columnist Gail Collins - 'a moron' - and CNN chief Jeff Zucker, who he said was 'made by Trump.'
Trump also complained about a Time magazine cover that branded Steve Bannon the shadow president.
'How much influence do you think Steve Bannon has over me?' Trump allegedly said. 'Zero! Zero!'
The president berated his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the same vein during the 26-minute call, the acquaintance of Trump supposedly told Wolff.
The excerpt also claims that Trump and his team had no intention of winning the election, and had run simply as a branding exercise before winning by accident.
On the day of the election Kellyanne Conway had spent the day calling reporters to blame Reince Priebus for the loss, hoping to land a job at one of their networks after the whole thing fell apart, Wolff writes.
For his own part, Trump was eyeing the idea of setting up a network of his own, and was shell-shocked when the results began going his way.

[size=10][size=18]White House pushes back against Bannon book's claims



[/size][/size]



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Wolff writes that Trump was often the source of the embarrassing information that was later printed about him, complaining day and night on the phone to people he should not have trusted. Trump is seen here on the phone early on his administration in the Oval Office


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President Donald Trump and former chief strategist Steve Bannon used to be so close they'd have dinner nearly evening, an explosive new book about Trump's first year in office reveals. Trump unloaded on Bannon today, though, after the former White House strategist dissed his son and son-in-law 

[size=34]Secrets of Trump's hair revealed - by Ivanka! [/size]

The color of the president's hair, described in the book as an orange-blond, is from Trump not leaving Just For Men in long enough
 Ivanka Trump has spilled the beans to her friends on how her father's unusual hairstyle came to be, author Michael Wolff's new book reveals. 
'She often described the mechanics behind it to friends: an absolutely clean pate – a contained island after scalp-reduction surgery – surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides and front, from which all ends are drawn up to meet in the center and then swept back and security by a stiffening spray,' Wolff wrote. 
The book also claims that the president, at age 71, is no longer a natural blond. 
'The color, she would point out in comical effect, was from a product called Just for Men – the longer it was left on, the darker it got,' Wolff said. 
Just for Men is usually used to hide gray hairs. 
'Impatience resulted in Trump's orange-blond hair color,' the forthcoming book, entitled 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,' said.


'In the space of little more than an hour... a befuddled Trump morphed into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump,' the book says.
'But still to come was the final transformation: suddenly, Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be, and was wholly capable of being, the president of the United States.'
After an unenjoyable inauguration during which Trump complained about his accommodation and fought openly with a teary-eyed Melania, he arrived in the White House where Bannon claims to have taken charge.
In the chaos of the first few weeks, during which nobody's role in the administration had been defined, Bannon pushed through a series of executive orders to draw a line under the Obama era and mark the start of the new Trumpian era.
Chaos was in part Bannon's strategy, the book claims, in part down to the total inexperience of the team, and in part down to Trump's own impulsive behavior.

What top officials and confidants REALLY think of Trump 

'Dumb as s***, a dope, and a f***ing idiot' are just some of the phrases used to describe Donald Trump, according to Wolff's book.
Treasury secretary Secretary Mnuchin, security adviser H.R. McMaster and media mogul Rupert Murdoch are just a few of those quoted as mocking the President's intellect.
Murdoch's slight allegedly came after a phone call he had with Trump after the President met with a high-level delegation from Silicon Valley.
Trump is said to have told Murdoch that the billionaires 'really need my help' and that Obama had been unfavorable to them during his term.
When Murdoch claimed that the tech industry had virtually run the Obama administration and had no need of his assistance, Trump shrugged it off.
After putting the phone down, Murdoch was said to remark: 'What a f***ing idiot.' 

Amidst this turbulence, Bannon, Kushner and Priebus all vied for Trump's attention, each knowing that whoever spoke to him last wielded the greatest influence.
This sparked a daily war which was fueled by Trump's own unguarded comments about his senior staff during nightly phone calls with friends.  
The President used these calls speculate on the flaws and weaknesses of each lieutenant vying for his attention, in scathing and often personal remarks.
Chief strategist Steve Bannon was disloyal and always looked like s**t, chief of staff Reince Priebus was weak and too short - a midget - while press secretary Sean Spicer was an idiot who also dressed terribly.
Counselor Kellyanne Conway was derided as a crybaby and son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner was branded a suck-up who should never have come to Washington with wife Ivanka, the book claims Trump said.
After the excerpt ran, Trump issued an extraordinary statement bashing Bannon, who went on the record to Wolff. 
Trump's White House press secretary sent out a statement of her own that called the book 'trashy tabloid fiction' full of 'false and misleading accounts' after the president's longtime consigliere was quoted trashing Donald Trump Jr. and claiming his father would have immediately been made aware of an infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians.
Bannon claimed a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer, supposedly to obtain unflattering information about Hillary Clinton, was 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic,' prompting an unprecedented brushback of the former White House aide from the president.
'Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,' Trump said in a statement provided by the White House that torches his former chief strategist. 'When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.'

[size=34]'One of the best things in life is bedding your friends' wives'[/size]

President Trump has no doubt considered himself a Lothario in the past, but now a new book has claimed The Donald bragged that sleeping with his friends' wives makes 'life worth living.'
In one of the many passages of Michael Wolff's book, 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,' being circulated online in advance of its January 9 release, Wolff details how Trump would go about using jealousy and revenge to get his pals' wives into bed with him.
'In pursuing a friend's wife, he would try to persuade the wife that her husband was perhaps not what she thought,' by having her secretly listen in on speakerphone for a meeting that Trump would have with her husband in his office.


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Shocking allegations: President Trump is accused of trying to sleep with his friend's wives by secretly putting the wife on speaker phone while having lewd conversations about sex with their husbands
Trump would have his secretary ask the husband to come by his office where he would engage in 'more or less constant sexual banter,' the book alleges.
'Do you still like having sex with your wife? How often? You must have had a better f--k than your wife?' Wolff's book suggests Trump would ask his friends whose wives he would pursue.
'Tell me about it. I have girls coming in from Los Angeles at three o'clock. We can go upstairs and have a great time. I promise,' Trump would continue to goad.
Right after the lurid passage, a friend describes Trump to Wolff as having a lot in common with former President Bill Clinton.
'Except that Clinton had a respectable front and Trump did not,' the source spills. 





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Hours before sweeping to electoral victory Kellyanne Conway, then managing the Trump campaign, had confidently predicted defeat and was trying to line herself up an on-air job at a news network, it is claimed


+14


Trump told friends over the phone that daughter Ivanka and husband Jared should never have come to Washington, while deriding him as a suck-up who 'has a lot to learn'
Trump's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, then told reporters that the president was 'furious' and 'disgusted' by Bannon's assault on the president's son and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also attended the Trump Tower meeting. 
The White House's full-scale attack on Bannon, who was once one of Trump's top advisers, was ripe with personal slights, exposing a dramatic rift between the president and the conservative provocateur who is also the Breitbart News executive chairman.

Ivanka and Jared Kushner have a Clinton-style pact that SHE will run for president 

The president's elder daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner are said to have a pact that she will run for president if the opportunity arises, in a pact reminiscent of the Clintons
Wolff also writes that Trump believes that Kushner is a 'suck-up' and has griped that the couple shouldn't have moved to Washington.
In the chapter of the book that ran on Wednesday, Wolff says, among other things, of Jared and Ivanka that they took West Wing jobs, working for Ivanka's father, 'over the advice of almost everyone they knew.'
'It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job,' the excerpt states. 'Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president.'
Wolff states, 'The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.'
The proposal, which was not directly sourced to anyone, elicited horror from foe Steve Bannon, who the author did interview.
 
 

It followed Bannon's comments undercutting the president's eldest son and a suggestion that Donald Trump was involved in the 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer that Bannon is now quoted as saying should have been reported to the FBI.
'Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican Party,' Trump said. 'Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn't as easy as I make it look.'
Trump said Bannon 'doesn't represent my base, he's only in it for himself' and 'had very little to do' with his victory, but 'everything to do' with the loss of the Alabama Senate seat.
The cutting statement went on to say, 'Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was.'
Bannon backed losing candidate Roy Moore, who Trump ultimately campaigned for in the special election after claiming the Republican would have a tough time winning the general election and endorsing his primary opponent.
Sanders said Wednesday that the loss contributed to the falling out between the president, who last spoke to Bannon sometime in early December.
Accusing the president's son of treason is also not a way to 'curry favor' with Trump, she stated, calling the allegation 'ridiculous.'
'I think there are a number of factors that played in,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I would certainly think that going after the president's son and an absolutely outrageous and unprecedented way, is probably not the best way to curry favor with anybody.'

[size=34]'Steve Bannon not only lost his job, he lost his mind': Trump rains fire and fury as ex-aide claims there is 'zero chance' Don Jr didn't introduce Russians to his father [/size]

President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary statement bashing former top advisor Steve Bannon after the president's longtime consigliere was quoted trashing Donald Trump Jr. and claiming his father would have immediately been made aware of an infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians.
Bannon claimed a Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer, supposedly to obtain unflattering information about Hillary Clinton, was 'treasonous' and 'unpatriotic,' prompting an unprecedented brushback of the former White House aide from the president.
'Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,' Trump said in a statement provided by the White House that torches his former chief  strategist. 'When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.'


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Steve Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News Network LLC, speaks during a campaign rally for Roy Moore, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Alabama
Trump's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, then told reporters that the president was 'furious' and 'disgusted' by Bannon's assault on the president's son and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also attended the Trump Tower meeting.
And late on Wednesday evening, attorneys for Trump issued a cease and desist letter to Bannon threatening legal action. 
Trump attorney Charles Harder said in a statement: 'This law firm represents President Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
'On behalf of our clients, legal notice was issued today to Stephen K. Bannon, that his actions of communicating with author Michael Wolff regarding an upcoming book give rise to numerous legal claims including defamation by libel and slander, and breach of his written confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement with our clients. Legal action is imminent.'
The cease and desist letter reads in part: 'You [Bannon] have breached the Agreement by, among other things, communicating with author Michael Wolff about Mr. Trump, his family members, and the Company [the campaign], disclosing Confidential Information to Mr. Wolff, and making disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements to Mr. Wolff about Mr. Trump, his family members.'


The White House's full-scale attack on Bannon, who was once one of Trump's top advisers, was ripe with personal slights, exposing a dramatic rift between the president and the conservative provocateur who is also the Breitbart News executive chairman.
It followed Bannon's comments undercutting the president's eldest son and a suggestion that Donald Trump was involved in the 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer that Bannon is now quoted as saying should have been reported to the FBI.
'Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican Party,' Trump said. 'Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn't as easy as I make it look.' 
Trump said Bannon 'doesn't represent my base, he's only in it for himself' and 'had very little to do' with his victory, but 'everything to do' with the loss of the Alabama Senate seat. 
The cutting statement went on to say, 'Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was.' 
Bannon backed losing candidate Roy Moore, who Trump ultimately campaigned for in the special election after claiming the Republican would have a tough time winning the general election and endorsing his primary opponent. 
Sanders said Wednesday that the loss contributed to the falling out between the president, who last spoke to Bannon sometime in early December.
Accusing the president's son of treason is also not a way to 'curry favor' with Trump, she stated, calling the allegation 'ridiculous.' 
'I think there are a number of factors that played in,' she told DailyMail.com. 'I would certainly think that going after the president's son and an absolutely outrageous and unprecedented way, is probably not the best way to curry favor with anybody.'

After the press briefing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose wife Callista is U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, walked through a press work space on his way to a Fox News interview.
'Bannon has no contingent,' he told DailyMail.com and another reporter ripping into the former White House aide. 'There's a Trump wing of the Republican Party. There's not a Bannon wing.' 
The White House had also rejected the notion that feud would weaken Trump's base.
'The base and the people that supported this president supported the president and supported his agenda, those things haven't changed,' Sanders said at her briefing. 'The president still exactly who he was yesterday as he was two years ago when he started out on the campaign trail.' 
Trump's spokeswoman said, 'Look at all he's accomplished, I think they're pretty happy with where he is.'
President Trump had also sought to discredit Bannon, considered to have a played a key role in shaping his own victory.
'Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books,' the president said.
The blast came just hours after Bannon was revealed to have called the infamous June 2016 meeting between top Trump campaign officials and Russians 'treasonous.'
Further, Bannon expressed certainty that then-candidate Donald Trump would have been made aware of the meeting at the time – a claim that, if verified, could play into a collusion narrative being explored by special counsel Robert Mueller.


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Trump said Bannon 'spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was'
Bannon, who held a top role in the campaign, shares his disdain in Michael Wolff's forthcoming book, excerpts of which were published Wednesday, that other top officials went into the Trump Tower meeting blind instead of dispatching a legal team to vet information in a hand-off way and failing to alert authorities of a possible crime.
'Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately,' Bannon mused.
He went after Donald Trump Jr. explicitly for participating, then expressed certainty about what happened next.
'The chance that Don Jr. did not walk these Jumos up to his father's office of the 26th floor is zero,' Bannon said, in an excerpt from 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.'
'The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers,' Bannon vented in excerpts in the book obtained by the Guardian. 

The White House issued a separate statement from Sanders before her daily news conference trashing the expose.
'This book is filled with false and misleading accounts from individuals who have no access or influence with the White House,' Sanders said.
'Participating in a book that can only be described as trashy tabloid fiction exposes their sad desperate attempts at relevancy,' she added. 
Stephanie Grisham, communications director for Melania Trump, responded to claims in the book that the first lady cried when Trump the election because she never expected him to win.
'The book is clearly going to be sold in the bargain fiction section. Mrs. Trump supported her husband's decision to run for President and in fact, encouraged him to do so. She was confident he would win and was very happy when he did,' Grisham said.
The book also claims the Trump have separate bedrooms in the White House.
NBC News reported Bannon's comment about the chance Donald Trump also met the Russians.
Sanders pointed to Trump's previous denials of collusion when it came up at her news conference. 
Trump Jr. told the House Intelligence Committee during testimony that he did not tell his father about the meeting at the time it took place, the Washington Post reported in December.
He told Fox News host Sean Hannity after word of the meeting broke: 'In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.'
He said he did not tell his father about the meeting because nothing came of it.
'It was just a nothing,' the president's son said. 'There was nothing to tell.' 
Attending the meeting were Donald Trump Jr., Trump son in law and Bannon's White House rival Jared Kushner, and former campaign chair Paul Manafort, who has since been indicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges.
They met with Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya after an offer of potential dirt on Hillary Clinton got dangled to Trump Jr. via an email approach.    
'They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,' Bannon, a former Naval officer and Goldman Sachs employee who runs Breitbart News, said of the president's eldest son.
They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV
He laid out how the campaign should have handled such an approach. If any meeting happened, it should have been done 'in a Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire, with your lawyers who meet with these people'. That would allow information to get 'dump[ed] … down to Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication,' he said, referencing the Breitbart News site he runs. 


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'They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,' Bannon said of the president's eldest son, who attended the Trump Tower meeting


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A picture taken on November 8, 2016 shows Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya speaking during an interview in Moscow


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Bannon took new shots at his rival Trump son in law Jared Kushner. He predicts special counsel Mueller will go after top officials on money laundering to get to President Trump


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White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (R) listens to U.S. President Donald Trump at the beginning of a meeting with government cyber security experts in the Roosevelt Room at the White House January 31, 2017 in Washington



Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon speaks during the Asahi Shimbun interview on November 16, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan
'You never see it, you never know it, because you don't need to … But that's the brain trust that they had,' he said dismissively.
Trump named Bannon as chief executive of his campaign in August 2016, two months after the Trump Tower meeting with Russians occurred.  
Bannon, who says he continues to advise President Trump, also issued predictions about the Mueller probe.   
'You realize where this is going,' he said. 'This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Wessman first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f***ing Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner … It's as plain as a hair on your face,' he said.
According to the Guardian, Bannon insisted that he doesn't know Russians, won't be a witness in the related probes, won't hire a lawyer and won't end up on TV answering questions.
Trump Jr. has denied doing anything improper and says he got nothing of value out of the meeting. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges. Kushner's lawyers say he is cooperating with investigators. 
The book also quotes a friend of President Trump confidant Tom Barrack as having told a friend: ''He's not only crazy, he's stupid.'

I'm still asking myself shen Trump is actually WORKING. I mean, I always had the impression that it's a hard job reigning a country, you have to read a lot of stuff, need to be at countless meetings, discuss with staff members about how you can improve living conditions for your people and - if possible - for the rest of the world, figure out where you need to compromize and plan strategies etc.

So how does this POTUS watch tv for hours, finishes working at 6.30 p.m. and goes to golf courses several times a week AND does the job he was elected to do? WHO RUNS THE STATES?

Donnamarie wrote:Lizzy, I didn’t remember that story but was intrigued so I just googled it and I think I found what you referenced from DailyKos.  Here’s a link.  Hope I got it right. 

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/7/30/1407166/-Catholic-Nun-Explains-Pro-Life-In-A-Way-That-May-Stun-The-Masses

Donnamarie - Sorry I didn't thank you sooner, but I just found your post a moment ago. Don't know how I missed it before, but I did. This is exactly the story I was looking for. It sums up what I've believed for a long time: if you insist on children being born but aren't willing to care for them once they are here, you are morally unqualified to make decisions about their births.

Thanks again!

She is exactly right.

Lizzy, you’re welcome!  I was so impressed by this woman’s thoughtful and salient words.

annemarie, thanks for the latest post.  Have to say that I wasn’t shocked by anything Wolff says in the excerpts released yesterday.  I think many of us here probably already knew on some level that Trump is almost exactly as Wolff described.  We’ve all read from other reporters’ accounts of what goes on in the White House is pretty disturbing.

Carol, I suspect that Trump doesn’t do any real work in the White House.  Which is in sharp contrast to all other Presidents.  Trump is definitely an aberration.
I think this book is going to confirm what many international leaders have been thinking about this man since he has been in office.  He doesn’t know anything.  He is such an embarrassment on the world stage.

http://people.com/politics/trump-calls-author-a-total-loser-claims-steve-bannon-cried-when-he-got-fired-in-twitter-rant/

Donald Trump has tweeted another response to Michael Wolff’s headline-making book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, and for the third time (in one day) the president called Steve Bannon “sloppy.”
Late Friday evening, Trump went on a Twitter spree, before zeroing in on the the author, whom he called “a total loser.”
“Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book,” the commander-in-chief wrote about Fire & Fury, which was released four days early on Friday due to high demand.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted that he did not allow Wolff access to the White House. (Wolff has since denied that’s true.)

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

[ltr]Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://twitter.com/gop/status/949395088735723520 …[/ltr]
11:32 PM - Jan 5, 2018

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Twitter Ads info and privacy

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“[Wolff] used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!” Trump also tweeted on Friday.
In a previous statement on Jan. 3, Trump blasted his former senior counselor, playing down Bannon’s role as a mere “staffer,” and saying he had “lost his mind” after being dismissed from the administration in August, over a year after the former Breitbart News chairman was announced as the White House chief strategist days after the 2016 presidential election on Nov. 13.
Trump’s lawyers have served Bannon with a cease and desist letter that claimed his statements in Fire & Fury constitute “defamation by libel and slander,” and violate a non-disclosure agreement Bannon signed as a campaign employee.

[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-calls-author-a-total-loser-claims-steve-bannon-cried-when-he-got-fired-in-twitter-rant%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2018%2F01%2Ftrump-wolff-2000a.jpg&description=Trump Calls Author %27a Total Loser%27 %26amp; Claims Steve Bannon %27Cried When He Got Fired%27 In Twitter Rant][/url]

John Lamparski/WireImage; Muylaert Sebastien/action p/REX/Shutterstock
Also on Friday, Trump said in a tweet that the book was “full of lies, misrepresentation, and sources that don’t exist,” and called Bannon, “Sloppy Steve.” In a follow-up response, Trump reiterated Bannon’s nickname in a new tweet commending the Mercer family, the billionaire political donors, for cutting ties with the newly dubbed “Sloppy Steve.”
And Twitter couldn’t get enough of Trump’s new nickname for Bannon. (Even Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., called him “Sloppy Steve.”)
Not only was the release of Wolff’s exposé moved up half a week early, people are checking it out from libraries as fast as Harry Potter.
In addition to Bannon’s statements in the book, Wolff’s reporting sheds new light on the alleged dysfunction in his marriage with wife, First Lady Melania.

[url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-calls-author-a-total-loser-claims-steve-bannon-cried-when-he-got-fired-in-twitter-rant%2F&media=https%3A%2F%2Fpeopledotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2018%2F01%2Fsteve-bannon-trump.jpg&description=Trump Calls Author %27a Total Loser%27 %26amp; Claims Steve Bannon %27Cried When He Got Fired%27 In Twitter Rant][/url]

US President Donald Trump (L) congratulates Senior Counselor to the President Stephen Bannon during the swearing-in of senior staff in the East Room of the White House on January 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. / AFP / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Wolff describes how the couple would sometimes go days at a time without contact during Trump’s presidential campaign — even when they lived together in Trump Tower.
“He and Melania spent relatively little time together… Often she did not know where he was, or take much notice of that fact,” Wolff writes, noting that Mrs. Trump also didn’t know about or show much interest in her husband’s business.
Trump also often spoke of his wife when she wasn’t there, referring to her proudly and without irony as his “trophy wife.” “He admired her looks — often, awkwardly for her, in the presence of others,” Wolff said.
Stephanie Grisham, communications director for the first lady, denied details of Wolff’s book in a statement obtained by PEOPLE, “This book is clearly going to be sold in the bargain fiction section. Mrs. Trump supported her husband’s decision to run for president and in fact, encouraged him to do so. She was confident he would win and was very happy when he did.”

Trump did a huge disservice to himself during the campaign and for the last year.  He lies all the time.  So even if some of what Wolff has written about Trump may be false there is no way anyone who is critical of Trump will ever believe him.  He has no credibility.

Not surprised by the comments on Trump’s marriage,  I only feel sorry for Trump’s son Baron.  I have never even seen Trump hug his son in public.  I’ve never seen a photo of the two of them engaged in conversation.  It’s really sad.