Nov 2023 Mod notice:
There may be other, more specific, threads about some aspects of US politics, but this one tends to act as a hub for all sorts of related news and information, so it's usually one of the busiest OTC threads.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines
before posting here.
Rumor-based, fear-mongering and/or inflammatory statements that damage the quality of the thread will be thumped. Off-topic posts will also be thumped. Repeat offenders may be suspended.
If time spent moderating this thread remains a distraction from moderation of the wiki itself, the thread will need to be locked. We want to avoid that, so please follow the forum rules
when posting here.
In line with the general forum rules, 'gravedancing' is prohibited here. If you're celebrating someone's death or hoping that they die, your post will get thumped. This rule applies regardless of what the person you're discussing has said or done.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Attorney General Jeff Sessions's choice to serve as his spokeswoman met with President Trump to assure him of her loyalty to his agenda so that she would be hired, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Sarah Isgur Flores, who has worked as an adviser for GOP candidates and organizations for at least a decade, told the president in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that she supported his agenda and would be honored to work in his administration, several sources familiar with the meeting told the Post.
The meeting was seen as necessary because Isgur Flores had criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign and would likely lose her chance at the job unless she met with Trump, according to the Post. Cabinet secretaries typically have the freedom to make their own hires.
Flores declined The Hill's request for comment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions's choice to serve as his spokeswoman met with President Trump to assure him of her loyalty to his agenda so that she would be hired, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Sarah Isgur Flores, who has worked as an adviser for GOP candidates and organizations for at least a decade, told the president in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that she supported his agenda and would be honored to work in his administration, several sources familiar with the meeting told the Post.
The meeting was seen as necessary because Isgur Flores had criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign and would likely lose her chance at the job unless she met with Trump, according to the Post. Cabinet secretaries typically have the freedom to make their own hires.
Flores declined The Hill's request for comment.
Trump's reported requests for loyalty have repeatedly emerged throughout his presidency, especially with figures close to the Russia investigation. Former FBI director James Comey testified that Trump told him he expected loyalty from him, which the White House has denied.
And Trump reportedly asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he was "on [his] team."
A GOP strategist close to the administration told the Post on the condition of anonymity that the White House's process for vetting appointees is "an oxymoron."
"There's only one answer," the strategist said. "Trump decides who he wants and tells people. That's the vetting process."
Just another reason for me to dislike Sessions. (I do like Rosenstien though.)
edited 30th Apr '18 3:02:42 AM by megaeliz
And let us not forget that even Sessions has been targeted by Trump for not kissing enough ass. Because for Trump no amount of ass kissing is truly good enough. Not even if Sessions had his lips surgically impanted on Trump's posterior.
edited 30th Apr '18 3:03:51 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedRussians followed up on Trump Tower meeting after election, Democrats say
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Friday that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya reached out to the Trump family after the election with a request to follow up on efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act, the 2012 Russian sanctions the US enacted over human rights abuses.
Veselnitskaya was the Russian lawyer at the center of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton but instead Veselnitskaya focused on the repeal of the sanctions.
(CNN) The Russian oligarch and Russian lawyer who were key players in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting reached out to Trump's team after Donald Trump was elected President to try to lobby on the Russian sanctions they sought to overturn, according to Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Friday that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya reached out to the Trump family after the election with a request to follow up on efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act, the 2012 Russian sanctions the US enacted over human rights abuses.
Veselnitskaya was the Russian lawyer at the center of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton but instead Veselnitskaya focused on the repeal of the sanctions.
"Clearly, there's an expectation there on the Russian side that they may now have success with the Magnitsky Act, given that the prior meeting and communications dealt with the offer of help," Schiff said. "It certainly seems like the Russians were ready for payback."
In addition, another effort to reach out to Trump's team after the election came from Aras Agalarov, the Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch who also has ties to the Trump Tower meeting. Agalarov, along with his pop-star son, Emin Agalarov, also worked with Trump to bring the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow.
The outreach from the Russians after the 2016 election was one of the new details that stemmed from the release of the Republican report on the Russia investigation, as well as a lengthy Democratic dissent that disputed the Republican conclusion there was no evidence of collusion between Trump's team and Russia.
In the dissent, Democrats cite a November 28, 2016, email from publicist Rob Goldstone to Trump's assistant, Rhona Graff, which said that "Aras Agalarov has asked me to pass on this document in the hope it can be passed on to the appropriate team."
"Later that day, Graff forwarded to Steve Bannon the email with Agalarov's document regarding the Magnitsky Act as an attachment, explaining, 'The PE [President Elect] knows Aras well. Rob is his rep in the US and sent this on. Not sure how to proceed, if at all.'"
Trump's team has denied there was any follow up after the Trump Tower meeting.
It's not clear that there was any response from the Trump team to the request from Veselnitskaya, or Agalarov. The Trump administration has not moved to roll back the Russian sanctions, and, in fact, new sanctions against Russia have been enacted.
CNN has previously reported additional outreach that came after the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Goldstone sent emails to Trump's team in the weeks following that meeting. But the overtures from Veselnitskaya and Agalarov are the first indication that the same Russians were still pushing to change the sanctions law after Trump was elected.
While the Democratic report released Friday does not mention Veselnitskaya's post-election outreach, a committee source said that she approached the Trump team following the election before the appeal from Aras Agalarov.
In the lead-up to the Trump Tower meeting, Goldstone told Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya had damaging information about Clinton that he claimed came from the Russian government. At the meeting, however, Trump Jr. said she did not provide damaging information, and instead focused on the repeal of the sanctions law.
People are still bitching about obama and the only reason we dont bring Bush is because Trump out dumb him in EVERYTHING. Really, Bush save himself for being the liberal target pratice now that Trump is here.
I feel unclean saying it but as much as I think Trump is a racist transphobe and probably on cocaine as the only thing keeping him from pure nonfunctional senility, I think Bush II is worse. Trump attacks science, hires idiots (then fires them), and attacks immigration but he's incredibly incompetent at his job.
Bush started wars which have killed hundreds of thousands of people, destabilized the world order, and allowed his cronies to pillage the money meant to help the poor to the point it killed many many more.
He is a much much worse president.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Unfortunately, Trump is competent enough to carry out his deportations and appoint terrible nominees who have done serious damage.
In all seriousness, how are we supposed to fix environmental problems if a large number of rich and powerful people won't cooperate and actively ignore the issue, or even worse sabotage efforts to fix them? It's flat-out depressing that people like Trump and Pruitt just don't care and can't be convinced to help, and have the power and megaphones to stop other people from helping.
edited 30th Apr '18 6:21:59 AM by Raptorslash
It's hard for me to say which is worse between Bush and Trump, but I think I ultimately have to fall in Trump being worse.
Whatever criticisms people rightfully have towards Bush, one thing I think even his harshest critics can't deny is he at least took the job of President of the United States seriously. That, quite honestly, means a lot to me.
edited 30th Apr '18 6:55:34 AM by sgamer82
Dubya actually tried to be President. He gave a damn about the job itself. Which may be the faintest praise to ever damn someone with, but I thought my standards couldn't sink any lower after him.
Now it's, "At least he wasn't Trump."
edited 30th Apr '18 6:41:56 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"How do people like Trump and Pruitt get ordinary people, not corporations, to oppose things like consumer/environmental protections and regulations? For example, I get the sense West Virginia woulld really benefit from retraining programs and worker protections.
Because the people who vote people like that into positions of power are also an issue here, since there are enough of them to cause problems.
A decades-long propaganda campaign in the form of right-wing "news" outlets (e.g. Fox News, Breitbart, etc.). There are undoubtedly people who have been raised on that, and who are old enough to blindly vote for whatever the pundits tell them to vote for.
"I have no idea what was in the roast,"
I saw the roast and I still think is in youtube, some highlights.
"Today we are here to remenber a man who create a empire and huge weath with nothing but dedication and hard work...of course, im taking about Donald trump father who he inherit all the money"
or
"And them you see Donald reading the script saying how much he love to be here with is lovely wife INSERT NAME HERE"
Or
"Donald and Melina have only one thing in comon: both like to said HIS name while having sex"
Other jokes were about him being cheap as hell or Meleena being almost a Mail bridge by how much an arm candy she was.
Damn I have to see that roast again.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"When comparing his administration to that of Bush, Trump has yet to start a series of wars that could very easily be the point future historians mark as the beginning of the end for the American unipolar moment. It’s almost impossible to detail the full scope of the damage the war in Iraq inflicted on the country and the world.
Bush was far more palpable domestically and in terms of his personality, but Trump’s ineptness and the de facto primacy of the military/intelligence bureaucracy in foreign policy decisions that has resulted from this has, at least thus far, prevented disasters of a similar magnitude.
edited 30th Apr '18 7:55:13 AM by CaptainCapsase
So, here's a picture of Interior Secretary Zinke, wearing a ranger uniform.
The Problem is, he's wearing the hat backwards.
To quote the NPS Official Uniform Regulations (bolding included):
edited 30th Apr '18 8:42:15 AM by megaeliz
![]()
Perhaps the only reason Trump hasn't done more damage is because he's so blatantly incompetent and everyone can see that. That's why it's hard for me to say who's worse, because while Trump has done less actual damage to human lives and livelihood, it's precisely because he doesn't take the job seriously, a detail that bothers me greatly.
Meanwhile:
"Exclusive: Democrats lose ground with millennials - Reuters/Ipsos poll" - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-millennials/exclusive-democrats-lose-ground-with-millennials-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN1I10YH
The article’s title is somewhat of an exaggeration. Trump is still hated among younger voters, and even white millenials are still leaning slightly in favor of democrats.
![]()
Support for the GOP is unchanged from 2 years ago, there’s just less support for democrats.
edited 30th Apr '18 9:06:42 AM by CaptainCapsase

This is disturbing.
Sessions aide pledged loyalty to Trump's agenda in order to be hired: report [1]
Sarah Isgur Flores, who has worked as an adviser for GOP candidates and organizations for at least a decade, told the president in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that she supported his agenda and would be honored to work in his administration, several sources familiar with the meeting told the Post.
The meeting was seen as necessary because Isgur Flores had criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign and would likely lose her chance at the job unless she met with Trump, according to the Post. Cabinet secretaries typically have the freedom to make their own hires.
Flores declined The Hill's request for comment.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions's choice to serve as his spokeswoman met with President Trump to assure him of her loyalty to his agenda so that she would be hired, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Sarah Isgur Flores, who has worked as an adviser for GOP candidates and organizations for at least a decade, told the president in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that she supported his agenda and would be honored to work in his administration, several sources familiar with the meeting told the Post.
The meeting was seen as necessary because Isgur Flores had criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign and would likely lose her chance at the job unless she met with Trump, according to the Post. Cabinet secretaries typically have the freedom to make their own hires.
Flores declined The Hill's request for comment.
Trump's reported requests for loyalty have repeatedly emerged throughout his presidency, especially with figures close to the Russia investigation. Former FBI director James Comey testified that Trump told him he expected loyalty from him, which the White House has denied.
And Trump reportedly asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if he was "on [his] team."
A GOP strategist close to the administration told the Post on the condition of anonymity that the White House's process for vetting appointees is "an oxymoron."
"There's only one answer," the strategist said. "Trump decides who he wants and tells people. That's the vetting process."
Mob Boss Trump.
edited 30th Apr '18 2:54:41 AM by megaeliz