monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Trump gets millions from golfers who get access

Dozens of lobbyists, contractors and others who make their living influencing the government pay President Trump’s companies for membership in his private golf clubs, a status that can put them in close contact with the president, a USA TODAY investigation found.

Members of the clubs Trump has visited most often as president — in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia — include at least 50 executives whose companies hold federal contracts and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials. Two-thirds played on one of the 58 days the president was there, according to scores they posted online.

Because membership lists at Trump’s clubs are secret, the public has until now been unable to assess the conflicts they could create. USA TODAY found the names of 4,500 members by reviewing social media and a public website golfers use to track their handicaps, then researched and contacted hundreds to determine whether they had business with the government.

The review shows that, for the first time in U.S. history, wealthy people with interests before the government have a chance for close and confidential access to the president as a result of payments that enrich him personally. It is a view of the president available to few other Americans.

Among Trump club members are top executives of defense contractors, a lobbyist for the South Korean government, a lawyer helping Saudi Arabia fight claims over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the leader of a pesticide trade group that sought successfully to persuade the Trump administration not to ban an insecticide government scientists linked to health risks.

Members of Trump’s clubs pay initiation fees that can exceed $100,000, plus thousands more in annual dues to his companies, held in a trust for his benefit.

The arrangement is legal, and members said they did not use the clubs to discuss government business. Nonetheless, ethics experts questioned whether it’s appropriate for a sitting president to collect money from lobbyists and others who spend their days trying to shape federal policy or win government business.

“I think we’re all in new territory,” said Walter Shaub, who recently resigned as director of the Office of Government Ethics after repeated clashes with the White House. “We never thought we’d see anyone push the outer limits in this way.”

I'm not current on what Trump has said about [Hillary] in toto. I don't know how anyone has the stamina to keep up with everything he says.

She does seem to vie for the spotlight, which is true AND stupid

and a burr in the ass of the ever-popular DNC.

I don't believe her. And with any luck, that's the last thing I'll have to write on this.

The new White House drug czar has quite an idea for where to put nonviolent drug users

As a congressman, Marino called for a national program of mandatory inpatient substance abuse treatment for non-violent drug offenders. "One treatment option I have advocated for years would be placing non-dealer, non-violent drug abusers in a secured hospital-type setting under the constant care of health professionals," he said at a hearing last year.

"Once the person agrees to plead guilty to possession, he or she will be placed in an intensive treatment program until experts determine that they should be released under intense supervision," Marino explained. "If this is accomplished, then the charges are dropped against that person. The charges are only filed to have an incentive for that person to enter the hospital-slash-prison, if you want to call it."

You guys focus exclusively on criticism of Trump and crew.

Lesser of two evils is dead...

If you were even-handed in your criticism, I wouldn't feel the desire to pull back the curtain on your sacred cow DNC.

I do not read Trump tweets.

The Idea Behind Fox News Channel Originated in the Nixon White House

"A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News" (read it here) is an unsigned, undated memo calling for a partisan, pro-GOP news operation to be potentially paid for and run out of the White House. Aimed at sidelining the "censorship" of the liberal mainstream media and delivering prepackaged pro-Nixon news to local television stations, it reads today like a detailed precis for a Fox News prototype. From context provided by other memos, it's apparent that the plan was hatched during the summer of 1970.

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If you were even-handed in your criticism, I wouldn't feel the desire to pull back the curtain on your sacred cow DNC.

Where has anyone suggested that the DNC be treated reverently?

NOT EVEN TRUMP VOTERS WANT THE DREAMERS DEPORTED: A new Morning Consult poll finds that 58 percent of Americans think the dreamers should be allowed to stay and become citizens, and another 18 percent say they should be legalized. Only 15 percent favor removing them. And:

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The same holds true for Trump’s electoral base. Two-thirds of self-identified Trump voters think the Dreamers should stay; only 26 percent think they should be deported.

It turns out that even Trump’s base doesn’t want to see the dreamers’ protections scrapped. As noted above, this is really nothing more than an empty gesture at this point, albeit one with enormous humanitarian
consequences.

U.S. loss but Canada's gain

University of California, Berkeley sociology professor Irene Bloemraad <snip>


"This is a group that has been really vetted and this is one of the reasons that I think that Canada should maybe step up and offer a pathway for at least some of these young people to go and help Canadian society and the Canadian economy."

She argues rescinding the DACA program is a loss for the U.S. but "young people who are currently documented or those who might be eligible would be a net gain to Canada."

"This is a humanitarian issue clearly, as these young people are going to be potentially subject to deportation."


Bloemraad tells Tremonti that economically "Dreamers" who often speak multiple languages other than English would be great for Canadian businesses.

"They have U.S. education. They've often worked in businesses that have branches or offices in Canada. I just don't see how Canada couldn't benefit from bringing some of these young people within Canadian Immigration."

(The name "Dreamers" is pure hype)

There needs to be an end to gutless legislators and overreaching Executives.