Tag: Donald Trump

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56 Generals & Admirals Say Trump Trans Ban Would “Degrade Readiness”

In a statement sent to the Palm Center today, 56 retired General and Flag Officers said President Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military service members would cause “significant disruptions.”

The statement read, in part:

“The Commander in Chief has tweeted a total ban of honorably serving transgender troops. This proposed ban, if implemented, would cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy.

“As a result, the proposed ban would degrade readiness even more than the failed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. Patriotic transgender Americans who are serving— and who want to serve—must not be dismissed, deprived of medically necessary health care, or forced to compromise their integrity or hide their identity.

“President Trump seeks to ban transgender service members because of the financial cost and disruption associated with transgender military service. We respectfully disagree and consider these claims to be without merit.

“The RAND Corporation, as well as research in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the financial cost of providing health care to transgender troops would be, at most, $8.4 million per year. This amounts to one one-hundredth of one percent of the military’s annual health care budget. As for ostensible disruptions, transgender troops have been serving honorably and openly for the past year, and have been widely praised by commanders. Eighteen foreign nations, including the UK and Israel, allow transgender troops to serve, and none has reported any detriment to readiness.

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GOP Sen. Jeff Flake: “My Party Is In Denial About Donald Trump”

Excerpted from his new book, Conscience of a Conservative, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona goes all in deconstructing and taking responsibility for the process that gave rise to a President Trump.

Via Politico:

I will let the liberals answer for their own sins in this regard. (There are many.) But we conservatives mocked Barack Obama’s failure to deliver on his pledge to change the tone in Washington even as we worked to assist with that failure.

It was we conservatives who, upon Obama’s election, stated that our No. 1 priority was not advancing a conservative policy agenda but making Obama a one-term president—the corollary to this binary thinking being that his failure would be our success and the fortunes of the citizenry would presumably be sorted out in the meantime.

It was we conservatives who were largely silent when the most egregious and sustained attacks on Obama’s legitimacy were leveled by marginal figures who would later be embraced and legitimized by far too many of us.

It was we conservatives who rightly and robustly asserted our constitutional prerogatives as a co-equal branch of government when a Democrat was in the White House but who, despite solemn vows to do the same in the event of a Trump presidency, have maintained an unnerving silence as instability has ensued. To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties. And tremendous powers of denial.

[snip]

For a conservative, that’s an awfully bitter pill to swallow. So as I layered in my defense mechanisms, I even found myself saying things like, “If I took the time to respond to every presiden­tial tweet, there would be little time for anything else.” Given the volume and velocity of tweets from both the Trump campaign and then the White House, this was certainly true.

But it was also a monumental dodge. It would be like Noah saying, “If I spent all my time obsessing about the coming flood, there would be little time for anything else.” At a certain point, if one is being honest, the flood becomes the thing that is most worthy of attention.

At a certain point, it might be time to build an ark.

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Legal Jeopardy: President Trump Dictated Misleading “Russian Attorney Meeting” Statement Issued By Don Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. (L) and Donald Trump Sr. (R)

According to the Washington Post, President Trump himself dictated the statement his son Donald Jr. would initially release regarding his meeting with a “Russian government attorney.”

Whether it is criminal or not, it never looks good when someone who is being criminally investigated works to hide information or mislead. To release this statement under the guise of coming from Don Jr. was an organized effort to mislead the public.

Worse, the Donald’s own lawyer twice denied the president’s involvement in drafting the statement.

From the Washington Post:

Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

The claims were later shown to be misleading.

Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.

The extent of the president’s personal intervention in his son’s response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy.

As a refresher, this is the message that Donald Trump dictated for his son to release:

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.

“I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”

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Trump Takes Credit For U.S. Economy, Former Obama Comm Director Sets Him Straight

Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to take credit for the current conditions in the U.S., writing, “Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!”

Remember when Trump said unemployment numbers were fake?

It’s worth noting that the day the Donald took office, the stock market was already at an all-time high after risen nearly 150% from the depth of the great recession to Obama’s final day in the White House.

Regarding unemployment, Trump was fortunate to inherit an unemployment rate that had declined from 10% during the worst of the recession to 4.7% as President Obama left office.

Regarding border security, it’s good to know Trump says the border is “secure.” I guess we don’t need to build a wall on the Mexican border now.

In any case, it was President Obama’s former White House Communications Director, Dan Pfeiffer, who had the perfect response:

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Donald Trump Spends 43rd Day At Golf Course As President

While Donald Trump is working hard tapping on his Twitter feed, he has found the time to make his 58th visit to a Trump property, and his 43rd trip to a golf course as president.

Remember the old days – when Trump abhorred presidents playing golf?

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Trump Threatens GOP-Controlled Congress Over Health Care Reform

Donald Trump has spent the weekend on Twitter (for a change) attacking the lawmakers in his own party for not passing health care reform.

A few days ago, he advocated “letting Obamacare implode.”

But now, he’s back to berating the GOP-controlled Congress saying they should “demand” another vote.

I’m guessing Trump doesn’t understand that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t have to “demand” anything. He can call a vote anytime he wants. Like he did this week. When his bill failed to pass.

Among his current threats, Trump is promising to end “BAILOUTS for insurance companies and BAILOUTS  for Members of Congress.”

Remember when Trump was “the only one who can fix” these issues?

He also attacked China for not solving the world’s problems with North Korean aggression.

Trump is just yelling at people. When is he going to “lead?”

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Video: HRC Video Highlights Trump Lies To The LGBTQ Community

Despite weak assertions to the contrary, Donald Trump is no friend of the LGBTQ community.

And the Human Rights Campaign has released this video using his own words to make that clear.

In this week alone, the Trump administration proposed banning all transgender service members from the U.S. military; and, the Justice Department filed a “friend of the court” brief arguing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 offers no protections for LGBTQ folks.

But during the 2016 campaign, Trump attempted to underscore his “friendship” to us.

With friends like Trump, who needs enemies?

Watch the video below.

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Podcast: Antiretroviral Meds Prove Zero Spread Of Infection; President Trump Gets Push Back On Trans Military Ban; Philly Gay-Basher Claims “Self-Defense”

In this week’s podcast:

• A new study shows hiv+ men who take antiretroviral medication on a regular basis have pretty much zero chance of spreading the infection to others

• President Trump gets plenty of pushback on his proposed transgender military service ban

• Out singer/songwriter Wrabel releases powerful anthem of personal empowerment and community, “The Village,” in response to Trump’s trans military ban

• Convicted Philly gay basher Kathryn Knott now says she was acting in self-defense when she shattered the jaw of a gay man in 2014

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

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Trump To Police: “Please Don’t Be Too Nice”

Speaking to an audience of police officers in Long Island, New York, Donald Trump encouraged the officers not be “too nice” to folks they arrest.

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in. Rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’

“Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, you put your hand up like, ‘Don’t hit their head?’ And, they’ve just killed somebody? I said, ‘You can take the hand away.’”

Note the one guy in a cowboy hat on the right not applaud.

Remember when folks were considered innocent until proven guilty?

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Boy Scouts Of America Apologize For Trump’s Political Rhetoric “Inserted Into The Jamboree”

The Boy Scouts of America have apologized for President Trump’s unexpectedly political rhetoric during his speech at last week’s National Jamboree.

From BSA Chief Scout Executive Michael Surgaugh:

I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent.

The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition that has been extended to the leader of our nation that has had a Jamboree during his term since 1937.

It is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies. For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.

As you may know, the BSA received thousands of complaints from scouts and parents alike for the political nature of Trump’s address to the scouts.