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Donald Trump

Faustus

By Faustus,
in GF - General Forum

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Bruce Spanner
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‘Mild Symptoms’ same as Alex.   I hope the deplorable fuck has the worst, drawn out case possible, that riddles him.    I also want the name of every person to have died of the ‘China

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cloggypop Grand Master

cloggypop

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The former head of MI6 has said Donald Trump borrowed money from Russia for his business during the 2008 financial crisis.

 

Richard Dearlove told Prospect Magazine that “what lingers for Trump may be what deals – on what terms – he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money” when other banks and lenders would not risk the money, given Mr Trump’s history of bankruptcy. 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/richard-dearlove-mi6-trump-russia-money-2008-financial-crisis-us-election-a7684341.html

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magicrat Grand Master

magicrat

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Thought this was quite an interesting piece, Appears Bannon isn't going to call the shots. 


 


ew York Times columnist Frank Bruni said on Saturdaythat former Breitbart.com CEO turned senior White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s days were numbered in President Donald Trump’s administration from the moment his face appeared on the cover of Time magazine.


“If you’re any student of politics, you saw Steve Bannon on the cover of Time magazine in early February — ‘The Great Manipulator,’ it called him — and knew to start the countdown then,” Bruni wrote. “Dead strategist walking.”




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Other reports from White House insiders agree, Pres. Trump was deeply annoyed at seeing his adviser on the cover of Timebilled as the hand behind the throne.


“That doesn’t just happen,” Trump reportedly said when he saw the cover.


“He’d crossed the line that a politician’s advisers mustn’t, to a place and prominence where only the most foolish of them tread,” said Bruni. “Or at best he’d failed to prevent the media from tugging him there.”



“He was damned the moment he was cast as a puppeteer,” he continued. “That means there’s a puppet in the equation, and no politician is going to accept that designation, least of all one who stamps his name in gold on anything that stands still long enough to be stamped. Or whose debate performance included the repartee: ‘No puppet, no puppet. You’re the puppet.’”


The notoriously thin-skinned Trump was not about to be upstaged by an adviser he assumed would remain in the background.


“Politics is a tricky business,” Bruni explained. “Washington is a treacherous place and Trumplandia is downright brutal. In all three realms, you have to strike the right balance of self-promotion and self-effacement.”


Bannon overstepped his bounds, as far as Trump was concerned, hence the president’s statements last week publicly distancing himself from the “alt-right” white nationalist in interviews, calling him “a guy who works for me” and claiming not to have known him before the 2016 campaign.



Bruni said it must have stung for Bannon to hear his boss “lumping the lumpy tactician together with the concierges at Trump Tower, the groundskeepers at Mar-a-Loco and the makers of the meatloaf in the White House kitchen.”


“Trump’s allegiances are fickle. His attention flits,” Bruni wrote. “His compass is popularity, not any fixed philosophy, certainly not the divisive brand of populism and nationalism that Bannon was trying to enforce. Bannon insisted on an ideology when Trump cares more about applause, and what generates it at a campaign rally isn’t what sustains it when you’re actually governing.”


Bannon’s biggest mistake, Bruni said, was to pick a fight with one of Trump’s family members, son-in-law Jared Kushner. Breitbart went on an anti-Kushner tear, publishing a rapid-fire series of articles attacking him, only backing off when Kushner himself complained to the president.


“Consider Trump’s obsession with appearances, then tell me who has the advantage: the guy who looks like a flea market made flesh or the one who seems poised to pose for G.Q.?” Bruni said.


He concluded, “Bannon is still on the job, and Trump may keep him there, because while he has been disruptive inside the White House, he could be pure nitroglycerin outside. He commands acolytes on the alt-right. He has the mouthpiece of Breitbart News. He has means for revenge. He also has a history of it.”


Bannon should have borne in mind, said Bruni, that “if you want to be the Svengali, you have to play the sycophant. That was a performance beyond Bannon’s ken. He never had a chance.”


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Ne Moe Imya Grand Master

Ne Moe Imya

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She's trolling, surely. She doesn't even like him

 

Pretty sure that painting is by a guy who draws Jesus in lots of different scenarios to mock Christians.  He's done a bunch of them, there's one where Jesus is helping a guy build a house, helping some lady drive her car, etc.

 

Not sure about the tweet and whether she understood the satire.

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G Richards Grand Master

G Richards

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Just a quick comment on the church police thing, as I'm in the midst of debating policy for our church right now, as we look to move into new facilities in June. Basically there are three options that churches over here wrestle with:

 

1. Hire a police officer or two to be there in uniform, perhaps by the door or whatever, but someone in law enforcement that you pay for, to be present. (It's a separate issue for traffic. Lots of megachurches hire traffic police to help with traffic flow, particularly as services get out. That's a different issue, and for us, we're not big enough that we do that sort of thing).

 

2. Appoint your own security team within the church. If this is the case, they have to be well chosen (no vigilante types) and well trained. Within option two there are two key variables: armed or not. Some people say they should be armed, but others say the last thing you want in a crowded area are armed people. Second Amendment rights for the gun toting brigade come into play, and it gets a bit convoluted at this point, as you try to determine what to do.

 

3. Do nothing.

 

The reason why there is a perceived need for some sort of emergency response team, or security or whatever, is because there have been a few instances nationally of disaffected people coming and shooting someone in the congregation, or possibly the minister or whatever. Statistically the chances of something happening are very small indeed, but we live in the age of terrorism and there is a general sense of fear or heightened alertness to possible problems, no doubt added to by watching rubbish like Fox News and so on, but this is the way it is over here.

 

At one point in my ministry over here I took on a bunch of crooked leaders. One or two had their noses in the trough, and it was all back slapping and favors in return and so on. I don't want to overstate it, but it wasn't right. We had some ugly times as that was confronted, and Mrs G - not one for Fox News, and not one to be unduly alarmed by much - actually feared I would be shot. We actually closed the balcony for a stretch at one point, due to line of sight issues and someone being up there to shoot me down below. (I was threatened, for the record).

 

I know everyone on here (or most) has a good old laugh at religion and so on, but if you take typical scenarios like power, control and money, and then put them into any setting, including unfortunately the church, then it can get ugly.

 

Anyhow, we came through and prevailed and we have different systems and better accountability in place these days. But I digress.

 

Churches over here must wrestle with what they are going to do for security and various emergency situatons and so on. For the record, I'm in camp one or three. Hire a police officer to have a presence, if deemed necessary. This is very reassuring to most people. Or, do nothing. I'm not in favour of appointing your own team no matter what the good intention might be.

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