fyp

Another major flaw in this democracy plan we had. :/

No wonder they don't want to cave much in the budget talks, when a shutdown gives them everything they want outside of a wall anyway.

The story that came out trump inaug took 1M from some Russian-american the bush team didn't want to be associated with and gave it back reminded me of this.

This sounds like the fusion of "run government like a business, can't fail" management style. It's like every 'clever' project management or consultant working on a project that has oversold on budget and overpromised on features or product or whatever. So when push comes to shove and everyone realizes the project will be out of money long before anyone can deliver on the exaggerated promises, the project manager(s) will often sit in a room together and brainstorm just the cleverest ideas to make magic happen and get it done.

And at the end of the day they realize the only trick they have is to get people to somehow work harder/faster but with precisely no leverage, they have no idea how to actually make that happen either. So the solution is almost always, without fail -- the magical NEW MILESTONE DEADLINE: "Uh, yeah, we're gonna need you to wrap up literally all R&D, development, Q&A and documentation by the new DELIVERABLE MILESTONE OF DELIVERY" that management has asked for, this is really important to the project!"

Predictably hardly anyone ever falls for these false-urgency bull**** tactic things and the project fails anyway but it's like the go-to tool in the incompetent management toolbox.

Anyway, back to this story: you can tell a lot of the guys in the White House probably come from the middle management school of utter bull**** and think "an important deadline might help" through sheer force of will and their own wish-fulfillment. Congress is dumb but they aren't that dumb. Deadlines can work in business because time is money and finishing work and getting products to market or whatever is what everyone is incentivized to do. What do most of the GOP Congress give a **** about this deadline? Most of them are totally shielded from the downstream negatives and what Trump is presenting is way worse. What do they give a **** about a new deadline? How did that change the incentives for them at all?

This threat is toothless and everyone knows it. The threat here is basically do what the Trump Admin wants before the budget expires, the new magical deadline where if its missed, most of the downside risk resides with the Trump Administration. It's literally do what the Trump Admin wants or else the Trump Administration will self-immolate and make themselves more unpopular than they already are.

Trump's First 100: Days 81-90 - My Hat! No! WTF?

Day 81

• Missed from Day 80: At the same time that US ambassador to the UN Haley was calling for Assad's ouster in Syria, Sec of State Tillerson was calling for working with Assad to bring about a ceasefire there.
• WH budget chief Mulvaney sends memo to federal agencies telling them to prepare for major cuts in funding and staffing.
• Russian hacker Pyotr Levashov is arrested in Spain on a US international arrest warrant.
• Levashov's wife tells Spanish officials he is suspected of hacking the DNC and RNC in order to influence the 2016 US presidential election.
• US Navy claims it is deploying the USS Vinson carrier strike group to waters near North Korea
• China deploys 150,000 troops to North Korean border.

Day 82

• Tweets "North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A."
• Sec of State Tillerson changes his stance today, now says Assad's rule “is coming to an end."
• Tillerson also asks a group of European diplomats, “Why should U.S. taxpayers be interested in Ukraine?”
• Today is the second day of Passover. Press Sec. Spicer, attempting a comparison to Assad's chemical attack, says "You know, you had a — someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons”
• MSNBC, in the midst of the gaffe, posts the caption, known as a chyron, "(Hitler gassed millions)" on screen below their shot of Spicer.
• Sec. of Education DeVos rolls back student loan protections.
• Collection agencies with a history of abusive consumer service may now be given government contracts to collect student debt.
• It's reported that the FBI was granted a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign aid Carter Page.
• In order to get that type of warrant, the FBI needed to convince a judge that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.

Day 83

• Tweets, "Great win in Kansas last night for Ron Estes, easily winning the Congressional race against the Dems, who spent heavily & predicted victory!"
• It was a close and embarrassing win for Estes against the Dems, who spent virtually nothing and were expecting to lose by a larger margin.
• North Korea responds to US saber rattling with, "We will not miss a chance to sweep the imperialist group with a nuclear fire of justice."
• Chinese President Xi makes a phone call to Trump, urging him to find a peaceful solution with North Korea.
• In an interview, the president says that Xi gave him a brief history lesson on Chinese-North Korean relations and, "After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy."
• After describing in detail the dessert he was having with Xi at Mar-A-Lago to Fox Business news, president says he told Xi, "We've just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq."
• Press Sec Spicer, attempting to apologize for his gaffe on day 82, refers to Nazi death camps as "Holocaust Centers."
• Most agree this new term is too mild of a euphemism for the Nazi extermination camps that murdered 6 million Jews and other innocent victims.
• We are reliant on Russian media to report that Sec of State Tillerson met briefly with president Putin, as the Secretary travels without the American press.
• Tillerson says US-Russian relations are at a low point.
• He is standing with his diplomatic counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, when he says this.
• Budget director Mulvaney announces an end to the Federal government hiring freeze imposed on day 1 by the Trump administration.
• Mulvaney says he will replace the policy with "a smarter plan."
• Asked about the president's promise to eliminate the national debt by the end of his second term, Mulvaney says, "It’s fairly safe to assume that was hyperbole.”
• Asked about his tax reform plan, now more than a month after he'd promised to roll it complete, Trump says, "I have to do health care first,"
• He then repeats his claim that he has "a great health care plan that I think will happen."
• In another interview, says the WH doesn't have the authority to authorize payments to insurance companies that subsidize low cost health insurance for the poor.
• This is the linchpin of Obamacare. Remove the subsidies, and low-cost insurance to the poor will be taken away, and Obamacare will collapse.
• Says, "I don’t want people to get hurt. What I think should happen—and will happen—is the Democrats will start calling me and negotiating.”
• Announces that NATO is "no longer obsolete."
• And declares that China is no longer a currency manipulator.
• And decides that the Import-Export bank no longer needs to be abolished.
• Claims that Hillary Clinton was "guilty of every charge," that FBI director Comey "read out."
• Hillary Clinton was never charged with a crime.
• Another Trump cabinet member, EPA head Pruitt, has asked for funds for round-the-clock security for himself.
• Attorney General Sessions says, “I’m getting worried we’re not locking more people up.”

Day 84

• It's reported that on the day former Trump campaign head Manafort resigned, he received $20 milion in loans, $13 million of them tied to Trump business relations.
• In early 2016, intelligence services from the UK, the Netherlands and France reported suspicious interactions between Trump campaign figures and Russian agents to US Intelligence services.
• After being nudged out of his job at the EPA for interrupting policy meetings with bizarre unrelated statements, former Washington state Senator Don Benton is moved over to head the Selective Service program.
• Afghan officials claim that 36 Islamic militants were killed by a giant conventional bomb dropped by the US on the militants' tunnel complex.
• 90 days ago today, the president-elect tweeted, "My people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days!”
• The Trump administration has never initiated, nor has it ever announced plans for its own investigation into the Russian hacking scandal.
• It's possible that the president meant that the WH will have a full report on Russian hacking by Day 90 of his administration, which, to be fair, is still 6 days away.

Day 85

• Air China announces it will suspend flights to Pyongyang, North Korea, starting on Monday.
• Beijing warns North Korea though an editorial in a state-sponsored paper that they may limit oil shipments if North Korea goes ahead with a suspected nuclear test on day Day 86.
• Another golf outing for the president today in West Palm Beach.
• Citing the need for the president to seek advice from whomever he wants without being obligated to disclose who they are, the WH will keep its visitor records secret.
• CIA director Pompeo brands Wikileaks as "a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”
• This goes against the president's past frequent and glowing praise for Wikileaks.
• Attorney General Sessions says he's "surprised" that people don't seem to like his virulent anti-marijuana stance.
• Candice Jackson, the new head of the Office for Civil Rights for the Dept of Education, has complained in the past about suffering racial discrimination due to her white heritage.

Day 86

• Another day of golfing in West Palm Beach.
• Thousands march in 150 US cities, demanding the president release his income tax records.
• The president has reportedly made it clear that he wants a ride in the Queen's gold-plated horse carriage for his scheduled visit in October.
• This will bring about monumental logistical problems with providing security for this type of conveyance.
• The president's lawyers say that he is immune from the ongoing lawsuits against him for inciting violence at his election rallies because, "he is president of the United States."
• North Korean missile malfunctions and blows up almost immediately on a test flight.
• Vice president Pence arrives in South Korea.
• Senate majority leader McConnell says that tax reform, the next item on the Trump legislative agenda after health care, will "hopefully" pass by some time towards the end of this year.

Day 87

• From his private luxury Florida golf resort, tweets out two responses to the Tax Day protests.
• "I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?"
• "Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!"

Day 88

• Calls president Erdogan of Turkey to congratulate him on narrowly winning a referendum that will erode Turkey's democracy and give the leader near-dictatorial powers.
• Foreign observers report that up to 2.5 million votes may have been manipulated in the referendum. Erdogan says the observers should, "know their place."
• Tweets "The super Liberal Democrat in the Georgia Congressioal race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!"
• The candidate he's tweeting about, Democrat Jon Ossoff, is said to have an even chance to win a Congressional seat easily held by Republicans for the last few decades.
• Hosts the 139th annual Easter Egg Roll. Nashville-based band Martin Family Circus heads the list of entertainers.
• As he walks through the crowd at the event, two fans give the president their hats to sign. He signs each and throws them high in the air and carelessly back into the crowd.
• Tax preparation firms are reporting that income tax filings from ITIN holders are significantly down this year.
• ITIN holders do not have Social Security numbers. For the most part, they are illegal aliens who pay taxes. They paid $24 billion last year.

Day 89

• Tweets, "The weak illegal immigration policies of the Obama Admin. allowed bad MS 13 gangs to form in cities across U.S. We are removing them fast!"
• The MS-13 gangs formed and grew in the early 2000's, during the first term of the Bush administration.
• Signs executive order designed to cut H1B guest worker visas for skilled foreign workers.
• H2B visas, for unskilled workers such as the maids at the president's luxury Mar-A-Lago resort, will be unaffected.
• Homeland Security Sec John Kelly says congress members who object to his policy of deporting illegal aliens for marijuana possession should "shut up and support the men and women on the front lines."
• Ivanka Trump, currently an unpaid government employee, joins her father in being awarded difficult-to-obtain Chinese trademark concessions for her brand of products.
• Last year, Apple Inc. lost a trademark battle in China, and has no exclusive right to sell its own iPhone logo on leather goods there.
• The USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, reported on Day 81 to have been steaming towards North Korea, is currently in the Sunda Strait near the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from the Korean peninsula.

Day 90

• Press Sec Spicer, asked about the Vinson carrier strike group, says "The president said we have an armada that’s going toward the peninsula. That’s a fact, it happened. It is happening, rather.”
• It's reported that Trump's inaugural committee raised $106.7 million, about twice as much as president Obama’s committee raised in 2009.
• Most of the million dollar plus contributions came from fossil fuel, pharmaceutical, financial and food and beverage corporations that stand to profit greatly from regulation shredding.
• Three current and former US officials report that two confidential documents have emerged from the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies.
• This institute is staffed by retired senior Russian foreign intelligence officials appointed by Putin.
• One document recommended a strong push by Russian agents on social media to encourage US voters to elect a president who will take a softer line towards Russia.
• The other document concluded that, it being likely at the time that Hillary Clinton would be elected, it was better for Russia to scale down its pro-Trump propaganda in favor of spreading doubts about the integrity of the election.
• The WH is reportedly pushing for another vote to repeal and replace Obamacare before Day 100, in order to have a legislative victory to tout by that deadline.
• The president says, "We are going to have a big win soon, because we are going to have health care and that's gonna happen."
• He says, "No administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days,”
• This record shows that the president has accomplished remarkably little in his first 90 days.

One more of these installments and we reach Day 100...alive, hopefully. Days 1-80 are in the sticky here http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/41...-days-1651105/

Thank you, sj

I see Trump's approval rating jumped up 5% (40% now) in the latest Q poll after 2 weeks of mild war games. Hopefully he won't notice.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/855024500039184385

Well, he did promise America a new reputation during his campaign.

He hasnt threatened to bomb Venezuela yet for taking the GM factory. Sad!

Turns out basically same Patriots attendance as for Obama. Different seating arrangements for some staff so they weren't in the photo. Per Patriots.

Where is Trump and his twitter declaring the FAKE NEWS? I'd have bet at least tree fiddy he'd have tweeted about the NYT photos of the Patriots visit by now.

The openly corrupt 45* administration continues to be openly corrupt.

Exxon Seeks U.S. Waiver to Resume Russia Oil Venture
https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-s...ons-1492620677

From December:
Behind the deep ties between Exxon's Rex Tillerson and Russia
http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/11/inve...tin/index.html

The 100 days log is a staggering thing. Being fully aware of what this doofus is, my jaw still drops with every update. Gods work.

Pretty sure Ted Nugent threatened to kill Obama and Hillary and should probably be on a secret service/home land security watch list.

Remember when the Patriots said the guy called himself "the inflator" because he was working out a lot?

Could be wrong, but I thought I read yesterday that 50/53 players showed up in 2015 while only 34/53 showed up for Trump.

Sounds like the Pats are becoming more tight-aggressive.

Some players sat on their couches at home. That is technically a different seating arrangement for some staff.

Ted Nugent should absolutely be in jail for threatening to kill Obama.

This is actually worth digging into. The Pats, clearly on Trump's urging to Kraft, tried two different explanations:

1)


Of course, then the question became how many players went, and it turned out only 3 skipped Obama while almost half the team skipped Trump.

So the Pats came up with round 2:


Presumably they ran through their old photos to find another time when a bunch of players skipped.

LOL the backchannel stuff here must have been DELIGHTFUL

Birds of a feather.

White House sidewalk to be closed to public permanently
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...source=twitter

Thanks guys!

After day 100, I'm going to ask tomdemaine to unsticky the sticky thread so people can post in it, and let it sink eventually as it becomes old news.

Kid Rock is EASILY the most presidential person in that picture.

Trump obviously tweeted about his crowd size again, as if people don't have eyes and can't count.

The papers should just run story after story like this, just piss him off every single day