What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Valmy]

As so the President can just dump Senate approved treaties as well? I guess that makes sense when I think about it.

[Admiral Yi]

As so the President can just dump Senate approved treaties as well? I guess that makes sense when I think about it.

I think most treaties have an exit clause.  For example Bush Jr. opted out of ABM.

[CountDeMoney]

Man, there is simply no limit to the amount of fat, juicy Russian cock the Donald will suck.

National Security
Trump administration moves to return Russian compounds in Maryland and New York
The Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung and Adam Entous
May 31 at 7:16 PM

The Trump administration is moving toward handing back to Russia two diplomatic compounds, near New York City and on Maryland's Eastern Shore, that its officials were ejected from in late December as punishment for Moscow's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

President Barack Obama said Dec. 29 that the compounds were being "used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes" and gave Russia 24 hours to vacate them. Separately, Obama expelled from the United States what he said were 35 Russian "intelligence operatives."

Early last month, the Trump administration told the Russians that it would consider turning the properties back over to them if Moscow would lift its freeze, imposed in 2014 in retaliation for U.S. sanctions related to Ukraine, on construction of a new U.S. consulate on a certain parcel of land in St. Petersburg.

Two days later, the U.S. position changed. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a meeting in Washington that the United States had dropped any linkage between the compounds and the consulate, according to several people with knowledge of the exchanges.

In Moscow on Wednesday, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Russia was "taking into account the difficult internal political situation for the current administration" but retained the option to reciprocate for what he called the "expropriation" of Russian property "if these steps are not somehow adjusted by the U.S. side," the news outlet Sputnik reported.

Senior Tillerson adviser R.C. Hammond said that "the U.S. and Russia have reached no agreements." He said the next senior- level meeting between the two governments, below the secretary of state level, will be in June in St. Petersburg.

Before making a final decision on allowing the Russians to reoccupy the compounds, the administration is examining possible restrictions on Russian activities there, including removing the diplomatic immunity the properties previously enjoyed. Without immunity, the facilities would be treated as any other buildings in the United States and would not be barred to entry by U.S. law enforcement, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

Any concessions to Moscow could prove controversial while administration and former Trump campaign officials are under congressional and special counsel investigation for alleged ties to Russia.

Changes in the administration's official posture toward the compounds come as Russian media recently suggested that Kislyak, about to leave Washington after serving as ambassador since 2008, may be proposed by the Kremlin to head a new position as U.N. undersecretary general for counterterrorism.

Kislyak, who met and spoke during the campaign and transition with President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn; Trump's White House adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and others, is known to be interested in the post. His replacement as ambassador, Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Antonov, was confirmed last month by the Russian Duma, or parliament. Officials in Moscow said Russian President Vladi­mir Putin will officially inform Trump of the new ambassador when the two meet in July, at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg. It will be Trump's first meeting with Putin as president.

The U.N. General Assembly must first approve establishment of the counterterrorism slot, part of a larger U.N. reorganization and the first new post at that level for decades.

Russia will almost certainly claim the slot as the only member of the five permanent members of the Security Council without one of its nationals in a senior U.N. position. Jeffrey Feltman, a former senior U.S. diplomat, is undersecretary-general for political affairs; comparable jobs for peacekeeping, humanitarian affairs and economic affairs are held, respectively, by nationals from France, Britain and China.

Secretary General António Guterres will decide who fills the new job, although both Russia and the United States are expected to make their views known.

Kislyak has repeatedly rejected descriptions of him in the U.S. media as a spy. Asked whether U.S. intelligence considered him to be one, James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, told CNN on Sunday that "given the fact that he oversees a very aggressive intelligence operation in this country — the Russians have more intelligence operatives than any other nation that is represented in this country, still even after we got rid of 35 of them — and so to suggest that he is somehow separate or oblivious to that is a bit much."

The Russian compounds — a 14-acre estate on Long Island and several buildings on secluded acreage along the Corsica River on Maryland's Eastern Shore — have been in Russian possession since the days of the Soviet Union. According to a Maryland deed in 1995, the former USSR transferred ownership of the Maryland property to the Russian Federation in 1995 for a payment of one dollar.

Russia said it used the facilities, both of which had diplomatic immunity, for rest and recreation for embassy and U.N. employees and to hold official events. But U.S. officials dating to the Reagan administration, based on aerial and other surveillance, had long believed they were also being used for intelligence purposes.

Last year, when Russian security services began harassing U.S. officials in Moscow — including slashed tires, home break-ins, and, at one point, tackling and throwing to the ground a U.S. embassy official entering through the front of the embassy — the Obama administration threatened to close the compounds, former Obama officials said.

In meetings to protest the treatment, the Obama administration said that it would do so unless the harassment stopped, and Moscow dropped its freeze on construction of a new consulate to replace the one in St. Petersburg, considered largely unusable because of Russian spying equipment installed there. Russia had earlier blocked U.S. use of a parcel of land and construction guarantees in the city when sanctions were imposed after its military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.

The threat of closing the compounds was not pursued. In late December, after U.S. intelligence said there had been election meddling, and in response to the ongoing harassment in Moscow, Obama ordered the compounds closed and diplomats expelled. "We had no intention of ever giving them back," a former senior Obama official said of the compounds.

Trump, then at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, appeared to disparage the Obama administration sanctions, telling reporters, "I think we ought to get on with our lives."

Surprisingly, Russia did not respond. It later emerged that Flynn, in a phone conversation with Kislyak, had advised against retaliation and indicated that U.S. policy would change under the Trump administration.

The Kremlin made clear that the compound issue was at the top of its bilateral agenda. Russia repeatedly denounced what it called the "seizure" of the properties as an illegal violation of diplomatic treaties.

On May 8, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Thomas Shannon, traveled to New York to meet with his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on what the State Department described as "a range of bilateral issues" and what Russia called "irritants" and "grievances."

Ryabkov brought up the compounds, while Shannon raised St. Petersburg and harassment, suggesting that they deal with the operation of their diplomats and facilities in each others' countries separate from policy issues such as Syria and proposing that they clear the decks with a compromise.

Russia refused, saying that the compound issue was a hostile act that deserved no reciprocal action to resolve and had to be dealt with before other diplomatic problems could be addressed. In an interview with Tass, Ryabkov said Moscow was alarmed that Washington "carries on working out certain issues in its traditional manner, particularly concerning Russia's diplomatic property in the states of Maryland and New York."

Two days later in Washington, Tillerson told Lavrov that the United States would no longer link the compounds to the issue of St. Petersburg.

Immediately after their May 10 meeting at the State Department, Tillerson escorted Lavrov and Kislyak to the Oval Office. There, they held a private meeting with Trump. The night before, the president had fired FBI Director James B. Comey, who was then heading an FBI investigation of the Russia ties.

Comey, Trump told the Russians, was a "real nut job," and his removal had "taken off" the ­Russia-related pressure the president was under, the New York Times reported. Later in May, the Justice Department appointed former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel to oversee the federal investigation.

In a news conference at the Russian Embassy after his meetings with Tillerson and Trump, Lavrov said of the compound closures, "Everyone, in particular the Trump administration, is aware that those actions were illegal."

"The dialogue between Russia and the U.S. is now free from the ideology that characterized it under the Barack Obama administration," he said.

[garbon]

I just saw that Spicey's other new yesterday was that the Whitehouse will no longer take any questions on Trump and connections to Russia...

[Syt]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

We traveled the world to strengthen long-standing alliances, and to form new partnerships. See more at: http://45.wh.gov/tnmVr7

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump

I will be announcing my decision on Paris Accord, Thursday at 3:00 P.M.  The White House Rose Garden.  MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

[Zanza]

He is a reality TV star after all... so of course he creates drama.

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/01/nigel-farage-is-person-of-interest-in-fbi-investigation-into-trump-and-russia

Nigel Farage is 'person of interest' in FBI investigation into Trump and Russia

[Zanza]

They must be the only people who are still interested in him.

[garbon]

They must be the only people who are still interested in him.

[Syt]

Stolen from Twitter:


"Nigel Farage? Never heard of him."

[Ed Anger]

Mustache Rides: £1

[Caliga]

I'm confused why Trump tweeted that his children are having a hard time with what Kathy Griffin did. Beside the youngest that he mentioned, you'd think all of the adults would be able to handle it.

I don't believe for a second that Trump actually asked his children if Kathy's bit bothered them.  That would mean caring about other people's thoughts and feelings, something he isn't too good at.

[Syt]

https://www.thenation.com/article/covfefe-often-worse-crime/

The Covfefe Is Often Worse Than The Crime

Trump can't finish a tweet, but that hasn't stopped his administration from abandoning the Paris Climate Agreement, gutting civil rights, and eliminating the contraception mandate.

The man in the White House is melting down, like the second scoop of vanilla ice cream left sitting on the nightstand. At 12:06 am, Donald Trump tweeted: "Despite the constant negative press covfefe... and that was all. Radio silence descended on Trump's Twitter account.

Of course, midnight Twitter had a ball with it. But Trump supporters insisted that the president either did it intentionally, to mess with the haters, or was just showing his trademark disdain for conventions like correct spelling and complete sentences. Kayleigh McEnany, one of CNN's appalling Trump defenders, inanely tweeted, "Covfefe was not poll tested or focus grouped. Another reason our POTUS is simply great! He's human. He's real. He's just like us!" Comedian Travon Free won the night with "Ask your doctor if Covfefe is right for you," above a photo of a hot couple about to get it on. Around 6 am, someone deleted the "covfefe" tweet from Trump's account.

I mean, we know where Trump was probably going—"covfefe" is pretty easy to translate as "coverage." He was readying another whiny, self-pitying tweet about his press coverage; it's just another day ending in "Y." But the fact that the tweet trailed off in mid-sentence, ending in a misspelling, was another sign that something is wrong in the White House. It's not just one tweet, of course. You could maybe excuse "covfefe": He's tired. He just got back from an eight-day trip. The time zone shifts messed with him. He needed to use a golf cart while his G7 counterparts strolled around Taormina, Italy. We all have days like that. Maybe his second scoop of ice cream kicked in.

But this isn't the first time Trump's Twitter feed went haywire. I could pick dozens of examples, but to me the scariest was the day he went after the FBI director he'd just fired, James Comey, and warned him not to leak damaging information about their conversations because there might be "tapes." It looked like witness intimidation. That was worse than covfefe. I sat watching Twitter, wondering how far he would go before someone stopped him. Death threats? He stopped there, just as he stopped after "covfefe." Whew.

There is growing evidence that Trump is slipping. CNN reported Tuesday night that his friends and aides say he is growing angry and isolated. "I see him emotionally withdrawing. He's gained weight. He doesn't have anybody whom he trusts," one "confidante" told Gloria Borger (note to my confidantes: Please tell me, not the national media, if you notice that I have problems like this). He's even angry at son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner, who assured him he could fire Comey without political blowback. Now that Kushner's been named as a target of the FBI investigation, and papers are reporting that he tried to set up his own secret, secure communications channel with Russian officials before Trump's inauguration, we see why he was so anxious to fire Comey. But of course the move backfired, and Trump, Kushner, and other campaign and White House officials are now at the mercy of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump's first foreign trip, which hustlers tried to spin as a great success, was a disaster. In Israel, he wandered away from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking utterly bewildered (Netanyahu also looked confused, until someone nudged Trump back for their photo-op.) Then he blurted out, unasked, that he had never "mentioned the word or name Israel" during the conversation with Russian officials in which he reportedly divulged highly classified information about ISIS. No one had ever accused him of doing so; his outburst seemed to confirm that he had, in fact, shared the information with the Russians. He alienated many of his NATO and G7 counterparts, which might have been a deliberate move so that he could ride in his own private golf cart. Or maybe the golf cart is more evidence of Trump's decline. Or maybe no one wanted to walk with him. Who knows?

Scholars and psychologists are weighing in on the evidence of Trump's apparent "cognitive decline," at least. On the respected science and medicine site Statnews, Sharon Begley wrote a widely read piece interviewing linguists, neurologists, and psychologists about what Trump's limited speech patterns might indicate. "They all agreed there had been a deterioration, and some said it could reflect changes in the health of Trump's brain," she wrote. Begley continued:

In interviews Trump gave in the 1980s and 1990s (with Tom Brokaw, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Charlie Rose, and others), he spoke articulately, used sophisticated vocabulary, inserted dependent clauses into his sentences without losing his train of thought, and strung together sentences into a polished paragraph, which—and this is no mean feat—would have scanned just fine in print. This was so even when reporters asked tough questions about, for instance, his divorce, his brush with bankruptcy, and why he doesn't build housing for working-class Americans.

The experts Begley consulted also acknowledged "that the same sort of linguistic decline can also reflect stress, frustration, anger, or just plain fatigue."

We're not going to get the answers right now, but few people with any kind of power even seem to be asking these questions. Shamefully, congressional Republicans continue to furrow their distinguished Caucasian foreheads and express "concern," while doing absolutely nothing to rein Trump in—or even ask what's going on.

Meanwhile, heinous but deliberate policy emanates from the White House almost daily. Wednesday comes news Trump plans to yank the United States out of the Paris Accords on climate change, even though much of the nation's business leadership has urged him not to do so. On Tuesday we learned he—or someone—is preparing to erase the contraception mandate from the Affordable Care Act, giving companies wide latitude to opt out. The Washington Post reports that "the Trump administration"—no mention of who within it—is dismantling civil rights protections not just in the Justice Department, but in agencies from the EPA (no more "environmental justice" initiatives!) to the Labor Department (let's get rid of those pesky assholes who investigate discrimination in federal contracting, shall we?) These are far-right extremist actions. The contraception mandate move, in particular, seems like the work of Vice President Mike Pence. My point is: Work is getting done, but we don't know who's in charge.

Maybe Trump knows all of this. Maybe his crazy tweets provide some cover for the way his administration is quietly, determinedly unraveling the advances of the Obama presidency. Maybe he's trying to distract us from the advancing Russia investigation. But he should remember, even as he tweets: The covfefe is often worse than the crime.

[Savonarola]

From CNN:

'Covfefe' tells you all you need to know about Donald Trump
Sasse trolls Trump on Twitter -- to the tune of 'Covfefe's Etude in D major'
Clinton jokes covfefe 'a hidden message to the Russians'
Sean Spicer just had the worst possible answer to the "covfefe" question
President Trump's 'covfefe' moment
Trump, wake up and smell the 'covfefe'
We asked strangers to pronounce covfefe
Anderson Cooper reads best 'covfefe' tweets
What is 'covfefe' and why is it trending?
Franken: Covfefe means 'I gotta go to bed now'

What dire offense from twitterverse typos springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things

[Ed Anger]

The Orb will deal with them. ALL HAIL THE ORB