Greenwald: Even Americans Who Hate Trump Should Defend Him Against Attempted Coup

a reply to: Byrd

Political sabotage doesn't need a traditional military action.

originally posted by: D8Tee
a reply to: Byrd

Now... just ask yourself... if Clinton had won and if she was spending millions of dollars each weekend to go to Florida

So he's not allowed weekends off? What did you have to say when the Obamas went to Hawaii for two weeks? Do you think that didn't cost millions?

So far, Trump is costing us around $3 million extra for every weekend he goes to Florida - around $160 million per year just for his going to Florida (on top of other expenses.)

And presidents do NOT take weekends off - world economic and social and military problems don't stop just because the weekend's here. This is not a business. This is government.

BTW, we're also paying for his sons to go open golf clubs in Dubai and elsewhere

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Byrd

Political sabotage doesn't need a traditional military action.

But coup (which was mentioned in the title) does need military and political support.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Doesn't matter.

You already have half the country that hates Trump for no rational reason.
You have the media that can and will bias confirm the hatred with (cough) "trumped" up charges of anything that the half will eat up.
Along with establishment dems and republicans who actually despise the idea of real change and improvement, you have a perfect recipe for a coup d'état.

The establishment hates the idea of real change because they see the deep state as their power to wield.

Thing is that they're like the money hanging on to the back of a herding dog doing its thing.



Perfect metaphor! The politicians are the monkeys who think they have control over the dogs who are the Deep State while we're all the goats and sheep being rounded up.

a reply to: Byrd

So I guess Obama never, EVER left the White House for business anywhere in the United States, and if he did, it always cost zero dollars??? A weekend on business in Florida is not a vacation just because he chooses to sleep at his estate, within that state, no matter how far one reaches for the straws. When traveling in plane from Orlando, just about every part of the state is thirty minutes or less.

The Traveling President, this is a piece by fact check that breaks down and compares Air Force One flights to George Bush, who btw has recently released a wonderful book.

We checked with the U.S. Air Force's 89th Airlift Wing, which oversees the president's travel on Air Force One, to see what it had for the number of flights taken by Obama last year. The statistics the 89th Airlift Wing provided to us show that the president took 72 total "missions" and 177 total "sorties" in 2010. Missions are the number of trips the president took from Andrews Air Force Base and back, whereas sorties represent the number of individual flights in a mission.

Its another insight to compare a particular variable, AFO flights of past Presidents to get an idea of the routine nature of traveling the Country and world. If he is meeting citizens, officials, and conducting business, it is not a vacation, especially when he does it in a span of two or three days.

There just aren't straws long enough in this world that can be reached arguing this OP.

originally posted by: worldstarcountry
a reply to: Byrd

So I guess Obama never, EVER left the White House for business anywhere in the United States,

Correct. He didn't own any businesses, if you remember. US Taxpayers did not pay for the cost of his relatives to travel abroad to promote their businesses that he owned in part.

A weekend on business in Florida is not a vacation just because he chooses to sleep at his estate, within that state, no matter how far one reaches for the straws. When traveling in plane from Orlando, just about every part of the state is thirty minutes or less.

He could, as many have pointed out, vacation at properties of his that were closer and were NOT resort hotel-golf courses where the US taxpayers pay HIS COMPANY (he profits from his own stay) for him to stay there. And those places are closer to Washington DC - which is where the White House is.

Also, Mar-a-Lago is in Palm Beach, around 170 miles from Orlando.

The Traveling President, this is a piece by fact check that breaks down and compares Air Force One flights to George Bush
(snip)

To quote from the article you linked...

But the suggestion that Obama is traveling more often on the presidential plane, and traveling with larger entourages on international trips than past presidents, is badly mistaken.

So it'd be interesting to see how many sorties and how many missions Trump has been on during his first three weeks. Hopefully you will find that figure and report on it. You seem to have close tabs on Obama... so this is - 6 days so far that Trump's gone on golfing expeditions? And he's only been in office a month?

Its another insight to compare a particular variable, AFO flights of past Presidents to get an idea of the routine nature of traveling the Country and world. If he is meeting citizens, officials, and conducting business, it is not a vacation, especially when he does it in a span of two or three days.

I think we'd both agree that presidents, like doctors and lawyers (and computer geeks) and other professionals have to be "on call" 7 days a week, 365 days a year even when they're presumably relaxing. Every president does this kind of thing.

But no president before Trump actually stayed at a hotel property they owned and had other guests who paid (paid the president's company) to stay at the same place. And no other president had their own brand of water and foods sold at premium prices to their own hotel so they could charge us for that, too.

It's a type of double-dipping. We have to pay his hotel bill (which goes to his business) - and his business buys its water and food from his companies (so we pay for his companies to buy supplies from... himself.) His companies also supply things like sheets and towels (and we pay for that.)

The man is nickel-and-diming Americans to death.

The United States actually owns the official presidential retreat, Camp David.. If he went there on his weekends off, then we wouldn't be shoveling money into his own pockets. And he could buy all the sheets and towels he wanted from his pocket change.

a reply to: Byrd

The man is nickel-and-diming Americans to death.

The United States actually owns the official presidential retreat, Camp David.. If he went there on his weekends off, then we wouldn't be shoveling money into his own pockets. And he could buy all the sheets and towels he wanted from his pocket change.

You wish to live in a free society but dictate to the leader of the nation where they can travel?
Protecting the president is expensive, there's no way around that, get over it.

a reply to: Byrd

I wonder if his property has some sort of friend and family rate? Or if they accept any sort of federal per diem rate?

Is he turning in tax waivers?

Owners paying to stay at their own properties isn't unheard of. The management company should not be expected to provide services without compensation (typically compensated on percent of revenue, NOI, or EBITDA). So some flow of revenue, even if 50% off, should likely still happen.

I moved my response to the appropriate thread. Lets continue there if we are going to discuss the costs of travel for the President. Please?

a reply to: Byrd

what? I thought I was responding to you in this thread:
Trump going on resort vacation for the third week in a row.

Im going to paste my reply in that thread, and remember to stay on topic on this one. Can we pick up this discussion in the other thread??? I don't think it was proper to keep it going in here.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Thread it!!

Continuation/update from some OP info:

“When you look at the way the Flynn episode unfolded it’s very clear that his communications were taped, they were transcribed, they were given to the media with specific timing involved,” Kucinich said. “This was clearly a trap that was set for him.”

Kucinich went on to say that The Washington Post — the paper that first published the story on Flynn — may have gained the intelligence through ties its owner, Jeff Bezos, forged while working as CEO of Amazon. The online retailer, he noted, sealed a multimillion-dollar cloud computing contract with the CIA around the same time he bought the Post.

Intelligence Leaks a Trap?