Giant inflatable Trump-rat appears on Fifth Avenue


Donald Trump might not make it onto Mount Rushmore, but he's popped up in unflattering balloon form again.

This time, it's in his hometown in the style of the inflatable rats that union workers use to strike against construction sites employing non-union labor. This new 15-foot, unmissable Trump inflatable piece appeared at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, down the street from Trump Tower, hours before the President was scheduled to arrive on Monday.

The orange-faced, rat-human hybrid has extra voluminous ears, pursed lips, buck teeth, that unmistakable red tie, a long tail, and an extra dig: Confederate flag cufflinks. Unsurprisingly, the spectacle drew crowds and tourists for selfies.

It's all the brainchild of New York City-based BravinLee art gallery owners John Lee and his wife Karin Bravin, who view Trump as "unprepared" to lead. Inspiration came when Lee saw a grotequse looking rat on Jackson Avenue in Queens right after the election. "I was just always impressed with how grotesque the rat was as public art," he told TIME.

It's the first overtly political statement the owners of the mom and pop art gallery have launched. "All I could do is to ridicule," Lee said. "Ridicule is a very important tool in taking on the powerful."

Lee said the rat will be up for "as long as Trump is in the White House," and its next stop is Washington, D.C.

Trump returned home to Trump Tower on Monday for the first time since his inauguration, and was met by protesters and a much smaller throng of supporters.

 

Trump challenges Tillerson to 'compare IQ tests' following reported 'moron' dig
Donald Trump has challenged his secretary of state to “compare IQ tests” – if Rex Tillerson did call the president a “moron”, as reported. Trump told Forbes magazine: “I think it’s fake news. But if he did [say] that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”

The president spoke to the magazine on Friday and the interview was published online on Tuesday.

Trump’s tense relationship with Tillerson burst into public view last week. An NBC story claimed Mike Pence, the vice-president, had to talk Tillerson out of resigning this summer, and that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron”. Some reports said he called the president “a fucking moron”.

In a press conference, Tillerson said he never considered resigning but did not deny calling Trump a moron. His spokeswoman said he never used such language. Trump and Tillerson were scheduled to have lunch on Tuesday with Jim Mattis, the defense secretary.

Speaking to Forbes, Trump also claimed to have had “just about the most legislation passed of any president, in a nine-month period, that’s ever served. We had over 50 bills passed. I’m not talking about executive orders only, which are very important. I’m talking about bills.”

Trump has made such claims of unprecedented legislative success – and had them debunked – before. He added: “I also have another bill … an economic development bill, which I think will be fantastic. Which nobody knows about. Which you are hearing about for the first time.”

Under that bill, he said, companies that kept jobs in America would be rewarded while those sending operations offshore would “get penalized severely”.

“It’s both a carrot and a stick,” Trump said. “It is an incentive to stay. But it is perhaps even more so – if you leave, it’s going to be very tough for you to think that you’re going to be able to sell your product back into our country.”

In a volley of four tweets issued on Tuesday morning, meanwhile, Trump seemed to say he was about to issue an executive action on healthcare. “Since Congress can’t get its act together on HealthCare,” he wrote, “I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people – FAST.”

Republican attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, have repeatedly failed in the Senate amid widespread opposition to plans that, nonpartisan analysis has said, would take access to health insurance away from millions of Americans.

Trump’s tweeted threat of executive action – he has said he may sign an order to allow people to buy insurance across state lines – stood at odds with what he told Forbes. “The Democrats want to make a deal,” he said. “At the same time, I think I have a deal with the Republicans. So I have the best of both worlds. That’s business to a certain extent. I’m very able to make deals with Democrats if I have to.”

Members of the president’s own party have voted down the ACA replacement plans, and one deficit hawk who voted for the healthcare bills, Bob Corker of Tennessee, has emerged as a Republican establishment voice against planned tax reform. Over the weekend, Trump and Corker engaged in a bizarre exchange of insults on Twitter and, in Corker’s case, through the pages of New York Times.

“The failing New York Times set Liddle’ Bob Corker up by recording his conversation,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, coining a new nickname and accusing the newspaper of mispractice. “Was made to sound a fool, and that’s what I am dealing with!”

On Sunday one of the Times reporters, Jonathan Martin, tweeted that Corker had planned his attack. “He had two aides on line, one taping us,” Martin wrote. “Corker is effectively staging a slow-rolling public intervention with Trump.”

Also on Twitter on Tuesday, Trump contradicted his claim to Forbes again, turning his fire on Democrats over a deal supposedly ripe for negotiation – the one to protect Dreamers, young undocumented migrants brought to the country as children and previously protected by the Obama administration.

Democratic leaders expressed strong opposition to a list of hardline demands the White House issued on Sunday as its first step towards the deal. Among other measures, the White House said funding for a border wall with Mexico would be part of any accord. Democrats and Dreamers reacted with horror; the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said no deal could proceed if a wall was included.

“The problem with agreeing to a policy on immigration is that the Democrats don’t want secure borders,” Trump wrote on Tuesday. “They don’t care about safety for USA.”

Trump also complained again about the NFL, in which player protests during the anthem continue, much to the president’s chagrin.

“Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our anthem, flag and country?” Trump wrote. “Change tax law!” The NFL gave up its federal tax-exempt status a few years ago and files tax returns as a taxable entity.

The final tweet of the early morning sequence took aim at ESPN and an anchor suspended for comments on the anthem controversy. The tweet also returned to one of Trump’s main preoccupations: ratings.

“With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have ‘tanked’. In fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!”

 

Donald Trump threatens to change law to penalise NFL
Donald Trump has criticised NFL clubs for "disrespecting" their country with protests during the national anthem, suggesting they receive "massive tax breaks" and calling for a change to the law to have these removed.

In his latest attack on players peacefully protesting racial inequality, the US president wrote on Twitter: "Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country? Change tax law!"

 

Well now, Trump got his wish to put Hillary back in the headlines ...

 

Here is something you don't hear about very often, the White House is in damage control again after Trump opened his big mouth AGAIN. Trump is still pissed off that he was awarded 1 dollar from a judge when he sued the NFL while the owner of the USFL New Jersey Generals ...

Trump Threatens N.F.L. and Attacks Jemele Hill of ESPN
WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened on Tuesday to use federal tax law to penalize the National Football League over players who kneel in protest during the national anthem, but the White House later backed off, saying he was only making a point.

Escalating a political fight that has resonated with his conservative base, Mr. Trump said Congress should eliminate a law that allowed the N.F.L. central office to avoid paying taxes as a nonprofit entity. “Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country?” he wrote on Twitter. “Change tax law!”

The tax break for the N.F.L. has been a point of controversy for years, and other conservatives have taken up the cause in recent weeks as the president has repeatedly assailed the league over the player protests. But the idea would be more about symbolism than impact. The tax break applies only to the central office, not the teams, which are the real moneymakers and already pay taxes as for-profit organizations, and the N.F.L. voluntarily gave up the office’s tax exemption in 2015.

At a news briefing later in the day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said the president was making a statement, not a proposal. She noted that professional football teams benefit when local and state governments help them build stadiums but did not suggest that Congress should try to block those lower governments from doing so.

“I think he’s just making the point that if these individuals are going to be supported in large part and subsidized by taxpayers, that a large percentage and majority of Americans have said that they want N.F.L. players to stand,” she said. “The federal tax law doesn’t apply here,” she acknowledged, “but certainly we know that they receive tax subsidies on a variety of different levels.”


Mr. Trump on Tuesday also focused his fire again on Jemele Hill, the “SportsCenter” host on ESPN who previously called the president a white supremacist. Ms. Hill was suspended on Monday for suggesting that fans boycott advertisers of the Dallas Cowboys after the team owner, Jerry Jones, threatened to bench players who knelt during the national anthem.

“With Jemele Hill at the mike, it is no wonder ESPN ratings have ‘tanked,’ in fact, tanked so badly it is the talk of the industry!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.

ESPN has faced significant challenges recently and is now available in just under 88 million homes, compared with 100 million homes in 2011. In the first half of 2017, its prime-time ratings were up 1 percent compared with the same period in 2016, although its total day ratings were down more than 5 percent. But ESPN is still a ratings behemoth and still highly profitable. In the third quarter, it led full-time cable networks in total day and prime-time ratings among the key demographics of men ages 18 to 54.

The president continues to be animated by his fight with the sports world. He has enthusiastically kept up his attacks on the N.F.L., with which he has a long history of antagonism. A onetime owner of the New Jersey Generals in the upstart United States Football League, Mr. Trump persuaded other owners to sue the N.F.L. using antitrust law. The U.S.F.L. won the case, but the jury awarded only $1 in damages — tripled to $3 by law — and Mr. Trump’s league ultimately folded.

The N.F.L.’s tax exemption has long been controversial. The league’s 32 teams are for-profit businesses that pay taxes accordingly, but the central office became a nonprofit organization decades ago. In response to the criticism, the league in 2015 voluntarily gave up its tax-exempt status because of what it called the “distraction.”

It is not clear that it cost the league much money. While the league as a whole generates billions of dollars in revenue a year, the league office ran a deficit of $13.5 million in the fiscal year that ended a year before the decision to give up the tax-exempt status. But the change meant the league no longer had to disclose what it paid its commissioner, Roger Goodell.

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Last month, after the kneeling controversy erupted, a Republican congressman, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, introduced legislation stripping professional sports leagues of tax-exempt status, an idea that has been debated on Capitol Hill for years.

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Joe Lockhart, the N.F.L. spokesman, said the league receives no “massive” tax breaks, as Mr. Trump contended.

Regarding the player protests, Mr. Lockhart said the league’s 260-page game operations manual has not changed and he highlighted the precise language governing the anthem. The players, he said, “must” be on the sidelines during the playing of the anthem and “should” stand for the anthem. The league, however, has “not chosen to discipline any of the players” who have not stood for the anthem, he said.

That might change next week, though, when the owners meet in New York, where the anthem protests will be on the agenda. Mr. Goodell and the owners want the players to stand “because we think it’s an important part of the game,” Mr. Lockhart said, and “there’s a strong feeling at every level that we ought to be getting back to football.”

Sports teams have benefited in other ways under tax law. Many franchises have built new stadiums in cooperation with cities and states that floated bonds to finance construction. Municipal bonds are exempt from federal taxes, leading critics to complain that taxpayers are subsidizing profitable private businesses. Mr. Lockhart said local government subsidies hade been an “economic engine” for those communities.

A study by the Brookings Institution last year concluded that three dozen sports franchises from the N.F.L., Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League had financed stadiums since 2000 using tax-exempt municipal bonds.

The biggest beneficiary was not a football franchise but the New York Yankees, the president’s hometown baseball team, which Brookings estimated saved $492 million as a result. Among the football owners who have benefited from such bonds was Mr. Trump’s friend Mr. Jones, whose Dallas Cowboys saved $88 million in building AT&T Stadium.

It was unclear how Congress might prohibit states, counties and cities from deciding how to spend their tax revenue, or whether it could undo deals that were approved years ago. It is also unclear whether it would be possible for legislators to target teams in one league, like the N.F.L., and not another, like Major League Baseball.

The federal government has limited room to act against the N.F.L. in other areas. The league has all but abandoned its policy of blacking out games in home markets when teams fail to sell out their stadiums, giving the Federal Communications Commission less oversight over professional football. The league, however, does have something akin to an antitrust exemption, thanks to a 1966 law, that allows every team to band together to negotiate television deals.

As part of his campaign against sports figures who have criticized him, the president on Tuesday hosted the N.H.L. champions at the White House. He invited the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins a day after disinviting the Golden State Warriors of the N.B.A. because its star, Stephen Curry, said he would vote against attending.

 

Fucking Trump makes a mockery out of the Stanley Cup Pittsburgh Penguins as he invites them to the White House today after disinviting the GS Warriors.

President Trump puts Penguins in no-win situation in White House visit
WASHINGTON — President Trump welcomed the Pittsburgh Penguins to the White House Tuesday. He praised the Pens for winning the Stanley Cup again. He joked that maybe co-owner Ron Burkle could renegotiate NAFTA. Trump teased co-owner Mario Lemieux, superstar of yesteryear, that perhaps Sidney Crosby is on the cusp of outdoing his derring-do.

The proceedings carried the high-spirited feel of so many of these presidential champion events over the years -- Hail to the Chief meets hail fellow well met -- except for the unavoidable, unspoken context of Trump’s war of words with other athletes. That cast the Pens as props: unwilling characters in a passion play of the president’s making.

Last month, Trump spoke at a rally in Alabama where he attacked NFL players who protest racial injustice by taking a knee during the national anthem. The same weekend, he rescinded a White House invitation to the NBA champion Golden State Warriors after Steph Curry balked at the idea, an exchange that made Trump look like some petulant school boy disinviting a potential prom date who is (you’ll excuse the expression) out of his league.

That put the Penguins between a rock and a Trump place. They’d earned their invitation to the White House by winning the Stanley Cup. They’d gone to President Obama’s White House for winning the Cup a year earlier without so much as a sniff of controversy. Now, unfairly, they’d get criticized either way -- for going or not going to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a street named for their state.

Then, over the weekend, lest the NFL furor die down, Vice President Mike Pence walked out on a game in Indianapolis between the Colts and San Francisco 49ers after almost two dozen 49ers kneeled during the anthem, as it was all but certain some would. That means Pence came to the game for the express purpose of walking away, like Groucho Marx singing Hello, I Must Be Going, but without the laugh lines.

And that’s what the Penguins walked into Tuesday, a White House picking fights with pro athletes in other leagues. Here, Trump seemed to say, are pro athletes who do not bend a knee when the anthem plays -- and who do not balk at sharing a podium with him. Here, the president seemed to say, are athletes who are not sons of bitches.

None of that was said explicitly, of course. But the podium was filled with white hockey players hearing praise from a president who is highly critical of so many African American athletes.

The Penguins are a potpourri of Canadians, Americans, Swedes and Finns. (And don’t forget Evgeni Malkin, who is not the first Russian to be greeted warmly in Trump’s White House.) Ryan Reaves, the Pens’ only black player, was obtained in the offseason so he wasn’t eligible for Tuesday’s fete. But Reaves, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month that he would not have attended even if he could have: “I don’t agree with certain things that (Trump) stands for or he says.”

The NFL players who take a knee to protest racial injustice are mostly African American, as are Golden State’s Warriors. Trump insists his argument with professional athletes has nothing to do with race. The assertion flies in the face of the evidence.

The tradition of championship teams visiting the White House began in antebellum days but reached full flower during the Reagan era. The Gipper’s sunny persona summoned moments of utter charm. New York Giants linebacker Harry Carson dumped a cooler of popcorn on him in 1986, mimicking a Gatorade shower. Reagan tossed a perfect pass to wide receiver Ricky Sanders of Washington’s NFL team in 1987. Hard to imagine an African American athlete playfully making merry with this president like that.

When he pulled out of an international climate accord, Trump said he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Maybe so, but he did not represent the Steel City well on Tuesday. Oh, Trump said the right things on the podium. But he’d put the Pens in a no-win situation. They’d come as champions. But for all the back-slapping and big smiles under glistening chandeliers in the East Room, they left as bit players in Trump’s never-ending culture wars.

Send this president to the penalty box, although two minutes for high sticking (and high dudgeon) don’t seem like nearly enough. Make it a game misconduct.

The Penguins deserved better. We all do.

 

Just seeing how Trump infuriates the leftists and snowflakes is worth my voting for Trump.

 

And there you have it folks ... another reason that the USA is going down the toilet when people will vote for an idiot just to piss others off !!!

While I'm here, you know how cats chase dust or something that only they can see, well Trump did the same thing last night tweeting that the fake news media is wrong about firing General Kelly ... problem is that there have been no reports on this in the last while and his tweet comes out of nowhere, OR he went through a wormhole again and see's the future.

 

Anyone catch the new Eminem rap slamming Trump ??? He "sang" it at the BET's and it is quite well received by at least half of the population ...



Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, also gave a scathing critique of Trump’s recent priorities, saying he should focus less on NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem and more on the recent devastation in Puerto Rico and mass shooting in Las Vegas.

“Plus, he gets an enormous reaction/ When he attacks the NFL so we focus on that/Instead of talking Puerto Rico or gun reform for Nevada,” he raps in the video. “All these horrible tragedies and he's bored and would rather/ Cause a Twitter storm with the Packers.”

While he touched on lighter subjects, such as Trump’s infamous tan, Eminem didn’t hold back when accusing Trump of heightening the tension between himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the risk of potentially driving both countries to nuclear war.

"We better give Obama props/'Cause what we got in office now is a kamikaze/That will probably cause a nuclear holocaust/While the drama pops,” he says. “And he waits for s--t to quiet down/He'll just gas his plane up and fly around/Till the bombing stops.”

Toward the end of the video, which is titled “The Storm,” the “Slim Shady” rapper made it clear that his fans would have to make a choice between himself and the business mogul. “Any fan of mine who's a supporter of his/ I'm drawing in the sand a line: you're either for or against,” he says. “And if you can't decide who you like more and you're split on who you should stand beside/ I'll do it for it for you with this/F--k you."

Following the performance, many celebrities took to Twitter to praise the artist. “I @Eminem,” Ellen DeGeneres wrote, while J.Cole added: “Whoa. Rap God. @eminem thank you.”

The musician has been vocal about his issues with the president in the past. In August, during his set at the Reading Festival in the United Kingdom, Eminem took a moment to speak to the crowd about Trump."I'm not about to stand up here and use this f--kin' stage for some kind of a platform to be all political and sh-t, and I don't want to cause any controversy so I won't say no names," he said. "But this mother f--ker Donald Trump I can't stand!"

 

Nice...throwing it down!

 

You can look for 100 reasons why Trump is pissed at the NFL but when you hit on the fact that they denied him a football team back in the day when he had to settle for the New Jersey Generals of the garbage USFL you will have found your answer ... end of story !!!

Trump and Vince McMahon thought they could bury both the NFL and CFL, yet here we still are through thick and thin.

 

Now we know why hes picking THAT Twitter war....haha

 

Partly yes but the rest is just because he is awake ...

 

“I Hate Everyone in the White House!”: Trump Seethes as Advisers Fear the President Is “Unraveling”
In recent days, I’ve spoken with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president that seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods.

At first it sounded like hyperbole, the escalation of a Twitter war. But now it’s clear that Bob Corker’s remarkable New York Times interview—in which the Republican senator described the White House as “adult day care” and warned Trump could start World War III—was an inflection point in the Trump presidency. It brought into the open what several people close to the president have recently told me in private: that Trump is “unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.”

The conversation among some of the president’s longtime confidantes, along with the character of some of the leaks emerging from the White House has shifted. There’s a new level of concern. NBC News published a report that Trump shocked his national security team when he called for a nearly tenfold increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal during a briefing this summer. One Trump adviser confirmed to me it was after this meeting disbanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron.”

In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”

Video: When the President Asks for Your Resignation: Sally Yates and Preet Bharara (not included)

According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller, “I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I hate them!” (A White House official denies this.) Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about Kelly’s future increased after Politico reported that Kelly’s deputy Kirstjen Nielsen is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretary—the theory among some Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his departure.

One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said. Even Trump’s most loyal backers are sowing public doubts. This morning, The Washington Post quoted longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack saying he has been “shocked” and “stunned” by Trump’s behavior.

While Kelly can’t control Trump’s tweets, he is doing his best to physically sequester the president—much to Trump’s frustration. One major G.O.P. donor told me access to Trump has been cut off, and his outside calls to the White House switchboard aren’t put through to the Oval Office. Earlier this week, I reported on Kelly’s plans to prevent Trump from mingling with guests at Mar-a-Lago later this month. And, according to two sources, Keith Schiller quit last month after Kelly told Schiller he needed permission to speak to the president and wanted written reports of their conversations.

The White House denies these accounts. “The President’s mood is good and his outlook on the agenda is very positive,” an official said.

West Wing aides have also worried about Trump’s public appearances, one Trump adviser told me. The adviser said aides were relieved when Trump declined to agree to appear on the season premiere of 60 Minutes last month. “He’s lost a step. They don’t want him doing adversarial TV interviews,” the adviser explained. Instead, Trump has sat down for friendly conversations with Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee, whose daughter is Trump’s press secretary. (The White House official says the 60 Minutes interview is being rescheduled.)

 

I will give credit where it is due and offer my thanks to US diplomat's that were pivotal in the release of a Canadian and his American born wife (and 3 three kids born in captivity).

Thank you USA.

 

I just wish Trump would find ONE issue that he is passionate (and actually knows about) about and run with that instead of being that cat that walks away after 2 minutes of playing with that hanging toy you bought it ...

Trump doesn't give a shit about most of the things he claims to champion, what Trump does care about is lighting a fire under the asses of his base in order to unite/reunite them and stroke his ego to neutralize all of the negativity thrown in his direction daily when he opens his mouth before putting his brain in gear ... his ego is as fragile as a certain administrator here !!!