Be careful what you wish for. Never forget that Mike Pence is waiting for Trump to be flushed down the toilet.

the twitterer-in-chief has criticised his fellow republicans, cough cough, for their actions to do away with the independent ethics body

brave move considering he is about to face numerous issues regarding ethics himself

just to add : just shows what a mess his communications team is in and that they need to get their act together quickly regarding mixed messages. Kellyanne Conway goes on the morning shows saying that the GOP have a mandate to do this, and its perfectly within their rights, a few hours later Trump is criticising it.

It pains me greatly to say it, but Trump is to be congratulated for doing that.

Yeah.

Having a sly dig for speaking out is just having at at him for the sake of it. No doubt if he had said nothing he would be in the wrong as well.

Before you get too positive about it, the consensus seems to be he's only complaining about them doing it now, rather than doing it at all.

New Republican Congress reverses ethics move after outcry

Which is odd given that Reining in ethics panel will 'provide more accountability' and Rules amendment strengthens mission of OCE

Officials in Wisconsin removed information about climate change on a state government website and replaced it with unfounded claims that the science behind global warming is still a matter of “debate”

I guess we'll see more of this given the preponderance of science denying clowns in the Trump administration.

Scientists have already been moving important research data onto private servers in case it gets "lost" following the transition.

No he's not. He didn't single-handedly do anything, there was massive public outrage about the Republican's attempt to do this.

In 10-20 years time those scientist will be unsung heroes for saving that data.

Just insane the science community have to resort to this.

Going to be a general press conference for Trump on 11th January...i'm going to assume until proven otherwise this is to flog a new hotel or casino.

Following Trump's efforts Ford cancels plans for new plant in Mexico and expands production in Michigan instead.

Americans really are going to get tired of all this winning post 20 January.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/bu...rump.html?_r=0

Trump now openly mocking his own intelligence services

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...52807024840704

How can he claim to be capable of keeping America safe when his position seems to be to disbelieve anything the intelligence services tell him if he doesn't like what they're telling him?

"Just been told by "intelligence" there are 2 "hijacked plans" in the air. Briefing due at 9.15, delayed 4 minutes. Very strange!"

This is bonkers alright : he's now hinting or suggesting his own intelligence services are making things up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/wo...hina.html?_r=0
This N Korean tweet is well up to Trump standard. Its suitably meaningless - does he mean they can't do it, or won't do it, or he will stop them doing it.

Its also downight stupid. You don't make threats or predictions you can't enforce , or control - it just makes you look stupid. And trying to avoid looking stupid, then means you have to takesome stupid action to restore some credibility.

The reality is that both N Korea, and its ally Iran, have protected their nuclear and missile programmes - by first creating a massive conventional missile and special forces threat to their neighbours and Us bases nearby. N Korea has added an artillery threat . if you bomb N Korean missiles, N Korea can start a massive war on the Korean peninsula, shell Seoul and drop missiles on Japan - the global economy sinks , and the casualties get into hunreds of thousands , before you can take down North Korea's firepower . And thats not allowing for any shorter range nukes incoming too. You don't do anything that risks bringing down those consequences .

Nor do you improve your situation by ordering China what to do about N Korea - the US has no leverage over China - it currently loses any regional conflict . and it loses any trade war

It's potentially catastrophic.

Maybe if Podesta hadn't sent all his emails from an unsecure gmail account and clicked on a phishing email then his emails would never have been leaked. A lone wolf hacker could have done that from their bedroom.

WIkileaks and Assange seem 100 per cent definite these leaks didn't come from Russia. But I suppose they don't have a Cold War to seek to recreate to boost their operating budgets.

Do you not think the Americans are hacking and monitoring our leaders and those of other nations - as we know they did to Merkel. They probably have the most extensive snooping of anyone. The hypocrisy and faux outrage is just a bit much!

You don't think it's more than a little curious that the CIA would furnish NBC and The Washington Post with a story about Russian hacking and yet when the Dept of Homeland Security asked for a briefing on the subject the CIA declined?

Two words....Clinton Foundation.
Do we need to investigate the donations made by foreign powers to that particular organisation?

They were also happy for him to run in the campaign, and told him that it would be an attack on democracy to contest the eventual result. Dangerous even.
If they were happy for him to run during the presidential campaign then they can't cry foul as soon as the result is announced.

Another footnote to the election.

After 12 years at the network Megyn Kelly has announced she is leaving her Fox News prime time show to do a new daytime show on NBC. Her final show will be on Friday.

It is expected a more pro Trump female conservative will take over.

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/Gabr.../03/id/766662/

Repeatingly saying something doesn't make it true.

China is in no way ready for a conflict, it's getting there however and it's neighbours are likewise building up there militaries. Japan I believe has doubled it's defence budget for instance and south Korea is producing some of the best military hardware currently on the market (it puts us to shame). The usa is also planning on sending missile defence systems to the region, it won't help against the artillery but the south and the yanks already control the sky.

Now how exactly do you imagine China will win a trade war when the eu and usa are very keen on imposing tariffs currently.

Was amusing to see Cnn using images from fallout 4 when describing russian hacking

Sorry I thought I heard on the news that a certain Donald Trump had won the election - are you telling me that it was just some horrible nightmare and it was really Hillary Clinton?


The two things are not the same - running a campaign is one thing, but once you are in a position to make a decision - then it is important that such decisions are not to be based on personal enrichment or patronage - so far Trump has not said how he will avoid this.

Just one question, where have these stories come from about Russia hacking or having some possible involvement in helping Trump to win the election?

It almost seems to be something that is kind of accepted as some sort of truth, without I think any or much evidence being reported for such a basis.

I guess if you repeat something often enough people will tend to belive it, not matter if it is true or not.

It does seem to be a Trump supporter tactic to immediately shout about the Clinton foundation - a charity full accredited and regulated, where people know exactly where the money has come from AND where it goes - whenever the issue of where Trump's money is coming from and going to. The Clinton issue is a non-starter these days, as both Clintons are now very much just private citizens, and they have no conflicts of interest - and never really did, except in the minds of the more rabid anti-Clinton voting faction.

TBH, Trump's existing businesses are now almost the least of his problems, when it comes to the emoluments clause. The major problem now arises from the specific clause that forbids any income other than his salary during his term as president. That's where I suspect there is an awful lot of desperate scrambling, as his lawyers and accountants try to put all of his ongoing money matters (and debts) out of sight of the inevitable tax returns he will be obliged to publish every single year he remains president. Hence why they keep making vague noises about full disclosure statements, and then never delivering. I suspect they are hoping no one will notice that Trump gets inaugurated, and they still haven't announced the detailed information about where all of Trump's interests are going to sit. Claiming he'll do 'no new deals' doesn't sound anything like the complete divestment that should be required of POTUS, to avoid conflicts with national and international business/monetary policy making.

Let's be honest, it's not helping any of this that Ivanka Trump is planning to move into the first lady's offices. She appears to have absolutely no intention to divest herself of her own (or her husband's) business interests, whilst she sits in the White House and drums up business for the Trump name, whilst babysitting her incompetent father!

More and more, I suspect Melania Trump is trying to stay far, far away from the murkiness that will be her husband's administration, along with his children's involvement in both the business and government administration. I never thought I'd feel quite so sorry for her as I do now! I mean, she's clearly been ousted in favour of Trump's pretend-First Lady, Ivanka, probably due to her lack of competence for the role, and she knowingly married a misogynistic monster of a man, but I'm sure she thought she'd hold her nose to do 10 years, and then get a nice divorce settlement to set her up for the rest of her life. Now she's stuck - unless the Trumps smash one more ceiling and have the first divorced-in-office President, so that she and her son don't have to deal with Donald and his ongoing insanity!