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| #Post#: 13571-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Ivanka Trump | |
| By: guest6 Date: December 23, 2016, 2:07 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| http://m.tmz.com/#article/2016/12/22/ivanka-trump-flight/ | |
| There's no excuse for this. What in the world is wrong with | |
| people? He should have acted like a reasonable and responsible | |
| adult and kept his "opinion" to himself. | |
| Ivanka Trump harassed by passenger | |
| Ivanka Trump just had a bumpy start to her Xmas holiday ... an | |
| out-of-control passenger on her flight began verbally berating | |
| her | |
| and "jeering" at her 3 kids. | |
| Ivanka was on a JetBlue flight leaving JFK Thursday morning with | |
| her family when a passenger started screaming, "Your father is | |
| ruining the country." The guy went on, "Why is she on our | |
| flight? She should be flying private." The guy had his kid in | |
| his arms as he went on the tirade. | |
| A passenger on the flight tells TMZ Ivanka ignored the guy and | |
| tried distracting her kids with crayons. | |
| JetBlue personnel escorted the unruly passenger off the flight. | |
| As he was removed he screamed, "You're kicking me off for | |
| expressing my opinion?!!" | |
| #Post#: 13572-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: Kerry Date: December 23, 2016, 2:18 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I agree. The guy was some kind of nut. | |
| I think too that Donald Trump should have realized that this | |
| kind of thing could happen if he got his children involved in | |
| politics. He doesn't seem to think ahead very much. There | |
| are nuts out there. | |
| #Post#: 13573-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: guest6 Date: December 23, 2016, 2:24 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| IVANKA TRUMP TRADES JETBLUE FOR PRIVATE JET | |
| Ivanka Trump just landed in San Francisco and this time around | |
| there will be no crazy passengers harassing her ... because | |
| she's upgraded to a private jet. | |
| http://m.tmz.com/#article/2016/12/22/ivanka-trump-jetblue-private-jet/ | |
| #Post#: 13574-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: guest6 Date: December 23, 2016, 2:28 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote author=Kerry link=topic=1146.msg13572#msg13572 | |
| date=1482524305] | |
| I agree. The guy was some kind of nut. | |
| I think too that Donald Trump should have realized that this | |
| kind of thing could happen if he got his children involved in | |
| politics. He doesn't seem to think ahead very much. There | |
| are nuts out there. | |
| [/quote] | |
| They're going to have to take some special precautions for sure. | |
| Because this sort of thing is going to keep happening, sadly. | |
| #Post#: 13575-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: paralambano Date: December 23, 2016, 2:37 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| I'm hoping that the flight attendants were modeling proper form | |
| with a smile and a "buh-bye" for him as he exited the aircraft. | |
| para . . . . | |
| #Post#: 14491-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: Kerry Date: April 5, 2017, 3:18 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| The SNL video called "Complicit" has been at You Tube for a | |
| while. I saw it but didn't post it; but now there's news about | |
| it. First, here's the SNL video. | |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7o4oMKbStE | |
| She was asked about it by CBS. She said she doesn't know what | |
| being complicit means. Seriously! I want to hide my head in | |
| shame at the thought she went to the same university I did. I | |
| can assure you that if someone did a video about me and the | |
| title was a word I didn't understand, I'd be looking it up. | |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw0xln927lc | |
| You know, a month or two ago, I might have agreed with her. Now | |
| I think she and her husband Jared are enabling Donald Trump. I | |
| probably should have figured this out back when she was asked | |
| about his entering the dressing room of contestants which had | |
| several very young girls and according to reports all she had | |
| to say was, "Yeah, he does that." | |
| #Post#: 14494-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: paralambano Date: April 5, 2017, 3:32 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Kerry - | |
| The videos you gave are unavailable in Canada. In any case, I | |
| had seen a portion of the interview at home this morning on the | |
| news. If it is indeed the entire portion, then I'm thinking that | |
| she's sort of redefining the word complicit by using it in the | |
| manner someone might if called crazy. Crazy? Ya, I'm crazy. | |
| Crazy like a fox. I think she might have been saying that if | |
| complicit means doing good, then so be it. I'm giving her the | |
| benefit of doubt here. If she did ask the interviewer what the | |
| word meant, then I retract what I've written here. | |
| para . . . . | |
| #Post#: 14495-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: Kerry Date: April 5, 2017, 5:57 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote author=paralambano link=topic=1146.msg14494#msg14494 | |
| date=1491424364] | |
| Kerry - | |
| The videos you gave are unavailable in Canada. In any case, I | |
| had seen a portion of the interview at home this morning on the | |
| news. If it is indeed the entire portion, then I'm thinking that | |
| she's sort of redefining the word complicit by using it in the | |
| manner someone might if called crazy. Crazy? Ya, I'm crazy. | |
| Crazy like a fox. I think she might have been saying that if | |
| complicit means doing good, then so be it. I'm giving her the | |
| benefit of doubt here. If she did ask the interviewer what the | |
| word meant, then I retract what I've written here. | |
| para . . . . | |
| [/quote]I'll give the quote from CBS | |
| http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ivanka-trump-interview-what-it-means-to-be-complici… | |
| /> | |
| �If being complicit is wanting to, is wanting to be a force for | |
| good and to make a positive impact then I�m complicit. I don�t | |
| know that the critics who may say that of me, if they found | |
| themselves in this very unique and unprecedented situation that | |
| I am now in, would do any differently than I am doing,� Trump | |
| said. �So I hope to make a positive impact. I don�t know what it | |
| means to be complicit, but you know, I hope time will prove that | |
| I have done a good job and much more importantly that my | |
| father�s administration is the success that I know it will be.� | |
| Then we had this too which leads me to believe she's naive and | |
| could being set herself up for a big fall: | |
| Trump also addressed criticism about the qualifications of | |
| Kushner, who is playing a key role in foreign affairs and | |
| running the White House Office of American Innovation, but has | |
| had little experience in diplomacy. | |
| �So, you know a lot of people would say the same about how could | |
| somebody successfully win the presidency who had never been | |
| engaged in politics and my father did that and Jared was | |
| instrumental in helping his campaign succeed,� Trump said. �So, | |
| you know Jared is incredibly smart, very talented, has enormous | |
| capacity. He is humble in the recognition of what he doesn�t | |
| know. And is tremendously secure in his ability to seek informed | |
| viewpoints. He has an amazing team that my father has built at | |
| the White House, and that he�s built that�s helping work on each | |
| of these initiatives. So you know the myth that he is operating | |
| in a silo is just that.� | |
| Judging from the disastrous real estate deal Jared got into and | |
| how that worked out, I certainly hope he learned something about | |
| the perils of taking on too much debt. He seems to be like | |
| Donald and Ivanka, very optimistic but also very naive at times. | |
| He took on way too much debt when buying the property at 666 | |
| Fifth Avenue at a record price that made news, was overly | |
| optimistic about how many tenants would be renting space and | |
| about how much demand for that kind of real estate would | |
| continue in New York City. The Chinese investment company which | |
| was going to pull his chestnuts out of the fire has backed out. | |
| Set the ethics aside momentarily; just look at the money. | |
| March 22, 2017 -- | |
| https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-22/kushners-troubled-tower-debt… | |
| By 2010, the building was 78 percent occupied and was earning | |
| little more than one-third of what its lenders had anticipated. | |
| After debt payments, it had a $35 million loss. The next year | |
| brought a reprieve: Steven Roth�s Vornado Realty Trust swooped | |
| in to become a 49.5 percent equity partner in the tower, and the | |
| debt was refinanced -- providing temporarily lower interest | |
| rates and segmenting a portion of the loans into the �hope | |
| note,� with an understanding that it may never be repaid. The | |
| note is now held widely by investors in bundles of debt | |
| securities. | |
| For a while, the arrangement worked. Debt payments dropped in | |
| 2012 and the property made money. But the break was short-lived. | |
| Citibank, whose logo adorned the building and which occupied | |
| one-fourth of its 1.45 million square feet of office space, was | |
| leaving. Still, Kushner Cos.� new partner took the exit in | |
| stride, noting that Citi owed them rent until its lease was up | |
| in 2014 -- plenty of time to find new tenants for the 41-story | |
| tower. | |
| �When we came into this asset some two years ago, it had been | |
| off the radar for years, because of its broken capital | |
| structure,� David Greenbaum, a Vornado president for New York, | |
| said in a call with investors in November 2013. �We came in and | |
| recapitalized this building and have since successfully leased | |
| 200,000 square feet, and are in current negotiations for an | |
| additional 50,000 feet. Taking account of the Citibank space | |
| which will be coming back to us in August of next year, we have | |
| about 330,000 square feet to go.� | |
| Kushner Cos.� current situation -- with rising debt costs that | |
| eclipse 666 Fifth�s income -- now looks familiar, and it�s once | |
| again casting about for a savior. A spokesman for Vornado | |
| declined to comment. | |
| And the Chinese investment company said no, thanks. March 29, | |
| 2017 | |
| https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-29/senators-please-ask-jared-ku… | |
| The background: Anbang, an insurer and prolific deal-maker close | |
| to China's government, had considered investing $4 billion in | |
| 666 Fifth Avenue. Kushner had overpaid for the building in 2007, | |
| when he bought it with the help of bank loans for $1.8 billion. | |
| The financial crisis ensued, occupancy rates plummeted and | |
| Kushner had to be rescued by outside investors to keep the | |
| troubled building afloat. Anbang's investment would have valued | |
| the building at a handsome $2.85 billion, and also refinanced | |
| about $1.15 billion in debt. | |
| The possibility of a transaction brought scrutiny from two | |
| Bloomberg news reporters, Caleb Melby and David Kocieniewski, as | |
| well as from Congress and the New York Times. I discussed it in | |
| a column here two weeks ago. And for good reason: Kushner is a | |
| senior White House adviser who has Trump's ear on foreign | |
| policy. The math of Trump's 36-year-old son-in-law being saved | |
| from a reckless investment by China presented all sorts of | |
| conflicts of interest and the potential for disastrous policy | |
| moves by the White House. | |
| So Anbang is now gone and all has been made right? Well, no. | |
| Kushner's family still owns a building that needs a financial | |
| lifeline, so 666 Fifth Avenue presents something that Congress | |
| may want to examine more closely when Jared Kushner meets with | |
| the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of an inquiry into | |
| possible collusion between Trump's campaign team and Russia | |
| during the 2016 presidential election. | |
| For me, this kind of thinking mirrors Trump's comment about debt | |
| being good, how he loved debt -- and his plan to spend loads of | |
| money on some things which strike me as unnecessary while | |
| cutting taxes on corporations and the rich. It doesn't add up. | |
| I believe in being optimistic but I also believe in being | |
| sensible and practical. Does this family think they can rack up | |
| personal debt and the national debt and count on the Chinese to | |
| finance it? | |
| I also find it a little suspicious that while this deal with | |
| Anbang was being talked about, Kushner was busy setting up the | |
| meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi. One can't prove a | |
| quid pro quo, but it smells. | |
| You often hear conflicting things. I try to use psychology to | |
| guess which is true; so when I heard staff at the White House | |
| were passing around a satirical piece at the Onion about Kushner | |
| and laughing, I tend to believe it since I know people often | |
| resent it when they have a boss who shows favoritism to family | |
| members. | |
| http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/jared-kushner-white-house-influence-236758 | |
| But Kushner's status as the big-issue guru has stoked resentment | |
| among his colleagues, who question whether Kushner is capable of | |
| following through on his various commitments. And some | |
| colleagues complain that his dabbling in myriad issues and his | |
| tendency to walk in and out of meetings have complicated efforts | |
| to instill more order and organization into the chaotic | |
| administration. These people also say Kushner can be a shrewd | |
| self promoter, knowing how to take credit � and shirk blame � | |
| whenever it suits him. | |
| �He's saving the government and the Middle East at the same | |
| time,� one senior administration official quipped. | |
| In addition to being arguably the president�s most trusted and | |
| influential adviser, Kushner also serves as Trump�s unofficial | |
| hatchet man. And all eyes are on Kushner as White House insiders | |
| predict a broader staff shakeup amid rising tensions between | |
| Kushner and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. | |
| And then the part about the Onion: | |
| The creation of the office added to a perception around the | |
| White House that Kushner�s portfolio is almost impossibly | |
| ambitious, and that he prefers big-picture discussions to the | |
| sometimes mundane and detail-oriented work involved in carrying | |
| out policy changes. | |
| On Wednesday, White House staffers and outside allies passed | |
| around a story from the parody website The Onion indicating that | |
| Kushner had �quietly moved the task �solve Middle East crisis� | |
| to his to-do list for next week� because �there was simply too | |
| much on his plate right now to bring stability to the fractious | |
| region by end of day Friday.� Kushner did not see the piece, a | |
| person close to him said. | |
| From the Onion itself --- | |
| http://www.theonion.com/article/jared-kushner-quietly-transfers-solve-middle-ea… | |
| WASHINGTON�Admitting there was simply too much on his plate | |
| right now to bring stability to the fractious region by end of | |
| day Friday, Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner | |
| quietly moved the task �solve Middle East crisis� to his to-do | |
| list for next week, sources reported Tuesday. �Ushering in | |
| lasting peace across the Mideast is definitely still a big | |
| priority for me, but given everything else I�ve got going on | |
| right now, I�m just going to need to bump it to next week when I | |
| have a little more time on my hands,� Kushner reportedly said as | |
| he crossed out the task on his pocket day planner and rewrote it | |
| on the following page, acknowledging that he was just �too | |
| swamped� at the moment with policy reports and real estate | |
| development meetings to resolve the numerous wars, land | |
| disputes, and centuries-old ethnic and religious tensions that | |
| have long raged among the 350 million residents of the | |
| geopolitical hotspot. �I was really hoping to at least knock out | |
| the Arab-Israeli conflict before the weekend, but this week�s | |
| kind of gotten out of hand. It�ll be fine, though�I�ll just | |
| carve out an hour or two next week, hunker down in my office, | |
| and sort it all out then. If I can push back a couple business | |
| calls, I can definitely get this whole Middle East situation | |
| ironed out by Wednesday�Thursday at the latest.� At press time, | |
| Kushner reportedly pushed �solve Middle East crisis� back an | |
| additional 30 minutes after deciding it would be better to get | |
| �fix America�s opioid epidemic� out of the way first. | |
| Let's be serious. I don't think a rational person could | |
| seriously expect Kushner to fix all these things. How could he? | |
| It must be for PR or a way of giving Kushner status while | |
| claiming something is being attempted. So why would Kushner | |
| accept all these responsibilities? It doesn't make sense to me. | |
| I find it hard to believe Donald is setting Kushner up to fail | |
| and equally hard to think Kushner is taking on more than he | |
| thinks he can do. I can only chalk it up to reckless naivete; | |
| and I attribute the same reckless naivete to Ivanka. Her | |
| father has been making serious missteps, and so far I see | |
| absolutely nothing being done to get him to change course. He's | |
| still floundering, insulting people one day and then saying he | |
| wants to work with them the next. First he insulted the | |
| Democrats about the failed health care bill, then he said maybe | |
| they could work together. Next he and Bannon lambasted the | |
| Freedom Caucus and threatened to campaign against them next | |
| election; and the latest is that he's trying to work with them | |
| while by-passing Speaker Ryan. This is someone who's grasping | |
| at straws, uncertain whom to trust -- striking out blindly in | |
| anger and then altering course trying to cozy up to them. He's | |
| eroding trust in his fellow Republicans. And if Ivanka really | |
| wanted to be helpful, I'd think she would tell him to chill -- | |
| and stop attacking people when things don't go the way he | |
| wants. | |
| He doesn't seem to have one sensible political advisor, not if | |
| he threw a fit and threatened to challenge Republicans in the | |
| next primary. I ran the election numbers myself. Almost all | |
| those Congressmen won in their districts by bigger margins than | |
| Trump did. They're more popular in their districts than Trump | |
| is. And doesn't anyone remember what Reagan said about never | |
| attacking your fellow Republicans? I guess not. Roosevelt | |
| tried it when some Democrats weren't as "progressive" as he | |
| wanted and didn't vote the way he wanted. He went out and | |
| campaigned against them. The Democrats lost seats that | |
| election. There's an interesting story about two Democratic | |
| Senators -- this article also has some of the details about how | |
| Roosevelt tried to get rid of his fellow Democrats and failed. | |
| http://knoxfocus.com/2017/03/tennessee-american-neutrality-iii/ | |
| Senator Walter F. George beat two opponents and Roosevelt�s | |
| preferred candidate ran last. Senator Millard Tydings crushed | |
| Congressman Davey Lewis who had the all-out backing of the | |
| Roosevelt administration. Cotton Ed Smith beat the sitting | |
| governor to win the Democratic nomination, winning by a wide | |
| margin. The purge had been an abject failure and as if that were | |
| that not bad enough, the Republicans won seventy-two seats in | |
| the House of Representatives from the Democrats and seven in the | |
| Senate. A congressional coalition of Republicans and | |
| conservative Democrats faced President Roosevelt in 1939. A | |
| story oftentimes attributed to either Cotton Ed Smith or Walter | |
| George, which may well be apocryphal, had one senator lamenting | |
| FDR was his own worst enemy. George or Cotton Ed Smith, | |
| depending on the story, was supposed to have snarled, �Not while | |
| I am alive, he isn�t!� It summarized the challenge faced by | |
| President Roosevelt and his administration. | |
| You really can't run a government the way you run a family | |
| business. Yet that is what it looks as if Donald Trump is | |
| trying to do; and it's one of Kushner's job assignments too. | |
| http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/27/kushner-to-lead-new-wh-office-focuse… | |
| �We should have excellence in government,� Kushner said. �The | |
| government should be run like a great American company. Our hope | |
| is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our | |
| customers, who are the citizens.� | |
| I really object to the idea of trying to run the government like | |
| a business. The purpose in business is to increase your income | |
| and the size of your company while controlling expenses. I do | |
| now want a government that keeps wanting more money and keeps | |
| growing. I also hated it when Bill Clinton said that's what he | |
| was going to do, and he then had the government start to charge | |
| people for every little thing. Bureaucracy became motivated by | |
| trying to make money, not to serve the people. | |
| I have reservations that Kushner knows how to run a business. | |
| The facts don't seem to bear that idea out. The family strikes | |
| me as hopelessly naive. | |
| #Post#: 14500-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: paralambano Date: April 6, 2017, 11:06 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Kerry - | |
| I still find it hard to believe that Ivanka wouldn't know what | |
| complicit means. Again, by benefit of doubt, I think she might | |
| have been asking the interviewer indirectly to say how she's | |
| complicit. She appears to know what conflate means in the | |
| interview. | |
| Naive she might be. Winning an election by populist vote is not | |
| the same as governing. Being a good person with good intentions | |
| does not necessarily make one successful politically. It appears | |
| to me so far to be fish out of water time. Politics too can be | |
| an art and some remain journeymen and less. This is too high an | |
| office to be the latter. | |
| Kushner/Trump reminds me of Kennedy's meeting with Kruschev, | |
| defender of Stalingrad. Kennedy reportedly came out of it white | |
| as a ghost, his head spinning. | |
| para . . . . | |
| #Post#: 14504-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: Ivanka Trump | |
| By: Kerry Date: April 7, 2017, 1:59 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote author=paralambano link=topic=1146.msg14500#msg14500 | |
| date=1491494781] | |
| Kerry - | |
| I still find it hard to believe that Ivanka wouldn't know what | |
| complicit means. Again, by benefit of doubt, I think she might | |
| have been asking the interviewer indirectly to say how she's | |
| complicit. She appears to know what conflate means in the | |
| interview.[/quote]After thinking about it a little more, I came | |
| up with another explanation. She may know what the words means | |
| to her and that could be the standard dictionary definition too. | |
| She may have meant she didn't know what it meant when other | |
| people were using it. | |
| Have you noticed that Ivanka has a way of being mostly | |
| non-controversial? She does that deliberately, and I commend | |
| it her for it; but that comes at the price of being unclear at | |
| times. And that's fine too if being too clear would stir up | |
| pointless controversy or anger. So I can read her to mean, "I | |
| know I'm intending to do good, so when people talk about me | |
| being complicit as if I am doing something wrong by aiding and | |
| abetting my father, I don't know how they're using the word and | |
| maybe they don't know what the word means." It's easier for | |
| some people to say I don't know instead of I don't think they | |
| know. Add to this the slight unease she seems to exhibit during | |
| the interview. Sometimes when you know people are hanging on | |
| your every word, it can make you nervous and more apt to be | |
| unclear. | |
| [quote]Naive she might be. Winning an election by populist vote | |
| is not the same as governing. Being a good person with good | |
| intentions does not necessarily make one successful politically. | |
| It appears to me so far to be fish out of water time. Politics | |
| too can be an art and some remain journeymen and less. This is | |
| too high an office to be the latter.[/quote] | |
| And then perhaps she's not naive. I have to admit I could be | |
| wrong. Her goal might to be clean up the White House of | |
| unhelpful and negative influences. The same could hold true for | |
| Kushner. There have been hints that this might be the case. It | |
| would not surprise me if Bannon and Priebus depart shortly. | |
| Here is something I am fairly sure about: That Ivanka and | |
| Kushner actually care about Donald. My impression of Bannon and | |
| Priebus is that they're opportunists, able to put on an act of | |
| loyalty if that's what it takes. Both of them have created | |
| strife inside the White House, angling to get their people jobs | |
| in order to maximize their clout. This is not good, not good | |
| at all, since it shows they're concerned about their own power | |
| and not about how to make sure the power that belongs rightfully | |
| to Trump gets used to maximum advantage in a rational way. | |
| Trump himself is prone to setting pointless squabbles; and | |
| Ivanka and Kushner probably know this, but they also probably | |
| know having more trouble makers around is a recipe for disaster | |
| that makes Donald look bad and ineffective. The rumors are | |
| there that Kushner is not getting along that well with Bannon | |
| who according to one rumor was so angry about something he | |
| wanted to quit but stayed on only because Rebekah Mercer urged | |
| him to stay. | |
| http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/bannon-resign-mercer-trump-236939 | |
| Five people, including a senior administration official and | |
| several sources close to the president, tell POLITICO that Steve | |
| Bannon, one of Trump�s closest advisers, has clashed with the | |
| president�s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who�s taken on an | |
| increasingly prominent portfolio in the West Wing. Bannon has | |
| complained that Kushner and his allies are trying to undermine | |
| his populist approach, the sources said. | |
| Republican megadonor Rebekah Mercer, a longtime Bannon | |
| confidante who became a prominent Trump supporter during the | |
| campaign, urged Bannon not to resign. �Rebekah Mercer prevailed | |
| upon him to stay,� said one person familiar with the situation. | |
| Another person familiar with the situation, a GOP operative who | |
| talks to Mercer, said: �Bekah tried to convince him that this is | |
| a long-term play.� | |
| Do you remember hearing that Trump signed the paper putting | |
| Bannon on the NSC without knowing what he was signing? I can | |
| see that happening. If you trust someone, you might do that. | |
| It might also rub you the wrong way later when you find out what | |
| happened; so maybe Donald was slightly irked by that. It may | |
| have irritated both Kushner and Ivanka more who could have seen | |
| Bannon as shamelessly trying to seize power by deception. | |
| Then you have other conflicts. How far does a President go to | |
| please a big donor? "Not too far," seems to be Ivanka and | |
| Kushner's answer. If that is their answer, I agree. | |
| �You have these New York interlocutors who are just not | |
| political and who want to think that they�re above the way | |
| Washington thinks, but if anybody is allied on delivering on | |
| things that Trump ran on, it�s Bannon and Reince and the vice | |
| president,� said the Republican who has spoken to Bannon | |
| recently. | |
| Kushner has also told people that he thinks Mercer and her | |
| father, the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer � who poured | |
| $13 million into a super PAC that supported Ted Cruz�s campaign | |
| in the Republican primary and came around to Trump after he won | |
| the nomination � have taken too much credit for their role in | |
| Trump's victory, and he has expressed misgivings about their | |
| go-it-alone approach to outside spending boosting Trump�s | |
| agenda. | |
| �If Bannon leaves the White House, Bekah�s access and influence | |
| shrinks dramatically,� said the GOP operative who talks to | |
| Mercer. | |
| Even if this is just a rumor, I can't see Bannon remaining too | |
| much longer. I think it is probably true though. I can | |
| interpret that interview with Ivanka that way. I think it was | |
| Bannon who went ballistic first with the Freedom Caucus, | |
| threatening them. Not sure about that but my guess is he got | |
| angry first, blaming them and then Donald followed suit and | |
| thought it would be smart to express anger about them in public. | |
| If I were either Ivanka or Kushner, I'd be livid with Bannon | |
| over that but wouldn't say so in public and probably would calm | |
| down before talking to Donald about it. You don't hear either | |
| of them on the news bad-mouthing people and stirring up trouble; | |
| and that suggests to me, they know it's not wise to make enemies | |
| when you don't need to. I believe too that their advice to | |
| Donald would be more calming than Bannon's or Priebus'. I read | |
| once that Kushner is one of the people who can talk to him when | |
| he's upset and calm him down -- and can say things to him that | |
| he needs to know without upsetting him. | |
| Donald also once said something about Ivanka was struck me as | |
| significant -- that she always tried to get him to do the right | |
| thing -- and he liked that about her. That surely meant she | |
| doesn't always agree with everything in private and opposes some | |
| things using moral arguments about right and wrong rather than | |
| political ones. The fact that he said that also told me he had | |
| a conscience and was glad she appealed to it. So maybe she's | |
| not as naive as I thought. | |
| There was also a subtle shift in Trump's position when he talked | |
| about Syria. He ended by saying, "God bless America and the | |
| whole world." There was a shift too away from the campaign | |
| mode isolationism or nationalism with concern shown for the | |
| lives of people of other nations. | |
| He also mentioned praying for wisdom. That could mean he | |
| doesn't really trust the politicized religious leaders that much | |
| if he wants wisdom from God. It suggests to me he was feeling | |
| the weight of the office and couldn't call up religious leaders | |
| to get answers from God through them. Surely Ivanka and | |
| Kushner don't take some of the religious leaders who backed | |
| him any more seriously than I do. | |
| Bannon, Priebus and Ivanka were there with him when he gave his | |
| remarks; and I think I'd put my money on it being Ivanka who | |
| brought him around to expressing compassion for people in other | |
| countries because they were people. I don't have all the | |
| facts so can't judge the situation itself; but I can say | |
| expressing compassion for others is right and his motive is | |
| right even if the action itself may turn out to have been | |
| misguided. | |
| [quote]Kushner/Trump reminds me of Kennedy's meeting with | |
| Kruschev, defender of Stalingrad. Kennedy reportedly came out of | |
| it white as a ghost, his head spinning.[/quote]I may be a little | |
| dull. How so? | |
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