Trump Thread 2.0

[Wschnitz]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/01/white-house-preparing-for-exit-of-national-security-advisor-hr-mcmaster-nbc-news.html

l o l

at least this means we will probably get less dumb ideas about strikes on NK

[parkerbink]

The hypocrisy train keeps rolling!

Questions linger about how Melania Trump, a Slovenian model, scored ‘the Einstein visa’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/questions-linger-about-how-melania-trump-a-slovenian-model-scored-the-einstein-visa/2018/02/28/d307ddb2-1b35-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html?utm_term=.0b8159d08268

In 2000, Melania Knauss, a Slovenian model dating Donald Trump, began petitioning the government for the right to permanently reside in the United States under a program reserved for people with “extraordinary ability.”

Knauss’s credentials included runway shows in Europe, a Camel cigarette billboard ad in Times Square and — in her biggest job at the time — a spot in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, which featured her on the beach in a string bikini, hugging a six-foot inflatable whale.

In March 2001, she was granted a green card in the elite EB-1 program, which was designed for renowned academic researchers, multinational business executives or those in other fields, such as Olympic athletes and Oscar-winning actors, who demonstrated “sustained national and international acclaim.”

“We called it the Einstein visa,” said Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic congressman and chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the Immigration Act of 1990 defining EB-1.

The year that Knauss — now first lady Melania Trump — got her legal residency, only five people from Slovenia received green cards under the EB-1 program, according to the State Department.

In all, of the more than 1 million green cards issued in 2001, just 3,376 — or a fraction of 1 percent — were issued to immigrants with “extraordinary ability,” according to government statistics.

Melania Trump’s ability to secure her green card not only set her on the path to U.S. citizenship, but put her in the position to sponsor the legal residency of her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the couple are now close to obtaining their own citizenship.

[Melania Trump’s parents are legal permanent residents, raising questions about whether they relied on ‘chain migration’]

President Trump has proposed ending the sponsorship of relatives such as parents, slamming as “chain migration” the decades-long ability of U.S. citizens to assist relatives in obtaining legal residency.

“CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!” Trump tweeted in November.

Michael Wildes, an attorney for Melania Trump and her family, declined to comment on whether she sponsored her parents for green cards. He said he was not surprised that so few immigrants from Slovenia obtained EB-1 immigrant visas in 2001 because the requirements are stringent.

“Mrs. Trump was more than amply qualified and solidly eligible,” he said. But he declined to discuss the qualifications that the first lady cited in her petition for permanent residency.

“There is no reason to adjudicate her petition publicly when her privacy is so important to her,” Wildes said.

A White House spokeswoman for the first lady referred questions about her immigration process to Wildes.

Immigration experts said the president’s efforts to restrict legal immigration spotlight lingering questions about how the first lady and her family members obtained residency
in the United States.

The biggest one: How did she convince immigration authorities that she qualified for the EB-1 program?

Morrison, the former congressman and immigration expert, said that Melania Trump’s resume in 2001 seems “inconsistent” with the requirements of the visa.

To obtain an EB-1 under the extraordinary ability category, an immigrant has to provide evidence of a major award or meet at least three out of 10 criteria. Among them: evidence of commercial successes in the performing arts, evidence of work displayed at artistic exhibitions and evidence of original contributions to a field.

“What did she submit?” asked David Leopold, an immigration lawyer and a past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “There are a lot of questions about how she procured entry into the United States.”

The process of deciding who meets the “extraordinary ability” standard is subjective, said Sarah Pierce, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. But it is generally thought that only the top 2 percent of people in their field would qualify, she said, adding that the “quintessential award you want to put on the application is Nobel Prize.”

The first lady came to the United States from Slovenia in 1996, first briefly on a visitor’s visa and then on work visas, according to Wildes.

Initially, she was not widely known in the highly competitive New York fashion world, according to people in the industry.

“She was never a supermodel; she was a working model — like so many others in New York,” said one person who knew her in the 1990s and requested anonymity to discuss the first lady’s early years in the United States.

In 1998, at age 28, she began dating Trump after meeting him at a party, an association that raised her modeling profile. She started appearing on Page Six of the New York Post and in other celebrity columns on the arm of the real estate developer.

At the time, she was modeling on a work visa for skilled immigrants. Melania Trump received five H1-B visas between October 1996 and 2001, Wildes has said.

[Melania Trump shares more immigration information but no documentation]

Under her husband’s administration, such temporary visas have been harder to get, dropping by more than 50,000 in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.


In January 2000, in perhaps her most widely known photo shoot, Melania Trump appeared on the cover of British GQ magazine. She was photographed nude on a fur rug on Donald Trump’s private jet under the headline: “Sex at 30,000 feet. Melania Knauss earns her air miles.” (The magazine cover is noted, among others, in her official biography on the White House website.)

The accompanying article predicted that the political aspirations of Trump — then making a bid for the Reform Party nomination — could transform his Slovenian girlfriend into the first lady of the United States one day.

“I will put all my effort into it,” she told the magazine, “and I will support my man.”

[mrsleeve]

Did you even read what you linker?


What Happens If China Called in Its Debt Holdings

"China would not call in its debt all at once. If it did so, the demand for the dollar would plummet like a rock. This dollar collapse would disrupt international markets even more than the 2008 financial crisis. China's economy would suffer along with everyone else's.

It's more likely that China would slowly begin selling off its Treasury holdings. Even when it just warns that it plans to do so, dollar demand starts to drop. That hurts China's competitiveness. As it raises its export prices, U.S. consumers would buy American products instead. China could only start this process if it further expands its exports to other Asian countries and increases domestic demand."

Fucking our economy, fucks theirs. Pure and simple. It's not going to happen.

Is there a golf clap smiley around here.....

[parkerbink]

https://youtu.be/iNGz-kO4VYE

[parkerbink]

Market opens -280 thanks, Obama's replacement.

[z31maniac]

Market opens -280 thanks, Obama's replacement.

Dude, you really need to stop with all horrible partisanship.

The DOW is still up nearly 4500 from 14 months ago.

*insert comment about correction coming soon*

Yeah, it's the cycle of capitalism.

[parkerbink]

Dude, you really need to stop with all horrible partisanship.

The DOW is still up nearly 4500 from 14 months ago.

*insert comment about correction coming soon*

Yeah, it's the cycle of capitalism.

Dude you need to buy you some humor (A)

(B) Obama was blamed for everything including parking spaces and this one IS ALL TRUMP thanks to his hope for a trade war.

Thanks for playing.

[z31maniac]

There will be no trade war, it's more posturing for the base.

[parkerbink]

There will be no trade war, it's more posturing for the base.

More an attempt to change the narrative du jour.

[Massive Lee]

There will be no trade war, it's more posturing for the base.

Not sure about that. If Trump puts his tariff in place, there will be a trade war and US industrial and agricultural exporters will suffer. Not to mention that everything built in the US from steel and aluminum will be more expense. And guess who will get penalized? Yup. US consumers and workers. ;-)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/02/trump-tariffs-world-response-382959

"European Union officials are considering targeting products from politically sensitive Republican-run states, including tariffs on Harley-Davidson’s made in Speaker Paul Ryan’s district; new duties on bourbon made in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky; and duties on orange juice from Florida — a critical swing state."

[mrsleeve]

^
The Chinese are not going to cut off their nose to spite their face, there will be no trade war, tariff or not.

There will be no trade war, it's more posturing for the base.

I agree but the posturing makes for a bad day in the "global" markets. and that is STUPID in general.

[parkerbink]

Not sure about that. If Trump puts his tariff in place, there will be a trade war and US industrial and agricultural exporters will suffer. Not to mention that everything built in the US from steel and aluminum will be more expense. And guess who will get penalized? Yup. US consumers and workers. ;-)

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/02/trump-tariffs-world-response-382959

"European Union officials are considering targeting products from politically sensitive Republican-run states, including tariffs on Harley-Davidson’s made in Speaker Paul Ryan’s district; new duties on bourbon made in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky; and duties on orange juice from Florida — a critical swing state."

I really think Trump wanted to change the headlines.

He is as unlikely to do this as he was to take guns first let due process come later & a clean DACA bill.

Tuesday Trump has not met Thursday Trump.

[Massive Lee]

^
The Chinese are not going to cut off their nose to spite their face, there will be no trade war, tariff or not. .

The trade war that Trump pretends he will start is not against China in particular when it comes to steel and aluminum, but with the rest of the world. EU and Canada supply a lot of steel and alu to the US.

But yeah, I do agree that Trump is doing everything he can to change the headlines. And also, because a country threatens a tariff, it doesn't mean it can do it. Look at Boeing's attempt against Bombardier's C Serie airplane. Boeing wanted a 325% tariff on C Series imports. It never happened. But the first reaction from Canada was simple : we're not buying US military jet fighters... ;-)

[Massive Lee]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/02/market-decline-trump-trade-war-433596

Trump tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.”

In an early-morning Twitter post, the president cast off decades of consensus that trade wars damage the U.S. economy and hurt more workers than they help, embracing a strategy that many scholars believe helped deepen and extend the Great Depression.

Officials inside the White House and the Treasury Department were trying on Friday to contain the fallout from President Donald Trump’s declaration of a trade war and to ensure that new levies are not imposed on all trading partners.

The announcement spooked investors, enraged U.S. allies and left pro-trade White House officials scrambling to limit the damage and change the president’s mind..

[parkerbink]

Who is Alex Baldwin and what project is he dieing? Cutting a wall?