LiLSpeedy's Blog

 

Alex Morrell and Andy Kiersz   Feb. 26, 2017, 12:00 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump brought two dozen manufacturing CEOs to the White House on Thursday and declared their collective commitment to restoring factory jobs lost to foreign competition.

Yet some of the CEOs suggested that there were still plenty of openings for U.S. factory jobs but too few qualified people to fill them. They urged the White House to support vocational training for the high-tech skills that today's manufacturers increasingly require — a topic Trump has seldom addressed.

"The jobs are there, but the skills are not," one executive said during meetings with White House officials that preceded a session with the president. (Reporters were permitted to attend the meetings on the condition of not quoting individual executives by name.)

The discussion of job training and worker skills is a relatively new one for Trump, who campaigned for the White House on promises to restore manufacturing jobs that he said had been lost to flawed trade deals and unfair competition from countries like Mexico and China.

Again and again, Trump brought up that theme in his meeting with the CEOs.

"Everything is going to be based on bringing our jobs back," Trump said. "The good jobs, the real jobs. They've left."

White House officials said Trump heard the CEOs' concerns about a shortage of qualified workers and said he supports efforts to increase training for factory jobs. But they didn't provide details.

"We were challenged by the president to ... come up with a program to make sure the American worker is trained for the manufacturing jobs of tomorrow," Reed Cordish, a White House official, said after Thursday's meetings.

Trump officials said the meetings were intended to provide the White House with ideas in four areas: taxes and trade; regulatory reform; infrastructure; and the "workforce of the future," including advanced training. Proposed solutions may be included in future presidential executive orders or legislative proposals, a White House official said.

The gathering occurred amid the same kind of jovially informal atmosphere that has prevailed in several meetings Trump has held with CEOs in the four weeks since his inauguration. Most of the executives thanked the president for reaching out to them, and several expressed gratitude for his interest in meeting them face to face.

"All the CEOs are very encouraged by the pro-business policies of President Trump," Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, said afterward outside the White House. "Some of us have said this is probably the most pro-business administration since the Founding Fathers."

Other CEOs at the meeting included Jeff Immelt of General Electric, Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar, Inge Thulin of 3M and Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup.

One executive said in discussions with White House officials that his company has 50 participants in a factory apprenticeship program, but could take 500 if enough were qualified. But he said that in his experience, most students coming out of high school lack the math and English skills to absorb technical manuals.

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799 (1799-01-30)) is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. It was intended to prevent the undermining of the government's position. The Act was passed following George Logan's unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798, and was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. The Act was last amended in 1994, and violation of the Logan Act is a felony.

By Madeline Holcombe,CN

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1818 February 20, 1895) was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his dazzling oratoryand incisive antislavery writings. In his time, he was described by abolitionists as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.

 

Douglass wrote several autobiographies. He described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which became a bestseller, and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, it covered events during and after the Civil War. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage, and held several public offices. Without his approval, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

 

Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was also a believer in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, and in the liberal values of the American Constitution. When radical abolitionists, under the motto "No Union With Slaveholders", criticized Douglass' willingness to dialogue with slave owners, he famously replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

 

REVEALED: Navy Seals hiked six miles and got within 100 yards of Yemen compound where executed US hostage was being held - before a dog bark alerted al-Qaeda captors

• Luke Somers, 33, was being held hostage by al-Qaeda militants in Yemen
• Reportedly shot by captors as U.S. commandos launched the operation
• Navy SEAL Team Six hiked six miles to the village where he was held
• They were only 100 yards away when they were detected by militants 
• Reports suggest a dog bark alerted the terrorists to their presence 
• He was flown to a U.S. naval ship but died from injuries before his arrival   
• Comes days after militants threatened to kill him on a video posted online 
• His family had earlier pleaded with the militants to 'please, show mercy'
• Mr Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 in Yemen's capital Sana'a 
• South African  Pierre Korkie also killed during mission in Shabwa province 
• The aid worker was reportedly due to be released by militants tomorrow   

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2863215/British-born-U-S-photojournalist-held-hostage-al-Qaeda-killed-failed-rescue-attempt-Yemen.html#ixzz4XDh9Tdsq

The seven nations targeted for new visitation restrictions by President Trump on Friday all have something in common: They are places he does not appear to have any business interests.

The executive order he signed Friday bars all entry for the next 90 days by travelers from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya. Excluded from the lists are several majority-Muslim nations where the Trump Organization is active and which in some cases have also faced troublesome issues with terrorism.

According to the text of the order, the restriction applies to countries that have already been excluded from programs allowing people to travel to the United States without a visa because of concerns over terrorism. Hewing closely to nations already named as terrorism concerns elsewhere in law might have allowed the White House to avoid angering some more powerful and wealthy majority Muslim allies, such as Egypt.

But without divesting from his company, as bipartisan ethics experts had advised, Trump is now facing questions about whether he designed the new rules with his own business at least partly in mind.

Trump’s order makes no mention of Turkey, which has faced several terrorist attacks in recent months. On Wednesday, the State Department updated a travel warning for Americans visiting Turkey, noting that “an increase in anti-American rhetoric has the potential to inspire independent actors to carry out acts of violence against US citizens.”

Trump has licensed his name to two luxury towers in Istanbul. A Turkish company also manufactures a line of Trump-branded home furnishings. Trump’s most recent financial disclosure, filed in May when he was a presidential candidate, showed that he had earned as much as $6 million in the previous year from the deals.

The executive order makes no mention of Saudi Arabia, home of 15 of the 19 terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks. The Trump Organization had incorporated several limited liability companies in preparation for an attempt to build a hotel in Saudi Arabia, showing an interest in expansion in the country. The company canceled those incorporations in December, indicating that no project is moving forward.

Excluded as well is Indonesia, the world’s largest majority-Muslim nation, where there are two large Trump-branded resorts underway, built in partnership with powerful local interests.

“To be blunt, we really don’t know what to make of which motives are driving this president’s decisions,” said Kamal Essaheb, director of policy and advocacy for the National Immigration Law Center. “From what we could tell from his campaign and his actions since he became president, what seems to be first and foremost on his mind is his own self-interest and an obsession with his brand.”

 

Where will Trump’s aides draw the line on lies?

 

Let’s face it: Trump’s not someone who puts a ton of value on the truth. That’s always been his way, and it’s worked for him.

This is a guy, don’t forget, who used to regularly impersonate his own fictitious spokesman, whom he rather unimaginatively named “John Miller,” so he could vouch for his own success with women to reporters over the phone. I mean, either he’s a very comfortable liar, or he’s like the dude with 23 personalities in that new M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Trump’s approach to reality is probably a lot like the ethos in Hollywood when they tell you something is “based on a true story.” It’s true as long as it’s believable. It’s a lie only if it isn’t plausible.

But that’s Trump. Until this week, we didn’t know that everyone who worked for the president in senior roles was going to feel compelled to emulate him.

First the president’s new press secretary, Sean Spicer, made a disastrous debut at the podium, in which he berated the media and offered up a series of data points — most of them demonstrably false — to back up Trump’s claim that his inauguration was the most watched thing in the history of the human eyeball.

Then Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s top advisers, went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and defended Spicer for offering “alternative facts.” Hearing her use that phrase, poor Chuck Todd looked as if he’d just walked in on the March Hare and the Mad Hatter having tea.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/where-will-trumps-aides-draw-the-line-on-lies-100041553.html

I watched with disgust as Trump talked about crowd sizes, newsreporters, media, and HIMSELF. His narsasis was in control and he forgot why he was there. He was the same old vintage Donald...you may be important CIA, but I'm more important than you. You work for me and don't you forget it. OK. don't be surprised when leaks start occurring.

The military reportedly turned down a suggestion from Trump's team for tanks and missile launchers at the inaugural parade

Chris Sanchez

Business Insider January 19, 2017

Missiles are taken on trucks past a stand with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang October 10, 2015. REUTERS/James Pearson

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(Missiles being taken past a stand with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang.Thomson Reuters)

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team reportedly wanted to include tanks and missile launchers during the inaugural parade Friday.

The Huffington Post cited sources saying that Trump's team wanted to have the military featured front and center as Trump took office, plans the military reportedly toned down.

"They were legit thinking Red Square/North Korea-style parade," a source involved in Trump's inaugural parade preparation told The Huffington Post.

A representative for the US Defense Department did not comment on requests for military equipment, The Huffington Post said, referring inquiries to the Trump transition team. The report said Trump adviser Boris Epstein told The Huffington Post that the transition team consulted with the military "to render appropriate honors."

In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said he wanted the military to have a strong presence at his inauguration ceremony.

"That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, DC, for parades," Trump said. "I mean, we're going to be showing our military."

The armed forces are usually present at inaugurations to help with coordination and to provide music and participate in salute batteries and color guards. Five-thousand service members are expected to participate in the event.

Though Trump's inauguration won't include tanks, it will feature five military flyovers with a total of 20 planes representing each branch of the armed services, The Huffington Post said, citing a Pentagon spokesman.

According to The Huffington Post, a flyover was most recently a part of inauguration festivities for George W. Bush's 2001 opening ceremony. Before that, The Huffington Post said, the most recent time a presidential inauguration featured a military flyover was during President Harry Truman’s inauguration in 1949.