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2017 Trump Presidency Thread

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David Wooderson said:
Without the heroes of this recent tragedy the scum who broke his infant's skull prior to shooting his family, would have certainly caused more carnage and chaos.

Why anyone continues to split hairs with Trump's words...
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words have meanings. and what politicians say matters. or it should.

David Wooderson said:
beyond my comprehension.
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something we can agree on :)

alasdair
 
scrofula said:
We'll never send a sitting president to jail.

I'm mostly OK with that if he simply resigns and everyone around him goes to prison.
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I think you're probably right, but what if they decide to wait until he is no longer sitting president before they decide to drop the sealed indictment on him?
It seems kind of crazy that his people may be charged, but he - the guy who led and benefited the most from this scandal may apparently not.

I agree his fans will never reasess their support - that seems clear at this stage.
And yeah, it may be something like tax that brings him undone. It worked for Al Capone, one of the biggest crooks in his day.

It seems clear that this fraud was very sloppy, complacent and that they didn't think they were going to get caught - so i suspect trump will probably spend the rest of his life fighting to clear his name of corruption allegations (and he will fail)
 
robert reich said:
One year after the election. An update for Trump voters on his election promises:

1. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 23 million off health insurance, including many of you.)

2. He told you he’d cut your taxes. You bought it. But the tax “reform” bill he and House Republicans have produced won’t cut your taxes. Half of the middle class would see their taxes increase. The bill would cut corporate taxes and give millionaires a huge is tax break, and explode the national debt by at least $1.5 trillion.

3. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’ crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure.

4. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. But he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, and has already fired and replaced so many assistants (one of them hired and fired in a little more than a week) that no one knows who’s in charge of what.

6. He said he’d close “special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers.” You bought it. But he picked Wall Street financiers to head every economic policy job, and his tax bill still retains the “carried interest” loophole that benefits Wall Street private-equity and hedge fund partners.

7. He told you he’d “bring down drug prices” by making deals with drug companies. You bought it. But now the White House says that promise is “inoperative.”

8. He said that on Day One he’d label China a “currency manipulator.” You bought it. But then he met with China’s president Xi Jinping and declared "China is not a currency manipulator.” Ever since then, Trump has been cozying up to Xi.

9. He said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. But then he bombed Syria.

10. He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border. You believed him. But there’s no money for that, either. Chief of staff John Kelly says it is “unlikely that we will build a wall, a physical barrier, from sea to shining sea.”

11. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. But in his first 9 months he has spent nearly 25 percent of his days at one of his golf properties for some portion of the day, according to Golf News Network, at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $77 million. That’s already more taxpayer money on vacations than Obama cost in the first 3 years of his presidency. Not to mention all the money taxpayers are spending protecting his family, including his two sons who travel all over the world on Trump business.

12. He said he’d keep Muslim immigrants out of America. But his executive orders to prevent citizens from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States have been stopped by the federal courts, on grounds they violate the Constitution.

13. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be “consequences” for companies that shipped jobs abroad. You believed him. But despite their promises, Carrier, Ford, GM, and the rest have continued to ship jobs to Mexico and China. Carrier (a division of United Technologies) moved ahead with plans to send 1,000 jobs at its Indiana plant to Mexico. Notwithstanding, the federal government has rewarded United Technologies with 15 new contracts since Trump's inauguration. Last year, Microsoft opened a new factory in Wilsonville, Oregon, that was supposed to herald a new era in domestic tech manufacturing. But in July, the company announced it was closing the plant. More than 100 workers and contractors will lose their jobs when production shifts to China. GE is sending jobs to Canada. IBM is sending them to Costa Rica, Egypt, Argentina, and Brazil. There have been no “consequences” for sending all these jobs overseas.

14. He said he’d create coal jobs. You believed him. He hasn’t. But here’s what he has done: Since 1965 a federal program called the Appalachian Regional Commission has spent $23 billion helping communities in coal states fund job retraining, reclaim land, and provide desperately needed social services. A.R.C. helped cut poverty rates almost in half, double the percentage of high-school graduates, and reduce infant mortality by two-thirds. Trump’s proposed budget eliminated A.R.C.

15. He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But according to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 377 mass shootings so far this year, including 58 people killed and hundreds injured at a concert in Las Vegas, and 26 churchgoers killed and 20 injured at a church in Texas. Trump refuses to consider any gun controls.

16. In referring to his opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, he said he’d “lock her up.” But he has not locked her up. In the United States, unlike dictatorships, presidents do not prosecute and punish their political opponents. Trump has expressed frustration that he cannot order the FBI and Justice Department to do whatever he wants them to do.
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alasdair
 
Fresco said:
^^^^ translation, Trump is getting a 2nd term.

Quote me on it in 2020 ;)
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i see the smiley but are you serious?

he's basically thrown the votes of many voters back in their faces. if they're still standing by him after all these broken promises and this clusterfuck of an administration, what exactly are they supporting?

alasdair
 
Alairsderm what gun laws would've prevented the shooter? The washington post did a study and found that out of all the mass shootings that not one piece of gun control would've prevented even mass shooting. The airforce should've released his info to the background check people. So that's that on them, please explain alaisdrim
 
alasdairm said:
words have meanings. and what politicians say matters. or it should.

something we can agree on :)

alasdair
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the only thing that matters what trump says are his attacks on blacks and browns and support of nazis. Absolutely nothing else matters and he knows that. Most people are racist and their hatred of outsider races trumps all else. Trump could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot someone, sexually assault women, commite treason, obstruction of justice, not know anything, lie lie lie...not of it matters. None of it. He has the courage to be racists openly as a cadidate and was rewarded handsomely.

I am not aware of anything anyone can do to override that strategy
 
I agree. Why do you say that nothing else matters? The lies bother me so much!!
 
LucidSDreamr said:
the only thing that matters what trump says are his attacks on blacks and browns and support of nazis. Absolutely nothing else matters and he knows that.
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What are you talking about?
Trump's dishonesty is an assault on democracy.
I'm not sure if you're being facetious?
Of course it matters.

LucidSDreamr said:
Most people are racist and their hatred of outsider races trumps all else.
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Uh, speak for yourself man. I think more highly of people than to agree with that.

LucidSDreamr said:
Trump could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot someone, sexually assault women, commite treason, obstruction of justice, not know anything, lie lie lie...not of it matters. None of it. He has the courage to be racists openly as a cadidate and was rewarded handsomely.
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So he claims, but trump is not above the law, or above public opinion.

I think he's going to be a one-term president (if he even makes it that long, which i doubt) because he's absolutely useless at the job.
Incompetent, undignified and unprofessional.
He will be voted out (probably in a similar landslide to the sort we've seen this week) partly because of his appalling, insane comments.
LucidSDreamr said:
I am not aware of anything anyone can do to override that strategy
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People offering a modicum of sane representation don't need to do too much to offer an alternative to trump. He's a disgrace and i think voters will turn out in force to extricate this mean-spirited, this toxic narcissist from the white house
 
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he made a number of very bold campaign promises. we’re almost a year in and he’s achieved very little.

after 4 years it will be interesting to see how much progress he’s made. 3 years is not very long in politics.

at the end of his term he wont be able to avoid being graded on what he promised and what he actually did.

alasdair
 
He has one former campaign worker just revealed to be "cooperating" with the FBI for months, and two indicted on "I'll say anything to spare me life in prison" charges. We know he's paranoid and vindictive. I can't see his term being anything more than him brooding over who's saying what.

And he probably doesn't even understand what he's actually in trouble for. After all, he never personally asked Putin anything other than to "please please say you like me."
 
Apparently Felix Sater has been quoted as saying he thinks both he and trump will be going to prison.

There is hope :)


This from the Guardian (link)
Trump ridiculed the losers. Now, at home and abroad, he is one of them

It is one of Donald Trump’s favourite and most sneering insults. He has used it publicly about such people as Cher, John McCain, Rosie O’Donnell and Jeb Bush. In Trumpworld, all these people have been dismissed in tweets as “losers”. Right now, though, there is only one big loser in Trumpworld, and that loser is President Trump himself.

Trump was a loser in whichever direction you looked this week, both at home and abroad. As a candidate, Trump bragged about all the lessons he would teach China once he was president. He would stop China from “raping” the US economy and “toying” with the US over North Korea. He would bring trade cases against China in the US courts, slap heavy tariffs on Chinese goods and stop China manipulating its currency. He would ramp up the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. He might even renege on the holy of holies in Sino-American relations for the past 40 years – the One China doctrine that says Taiwan is a part of China, not a separate country.

Contrast that assertive Trump with the deflated one who made a joint appearance with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, as part of his five-nation Asian tour. In every respect, Trump’s script was so anodyne, and his conduct so docile, that they could have been drafted and prescribed by Xi himself. There were no threats on trade, no military posturing, and no mention of Taiwan or challenge to the One China policy.

There were no questions at the end of the joint statement either – another win for Xi – and a reminder of which of the two men now holds all the cards in the relationship. Talking about the trade imbalance that once fired so much campaign rhetoric, Trump even said, and on the radio it sounded as if there were a few titters off-stage as he said it: “I don’t blame China.”

Trump’s strategy of reaching out to a left-behind industrial base with a racial message is not sustaining itself

Trump is unpredictable. This sudden kowtowing to China and its ascendant leader this week could be abandoned as quickly as it has arrived, perhaps as soon as Trump’s visit to Vietnam or the Philippines in the coming days. There is a recent precedent, after all. In the summer, Trump abruptly abandoned his scripted statesmanship over the racist violence in Charlottesville in favour of an attack on anti-racists, and an indulgent defence of the 19th-century pro-slavery Confederacy.

Even so, it is hard to disagree with the Obama-era official Tony Blinken in his assessment that the Trump visit to Beijing showed two leaders heading in very different directions. While Trump builds walls, Blinken wrote this week, Xi builds bridges. While Trump shuns multilateralism and global governance, Xi embraces them. While Trump makes quixotic and backward-looking attempts to reinvent the coal industry, even promoting the role of fossil fuels in this week’s climate-change conference in Bonn, Xi has a 30-year programme designed to ensure China dominates the global economy, including in information technology, robotics and AI.

Trump’s defenders will say there is nevertheless consistency here. Trump was an “America first” candidate, and he is an “America first” president. America’s role as the guarantor of the peace and the liberal order in the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe remains of secondary importance to him. His stage is America, not the world. The jobs and livelihoods that matter to him are at home, not elsewhere. His voters are in the United States and nowhere else. He is retreating from world leadership to win at home.


This brings us to this week’s remarkable US elections. Although the bigger test of the Trump presidency will come in 12 months’ time, in the midterm elections that involve every one of the 50 states, this week’s “off year” contests have a message, too. A simple and clear one. They were a stunning defeat for Trump, and for the belief that he has remade the dynamics of US politics.

Many have argued that Trump has upended modern politics, not just in the US but more broadly, along with Brexit and the populist upsurges in many parts of Europe. Trump didn’t merely win the White House, this argument says. He represents a broader sea change, in which the public has revolted against the centre left and the centre right, in favour of more radical demands.

This week’s results cast serious doubt on that simplistic analysis and the intellectual panic that it has generated. For the unmistakable message of these elections is that Trump has lost, not won, and that the traditional alternative party, the Democrats, have scooped the pool without distinction between their moderates and their radicals.

Yes, this week’s contests took place in only a minority of states, and predominantly in states in which the Democrats could expect to do well in a good year. But voters in Virginia, New Jersey, Maine, Washington state and many cities sent a consistent signal. The suburbs, full of the aspirational, low-tax, middle-class families, voted Democrat again. Women, college-educated and minority voters led the way.

As EJ Dionne puts it in his Washington Post column this week: “It’s now clear that the backlash against Trump is the most consequential fact of American politics.” Trump’s strategy of reaching out to a left-behind industrial base with a racial message is not sustaining itself. Those historically low approval ratings, on which some have refused to rely because polling is supposedly now discredited, have turned out to be a better indicator than many believed.

None of this is to say that US politics is now set immovably in Tuesday’s pro-Democratic template, even though the anti-Trump majority was unmistakable. Nor is it to pretend that Trump has terminally abandoned the world to Xi’s China, even though it is beginning to look that way. But one year in, Trump has been rumbled and a lot of the air has gone out of his balloon. His enemies are not, as he would have it in his tweets, “haters and losers”. On the contrary. They are optimists and winners. Right now, Trump is the loser.
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*runs out of thread*
 
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