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The 2018 Trump Presidency thread

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This tariff thing ahahaha, wow...Canada imports maple syrup? 24 billion yearly in food bought from the US, so we are going to restrict yogurt lololo
The largest producer of alum is in Quebec I guess in North America. And they raised prices months ago!

Popcorn munching continues

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swilow said:
Little bit of timely humour: How Trump Gave Us The Weirdest Conspiracy Ever
Click to expand...

I wish I could laugh at it, but really it just makes me depressed and angry. If it were all just harmless insanity it would probably be funny. But this kind of borderline mental illness, this inability to tell reality from bullshit and evaluate probability, people die because of it. People's lives are made harder because of it. Innocent people suffer because of it. Which makes it harder to laugh at. :(

I do love cracked though :).
 
Trump's 'celebration of America' in lieu of cancelled Eagles gala fails to shine

Donald Trump’s “celebration of America” at the White House, hastily put together on Tuesday in the absence of Super Bowl winners the Philadelphia Eagles, proved that rare thing in the Trump era: an anticlimax.

“I was surprised from the ordeal to get here that it was only a 12-minute shindig,” said Emma Wittstruck Call, 30, who did not vote for the president. “I thought it would be longer.”

Trump handed more ammunition to critics who compare him to a tinpot dictator wrapping himself in the flag and appealing to cheap patriotism. He did not mention the Eagles or attempt to heal divisions.
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(my emphasis)

his petty squabble with pro. athletes continues this time the eagles, none of whom protested last season during the national anthem last season.

stay classy mr. president.

in related news, fox news had the balls to admit its mistake: Fox News admits error after Zach Ertz and Chris Long blast misleading photos of praying Eagles players

alasdair
 
right.

here's our president who's all about patriotism and respect and blah blah blah...

People Are Roasting Donald Trump For Not Knowing The Words To "God Bless America"

Earlier today, President Donald Trump held a "Celebration of America" event after canceling the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles' visit (less than 10 players were reportedly set to attend).

And even though the event was SUPPOSED to be for the 1,000 or so Eagles fans who were to attend the original event, it doesn't seem like many (if any) actually showed.

BUT IT GETS EVEN CRAZIER. At one point in the event Trump stopped singing the words to "God Bless America" — he either forget the lyrics, simply didn't know them, or just flat-out refused to sing.
Click to expand...

:\

alasdair
 
Captain.Heroin said:
Well, there's no god, and Trump appears to be a fake Christian. Especially if you factor in his extracurricular behavior.

If fucking a porn star didn't scare off the evangelists, nothing's going to.
Click to expand...

Then there's also the time he was asked what one of his favorite Bible quotes was and he half-assed something from what he called "two Corinthians."

It's seemed pretty obvious to me for a long time that trumps not a Christian. Funnily enough he might be either the first or one of a very few clearly atheist presidents.
 
500 days of Trump:

3 million+ jobs (300,000 manufacturing, 337,000 construction)
Unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% - lowest rate since 2000 and job openings have reached 6.6 million (highest ever recorded)
67% of Americans believe now is a good time to find a quality job (only under Trump has more than 50% of Americans believed this since Gallup asked the question 17 years ago)
Trump signed EO to expand apprenticeship opportunities, prioritizing job training and workforce development
Consumer confidence in current conditions has reached a 17-year high (Conference Board)
Optimism among manufacturers has hit record highs (National Association of Manufacturers)
Small business optimism has sustained record-high levels (National Federation of Independent Business)
Trump signed historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, cutting taxes for American families and making American business more competitive
American families received $3.2 trillion in gross tax cuts and saw the child tax credit double.
The top corporate tax rate was lowered from 35% to 21% so American business could be more competitive
Trump has rolled back unnecessary job-killing regulations beyond expectations
In 2017, Trump far exceeded his promise to eliminate regulations at a 2-to-1 ratio, issuing 22 deregulatory actions for every new regulatory action
Admin rolled back rules and regulations harming farmers and energy producers
Trump signed legislation reducing harmful requirements imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act, giving relief to regional and community banks/credit unions
Withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and agreement
Administration working to defend American intellectual property from China's unfair practices through a range of actions
Trump improved KORUS trade agreement with SK, allowing more US auto exports with lower tariffs, and increase US pharma access to SK
American agriculture has gained access to new markets
Trump followed through on promise to move US Embassy to Jerusalem
Ordered an end to US participation in the horrible Iran deal and immediately began the process of re-imposing sanctions that had been lifted or waived
Taken action to confront aggression by Iran and its proxies
US had led an unprecedented global campaign to achieve the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula
Trumps' leadership has contributed to the return of 17 Americans held overseas
In May 2018 alone, Venezuela released one American and North Korea released three Americans who came home to the US
Trump has secured historic increases in defense funding in order to rebuild naton's military after years of harmful sequester
President Trump signed legislation to provide $700 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2018 and $716 billion for 2019.
 
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JGrimez said:
500 days of Trump:

3 million+ jobs (300,000 manufacturing, 337,000 construction)
Unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% - lowest rate since 2000 and job openings have reached 6.6 million (highest ever recorded)
67% of Americans believe now is a good time to find a quality job (only under Trump has more than 50% of Americans believed this since Gallup asked the question 17 years ago)
Trump signed EO to expand apprenticeship opportunities, prioritizing job training and workforce development
Consumer confidence in current conditions has reached a 17-year high (Conference Board)
Optimism among manufacturers has hit record highs (National Association of Manufacturers)
Small business optimism has sustained record-high levels (National Federation of Independent Business)
Trump signed historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, cutting taxes for American families and making American business more competitive
American families received $3.2 trillion in gross tax cuts and saw the child tax credit double.
The top corporate tax rate was lowered from 35% to 21% so American business could be more competitive
Trump has rolled back unnecessary job-killing regulations beyond expectations
In 2017, Trump far exceeded his promise to eliminate regulations at a 2-to-1 ratio, issuing 22 deregulatory actions for every new regulatory action
Admin rolled back rules and regulations harming farmers and energy producers
Trump signed legislation reducing harmful requirements imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act, giving relief to regional and community banks/credit unions
Withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and agreement
Administration working to defend American intellectual property from China's unfair practices through a range of actions
Trump improved KORUS trade agreement with SK, allowing more US auto exports with lower tariffs, and increase US pharma access to SK
American agriculture has gained access to new markets
Trump followed through on promise to move US Embassy to Jerusalem
Ordered an end to US participation in the horrible Iran deal and immediately began the process of re-imposing sanctions that had been lifted or waived
Taken action to confront aggression by Iran and its proxies
US had led an unprecedented global campaign to achieve the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula
Trumps' leadership has contributed to the return of 17 Americans held overseas
In May 2018 alone, Venezuela released one American and North Korea released three Americans who came home to the US
Trump has secured historic increases in defense funding in order to rebuild naton's military after years of harmful sequester
President Trump signed legislation to provide $700 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2018 and $716 billion for 2019.
Click to expand...

It’s amazing to me how much he has gotten done in such a short time, and then I imagine what he will get to in his second term. I think will have to address health care then, and a few other looming major issues. Man the energy at his rally the other day was high, and the line was long outside. I feel anecdotally like his popularity is as high as ever.
 
these are great, media-friendly sound bites but when you dig into it, it's not all quite as great as you'd perhaps like us to think...

JGrimez said:
3 million+ jobs (300,000 manufacturing, 337,000 construction)
Click to expand...
more jobs are great without doubt. but what this doesn't tell you is that the rate of creation of jobs under trump is slower* than it was under obama. per the bureau of labor statistics, 2.188m jobs were added in 2017. obama added 2.3m in 2013, 2.99m in 2014, 2.71m in 2015, and 2.24m in 2016. (* source)

JGrimez said:
Unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% - lowest rate since 2000 and job openings have reached 6.6 million (highest ever recorded)
Click to expand...
awesome. for economists, this is basically full employment. but... what trump is omitting - deliberately or otherwise - is that the unemployment rate is declining (in part) because of large numbers of people leaving the workforce rather than getting jobs. "The percentage of workers in jobs or looking for work dropped from 62.9% in March, to 62.8% in April to 62.7% in May. Those levels have not been seen since the 1970s." (source)

JGrimez said:
American families received $3.2 trillion in gross tax cuts and saw the child tax credit double.
Click to expand...
great! except that figure is woefully inaccurate. families will receive about $1.5T in cuts. the rest of that $3.2T figure is from the corporate cuts.

still, this is great news for american families - especially if your american family happens to be the trump family! donald is estimated to save ~$15m a year and jared kushner will save ~$10m.

oh, and the national debt will increase $1.5T in the next decade. costs and benefits...

JGrimez said:
Trump has rolled back unnecessary job-killing regulations beyond expectations
Click to expand...
the clean power plan was estimated to reduce u.s. carbon dioxide emissions by a whopping 32% by 2030. except now not because trump scrapped it. not so great if you're one of the kids expected to avoid one of the 90,000 asthma attacks it would have helped prevent. or one of the 3600 premature deaths which were also estimated to be prevented. (source: the epa)

JGrimez said:
Withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and agreement
Click to expand...
only a good thing if you think it's a good thing.

JGrimez said:
Administration working to defend American intellectual property from China's unfair practices through a range of actions
Click to expand...
related china reading on corruption: Ivanka Trump Wins China Trademarks, Then Her Father Vows to Save ZTE. i guess daddy is only hard on chinese corporations when ivanka has nothing to lose?

JGrimez said:
Ordered an end to US participation in the horrible Iran deal and immediately began the process of re-imposing sanctions that had been lifted or waived
Click to expand...
again, it's only horrible if you think it's horrible. leaders in the uk, france and germany have stated that iran is abiding by the terms of the deal and have condemned trump's decision.

etc.

alasdair
 
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People get so worried when they hear 20 trillion in debt. But I'm pretty sure it's bullshit. It's all relative to government assets and gdp, people just imagine it as if they personally had a 20 trillion debt or portion of it to pay back and panic.

Or better still they worry about China "calling in" the debt which is even bigger bullshit. 95% of that 20 trillion is owed internally. Its money owed to itself in some form. Hell 30% of that debt is owned in government trusts. Then there's the facts that China actually can't just arbitrarily "call in" their debt and wouldn't even if they could.
 
alasdairm said:
these are great, media-friendly sound bites but when you dig into it, it's not all quite as great as you'd perhaps like us to think...

more jobs are great without doubt. but what this doesn't tell you is that the rate of creation of jobs under trump is slower* than it was under obama. per the bureau of labor statistics, 2.188m jobs were added in 2017. obama added 2.3m in 2013, 2.99m in 2014, 2.71m in 2015, and 2.24m in 2016. (* source)

awesome. for economists, this is basically full employment. but... what trump is omitting - deliberately or otherwise - is that the unemployment rate is declining (in part) because of large numbers of people leaving the workforce rather than getting jobs. "The percentage of workers in jobs or looking for work dropped from 62.9% in March, to 62.8% in April to 62.7% in May. Those levels have not been seen since the 1970s." (source)

great! except that figure is woefully inaccurate. families will receive about $1.5T in cuts. the rest of that $3.2T figure is from the corporate cuts.

still, this is great news for american families - especially if your american family happens to be the trump family! donald is estimated to save ~$15m a year and jared kushner will save ~$10m.

oh, and the national debt will increase $1.5T in the next decade. costs and benefits...

the clean power plan was estimated to reduce u.s. carbon dioxide emissions by a whopping 32% by 2030. except now not because trump scrapped it. not so great if you're one of the kids expected to avoid one of the 90,000 asthma attacks it would have helped prevent. or one of the 3600 premature deaths which were also estimated to be prevented. (source: the epa)

only a good thing if you think it's a good thing.

related china reading on corruption: Ivanka Trump Wins China Trademarks, Then Her Father Vows to Save ZTE. i guess daddy is only hard on chinese corporations when ivanka has nothing to lose?

again, it's only horrible if you think it's horrible. leaders in the uk, france and germany have stated that iran is abiding by the terms of the deal and have condemned trump's decision.

etc.

alasdair
Click to expand...

Great post, Ali. It's worth having it copied in the hope that a Trump supporter may actually address your points.
 
^let's automatically believe it because it supports our beliefs. Much of Alasdair's critiques were subjective opinion or skewed figures. He also consistently refuses to recognize or agree on the things that have happened that have benefited the country and its people. To say that everything he's done is negative is a denial of the truth and blind partisanship.

alasdairm said:
again, it's only horrible if you think it's horrible. leaders in the uk, france and germany have stated that iran is abiding by the terms of the deal and have condemned trump's decision.
Click to expand...

It was a big kickback/corruption deal. Obama flew planeloads of cash to Iran without Congressional approval. Some of this was funneled to European "allies" - Iranians are currently threatening to name all the Western leaders who took bribes, and is also the reason why Macron/Merkel desperately ran to the White House to try to get Trump to save the "deal". One of the conditions to the deal was alleviating sanctions so that European companies could invest in Iran. Which companies received the massively-lucrative deals? This is where bribery comes in. Just look at the European companies that were allowed straight in and then follow the money. And the deal did nothing towards preventing nuclear proliferation. It was a stalling tactic with no substance or clear end goals. It was a shitty deal.
 
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