President Trump- The Implications

[patric]

Getting closer.

Trump Team Asks State Dept. To Name Those Working On Gender Equality
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/22/506629695/trump-team-asks-state-dept-to-name-those-working-on-gender-equality

[cannon_fodder]

Surely they are just asking so they can give them a raise, bump their funding, and maybe some sort of special arm band to wear... The fact that Team Trump asking "whose working on [insert issue here]" makes people fear retaliation is a sad statement.


Meanwhile - yesterday both Trump and Putin expressed a desire to build more nuclear weapons. I can't stress this enough, but this isn't fake news.  Our future president was asked to clarify tweets about expanding nuclear weapons and he said:  "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all."

You see, Vladimir was making his usually tough guy talk to Russia TV, talking about boosting Russia's nuclear arsenal.  This is a speech he has been giving since Bush II threw out the anti-ballistic missile treaty and build a defense system in Poland.  To date, Russia has built no new nukes.  But Trump heard about Vladimir's tough talk, so he had to tweet about it in a way that made him tougher.

I know I already said this, but this actually happened. Because Trump couldn't stand someone seeming tougher than him he started a nuclear arms race on twitter.

A couple of hours later a Trump spokesman said that there wouldn't actually be an arms race and that The Donald didn't really intend to build more nuclear weapons.  You see, it was a metaphor of sorts for being tough and convincing other countries that there is no point in another arms race.  So once they all see the light and don't build nuclear weapons (in other words, keep doing what they've been doing for 35 years and not build nukes) its because Trump is a master at diplomacy.  By bluffing on twitter, and then telling everyone a couple of hours later via spokesman that he was bluffing, he saves the world.

Or something.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-nuclear-idUSKBN14B1ZZ
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/22/donald-trump-vladimir-putn-signal-renewal-nuclear-arms-race/

[AquaMan]

That's the optimistic scenario. The pessimistic view is that he once again blurted out something because of his lack of historical understanding of what you easily explained. He heard Putin puff, he knows he's accused of being chummy with Putin so he puffs bigger. Someone explains the history to him and he recants or rather, makes up a plausible rationalization for his people to digest. Rationalizing is an important part of narcissism.

His circle is billionaires/multi-millionaires from the business world. They all think that because they excelled at making wealth that they are good at everything. To them politics is only a means to a profitable end. Intellectuals are anathema to them. The leader's only tether to reality is a paid gun like Conaway. Her view of reality is whatever her employer tells her is reality.

Kim Jong must be laughing hysterically. Finally leadership he can relate to!

[cannon_fodder]

Today the idiot tweeting

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!
4:26 PM - 22 Dec 2016
  13,252 13,252 Retweets   51,861 51,861 likes

First, it should be noted that the president doesn't make defense contracts.  Doesn't negotiate them.  Doesn't decide what programs to go with.  That'd be Congress, the one with the purse strings.

Second, the Donald doesn't know a damn thing except something he saw shared on Facebook or somewhere else on the interwebs.  Does anyone, and I mean anyone, actually think Trump could tell you the cost of either plane or the comparative advantages of one over the other?  Of course not.  But the hell with it, lets send out a tweet and cost Lockhead tens of millions of dollars in market value.  Why?  Maybe because all of his China tweets cost Boeing boatloads of stock value because it put their contracts with Chinese airlines in doubt. 

YOU CAN'T REPLACE THE F-35 WITH AN F-18 ANY MORE THAN YOU CAN REPLACE AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER WITH A CRUISE SHIP

The F-18 first entered service in 1978.  You can update it a lot, and I'm sure it still has lots of good life left in it.  But come on... how many cars first designed in 1978 are still competitive with a car designed this decade?  And when I'm driving, no one is actively competing with me to see who can kill the other one first. Now, the F-18 might be a better naval aviation plane (longer range, more bombs, more robust).  But they aren't interchangeable.

Lets finish with the fact that the guy doesn't know how to share a tweet.  He just cuts and pastes someone elses tweet and then adds:  @MikePense: "whatever it says".  Seriously, if you tweet dozens of times per week and you can't figure out how to share someones tweet... that doesn't speak well for you.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump


Someone needs to take away his twitter.  Seriously, it is a global security threat and tool of propaganda. Just this week he has shown great love to Russia, screwed with major defense contractors stock, picked a fight with China, tried to reignite the nuclear arms race, and spewed forth crap with no basis in reality.  Though, truthfully, most of the tweets were just about how great Donald Trump is.

No press conference in 6 months... but lots of tweets.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/22/politics/donald-trump-24-hours/index.html

[Red Arrow]

And when I'm driving, no one is actively competing with me to see who can kill the other one first.

Have you driven on 169 lately?

[patric]

Today the idiot tweeting

For someone supposedly hawkish and pro-jobs, he sure has been sending a lot of defense industry's stocks into death spirals.

[Ed W]

For someone supposedly hawkish and pro-jobs, he sure has been sending a lot of defense industry's stocks into death spirals.

You don't think he'd do that so his family members could buy those stocks at a low, low discount price, do you?

[heironymouspasparagus]

Moe along....nothing to see here...

Linda McMahon - appt to run the Small Business Administration.  Contributor of more than $5 million to Trumps fake charity.  Nope, nothing criminal in any of this...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ny-attorney-general-hinders-trump-plan-shutter-foundation/story?id=44401250

[swake]

[patric]

I never noticed trump doesnt have a reflection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw

[cannon_fodder]

First act of the new Congress:

Kill the independent ethics investigation committee.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/03/house-gop-votes-to-gut-independent-ethics-office.html

Ryan and Kevin McArthy were against the change, but it passed with flying colors.  Essentially, instead of an independent group investigating and making conclusions on ethics complaints, the House will police itself. Back to the way things were before 2008 - when the new panel took over and sent several members of Congress to jail for corruption, bribery, etc.

I really struggle to think of a good reason to do this...

"Republicans claim they want to 'drain the swamp,' but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions," the California lawmaker said in a statement. "Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress."

[heironymouspasparagus]

First act of the new Congress:

Kill the independent ethics investigation committee.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/03/house-gop-votes-to-gut-independent-ethics-office.html

Ryan and Kevin McArthy were against the change, but it passed with flying colors.  Essentially, instead of an independent group investigating and making conclusions on ethics complaints, the House will police itself. Back to the way things were before 2008 - when the new panel took over and sent several members of Congress to jail for corruption, bribery, etc.

I really struggle to think of a good reason to do this...

Reason??   It's what they have been telling the American people they are gonna do for years now - dismantle all personal rights/protections while allowing unfettered expansion of corporate power, even to the point of getting corporations defined as "people".  Nobody can possibly be even mildly surprised by this at this point in time - they are just keeping their promises.



And yet, people in Michigan still voted for Jill Stein, taking the votes from Hillary (and the other states that put Trump over), citing "voting their conscience".  I call B... S...!!   They were only engaged in mental masturbation, or totally oblivious to the facts of what this election was all about.  Either way, if not criminally negligent, they were at the very least, morally negligent and/or morally bankrupt, given all the deviant behavior Trump bragged about on nationally broadcast media.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Decision reversed after Trump blasts them.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-03/house-gop-votes-to-strip-ethics-office-of-independent-status

[Ed W]

One congresscritter said this was meant to improve transparency. George Orwell would be proud.

Odd how they did this by secret ballot in the dead of night, so to speak. And once it was dragged out in the open, they scurried for cover like cockroaches.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Decision reversed after Trump blasts them.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-03/house-gop-votes-to-strip-ethics-office-of-independent-status

It was a much wider backlash than Trump.   Unless he orchestrated this with the House to get some Brownie Points...!   And we all know what he would want to be doing with Brownie Points....