President Donald Trump: The Thread

BigSqwert · February 17, 2017

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 17, 2017 -> 10:10 AM)

Sure, parts are. But if you lived through Nixon's last year it was a similarly f***ed up, what do we do now, type experience.

Of course Nixon had an insane final year but we were simply dealing with criminal behavior. With this guy, it's surreal. He cannot even answer a straightforward question. It's almost as if we grabbed some random, angry, old man from someone's basement with a 7th-grade level education and asked him to be our president.

illinilaw08 · February 17, 2017

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Feb 17, 2017 -> 12:43 PM)

I think there are a huge number of people out there who have tuned out Washington over the years and love that he's not traditional, regardless of whether he lies or does un-Presidential things. It's "different" and that's enough to like it.

I also tend to think that older people have been through previous disasters in the Presidency like Nixon and Carter and this isn't really foreign to them. Anyone 40 and younger has had a pretty "normal" presidential experience, so the abrupt change is more jarring.

I think the first part is probably accurate.

I also think (based on anecdotal discussions of this with retirees) that there a large number of people 50+ for whom jobs specifically means blue collar manufacturing jobs. I can point to massive job growth in Colorado from the legalization of marijuana, or the huge economic impact the outdoor industry makes on the overall US economy, or the potential for blue collar jobs in the solar and wind industries until I'm blue in the face, but at the end of the day, for them it comes back to one very specific set of jobs that Trump is promising to bring back - jobs that, even to the extent they have been outsourced have become significantly more automated than they were previously. So long as Trump is banging the drum to bring back those jobs, a portion of that demographic is going to ignore everything else Trump does and says.

southsider2k5 · February 17, 2017

Wait so now Republicans are back to caring about the source of leaks, and the Democrats only caring about the information in the leaks? Damn, I can't keep up with the flipflops.

BigSqwert · February 17, 2017

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 17, 2017 -> 10:32 AM)

Wait so now Republicans are back to caring about the source of leaks, and the Democrats only caring about the information in the leaks? Damn, I can't keep up with the flipflops.

Both parties are incredibly hypocritical around their position on leaks. No doubt.

Kyyle23 · February 17, 2017

Can't wait for Pruitt to dismiss and settle the lawsuits against the EPA that he brought while OK AG

StrangeSox · February 17, 2017

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 17, 2017 -> 12:14 PM)

Of course Nixon had an insane final year but we were simply dealing with criminal behavior. With this guy, it's surreal. He cannot even answer a straightforward question. It's almost as if we grabbed some random, angry, old man from someone's basement with a 7th-grade level education and asked him to be our president.

Nixon was pretty much insane and drunk very often towards the end of his Presidency.

That was the end, though, when everything was 100% definitely crashing down around him. Not the end of his first month.

Soxbadger · February 17, 2017

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 17, 2017 -> 12:32 PM)

Wait so now Republicans are back to caring about the source of leaks, and the Democrats only caring about the information in the leaks? Damn, I can't keep up with the flipflops.

There is a difference. The reason why the source of the leaks previously was "more" important was the source seemingly was from outside the US and there was a question of credibility and whether the source was a foreign entity attempting to influence an US election.

In the current case the presumed source of the leak is someone inside of the US govt. So there doesnt seem to be some sort of foreign intervention.

IE If we were talking about leaks about Obama breaking the law, the source of the leaks isnt that important because they are pseudo whistle blowers. If we were talking about leaks trying to disrupt Obama's re-election campaign, the source may be important if it looks like the source is a foreign entity and there is an issue of credibility.

Ultimately the Clinton emails arent really comparable, because the Clinton leaks were not an attempt to show that Clinton had violated US law or was working with a foreign govt.

bmags · February 17, 2017

It's also, you know, related to their actual function of government, not just releasing Jared Kushner's email of him complaining about Flynn being mean to him.

StrangeSox · February 17, 2017

The AP has posted the full "deportation squad" memo

http://interactives.ap.org/2017/nat-guard-...=AP_Interactive

StrangeSox · February 17, 2017

Trump Team’s Growth Forecasts Far Rosier Than Those of CBO, Private Economists

As the White House staff tries to put together a budget for President Donald Trump, they face a fundamental problem. Trump has promised to cut taxes, increase spending on the military and infrastructure, and avoid cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The only way to do that without producing an exploding budget deficit is to assume a big increase in economic growth.

And Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is planning to do just that -- by making things up.

Deep into his story about Trump budget hijinks, Timiraos reveals that "what's unusual about the administration's forecasts isn't just their relative optimism but also the process by which they were derived." Specifically, what's unusual about them is that they weren't derived by any process at all. Instead of letting economists build a forecast, Trump's budget was put together with "transition officials telling the CEA staff the growth targets that their budget would produce and asking them to backfill other estimates off those figures."

Kyyle23 · February 17, 2017

Hello Ponzi scheme

caulfield12 · February 17, 2017

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 17, 2017 -> 03:05 PM)

Trump Team’s Growth Forecasts Far Rosier Than Those of CBO, Private Economists

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/politics/til...keup/index.html

Tillerson presides over abrupt shakeup at the State Dept.

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...src=twsrc%5Etfw

Where's the Washington Post and MSNBC? You're slipping!

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

Hispanic Caucus barred from ICE meeting by Ryan

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-gutierrez-ac...-162250136.html

My own comment:

They've already killed the Paul Ryan border adjustment tax, which would have cost consumers $1.2-1.7 trillion but gained the govt revenues to at least partially offset the tax gains going to the mostly top 10% and big multinationals.

The problem is those tax cuts (rates down, corporate down, incentives to repatriate offshore profits) are going to cost another $3 trillion.

That's not even considering the border wall, increased military spending and infrastructure plans.

So to think GDP growth will jump to 4-5%, more than doubling....when you have all the disruptions to the health care system forthcoming, to immigration/transportation by putting out another EO, deportations of millions theoretically, various protests disrupting workplaces, it's impossible to imagine. But surely it will be based on the jump in the stock market and extrapolated to the GDP growth numbers.

Edited February 18, 2017 by caulfield12

caulfield12 · February 18, 2017

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/opinions/tru...itis/index.html

Why Trump wants you to hate the media

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/nati...er-chaos-235162

“People are so overwhelmed," said one distraught former official who recently stepped down from the NSC and spoke on condition of anonymity. "They’re all in survival mode. Everyone is expecting to get fired any minute."

The source said those responsible for regional issues like Europe and Middle East are the only ones preparing briefing reports and other material for Trump’s phone calls and visits with world leaders.

“Plenty of people are sitting at their desks staring at blank screens," the former official added. “Right now it is apocalyptic. These are people who have been doing this for years who are professionals and who know how the system works. And now there is this complete lack of competence and understanding of the system and complete lack of desire to learn it, if not outright hostility.”

Then there is the simple reality that Trump has virtually no national security or foreign policy experience.

"This president more than most will have a learning curve," Rostow said. "The job is hard enough enough as it is."

Edited February 18, 2017 by caulfield12

BigSqwert · February 18, 2017

So much for fiscal conservatism.

Trump family trips cost taxpayers $11.3m in one month – almost as much as Obama’s cost in a year

caulfield12 · February 18, 2017

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/18/opinions/geo...ance/index.html

Takei:Echoes of Japanese WWII Internment in Today's Political Environment

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/politics/epa...il_topeditorial

EPA criticizes itself? That will surely boost the morale of the scientific community...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ferris-buell...-212616027.html

Donald Trump should watch Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller on tariffs/protectionism...aka the innocuous-sounding "border adjustment tax"

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/hey-everyone-...-222937229.html

Kylie Irving leaving the Cavs to head up NASA under Trump?

Edited February 18, 2017 by caulfield12

Kyyle23 · February 19, 2017

Only 9k at a ego rub campaign event? Sad!

Brian · February 19, 2017

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 18, 2017 -> 06:17 PM)

Only 9k at a ego rub campaign event? Sad!

Actually 1.5 million

BigSqwert · February 19, 2017

Speaking of fake news, Trump continues to make s*** up by citing a fake attack in Sweden.

Ladies and gentlemen, our President is literally making up stories and inciting fear.

Dick Allen · February 19, 2017

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 19, 2017 -> 10:09 AM)

Speaking of fake news, Trump continues to make s*** up by citing a fake attack in Sweden.

Ladies and gentlemen, our President is literally making up stories and inciting fear.

Don't believe the media unless it is Fox News. They are the enemy. Trump gets his info from psychos and the internet. Far more reliable.

BigSqwert · February 19, 2017

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 19, 2017 -> 09:08 AM)

Don't believe the media unless it is Fox News. They are the enemy. Drumpf gets his info from psychos and the internet. Far more reliable.

This is not normal in any way. He spews a lie to tens of thousands of people (watching on TV and over the internet) which can easily be debunked in 10 seconds and they go on as if everything is normal. I mean wtf!?!

caulfield12 · February 20, 2017

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/dont-tel...-161200401.html

FOX News even pushing back, last week Shepard Smith and this weekend Chris Wallace

"Reince, here's the problem. I don't have any problem with you complaining about an individual story. We sometimes get it wrong, you guys sometimes get it wrong. I don't have any problem with you complaining about bias," Wallace said.

"But the president went a lot further than that. He said that the 'fake media,' not certain stories, the 'fake media,' are an enemy to the country. We don't have a state-run media in this country. That's what they have in dictatorships," Wallace continued.

Priebus argued that "other cable stations, not necessarily Fox," only briefly covered events like Trump's meetings with foreign leaders and announcement of the president's Supreme Court nominee, saying outlets instead focused on ties between Russia and the Trump campaign "all day long, on every chyron, every seven minutes."

"As soon as it was over, the next 20 hours is all about Russian spies, how no one gets along, how nothing's happening. Give me a break," Priebus said.

"You don't get to tell us what to do, Reince. You don't get to tell us what to do any more than Barack Obama did. Barack Obama whined about Fox News all the time, but I've got to say, he never said we were an enemy of the people," Wallace replied.

After Priebus said he was "surprised" Wallace would forget "all the shots" that Obama took at Fox News, the anchor interjected.

"He took the shots, and we didn't like them, and frankly, we don't like this either. But he never went as far as President Trump has. And that's what's concerning. Because it seems like he crosses a line when he says that we're the enemy of the people," Wallace said.

MexSoxFan#1 · February 20, 2017

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 19, 2017 -> 10:22 PM)