Donald Trump Presidency discussion thread III

everlast75

mattser wrote: »

If you put the c after the 10 I still wouldn't buy it.

I too was sceptical regarding it's worth, but I got it and can confirm it is definitely a good read. And time has shown the vast majority of it has proven true.

Manic Moran

pixelburp wrote: »

Has there been much of a reaction from South Korea? That's the perspective I'm curious about in all this, 'cos they're the ones with the biggest price to pay if Trump truly fouls up.

Given that it was the RoK National Security Advisor who made the unscheduled trip to DC to brief Trump on the discussion, put forward the offer for the head-to-head, and then made the very unusual public announcement from the White House, I would think that not only are the RoK supportive of it, they've been pushing for it.

People are pretending this is some new policy by NK heralding disarmament. Nonsense.

They invited Bill Clinton, he didn't go. Bush declared them an Axis of Evil, and then reversed himself. Didn't help.
Obama declined to meet them because he did not believe they would meet his preconditions on denuclearization.

Now Trump agrees without preconditions - the NK leadership are laughing, a 20 year effort to get the Americans to the table has succeeded.

The difference being that Clinton, Bush, Obama were able to kick the can down the road. By the time Trump comes in, there is no more road left to kick down: The fourth option, of doing nothing, available to his predecessors, has been removed. They can accept a nuclear DPRK, which is a definite win for DPRK and a definite loss for the rest, they can give into the meeting, which is a minor win for DPRK, and may or may not (probably won't, but there's a chance) come up with a win for the rest, or they can take military action. Wagging a finger at Kim, putting only moderate sanctions, and saying "Stop trying to develop nuclear weapons" is kind of pointless when the North has already developed them.

If the video game thing were true, we'd see the same issues in the rest of the world where we play the exact same games.

We don't. It's a solely American issue, and rather than face up to that, they want to blame anything they can

I thought about that, and I'm not sure it's equivalent for two reasons.
Firstly, I'm not sure we all play the same games to the same amount. I work in the gaming industry, and the difference in what works for our games in markets around the globe is staggering. You see cars with tri-force or mass effect stickers around here in California the same way you see cars with world of tanks stickers in Russia. The level of influence of any particular game or type of game is going to be different. It may also have more influence if you're playing a game set where you live.

Secondly, remember I'm talking about how the games are part of the influence on overall culture, not individual actions, and that is nothing to do with availability. Music is just as available in Dublin as it is in Compton. Walk down the street in a rough area of Dublin and how likely are you going to hear music blaring like NWA's old "Fuk da Police"? If there is a single Irish song about killing Gardai or gang wars, I'm unaware of it, and I very much doubt it would be celebrated and turned into a top ten hit.

I am in no way suggesting that the solution lies with censorship, or restriction of access. I do wonder, however, if a particular counter-messaging needs to be undertaken to balance out the effects in the US.

spacecoyote

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/amp/michael-cohen-used-trump-org-email-stormy-daniels-arrangements-n855021?__twitter_impression=true

Another twist in the Stormy Daniel's tale. Looks like Cohen was using a Trump Org email address in his correspondence around the payment to Daniel's which could mean further problems I would guess, given the statement is that there was no link to the Trump Org surrounding the whole scenario

derb12

spacecoyote wrote: »

https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/971538152367251457?s=19

Some potentially interesting numbers there?

That is amazing stuff! I wonder is it true and if so why isn't this headlines?

Itssoeasy

spacecoyote wrote: »

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/amp/michael-cohen-used-trump-org-email-stormy-daniels-arrangements-n855021?__twitter_impression=true

Another twist in the Stormy Daniel's tale. Looks like Cohen was using a Trump Org email address in his correspondence around the payment to Daniel's which could mean further problems I would guess, given the statement is that there was no link to the Trump Org surrounding the whole scenario

Yeah I saw that. So how will the trump White House play this one ?

Itssoeasy

derb12 wrote: »

That is amazing stuff! I wonder is it true and if so why isn't this headlines?

Because all would happen is that trump and his associates would claim it's fake news or some other rubbish excuse that doesn't pass mustard.

everlast75

Vanity Fair are leading with a story that McMaster will be fired soon. If true, who is next/left...

Water John

Well, according to the podcast above, he has 60 days to respond.
Problem is not the NDA but that it's a, goods deal/contract.. The money was for, evidential material that Stromy had. But the contract is about doing something illegal, in New York law, as DT was married, at the time. Also the use of election funds would be illegal. Because it's, buying an election.
That is how the contract would be null and void, the argument goes. Clock is ticking.

Itssoeasy

everlast75 wrote: »

Vanity Fair are leading with a story that McMaster will be fired soon. If true, who is next/left...

Well sarah sanders didn't exactly give a heartening response when asked about his future. She doesn't have a crystal ball. But according to trump "everyone wants to work at the White House" and he has the "best people" which neither are true as we stand.

aloyisious

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Well sarah sanders didn't exactly give a heartening response when asked about his future. She doesn't have a crystal ball. But according to trump "everyone wants to work at the White House" and he has the "best people" which neither are true as we stand.

Gen McMaster is still a serving officer in the military and would have to be returned to an appointment within the military. I couldn't see other general staff officers, given the way Don has treated McMaster and his W/House chief of staff, seeing Don [regardless of his office] as a worthy person to serve under in the NSA . A replacement would have to have some status within US national life for the position to have any meaning.

I can't imagine Don being allowed any abuse of presidential office by the GOP, say by appointing a lapdog, if it wanted to have any credibility. The sooner the pool from which Don get's replacement for his civil administratio dries up, the sooner he's seen as an emperor without any clothes/credibility.

VonZan

Anyone else feel that both parties have become even more divisive since the 2016 election. You would think Trump would be a chance for deep reflection for both parties but unfortunately it looks like there is a real chance we could be stuck with Trump until 2024.

derb12

Itssoeasy wrote: »

derb12 wrote: »

That is amazing stuff! I wonder is it true and if so why isn't this headlines?

Because all would happen is that trump and his associates would claim it's fake news or some other rubbish excuse that doesn't pass mustard.

I don't think so. This is a simple follow the money situation. The trump campaign made multiple payments to trump hotels (presumably mostly legitimate payments) but a bunch of them around mid October 2016 add up to $129,999.72. They are on the public record due to campaign finance laws www.fec.gov.
It's an easy matter for mueller to subpoena financial records of trump hotels to see if, by some strange coincidence, they needed to pay EC LLC for some random services around this time.

Water John

If it is that easily traceable, their stupidity is off the scale.

aloyisious

VonZan wrote: »

Anyone else feel that both parties have become even more divisive since the 2016 election. You would think Trump would be a chance for deep reflection for both parties but unfortunately it looks like there is a real chance we could be stuck with Trump until 2024.

Most of the US contributors to this thread would, after looking into their own hearts [as it were] would probably admit they are in a bind like that, driven by dislike of the other party's candidate instead of genuine political differences now. Unless the grassroots in both parties get twisted drunk together and think soberly [as it were] the O/P has a point and agree to start from scratch, throw out the people at the top, the row will continue. Don is depending on the hate he's incited to stay ahead of the game. He loves the base chant to keep the hate going.

Leroy42

aloyisious wrote: »

I can't imagine Don being allowed any abuse of presidential office by the GOP, say by appointing a lapdog, if it wanted to have any credibility.

That gave me quite a laugh.

Flynn, Dr Carson, DeVos, he tried to appoint a guy as a judge that had never even tried a case. Thats off the top of my head. Scaramucchi, theres another one.

Come on. The GOP having any regard to credibility? They sold themselves out once Trump called out the CIA and they did nothing.

aloyisious

Now this case sets a precededent for a presidential pardon, for Don to give a pardon to HRC - unlikely as it may seem it might happen - in a "what's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose" way. The beauty is that Don is the one who made the precedent in this case.... Before anyone asks, I like to have a look at Fox News every now and again to see if there are alternative stories out there in media-land.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-pardon-kristian-saucier_us_5aa2e103e4b07047bec662d1

aloyisious

Leroy42 wrote: »

That gave me quite a laugh.

Flynn, Dr Carson, DeVos, he tried to appoint a guy as a judge that had never even tried a case. Thats off the top of my head. Scaramucchi, theres another one.

Come on. The GOP having any regard to credibility? They sold themselves out once Trump called out the CIA and they did nothing.

I'm an eternal optimist at heart :-)

Manic Moran

VonZan wrote: »

Anyone else feel that both parties have become even more divisive since the 2016 election. You would think Trump would be a chance for deep reflection for both parties but unfortunately it looks like there is a real chance we could be stuck with Trump until 2024.

It's getting worse, the two wings of each party are turning on each other as well. Look at how Moser is affecting this week's Democratic race in Houston as an example. Trump has managed to divide the Republicans from Day 1.

There is a video going around this week of a rather eloquent VA State Delegate explaining why he has a position on the Second Amendment. It's a good video if you want to hear some of the pro-gun position, but for the purposes of this post, move to about 4:50 on the timestamp, when he starts talking about how one is supposed to be able to have respect for a belief on the other side of the aisle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqqJKChKRzI&feature=youtu.be&t=290 . He's not wrong, and it applies just as much to both parties.

Not that the Bay Area is exactly typical of middle america, but another example going on right now is the sanctuary city business. Jeff Sessions was here this week, and he basically laid into Mayor Shaaf of Oakland, to the point of talking about filing obstruction of justice charges. Now, you can pick your political side, but at the pointy end, the local police are the ones trying to deal with the consequences. They used to be able to take sort of a middle position where they didn't conduct raids and didn't ask immigration status questions, but if they had someone that needed taking care of, they could call ICE, or if ICE was conducting a raid, they'd provide perimeter security to ensure no innocents got caught up in crossfire if it turned violent, or whatever. Because the politicians on both sides are doubling down on their positions, getting more and more hard-lined, ICE agents are now going in without support, but going in more frequently anyway, there is no outer perimeter for the safety of others, and local police are expressly prohibited from calling ICE in on someone they want removed.

San Francisco police are pleading with the local leadership to let them get back into the Federal anti-terror task force. SF refuses to let SFPD work with the Feds on anything because of the disagreements with the Federal Government. As a result, they were in the dark on the investigation on the Christmas Day bomb plot in SF's biggest tourist spot which the Feds ended up foiling.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/01/08/police-union-ad-sfpd-terrorism-task-force/
“Somehow they feel that cooperating with a federal agency is somehow endorsing the Trump administration, which is ludicrous,” said SFPOA (SF Police Officer's Association) President Martin Halloran. “You ask any FBI agent, they would say that this is extremely dangerous – not working with them, not sharing information.”

This is, quite simply, not good.

aloyisious

CNN's news & current affairs discussion forum is talking about how young republican GOP women are upset by what they see is Don's misogynistic behaviour and are calling him out on it. The women are described as younger, eg: not slightly older or middle aged. I don;t know if there is actually a kickback, or anything similar to it, against Don and maybe other males giving Don support, in what is going on or seen as acceptable within the GOP.

I regret to say the Florida shooting has come up again on CNN with more released actual timeline calls to, and between, the police about the incident recorded at that time. The release is from Broward County Sheriff's office. One recorded conversation is between Coral Springs Police Officers referring to the shooter wearing a burgundy ROTC shirt, The report also mentions the shooter wearing the shirt getting away from the scene amongst the students.

aloyisious

It seem's that Don's think's that, acccording ro his latest reported tweetings, talking to NK is good for world peace. Now that's what I call being optimistic. I don't recall Don being so optimistic in his previous tweets.

listermint

Manic Moran wrote: »

It's getting worse, the two wings of each party are turning on each other as well. Look at how Moser is affecting this week's Democratic race in Houston as an example. Trump has managed to divide the Republicans from Day 1.

There is a video going around this week of a rather eloquent VA State Delegate explaining why he has a position on the Second Amendment. It's a good video if you want to hear some of the pro-gun position, but for the purposes of this post, move to about 4:50 on the timestamp, when he starts talking about how one is supposed to be able to have respect for a belief on the other side of the aisle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqqJKChKRzI&feature=youtu.be&t=290 . He's not wrong, and it applies just as much to both parties.

Not that the Bay Area is exactly typical of middle america, but another example going on right now is the sanctuary city business. Jeff Sessions was here this week, and he basically laid into Mayor Shaaf of Oakland, to the point of talking about filing obstruction of justice charges. Now, you can pick your political side, but at the pointy end, the local police are the ones trying to deal with the consequences. They used to be able to take sort of a middle position where they didn't conduct raids and didn't ask immigration status questions, but if they had someone that needed taking care of, they could call ICE, or if ICE was conducting a raid, they'd provide perimeter security to ensure no innocents got caught up in crossfire if it turned violent, or whatever. Because the politicians on both sides are doubling down on their positions, getting more and more hard-lined, ICE agents are now going in without support, but going in more frequently anyway, there is no outer perimeter for the safety of others, and local police are expressly prohibited from calling ICE in on someone they want removed.

San Francisco police are pleading with the local leadership to let them get back into the Federal anti-terror task force. SF refuses to let SFPD work with the Feds on anything because of the disagreements with the Federal Government. As a result, they were in the dark on the investigation on the Christmas Day bomb plot in SF's biggest tourist spot which the Feds ended up foiling.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/01/08/police-union-ad-sfpd-terrorism-task-force/
“Somehow they feel that cooperating with a federal agency is somehow endorsing the Trump administration, which is ludicrous,” said SFPOA (SF Police Officer's Association) President Martin Halloran. “You ask any FBI agent, they would say that this is extremely dangerous – not working with them, not sharing information.”

This is, quite simply, not good.

Tbh manic that entire post is about how the democrat side won't 'work' with the republican sides agenda and frankly if it has to come to that then so be it.

It's sprung out of undemocratic ideals brought forward by them.


Good enough I say.

Leroy42

It's no way to run a country/county/city though is it.

Real people are being let down by the very politicians that are supposed to be working for them

listermint

Leroy42 wrote: »

It's no way to run a country/county/city though is it.

Real people are being let down by the very politicians that are supposed to be working for them

What makes you think Trump or the republican party are trying to run a country ?

They've been against running the Courtney for ten years and the tea party cohort.

Why is it democrats always have to compromise and come across reasonable.....

Leroy42

So after the initial shock of the announcement, we are back to the usual with this WH. The announcement was more of a "coming soon, depending on licence" type announcement.

The WH has now starting putting caveats and moving away from the initial 2 month timeframe. The meeting hasn't been agreed.

Yet again, POTUS make an announcement within any actual idea o how it will work and the rest of the world is supposed to give him credit to basically agreeing to something he knows nothing about.

everlast75

Just 6 hours by nunberg yesterday.

Perhaps Mueller knew most of what Nunberg had to say after the tv rants

aloyisious

Leroy42 wrote: »

So after the initial shock of the announcement, we are back to the usual with this WH. The announcement was more of a "coming soon, depending on licence" type announcement.

The WH has now starting putting caveats and moving away from the initial 2 month timeframe. The meeting hasn't been agreed.

Yet again, POTUS make an announcement within any actual idea o how it will work and the rest of the world is supposed to give him credit to basically agreeing to something he knows nothing about.

Sometimes I don't know if Don is following a calculated "shake the tree and see what falls out" policy or if he's a complete and utter dipstick with an "oh well" shrug of the shoulders manner. It's a while since I've seen his shrug of the shoulders move on TV.

On the NK peace issue, I see from TV news that Rex Tillerson is in Africa visiting some countries there and has fallen ill. I wish him well in his recovery. I recall Henry Kissinger had a diplomatic cold in the US which allowed him visit China on the QT resulting in a peace deal with Vietnam.

pixelburp

aloyisious wrote: »

Sometimes I don't know if Don is following a calculated "shake the tree and see what falls out" policy or if he's a complete and utter dipstick with an "oh well" shrug of the shoulders manner. It's a while since I've seen his shrug of the shoulders move on TV.

It's absolutely the latter: his approach throughout, whether its speeches, policy or interviews is to shoot from the hip, frequently contradicting himself within single sentences, then often denying he ever said XYZ when challenged on it by journalists.

I don't believe that there's any grand strategy going here: he just waffles and brainstorms to such a huge degree, married to his narcissism and reported short attention span, that naturally the sheer volume tends to make it impossible to focus too long on one particular brainfart - be it visits to North Korea, the Access Hollywood tape, his defence of White Supremacists, video-game violence comments, or all the other smaller stuff in-between I can't immediately recall (cos there's simply too much of it).

recedite

pixelburp wrote: »

he just waffles..

He's not a patch on some people in this thread though

What happened to all that stuff about the Logan Act? Arrests definitely imminent....impeachment of POTUS....
Its all very quiet out there now?

I see The Donald has made a diplomatic breakthrough with NK and a bilateral meeting between himself and Kim is on the cards. What no previous US president has been willing/able to do.
US economy surging ahead...... this presidency has been an outstanding success so far.

pitifulgod

recedite wrote: »

He's not a patch on some people in this thread though

What happened to all that stuff about the Logan Act? Arrests definitely imminent....impeachment of POTUS....
Its all very quiet out there now?

I see The Donald has made a diplomatic breakthrough with NK and a bilateral meeting between himself and Kim is on the cards. What no previous US president has been willing/able to do.
US economy surging ahead...... this presidency has been an outstanding success so far.

It looks like his own party is going to oppose tariffs. Hugely negative perception of him and not a week where he doesn't create a scandal. Ongoing investigation into his campaign too. Hardly successful,comes across as inept.

dr.fuzzenstein

pixelburp wrote: »

It's absolutely the latter: his approach throughout, whether its speeches, policy or interviews is to shoot from the hip, frequently contradicting himself within single sentences, then often denying he ever said XYZ when challenged on it by journalists.

I don't believe that there's any grand strategy going here: he just waffles and brainstorms to such a huge degree, married to his narcissism and reported short attention span, that naturally the sheer volume tends to make it impossible to focus too long on one particular brainfart - be it visits to North Korea, the Access Hollywood tape, his defence of White Supremacists, video-game violence comments, or all the other smaller stuff in-between I can't immediately recall (cos there's simply too much of it).

He is like some malevolent and belligerent Forrest Gump.