Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[mvaliz]

Im seeing conflicting stories. Some say McMaster is gone and other says Trump is planning to get rid of him, like he 'planned' to get rid of Sessions and Kelly multiple times. If McMaster is gone then its obvious Trump trying to purge the executive branch of anyone who spoke put against Russia.

I'm seeing the same. MSN is reporting he's gone. CNN is reporting that Dump is "ready to replace" McMaster.

Either way, it seems likely that there's going to be a pretty big McMushroom Cloud bursting in the Whitehouse sometime tomorrow!

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@Skroe

DON'T RISK GETTING BANNED AGAIN! IT'S TOO RISKY!!!

Hear me out! We all know you that when you get banned is when shit hits the fan. With all this shit hitting the fan right now on while you are still around, that means if you do get banned again this will go beyond Dump simply getting impeached... it's going to literally be Dump revealing he's a lizard person ala the miniseries V on live television! o_O

...I bet you think that's funny and silly, don't you? :P Is it still silly and funny if I remind you that it was Frump himself who was talking about desiring to create a Space Force only yesterday??

#mindblown! >.>

[Somewhatconcerned]

What will become of Mattis?

[PACOX]

What will become of Mattis?

I no longer see a point for Mattis to stay if McMaster is gone.

[Stormspark]

Well, McMaster actually was one of the best people. About the only one in the Trump administration that actually was. He is extremely intelligent, dedicated, and has unquestioned integrity. I wonder why Trump took so long to fire him, he was a horrible fit.

He was there specifically out of loyalty to the country, to try to prevent Trump from doing any more damage. I kind of liken him to Teal'c in Stargate when he still served under Apophis.

[mvaliz]

Woah... somebody's smelling the smoke comming from the fire! Dumb-Dumb Junior's Wife filed for divorce this afternoon!

Oh man, I'm REALLY curious if Mueller is reading this news and twiddling his fingers in anticipation of interviewing her! ^_^

[Thepersona]

I'm seeing the same. MSN is reporting he's gone. CNN is reporting that Dump is "ready to replace" McMaster.

Either way, it seems likely that there's going to be a pretty big McMushroom Cloud bursting in the Whitehouse sometime tomorrow!

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@Skroe

DON'T RISK GETTING BANNED AGAIN! IT'S TOO RISKY!!!

Hear me out! We all know you that when you get banned is when shit hits the fan. With all this shit hitting the fan right now on while you are still around, that means if you do get banned again this will go beyond Dump simply getting impeached... it's going to literally be Dump revealing he's a lizard person ala the miniseries V on live television! o_O

...I bet you think that's funny and silly, don't you? :P Is it still silly and funny if I remind you that it was Frump himself who was talking about desiring to create a Space Force only yesterday??

#mindblown! >.>

Donald Trump is alarak in disguise confirmed. he calls the deathfleet after all of this, and Mocks humanity for electing him (before he glasses DC)

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/974468508074565632

Just spoke to @POTUS and Gen. H.R. McMaster - contrary to reports they have a good working relationship and there are no changes at the NSC.

Note the bold.

That's present tense, not future tense. We have also heard this type of line before. Repeatedly. And it was a lie most of those times, too.

[Breccia]

While speculation about whether McMaster has or hasn't been fired continues -- you know, he can't like that. What kind of fucking job security is "Heads I have a job tomorrow, tails he fires me via tweet"? -- anyhow while that goes on, let's look at other forms of hunting.

We all know Secretary of the Interior Zinke is an avid hunter. Many of us know that he has created an advisory board to discuss and form rules about which animal parts can/can't be imported. What you might not know, is that this board is almost entirely made of hunters.

A new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some members with direct ties to President Donald Trump and his family.

A review by The Associated Press of the backgrounds and social media posts of the 16 board members appointed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke indicates they will agree with his position that the best way to protect critically threatened or endangered species is by encouraging wealthy Americans to shoot some of them.

Just a brief aside: this is not an opinion piece. Re-read that bolded line.

One appointee co-owns a private New York hunting preserve with Trump’s adult sons. The oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., drew the ire of animal rights activists after a 2011 photo emerged of him holding a bloody knife and the severed tail of an elephant he killed in Zimbabwe.

The first meeting of the International Wildlife Conservation Council was scheduled for Friday at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington. Council members aren’t being paid a salary, though the department has budgeted $250,000 in taxpayer funds for travel expenses, staff time and other costs.

Trump has decried big-game hunting as a “horror show” in tweets. But under Zinke, a former Montana congressman who is an avid hunter, the Fish and Wildlife Service has quietly moved to reverse Obama-era restrictions on bringing trophies from African lions and elephants into the United States.

"Never forget to get divorced."

There’s little indication dissenting perspectives will be represented on the Trump administration’s conservation council. Appointees include celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers, and wealthy sportspeople who boast of bagging the coveted “Big Five” — elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and Cape buffalo.

Most are high-profile members of Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, groups that have sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the list of countries from which trophy kills can be legally imported.

They include the Safari Club’s president, Paul Babaz, a Morgan Stanley investment adviser from Atlanta, and Erica Rhoad, a lobbyist and former GOP congressional staffer who is the NRA’s director of hunting policy.

Bill Brewster is a retired Oklahoma congressman and lobbyist who served on the boards of the Safari Club and the NRA. An NRA profile lauded Brewster and his wife’s five decades of participation and support for hunting, and his purchase of a lifetime NRA membership for his grandson when the boy was 3 days old.

Also on the board is Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, a group that lobbies Congress and state governments on issues affecting hunters and fishermen.

Zinke described the purpose of the council as representing the “strong partnership” between federal wildlife officials and those who hunt or profit from hunting. Council paperwork said the panel’s mission was “to increase public awareness domestically regarding conservation, wildlife law enforcement, and economic benefits that result from United states citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting.”

In its charter, the council’s listed duties include “recommending removal of barriers to the importation into the United States of legally hunted wildlife” and “ongoing review of import suspension/bans and providing recommendations that seek to resume the legal trade of those items, where appropriate.”

In a letter this week, a coalition of more than 20 environmental and animal welfare groups objected that the one-sided makeup of the council could violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires government boards to be balanced in terms of points of view and not improperly influenced by special interests. The groups said they nominated a qualified representative, but Zinke didn’t select him.

[Avsruls]

Could the GOP block Bolton if Trump chooses him to replace McMaster?

Please tell me the answer is yes.

[Skroe]

I'm seeing the same. MSN is reporting he's gone. CNN is reporting that Dump is "ready to replace" McMaster.

Either way, it seems likely that there's going to be a pretty big McMushroom Cloud bursting in the Whitehouse sometime tomorrow!

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@Skroe

DON'T RISK GETTING BANNED AGAIN! IT'S TOO RISKY!!!

Hear me out! We all know you that when you get banned is when shit hits the fan. With all this shit hitting the fan right now on while you are still around, that means if you do get banned again this will go beyond Dump simply getting impeached... it's going to literally be Dump revealing he's a lizard person ala the miniseries V on live television! o_O

...I bet you think that's funny and silly, don't you? :P Is it still silly and funny if I remind you that it was Frump himself who was talking about desiring to create a Space Force only yesterday??

#mindblown! >.>

LOL. I have a bunch of infraction points expiring in early April so I'm going to behave until then.

That being said, the previous 3 months have mauled Trump's failing Presidency, so it's been worth it.

[mvaliz]

LOL. I have a bunch of infraction points expiring in early April so I'm going to behave until then.

That being said, the previous 3 months have mauled Trump's failing Presidency, so it's been worth it.

Hehe ^_^

Also, the other thing I like to say is to compare your being banned to the Bermuda Triangle theory.

The Bermuda Triangle theory is that you can take any three shipping port points of the same equal distance akin to that of the Bermuda Triangle and you will find enough ship accidents and disappearances in that triangle as well.

My analogy being this: If you take any given 3+ week period at any given time durring this administration, a number of extremely bad and revealing events will have happened involving Dumbass Donnie Dump. ^_^

[DarkTZeratul]

the best way to protect critically threatened or endangered species is by encouraging wealthy Americans to shoot some of them.

Backwards though it may seem, this is actually true. A considerable portion of Africa's wildlife preserves are paid for by selling hunting rights.

Basically, when you get right down to it, it's a matter of saving a species by making it financially lucrative. If you can make, say, $20,000 by allowing someone to shoot a lion, it is very much in your best interests to ensure that there are always going to be lions. Most good hunters recognize this as well; if they hunt something to extinction, then they won't be able to hunt it anymore. There's actually a surprisingly large overlap between hunters and conservationists.

[Deleted]

LOL. I have a bunch of infraction points expiring in early April so I'm going to behave until then.

That being said, the previous 3 months have mauled Trump's failing Presidency, so it's been worth it.

So we have to sit tight until early April before shit will hit the fan again. Can't wait.

[Trifle]

Backwards though it may seem, this is actually true. A considerable portion of Africa's wildlife preserves are paid for by selling hunting rights.

Basically, when you get right down to it, it's a matter of saving a species by making it financially lucrative. If you can make, say, $20,000 by allowing someone to shoot a lion, it is very much in your best interests to ensure that there are always going to be lions. Most good hunters recognize this as well; if they hunt something to extinction, then they won't be able to hunt it anymore. There's actually a surprisingly large overlap between hunters and conservationists.

Which is why the wildlife numbers are still plummeting in large sections of Africa. Better shoot some more to save them faster !

The amount of money hunter's spend is a drop in the bucket of these economies, and isn't a substitute for a real conservation program.

[Breccia]

North Korea, a country led by an overweight childish man, thrust into a position of power by pure nepotism, obsessed with The Nuclear, parades, and advertising himself as the best bestiest best to the point he can change the weather but refuses to feed the hungry or give medicine to the sick, is set to meet up with Trump in two months.

I wonder if they'll have anything in common.

Preparing for this historic venue, naturally, Trump has taken the first logical step: taking his top diplomat, someone who's been by his side since Day One, someone he appointed to carry his word internationally and sometimes also force to eat salad, and fired him.

So...with that done, naturally, the next move was to bring up the next most relevant position: the US Ambassador to South Korea (we haven't had a NK ambassador for a long time, for obvious reasons). After hearing the call to action for this big moment in international diplomacy, he took the podium, turned to the crowd, and announced, "I don't exist."

Fifty-six of his colleagues, including the ambassadors to Germany, Qatar, Mexico, Austria, Australia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the ASEAN alliance, heralded the announcement with "None of us exist, either."

With no head diplomat, no relevant diplomat, and no time to get one, naturally, the burden fell to the next candidate in Trump's administration: Ivanka.

No, really. Ivanka.

"I thought she didn't have a security clearance?"

She doesn't.

[mvaliz]

CNN is now confirming that McMaster is, indeed, going to be fired. It's apparently a matter of when, not if:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/polit...sis/index.html

President Donald Trump has apparently grown sick of H.R. McMaster and is preparing to jettison his national security adviser in the not-too-distant future. That news was first broken by The Washington Post on Thursday night but subsequently confirmed by CNN. It appears to now be a matter of when, not if, McMaster will leave.

[Redwyrm]

Rumors are also pointing to Kelly being right behind McMaster

[Poopymonster]

Rumors are also pointing to Kelly being right behind McMaster

ETA on Mattis departing?

[Sky High]

ETA on Mattis departing?

speaking of Mattis, we have yet another case of a trump Admin member being engaged in flagrant fraud. the difference this time is no ones wants to go after him because we might have a nuclear war otherwise. ah yeah America, so much winning!

[Breccia]

ETA on Mattis departing?

If McMaster and Kelly leave on the same day, I put Kelly leaving/Kelly staying as a 3-14 bracket match.

Other news: as Trump continues to tout, as he apparently wanted to call it, the Tax Cut Cut Cut JOBS! Act, we find...well, kind of the reverse effect.

SouthEastern Grocers, a big name in Florida, is going bankrupt, closing 94 stores. This includes the entire Winn-Dixie thing, pure irony, as Dixie isn't exactly Winning all that much these days.

Toys R Us, despite being a chain so friendly to Trump they have a backwards R, is also dying out. 31,000 people will lose a job and there's no severance package.

"You already posted that in September."

No, that was "only" 200 stores. This is now the entire chain.

EDIT: I found another one! Caterpilllar, the bulldozer people, to close two facilities and lay off 880 people.

And iHeartMedia, parent to Clear Channel, is also on the way out. The fate of the biggest radio company in the US's 14k employees is as yet uncertain.

In fact, 2017 was a bad year for retail and the above all happened within 48 hours of each other. Whatever bonuses Trump is trying to promote, it's not doing the JOBS!

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Trump takes the trade deficit to $566 billion, higher than any year Obama was President.