Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Machismo]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...617_story.html

I wouldn't be surprised to see them actually released, but unsurprisingly it looks like NPR have the receipts backing up Marie Louise Kelly.

Pompeo is an unabashed, unashamed, brazen liar and a god-damned coward.

This is awesome.

It highlights exactly just how morally bankrupt all of Trump's staff are. Nobody should get a pass, they should all get a gigantic scarlet "T" on their clothes, so everyone knows just how shitty his staff are.

[Sorshen]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/u...ald-trump.html

Though aides have implored him not to take the bait, Mr. Trump has been unable to resist. He has branded Mr. Bloomberg, who is 5 feet 7 inches tall, as “Mini Mike” on Twitter, and sparred with him over health care. He has also told aides that Mr. Bloomberg is a “bad guy.”

When it was disclosed that Mr. Bloomberg had bought a Super Bowl ad for about $10 million, for instance, the president’s re-election campaign, within hours, said that it had also bought a $10 million ad to be aired during the game.

This is so funny, Bloomberg is running circles around Trump... and Trump tweets about his height and lies about pre-existing conditions in ACA

[draynay]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/u...ald-trump.html



This is so funny, Bloomberg is running circles around Trump... and Trump tweets about his height and lies about pre-existing conditions in ACA

Only too happy to see politicians kill off the concept of watching the Super Bowl 'for the commercials'.

[Edge-]

https://thehill.com/policy/internati...om-pompeo-trip

The State Department has removed an NPR reporter from a group of journalists traveling this week to Europe and Central Asia with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, days after Pompeo publicly feuded with the news outlet following a tense interview.

An organization representing correspondents covering the State Department made the announcement in a statement on Monday. The group says it believes the removal of Michele Kelemen from the press pool was a response to the flare-up between Pompeo and her NPR colleague Mary Louise Kelly.

“We can only conclude that the State Department is retaliating against National Public Radio as a result of this exchange,” Shaun Tandon, president of the State Department Correspondents' Association, said in the statement.

The State Department and NPR did not immediately respond.

Pompeo had NPR kicked out of their press pool for his upcoming trip to the EU and Asia.

It wasn't even Mary Louise Kelly, who fucking owned the god-damn shit out of him and made him throw a temper tantrum like a child, it was a different reporter.

Mike Pompeo is the thinnest skinned of snowflakes, and dishonors the office he holds with each passing minute.

[Machismo]

https://thehill.com/policy/internati...om-pompeo-trip



Pompeo had NPR kicked out of their press pool for his upcoming trip to the EU and Asia.

It wasn't even Mary Louise Kelly, who fucking owned the god-damn shit out of him and made him throw a temper tantrum like a child, it was a different reporter.

Mike Pompeo is the thinnest skinned of snowflakes, and dishonors the office he holds with each passing minute.

People don't like it when they get caught lying, after getting caught lying.

[Orange Joe]

For the record it was just my first impression. And it turned out to be correct, at least according to Pompeo. I'm not defending his alleged reaction at all, but my suspicion was that it got sprung on him, and it appears I was correct.

But again, I don't defend Pompeo blowing up, if that account is correct.

cough.... cough.....
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-pomp...162018335.html

Surprising literally no one but Dumpster defenders.

[Edge-]

cough.... cough.....
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-pomp...162018335.html

Surprising literally no one but Dumpster defenders.

I already linked the original WashPo piece.

Unsurprisingly, a guy known for lying who works for a constant liar, lies. This, somehow, seems to still come as a shock to some people despite this being a repeat occurrence for years.

[pathora44]

Mike Pompeo is the thinnest skinned of snowflakes, and dishonors the office he holds with each passing minute.

You just described Trump and every other member in his cabinet

[Paranoid Android]

Georgia GOP @RepDougCollins is expected to announce a run for U.S. Senate against sitting Republican @SenatorLoeffler, a Georgia Republican source tells CNN’s @arogDC

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/statu...018065409?s=19

If your head is only up Trump's ass then get ready to be primaried by someone willing to go all up in it.

[Belize]

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/statu...018065409?s=19

If your head is only up Trump's ass then get ready to be primaried by someone willing to go all up in it.

I kinda hope it splits the GOP base in two and gives an easy win for the Dems.

[omerome]

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/statu...018065409?s=19

If your head is only up Trump's ass then get ready to be primaried by someone willing to go all up in it.

Someone posted in the comments from The Hill that Collins' head is so far up Trump's ass, he can almost see Lindsey Graham's feet was the best thing I've read in a while.

[Orbitus]

Someone posted in the comments from The Hill that Collins' head is so far up Trump's ass, he can almost see Lindsey Graham's feet was the best thing I've read in a while.

I just call the Trump defenders in congress colon polyps, because there are so many of them in there, there is no way they could all fit unless you shrink them down.

[BronzeCondor]

An E-11 is a Bombardier BD-700 buisiness jet with some communications gear on it, mostly operating as a relay platform. It carries the Northrop Grumman Battlefield Airborne Communications Node. The Air Force has a few of them, but the BACN is installed on several different types of aircraft and wouldn't necessarily have a crew onboard.

It's not some crazy secret thing. Frankly, the EQ-4B, a RQ-4 Global Hawk with the BACN, is the better implementation. But the entire Global Hawk family need to be retired and replaced with a stealth successor (RQ-180 variants?) soon.

There's another UAV tree that fits the extremely long loiter time/stealth/relay capability (dates back to the 90s & Project DarkStar). That platform and the RQ-180 more than likely won't be coming out of the black anytime soon.

[Zaydin]

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/statu...018065409?s=19

If your head is only up Trump's ass then get ready to be primaried by someone willing to go all up in it.

Collins was really hoping he would get promoted to that empty Senate seat by Brian Kemp and so many Trump fluffers were urging Kemp do appoint Collins to that seat and then declared that Kemp needed to be primaried for daring to pick someone other than one blessed by the GOPs God Emperor.

[Templar 331]

I kinda hope it splits the GOP base in two and gives an easy win for the Dems.

It's Georgia. Anyone voting Republican only cares about the R next to the name. I can't say much since I'm voting D no matter what. :/

[Elegiac]

It's Georgia. Anyone voting Republican only cares about the R next to the name. I can't say much since I'm voting D no matter what. :/

We should do a social experiment where we run someone on a Republicant ticket and see how many people fail to notice the t.

[omerome]

We should do a social experiment where we run someone on a Republicant ticket and see how many people fail to notice the t.

Her name should be Luci Fur.

[Breccia]

Things are not looking stellar. What's interesting is how much piled up all at once.

1) That darn ol' yield curve inverted again.

2) About four months ago the Fed took action to adjust its faltering balance by getting into the repo market. But, that's run its course, and they're back to losing money again. Powell has announced how bad this is by saying the upcoming fix is "not QE" because admitting he was using Quantitative Easing (an old friend around here) would be admission the economy is in trouble.

3) While Boeing was able to get the loans it needed to stay in the air, their failure cascaded through over a dozen companies and caused thousands of layoffs. Boeing has caused so much damage that Bank of America has already revised their Q2 2020 GDP forecast down a whopping 0.4% from Boeing alone. (Not that they were thrilled with 2020 in the first place)

4) A new study shows that prices on American aluminum products rose about 10%, what a shocker, the same amount of the tariffs. Therefore, American consumers are paying effectively all of the tariff -- not China. This is important because Trump just expanded those very same tariffs, increasing prices paid by Americans as the largest tax hike on Americans in history becomes even larger.

"Hey I don't know the author of that study therefore I handwave it without reading it!"

Well, you could read this one instead. It was written by Princeton, Columbia, and the Federal Reserve of New York. And it says almost exactly the same thing.

5) The coronavirus is partially to blame for market jitters, but the market hates unpredictability. Under normal circumstances, a life-threatening pandemic would still cause a dip. Problem is, under normal circumstances, the dip wouldn't push things so far into the negative, because they wouldn't be starting so poorly anyhow. Basically, imagine your water heater breaks and you need $1500. For a lot of families, ouch, that hurts. But imagine you've already emptied your bank account and maxxed out your credit cards on a Wall around your house.

6) Atlanta puts 2019 Q4 GDP growth under 2 percent. That is a significant drop from just two weeks ago, which is further noteworthy because Phase One happened. Also, New York puts Q1 2020 growth at 1.22%, which, okay, little early for Q1 numbers but damn that's horrifying.

7) Trump is likely to brag that the trade gap narrowed in 2019, but expect him to be light on details. The reason it narrowed was because US exports were way down, but imports were just down more. There is no actual sign of improved trade policy.
7a) The US exported a lot of energy, which helped the balance by stopping it from being absolutely horrifying. But you know who failed pretty hard? Steel and aluminium, two US products Trump personally promised to save. They both lost 15% of their exports last year.

Trump campaigned and ran on the idea that he, a "successful" businessman, would reverse the damage done by Obama to the economy. Instead, he unilaterally caused the highest tax increase in American history, reduced exports, tanked the GDP and we're still looking at a recession. And the water heater's gushing bigly.

Are we tired of winning yet?

[Redwyrm]

What's that old phrase?

A stupid person believes he knows everything. A smart person believes he doesn't know enough...

May I present Donald Trump

[Breccia]

Well, things are not looking stellar for Trump's close friend and fellow criminal Netanyahu.

First, he gave up on seeking total immunity from the law just before it was taken away by force, and was immediately indicted for bribery and corruption.

Second, while Netanyahu was preparing to immediately annex West Bank homes with Trump's blessing, he might want to step back from that. While we STILL don't know what's in the now farcical Middle East peace plan, we do know the WH has urged Netanyahu to wait -- because such annexation would sour other nearby Arab countries (especially Jordan) from signing on, immediately tanking the deal and making Trump look bad.

Thirdly, I still don't think Israel has a proper government. There's an election March 2.

The Middle East peace plan is due shortly. Trump enters into it with his closest ally unable to help and also indicted, one of the primary signatures vehemently opposed to the whole thing (and, again, could possibly lose even more by Israeli annexation), and souring feelings from former allies such as Iraq. Yet another of Trump's signature deals is about to burst into flames in public.