Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Fugus]

Trump's new major trade deal looks a lot like NAFTA. Here are key differences between them

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Pros and cons?

I can see 1 MASSIVE con and 1 minor one.

Allowing the US access to Canada's chicken farms when US chicken farmers are not in a good spot and many of them making less than minimum wage after expenses given how few actual chicken companies they sell to and how they abuse that fact.


We are trying to force our fucked in the head intellectual property abuses onto the Canadians in this system to 70 years after the authors death, because we know that encourages corpses to make more stuff..... We need to have our intellectual property limits REDUCED, not exported to other areas screwing them up in the process.

[Kiri]

I'm sure the zealots have no problem with the FBI telling it like it is when it comes to Trump, after all it's why they like Trump.

If only they would. I'm afraid they have gone full 1984 on us in that regard, where Big Bro Trump is the sole arbiter of truth:/

[Xyonai]

In a Movie series starring Captain America, Trump Chooses to be Thanos.

[Wyrt]

In a Movie series starring Captain America, Trump Chooses to be Thanos.

As hilarious as it is that they picked the moment Thanos loses to represent Trump, it is deeply, deeply concerning that Trump is having fantasies about murdering Democrats.

That's pretty much just 1 step away from his "I could shoot someone on 5th avenue" campaign promise...


Also, in case anyone needed more proof of Mark Dice being a moron:
https://twitter.com/MarkDice/status/1204626418576941062

Apparently it's crazy Democrats who made turning half of everything into dust about mass murder.

[Draco-Onis]

In a Movie series starring Captain America, Trump Chooses to be Thanos.

Why would he side with Captain America? now if there was Captain Russia that would be different

[Orbitus]

Why would he side with Captain America? now if there was Captain Russia that would be different

That would be the Red Guardian, that is supposedly in the new Black Widow movie coming out.

https://whatculture.com/film/mcu-bla...a-red-guardian

[Smitzelplix]

In a Movie series starring Captain America, Trump Chooses to be Thanos.

Trump and his supporters are really insane. Don't forget that just a couple months ago Trump was portrayed as a mass shooter killing people inside a church.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ting-898446/#!

[TwistedSkull]

Trump is Thanos lol.

[Mekh]

In a Movie series starring Captain America, Trump Chooses to be Thanos.

He's gonna get beheaded by an Aryan and when it doesn't take, he'll get beaten up by two patriots who actually served in the military and a black guy who's a better leader to his people than Trump will ever be (and many others). I can work with that.

[Trifle]

We are trying to force our fucked in the head intellectual property abuses onto the Canadians in this system to 70 years after the authors death, because we know that encourages corpses to make more stuff..... We need to have our intellectual property limits REDUCED, not exported to other areas screwing them up in the process.

That's hardly a surprise, America forced that into the TPP too before Trump pulled you out of it. I guess I could count that as one of the only good things Trump has done (from a foreign perspective, not an American one ironically) ?

[Breccia]

And then this happened:

TIME’s Editor-in-chief on why Greta Thunberg is the Person of the Year

Picture snipped because, wow, it was huge.

"Okay cool, but Breccia, this is the Trump Shitshow thread! Why is this relevant?"

Trump Jr. blasts Time for choosing Greta Thunberg as Person of the Year

Time leaves out the Hong Kong protesters fighting for their lives and freedoms to push a teen being used as a marketing gimmick. How dare you?

-- Donnie Dum-Dum Jr

I honestly don’t understand why adults would choose to spend their time mocking and threatening teenagers and children for promoting science, when they could do something good instead. I guess they must simply feel so threatened by us

-- an older Thunberg quote that somehow still feels relevant

"Wait, did Trump Jr. just say the Hong Kong protests were important...during the trade talks with China? How's that going to play out?"

Trade war: US-China deal deadline ‘likely to be missed’, former US trade negotiator Wendy Cutler says

“Both sides have said that they are very close, but I can tell you as a trade negotiator that the last mile is always the most difficult,” former acting deputy US trade representative Wendy Cutler said, speaking at China Conference USA: Competition or Cooperation? sponsored by the South China Morning Post.

“You need a win-win deal that both sides need to be able to go home and show that they got something,” she said.

Cutler, currently managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Washington office, said conflicting considerations would increasingly weigh on chief negotiators with new tariffs set to come into force on Sunday.

“It’s going to be particularly important [for China] to be able to announce that they’ve achieved a … balanced deal, that it’s not just China that is undertaking commitments in this deal, but also the United States,” she said.

“What China is telling the United States is that it is not enough just to not go ahead with the December tariffs, but they also want to see some existing tariffs lifted.”

"Okay, but that doesn't -- "

Trump should cancel China trade deal (and raise tariffs) -- Here's why

"...is that FOX News?"

FOX Business, yes.

Beijing insists that any concessions, such as they are, won’t begin without the prior removal of tariffs implemented by the Trump administration. But that simply was not what was agreed in October. Beijing is trying to turn back the clock to before the trade war with make-believe concessions.

Furthermore the concept of a “Phase 1” trade deal was already a concession to China—effectively a skinny deal advocated by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in lieu of the comprehensive reform in China that Trump has long sought. It won’t address most of the “seven deadly sins” of Chinese trade misconduct, which, beyond intellectual property theft, include forced technology transfers in joint ventures, exporting deadly fentanyl to America, cyber attacks, currency manipulation, dumping goods to put U.S. companies out of business, and subsidizing Chinese state-owned enterprises.

One other important factor has changed since October: the U.S. economy, whose stunning growth since Trump’s election was needlessly slowed by Federal Reserve incompetence, has begun to roar again. GDP growth in the third quarter was recently revised upward, and unemployment is lower than it has been in 50 years. Wages are growing faster than at any time during the Obama years, and growth is higher still for the middle class.

Meanwhile, China’s communist economy is sputtering. Trump has forever shattered the illusion that America couldn’t get tough with China on trade because we were somehow beholden to them and vulnerable. The opposite is true.

The trade war has compounded other economic problems in China and contributed to a noticeable downturn. Notwithstanding fake official numbers, GDP growth is probably near zero, debt is out of control, and food prices have spiked.

On top of economic problems, Beijing has also run into political trouble because of its heavy-handedness in Hong Kong, where protesters remind the world what Chinese who have some freedom think of Beijing’s tyranny. The crisis there furthermore raises doubts about Chairman Xi Jinping’s judgment, political stability in the rest of China, and whether a spasm isn’t coming within the ruling Communist Party as bad news compounds.

Put simply, the USA does not need a trade deal with China, and now would be an unfortunate time to throw a lifeline to the Chinese government.

Summary: Trump has China over a barrel, so removing all the tariffs is losing all the leverage Trump has. He won't get a good deal by removing it.

The trade war, even with the recent developments, is going poorly. Trump's tanking his own country's GDP and manufacturing jobs. And instead of doing something that might help, he's instead attacking a child in public in the attempt to make the negotiations go even worse.

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I'd say he still easily beats the likes of Harding or Buchanan.

Harding, you say?

Once in the White House, the 29th president busied himself with golf, poker, and his mistress, while appointees and cronies plundered the U.S. government in a variety of creative ways. (His secretary of the interior allowed oilmen, for a modest under-the-table sum, to tap into government oil reserves, including one in Teapot Dome, Wyo.)

Hmm.

[draynay]

If your life is not complete without your daily post on some forums

It'd be extra sad if we needed multiple accounts to post with.

[Breccia]

the rabid left

Hmm. That looks familiar. Are you taking talking points from...me? Because, while I'm flattered, that's just admission of defeat, right there.

Speaking of defeat!

CEO optimism drops for 7th straight quarter

Oh. How awkward.

The survey has shown declining optimism for almost two years. As we get closer to the 2020 election, the record-high CEO optimism levels that peaked during Trump’s presidency have now vanished — largely thanks to trade war uncertainty.

The most telling part?

CEO plans for hiring and capital appending — two key drivers of economic growth — fell quarter over quarter.

Also, throwing this in for Guess the Speaker!

We know the Russians are messing in our elections. And it was the Russians, ladies and gentlemen, who stole the Democratic National Committee emails, Podesta's emails and screwed around with Hillary Clinton. It wasn't the Ukrainians. It was the Russians. And they're coming after us again. So to be concerned that the Russians are messing with presidential campaigns was a legitimate concern

"Literally anyone except Trump would say that."

Lindsey Graham, yes.

Incidentally, maybe not literally everyone. Carter Page is demanding more of an investigation into the Russia probe's origins, probably because he was caught red-handed and is looking for an excuse. But that sure is a lot of Team Trump -- or, to use my catchprase goddammit, the rabid fanbase -- trying to say "it wasn't Russia, it wasn't Russia" when nobody else seems to buy that.

[Paranoid Android]

"Law enforcement is so great. That particular guy wanted to be so politically correct. Ahhh! Ahhh! We don't want to be political correct" -- Trump laments that arena security wasn't rougher with a female protester

Video Embedded.

Trump is such a PoS, wannabe be authoritarian. I'm sure he would want his own, lets call them Brown Shirts, security team to do the bidding of Trump and while escorting her out and a few punches and slap arounds. You know teach her a lesson.

[Breccia]

So, naturally, Horowitz testified under oath and said he had some concerns about leaks.

"Ah, the FBI was leaking, you say?" the GOP pounced. "And tell me, sir, harumph harumph, what evil traitors were the FBI leaking to?"

"Well, for one, they leaked to Giuliani -- "

"Oh, god dammit," the GOP collectively facepalmed, realizing that they'd walked right into that one.

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz said that he is "very concerned" about leaks from FBI field offices to Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, and other individuals.

Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) about the appearance that Giuliani was getting "highly sensitive leaks" from the FBI's New York field office, Horowitz noted that unauthorized leaks were under investigation.

"As we noted publicly last year in our report, we were very concerned about that," Horowitz said at Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

"We are investigating those contacts. We've issued a couple of public summaries so far about people we've found violated FBI policy. We have other investigations ongoing," Horowitz continued.

He added that, while it has been hard to prove the substance of conversations between FBI and reporters or outside individuals, “we can prove the contacts."

"Under FBI policy you need authorization if you're going to disclose information and have certain contacts," he said.

Former FBI Director James Comey told a House committee last year that he was concerned the FBI's New York field office was leaking to Giuliani.

“I was concerned that there appeared to be in the media a number of stories that might have been based on communications reporters or non-reporters like Rudy Giuliani were having with people in the New York field office,” Comey testified at the time.

[D3thray]

I know you're not the brightest crayon in the box but no one can be dumb enough to have said this and mean it. If it was confirmed by court precedents than it is almost by definition according to the law as the entire purpose of the courts is to interpret the law and adjudicate disputes based on the law. No one's gonna pretend there haven't been terrible interpretations or even some seriously failures to hold people to account but if that's your point it couldn't have been phrased more stupidly.

Seriously I wonder if half you read what you write at all.

OK so tell me this, are you held to the same legal standard as the President or members of Congress, i.e. do they have the same limits on conduct as you? Because that was the context of the post I was replying to.

I don’t think you’ve thought about this very hard.

[Paranoid Android]

President Trump will sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, thus bolstering the Education Department's efforts to stamp out "Boycott Israel" movements on college campuses

Judiasm is a nationality huh? I'm sure the tomorrow Islam is up next and following weeks every religion. Atheism?

This is tied to the stupid shit where you can't question Israeli government, not the religion, to schools who protest or boycott Israel. What a joke. Remember Trumpkins one day this sycophant to cater to a religion or country, may be not one you care for that much.

[Breccia]

Horowitz destroys...hold on.

I'm sorry, and I'll likely take an infraction or ban for admitting this, but it's simply that none of you are even worth trying to talk to, address or discuss with properly.

*ahem*

The amount of "trigger" his tweet produced in this thread made it well worth it!

Sorry, just needed to put those back-to-back for maximum hypocrisy.

Okay. Horowitz destroys another GOP talking point, specifically Trump's claims that Obama ordered Trump spied upon.

"For one," Horowitz responded, "Obama would not order a wire tapp. Obama can spell."

“We certainly didn’t see any evidence of that in the FBI’s files or the department’s files,” Horowitz said at a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on his report earlier this week about surveillance of the 2016 presidential campaign.

In addition, we're getting new info about NAFTA 1.0.0.2 and...well, read this part:

In a last-minute request, the U.S. Trade Representative called for automotive rules of origin to include steel and aluminum that is “melted and poured” in North America, closing the door to the use of semi-finished metals from China and elsewhere.

Mexico and Canada agreed to a seven-year phase-in of the new standard for steel. The aluminum demand was dropped, but with the caveat that it would be reconsidered in 10 years.

Wow. So...that doesn't look like much help for US steel at all. Seven years? Considering Trump just gave Canada and Mexico the right to drop whenever they wanted, that's pretty much meaningless.

There is other news, such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol (phasing out ozone-killing emissions) being put in, and a 10-year exclusive "copyright" for pharmaceuticals, or however that's spelled...oh, got it in one shot? Yay me...was also removed, which means generic drugs can combat with name-brands sooner, which in turn, makes prices drop sooner. Something that Trump said he wanted to do, but made no effort in doing so far.Current US law seems to be three, five, or seven years depending on the niche of the market, and that's expensive enough as it is. Ten years would be unaffordable. That's a word now.

But there's other news worth spreading. Such as Trump leading in the polls!

"Yeah! MAGA!"

By one point!

"Um...still counts! MAGA!"

In Texas!

"Oh...um..."

However, the single-digit leads could be cause for concern for the Trump campaign in the reliably red state. Trump won Texas by 9 points in 2016 over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the worst showing there for a Republican presidential candidate in 20 years, and Democrats are eager to try to flip the state’s electoral votes next year.

To boost the party’s chances of winning the state in 2020, the Texas Democratic Party in September unveiled its “path to victory” plan that is centered around registering 2.6 million more Texans to vote to help in the White House race as well as down ballot contests.

“Change is coming to Texas — a new wave of activists and progressive candidates demand it. They’re fired up about affordable healthcare, ending gun violence, reversing climate change, and protecting our diverse communities,” Texas Democratic Party deputy executive Cliff Walker said in a statement at the time.

So all that stuff about Texas going blue --

"Wait a minute! You didn't tell us the margin of error!"

CNN’s Texas poll surveyed 1,205 adults from Dec. 4 to 8 and has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

"So, he could be winning by 4.4 percent!"

Well, that's not how margins of errors work, but that also means he could be losing Texas. You really want to go that route, y'all?

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Judiasm is a nationality huh?

Well, two things.

1) This looks like legal dancing around wording to make it easier to claim Jews were selected for being Jews.

2) Remember, Trump said all Jews had to be loyal to the Israeli government and therefore himself or they weren't really Jews. As recently as two days ago, in fact. This "rebranding" furthers that narrative.

- - - Updated - - -

I also have a theory about how the FED and its partners have lost control on influencing inflation

Speaking of which, it's time for Guess the Speaker!

When I was writing my book, I observed that President Donald Trump had not attacked the independent US Federal Reserve, for which I was grateful. To say that is no longer true would be an understatement. Not since just after the second world war have we seen a president so openly seek to dictate policy to the Fed.

"Well, someone involved with the Fed who just wrote a book...Paul Volcker?"

Correct. Volcker served under Carter and Reagan, so there will be no blaming partisan bias today.

Also, Volcker was going to have that added to further editions of his book, but he died Sunday before he could make that official.

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Incoming Trumper Tantrum warning: FOX News host Chris Wallace to interview both Comey and Schiff.

There is no way Trump is going to like the result.

[Paranoid Android]

Well, two things.

1) This looks like legal dancing around wording to make it easier to claim Jews were selected for being Jews.

2) Remember, Trump said all Jews had to be loyal to the Israeli government and therefore himself or they weren't really Jews. As recently as two days ago, in fact. This "rebranding" furthers that narrative.

Yeah its bullshit, pandering and insult to Jews. Ironically his base is heave right-wing Christian, who only care about have the land of Israel for when the rapture comes and white supremacists. But hey, Enemy of my Enemy, so right-wing Jews will eat it up since its giving them carte blanche to do whatever in the state of Israel. Which going back to Bibi and if the right-wing of Israel stays in power.

[jeezusisacasual]

The man to get into a fist fight with inflation and won passed and will be missed atleast in the finance circles i know of, i am sure some people despise his actions and thought process but overall he was very good. The inflationary reasons is to make the overall debts cheaper to up the borrowing allotment which is standard policy but i am starting to think that the overwhelming concentration of wealth / liquid assets is why the FED and other central banks are struggling to meet their inflationary goals. This has not caused a rise of investment towards newer technologies ( This is mostly handled by state enterprises anyhow ) nor has it caused the trickle down effect that Trump and his cohorts have claimed it would have.

I am starting to think that the US is becoming like Japan in the 90s. Not the exact same so not a 1 to 1 ratio but very similar elements with a lack of investment capital and hoarding of cash which is what prolonged that mishap in economic policy. The Japanese people saved because they thought a recession was around the corner which then caused less overall demand which in turn led to a stagnating economy, which averaged 1.2% GDP growth. Now not all economic hardships are the same as some are caused by making a BBQ pit with your cash ( Various African nations ) or from forced economic seclusion ( Venezuela ) but the western world is mirroring that of the Japanese 91 - 2010 era.

The continued attacks on the FED and its monetary mission is what could be hurting their ability to control the finance markets. They are an outside of government office that has no obligation to speak or discuss any leanings or matter to any state official for a myriad of reasons and no this is not to say they are the Illumanati that i am sure some will claim they are. It is very simple as to why they are separate to first off the president which i am sure needs no explaining. I have not seen people talk so much about QE / QT cycles since 2011 which tells me that what should be an undercover operation has been blown open in turn will weaken some of the tools they will use to pull us out of another economic shitstorm. Rates are to low to realisticly cut without going negative, everyone now knows they buy shares of various corporations to prop up the stock market and now everyone knows they buy toxic bank based assets to keep them afloat, we have made the house of cards weaker for the next setback.