Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Bodakane]

Dead gangster and shit human, Whitey Bulger, was a Trump supporter.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...170111408.html

For obvious reasons, Bulger was not a fan of the FBI and lashed out at former FBI Director and special counsel Robert Mueller, writing, “Trump is experiencing what Mueller and company can orchestrate,” He added, “[Mueller] should observe biblical saying – ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'”

See how guilty criminals talk about Mueller...............

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/politico/status/...367128576?s=19

We almost need a McConnell thread for all what he does.



https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2...mpression=true

This guy is a dirty PoS. I mean it is right up his ally that he is using this corruption to keep him in office. I guess give him credit that it does not seem for personal financial gain, but to buy voters in Kentucky, so he can continue to destroy America.

He's just making sure that there's no confusion as to whether the corruption is purely the result of Trump, or a feature of the modern Republican party.

Apparently, it's a feature.

[JohnBrown1917]

The Trump adminstration is at it again,


https://medium.com/black-isle-journa...r-609611b6e1ae


Friendly reminder that Mike is part of a christian doomsday cult that holds some rather anti-semitic beliefs..

[Paranoid Android]

Trump and Macron planted a friendship tree. Now it’s dead. https://t.co/6csJKIvgpY

Quite symbolic.

[Skroe]

I much prefer not having Russian barracks outside my window.

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Just wondering, where do you see those borders contracting? Russia as it is now is practically an ethnic Russian state - with lots of minorities, but those are hugely outnumbered by Russians even in their dedicated territories, mostly away from their borders and not in a position to break away. The North Caucasus might be an exception but I suspect even the West would prefer Russia holding on to those lands to seeing more volatile Muslim countries spawn on the map. Chechnya was a failed state from the beginning.

There's different maps, driven by cultural, ethnic and economic factors.
(Potential Country / population map)


(ethnic minority group / region map, 2010)


There is a real national interest to the US in such an outcome. Why? Nuclear arms.

Building nuclear weapons is expensive. The cost of continuing to own them is vastly more so. The Soviet Union's immense military threat, the foundation of which was it's nuclear arsenal that hit over 30,000 weapons in the 1980s, was due to an economy that was, at the time, the world's second largest on paper (after the United States). For the United States this is true as well. The existence of the nuclear triad, plus our expansive conventional forces, is enabled by our enormous economy. How so directly? Taxation and government raising revenues through other sources.

When the Soviet Union broke up, and it's client states abandoned it, the entire Soviet-economic system collapsed, and the resulting Former Soviet Union, particularly Russia, was far less than the sum of it's previous economic parts. "Russia" fell from the core of the world's 2nd largest economy to 13th by 1994. .

In the end, it comes down to people and their economic output. A larger country by population generating a fixed amount of economic activity that government can tap into through various means of revenue extraction will provide more resources for that government than a smaller country-by-population. This is true of the US versus Germany. This is true of Germany versus the UK. This is true of the US versus the UK, or Japan vs South Korea. All highly developed countries.

Russia today cannot afford to modernize its conventional forces and it's nuclear forces, while continuing to own what it has in both in the numbers it has, with its current amounts of revenue raising, the foundation of which is its tax base. It does so haltingly, because it is unwilling to scrap large portions of what it currently owns - a type of unilateral disarmament - to pay for what it wants to have. It cannot own AND buy at the same time (as the US does, at enormous expense, but we're very rich).

A bunch of Russian Federation successor states with far smaller populations will find themselves in the same boat. The 1550 nuclear warhead threat from Russia could be reduced to a few hundred, when the successor state that is centered on Moscow, with 80 million people instead of 140 million, finds itself unable to afford more than say, 400 warheads.

Economics has proven time and again to be the ultimate tool of nuclear disarmament. The US itself has proven constantly unwilling to pay for more expensive, yet more capable systems in the long term (see: the retirement of the Peacekeeper MX missile in favor of the older Minuteman III). Russia had little choice but to accede to US demands as part of NewSTART because the START I / SORT levels of warheads it owned became economically unsustainable. Even the United Kingdom, has scrapped large portions of its deterrent in the last 30 years - a deterrent partially underwritten by the US (we share Trident II missiles) - because the cost of ownership is more than it is interested in doing.

The bigger picture here is nuclear weapons are a kind of black hole of money. It's very unlikely they'll ever be used by the West ever again, no matter the circumstances. Precision and longer range weapons, non-nuclear in nature, in many ways make them superfluous from a practical perspective. But the fact is, there's really no appetite in the US or Russia to completely destroy each others civilizations. But also neither can the countries unilaterally disarm for fear of being vulnerable.

Military budgeters kind of hate spending money on the nuclear mission. They call it their most important mission and treat it as such, but they know full well that they're spending money on something that won't probably ever be used. A good example of this going on right now is the forthcoming Columbia class SSBN for the US that will replace the Ohio-class. The Ohio-class was a revolutionary leap ahead of what it replaced (an assorted mess of subs going back to the 1960s). The Columbia-class is evolutionary, implimenting refined Ohio-class technology, and combining a lot of Commercial off-the-shelf technology, and technology from the Virginia-class attack sub. Evolutionary not revolutionary was a key selling point. The US needs a new nuclear deterrent sub because Ohio classes - the first of which were built in the 1980s, will start aging out at the end of the 2020s, but the US isn't as interested in spending as much as it theoretically could on a breakthrough design. The biggest advance of the ship is in fact, it's life-of-the-ship reactor (all Ohio-class SSBNs need to be refueled after 20 years of operation, which takes them out of service for a few years while they get cut open. The Columbia class is designed with a reactor core that will last the full 40 years, and thus won't need to be rotated out of service, and so will get more deterrent patrols and consequently, require a smaller fleet size compared to the Ohios for continual coverage).

But I've gone off on a slight tangent. The take away is, just as the UK can't afford the arsenal of the United States due to its size and economic output, Russia can't afford the arsenal the USSR could, and a series of post-Russian Federation successor states will be able to afford a smaller arsenal, not the one at current size they can barely already afford. So fracturing it should be part of our national goals.

[Edge-]

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/...on-attack.html

So I guess McConnell likes the Russian investment in his state and the fact that they helped Trump win. Because he's fucking death incarnate when it comes to attempts to improve US election security.

As much as Trump likes to think he's the boss, McConnell is the boss.

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https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1138197224675053569

So apparently Trump has a secret deal with Mexico that they don't know about but that they'll be agreeing to because they won't be denying that there's a secret agreement for very long?

Also, as he points out the Fox chryon is fucking absurd. Want to know why so much of the public is dumb as fuck and woefully misinformed? Because they watch Fox and think that China and other countries are paying for these tariffs, not US businesses (who actually are) who pass the costs along to consumers.

Enjoy your taxes, folks.

[Shadowferal]

Mexico deal...sounds a lot like the NK deal in terms of gains.

[Crispin]

Mexico deal...sounds a lot like the NK deal in terms of gains.

Like the fireman who put out the fire he started /shrug

[Mayhem]

Bringing down US is easy - just launch nukes.

Being good at other things much harder.

You got to be delusional to consider your country to be greatest in every aspect.

Some Americans still seem to believe that though.

Ha, just out of curiousity, what do you think Russia is greatest at?

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I've just now read through the transcript from Trumps and Macrons joint "interview". How the flying fuck are people thinking: "yep, that's my president, what a great leader!"?

[Flarelaine]

There's different maps, driven by cultural, ethnic and economic factors.
(Potential Country / population map)

- snipped essay -

That's a nice rundown of why you advocate for Russia's breakup, but does not really convince me it is going to happen. Russians dominate Russia, unsurprisingly, and they tend to want to stay together. The minority map is nice, but I think this one is more relevant:



(link)

Deepest red is >80% Russian. Those red bits could only be broken up by an outside force and kept apart by military occupation. The costs would be staggering.

[Dontrike]

Ha, just out of curiousity, what do you think Russia is greatest at?

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I've just now read through the transcript from Trumps and Macrons joint "interview". How the flying fuck are people thinking: "yep, that's my president, what a great leader!"?

Pretty much everyone has been asking that same question for years.

[Shalcker]

Ha, just out of curiousity, what do you think Russia is greatest at?

Everything nuclear, from nukes to power plants to nuclear-powered space engines (and non-space ones too).

Mostly because US effectively withdrawn from business (with Westinghouse going bankrupt), Germany dropped entirely, Japanese have their problems after Fukushima, Chinese are building primarily for themselves, and the only real competitor is French Areva (and we generally beat them in financing options).

[Shalcker]

We all know that you're jealous of the U.S in every aspect. Economy, military domination, 800+ military bases worldwide, more allies and technology dominance. Your own governments robs your business so they can't thrive in the worldwide markets.

Right, that's why US has to resort to tariffs. Because they are most competitive. Totally. /s

US position is far from being envious. Ever growing military spending, increasing inequality, shitty healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, and clear upcoming social transformations in sharply divided country.

Clinging to number one position at any cost... primarily cost of US citizens.

Your economy is lower than Spain's, a dying population and old rusty military equipment that blows up whenever you try to use it.

You're repeating meme from 1990s. That's where your perception of Russia is stuck at.

Europe happens to be "dying" a lot faster then Russia. Spain you mentioned is 1.33 births per women vs Russian 1.75

And with US birth rates declining it even looks concieveable for Russia to overtake it.

You don't even have a proper navy fleet. Crusty dirty Russian.

We got enough to defend ourselves; we are not in navy business to project our power like US.

[Breccia]

Once again it's time for Guess the Speaker!

If you are unable to disclose anymore what’s in that deal I think, with all due respect, you are failing in your duty to come before this committee and fully disclose what the commitments of this nation are with respect to immigration

That's the Democrats on the Hill against the White House, specifically, Sen. Blumenthal (DEFCON-5) talking to the Director of Homeland Security, who was --

"He doesn't exist."

Talking to the acting Director of Homeland Security, asking about the deal with Mexico Trump tweeted about -- the tweet was introduced as evidence -- on the record.

Naturally, the ADHS had nothing to say, hiding behind "the tweet speaks for itself."

"Har har, What did he really say?"

I think the president’s tweet stands for itself and the announcement will be on his timeline

That's a cop-out. Once again, Trump has nothing and he ordered his people to cover for his lies.

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And let's add to that.

Sen. McConnell has recently said

I think the cold, hard reality is, even though almost none of my members were enthusiastic about the prospect of tariffs, you have to give the president credit — it worked

As a reminder, he's taking Trump's word on this -- and nothing else. Mexico has publicly said there's no secret deal, ADHS refused to go on record saying there was one -- yeah, someone's afraid to lie to Congress, wonder why -- there's no vote scheduled in Mexico for such alterations, and Trump gave them 45 days to drive down numbers (hey, didn't we have troops on the border? isn't that supposed to help?) which isn't enough time to do shit.

There is no secret deal. Trump caved. Thing is, surely McConnell knows this -- he's just wary of losing his job by opposing Trump, even if it's "please tell us before raising tariffs next time".

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Trump just received a letter from North Korea, and said that something could happen in Pyongyang.

"Like what?"

He didn't say.

"What was in the letter?"

He said it was beautiful. That's it.

"Does it have anything to do with NK's leader executing his own brother because he was a CIA asset?"

No idea.

"Does it have anything to do with the hundreds of public execution sites we now know about?|

No idea.

"Was it another demand that the US drop its overtly hostile foreign policy that would remove every single result from what little they've signed so far?"

No idea.

"Does it have anything to do with all three of those stories breaking in the last 24 hours, and Trump desperate to change the narrative on working with a murdering assassin dictator in exchange for less than nothing?"

Probably.

"By any chance, do you have a link to FOX News claiming that Trump's campaign promise about reducing North Korea's nuclear arsenal as 'partially kept'?"

Indeed I do, here it is.

If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea with potentially millions of people killed

-- Trump, State of the Union

[Felya]

Ha, just out of curiousity, what do you think Russia is greatest at?

Bending the will of its people...

[Paranoid Android]

President Trump waves piece of paper: "That's the agreement that everybody says I don't have." https://t.co/8ownEaklrP

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1...154893825?s=19

What a clown.

Linked is the video of him pulling the paper out of his jacket on the dead with Mexico. The 'agreement' is a single piece of paper, which to me seems no type or written words. The reporters asked to see it, but wouldn't you know he declined to show it.

[Elegiac]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1...154893825?s=19

What a clown.

Linked is the video of him pulling the paper out of his jacket on the dead with Mexico. The 'agreement' is a single piece of paper, which to me seems no type or written words. The reporters asked to see it, but wouldn't you know he declined to show it.

I seem to recall a similar “prop table of bullshit” episode regarding his divestment papers.

[Canpinter]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1...154893825?s=19

What a clown.

Linked is the video of him pulling the paper out of his jacket on the dead with Mexico. The 'agreement' is a single piece of paper, which to me seems no type or written words. The reporters asked to see it, but wouldn't you know he declined to show it.

I totally have an agreement, she just goes to a different school, in Canada!

[Zaydin]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1...154893825?s=19

What a clown.

Linked is the video of him pulling the paper out of his jacket on the dead with Mexico. The 'agreement' is a single piece of paper, which to me seems no type or written words. The reporters asked to see it, but wouldn't you know he declined to show it.

Is anyone else getting Joe McCarthy vibes? In that McCarthys infamous 'list of names' that was always changing in number that was always in another briefcase that he or his aides forgot to bring and so couldn't show it to the press.

[Paranoid Android]

“the Government of Mexico will take all necessary steps under domestic law to bring the agreement into force with a view to ensuring that the agreement will enter into force within 45 days.” @realDonaldTrump #Mexico agreement. Second photo flipped @washingtonpost @postpolitics https://t.co/lWuJU9bpYK

https://twitter.com/jabinbotsford/st...801942017?s=19

Alright if you choose to click link it actually shows the piece of paper with basically what was written from above tweet.

So I will give him credit I guess for not giving us a blank paper. Yet, I believe nowhere it's a signed, official agreement of any kind. Plus as reported its not a strong agreement in any way.