Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Jtbrig7390]

Unrelated: GOP lawmaker: Trump isn't making it easier for GOP to keep majority

So what would you say the chance is that the GOP is reaching there breaking point with Trump and mite consider getting rid of him?

Last night showed that anything can happen and its safe to say they know they could be out in 2018.

[Breccia]

Ford is about to move all their Fusion making to China by 2020, sources tell Reuters. This mirrors a move Ford publicly announced in June to move Focus production there.

Now, this won't directly touch American jobs. The move is from Mexico and Spain. But it could affect NAFTA talks. Ford would have been affected by a redone NAFTA (if such happened), but now, if they ship their cars in from China, NAFTA won't affect them at all, and any such projected revenue is now gone.

Further, Ford isn't stupid. This could be the first of several moves off North America by automakers. First of all, apparently it's cheaper, NAFTA or not. Secondly, the market has shifted in the last XXX years. Americans want big heavy SUVs. The Chinese want small economic vehicles. With more and more hybrid and electric vehicles existing, China's market and cheap labor could be too good for other companies to pass up as well. We'll see.

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WH statement once again stomps on Tillerson, refuting Tillerson's desire to have negotiations with North Korea.

Kinda wondering why he hasn't just quit yet.

[Edge-]

WH statement once again stomps on Tillerson, refuting Tillerson's desire to have negotiations with North Korea.

Kinda wondering why he hasn't just quit yet.

It's incredible to continue to see the West Wing publicly contradict and countermand their diplomatic arm so frequently.

I honestly can't think of another country where this happens in their government, it's completely mind blowing.

[Breccia]

CHINA SNUBS TRUMP, SAYS RUSSIA TIES BEST AND MOST IMPORTANT IN WORLD

China’s envoy to Russia has praised the increasingly powerful relationship between the two countries as both the strongest and most important ties between two major states. Beijing’s man in Moscow also took the opportunity to offer a veiled slight at Washington.

Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui spoke Wednesday at a government news conference organized in response to the results of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress in October. Russia and China, the two leading diplomatic and military rivals of the U.S., have been pursuing greater relations in past years as they both embark on initiatives to modernize their forces and assume a more assertive role in international politics.

“The Chinese-Russian relations of comprehensive strategic cooperation and partnership are the most important bilateral relations in the world and, moreover, the best relations between big countries,” Li told the state-run Tass Russian News Agency, which hosted the gathering.

“One can say that they are a classic example of the healthiest and most mature interstate relations and an important force to protect peace and stability throughout the world,” Li added.

Possibly propaganda. Definitely further evidence of the US's horrifyingly failed efforts at diplomacy under Trump.

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Trump judiciary nominee withdrawn.

"You just posted that."

Second one. This is the guy slated for Texas, the one who equated homosexuality with bestiality.

[Skroe]

CHINA SNUBS TRUMP, SAYS RUSSIA TIES BEST AND MOST IMPORTANT IN WORLD



Possibly propaganda. Definitely further evidence of the US's horrifyingly failed efforts at diplomacy under Trump.

- - - Updated - - -

Trump judiciary nominee withdrawn.

"You just posted that."

Second one. This is the guy slated for Texas, the one who equated homosexuality with bestiality.

With China and Russia, it's always happy talk. They really loathe each other.

China wants the RFE (always has) and Russia knows it. Russia's entire violation of the INF Treaty is motivated by wanting a Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile, principally for use in the RFE to ward off China, which has IRBMs and MRBMs in their territory aimed... at Russia!

[Breccia]

With China and Russia, it's always happy talk. They really loathe each other.

Fair enough, but between NK, the South China Sea, Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Jerusalem, Trump's trade threats, and the tear-stained sanctions Trump personally signed, there seems to be a lot of reasons for them to unite against US. At least diplomatically.

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And the Palestinians formally ask the UN to replace the US as peace talk brokers.

"We were shocked by the U.S. administration," he said, according to The Associated Press. "While we engaged with them in the peace process for the sake of a deal for the ages, [Trump] delivered a slap for the ages."

Kushner has a lot of free time, all of a sudden. Every single ounce of effort he spent on this issue is not just removed, but reversed, in one of the most blatant examples of why an incompetent businessman trying to govern by tweet could backfire.

Are we tired of winning yet?

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More on this from Reuters.

Muslim leaders condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Wednesday and called on the world to respond by recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who hosted the summit of more than 50 Muslim countries in Istanbul, said the U.S. move meant Washington had forfeited its role as broker in efforts to end Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“From now on, it is out of the question for a biased United States to be a mediator between Israel and Palestine, that period is over,” Erdogan said at the end of the meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states.

“We need to discuss who will be a mediator from now on. This needs to be tackled in the UN too,” Erdogan said.

A communique posted on the Turkish Foreign Ministry website said the emirs, presidents and ministers gathered in Istanbul regarded Trump’s move “as an announcement of the U.S. Administration’s withdrawal from its role as sponsor of peace”.

It described the decision as “a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts, an impetus (for) extremism and terrorism, and a threat to international peace and security”.

Leaders including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Jordan’s King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally, all criticized Washington’s move.

“Jerusalem is and always will be the capital of Palestine,” Abbas said, adding Trump’s decision was “the greatest crime” and a violation of international law.

The Trump administration says it remains committed to reaching peace between Israel and the Palestinians and its decision does not affect Jerusalem’s future borders or status.

It says any credible future peace deal will place the Israeli capital in Jerusalem, and ditching old policies is needed to revive a peace process frozen since 2014.

But Abbas told the leaders in Istanbul that Washington had shown it could no longer be an honest broker.

“It will be unacceptable for it to have a role in the political process any longer since it is biased in favor of Israel,” he said. “This is our position and we hope you support us in this.”

[Mormolyce]

https://www.snopes.com/2017/11/29/the-war-on-christmas/

It comes and goes, and it's always related to xenophobia.

Mmmm, good point.

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Kushner has a lot of free time, all of a sudden.

He should get used to it, he might have nothing but free time in the not too distant future.

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We do, largely because China plans on basically claiming it. It has strategic value.

...

It is. And we should have left the Outer Space Treaty years ago.

It is a genuinely terrible document that has done more to destroy any development of a space economy than any other single action in the world.

Congress has been on the verge of de-facto leaving it for years (through legislating direct violations into existence) because it's prevented any kind of economic case for Space. The problem is that the OST is tied into preventing Exo-atmospheric or high altitude Nuclear Weapons test (i.e. like Starfish Prime).

But it may ultimately be worth the cost, because the US is going to have to develop Space Based Missile Defense and Orbital Attack in coming years anyway, which means we'll be violating the treaty.

I feel obliged to point out that you're starting to sound like a Bond villain.

[PACOX]

He really isn't lying about the OST though. (adjust my layman goggles) The OST is a treaty from an era where the US had a capable adversary in all things related to space. The time was the middle of the Cold War where the US & USSR (and their closest friends) were hell bent on building all types of James Bond super villianry hardware to see who could better annihilate humanity. A some point they mutually realized that both sized were batshit crazy and neither could stop the other from attempting to come up with the same devious systems that they were so they decided to draft the OST as a line in the sand neither would cross. "I won't put nukes above your house and you wont put nukes over mine. The moon is out of bounds, no take backs".


50 years later, the USSR is gone, the remnant of the USSR has been reduced to playing space taxi, no other space agency is nearly as capable of what private US space agencies are able to achieve. The US has a clear potential advantage over other nations when its comes to exploring the economic and defense advantages of spaces but because of the OST it has to operate on a curve. A curve it busted 20 years. The rest of class is struggling to get D's while the US is writing the course material. If the US is to really turn space into an economic venture or protect itself from inevitable global nuclear proliferation, it will be easier to just pull out of the OST instead of attempting to renegotiate its terms. What country is going to say "yes, go ahead and widen the gap between you and us even further"?

[Breccia]

Tillerson says he is going to put "maximum pressure" on NK before the next UN meeting.

In response, NK has said "it's been made clear you don't speak for the administration, so we don't care"

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Welp, Trump's real estate prices are dropping almost as fast as his poll numbers.

Another Trump nominee bails, EPA this time.

Omarosa Newman, showing the dignity and class one would expect from a reality TV show run by Trump, pulled the fire alarm to try to open the doors to the WH residence after being fired.

In the ongoing effort to run the least transparent administration ever, Trump sends a military report to Congress that omits troop counts in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

2016 is the first year the American Meteorological Society replaced "could have" with "did" in their annual report, when talking about how climate change affected the weather. In particular, record breaking heat worldwide. Yes, the Arctic too.

And Roger Stone is literally writing a book about the fall of Trump. He says it's a matter of time before Mueller and the increasing number of sexual misconducts of his actually take hold. By the way, Stone worked on Trump's campaign.

[Alindra]

Tillerson says he is going to put "maximum pressure" on NK before the next UN meeting.

In response, NK has said "it's been made clear you don't speak for the administration, so we don't care"

North Korea aside, I can't help but wonder - and be worried - how this is going to play out. We have Rex Tillerson getting repeatedly undercut to the point where he is a lame duck in the State Dept. He could:

* stay - This will make any foreign negotiations pretty ineffectual since he doesn't speak for the Trump administration, but , it also means that the other damage he is doing will continue.
* resign - This will lead to another unfilled position, and Trump hasn't been having good luck with his nominations recently. Again, negotiations will be nuked, but I don't know if it would help stem the internal bleeding.
* be fired - This pretty much everything same as above, but could be worse depending on Mattis and McMaster. I seem to remember hearing rumors that the three of them have a suicide pact of sort where if any of them go, all of them go. This would be catastrophic.

As always with Trump, all possibilities suck. I do wonder what Mattis and McMaster would do if Tillerson resigned.

All this while the dumpster fire that is our foreign relations getting bigger. *headdesk*

The Marianas Trench isn't deep enough to hold to depth of my contempt for this administration.

[Mormolyce]

And Roger Stone is literally writing a book about the fall of Trump. He says it's a matter of time before Mueller and the increasing number of sexual misconducts of his actually take hold. By the way, Stone worked on Trump's campaign.

That is one opportunistic, conniving son of a bitch.

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As always with Trump, all possibilities suck. I do wonder what Mattis and McMaster would do if Tillerson resigned.

Tillerson's really clinging on hard for a guy who only took the job because his wife told him to kek.

If the suicide pact does happen though - we might get the Mooch back. Come on, you know you want to see that train wreck again...

[Skroe]

*dies laughing*

Deplorables, this is some classy operation you voted for, roflmao.

[Dontrike]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/tAfPAmd.png[/ig]

*dies laughing*

Deplorables, this is some classy operation you voted for, roflmao.

They voted for a reality television host and they got reality television antics, intelligence, and wisdom.

[Breccia]

While Newman disputes the accounts that she threw a Trump-style tantrum, she did say there were significant differences of opinion in her totally not being fired by Gen. Kelly, nope, not her.

"There were a lot of things that I observed during the last year that I was very unhappy with, that I was very uncomfortable with," Manigault Newman, who led communications at the Office of Public Liaison told Michael Strahan on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"I'm not going to expand on it because I still have to go back and work with these individuals, but when I have a chance to tell my story, Michael, quite a story to tell as the only African-American woman in this White House as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people. And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear," she said.

Related:

Trump daily intel updates structured to avoid upsetting him: report

The Washington Post reported that U.S. officials would not say whether recent information on Russia had been included in the president's daily briefing.

A former senior intelligence official familiar with the matter said intelligence about Russia that could upset Trump is sometimes just included in the written assessment. The order in which the information is presented could also be altered to try not to upset Trump, according to the Post.

“If you talk about Russia, meddling, interference — that takes the PDB off the rails,” a second former senior U.S. intelligence official said, referring to the president's daily briefing.

This, while it seems petty, dangerous, and stupid, seems even worse in recent days. Putin, who says having a political opponent would destabilize the country, has not only made major waves in =North Korea and China alliances, but continues to insist Russia's proven attacks on the election are fake news and continues to push the idea that "only Trump can fix this".

In a year-end press conference, Putin said he hopes Trump still wants to work on United States-Russia ties, The Washington Post reported.

“There are things that he would want to do but hasn’t been able to so far, like reforming health care or other goals, for instance he spoke about improving relations with Russia,” said Putin, according to the newspaper.

“It’s clear that even if he wanted to, he’s not in a condition to do that because of some clear restrictions,” Putin added, pointing to Trump’s critics.

For someone under direct investigation for collusion with Russia, having Trump refuse to talk about Russia while Russia continuing to beat the Trump drum seems like a pretty big black mark.

[Felya]

*dies laughing*

Deplorables, this is some classy operation you voted for, roflmao.

Correct me if I am wrong... I don’t watch apprentice and this a joke from twitter... but...

Doesn’t this mean she now lost “Apprentice”, “Celebrity Apprentice” and “White House Celebrity Apprentice”?

[Breccia]

Farenthold won't run for reelection: report

The report comes after the House Ethics Committee announced earlier this month that it would open an investigation into Farenthold, particularly whether he sexually harassed a former staffer and retaliated against her when she complained about his conduct.

Also:

George Will: Trump is now the worst-ever president

Because Trump endorsed Roy Moore.

Washington Post columnist George Will said in a new op-ed that President Trump is now the nation's worst president.

Will, a conservative pundit who is often critical of Trump, ripped the president for supporting Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, who faced sexual misconduct allegations.

Will said Moore's actions as a public official "by themselves sufficed to disqualify him from any pubic office."

"He is an anti-constitutional recidivist, twice removed from Alabama’s highest court for his theocratic insistence that his religious convictions take precedence over U.S. Supreme Court decisions, so he could not have sincerely sworn to 'support and defend the Constitution' and to 'bear true faith and allegiance to the same,'" he wrote.

Will wrote that when Democratic nominee Doug Jones defeated Moore in the Alabama special election on Tuesday, a "gross national embarrassment" was narrowly avoided.

"But curb your enthusiasm because nationally, as in Alabama, most Republicans still support the president who supported the credibly accused child molester," he wrote.

"After the president’s full-throated support of the grotesque, he should be icily shunned by all but his diehard collaborators."

Will wrote that Trump's support of Moore earned him the ranking of the "nation's worst president."

"By joining Stephen K. Bannon’s buffoonery on Moore’s behalf, the 45th president planted an exclamation point punctuating a year of hitherto unplumbed presidential depths," he wrote, referring to the former White House chief strategist and current head of Breitbart News.

"He completed his remarkably swift — it has taken less than 11 months — rescue of the 17th, Andrew Johnson, from the ignominy of ranking as the nation’s worst president."

[Dontrike]

Also:

George Will: Trump is now the worst-ever president

Because Trump endorsed Roy Moore.

Well he's not wrong for that, but Trump has about two dozen other reasons why he'll be the worst president for a century.

[Kujako]

George Will: Trump is now the worst-ever president

Because Trump endorsed Roy Moore.

But Trump says he didn't endorse Moore, because he knew he couldn't win!

[Breccia]

As Newton leaves the WH (reportedly kicking and screaming), net neutrality is revoked against the vast majority of the American people's wishes, basically every country in the world turning against the Jerusalem decision, Russia staking its military claim on Syria with yet another provoking jet flyby, Moore (the child rapist that Trump personally endorsed) refusing to admit defeat, and within minutes of the breaking news that Rubio is the second "no" vote and John McCain is potentially too ill to return to DC -- Trump had a five-minute speech in which he cut a ribbon connecting a pile of blank papers, connected to another larger pile of blank papers, ordered himself a standing ovation, and left without taking questions.

Trying to shift the narrative from a house on fire, to a kitten, really only works on people who really love kittens. But even they know the house is still on fire.

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Deplorables, this is some classy operation you voted for, roflmao.

Here is Sanders explaining how classy it is:

"We have a really diverse team across the board at the White House,” Sanders told reporters at the daily press briefing.

"We always want to continue to grow the diversity here. Something that we strive for everyday is to add and grow to be more diverse and more representative of the country at-large and we’re going to continue to do that.”

I bet you didn't know that the WH was trying every day to become more diverse! Such as the time they immediately fired the head usher within a few months of arriving. And how Ben Carson manages to successfully remain black, but Sanders, when asked, choked on the number or names of any other African-American members of the administration.

"You'll have to ask our director of African-American outreach for that," Sanders said.

"We can't," the reporters replied, "Trump just fired her."

[Poopymonster]

Here is Sanders explaining how classy it is:



I bet you didn't know that the WH was trying every day to become more diverse! Such as the time they immediately fired the head usher within a few months of arriving. And how Ben Carson manages to successfully remain black, but Sanders, when asked, choked on the number or names of any other African-American members of the administration.

"You'll have to ask our director of African-American outreach for that," Sanders said.

"We can't," the reporters replied, "Trump just fired her."

To be fair, that's slightly better than the normal "I don't exist"