Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Zan15]

Had to do real work. Finally got caught up on Rudy world.

Somebody pays $20k a day for this?? I'm clearly in the wrong line of work.

The grift is finally sprung.

A $20,000-a-day rate would have made Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who has been Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer for several years, among the most highly compensated attorneys anywhere.

[Breccia]

Yet another "only Trump could do this"

Trump plans to nominate Brian Brooks to a five-year term as comptroller of the currency, the White House said on Tuesday.

"Who's that?"

The acting official in that place. Trump dragged his feet, refusing to nominate anyone, then wants to quick give a five-year term before he's fired.

[Kaleredar]

Had to do real work. Finally got caught up on Rudy world.

Somebody pays $20k a day for this?? I'm clearly in the wrong line of work.

I had assumed it would all be this... vague hearsay that he can allege he was told to avoid facing legal repercussions when it’s found out to be utter bullshit

[Thepersona]

Had to do real work. Finally got caught up on Rudy world.

Somebody pays $20k a day for this?? I'm clearly in the wrong line of work.

You could earn quick bucks by masquerading a right wing grifter it seems. I dont have the stomach to do it, but anyways.

[Breccia]

I had assumed it would all be this... vague hearsay that he can allege he was told to avoid facing legal repercussions when it’s found out to be utter bullshit

The consequences will at least include "Giuliani is humiliated in public and never finds work again".

[cubby]

Trump's Fed nominee fails Senate confirmation.

Excellent.

[Edge-]

Trump's Fed nominee fails Senate confirmation.

Excellent.

She'll go back up again. I have no clue why the regressives are desperate to put someone backing the gold standard to the Fed.

[Fugus]

She'll go back up again. I have no clue why the regressives are desperate to put someone backing the gold standard to the Fed.

Because anything bad she does will get blamed on Biden instead because her actions won't be able to be as directly linked to the Republicans as say.... Pulling our troops out of the middle east at the last minute.

[Edge-]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-...ida?ref=author

Q anon nutter who previously lost custody of her children, kidnapped them from their grandparents home and fled the law, and was trying to get custody back murdered the "lawyer" who was "helping" her (another conspiracy theorist nutter). And ended up murdering him because she became convinced he was a part of the conspiracy/plot to kidnap children or something.

Trump has mainstreamed this. The blood and the childhood trauma are on his shoulders.

[Zaydin]

She'll go back up again. I have no clue why the regressives are desperate to put someone backing the gold standard to the Fed.

Five bucks says they want to do anything they can to sabotage Biden for their own partisan advantage come the midterms.

[cubby]

She'll go back up again. I have no clue why the regressives are desperate to put someone backing the gold standard to the Fed.

Why would she? The same people are going to be there voting. Those same people who just said "nope".

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-...ida?ref=author

Q anon nutter who previously lost custody of her children, kidnapped them from their grandparents home and fled the law, and was trying to get custody back murdered the "lawyer" who was "helping" her (another conspiracy theorist nutter). And ended up murdering him because she became convinced he was a part of the conspiracy/plot to kidnap children or something.

Trump has mainstreamed this. The blood and the childhood trauma are on his shoulders.

And soon there will be an entire Television Network dedicated to this nonsense. It will rival Faux News in it's viewership and conspiracy nonsense.

[PhaelixWW]

And soon there will be an entire Television Network dedicated to this nonsense. It will rival Faux News in it's viewership and conspiracy nonsense.

When you say "it will rival Fox News in its viewership", I hear "it will halve Fox News' viewership", so... win?

I mean, it's entirely possible that with all the mega-crazies abandoning ship, Fox might move back to something approaching the center. Anything that fractures the GoP voting base at this point is a win in my book.

I'm not holding my breath or anything, however, but one can dream.

[Zan15]

When you say "it will rival Fox News in its viewership", I hear "it will halve Fox News' viewership", so... win?

I mean, it's entirely possible that with all the mega-crazies abandoning ship, Fox might move back to something approaching the center. Anything that fractures the GoP voting base at this point is a win in my book.

I'm not holding my breath or anything, however, but one can dream.

well technically if 100% of them today watch fox and the new network gets 51%...that does leave both of them with around half of the viewerships fox has today.

They will soon learn what it is like to have 3-4 liberal news networks and have to listen to "fox is winning in the ratings"

[Breccia]

Before @Benggaul posts the numbers, let's talk about North Dakota.

It's fucking itself to death.

If North Dakota was a country, it would have the highest COVID mortality rate in the world.

[DarkTZeratul]

The first comment in the comments section sums up stuff pretty good.

I don't see a comments section. What does it say?

[Eviscero]

Yet another "only Trump could do this"

Trump plans to nominate Brian Brooks to a five-year term as comptroller of the currency, the White House said on Tuesday.

"Who's that?"

The acting official in that place. Trump dragged his feet, refusing to nominate anyone, then wants to quick give a five-year term before he's fired.

I assume congress can impeach this appointee if necessary? Must. Win. Senate.

[Breccia]

Trump to spend Thanksgiving in the White House bunker, crying like a bitch.

- - - Updated - - -

I assume congress can impeach this appointee if necessary?

Impeached by House, trial by Senate, yes.

[Edge-]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/t...e-thanksgiving

Trump, who once said he'd never want to leave the White House yet managed to leave it almost once a week on average to visit his properties, seems to finally be sticking to his word.

Now that his time in the White House has an expiration date, he seems be eschewing his normal "Winter White House" trip to Mar a Lago to stay in the White House a bit longer.

[Felya]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-...ida?ref=author

Q anon nutter who previously lost custody of her children, kidnapped them from their grandparents home and fled the law, and was trying to get custody back murdered the "lawyer" who was "helping" her (another conspiracy theorist nutter). And ended up murdering him because she became convinced he was a part of the conspiracy/plot to kidnap children or something.

Trump has mainstreamed this. The blood and the childhood trauma are on his shoulders.

I knew the story before the murder part... How does this end with murder now? It was just a stupid QAnon kidnapping her own children... now it’s murder...

[Thekri]

A troop withdrawl is, admittedly, a lot less of a fuckup than launching strikes at Iran. And don't bother saying "why not both?" because yes, that's also an option.

Yes, it is less of a fuckup then unprovoked strikes on a sovereign nation, but that is a pretty low bar to clear. Given the timing of this order, it is almost certainly the reason for Esper's departure, just as the equally poorly convinced retreat from Syria led to the resignation of James Mattis.

Irrational policy demands from the White House are nothing unique to the Trump department, but the wildly irresponsible nature of them definitely exceeds his predecessors. This one for instance is a terrible plan, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. A troop drawdown itself is not a horrible idea, it is the conditions this takes place in that makes it horrible. For one thing, it cements the position of the Taliban in Afghanistan at a critical time, making it clear the US has neither the interest or the capability to hold them to the deal.

The other reason is more... technical. I ran security for some of these bases, and the logistics of defending them are extremely complicated. There are clear breakpoints for the amount of manpower that is required to maintain a perimeter large enough to protect an airfield. If you shrink the number of people on that base, it doesn't change the physical size of the base, because you still have protect the whole runway. By 2016, this had already started being a major problem, with huge amounts of empty space on bases, which is all a liability to defend. Dipping total troop numbers below 10k means that the vast majority of the force has to be dedicated to just defending the runways, and going lower still means it is flat out impossible to defend. In 2016 I was already dealing with a bizarre situation where I was running about 120 of my soldiers ragged in Afghanistan, while the other 100+ of my soldiers sat on their ass in the US doing nothing. The only reason I couldn't bring them in was politics.

Drawing down responsibly means closing bases. The Obama era drawdowns did this. But by 2018 or so, we were left with really only the big three still open (Bagram, KAF, Jalalabad/OB Fenty). Each of these bases is massive, and requires somewhere around 1,000 or so to operate (Closer to 2,000 for Bagram). Keeping those bases open with less is just asking for a slaughter. Someone can breach the gates and cause hundreds of casualties in a few hours. Actually closing those bases is something we have been reluctant to do, because they control the Capital, the South, and the East respectively. Removing one of those bases means ceding political control of a major city and accompanying region to the Taliban or ISK.

TLDR: This is a half assed plan that the Trump administration has refused to properly plan or resource, and arbitrary short term drawdowns put US servicemembers and the entire nation of Afghanistan at massive, and unnecessary risk.