Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

How many people will get canned this week.

*cough episode cough*

No really, with the loss of Nielsen, Tex, and Vitiello, this is already a bigger week than most. And that's not even including the guy found working for a steel company while also in the Dept of Labor. Normally, I'd say three was enough. But this seems like part of a bigger overhaul, and this time, I don't think he's done.

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TLDR: Government both seems to have overstepped their authority and not considered the context or ramifications of these decisions.

But National Security Lol was declared! This is the ideal time to fire everyone in charge!

[Templar 331]

Ah so thats how majority vote works.

Which he lost.

[Edge-]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...-policy-report

President Trump recently told senior adviser Stephen Miller that he’s “in charge” of his administration’s immigration policy, according to The Wall Street Journal.

So we no longer just have a white supremacist sympathizer running the country, but an actual white supremacist dictating immigration policy.

Fantastic.

[Breccia]

Fantastic.

Hey, what Senate-approved role does Miller have?

None, you say? That's remarKKKable.

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Trump ends MLB deal that lets Cuban players play on US teams without defecting, because fucked if I know.

"Obama did it."

Yeah but this is a teensy non-issue. They weren't even kneeling. What gives?

[Edge-]

Trump ends MLB deal that lets Cuban players play on US teams without defecting, because fucked if I know.

"Obama did it."

Yeah but this is a teensy non-issue. They weren't even kneeling. What gives?

My favorite part is that they called this a form of "human trafficking". This is the kind of "human trafficking" I can get behind. Leave your economic struggling country? Move to a new country with new opportunities? Continue a career you're skilled and passionate about? Get big paychecks for your work?

Sounds good. Where the fuck do I sign up?

[Breccia]

Sorry. But, let's talk about gas prices.

Apparently there's more to the story than the Midwest flood.

A bigger issue is that this is around the time of year when many oil refineries plan maintenance as they make their annual switch to summer-blend fuels.

This year, unexpected issues took a higher number of refineries offline, squeezing supplies. “This laundry list of refinery issues, both planned and unplanned, is having a dramatic impact on prices,” DeHaan said. “It’s almost inevitable every year that there will be a refinery issue.”

Also:

“I think OPEC is over-complying,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service said. “They’re cutting more than they promised,” he said of the cartel’s pledge to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels a day beginning this year. These cuts are exacerbated by conflicts in oil-exporting countries like Venezuela — which faces U.S. sanctions — and Libya.

“I don’t think we’ve had this little breathing room between supply and demand balance in several years. OPEC is significantly a driving force in that,” DeHaan said.

“The U.S. is in a bind as OPEC+ and speculators are hell-bent on taking prices higher, and that could have repercussions in the U.S.,” Vijayakar said.

Although President Donald Trump has excoriated OPEC on Twitter in the past, analysts say the White House holds relatively little sway over the cartel’s activities.

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Sounds good. Where the fuck do I sign up?

It's called "asylum". You enter by a legal port and OHHHHHHHHH right, the last 24 hours. Nevermind.

[Edge-]

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/8/18...crats-congress

Last year, the FCC returned to the light-touch regulatory scheme that enabled the internet to develop and thrive for nearly two decades by promoting the internet freedom and encouraging network investment,” the White House’s statement read.

The Save the Internet Act is expected to easily make its way out of the Democrat-controlled House, but the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate. For many Republican senators, net neutrality simply isn’t a priority for the majority this congressional session, particularly for Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) who chairs the powerful Commerce Committee.

If the bill “were presented to the President,” the White House statement said, “his advisors would recommend that he veto it.”

[Breccia]

Pompeo goes on FOX and Friends to warn Russia not to interfere with Venezuela.

"Remember how Trump said Russia would never go to Ukraine? Well, this is basically the same thing," Pompeo didn't say but I'm pretending he did. "Basically, we're making a big deal about threatening Russia not to send military to Venezuela. Truth is they've been there for months. They built this sweet helicopter training center there, they're repairing those S-300 missile systems Chavez bought, and Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Gil said more Russian military aid is on the way. Basically, Russia is already there. We're just making noise at this point."

Russia has backed Maduro, as have Turkey, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and China. Pompeo didn't say much about them. Also Mexico for some reason.

[Dontrike]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/08/polit...tor/index.html

There's such a national emergency that we have to fire anyone involved with dealing with that emergency in the least bit.

[Edge-]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...istration.html

Having a hard time just keeping track of all the senior officials who have left Trumps administration? NYT has you covered with a nice interactive timeline.

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https://theintercept.com/2019/04/08/...aeli-election/

“Thank you, my dear friend, President Donald Trump,” Netanyahu tweeted in Hebrew, “for answering another one of my important requests.”

So, is Netanyahu also Trump's Prime Minister?

https://twitter.com/rafsanchez/statu...69529523904517

Netanyahu is taking credit for Trump's decision to designate the Revolutionary Guard as terrorists. "Thank you for responding to another important request of mine," Bibi says.

He got the Golan 2 weeks ago and now this 1 day before Israel's election.

[Breccia]

The State Department names a list of Saudi Arabian people who helped murder a journalist.

Should be interesting to see Trump handwave that. Also, there's a bill to end US support in the war in Yemen.

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What if they threw a party and nobody came?

The NSC is supposed to hold a meeting about how climate change isn't real and not, for example, why climate change is a national security threat. Because NSC stands for..uh...shit, I forgot. Anyhow, the meeting was, as NSC meetings typically are, supposed to involve a variety of agencies, each of which was supposed to give a presentation on the subject. Bonus points likely awarded for the use of "Chinese hoax". As William Happer, senior director of the NSC, is a known climate change denier and also spearheading this, the idea is likely just to refute Trump's own report, found here in its entirety, of the dangers of climate change. At time of writing, it is the last word the US Govt has on climate change, and Happer is likely trying to change the narrative. And he's asking for backup.

And, well, the RSVP's are coming back in the resoundingly negative.

First, the DNI declined. Reason? "We don't do scientific studies. We assess threats. Such as climate change."

Second, the DoD declined. While the referred questions to the WH, the spokesperson also added "the effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to [Defense Department] missions, operational plans and installations".

The State Department declined as well. I don't have a listed reason, but it's probably along the lines of "We're diplomats, and everyone else in the world believes the scientific consensus. We can't do this, and work with them, and, well, diplomacy is our job, so, there's that."

The EPA also declined. Again, I have no official answer, but it might have to do with the proposed meeting being literally the opposite of their job.

"Okay, but what about NASA?"

Weren't invited.

"The NOAA?"

Weren't invited.

"Department of the Interior?"

Weren't invited.

"Four top military officials testifying before Congress, namely the AF Chief of Staff, head of US European Command, head of US Transportation Command, and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, as recently as Thursday?"

That's curiously specific, but yes, they all told the Senate Armed Forces Committee that climate change was real and the US military had to adapt to keep up.

So, yes, Happer's NSC panel to discuss climate change won't have the agencies most directly related to studying it, won't have the agencies who deal with threats to national security at it, have 13 US agencies and the military on record saying climate change is real and a risk, and are likely to fill their report with 140 characters of feelings at this point.

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But hey, it's not all about climate change, right? Axios has a new report about how the farmer workers in the Midwest are going to recover from the floods.

They're going to leave the Midwest.

In a new report provided first to Axios, LinkedIn said members from flood zones are changing their place of residence in considerable numbers.

Based on that, and what workers did in prior natural disasters — Miami for example had a 62.9% increase in net migration in the calendar year after Hurricane Irma in 2017 — LinkedIn forecasts a comparatively large migration to the Southwest in the coming months.

"[W]e expect to see an increase in workers moving to: Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth, Seattle, and Phoenix," LinkedIn said.

Agriculture and manufacturing companies, such as Cargill and Tyson, are among those that are likely to be hit hard by the migration of workers to the Southwest, LinkedIn said.

"It's important to consider that severe weather caused by climate change may have lasting consequences on the economic health and vitality of regions like the Midwest that are already struggling to retain jobs and talent," said Guy Berger, LinkedIn's chief economist.

Oh son of a bitch!

[Flarelaine]

Disagree.

I think fundamentally, on the base level, liberals are the party of We and the conservatives are the party of Me in the US. YMMV in Hungary though.

That matches my perception, but does not contradict my comment; people feeling down and out will tend to be more selfish and more xenophobic. The trick is that people who think as We may be worse off but still see the big picture.

Hungary is different as labels are all mixed up: Socialists have been market-friendly while nominal Conservatives are nationalising businesses (only to hand them out to cronies) and stamping out opposition in a (post)-Communist style. Liberals have imploded under a series of corruption scandals.

Edit for clarification: Liberals were not the only formation with corruption scandals, but the only one properly deserted by their base over it.

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Also:

(refinery problems)

Just cut goddam fossil fuels already.

[Omega10]

But hey, it's not all about climate change, right? Axios has a new report about how the farmer workers in the Midwest are going to recover from the floods.

They're going to leave the Midwest.



Oh son of a bitch!

If you read the article, and follow the link to the weather channel story, basically effected towns have drinking water shortages. Yeah... who would think that extreme flooding would case a water shortage

But that's reality. Water treatment facilities in many of the cities are either not working, or are working at substantially reduced capacity. So people have to boil water and/or use bottled water exclusively. In one school the children have to use outdoor outhouses to use the restroom due to the lack of water for toilet flushing.

The media will turn its attention to other issues, but the pain in the Midwest is not over by a longshot.

[Breccia]

It's also like the IRS isn't woefully understaffed and underfunded.

You're talking about the annual report to Congress detailing how the Trump Shutdown coming during tax prep season after the tax cut for the rich could not possibly be worse timing; that the IRS lost 22,000 employees and $2 billion in funding since 2010, which would have caused problems even without the Trump Shutdown; and how the average cycle time for an Individual Master File, Business Master File, wait time for a 1-800 call, and the non-response rate were each up by about 10% from last year?

Yeah, I agree with you. The IRS isn't just held to the wrong population size, it was also shrunk considerably and closed at the worst possible time, and lost a chunk of budget.

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Well, y'all knew it was coming.

Our Ruling

Trump said windmill noise causes cancer. The White House provided no evidence. No study supports the statement.

Echoing Iowa’s Republican senators, we rate this ridiculous statement Pants on Fire.

This might be one of the shortest ones they've ever done.

"Wait, what did the Senators say?"

"Idiotic," said Sen. Chuck Grassley.

"It’s ridiculous," said Sen. Joni Ernst.

[some guy]

I wonder if tinfoil hats cause cancer?

[Breccia]

So let's talk about drug prices.

As you're all no doubt aware, in January the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into increasing drug prices. As you can see, that's a oversight.house.gov site, so there will be no yelling FAKE NEWS today.

For years, drug companies have been aggressively increasing prices on existing drugs and setting higher launch prices for new drugs while recording windfall profits. The goals of this investigation are to determine why drug companies are increasing prices so dramatically, how drug companies are using the proceeds, and what steps can be taken to reduce prescription drug prices.

Considering Trump said this:

We are taking aim at the global freeloading that forces American consumers to subsidize lower prices in foreign countries through higher prices in our country.

Same company. Same box. Same pill. Made in the exact same location, and you would go to some countries and it would be 20 percent of the cost of what we pay. We’re fixing it.

you would think Republicans would be not just on board with this, but enthusiastic about this. Especially considering, since then, he has taken no direct action of any kind. (He also promised to reduce drug prices while running in 2016, and did nothing since, but that's another story)

Trump said this before the midterms (yes, I'm quoting FOX News, there will be no yelling FAKE NEWS here)

In this letter, yes that's a GOP House .gov site so there will be no yelling FAKE NEWS today, Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows both --

"Those names sound familiar."

Leaders of the Tea Party. Anyhow, they both say this:

As we understand the Chairman's request to you, he is seeking a wide range of highly sensitive business-proprietary information that would likely harm the competitiveness of your company if disclosed publicly. The Rules of the House of Representatives grant Chairman Cummings the authority to make such requests.

...

While we cannot speculate about Chairman Cumming's motives, we believe the Committee should not pursue an investigation to "impact...stock prices with regard to drugs" -- especially when there is bipartisan interest in real oversight of rising prescription drug prices.

So, yeah, that's two members of the HOC accusing Cummings of trying to leak info to crash stock prices, and more to the point, two members of the HOC warning companies not to cooperate. For something Trump specifically promised he'd do. Twice.

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I wonder if tinfoil hats cause cancer?

There is some debate as to whether aluminium causes Alzheimer's. But not enough evidence for me to stand up in front of the world and say "tinfoil hats cause dementia".

But...I mean, small data pool and all, confirmation bias and all...I think we can all at least say "yeah, I get that" after conspiracy theorist Trump says windmill noise causes cancer.

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the hilariously pointless "voter fraud commission"

It's been a while since we talked about that, but it's time for Guess the Speaker!

Well, the commission was purported to investigate the claim and make suggestions on ways to improve the integrity of elections. But, as the commission went forward in this work, it became more and more mysterious in how it was moving. And, basically, we were getting walled off. And because we couldn't find out what our own commission was working on, I made a formal inquiry and was told that they were reviewing my request with their legal counsel, which made me scratch my head a little bit. And it led to a court case we ultimately prevailed in. And the court case was premised on the idea that, as an equal member of the commission, I was entitled to the working documents of the commission.

...

Well, what's remarkable about the documents is what's not in there, and what's not in there is any substantiated evidence of voter misconduct at any scale. In fact, one of the troubling things about the documents that we saw was that before we were even really meeting, commission staff were working on a framework of a report. And several sections of report talk about voter fraud, and those sections are completely blank. They didn't insert any information whatsoever.

So that's why we've been saying that, even though the idea was to investigate voter fraud, it is pretty clear that the purpose of the commission was to actually affirm and validate the president's claims whether or not we had any evidence of any such voter misconduct.

Yes, that's Maine Secretary of State Dunlap, who was on the voter fraud commission. And as you can see, he had to fight in court to find out what it was they were doing -- and what it was they were doing was just straight-up nonsense.

Sorry, why are we talking about this again?

Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who lost his run for governor and was a part of the hilariously pointless "voter fraud commission" is being rumored to be a potential nominee for DHS.

Oh, right. They guy who was tasked with defending Trump's conspiracy theory claims, even to the point of fighting his own committee members in court, is being considered for a major role in Homeland Security.

Awesome.

[kaelleria]

I'd like to say that Kobach won't make it past Senate confirmations... but this is the Trump Administration.

[Edge-]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/t...e-its-a-picnic

“They’re coming like it’s a picnic, because ‘Let’s go to Disneyland,'” he said.

Trump, a master of empathy, thinks the only alternative to sending asylum seekers back to Mexico is that "they go to Disneyland". I guess he may have seen Balls of Fury a few too many times.

[Xyonai]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/t...e-its-a-picnic



Trump, a master of empathy, thinks the only alternative to sending asylum seekers back to Mexico is that "they go to Disneyland". I guess he may have seen Balls of Fury a few too many times.

It's just another iteration of the 'Well if you don't want to built the ineffectual wall and hold people in concentration camps then Obviously you just want our streets overrun with drug addled criminals' strawman. Because the middle-ground doesn't exist if it doesn't let them treat people like shit.

[kaelleria]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/t...e-its-a-picnic



Trump, a master of empathy, thinks the only alternative to sending asylum seekers back to Mexico is that "they go to Disneyland". I guess he may have seen Balls of Fury a few too many times.

All while lying about who's policy actually caused family separation.