Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[SimonNZ]

Fear review: Bob Woodward's dragnet descends on Donald Trump

"Woodward's Fear is big on facts and short on hyperventilation. It is not Fire and Fury redux or Omarosa 2.0. Rather, it is a sober account of how we reached this vertiginous point. Woodward's words are quotidian but the story he tells is chilling. Like Trump himself, the characters that populate Woodward's narrative are Runyonesque and foul-mouthed."

[drogulus]

     China Is Detaining Muslims in Vast Numbers. The Goal: 'Transformation.'

     Countries that violate human rights on a massive scale don't want to be identified as such. They don't want to face sanctions, of course, but even to be named is terrible. Their shame is a way of acknowledging the moral authority of countries that take human rights seriously. I can't say I know why China fears public shaming, only that I know they do.

     

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Ha ha ha ha maybe it was his daughter?

[SimonNZ]

Possibly of no interest to anybody but me (or possibly already common knowledge) but I just read that red-for-Republicans and blue-for Democrats only became the norm with the 2000 election. Checking it I found this interesting article on various colour-coding of the parties in the post black and white TV era:

Red vs. Blue: A history of how we use political colors

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Well we know its Orange for Trump

[Daverz]

Possibly of no interest to anybody but me (or possibly already common knowledge) but I just read that red-for-Republicans and blue-for Democrats only became the norm with the 2000 election. Checking it I found this interesting article on various colour-coding of the parties in the post black and white TV era:

Red vs. Blue: A history of how we use political colors

Yes, I remember.  Sigh.  Al Gore was (is) a really decent man.

[EddieRUKiddingVarese]

Yes, I remember.  Sigh.  Al Gore was (is) a really decent man.

But what about Tipper (she plays drums and jammed with The Dead!)

[Sydney Nova Scotia]

That's a kind of vague dismissal. I've rarely been called "academic." As far as music, I can recall no "hippie" treatise on music theory. It all sounds like off-the-wall chatter to me

[geralmar]

New aphorism from the Administration:  "Truth isn't truth".

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/19/politics/rudy-giuliani-truth-isnt-truth/index.html

[Sydney Nova Scotia]

Maybe Trump is really the outer layer of a Russian doll, would possibly explain the Orange Colour 

[Karl Henning]

ROFLMAO

Trump promises a 'real book' on his White House as he seeks to discredit other accounts

And he is going to write it himself! No, but really!

ROFLMAO

[André]

Possibly of no interest to anybody but me (or possibly already common knowledge) but I just read that red-for-Republicans and blue-for Democrats only became the norm with the 2000 election. Checking it I found this interesting article on various colour-coding of the parties in the post black and white TV era:

Red vs. Blue: A history of how we use political colors

Confusing for Canadians, where it's the reverse: blue for the conservatives and red for the liberals. Orange is for the New Democratic Party (center left). There is a Green party, but it's marginal.

[Karl Henning]

And . . . even at the National Review, a headline owns up to the fact that President Clueless ain't much as a manager:

Trump Should Be a Better Boss

[Karl Henning]

Lock him up!  Lock him up!

George Papadopoulos Sentenced for Lying to Mueller's Investigators

The former Trump campaign aide was sentenced to 14 days in jail after pleading guilty in October to misleading federal investigators.

[SimonNZ]

Trump Says Tariffs Mean Ford Can Make New Model at Home. Ford Says It Won't.

"President Trump on Sunday suggested Ford Motor could begin making a small car in the United States instead of importing it from China. But the automaker quickly issued a statement saying it has no such plans.

In August, Ford announced it had killed a plan to import the Focus Active, a roomy hatchback, saying the tariffs Mr. Trump has threatened to impose on vehicles built in China would increase costs too much for the company to hit its profit targets."

[SimonNZ]

John Bolton slams International Criminal Court as "illegitimate

"National Security Adviser John Bolton tore into the International Criminal Court in a speech to The Federalist Society Monday, casting it as "antithetical to our nation's values" and claiming that the Trump administration will take aggressive steps — including sanctioning and prosecuting the Court's judges — to ensure the U.S. does not provide it with any form of legitimacy.

The big picture: In November 2017, the ICC requested authorization to investigate American service members and intelligence personnel for committing war crimes in Afghanistan. Speaking on the eve of the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Bolton pledged that the U.S. will not let international bureaucrats determine what actions are justifiable when it comes to defending the country from its enemies.

"The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court. We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us."

[drogulus]

     U.S. Weighs Sanctions Against Chinese Officials Over Muslim Detention Camps

The discussions over the mass detentions in Xinjiang highlight American efforts on issues that diverge from the president's priorities. Mr. Trump has rarely made statements criticizing foreign governments for human rights abuses or anti-liberal policies, and in fact has praised authoritarian leaders, including Mr. Xi.


     

[SimonNZ]

Trump's latest boast about the economy isn't even close to accurate

"President Donald Trump spent the morning bragging about the economy. At least one of his claims didn't come close to being true.

"The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!" the president said in a tweet.

The first two numbers are correct, although they measure completely different things, and in different ways.

The overall US economy grew at a 4.2% annual rate in the second quarter. Unemployment was between 3.8% and 4% during the quarter, and it came in at 3.9% in August.

That's all good news.

"It's definitely better when it's true than when it's not," said Justin Wolfers, professor of economics at University of Michigan. "I like high GDP growth and low unemployment."

But Trump got it wrong — way wrong — when he said it hasn't happened in a century.

In the last 70 years, it's happened in at least 62 quarters, most recently in 2006.

"He wasn't even in the neighborhood of right," Wolfers said in an interview."

[SimonNZ]

Bombs Away: Trump Has the I.Q. of an Inbred Tanning Bed, Says a Liberated Gary Cohn

"According to an excerpt from Bob Woodward's Fear, the book out tomorrow that the president has called a "joke," a "scam," and a "con on the public" written by a "Dem operative," the Goldman Sachs president turned National Economic Council director came away from his very first meeting with Donald Trump "astounded" by just how dumb the guy was. During a chat about various economic issues, Cohn told Trump that the Federal Reserve would likely increase rates during his first term in office, to which President Buy High, Sell Low reportedly responded, "We should just go borrow a lot of money, hold it, and then sell it to make money." This suggestion, and "lack of basic understanding" about how federal debt works apparently sent chills up the spine of Cohn, who explained that borrowing more money would in fact increase the deficit and add to the debt, something that would, in theory, be counterproductive for a delusional president who had pledged to completely eliminate the federal debt. But President "I'm, like, really smart" wasn't finished:

The president-elect offered a solution.

"Just run the presses—print money," Trump said, according to Woodward.

Cohn suggested that would be detrimental to the fiscal and economic health of the U.S., since printing vast amounts of money is thought to lead to inflation. . . . Cohn also pointed to the federal debt ceiling, a statutory limit to the amount of debt the federal government can have outstanding. Even approaching the debt ceiling can be harmful to the stock market and U.S. economic growth.

But according to Woodward, Cohn's message did not seem to connect."

[Sydney Nova Scotia]

Bombs Away: Trump Has the I.Q. of an Inbred Tanning Bed, Says a Liberated Gary Cohn

"According to an excerpt from Bob Woodward's Fear, the book out tomorrow that the president has called a "joke," a "scam," and a "con on the public" written by a "Dem operative," the Goldman Sachs president turned National Economic Council director came away from his very first meeting with Donald Trump "astounded" by just how dumb the guy was. During a chat about various economic issues, Cohn told Trump that the Federal Reserve would likely increase rates during his first term in office, to which President Buy High, Sell Low reportedly responded, "We should just go borrow a lot of money, hold it, and then sell it to make money." This suggestion, and "lack of basic understanding" about how federal debt works apparently sent chills up the spine of Cohn, who explained that borrowing more money would in fact increase the deficit and add to the debt, something that would, in theory, be counterproductive for a delusional president who had pledged to completely eliminate the federal debt. But President "I'm, like, really smart" wasn't finished:

The president-elect offered a solution.

"Just run the presses—print money," Trump said, according to Woodward.

Cohn suggested that would be detrimental to the fiscal and economic health of the U.S., since printing vast amounts of money is thought to lead to inflation. . . . Cohn also pointed to the federal debt ceiling, a statutory limit to the amount of debt the federal government can have outstanding. Even approaching the debt ceiling can be harmful to the stock market and U.S. economic growth.

But according to Woodward, Cohn's message did not seem to connect."

Ha ha ha ha Genius hey
Without knowing his IQ, Trump doesn't look to be similar to geniuses. Trump's most "genius" qualities are his ego-strength and his resistances to narrowing mamalian phenomena. These qualities are better explained by the fact that Donald Trump appears to have narcissistic personality disorder and sociopathic traits.