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

[71 dB]

This doesn't mean you have an effect on their policies, not by a long stretch.

It's competition between different platforms and every voter has an effect on which platforms have more political weight.

[SimonNZ]

The Endangered Species Act Is in the Trump Administration's Crosshairs

"The Endangered Species Act, a landmark 1973 law credited with saving the bald eagle, humpback whale, and grizzly bear from extinction, is itself in danger thanks a new Trump administration proposal.

The proposal, announced Thursday by the Interior and Commerce departments, would make it easier to remove animals from protected status and weaken rules that prevent federal agencies from harming the animals and their habitats. It would also strike from the law language that guides officials to ignore economic impacts when deciding how to protect wildlife."

[Florestan]

It's competition between different platforms and every voter has an effect on which platforms have more political weight.

Precisely. Every four years people elect who will rule them with policies not of their own making. Democracy is a misnomer for partycracy.

[Karl Henning]

As the United States is learning, any system, no matter how well designed, is dependent on the people.

[Karl Henning]

Momentary setback for the Make America White Again campaign:

A census citizenship question looked suspect from the start. Now a judge agrees.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census from the start has looked suspiciously like an underhanded way to depress Democratic representation in Washington. Now a federal judge is saying so, remarking in court this month that there is a strong appearance of "bad faith" and that the Trump administration's rationale for adding the question appears to be nothing more than pretext.

Eighteen state attorneys general, as well as D.C. and other smaller jurisdictions, are suing to stop the Census Bureau from inquiring about people's citizenship status, and U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman presides over the case. The suit is young, but Mr. Furman has already said that the challengers made a "strong showing" that the administration's reasons for adding the question are suspicious. Mr. Furman authorized the challengers to collect records and take depositions.

[Karl Henning]

The bottom line being, that no, Russia is not at present "a friendly country," and yes, the current President (and Quisling Congress) are idiots useful to the Kremlin.

(Anyone here who thinks that Trump knows anything about what he's doing with Putin (apart from managing a creditor, from a position of pitiable weakness), has several other thinks coming.)

[...] An authoritarian Russia had even more areas of contention with the United States. It panicked over the "color revolutions," in which countries such as Georgia and Ukraine became more democratic. It looked with consternation at the establishment of democracy in Iraq. These forces, by contrast, were being cheered on by the United States. And to Putin, President George W. Bush's "freedom agenda" might have seemed designed to dislodge his regime.

Perhaps most crucially, by the mid-2000s, steadily rising oil prices had resulted in a doubling of Russia's per capita gross domestic product, and cash was flowing into the Kremlin's coffers. A newly enriched Russia looked at its region with a much more assertive and ambitious gaze. And Putin, sitting atop the "vertical of power" he had created, began a serious effort to restore Russian influence and undermine the West and its democratic values. What has followed — the interventions in Georgia and Ukraine, the alliance with President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the cyberattacks against Western countries — has all been in service of that strategy.

So yes, the West might have missed an opportunity to transform Russia in the early '90s. We will never know whether it would have been successful. But what we do know is that there were darker forces growing in Russia from the beginning, that those forces took over the country almost two decades ago and that Russia has chosen to become the principal foe of America and the American-created world order.

[71 dB]

Precisely. Every four years people elect who will rule them with policies not of their own making. Democracy is a misnomer for partycracy.

Yeah, that is how democracy is arranged. I wouldn't want to answer every 5 minutes to policy questions. That's why we have politicians representing us, hopefully knowing much better than I do. The key word here is represent us. In the US politicians represent the top 1 % or the top 10 % at best. In Finland politicians represent more or less everyone. That makes the US an oligarchy and Finland a democracy. If you don't see this difference then you are an ignorant moron.

[Karl Henning]

Trump, as New Yorkers have known for decades, is a shady-at-best businessman and a practiced con artist.  It is part of his game, that he has conned so many of the lower-income voters into believing that he has their interests at heart.

Heck, just using the phrase at heart w/r/t Trump is guffaw-worthy.

[Florestan]

Yeah, that is how democracy is arranged. I wouldn't want to answer every 5 minutes to policy questions. That's why we have politicians representing us, hopefully knowing much better than I do. The key word here is represent us. In the US politicians represent the top 1 % or the top 10 % at best. In Finland politicians represent more or less everyone. That makes the US an oligarchy and Finland a democracy. If you don't see this difference then you are an ignorant moron.

You of all people accusing others of being ignorant morons... Thanks for the big chuckle, dude.

[milk]

Trump has undermined, to varying degrees, all the institutions of global alliances and trade agreements. At the same time, he proposes to start a trade skirmish with China. One way or another, he weakens U.S. standing and influence. One thing I heard Ian Bremmer suggest was the possible weakening of the dollar as a reserve currency as well. I've no idea about economics but I gather this would be some sort of calamity for the U.S. economy. In any case, I think Dump puts the U.S. in an increasingly precarious situation by both undermining our traditional alliances and threatening trade wars with China as well. I wonder also what the Dump thinks the U.S. gets from Russia that will balance out the potential losses everywhere else, especially from America's closest friends. I also wonder how he gets away with dissing the EU to Britain which has also plainly reduced its economic position by backing out of the EU. That's clearly a bad deal for the U.K. and a good deal for Russia but how does the U.S. gain from a weakened Europe?   

[71 dB]

You of all people accusing others of being ignorant morons... Thanks for the big chuckle, dude.

Only those who don't understand the simplist things.

[Karl Henning]

FBI seized recording of Trump and Cohen discussing payments for story of ex-model who alleged affair

[milk]

FBI seized recording of Trump and Cohen discussing payments for story of ex-model who alleged affair

If the whole thing were a daily soap, what would it be called?

[André]

If the whole thing were a daily soap, what would it be called?

Days of our lives, 2018 

[eljr]

If the whole thing were a daily soap, what would it be called?

"Bozo goes to Washington"

obviously

[SimonNZ]

Trump flags and hats made in China are reportedly being held up at customs as trade war heats up

[SimonNZ]

GOP congressman rants whites are the real victims of 'racism' and black people are addicted to welfare

[Gurn Blanston]

If the whole thing were a daily soap, what would it be called?

That old classic, As the Stomach Turns...

[SimonNZ]

This conservative would take Obama back in a nanosecond

"How I miss Barack Obama.

And I say that as someone who worked to defeat him: I was a foreign policy adviser to John McCain in 2008 and to Mitt Romney in 2012. I criticized Obama's "lead from behind" foreign policy that resulted in a premature pullout from Iraq and a failure to stop the slaughter in Syria. I thought he was too weak on Iran and too tough on Israel. I feared that Obamacare would be too costly. I fumed that he was too professorial and too indecisive. I was left cold by his arrogance and his cult of personality.

Now I would take Obama back in a nanosecond. His presidency appears to be a lost golden age when reason and morality reigned. All of his faults, real as they were, fade into insignificance compared with the crippling defects of his successor. And his strengths — seriousness, dignity, intellect, probity, dedication to ideals larger than self — shine all the more clearly in retrospect.

Those thoughts are prompted by watching Obama's speech in South Africa on the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth. I was moved nearly to tears by his eloquent defense of a liberal world order that President Trump appears bent on destroying."

[Christo]

FBI seized recording of Trump and Cohen discussing payments for story of ex-model who alleged affair

Not sure if this news isn't brought - by Giulani, isn't it? - as a deliberate distraction of this weeks real disasters.