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

Started by kishnevi, November 09, 2016, 06:04:39 PM

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71 dB

Quote from: ritter on August 23, 2019, 01:01:12 PM
What kind of political system does the U.S. have, where the President can "order" companies to do anything?  ???

It ain't capitalism that much I can tell you... ...Trump is clearly hysterical about the re-election, but is too dumb and incompetent to do anything right. Actually I take that back. The way he campaigned in 2016 was pure genius.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

BasilValentine

Quote from: ritter on August 23, 2019, 01:01:12 PM
What kind of political system does the U.S. have, where the President can "order" companies to do anything?  ???

He can't actually order them. Just thinks he can. Haven't you heard about his delusions?

drogulus

Quote from: JBS on August 23, 2019, 12:54:30 PM
Trump has decided to order via Twitter, all American companies to stop doing business with China. The immediate result is to send the Dow falling by about 600 points.

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164914959131848705

     The immediate result is I lost thousand$.

     I don't care about poverty

     All I care about is me

                                               - Joey Ramone
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JBS

Quote from: ritter on August 23, 2019, 01:01:12 PM
What kind of political system does the U.S. have, where the President can "order" companies to do anything?  ???

Fortunately for us, he can't. He can issue executive orders and ask Congress to pass laws, and he can jawbone (that is, publicly and privately attempt to persuade the companies and public to go along with him) but he's limited by the fact that without cooperation from Congress and the bureaucracy he is limited to small, easily reversible changes.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

drogulus

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Karl Henning

Quote from: drogulus on August 23, 2019, 08:25:26 AM
     I'm not going to believe in him anymore if he said that.

Nice! But the Evangelicals is another matter.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Quote from: ritter on August 23, 2019, 01:01:12 PM
What kind of political system does the U.S. have, where the President can "order" companies to do anything?  ???

You understand, Trump doesn't know the least thing about the Constitution, let alone governance.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

SimonNZ

Someone told him he's got to recreate the economic conditions of the Wiemar years if he wants to play at being Hitler, its not enough just to deport non-Aryans for lack of racial purity and to encourage bands of violent goons with your rhetoric at your ego-stroking rallies.

JBS

Quote from: SimonNZ on August 23, 2019, 05:25:56 PM
Someone told him he's got to recreate the economic conditions of the Wiemar years if he wants to play at being Hitler, its not enough just to deport non-Aryans for lack of racial purity and to encourage bands of violent goons with your rhetoric at your ego-stroking rallies.

I suppose the Chinese calling in all the debt we owe them would be the equivalent of Germany paying war reparations. ...

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

SimonNZ


SimonNZ

Adam Schiff: "As long as we are claiming constitutional powers we don't have, I hereby order the President to stop tweeting."

-

Trump has questioned why he must attend G7

"President Donald Trump departs late Friday for a summit he's questioned is worth his time.

This year's G7 gathering, held in seaside France, is Trump's third. It comes amid global economic jitters, tensions from the Mideast to the Indian subcontinent and raging fires in the Amazon.

But in conversations with aides over the past weeks, Trump has questioned why he must attend, according to people familiar with the conversations. After the past two G7 summits ended acrimoniously, Trump complained about attending a third, saying he didn't view the gathering as a particularly productive use of his time.
[...]

The session's hosts help determine the agenda. Last year's meeting, in a rural Canadian riverside resort, focused on the environment and a proliferation of plastics in the ocean. A year earlier, the assembled leaders collectively worked to convince Trump to remain in the Paris climate accord (he withdrew a month later).

After those summits, Trump was irked at the lengthy discussions about the environment and oceans, the people familiar said, and felt he wasn't given enough room to tout his achievements as president. Inside the White House, it wasn't clear Trump would commit to attending the this year's G7 until late spring.

To help make his attendance this week more palatable, aides lobbied to add a Sunday morning session focused on the global economy as a venue for him to brag about the US economy to leaders of nations where growth is slowing.

"I would anticipate President Trump will be speaking quite frankly about the policies he's seen work in his own economy and really wanting to work with other countries in the G7 to figure out how we can jumpstart growth in economies all around to ensure that there are markets and opportunities for all of our workers and people," an administration official said of the President's goal in calling for the economic talks.

How that sessions unfolds remains to be seen: fellow leaders blame the global slowdown partly on his protracted trade war with China, which devolved on Friday when China announced new retaliatory tariffs on US goods. Trump responded by pressing American firms to cease business there, and equity markets dropped sharply.

And the notion of the American President convening a session simply to flaunt the relative strength of the US economy -- and taking credit for it -- isn't likely to sit well with other leaders, particularly since many of them blame his trade tactics for a slump in global growth."

drogulus

Quote from: SimonNZ on August 23, 2019, 05:40:09 PM
"What debt? Sue me."

     "What debt" indeed. Dollar dollars and interest paying dollars are not so different from a system perspective. Basically China has a dollar for saving instead of a dollar for spending. We owe them interest, not a big deal. They got the dollars, they got the bonds with the dollars, if they don't like it they can sell. Then someone else will have them. I'd buy some but I like what I have.

     
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SimonNZ

Trump claims he has 'absolute right' to order US companies out of China under 1977 law

"President Donald Trump claimed he has the "absolute right" to "order" US companies to stop doing business with China that would involve using his broad executive authority in a new and unprecedented way under a 1977 law.

On Friday, China unveiled a new round of retaliatory tariffs on about $75 billion worth of US goods, the latest escalation in an on-going trade war that's putting a strain on the world's two largest economies. In response, Trump wrote on Twitter later Friday: "Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China including bringing ...your companies HOME and making your products in the USA."

When leaving the White House for the G7 summit in France, Trump told reporters, "I have the absolute right to do that, but we'll see how it goes." He later explained that he was referring to the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and in a Friday tweet wrote: "For all of the Fake News Reporters that don't have a clue as to what the law is relative to Presidential powers, China, etc., try looking at the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Case closed!"

Trump's latest comments again raise questions as to how far the President's authority goes under the IEEPA. In May, Trump threatened to slap Mexico with punitive tariffs unless it slowed the passage of migrants from Central America to the US. The IEEPA, according to the Congressional Research Service, has never been invoked to impose tariffs, and Trump ultimately drew back at the last minute.

The IEEPA, passed in the wake of Watergate and Vietnam, gives Trump "broad authority to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency," according to an analysis by the CRS.

Those presidential powers can be used "to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat....to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States."

Under the IEEPA, the President has to consult with Congress before invoking his authority and, after declaring a national emergency, send a report to Congress explaining why.

This authority has been used frequently; there have been 54 national emergencies, 29 of which are ongoing. In the first use of the IEEPA, during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, President Jimmy Carter imposed trade sanctions against Iran, freezing Iranian assets in the US, according to CRS.

Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas and a CNN legal analyst, told CNN in May that what Trump wanted to do under the law with Mexico may have been within the authority given to the White House by Congress -- though it might not have been what Congress ever intended.

"The idea behind these authorities is that the President is better situated to make those kinds of determinations than Congress, especially when they're time-sensitive," Vladeck told CNN at the time. "So I think the President's conduct may well be within the letter of the law here. But, as with the National Emergencies Act, I very much doubt this kind of exercise of the authority conferred by the statute is what Congress had in mind."

On Saturday, Vladeck again weighed in, tweeting: "One of the enduring phenomena of the Trump era is going to be the list of statutes that give far too much power to the President, but that many didn't used to worry about—assuming there'd be political safeguards. Today's entrant: The International Emergency Economic Powers Act."

Under the law, though, Congress can end an emergency with a joint resolution.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who has mounted a longshot bid against Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, called it "outrageous" that a US President would tell US companies how to conduct business.

"That he believes he can actually carry out such an outrage is the insanity of a would-be dictator," Weld tweeted Saturday.

SimonNZ

"niche issues"...

Trump Aides Claim G7 Focused On 'Niche' Issues To Spite Trump: Reports
French President Emmanuel Macron put climate change high on the summit's agenda, which also includes discussions on inequality.


"Officials in President Donald Trump's administration reportedly complained that their French counterparts are being difficult to work with and accused them of focusing the Group of Seven summit on topics that would lead to a clash between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to the New York Times and Bloomberg, Trump aides who are at the summit in Biarritz, France, claimed that French officials arranged for the summit to focus more on "niche issues," including climate change, gender equality and development in Africa, instead of global trade and the economy.

Senior Trump administration officials told the Times that they believe those topics were chosen in order to highlight Trump and Macron's differing opinions on the issues while highlighting issues favored by Macron's base."

SimonNZ

The Trump Administration Asked The Supreme Court To Legalize Firing Workers Simply For Being Gay

"The Trump administration took its hardest line yet to legalize anti-gay discrimination on Friday when it asked the Supreme Court to declare that federal law allows private companies to fire workers based only on their sexual orientation.

An amicus brief filed by the Justice Department weighed in on two cases involving gay workers and what is meant by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination "because of sex." The administration argued courts nationwide should stop reading the civil rights law to protect gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers from bias because it was not originally intended to do so.

That view conflicts with some lower court rulings that found targeting someone for their sexual orientation is an illegal form of both sex discrimination and sex stereotyping under Title VII. Those courts have found, to illustrate the point, that a gay man wouldn't be targeted if he were instead a woman dating a man; thus he faced discrimination because of his sex.

But the administration said in its brief Friday that Title VII's ban on sex discrimination only prohibits unequal treatment between "biological sexes," as it argued last week in a related brief against transgender rights, in which the Justice Department said companies should be able to fire people because they are transgender as well.

Congress did not explicitly say that the meaning of sex in Title VII encompasses LGBTQ people, so, the administration argues, the law cannot apply to sexual orientation. Federal lawyers are asking the Supreme Court, for the first time, to explicitly limit the Civil Right Act's protections to exclude LGBTQ people.

"Title VII's prohibition on discrimination because of sex does not bar discrimination because of sexual orientation," said the Justice Department's brief.

"The ordinary meaning of 'sex' is biologically male or female; it does not include sexual orientation," the filing continued. "An employer thus discriminates 'because of ... sex' under Title VII if it treats members of one sex worse than similarly situated members of the other sex. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, standing alone, does not satisfy that standard."

The Justice Department added that Congress only intended to ban discrimination because someone is male or female — saying the sexes cannot be treated differently — and that other laws recognizing LGBTQ people show Congress could have amended Title VII to include LGBTQ rights, but chose not to. The administration said interpreting the term "sex" more broadly effectively rewrites the law, and only Congress, not courts, has that license.

A Supreme Court ruling in the government's favor could trigger cascading ramifications for LGBTQ rights. Limiting the scope of Title VII would assert that a raft of state and federal laws banning sex-based discrimination have no application for sexual orientation or gender identity, a ruling that would likely reach far beyond employment to other settings where sex discrimination is banned, including public schools.

No federal law explicitly bans anti-LGBTQ discrimination in workplaces. Several LGBTQ individuals have successfully invoked Title VII in lower courts, while other courts have reached the opposite conclusion. It appeared inevitable that the high court would eventually hear a case on the scope of Title VII for LGBTQ people to resolve those conflicts.

The Justice Department also filed a separate motion on Friday asking for Solicitor General Noel Francisco to get time during oral arguments when the Supreme Court hears the case next month, saying, "The United States has a substantial interest" in the case. (The solicitor general under any administration has been called the 10th justice due to the position's heavy influence on the court.)

The Justice Department's brief argued that sex discrimination cannot be construed broadly to include LGBTQ workers because, as a general matter, it is legal for sex-segregated rules to exist, such as restrooms and dress codes. Instead, the government argues, sex discrimination occurs only when "similarly situated" individuals are treated differently — not comparing a gay person to a straight person.

"The correct comparison is between a female employee in a same-sex relationship and a male employee in a same-sex relationship; they would be similarly situated—and they would be treated the same," said the brief.

Friday's filing comes on the heels of the administration's plans last week to let federal contractors discriminate against workers by claiming a religious reason and the administration telling the Supreme Court that it's also legal to fire transgender workers under Title VII.

One of the gay rights cases currently at issue before the Supreme Court is Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, in which Gerald Bostock claims he was fired by the county for being gay. His case had been dismissed by lower courts.

His case is consolidated with one filed by Donald Zarda, who sued his employer, Altitude Express, alleging the company terminated him for his sexual orientation. With support from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that handles civil rights disputes, he prevailed at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

"A woman who is subject to an adverse employment action because she is attracted to women would have been treated differently if she had been a man who was attracted to women," the majority wrote last year in an opinion led by Judge Robert Katzmann. "We can therefore conclude that sexual orientation is a function of sex and, by extension, sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination."

In Zarda's case, however, the Justice Department claimed in a 2017 brief that it "has been settled for decades" that Title VII doesn't address sexual orientation.

But earlier that same year, Kimberly Hively, a lesbian, won a sex discrimination claim under Title VII. In Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled: "Hively alleges that if she had been a man married to a woman ... and everything else had stayed the same, Ivy Tech would not have refused to promote her and would not have fired her. ... This describes paradigmatic sex discrimination."

SimonNZ

'We all know he's unfit': Joe Walsh to challenge Trump in Republican primary

"Joe Walsh, a talk radio host and former congressman, said on Sunday he would challenge Donald Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

"We have someone in the White House who we all know is unfit," Walsh said in a video announcing his candidacy. Walsh said Trump "lies virtually every time he opens his mouth" and places his own interests over those of the country.

Walsh, 57, served one term as a Republican representative from Illinois between 2011 and 2013 before losing his bid for re-election. Initially an enthusiastic supporter of Trump, he has latterly been one of the president's most vocal conservative critics.

He becomes the second former elected official to make a long-shot attempt to wrest the Republican nomination from Trump, who according to recent polls has an approval rating among Republicans as high as 88%."

JBS


Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

SimonNZ

Trump lashes out at US media amid tense G-7 summit

"President Trump said other world leaders are asking with why the American media is "rooting" for the country "to fail" Sunday, following reports that he was blindsided by the French​ inviting a top Iranian official​ to the G-7 summit.

"The question I was asked most today by fellow World Leaders, who think the USA is doing so well and is stronger than ever before, happens to be, 'Mr. President, why does the American media hate your Country so much? Why are they rooting for it to fail?'" Trump wrote on Twitter.

The tweet comes after media reports portrayed Trump as looking flat-footed when French President Emmanuel Macron surprised G-7 attendees by inviting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to appear on the sidelines of the summit​ ​in Biarritz, France.

When Trump was asked by reporters about Zarif's rumored attendance, he replied: "no comment."

Marcon's invitation followed a tense Saturday night dinner in which the leaders discussed Iran's nuclear program and whether to include Russian President Vladimir Putin in future meetings.
[...]

On Sunday, Trump appeared to say he was having "second thoughts" about his ongoing trade war with China — before his press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, and other top administration officials said he was "misinterpreted."
"This morning in the bilat with the UK, the president was asked if he had 'any second thought on escalating the trade war with China.' His answer has been greatly misinterpreted," Grisham said. "His answer has been greatly misinterpreted. President Trump responded in an affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher."

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the president "didn't exactly hear the question," despite reporters asking it in three different ways to ensure the president was understood correctly."


(voices in his head or imaginary friends? #25thnow)

Muzio

-------- (Sorry, wrong thread...)

SimonNZ

As Trump zigzags wildly at G-7, one ugly truth remains constant

"It took three days, but amid President Trump's wild gyrations in his trade wars, his erratic efforts to spread confusion and lies about the utterances of other world leaders, and his unstable lapses of attention into matters unrelated to the Group of Seven summit, we have finally sighted one bedrock principle, one unshakable constant in Trump's conduct, from which he will never waver.

We're talking, of course, about Trump's absolute, unfaltering devotion to using the powers of the presidency to serve his own financial self-interest.

With the G-7 winding down, Trump just disclosed that he's seriously considering hosting next year's G-7 gathering at his Doral resort in Florida. Trump extolled his resort for its location (right near the airport!), size (tremendous acreage!) and amenities (great conference rooms!).

Trump gave "a long commercial of sorts for the property," notes The Post, adding that if he goes through with this plan, he "could personally profit from one of the world's most prestigious gatherings of foreign leaders."

"Trump appears to consistently use the presidency to advance his businesses -- both to publicize them and to directly bring in business — as often as he can," Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told me. "This is entirely consistent with what he's done in the past."

But in multiple ways, this constitutes a serious exacerbation of Trump's self-dealing and profiteering off the presidency. First, this is arguably a more active effort on his part to exploit the presidency to enhance his businesses than many previous such efforts

As president, Trump has visited his resorts and properties scores of times, using the presidency to market and steer attention to them. Republican officials have staged events at them, fully cognizant that this means an appearance by Trump himself is more likely.

In this case, though, Trump will be leveraging the power of the U.S. presidency to draw multiple foreign leaders and their entourages — and the international attention that follows them — to one of his properties.

Thus, the resulting revenues and promotion will not be incidental effects of his decision to spend a weekend at a property or of his willingness to speak at GOP events held at them. Rather, they will be the deliberate result of a major proactive decision on his part shaping the U.S. government's conducting of important diplomatic and international affairs.

"Of all the locations throughout the U.S. where he could hold a conference, there is no reason why this one had to be in the mix," Bookbinder said. "Doral appears to be struggling. He seems to be looking for ways to use the presidency to help it."

This raises obvious issues involving the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bars officials from accepting gifts from foreign officials and states. The Trump Organization has said it donates profits from foreign governments to charity. But as Josh Dawsey and David Fahrenthold report, it has not explained how it calculates such profits.

It's possible the Trump Organization could host the G-7 for free. But even in this scenario, Bookbinder said, Trump would be making decisions for his businesses — which he isn't supposed to be doing, having supposedly turned over control to his sons to make his refusal to divest in his businesses appear kosher.

And regardless, the attention and marketing accompanying such an event would have great value. As Bookbinder noted, to "use the decision-making of the U.S. government" to create this situation benefiting his businesses in one way or another "really flies in the face of what the framers had in mind."