Trump Thread

[CrossLOPER]

Man, you can set your watch on your tirades.

Man, you can set your watch on your hyperboles.

I just gave my opinion on that guy. He hasn't shown any evolution since his first video. It's also funny that you mention tirades, since that guy specializes in the most pointless ones, and always sounds like an overgrown, angry and edgy teenager.

[Idaho]

Can I just say lol America. What mess have you got yourselves in?

[Beskar]

Can I just say lol America. What mess have you got yourselves in?

Definitely becoming "Great" again... Great Idiots.

[CrossLOPER]

I like the latest photo-op where he promotes Bannon to a hugh security position. "LOOK GUYS, I'M WORKING REALLY HARD."

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Perspective please.

ALL of the POTUS administrations in my lifetime have done this kind of political theatre stuff. Appointing a drug czar means we're "really" working on the drug problem. Giving a freedom award to a person of color means we no longer have any race issues. Passing a law that increases mandatory sentencing means that we are being tough on crime. Increasing the capital gains tax by 5% means we're really sticking it to the rich this time. ALL of this is SHOW and not substance -- like the hard-bodied assistant in a magic act.

The current occupant's administration is performing their little theatre moments just as have all the predecessors.

Do not let your mislike of Trump lead you to analyze his shenanigans as any more or any less superfluous and silly than those who have gone before.



You want to really evaluate him or criticize him? Look at the policy measures being taken and argue how/when/why they fall short or will have unintended consequences that outweigh their benefits.

[Husar]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38787241

In two separate measures, the president ordered:
- A ban on administration officials from ever lobbying the US on behalf of a foreign government, and a separate five-year ban on other lobbying.

- A preliminary plan by the secretary of defence to defeat so-called Islamic State (IS) to be presented within 30 days

Didn't he claim during the campaign that he had a great plan already but couldn't mention it because it had to be kept secret?
Now he tasks his secretary of defense with making a plan? What happened to his great plan that would work 100%?

[Gilrandir]

Can I just say lol America. What mess have you got yourselves in?

You both are in the mess. One is called Trump, the other - Brexit.

Didn't he claim during the campaign that he had a great plan already but couldn't mention it because it had to be kept secret?
Now he tasks his secretary of defense with making a plan? What happened to his great plan that would work 100%?

What if his secretary of defense comes up with a 110% plan?

[Beskar]

Perspective please.

I don't remember any of this when it came to Obama or Bush. I was too young for Clinton Election.

Sure, you could argue they did relatively minor things, but nothing causing the trouble of the turd-tornado Trump is creating.

[Montmorency]

Perspective please.

ALL of the POTUS administrations in my lifetime have done this kind of political theatre stuff. Appointing a drug czar means we're "really" working on the drug problem. Giving a freedom award to a person of color means we no longer have any race issues. Passing a law that increases mandatory sentencing means that we are being tough on crime. Increasing the capital gains tax by 5% means we're really sticking it to the rich this time. ALL of this is SHOW and not substance -- like the hard-bodied assistant in a magic act.

The current occupant's administration is performing their little theatre moments just as have all the predecessors.

Do not let your mislike of Trump lead you to analyze his shenanigans as any more or any less superfluous and silly than those who have gone before.



You want to really evaluate him or criticize him? Look at the policy measures being taken and argue how/when/why they fall short or will have unintended consequences that outweigh their benefits.

You should know that this is alarmingly naive. If the analyte was undertaken for political purposes, then it clearly has political ramifications. The question is not one of policy itself but of how policy is used to transform power in politics.

You can't make much of a distinction between "theater" and "substance".

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...y-not-against/

Boris Johnson gets an exemption for British Citizens.

At least someone achieved something this week.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

You should know that this is alarmingly naive. If the analyte was undertaken for political purposes, then it clearly has political ramifications. The question is not one of policy itself but of how policy is used to transform power in politics.

You can't make much of a distinction between "theater" and "substance".

I was not asserting that the theatrics were irrelevant -- else they would not be so oft repeated. All of our politicos engage in such because it sways public opinion (even if only briefly) and public opinion in your favor is part of the currency of power.

I was asserting that the more lasting impacts would be engendered by the specific policy acts undertaken -- and that this was the area receiving too little attention because the more "engaging" theatrics draws the attention.


Next act is to draw all of the attention away from the temporary travel ban and related theatrics by nominating a Scalia-esque jurist to take the vacancy on the SCOTUS. Each new uproar is distracting from each preceding "protest" or concern -- and these are still being worked on when the media spotlight has passed on by.

[Greyblades]

Just business as usual I guess.
The money needs to flow...

Trump imposes lifetime ban on some lobbying, five years for others

President Donald Trump acted Saturday to fulfill a key portion of his pledge to "drain the swamp" in Washington, banning administration officials from ever lobbying the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government and imposing a separate five-year ban on other lobbying.

Trump has said individuals who want to aid him in his quest to "Make America Great Again" should focus on the jobs they will be doing to help the American people, not thinking ahead to the future income they could rake in by peddling their influence after serving in government.

"Most of the people standing behind me will not be able to go to work," Trump joked, referring to an array of White House officials who lined up behind him as he sat at his Oval Office desk. The officials included Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist Steve Bannon and counselor Kellyanne Conway. "So you have one last chance to get out."

Officially not business as usual for trump, and hopefully from now on the entire usa.

I don't remember any of this when it came to Obama or Bush. I was too young for Clinton Election.

Sure, you could argue they did relatively minor things, but nothing causing the trouble of the turd-tornado Trump is creating.

I find your lack of faith disturbing...


An inability to take the high road to instead follow the blind denergation of your opposition's example is nothing to take pride in.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Trump imposes lifetime ban on some lobbying, five years for others



Officially not business as usual for trump, and hopefully from now on the entire usa.

I find your lack of faith disturbing...


An inability to take the high road to instead follow the blind denergation of your opposition's example is nothing to take pride in.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/u...ns-others.html

But Mr. Eisen and other ethics experts noted that rules banning lobbyists from taking any job with an agency they had tried to influence in the past two years had been removed. Also, the new rules allow departing executive branch employees to take private sector jobs and then informally lobby the administration, as long as they are not registered as a lobbyist, a type of activity previously prohibited for two years. Registration is required once a person does a certain amount of work for a client.“There is much to like,” Mr. Eisen said of the new executive order. “But it gives nonlobbyists too much leeway when they leave. That is where the biggest problem in the system is: unregistered, shadow lobbyists. They should be getting more regulation, not less.”
He also said, “Trump kept the Obama limits on the revolving door coming into government, but eliminated Obama’s revolving door protections for nonlobbyists leaving government.”

Not so much draining the swamp, as putting a curtain around it.

[Husar]

Officially not business as usual for trump, and hopefully from now on the entire usa.

The business as usual comment was made regarding a different issue...

Eh, that lobbying ban thing was already mentioned in my quote, I didn't comment on it because it seemed a bit unclear whether it meant all lobbying or just some of it. "other lobbying" does not necessarily mean "ALL other lobbying". When I read this for example:

Under an executive order that Trump signed in the presence of the news media, every political appointee joining the executive branch on or after Jan. 20 — the day Trump took office — must agree to the lobbying bans. That includes avoiding, for five years after leaving, lobbying the agency they worked for.

Another provision sets a two-year period during which appointees must avoid working on issues involving former employers or clients.

Trump is allowed to waive any of the restrictions.

That sounds like he didn't end all lobbying and just placed some restrictions on people hired in the future. Not to forget that he had the ban on Mattis serving in the government waived as well apparently. I guess we will see whether it actually changes something or whether companies and special interests just hire people for five years to use them as lobbyists afterwards, or simply use people who didn't work in the government before as lobbyists etc.

Trump said the order supersedes one that President Barack Obama signed on Jan. 21, 2009, that banned anyone from lobbying the government for a period of two years after leaving. Trump said Obama's order was "full of loopholes."

We'll see whether this one isn't. This is the same guy who seems to lie on a daily basis and whose staff presents us with "alternative facts" after all.

Others say the prohibitions on lobbying are too insignificant to be effective.

Guess I'm not the only one with doubts.

[Greyblades]

The business as usual comment was made regarding a different issue...

Forgive me a degree of artistic license, it was too good a segway and I knew you would be able tell my intent.

Guess I'm not the only one with doubts.

Doubts of effectiveness at this juncture, I can understand, but I believe it is a step in the right direction, one that I believe he is likely to improve on. I base that belief on his previous willingness to defer to his cabinate's expertise on issues they disagree on.

[CrossLOPER]

Trump imposes lifetime ban on some lobbying, five years for others

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...nd-are-porous/

The five-year ban is also likely to prompt some people to de-register as lobbyists before being considered for Trump administration jobs or to not register as a lobbyists after they’ve left the White House, even if they are involved in similar activities intended to influence public officials.

One sign indicates this may already be happening. A close aide to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Josh Pitcock — a Washington lobbyist for the state of Indiana — filed paperwork with the Senate on Monday to terminate his status as a federal lobbyist.

Pitcock advised Pence, Indiana’s governor, during the presidential campaign and has lobbied for the state since 2013, earning $280,000 a year to lobby on issues including health-care marketplace exchange rates and resources for the state’s response to the Zika virus, lobbying records show.

But hey, if it has a YUGE font it must mean something.