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Analyzing the Transition of Power After The U.S. Election and Beyond Into Future Global Politics

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  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Don t see much wrong with most of that.
  • PanchitoPistolesPanchitoPistoles 2.0
    Posts: 4,619
    Gustav_Graves wrote: »
    Ughhh, I totally loathe this protectionist, naive clown.
    Prediction: four years from now you will be one of the biggest Trump suppoters of this forum.
  • BeatlesSansEarmuffsBeatlesSansEarmuffs
    Posts: 3,566
    Prediction: four years from now @PanchitoPistoles will have another username because he won't be able to live down the egregious things he's said in defense of our Orange Emperor.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Remember, all of you: Trump gave himself 8 years.
  • BeatlesSansEarmuffsBeatlesSansEarmuffs
    Posts: 3,566
    I'll give him twenty to life.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Give him life in the gulags Conrad.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    I just took a look at the other thread. :)) All it is is Kellyannebonjames saying "Trump will do well! Don't go by what he's saying or doing but look into his heart!" =))
    You can't have a discussion when one participant is using Tooth Fairy logic, so I won't even bother.
  • GerardGerard
    Posts: 5,994
    When your president prides himself on grabbing women by their... unmentionables, don't be surprised if other from the same side do it too :

    westport.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/cops-greenwich-republican-insulted-town-worker-then-pinched-her-groin/696124/

    Frankly, I'm worried for this guy's daughter.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited January 2017 Posts: 12,480
    As Soledad O'Brien recently tweeted (after watching Kellyanne sputter on TV): " She's a hot mess. She can't even keep her talking points straight." I think that's pretty accurate. So "hot mess" is staying in my mind with Kellyanne. That and a stinking pile of garbage. She sold her soul a long time ago.

    Anyway, I wanted to share a bit about the Russia-Trump expose/dossier that has come to light in this month. Sure, it is a mixture. It was an unfiltered report and includes speculation, but also has more solid things that could or have been corroborated. I think it is important to realize that the heart of the matter does contain truth. Trump and Russia's business dealings are relevant to his fitness to be president. So if there is no "sex tape", fine; that is not the smoking gun anyway. That does not negate, in any way, other things mentioned in the report. Here is what I feel is a fair take on this dossier (article was written January 11th) :
    *******

    At this point, it’s functionally impossible to differentiate between social media claims made by the Trump administration, the Kremlin, the Wikileaks-Greenwald axis, and the Alt-Right. Now that Moscow has taken up the Nazi-frog meme beloved by the Alt-Right, any propaganda line between these groups has been erased altogether.

    As usual, the president-elect is denying anything and everything, howling gigantic curses via Twitter against his foes and their “fake news.” He has pointed the finger at the Intelligence Community, bizarrely comparing 2017 America to Nazi Germany. Trump’s online meltdown has included a lot of tweeting in capital letters, and has cited the Kremlin as proof of his innocence. We’re in a new and uncharted era when the soon-to-be-president thinks Moscow is to be taken at face value in espionage matters.

    In truth, the provenance of the 35-page dossier is well known in proper channels. Some of its assertions have been made by other NATO intelligence agencies, privately. Some of its claims are false, some are true, and some may linger between truth and fiction indefinitely. What’s important here is that the IC leadership decided to brief a small circle of the most senior American officials on that dossier’s findings. They don’t do that, ever—treating raw private intelligence reports by foreigners as worthy of briefing to “the top”—unless they can corroborate significant portions of it.

    http://observer.com/2017/01/donald-trump-press-conference-prague-michael-cohen/#.WHhcJ9a7HUc.twitter

  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Yes, @Gerard, that is horrible. We definitely have an incoming president who sets a terrible example for others. Not only towards women, but all his racist/bigoted and bullyish comments. So many.
  • Gustav_GravesGustav_Graves
    Posts: 11,119
    Who would have ever guessed that Trump doesn't mind to facilitate a faster destruction of the European Union. In all honesty? I didn't. I just thought he's indifferent about it. But the way he talks about Brexit, the way he gets into a tight love affair with the UK..... 8-| .

    Well, welcome into a new inconvenient truth :-(.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    No, he is in line with Putin's ideas and Bannon's. Bannon is in his ear often. That is telling. Look at his administrative picks.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    So here is a photo, many of you have seen. It makes for a good caption contest (just to lighten up a bit here) ... ;)

    Boomerang ...

  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801

    Imagine if you will...
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    Ahhh @BeatlesSansEarmuffs, you are a warrior at heart! Battling the inconsistencies & illogic. I salute you.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    YES! Keeping track of the verbal train wreck!
    https://factba.se/
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited January 2017 Posts: 12,480
    chrisisall wrote: »

    Imagine if you will...
    Ahhh! The Scots pulling no punches. I love it.

    AND

    this picture:


    And hell yes to that Trump tracking tweeting site, @chrisisall. Thanks. :)

  • BeatlesSansEarmuffsBeatlesSansEarmuffs
    Posts: 3,566
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Ahhh @BeatlesSansEarmuffs, you are a warrior at heart! Battling the inconsistencies & illogic. I salute you.

    Thank you @chrisisall. I really shouldn't be spending quite so much time at it though, I do owe the Bondathon thread a review from last week....

  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited January 2017 Posts: 12,480
    We need you here, @Beatles. ]

    This is not important news, but lightweight stuff.
    Inauguration getting a tad desperate, yes.

    Also, the Bruce Springsteen tribute band backed out of the inauguration after all (they said SOLELY due to respect for Bruce Springsteen himself).
  • BeatlesSansEarmuffsBeatlesSansEarmuffs
    Posts: 3,566
    I was listening to an AM talk radio station this morning & the yakker was trying to bad-mouth Bruce over this. I turned the station.
  • Gustav_GravesGustav_Graves
    Posts: 11,119
    Here we go again :-). Are we ready for some good bit of factual research journalism?
    TROUBLE FOR TRUMP APPOINTEES
    http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2017/Pres/Maps/Jan17.html#item-1

    Generally speaking, staffing a new presidential administration is a fairly low-drama process. Presidents-elect don't want to embarrass themselves or get off on the wrong foot, so they tend to choose highly-qualified, well-vetted nominees. The Senate, even if controlled by the opposition party, generally wants to respect tradition and avoid antagonizing someone they're going to have to work with for 4-8 years. Donald Trump is not like other presidents, however, and so for him the process has been a real soap opera. On Monday, problems of various sorts emerged with a trio of his high-profile appointees.

    --> First up is Secretary of HHS-designate Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). He will theoretically be the hatchet man that chops Obamacare up into tiny pieces for the administration. On Monday, however, news broke (http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/16/politics/tom-price-bill-aiding-company/index.html ) that just last March, Price purchased thousands of dollars in shares in pharmaceutical company Zimmer Biomet, and then promptly introduced legislation that would help the company (and its stock price). And this is not the first time that Price has done this (though it's among the more egregious); while in office he has bought and sold more than $300,000 worth of shares in biomedical companies who were likely to be affected by legislation that he was pursuing. At best, this looks very bad. At worst, it's pure corruption, and possibly even insider trading.

    --> Then there is Secretary of Labor-designate Andrew Puzder. As a corporate bigwig, he's rather accustomed to fawning and flattery, and not so much to criticism and condemnation. He's gotten plenty of the latter in the past few weeks, and he does not care for it. He's also not thrilled that the vetting process is turning his life into an open book. Consequently, Puzder is reportedly having second thoughts about his appointment (http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/16/politics/andrew-andy-puzder-labor-trump/index.html) . "He may be bailing," said a Team Trump insider on Monday. "He is not into the pounding he is taking, and the paperwork." Puzder and the Trump staff both deny this, but that is what we would expect them to do right up until the point that he pushes the eject button.

    --> Finally, there's Monica Crowley, who apparently plagiarized everything she's written in the last 25 years. This means her dissertation (and resulting Ph.D.), her bestselling books, and her lengthy list of op-eds are all a sham; among writers of all stripes there is no greater offense. She was set to serve as a key member of President-elect Trump's national security team. And given that the position does not require Senate approval, along with the likelihood that The Donald does not care about egghead crimes like plagiarism, she might have weathered the storm. On the other hand, she would have faced uncomfortable questions for months or years, and she likely would have struggled to maintain the respect of her NSA colleagues, especially since her job was supposed to be...speechwriting. So, on Monday, she dropped out (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/us/politics/monica-crowley-plagiarism.html ). :-q

    For most presidents-elect, all of these developments would be pretty embarrassing. For Donald Trump, on the other hand, who knows? Monday's news probably bothers him less than the latest Trump sketch on "Saturday Night Live".


    TRUMP HAS BEEN TRYING TO DO BUSINESS IN RUSSIA FOR DECADES
    http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2017/Pres/Maps/Jan17.html#item-2

    Many people are wondering why President-elect Donald Trump is so friendly to Vladimir Putin, especially since most Republicans are not big fans of Communist (quasi-)dictators. One theory that is widely circulated, but for which there is no public evidence, is that after his four bankruptcies, U.S. banks wouldn't lend money to Trump any more so he borrowed it from Russia. However, the Times just published an article (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-business.html?ref=politics&_r=0 ) that suggests an alternative explanation (although the two are not mutually exclusive). Trump has been trying to pull off real-estate deals in Russia for decades, with no success. He and his children have visited Moscow over and over to talk to developers and government officials, trying to make deals. But so far to no avail. He would love for there to be a Trump Tower in Moscow, but up until now that has eluded him, albeit not for lack for trying.

    At his news conference last week, Trump said: "I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we've stayed away."

    That is flatly untrue. He applied for a Russian trademark in 1996. In 2006, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Felix Sater, a Russian immigrant to the U.S., developer, and Trump business partner, stayed at a hotel across from the Kremlin for several days, talking to potential partners.

    In 2013, Trump himself visited Moscow to look for deals, tweeting:
    "TRUMP TOWER-MOSCOW is next."

    It didn't happen, but he certainly tried to make it happen. Maybe this is the moment that he could make it happen (:|.

    Lying and acting like an Italian crook these days apparently.....doesn't matter anymore for the new US Administration. My ooowh my, Carl Bernstein is getting bu
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    Why would the Trumpster even want a Springsteen cover band when the actual man himself denigrates him?
    What actually worries me is the conflicts of interest thing. What if they swear Trump in and he decrees that he has decided to keep his toys and SO WHAT! Rules will be broken, then the whole country will be dotted with rich & poor deciding that not ONLY can I grab P now, I can feel free to break any rules that should not apply to ME!!
    I smell the breakdown of the fabric of society here.... 8-|
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Yes, Gustav, we've been posting tons of links with facts as well as opinion pieces. Thanks for contributing.

    The conflicts of interest are NOT going away. Trump will not do anything. It is up to Congress and DOJ to enforce, and so far it looks like Trump will do "business as usual." Sorry state to be in. Our govt letting our entire country down if they let him get away with it. But it is heading that way.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,480
    Well. Now there is this:


    Those ties keep coming up by various sources, not one or two. I hope that whatever is factual is brought to light and soon.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    Frak reality. I just finished my Battlestar Galactica boots...
    r6vrPDa.jpg
    ....and found my Johnny Lightning V8 Vantage Volante during cleaning.
    cZ3hyxA.jpg
  • BeatlesSansEarmuffsBeatlesSansEarmuffs
    Posts: 3,566
    Here's an interesting tidbit: John Dean -- who knows a thing or two about corrupt Republican presidents from first-hand expreience -- thinks Trump is going to be worse than Nixon, and could actually get away with it! https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/john-dean-interview/513215/
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited January 2017 Posts: 17,801
    @BeatlesSansEarmuffs Kellyannebondjames would not approve of your last post. :))
  • BeatlesSansEarmuffsBeatlesSansEarmuffs
    Posts: 3,566
    @chrisisall: Don't tell him, but I think I've got about as much chance of being hired by Eon to write the next Bond film, as @bj has of being hired to be the next Kellyanne. That is to say: none at all.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    edited January 2017 Posts: 16,351
    They should call the other thread "The non American Citizen's observation of American politics." ;)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,801
    Hahaha!
This discussion has been closed.