The Official Former President Trump thread

[JamieThomas]

31 minutes ago, jupe1407 said:

Is Banana having a full on meltdown/trollathon? Is it worth taking him off ignore?

Slobodan Praljak took him off ignore yesterday morning, and that didn't end well.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Pretending to support Trump is a weird shtick.
Presumably pretending to like coprophagia and pumping dugs were beaten into second and third place.

To save anyone else looking it up

"Coprophagia" means eating shit

[Jacksgranda]

13 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

 

To save anyone else looking it up

"Coprophagia" means eating shit


 

 

I hope you had to look that up and didn't know it off the top of your head.

[Granny Danger]

10 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

I hope you had to look that up and didn't know it off the top of your head.

So long as it wasn’t on the tip of his tongue.

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

14 hours ago, carpetmonster said:

 

OK. Tell me about a policy he's managed to get thru to date. Or an achievement. Supreme Court doesn't count because him getting that pick was nothing to do with him.

 

I'm not debating you that he's been a failure on the legislative front. All of his accomplishments are administrative and can be undone when a Democrat get's back in charge of the executive branch.

You suggested that since he has no important legislative achievements that any good news about the economy is incidental to the Presidency and would perhaps be better under Clinton. I'm suggesting that Trump has been reversing Obama regulations that held back the economy, and this is especially true in sectors of the economy that rely heavily on blue collar work.

Specific regulatory policies:

1. Revoked rules put in place in 2010 which limited new offshore and Artic drilling.

2. Began process of withdrawing the national monument status Obama added to over 500 million acres of public land, which would allow economic development of the resources on those lands.

3. Repealed numerous Obama executive orders which made it more difficult to develop natural resources and construct power plants.

4. Began process of repealing Obama rules which massively expanded the definition of what types of water were potentially subject to bureaucratic control under the Clean Water Act.

5. Allowing local politicians to request expedited review of environmental permits for economic development, so that government bureaucrats in the environmental agencies can't stifle economic development with which they disagree by dragging their feet on the permitting.

More general guidelines which provide positive signals to business:

1. Ordered the Secretary of Commerce to review all trade agreements for any that he thinks should be renegotiated. 

2. Established a new Office of Trade and Manufacturing tasked with coming up with ways to reduce our manufacturing trade deficit. Appointed an economist who authored a book called Death by China to head the new office.

3. Ordered the Secretary of Commerce to investigate illegal steel and aluminum dumping by foreign companies.

4. Ordered the Secretary of Commerce to conduct an overview of which federal regulations most hinder manufacturing, and whether they should be repealed.

Those are just a few examples from his first couple of months. There were also numerous executive orders dealing with fewer regulations on financial companies, but I was sticking with more blue collar work for my list. Hillary would have made such work subject to even more regulation than Obama, instead of less as Trump.

Despite all the doom and gloom that you hear about the economy in the fake news, the actual polls show massively increased business confidence since Obama has been gone. People have to decide where to invest their money. If rich people invest it in capital expansion rather than paper assets that's good for working people in the economy.

http://news.gallup.com/poll/215048/small-business-owners-optimism-highest-years.aspx?g_source=ECONOMY&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles

Quote

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Small-business owners' optimism about their business situation has edged up in the past quarter to a new 10-year high. The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index for the third quarter is at +106, up 11 points since Quarter 2 and the highest since +113 measured in the second quarter of 2007. Index scores between the first and third quarters of 2016 ranged between 64 and 68.

https://www.nfib.com/surveys/small-business-economic-trends/

Notice the giant jump about the time a certain historical event happened.

There's also statistics showing that the job growth has been going to Americans at the expense of immigrants. During Obama's Presidency the % of the workforce which was foreign increased 2% to 17%. Under Trump we already seeing job growth at the same time that the foreign % of the workforce is starting to edge down. The gains are going to American workers. This is probably as much due to the tone set by Trump administration (and perhaps the media hysterics scaring illegal immigrants out of large parts of the country and into sanctuary cities) as any actual policy change. 

Even the Economist admitted that blue collar wages were starting to increase under Trump, though they of course offer a bunch of caveats as to why this might be incidental or short term:

 

I do think that Trump being in office is already creating modest improvements in blue collar employment, while Clinton would have led to more modest negative results. There's evidence to back this up. We will see if the trend continues throughout his term. If it does he will probably win a second term despite all the chaos.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I initially thought that Trump was some sort of blip and things would revert to some semblance of normality once he was gone; now I’m not so sure,
Trump has shown that, at least in the short term, a President with a majority in the Senate and Congress can do just about anything - and that majority doesn’t need to be huge.
Prior to his election no-one would have believed that a US president would have been ‘allowed’ to act in this way.  But his actions are going totally unchecked by the Republicans; the same Republicans who didn’t even want him there.
It has set a new low standard; a new low level of acceptability.  It’s possible that things will not be the same again.
The sad irony is Trump would be delighted to think he may have made an irreversible change in US politics.
 

It's this celebration of stupidity by Trumptards that is more frightening. You could show them TV footage of Trump killing every new born child and they would say it was #fakenews yet blithely swallow ever bit of shit from the duplicitous shitebag's lips.

[Zetterlund]

My favourite thing about the retweet controversy, is that the 'Muslim smashes statue of the Virgin Mary' video that Trump shared is from the ransacking of a Syrian Christian village in 2013 by the 'moderate' US-backed Free Syrian Army.

A perfect example of the absurdity of US foreign policy, tweeted by the president himself.

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

7 minutes ago, Zetterlund said:

My favourite thing about the retweet controversy, is that the 'Muslim smashes statue of the Virgin Mary' video that Trump shared is from the ransacking of a Syrian Christian village in 2013 by the 'moderate' US-backed Free Syrian Army.

A perfect example of the absurdity of US foreign policy, tweeted by the president himself.

Trump noted the stupidity of our policy and the people we were backing during his campaign.

[Zetterlund]

2 minutes ago, TheProgressiveLiberal said:

Trump noted the stupidity of our policy and the people we were backing during his campaign.

The US Syria policy seems very confused under Trump. He has rightly stopped supporting some questionable groups, but has also directly attacked Syria itself, and some of his appointees like Haley and Tillerson seem to change their minds every 5 minutes about what the official position is.

[NotThePars]

Trump hasn't reneged on much, if anything, of US foreign policy. Which is fair enough because I'm fucking certain that I have a better grasp of US foreign policy than Donny.

 

 

Literally the best example of this was him chatting shit about China's policy towards North Korea then 180'ing about 20 minutes after a meeting with President Xi.

[killiefan27]

17 minutes ago, TheProgressiveLiberal said:

I'm not debating you that he's been a failure on the legislative front. All of his accomplishments are administrative and can be undone when a Democrat get's back in charge of the executive branch.

You suggested that since he has no important legislative achievements that any good news about the economy is incidental to the Presidency and would perhaps be better under Clinton. I'm suggesting that Trump has been reversing Obama regulations that held back the economy, and this is especially true in sectors of the economy that rely heavily on blue collar work.

Specific regulatory policies:

1. Revoked rules put in place in 2010 which limited new offshore and Artic drilling. - Climate change and oil spills. Incidentally, Obama actually opened more areas to offshore drilling before the Deepwater horizon spill later that year. New rules stated companies had to prove their ability to contain a spill.

2. Began process of withdrawing the national monument status Obama added to over 500 million acres of public land, which would allow economic development of the resources on those lands.  - Drilling and mining on native American land

3. Repealed numerous Obama executive orders which made it more difficult to develop natural resources and construct power plants.  - Repealed orders looking to slow climate change

4. Began process of repealing Obama rules which massively expanded the definition of what types of water were potentially subject to bureaucratic control under the Clean Water Act  - Began process of repealing a regulation to limit pollution in 3% more waterways, most of which lead to waterways already covered

5. Allowing local politicians to request expedited review of environmental permits for economic development, so that government bureaucrats in the environmental agencies can't stifle economic development with which they disagree by dragging their feet on the permitting. - Letting corporations push through anything they want, regardless of environmental impact

More general guidelines which provide positive signals to business:

1. Ordered the Secretary of Commerce to review all trade agreements for any that he thinks should be renegotiated.  - Meaningless - here, give these a read and see if they're shite, eh?

2. Established a new Office of Trade and Manufacturing tasked with coming up with ways to reduce our manufacturing trade deficit. Appointed an economist who authored a book called Death by China -what the f**k does that have to do with anything? - to head the new office. - Meaningless

3. Ordered the Secretary of Commerce to investigate illegal steel and aluminum dumping by foreign companies.  - Meaningless, does anyone think they'll actually do anything?

4. Ordered the Secretary of Commerce to conduct an overview of which federal regulations most hinder manufacturing, and whether they should be repealed. - Meaningless

Those are just a few examples from his first couple of months. There were also numerous executive orders dealing with fewer regulations on financial companies - what could go wrong there - but I was sticking with more blue collar work for my list. Hillary would have made such work subject to even more regulation than Obama - speculation -, instead of less as Trump.

Despite all the doom and gloom that you hear about the economy in the fake news - lol -, the actual polls show massively increased business confidence since Obama has been gone. People have to decide where to invest their money. If rich people invest it in capital expansion rather than paper assets that's good for working people in the economy - the old pissing on the poor argument

http://news.gallup.com/poll/215048/small-business-owners-optimism-highest-years.aspx?g_source=ECONOMY&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles

https://www.nfib.com/surveys/small-business-economic-trends/

Notice the giant jump about the time a certain historical event happened. - notice the highest previous marker was right before the worst financial crisis since the great depression. Perhaps not the greatest indicator?

There's - there are - also statistics showing that the job growth has been going to Americans at the expense of immigrants. During Obama's Presidency the % of the workforce which was foreign - foreign born - increased 2% to 17% - the foreign born population rose 3% from 2000 to 2010 with a logical increase in foreign born workers. Under Trump we already seeing job growth at the same time that the foreign % of the workforce is starting to edge down - foreign born workers work in service industries for less money, Obama's crackdowns started a trend of farmers having worker shortages, and immigration is needed to drive the workforce . The gains are going to American workers - source?. This is probably as much due to the tone set by Trump administration (and perhaps the media hysterics scaring illegal immigrants out of large parts of the country and into sanctuary cities) as any actual policy change. 

Even the Economist admitted that blue collar wages were starting to increase under Trump - that very same source notes "poorer households gained more, on average, than richer ones" in both 2015 and 2016 -, though they of course offer a bunch of caveats as to why this might be incidental or short term:

 

I do think that Trump being in office is already creating modest improvements in blue collar employment, while Clinton would have led to more modest negative results. There's evidence to back this up. We will see if the trend continues throughout his term. If it does he will probably win a second term despite all the chaos.

 

[NotThePars]

Trump heard someone mention that they needed transparency around building the wall then went on to tell everyone that they needed to make the wall see through.

 

[JamieThomas]

Telegraph saying his UK visit has been indefinitely postponed.

What kind of reprobate do you need to be that even the fucking Tories are holding their hands up shouting "woah there"?

[Cerberus]

He’s managed to deflected nicely from the news on the Brexit divorce bill.

A tin foil hat wearer might think the 2 were related.

[Savage Henry]

2 hours ago, JamieThomas said:

Telegraph saying his UK visit has been indefinitely postponed.

What kind of reprobate do you need to be that even the fucking Tories are holding their hands up shouting "woah there"?

Imagine Theresa May coming  out of an argument being on the side with widespread popular and ethical support, as well as cross bench approval.  It's almost as if Donny has some kind of logic.   He's almost so dumb that he's smart.

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

Kate Steinle's killer was acquitted of all charges except felon in possession of a weapon by a San Francisco jury today. Her killing was a major talking point during Trump's campaign. Here killer had been deported 5 times from the US. Best I can tell he had 5 criminal convictions in three different states outside of his convictions for illegal entry. The federal prisons for some reason turned him over to San Francisco to face a two decade old marijuana charge. The charges were dropped. Immigration had a hold on him so they could pick him up, but San Francisco as a sanctuary city released him rather than complying with the Federal Government. His defense in the Steinle killing was that he picked a gun up off the ground, and that it went off accidently. He threw the gun into the water and fled the scene. Not guilty on both murder and manslaughter.  

[HTG]

Watched the Trump documentary last night. Now that we know he is thin skinned to the point of transparency, it's little surprise that he's not keen on Obama.  Nothing a bully hates more than being absolutely rode.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dk8TwRmX6zs4&ved=0ahUKEwiDx47gsujXAhULLcAKHbddArwQyCkIHzAA&usg=AOvVaw1Krzt9eFOIvgES5CTjT4_h

[HTG]

4 minutes ago, TheProgressiveLiberal said:

Kate Steinle's killer was acquitted of all charges except felon in possession of a weapon by a San Francisco jury today. Her killing was a major talking point during Trump's campaign. Here killer had been deported 5 times from the US. Best I can tell he had 5 criminal convictions in three different states outside of his convictions for illegal entry. The federal prisons for some reason turned him over to San Francisco to face a two decade old marijuana charge. The charges were dropped. Immigration had a hold on him so they could pick him up, but San Francisco as a sanctuary city released him rather than complying with the Federal Government. His defense in the Steinle killing was that he picked a gun up off the ground, and that it went off accidently. He threw the gun into the water and fled the scene. Not guilty on both murder and manslaughter.  

What's your fucking point caller? We've all seen c***s getting away with stuff and we've all seen travesties of justice where people are locked up for years for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Please tell me you're not about to head off down the "shoot the fuckers and we'll worry about it later" line. I'm a patient sort of fellow but f**k me you're a test. 

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

killiefan27:

I was making no argument about whether it's right or wrong to have more environmental regulation. I was responding to what Trump has done differently than Clinton would have done which might make for better economic outcomes, especially for blue collar workers.

Quote

Drilling and mining on native American land

National monuments don't have anything to do with Indian land. Obama had the highest amount of new national monument lands created of any President in history.

Quote

Began process of repealing a regulation to limit pollution in 3% more waterways, most of which lead to waterways already covered

The new rules applied to 60% of the water in the US, and was an end run around Supreme Court rulings limiting the authority of EPA bureaucrats to mess with property owners.

Signals that the government plans to expand economic opportunity for manufacturing is not "meaningless." The owners of capital have to decide where to invest. One of the problems of the Obama era is that capital was going towards paper assets rather than brick and mortar assets. It's better for the working class if capital goes towards brick and mortar investments.

I'm not making a trickle down argument theory about whether the rich should be taxed more or less. I'm saying it's better if they invest their capital in ways which provide employment to the working class.

Quote

- the foreign born population rose 3% from 2000 to 2010 with a logical increase in foreign born workers

That number includes illegal immigrants. And for much of the Obama administration the rate of new immigrant workers outpaces the creation of new jobs. So far under Trump we are starting to see increased jobs at the same time as a slight decrease in the % of foreign born workers.

I personally reject the idea that importing cheap labor is good for the overall economy. The owners of capital and land might make higher profits investing in the production of products which require near slave labor to reach those profits. I'd say that we should cut off the slave labor and make them redirect their resources towards other uses which may be less profitable, but better for the society as a whole. 

As I said, if the trends I noted continue for four years Trump will win reelection. I made no comment on whether this is likely or not likely.

[TheProgressiveLiberal]

11 minutes ago, HTG said:

What's your fucking point caller? We've all seen c***s getting away with stuff and we've all seen travesties of justice where people are locked up for years for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Please tell me you're not about to head off down the "shoot the fuckers and we'll worry about it later" line. I'm a patient sort of fellow but f**k me you're a test. 

Just reporting the news. This is going to be a massive story and Trump is going to go nuclear. I wasn't on the jury and don't know what they heard, but it seems a stretch to give this guy the benefit of the doubt given his past history. I suppose the jury didn't hear about that stuff though.