He's a chameleon who changes his mind to match what people want to hear. Before he ran for Pres. he was advocating banning assault rifles, so this latest statement is still a watering down of that.
I think he's trying to play the good guy, despite knowing he, and other Reps, won't actually do much to force it through. At least it looks as if he's tried.
What amazes me now is that politics is so locked up that business leaders are having to take the moral lead, I could never have imagined that. Weird times
It is business leaders funnelling funds into politics that is ****ing it up, paying politicians to act against the benefit of broader society for the benefit of the greedy. Just because a few are speaking out and/or doing the right thing doesn't mean that business in general has discovered a new morality. Just follow the money.
Business in general, no, but we'll well done to those who are.
Just because a few are speaking out and/or doing the right thing doesn’t mean that business in general has discovered a new morality. Just follow the money
Except the leaders who come out of the tech side and new businesses that didn't exist are not from the old mould. Gates and Jobbs were early on there, now Google, Amazon etc wield more power and influence but don't come from the same production line of corporate men.
Except the leaders who come out of the tech side and new businesses that didn’t exist are not from the old mould. Gates and Jobbs were early on there, now Google, Amazon etc wield more power and influence but don’t come from the same production line of corporate men.
really, if that was the case they would only too gladly pay their fair share of tax and not maximize profits for the benefit of shareholders.
Comment from the Washington Post:
Deary me...
nice summary
I spent years as a foreign correspondent in Latin America. To say we are being governed like a banana republic is an insult to banana republics. It’s that bad, and no one should pretend otherwise.
It isn't the fact that America is being run like a banana republic that really bothers me, it is the fact that not one single European leader is willing to stand up and call it like it is. Bunch of worthless suck ups.
<p class="tweet-body" dir="ltr" lang="en">@JunckerEU to reporters in Hamburg on #Trump #steeltariffs: “We will not sit idly when European industry and jobs are threatened. #EUpreparing import duties for US products including Harley-Davidson, Bourbon and Levi’s jeans.” pic.twitter.com/iFiZJEgBTi</p>
March 2, 2018
Think macron and Merkel stood up to him more than May- even she rebuked him over the whatever the UK racist tweets and his false flag Muslim BS
Reality is most leaders tolerate the leaders of countries they dont like and ignore personalities for the greater good of the country. Heck if i was PM even i would try to be nice to him [ or insult him less]...i suspect I would fail.
Saw a lovely stat today... Total number of people employed in the US steel industry, 140000. Total number of people employed in steel-using industries- 6.5 million. Trade wars are good, and easy to win!
Hands up everyone else who thinks steel products will get more expensive, executives and shareholders in US steel will trouser a quick bonus as they smash their prices up overnight by 25%, everyone else pays the price.
One of his ex advisers sold his holdings in steel using companies in a few days BEFORE the tariff announcement.
Now there seems to be Russian connections to the NRA and to Trump...
Tramp has tweeted that Xi Jinpings' grab for lifelong power is something he thinks might be good for the USA...
Just a thought: we tend to assume that a mature democracy is the end point of political evolution, a la Francis Fukuyama and his "End of History" thesis.
Taking the long view however, gives a different, more fluid perspective. Russia and China, both of them political dictatorships are burgeoning, whilst Western democracies seem to be on the decline and Nationalism seems on the rise everywhere.
The Roman Empire started off as a Republican democracy of the aristocratic class representing the needs of it's people, but collapsed relatively quickly into Dictatorship under the Cæsers. I see no reason why the cycle cannot repeat itself today.
Russia is 'burgeoning'?
Rome was a democracy? Who new?
Tramp has tweeted...
It was part of a speech and he was joking...
Russia is ‘burgeoning’?
Rome was a democracy? Who new?
1: Militarily. You hadn't noticed?
2: Read my previous qualification and try to remember it.
It was part of a speech and he was joking…
He was? It’s so difficult to tell, sometimes.
You have to admit, some of his lines in that speech were quite funny, although some of them have you wondering if he's joking or not.
"My staff was concerned that I couldn't do self-deprecating humor, and I told them not to worry, nobody does self deprecating humor better than me,"
"Before I get started, I wanted to apologize for arriving a little bit late. You know, we're late tonight because Jared could not get through the security,"
Just follow the money.
The NRA reportedly spent over $5 million on lobbying in 2017.
I've heard it said before (and a quick google seems to confirm it) that $5 million doesn't represent a lot in terms of money spent in the states on political lobbying. For context "Big Pharma" spends $240 million lobbying politicians each year, according to google. It's likely that the NRA's $5 million doesn't really buy much, and that the reality is that gun ownership is just a core issue for a certain cross section of voters that it's toxic to meddle with on some level.
“My staff was concerned that I couldn’t do self-deprecating humor, and I told them not to worry, nobody does self deprecating humor better than me,”
If only Americans could understand the concept of irony.
I’ve heard it said before (and a quick google seems to confirm it) that $5 million doesn’t represent a lot in terms of money spent in the states on political lobbying. For context “Big Pharma” spends $240 million lobbying politicians each year, according to google. It’s likely that the NRA’s $5 million doesn’t really buy much, and that the reality is that gun ownership is just a core issue for a certain cross section of voters that it’s toxic to meddle with on some level.
Nope! The NRA are definitely a big part of maintaining the status quo, although the archaic and misguided views of many gun-toting Americans don't help.
The NRA donated $21m to Trump's campaign and $7m to McCain before that. Not to mention the fact that many Republican Senators have received donations from the NRA in the millions over the years.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/23/politics/nra-political-money-clout/index.html
Some of the figures are a little different to those I've read previously, but you get the gist.
[i]Junkyard wrote:[/i]
Heck if i was PM even i would try to be nice to him [ or insult him less]…i suspect I would fail.
Nah - I bet you'd have fun insulting him in ways which made him think you were being nice.
well it worked on you - wink goes here no idea how to do them.
Watched 'The Final Year' - fly on the wall documentary about Obama's administration on it's way out.
It's clear why (under their peculiar system) there were enough Americans pissed off enough to vote in the Orange Nightmare.
Obama and his team come across as a bunch of well-meaning naifs, all good intentions but without any nouse about how the world shakes, clearly played for suckers by the likes of Putin and Xi through the ridiculous John Kelly.
The whole thing is about what they obviously saw as their overriding motivations - their foreign policy evangelism on the one hand and shock at why nobody "was talking about it but were talking about Trump's tweets" on the other...
They forgot Clinton's dictum - "it's the economy, stupid".
- William Bradford
- Keith Schiller
- Tom Price
- Jamie Johnson
- John Feeley
- Rick Dearborn
- Jeremy Katz
- Carl Higbie
- Dina Powell
- Omarosa Manigault Newman
- Taylor Weyeneth
- Rob Porter
Gotta be pretty bad in there with that sort of turnover.
Anyway I still don't think he's implemented the Russian sanctions the house agreed and the new other Steele memo doesn't bode well if its the real deal.
Its amazing how so far hes got away with it TBH.
if the Bawbag is a russian agent, in Smiley parlance, who's his russian contact/runner ? has Putin had him start a three way china-US-EU trade war under the US first cover ?
Russian agent is a bit too much there, in place because of the chaos he is creating which is helping Russia is way more plausible.
Nah he's the textbook definition of a useful idiot for Putin.
Hope Hicks admitted to senate hearing that she told white lies for trump, also claimed 2 of her email accounts hacked, presumably absolving herself of anything dodgy she definitely didn't send/receive 😉
The Stormy Daniels thing keeps getting better.
Are we going to have a Clinton (bill) moment here where we have to define what constitutes putting it in a porn star
I always had Kushner down as the most likely foreign agent.
international womens day nort being celbrated in the whitehouse I suspect as thers a Storm a-brewin!
And now Trump is going to meet l'il Kim. I suspect that he is being played by a far more astute politician.
And now Trump is going to meet l’il Kim. I suspect that he is being played by a far more astute politician.
I was thinking along the same lines. Likely that the South Korean comment that it was "the Trump administration's hard line that forced NK into talking" is playing to Trump's ego.
Once NK had nuclear weapons and a demonstrable means of delivering them, even if that would mean effective suicide for the regime, then they have a big enough stick to bring to the table to get what they want or close to what they want. It was a question of when rather than if it would happen. Having a naive ego in charge of the US makes this a good time to make their move. There'll be no NK regime change, dictators create too many enemies within their own country for that to happen, but they'll offer something that they don't really need (ICBMs) in return for something that they do.
Trump mistakes mans father for Joe Cocker...
Likely that the South Korean comment that it was “the Trump administration’s hard line that forced NK into talking” is playing to Trump’s ego.
Apparently, the NK leaders have been trying to meet the US president since the 1990s. As you say, developing nuclear weapons has been a terrifying yet effective strategy for them, ensuring they don't go the way of Saddam Hussein.
Incredibly bizarre and dangerous turn up. There's little time to prepare, there have been no pre-summit talks, so the outcome isn't clear, there are factions of the NK government who will not under any circumstances roll back on development of nuclear weapons. The US government haven't had an ambassador in the peninsula since Trump took over, all the Korean experts have retired or won't work with the administration, and both Russia and China haven't been invite
world politics by guesswork and make-it-up as you go along "diplomacy"...
Bizarre sure but I don't see it as dangerous - I think either it will get called off last minute or it will just be for show and nothing really comes of it. Maybe some deals get done but they'll soon fall apart in reality and everything will return to the current farcical facing off and posturing. Kim just wants sanctions lifted for a while so he's not undermined at home, they'll still keep developing nukes they just won't test them (outside of computer sims) until they've recovered enough from the sanctions that they can afford to start the merry-go-round again
Talk about getting into hot water by letting your d**k rather than your brain be in charge:
Looking increasingly like an un-winnable situation for DT!
(Although frankly, for Trump, he has probably more smarts in his d**k than his Head......)
Its hardly news that thrice married president pussy grab is unfaithful to his wives but as usaul its the cover up not the offence that will cause him ,. and his lawyer, the most problems.
Imagine the forthcoming gnashing and wailing from the lefties as Donald J Trump gets awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing about a peace treaty in Korea after nearly seventy years of conflict 😆
i hope you enjoy imagining it as its not going to happen
I am imagining your trolling being funny for the same reasons.
Smoking some of the good stuff again ninfan?
At the moment he will be getting an award for employment opportunity due to his rate of staff turnover in the white house.
The lack of a straight denial of the Stormy Daniels story is making things very uncomfortable as there are several offences committed which ever way that one lands...
Imagine the forthcoming gnashing and wailing from the lefties as Donald J Trump gets awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing about a peace treaty in Korea after nearly seventy years of conflict
I think we can all agree that a lack of imagination is not one of your failings.
Extraordinary development. Calls him “rocket man” and gets the meeting others haven’t had the balls to take. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he is shaking things up and getting things done.
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize just for being elected. The Donald is a man of action
I wonder if we will hear anything from Hillary ?
I saw also Elon Musk of Tesla backed Trump’s steel tariffs and as per EU pointed out that China has 25% taiffs on cars (EU 10) yet can export to US for 2.5% Trump has to fix that and even things up.
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize just for being elected. The Donald is a man of action
I wonder if we will hear anything from Hillary ?
Care to list his actions? Very little progress on any of his election promises.
Trump has to fix that and even things up.
Yep he has evened it up so the workers who use steel who outnumber the ones producing it by something like 10-1 just became way less competitive and profitable. The world is moving on, he isn't stuck in coal and steel at the moment while the US had begun to move on into tech and electric cars... It's a shame he has such limited vision
So, assuming that the NK meeting actually occurs, do we think Kimmy is going to turn up and hand over his nukes, just like that? Given that it was the nukes that brought him the world standing in the first place?
Big coup for Kim
& potent message to the dictators of the world, if you want to get facetime with the US president, get building nukes!
Easy sell foor Kim too, you can bet Trump thinks hes gonna get that nobel prize, (& we all know he locves a good military parade)
good time to accept as he loses another top advisor, is getting sued by his pornstar ex-misstress & just started a trade war (that has UK steel industry very worried)
& potent message to the dictators of the world, if you want to get facetime with the US president, get building nukes!
Well, quite. He's got himself a huge bargaining chip.
Kim has played him like a fiddle
he knows that Trump is desperate for something he can spin as positive to distract from his reign of chaos at home
It's not DT (or even the US administration) doing the running. NK made the move for a unified Korea at the Olympics, NK made the suggestion that SK leaders meet with Kim so why is the US administration surprised that Kim is requesting a meeting? It smacks of an administration more concerned with internal battles. Who do they think he (Kim) was going to look at next, The Dalai Lama?
The US was luke warm at best about the rapprochement between the two Koreas at the Winter Olympics, they almost appeared sidelined or even sidestepped over it. Now Kim gets to crow that he's getting the president of the USA to meet him rather than the other way round.
Kim's got very little to lose from this, at the moment there's very little to win for DT.
Hahahahaha
a few weeks ago you lot were all saying that Donald’s approach would plunge us all into nuclear war, not lead to offers of NK disarmament and the US brokering peace negotiations
Even CNN have begun to admit it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xLHAhX7eVQw
Sorry what has trump actually done here? Many accounts say he is being moderated by the military who will downright block insane military action. How about you wait till something happens before telling us how awesome it's going to be. Trump has enough time to flip 100 times before any potential meeting.
The thing is: the USA position of "Maximum pressure, zero concessions" is the same as it's always been, it's just this administration have shouted about it as if it's something they've come up with. The Americans have already gone from "What the ...?" to "Look what we've done!" They've been completely wrong-footed on this.
At the moment no-one apart from the North Koreans knows what they hope to gain from this, maybe they themselves don't, it's a bit of dangerous brinksmanship on Kim's part. By all accounts there's been no state TV announcement about this, there probably won't be until after the meeting so that the result can be massaged as they see fit. But the inner circle will know and if he gets it wrong the generals might decide enough is enough and get rid.
Militarily the two sides are at stalemate: NK won't attack because they know they'll be wiped out in retaliation; the USA won't attack because civilian casualties in SK would be enormous. There have been joint USA/SK military exercises close to the border for decades. NATO and the Soviet block did the same along the Iron Curtain, basically a lot of expensive posturing.
Trump mistakes mans father for Joe Cocker…
Hang in is this bloke supposed to be president or an evangelist preacher?
[i]Junkyard wrote:[/i]
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I am imagining your trolling being funny for the same reasons.</span>
To be fair, I think ninfan's imagining is slightly more realistic than yours.
Calls him “rocket man” and gets the meeting others haven’t had the balls to take. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he is shaking things up and getting things done.
He's not 'getting things done'. He's having things done to him.
and both sides have reneged on previous agreements....
Former officials also say that Kim isn’t the only one who cheats on accords. Wit notes that a 2005 nuclear agreement collapsed because Bush slapped the North with new economic sanctions “before the ink was dry.” Likewise, Obama’s short-lived 2012 agreement restricting nuclear and missile tests fell apart when North Korea insisted the long-range missiles for satellite launches were exempt. And Wit, the former State Department official, says Pyongyang was right. “North Korea,” he says, “never agreed not to conduct the space launch tests.”
And now Trump is going to meet l’il Kim. I suspect that he is being played by a far more astute politician.
To be fair, the bar is set very, very low, here.
BBC Reporting that he's just sacked Rex Tillerson: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43388723
So up to 36 senior staff now
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/07/politics/trump-white-house-staff-departures/index.html
https://www.bustle.com/p/turnover-in-trumps-white-house-vs-obamas-is-so-striking-8389049
Damm that man knows how to pick them, or he is impossible to work with, or it's a job creation scheme, not sure which seems more likely...
He’s a great businessman, so he’s obviously going to want to improve turnover.
I do quite enjoy reading Ninfan's ripostes, the suggestion that Trump could win a Nobel is no less ridiculous than say a previous president winning one just for being elected.
Stepping away from Trump for the moment, it's obvious that the North Korean tub thumping has more to do with getting a guarantee of non-interference from the west and for a negotiated end to embargoes. North Korea's leadership has been alarmed by US-led interventions over the last twenty years and has sought to develop a credible deterrent. This would follow an established pattern of behaviour that has been a theme from the regime for several decades.
Back to Ninfan for a moment - what do you think that Trump will bring to the negotiating table?
what do you think that Trump will bring to the negotiating table?
Diet Coke and a list of things to remember to say?
The Donald is a man of action
..as shown by his heroic military service record?
Nobody talks about Mike Pence any more. We always used to talk about Dan Quail. Pence- not so much.
We always used to talk about Dan Quail
He was a game old bird though, wasn't he?
"As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be" - President Trump on Salisbury poisoning
If. We. Agree. With. Them.
I hear you
Damm that man knows how to pick them, or he is impossible to work with, or it’s a job creation scheme
Maybe the plan to Make America Great Again is to give everyone a go at a Whitehouse job? 😀
martinhutch
Subscriber
We always used to talk about Dan QuailHe was a game old bird though, wasn’t he?
👏🏻
Maybe the plan to Make America Great Again is to give everyone a go at a Whitehouse job?
Lots to choose from - football manager, gamekeeper, QC, gentleman's tailor...
Worth a listen if you have a chance
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510310/npr-politics-podcast
And
https://fivethirtyeight.com/tag/politics-podcast/
Some great analysis and discussion going on there (might not be suitable for right wing snowflakes due to high truth, honesty and questioning)