President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

What's happening in your world? Discuss it here.
Forum rules
Play nice. We will be watching

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:26 pm

A District Court Judge ruled that the Trump administration "has the authority to waive a host of environmental laws and other regulations to begin construction" on the border wall.

The judge in question? Gonzalo P. Curiel. Yes, the one who presided over the lawsuit against Trump University. The man who Trump called "very hostile,” “a very bad judge” and a “hater of Donald Trump”. The judge, who Trump claimed to be inherently biased against him because he's a Mexican (even though Curiel was born in Indiana).

Trump celebrated his "Big legal win" on Twitter and didn't mention any of this. Back then, he said he will not settle the Trump University lawsuit, because he's a "man of principle". He then of course settled it for $25 million. Luckily for him, Judge Curiel really is a man of principle.

Another thing; Trump said (and not for the first time) that the police should take away people's guns. At a session about gun control with members of Congress, he stated that "I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida ... to go to court would have taken a long time. Take the guns first, go through due process second."
  • 11

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
--Carl Jung
User avatar
Aquila89
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3442
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:45 pm
Location: Hungary
Show rep

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Cobra-D » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:54 pm

Trump has announced that he will be imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum(25% and 10% respectively) imported into the US.

I'm sure this won't go horribly.
  • 7

The truth is like poetry, everyone fucking hates poetry.
User avatar
Cobra-D
TCS Camper
TCS Camper
 
Posts: 856
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:46 pm
Show rep
Title: The Witty Flirt

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Thu Mar 01, 2018 11:30 pm

Aquila89 wrote:
The judge in question? Gonzalo P. Curiel. Yes, the one who presided over the lawsuit against Trump University. The man who Trump called "very hostile,” “a very bad judge” and a “hater of Donald Trump”. The judge, who Trump claimed to be inherently biased against him because he's a Mexican (even though Curiel was born in Indiana).



I'm going to hand this over to The Great One.

Image
Mr. Gleason pantomimes how sweet it is.
  • 1

A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.
User avatar
blehblah
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3895
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:16 pm
Show rep
Title: Error General, Panic Colonel

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Marcuse » Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:32 pm

I see Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs will hit the Chinese the hardest...

Image

Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :o
  • 12

User avatar
Marcuse
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 6592
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:00 pm
Show rep

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Cobra-D » Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:13 pm

Marcuse wrote:I see Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs will hit the Chinese the hardest...

Spoiler: show
Image


Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :o



Pfft who cares if this hurts Canada and the Canadian people or snow Mexicans as I call them, this is what they get for not giving everything we want in NAFTA
  • 9

The truth is like poetry, everyone fucking hates poetry.
User avatar
Cobra-D
TCS Camper
TCS Camper
 
Posts: 856
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:46 pm
Show rep
Title: The Witty Flirt

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby cmsellers » Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:55 pm

Excluding petroleum, last I knew we had a trade surplus with Mexico and Canada. Which makes us quite vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs, though the likelier scenario is that Canada gets a ruling from the WTC and we pay them "sorry for violating treaties" money, same as we currently do with Brazil and sugar.
  • 3

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Cobra-D » Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:31 pm

Well apparently other countries are getting their panties in a bunch because of the tariffs.


The EU are considering putting tariffs of their own on U.S. imports like bourbon, Harley Davison's, and Levi blue jeans.

France's economy minister, said Friday that “only losers” would result from a potential trade war between the United States and the European Union. Umm sorry France but this is Murica so only winners here.

The head Germany's European Parliament's trade committee said it was an act of war. Which is good with us cause as Trump said trade wars are easy to win.

Can you guys feel the winning yet? I mean I'm trying too but I can't seem too at the moment, I'm sure I'll start feeling it soon though.
  • 6

The truth is like poetry, everyone fucking hates poetry.
User avatar
Cobra-D
TCS Camper
TCS Camper
 
Posts: 856
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:46 pm
Show rep
Title: The Witty Flirt

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Sat Mar 03, 2018 5:52 pm

Trump laid-out his brilliant strategy in a Tweet.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 2580484098

When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win. Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore-we win big. It’s easy!


I've posted a bunch about how the US government agrees that there is a trade surplus with Canada in the NAFTA thread... well, the parts of the US government that aren't Donald Trump.

Trump's understanding of how trade deficits work is, I would say, on par with his understanding of NATO countries owing the US for defence spending.

In the NAFTA thread, I touched on how Trump's way of negotiating with contractors seems to shed some light on his trade strategy. That tweet confirms it.

The man is a simpleton. His amazing solution is, "don't trade anymore-we win big". What can one respond to that?

https://www.politico.eu/article/trumps- ... ouse-exit/

Gary Cohn, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, has been rumored to be on the brink of leaving the White House for months but stayed for one main reason: to stop the president from imposing steep tariffs.

By Thursday afternoon, Cohn had lost the fight.

In a meeting with steel industry executives, Trump announced plans for a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports.

The decision came after a frantic 24 hours in which Cohn and others tried to talk Trump off the ledge. At one point, aides were sure Trump would make the announcement. Then they said he wouldn’t. Finally, sitting alongside steel executives, he did.


Other advisers, like Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, apparently supported the idea (that article is worth a read). Ross has also happily repeated horseshit about trade deficits in relation to the NAFTA talks. Ross and Trump seems to have a lot in common when it comes to numbers, so I can kinda see why they might get along.

The saving grace may be that Trump blurts-out whatever ephemeral thought bubble is floating through his head at any given moment in time. The bubbles which float-around five minutes later have nothing in common with the previous bubbles. The guy has a brain that utters snaps, crackles, and pops more randomly than chaos theory can handle.

The ultimate position stands a good chance of looking quite different.

As Cohn eyeballs the door, another thought occurs to me. While Trump has jettisoned a few high-quality jokers like Bannon, there is also the risk that the only people who stick with him are the Wilbur Ross, Peter Navarro, and Stephen Miller types. Rather than regressing toward the mean, the chaos of this administration may end-up distilling the crazy. Given that Trump appears to have very few concrete opinions of his own, that could be a very, very bad thing.

Imagine a world where we say, "Too bad Ivanka and Jared headed back to New York".

Indeed...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- ... ls-n852641

According to two officials, Trump's decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team.

On Wednesday evening, the president became "unglued," in the words of one official familiar with the president's state of mind.

A trifecta of events had set him off in a way that two officials said they had not seen before: Hope Hicks' testimony to lawmakers investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, conduct by his embattled attorney general and the treatment of his son-in-law by his chief of staff.

Trump, the two officials said, was angry and gunning for a fight, and he chose a trade war, spurred on by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, the White House director for trade — and against longstanding advice from his economic chair Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.


The article goes-on to outline the logistical shit-show that lead to Trump's announcement.

Now, I've not yet run a country, so I'm not exactly an expert with first-hand experience. Yet, I strongly suspect this is a fine example of how to not run a country... or casino, or, you know, anything other than a reality show (at least, the on-camera parts, something tells me Mark Burnett would not be a very rich man if he ran his shows like this).

Hmmm... silver lining... erm... there's only, like, a maximum of just under seven years of this sort of thing left. What's the worst that could happen if a trade war doesn't go well for Trump and he tanks the world economy in the lead-up to 2020? Is he gonna invade Canad...

... I have to go, ahh, see to some things.
  • 8

A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.
User avatar
blehblah
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3895
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:16 pm
Show rep
Title: Error General, Panic Colonel

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:48 pm

And while doing this, he finds the time to get into Twitter fights with Alec Baldwin. Except he misspelled Baldwin's name. (And the word "dying").

Alex Baldwin, whose dieing mediocre career was saved by his impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing DJT was agony for him. Alex, it was also agony for those who forced to watch. You were terrible. Bring back Darrell Hammond, much funnier and a far greater talent!


Who was forced to watch SNL? Anyway, some unfortunate man called Alex Baldwin got spammed by Twitter bots as a result. Collateral damage in the Twitter war.
  • 9

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
--Carl Jung
User avatar
Aquila89
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3442
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:45 pm
Location: Hungary
Show rep

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:45 pm

Aquila89 wrote:
Who was forced to watch SNL?


Well, yeah, in a practical sense... it gets boring at his golf clubs, which he's now spent 100 days at since getting this POTUS gig. He tends to be there a lot on weekends, so I'm just putt-ing (whoop!) two and two together.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/03/poli ... index.html

President Donald Trump reached a presidential milestone at his Palm Beach County, Florida, golf club on Saturday: One hundred days in office at a golf club that bears his name.

[...]

In total, Trump has spent nearly 25% of his days in office at one of his golf clubs.
  • 4

A quantum state of signature may or may not be here... you just ruined it.
User avatar
blehblah
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3895
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:16 pm
Show rep
Title: Error General, Panic Colonel

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby jbobsully11 » Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:42 am

Not that long ago, KleinerKiller wrote:It's official: I've lost any hope that the country can recover from Trump. If this is what he does in the five days since being elected, there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that we make it to 2020 with democratic elections, term limits, and fundamental human rights intact. Even I, in my wildest pessimistic days during the campaign, didn't even consider that he would enter Dictator Mode this quickly and this awfully.

Trump praised the president of China for abolishing term limits, and said that maybe the US should try that someday.
  • 8

Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
User avatar
jbobsully11
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 3644
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:22 pm
Location: not the outskirts of nowhere anymore, NJ, USA
Show rep
Title: The Chronically Underemployed

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:28 am

I'm actually not worried about Trump becoming a dictator anymore. I was in the first six months or so, but now I realize he just pisses and moans about rules and anti-corruption laws and democratic institutions and doesn't really do anything about them. Everyone's abandoning him, Jeff Sessions got into his big boy suit and told him to fuck off recently, and his family is at genuine legal peril from a man he can't stop from investigating them, and though the Senate Intelligence Committee has not been without its infighting, they're set to roll out recommendations to strengthen our election system soon (Seriously, Burr and Warner deserve all the praise for not becoming Nunes and Schiff). The true test will come with whatever Mueller says, but if a dictator's gonna sweep into power, he needs to do it with more than 40% approval from a crowd predominately over 60. I said this in another thread: it's very hard to found a long-lasting movement off a mostly sexagenarian+ base.

That said, he has degraded in the public mind a lot of democratic norms and anti-corruption shit that we've cultivated through centuries of trial and error all so he can pass some tax cuts that are exactly what Jeb Bush would've passed, I guess, and they were already weakening to begin with. I've been cheered by the though that he is pretty widely loathed by Millennials and seemingly Generation Z, and so is the GOP, who I worry might ignore enough democratic norms to start slowly trodding down the road of media-friendly One-Party Rule a la Poland rather than the rule of a single dictator. It's also tough not to notice that Millennials also aren't that dedicated to Democracy, they're just not fond of the authoritarianism that Trump brings to the table. Ditto Britain, though Jeremy Corbyn is a much more extreme politician than Bernie--more in common with Jill Stein, in fact. On top of that, the youth seemingly all in Europe but for France have been more enthusiastic about hard-right populists than the UK or the US, and that also worries me in the long term.

I read an interesting article by David Frum recently over at the Atlantic that talks about the decline of liberal Democracy across the world, and he had an interesting thought. Corporations and banking systems have become so powerful and with so much reach, problems like global warming have required the entire world to solve, advances in technology has made the world so complicated that it's necessitated sprawling bureaucracies that are reistant to outside political influence just to cope, and neither liberal systems nor authoritarianism have really found a way to address the problems--and it's only gonna get worse as the Boomers continue to retire, a massive cohort whether we're talking the US or China. Until one figures it out, they're both gonna be twisting in the wind, it seems.

We'll survive Trump, but I'm starting to fear more what will come after him. Democracy hasn't had a big test in our generation, like it did with the Soviets or the Nazis before them. There's no Teddy Roosevelt waiting in the wings to tear down the backroom political dealings, there's no WW2 around the corner to pit democracy against fascism, there's no real test that will strengthen democratic rule, and authoritarianism has seemed to also be ineffective. So after all that, what I'm saying is that I worry a little more about authoritarianism from the left here than from the right, though it will hopefully be at least a less shitty authoritarianism.
  • 11

Doodle Dee. Snickers
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2730
Joined: Mon May 06, 2013 8:15 pm
Show rep

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:35 am

Time for a double post:

Gary Cohn has quit, and I halfway think it was because he mentioned he's mulling it over and even the media was like "No you won't, you pussy" so he had to. Because sticking by the president when he defends white supremacists is one thing, but tariffs are far worse and besides, he got that tax cut he always wanted.

Not sure if I care or not. There are only a few people whose departures would truly worry me (Mattis, Haley, and because we're living in the darkest timeline, Sessions). There have been rumors that Kelly and Mattis are trying to force Mcmaster out, for some reason, so he could be next. So could Kushner, who Trump apparently asked for help getting rid of and obviously is facing mounting pressure over his business ties and lack of clearance.
  • 11

Doodle Dee. Snickers
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2730
Joined: Mon May 06, 2013 8:15 pm
Show rep

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Mar 16, 2018 9:12 am

Trump basically admitted he just makes shit up when talking to foreign leaders. At a fundraiser, he talked about his meeting with Justin Trudeau:

Trudeau came to see me. He’s a good guy, Justin. He said, ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,’ ” Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio of the private event in Missouri obtained by The Washington Post. “Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald, we have no trade deficit.’ He’s very proud because everybody else, you know, we’re getting killed.

So, he’s proud. I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. … And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong, Justin.’ He said, ‘Nope, we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well, in that case, I feel differently,’ I said, ‘but I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, ‘Check, because I can’t believe it.


The US has a trade deficit with Canada in goods, but a surplus when you count services, and why the hell you wouldn't? The service sector is quite important in a modern economy.

On the same meeting, Trump also talked about an unfair test American cars are subjected to in Japan:

It's called the bowling ball test. Do you know what that is? That's where they take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air, and they drop it on the hood of the car. And if the hood dents, then the car doesn't qualify. Well, guess what, the roof dented a little bit, and they said, nope, this car doesn't qualify. It's horrible, the way we're treated. It's horrible.


There's no such thing. There's a test where they fire a hemisphere-shaped device at the hood and windshield, which records the force. But the purpose of that test is to determine how much force someone's head would have to absorb in an accident. So the more the hood dents, the better.
  • 11

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
--Carl Jung
User avatar
Aquila89
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3442
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 1:45 pm
Location: Hungary
Show rep

Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Marcuse » Sat Mar 17, 2018 2:13 pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43439066

The ex-deputy director of the FBI has been fired days before retirement, apparently solely to deny him his pension and benefits for completing his career. Trump had tweeted in December taunting him about it:

In December, the president appeared to taunt the then number two at the FBI, when he tweeted: "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!"


I know employment rights are a thing that happens to other countries in the US, but seriously. How is this a thing that they can do?
  • 9

User avatar
Marcuse
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 6592
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:00 pm
Show rep

PreviousNext

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 23 guests

cron