President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby iMURDAu » Tue Aug 07, 2018 9:49 pm

What's up with the Commerce Secretary? I think these accusations should be the kind of thing that keeps this type of person away from government work. But we have President Trump so this is actually the kind of thing that I would expect from a Trump appointee.

But he didn't say or do anything racist so I don't expect him to be relieved of his post.

I kid, we know Trump doesn't care about that.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Fri Aug 10, 2018 8:47 pm

As the article links to, and has been noted on this forum before, Ross is a quieter, less brash, but quite similar version of Trump.

At least one article I read (can't be arsed to find it) from a former Forbes list-maker noted that there are, generally, two types of people on their rich lists. The first are very, very rich people who won't give Forbes the time of day. Maybe they don't want everyone knowing how rich they are, or they simply don't care. The second are people who want Forbes to know how rich they are, and often inflate those numbers because it helps them gain credibility, because it leads to investment money and loans. They have noted Trump was, by far, the most enthusiastic self-promoter, and that he did a great job of it, for quite a long time.

Back to Ross, let's not forget there is, potentially, a lot going-on:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexand ... 4a7e797e87

For most of last year, Ross served as secretary of commerce while maintaining stakes in companies co-owned by the Chinese government, a shipping firm tied to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, a Cypriot bank reportedly caught up in the Robert Mueller investigation and a huge player in an industry Ross is now investigating. It’s hard to imagine a more radioactive portfolio for a cabinet member.


The nice thing about being (allegedly) a total scumbag grifter under Trump is you're not likely to make the front page. Trump provides ample air cover.

<here> Insert obligatory, 'in any other administration...' statement </here>
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:32 pm

Remember Omarosa? The former reality show star and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the White House (whatever the hell that means)? Well, she was fired and she's trying to sell a book now, in which she makes various accusations against Trump. She also claims that Trump is a racist, he's recorded on tape using the N word and she heard the tape.

Omarosa has very little credibility, she is a shameless publicity hound. But it's interesting how Trump reacted to all this. He wrote on Twitter:

“Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems, I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me — until she got fired!”


So, basically what Trump is saying that Omarosa was unqualified, unprofessional, widely disliked, "nothing but problems" - and yet he resisted firing her because she praised him.

That I can believe.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Ceiling_Squid » Tue Aug 14, 2018 7:32 pm

With Trump, all politics are personal. He can't resist being extremely permissive in exchange for flattery, or insulting someone publicly when they slight him.

It's interesting seeing white-hot narcissism driving every single executive pronouncement. You don't usually get it so nakedly. He's able to infinitely approach a point of self-awareness, but never can quite grasp it. He openly and unintentionally describes the shape of his own illness, but never gets it.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Aug 17, 2018 5:03 pm

By the way, I don't think there's such a tape, but if there was, well I agree with what Stephen Colbert said: it would undeniably make some of his fans very happy, while others would go: "I don't like that he's a racist, but you know, taxes."
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby cmsellers » Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:02 pm

Aquila89 wrote:while others would go: "I don't like that he's a racist, but you know, taxes."

That, and I hear Hillary uses Iraqi babies for skeet shooting.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby blehblah » Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:17 pm

When it comes to wildfires ravagining the landscape, the Trump administration knows exactly what the problem is.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4392206/trum ... wildfires/

“It’s not a global warming thing, it’s a management situation,” said Trump. “And one of the elements that he talked about was the fact that we have fallen trees, and instead of removing those fallen trees, which get to be extremely combustible, instead of removing them, gently removing them, beautifully removing them, we leave them to burn.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke then decried the import of lumber to the U.S. as fallen trees are left to rot on the ground.

“We import lumber in this country, and yet there are billions of board feet that are on the forest floor rotting,” said Zinke. “When you have rotting timber, when housing prices are going up, when a lot of Americans are right at that border of affording a house, and yet we are wasting billions of board feet for not being able to bring them to a local lumber yard.”

Fallen trees can be salvaged for lumber within the first year, Zinke said, reducing both the need for lumber imports and helping with wildfire management.


Much of what I know about logging is indirect, yet I'm pretty sure I can spot the stupidity, here. Logging is, like many businesses, about volume. Clear-cutting is efficient because you can get heavy machinery in and cut the living shit out of everything. I have watched a single machine clear two or three acres of a mature planted pine forest over the better part of a day. That was nice, level, easy to access, land. In an uncooperative forest, you can pluck mature trees here and there, but it involves expensive things like helicopters, and getting crews in and out.

Whatever - I don't know much about Zinke, but at his point I'm comfortable saying he isn't striking me as the brightest bulb in the Trump administration chandelier.

Not done with the subject, Trump went-on:

“Just to add, just to conclude, especially when Canada is charging us a lot of money to bring their timber down into our country. So ridiculous, here we have it,” said Trump. “We’re not even talking about cutting down trees… we’re talking about lying on the floor creating a hazard and a tremendous death trap.”

The U.S. has applied a tariff to Canadian lumber, meaning that American citizens must pay a duty to the U.S. government on top of its purchase price. It’s estimated that the tariffs — a tax collected by the U.S. government — has increased the price of the average U.S. home by US$9,000.


*rubs temples*

*long, slow, sigh*

Okay. Ugh. Where to begin?

Yes, forests need to be managed. First-nations people understood this. Unfortunately, the Smokey Bear type of initiatives were a bit too successful. With the idea of "no fires, ever", a lot of fuel built-up. Controlled burning is actually healthy for forests. Heck, some types of pines count on a good burn every now and then. Observing that forest management hasn't been ideal, and needs more attention, is valid.

Here, I'll take a moment to point-out that climate change is real. Moving-on...

Managing forests probably sounds a bit too hippy for Trump, so this idea of somehow vacuuming dead trees from the forest floor, within one year, obviously appeals to Trump and Zinke, because when these two put their heads together, the most likely result is a hollow knocking sound.

From there, Trump extends it to Canadian softwood lumber imports being expensive (further evidence that he really has a tough time understanding how his own tariffs work), and implies that Canada somehow makes money off of the increased costs to US consumers.

If Trump were still a private citizen, I could probably sell him branding rights (for a small fee, miniscule compared to the great big league revenue we are sure to make) to a forest vacuum company. Trump logs - the logs the forest shits-out, scooped from the forest floor, all without cutting-down a single tree! These, folks, are the trees which were ready to die so you can build your home, not the unwilling, unready, expensive, inferior, Canadian trees! These are the most amazing trees, magically found and teleported from the wilds of California and straight into our sawmill. They are even cut to order, so long as you want an eight-foot two-by-four. You will also enjoy the wonderful feeling of knowing that you have supported the clean-up of a hazard and a death-trap!

So long as the tariffs on Canadian lumber are high enough, it could work, Donald! Have your people get in-touch with my people... it'll be the greatest wood anyone's ever had, Donald!
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Aug 17, 2018 6:43 pm

Earlier, he tweeted that the wildfires "are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean." This is nonsense, of course; the spokesman of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said that they have no problems with accessing water, and the fires are so bad because of the hot and dry weather conditions. Also, water doesn't need to be diverted to the ocean, it naturally flows there.

Though I'm not sure Trump wrote this tweet, because it contains phrases like "readily available" and "properly utilized".
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby cmsellers » Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:00 pm

@Bleh: In Trump's defense, the last Republican president elected without winning the popular vote also used the "logging mature trees prevents wildfires" argument. This is probably more of a right-wing Republican thing than a specifically Trump thing.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Ceiling_Squid » Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:34 pm

I also have to question Zinke's bullshit red-herring statement about housing prices as part of his list of justifications.

Do people really think the cost of lumber is the reason homes are so godawful expensive?

Edit: Granted, I live in CA, and maybe things are different in other states. But there are many other factors driving home-ownership into the pipe-dream stratosphere for my generation before you even get to lumber.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby NathanLoiselle » Fri Aug 17, 2018 11:07 pm

Nah, the prices are high because people from outside the States are buying up the property and either flipping it at higher desired prices or renting it out. We have the same problem here in Canada and ironically enough we're part of the United States problem.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sat Aug 25, 2018 6:17 am

Trump met with a QAnon peddling dingbat in the White House.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Aquila89 » Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:27 am

Oh, that's the guy's wife on the photo? I thought at first it was Kellyanne Conway.

Lionel on the White House: "The cradle of civilization. The tabernacle of liberty."

The cradle of civilization?

Trump meanwhile is using mobster terminology to praise Paul Manafort, after Manafort was convicted on eight out of eighteen charges of tax and bank fraud.

I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” - make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!


You know, "break", or in other words, cooperate with law enforcement. Snitches get stiches! And yeah, Manafort from the Torturers Lobby, such a great guy.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Absentia » Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:31 pm

Trump tweeted an attack on Google, claiming it is "rigged" to only show negative stories about him and that the situation "will be addressed".

Donnie, listen. After the week you just had, I'm not sure there are any positive stories to display.
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Re: President Trump makes himself an even BIGGER asshole

Postby Crimson847 » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:33 pm

He's probably referring to his great NAFTA rebrand replacement deal with Mexico.

https://www.vox.com/world/2018/8/27/177 ... anada-cars

Basically, it seems Trump and Nieto's administrations have reached an agreement on a specific issue with automobile tariffs that was a sticking point between the two nations. Congress hasn't weighed in (which they'll have to for any new trade treaties or revisions to NAFTA), but Canada was sitting out the NAFTA talks until this issue between the US and Mexico was resolved, and this preliminary agreement means trilateral negotiations on NAFTA can resume. In other words, the NAFTA renegotiation train was off the rails, but now it's back on the tracks and can proceed.

Naturally, Trump's method of announcing this was to call their preliminary agreement the "US-Mexico Trade Agreement" and declare that he had "terminated" NAFTA, replacing it with this wonderful new trade deal. Fox is obligingly reporting this as fact, but other outlets are mostly not.
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