Cont: The Trump Presidency Part III

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TheL8Elvis said:
Comes from SHS and the daily press briefing ?

Also goes hand-in-hand with trumps earlier statement:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/01/politics/trump-justice-laughing-stock/index.html
President Donald Trump called for "quick" and "strong" justice for terror suspects in the wake of the deadly New York City attack, saying that it is not surprising terror attacks happen because the way the United States punishes terrorists is "a laughing stock.
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We also have to come up with punishment that's far quicker and far greater than the punishment these animals are getting right now," Trump told reporters. "They'll go through court for years. And at the end, they'll be -- who knows what happens.""

Apparently wheels of justice move too slowly for him ... future irony noted :-)
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I see, the Executive trying to cut out the Judicial in order to get what they want. Nope, can't see any problem with that :rolleyes:

I can see "the man in the street" wanting swift and terrible justice to be meted out on the New York attacker. The reason we tend to have "grown ups" in charge is to apply some kind of impulse control.
 
Bob001 said:
Trump hires only the best people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...05a458-bf4c-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html
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I almost wish this was surprising. :(

The apparently unsuitable diplomatic appointments are not that unusual. As I understand it, ambassadorial appointments for political services rendered is pretty standard practice and has been for decades. The Ambassador is almost exclusively ceremonial (the professional diplomats and embassy/consular staff get on with the day to day) and so even if they're not that great, as long as they don't say or do anything too inappropriate then IMO no harm done. I'll give him a pass on that one.

The rest OTOH are not so good and maybe an insight into why so many of his business ventures have ended in failure. If he values friendship and loyalty over competence then you're only going to get a decent management team by accident.

Then again, his cabinet appointees are a clear indication of that anyway...
 
Trump Declares Suspect ‘Should Get Death Penalty’

Steve said:
No animal would do this sort of thing and do not deserve the comparison. Only humans have this level of hate. So "man" would be the most suitable term.
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Good one.

Donald Trump wanted to execute four innocent black teens for an attack in NYC back in the day. Now it's "hang 'em high" time again; frontier justice. To GOP support for torture and extrajudicial punishment offshore, we may now add lynch mobs. Seriously, there are not enough pejoratives in the English language to describe the state of the party and its supporters.
 
Hlafordlaes said:
Good one.

Donald Trump wanted to execute four innocent black teens for an attack in NYC back in the day. Now it's "hang 'em high" time again; frontier justice. To GOP support for torture and extrajudicial punishment offshore, we may now add lynch mobs. Seriously, there are not enough pejoratives in the English language to describe the state of the party and its supporters.
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IMO the problem is that President Trump and the current day GOP are not the cause of views like these, they are the symptom of the racism, vigilatism, homophobia and intolerance that lurks below the surface in many (most ? all ?) societies.

Periodically it comes bubbling to the surface. The last few times it's been economic factors that have brought it to the surface, before that it was famine and/or civil unrest. We're all just animals with a thin veneer of civility and given half a chance if we're scared and/or angry we'll give our baser instincts free rein.

IMO the "mistake" isn't President Trump, the GOP or their ilk. The mistake was assuming that we'd become so "civilised" that those instincts had been suppressed for good :(
 
The Don said:
... IMO the "mistake" isn't President Trump, the GOP or their ilk. The mistake was assuming that we'd become so "civilised" that those instincts had been suppressed for good :(
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Couldn't agree more. IMO, given that people wear their national histories and cultures as validating chest medals, many are addicted to thinking of all past accomplishments as their own. "Proud to be an <X>" is a ridiculous proposition. IMO this false attribution is what keeps the illusion going. In truth, we should think of ourselves as starting from scratch every generation. That way, perhaps, the foundational postulates of democracy would be taught, not just "how we did it around these parts, and wasn't that grand?"
 
I wonder if he'll call for Muslims to be thrown into concentration camps when the next attack eventually occurs?
 
Bob001 said:
Trump hires only the best people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...05a458-bf4c-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html
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I'm intrigued by this line in the article:

"Many don’t appear to meet the educational qualifications for their positions."

I'm not clear on the way the jobs are advertised over there, but where I work (Local Government), nobody can even be considered for a post if they do not meet the essential requirements - including education requirements. That's a hard line. If the job requires a degree and you don't have one - tough, you're not getting that job, not getting an interview, end of story.

I assume this is not the case in the situation being highlighted?
 
Worm said:
I'm intrigued by this line in the article:

"Many don’t appear to meet the educational qualifications for their positions."

I'm not clear on the way the jobs are advertised over there, but where I work (Local Government), nobody can even be considered for a post if they do not meet the essential requirements - including education requirements. That's a hard line. If the job requires a degree and you don't have one - tough, you're not getting that job, not getting an interview, end of story.

I assume this is not the case in the situation being highlighted?
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IIRC there are a few US government posts which have qualification requirements but that these are not specific. For example (and as the article mentions), the chief scientist at the Agriculture Department must be a distinguished scientist but AFAIK there's no stipulation about what constitutes distinguished and what branch of science. Richard Feynmann was a distinguished scientist but I'm not sure how his knowledge of physics would have helped the Agriculture Department (though his performance at the Challenger inquiry showed that skills are transferable).

Donald Trump has appointed Sam Clovis, who seems to break the rule but it's not clear whether there's any sanction or prohibition that can be applied. Perhaps the fact that Sam Clovis has been accepted (by the GOP), means that - be definition - he must be a distinguished scientist.

edited to add......

I've got a little more information. The qualification is apparently:

“among distinguished scientists with specialized training or significant experience in agricultural research, education and economics.”
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I guess he has economics experience (although he has no formal qualifications, he is an economics professor) and there's a way of parsing the qualifications in a way that would make him eligible.
 
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BobTheCoward said:
I cannot wait for all the writeups explaining the difference between trump's Vegas response and his new York response. the difference in his tweets has been offensive.
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Are you talking about his tweets? If so, please add some details because I am not a Twitter user. If not, please explain what responses you are talking about.
 
phiwum said:
That said, as President, his words matter and even if he didn't know it was false, he was grossly negligent in repeating a false claim without first confirming it. We expect better from someone in a position of great authority.
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I remember watching an interview of President Obama that included a question something like, "What do you find difficult about being President?" His reply was that one thing was he had to be so very careful about what he said because the President's words can affect a lot of people and things.

Well, Trump has solved that problem by being so careless nobody trusts* what he says.

* Well, nobody who pays attention to reality.**** Since that "nobody" presumably includes journalists, I wish they would quit reporting what he says or (especially) his tweets. Nothing he says can be relied upon so why report it.
 
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