The Trump Presidency VII

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Mexico just announced retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. goods, including "flat steels (hot and cold foil, including coated and various tubes), lamps, legs and shoulders of pork, sausages and food preparations, apples, grapes, blueberries, various cheeses" and more.


EU to enact tariffs by end of the day.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the move was "totally unacceptable" and the EU had "no choice" but to bring a case before the World Trade Organisation and impose duties on US imports.
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
The United States on Thursday said it was moving ahead with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, ending a two-month exemption and potentially setting the stage for a trade war with some of America’s top allies.

U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on a telephone briefing that a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect at midnight (0400 GMT on Friday).

(Reuters)
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Fortunately President Trump has assured Americans that these are really easy to win. Less reassuringly, he hasn't stipulated by whom :cool:
 
And in the meantime, John Bolton hires a chief of staff that is a CTer who believes 80% of the Muslims in the US are plotting to take over and force Islam on everyone.

Apparently Flynn was like minded, McMaster wasn't and now Trump picks the worst from the loony bin to reform the NSC in Hitler's image, seriously.

MSNBC: Bolton changes the National Security Council, but not for the better
When Donald Trump named Michael Flynn as the White House National Security Advisor, Flynn took the opportunity to bring a curious cast of characters with him to the National Security Council. After Flynn was ousted, it took a while for his successor, H.R. McMaster, to assemble a more capable and qualified team.

The trouble is, the president soon grew tired of McMaster. In March, Trump showed him the door and brought on John Bolton, who quickly took steps of his own to bring the National Security Council in line with his hawkish, right-wing vision.

Take this week, for example.

White House national security adviser John Bolton tapped controversial longtime security analyst Fred Fleitz Tuesday to serve as the National Security Council's executive secretary and chief of staff.
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How all these radicals held national security jobs for years is concerning in itself. Both Bolton and Fleitz have had positions in national security for years despite holding such radical beliefs.
Fleitz clashed with officials in pursuit of bogus intelligence claims; he's been a prominent anti-Muslim voice; and he published a book endorsing an aggressive posture toward North Korea....

Or particular interest is Fleitz's former leadership role at an Islamophobic think tank run by Frank Gaffney, a right-wing activist and conspiracy theorist. For years, Gaffney was widely seen as a fringe crackpot, which mainstream officials kept at arms' length, but in the Trump era, that's changing.
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This is some scary ****. They both want to bomb Iran. And they both believe apparently:
Both Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Bolton have appeared frequently on the radio show of Frank Gaffney Jr., the president and founder of the Center for Security Policy, a think tank that argues that mosques and Muslims across America are engaged in a "stealth jihad" to "Islamize" the country by taking advantage of American pluralism and democracy.
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Democracy Now: John Bolton Names Professional Islamophobe & Bush Official Fred Fleitz to National Security Staff There are some audio clips of Fleitz spewing his beliefs. You can stream the newscast, the transcripts are pending.
 
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Associated Press - Trump says he's considering commuting sentence of ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoning Martha Stewart.
 
Segnosaur said:
Didn't really know that much about Dinesh D'Souza so I looked up his Wikipeda page.

So, this guy:
- Plead guilty to making illegal campaign contributions (which kind of limits the chance to argue "I'm innocent"
- His "penalty" was 1) a fine that was less than the amount of the contribution, 2) a few months in a halfway house (not even what people would consider "hard time") and probation. So, he didn't even really serve 'hard time'

Lets take a look at some of his other "actions"...

- Spoke out against same sex marriage (hey, didn't Trump make the claim that he supported gay people?)
- Believes in Intelligent Design
- Blamed Abu Gharib on the "sexual immodesty of Liberal America"
- Mocked survivors of the Stonebridge school shooting. Even the Conservative Political Action Conference condemned him for that.

Yup, an individual definitely worthy of a presidential pardon.
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That's not the full extent - he also funneled his illegal contributions through a married woman that he was having an affair with, as well as her husband.

And surprise, the husband ratted him out.

As I recall, he was *also* the chair at a christian university that forbade sex outside of marriage at the time. So, basically, he's like a guy I saw on the highway a few years ago, who was eating with one hand, and talking on a cell phone with his other, while speeding - which is several kinds of wrong all at once.

He also claimed that Obama was a "Kenyan anti-Colonialist" who wanted to destroy America for his father (who you think would like the US, having both rebelled against the British empire and, you know, where he went to college...). And he's a peddler of the usual "democrats are the real racists" line of argument, despite claiming in a previous book that slavers in the US treated their slaves "fairly well" or some such rubbish. He also had a movie called "Hillary's America", which I ignored but was likely a pile of similar garbage, because that's his grift.
 
phiwum said:
Sorry, I missed the original. What did it say?
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I did not see it, but Captain Swoop posted this, in quotes:

“He was very unfairly treated by the law he decided to break despite being fully aware of the consequences and pleading guilty. Sad."

If true, that remains an official White House statement as well.

Though I guess it might have been sarcasm on the Captain’s part.
 
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Fast Eddie B said:
I did not see it, but Captain Swoop posted this, in quotes:

“He was very unfairly treated by the law he decided to break despite being fully aware of the consequences and pleading guilty. Sad."

If true, that remains an official White House statement as well.

Though I guess it might have been sarcasm on the Captain’s part.
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That was sarcasm on my part.

It's come to something when parody can't be distinguished from a real statement by the president.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
The United States on Thursday said it was moving ahead with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, ending a two-month exemption and potentially setting the stage for a trade war with some of America’s top allies.

U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on a telephone briefing that a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect at midnight (0400 GMT on Friday).

(Reuters)
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Well, so much for NAFTA.

Lets look at some of the effects:

- As of 10:30 the Dow is down ~0.7%. (Granted it may be just general market fluctuations but it is suspicious that it occurred after the tariffs were announced)

- The Koch brothers have denounced the tariffs. (Hard to be sympathetic to them, given their long-standing support for the Republicans. And while they didn't support Trump, supporting other Republicans does give him an advantage.)

- Other countries are already talking about retaliation. Hopefully they target farm products (since Trump support seems to come largely from rural areas)

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-steel-aluminum-tariffs-trade-war-europe-canada-mexico-2018-5

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/conservative-koch-brothers-network-denounces-trump-tariffs.html
 
Asha Rangappa Retweeted Michael D. Shear

Pardoning convictions for bribery and public corruption (Blagojevich) and making false statements to the FBI (Stewart).

Someone gave him a list of all the possible charges he's going to face and he's finding celebrities convicted of them to pardon
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Associated Press - Trump says he's considering commuting sentence of ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoning Martha Stewart.
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I wonder if part of the reason he'd pardon Blagojevich is because he was a Democrat. Thus, he can claim "Look! I can work with the democrats".
 
https://twitter.com/shearm/status/1002217872683347968

PARDON NEWS: @realDonaldTrump considering commutation of sentence for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and a pardon of Martha Stewart, the lifestyles mogul.
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https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1002222024717107200

Pardoning convictions for bribery and public corruption (Blagojevich) and making false statements to the FBI (Stewart).

Someone gave him a list of all the possible charges he's going to face and he's finding celebrities convicted of them to pardon.

#consciousnessofguilt
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Segnosaur said:
I wonder if part of the reason he'd pardon Blagojevich is because he was a Democrat. Thus, he can claim "Look! I can work with the democrats".
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I'm thinking that's it's probably because they, or an advocate for them, managed to convince Trump that they are also victims of the "deep state". Naturally some sympathetic person close to Trump probably worked him too.

Either that or its about Trump trying to give himself plausible deniability if he continues abusing his pardoning powers, like when he pardoned Joe Arpaio based upon the completely false notion that he was a victim of political persecution.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
Of course I know what you mean, but the rule of law includes virtually unlimited presidential pardon power, like it or not.
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Bob the Coward has an eccentric view of many things, but does have a point about the US presidency functioning like an elected monarchy.
 
jimbob said:
Bob the Coward has an eccentric view of many things, but does have a point about the US presidency functioning like an elected monarchy.
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Not really. The Congress is supposed to check the President. Obama couldn't do much of anything important in the face of a Republican congress (although he was also restrained by intelligence and basic decency). The Republican congress could put a leash on Trump, even impeach him, but they are too cowardly and craven to act. The federal courts have blocked Trump where they could in some areas.
 
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Bob001 said:
Not really. The Congress is supposed to check the President. Obama couldn't do much of anything important in the face of a Republican congress (although he was also restrained by intelligence and basic decency). The Republican congress could put a leash on Trump, even impeach him, but they are too cowardly and craven to act. The federal courts have blocked Trump where they could in some areas.
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I have seen the US system described as basically an elected version of the British system of 1777, and it certainly seems to have an element of truth. By that time, the monarch had had a couple of very pointed reminders that Parliament was supreme (1688 possibly more important than 1649) but the King still had a lot of power by that time - indeed his power and influence was one of the main drivers for US independence.
 
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