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The Trump Presidency: Part 18

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Aridas said:
As ever, "discovery" might be a rather interesting phase of things for Nunes.
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There won't be any discovery. It will be ruled frivolous from the starting gate.

You have to wonder who pays these lawyers to take hopeless cases, that is, if Nunes has a lawyer.
 
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The Shrike said:
Also one of the few policy areas where I felt he was correct and we should re-evaluate our NATO contributions. Not that I approve of the way he's done this mind you, he's just gone around insulting allies and burning bridges and there has been no discussion about this (to my knowledge) in Congress. Also the point of the problem with the US carrying a disproportionate NATO burden should be to let us devote less of our budget to defense spending. I think the Trumpian/GOP is, if anything, increase defense spending and orchestrate stunningly profitable weapons sales to all manner of unsavory highest bidders.
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I agree with taking on China, and even specifically their predatory business practices, and more than that, willing to suffer short to mid term economic setbacks to do it. But, I also don't approve of the way he's gone about it because it's stupid and ineffective. (Disclaimer: I'm my company's tariff expert and have had to spend literally about 1,000 hours working on them, which might bias me even more against them.)

Trump runs on a sort of evil genie logic. What the troops out of the middle east? Well we'll betray our allies and ok war crimes, then not actually leave! Want to take on China? We'll alienate our trade partners, put tariffs on commodity raw materials, and ask them to interfere in our elections to do it! Even when one agrees with the purported goal, the methods will not only not work, they'll be actively harmful.
 
The Shrike said:
Same. In your estimation, would the TPP have been more effective than a trade war?
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To butt in with my take and this is not meant to answer for tyr_13... the TPP was more about limiting China's soft power and influence in the region and increasing the US' than it was about directly addressing China's bad behavior. That's a notably different aim overall, though there is intersection.

I actually have no problem with tariffs being used on China - provided that it was done intelligently and with reasonable goals and expectations in play. It wasn't - Trump decided to treat the whole thing like he was a schoolyard bully and started the Trade War because he thought that China would just roll over and bow to him after a little smacking around. The US is much more powerful in nigh every relevant way in his mind, after all. By the time that it became undeniably obvious that that wasn't the way things were going, he was too invested in projecting that lie, though, because admitting that he had been an idiot would be a huge loss of face for him. As the Narcissist that he is, that loss of face means immensely more to him than any concerns about country or people.
 
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Trump Tweets

Thank you!


Majesty81empire
@majesty81empire
Replying to @DavidNakamura Donald Trump is the greatest of all time. We love him
 
Trump Tweets

Enjoyed my meeting with Prime Minister @BorisJohnson of the United Kingdom at @10DowningStreet last night. Talked about numerous subjects including @NATO and Trade.
 
Trump has started a trade war with France. Companies like Google and Apple make billions in from those countries yet always seem to pay very little tax in those countries. France has imposed a 'turnover' tax that will make them pay more. Trump is angry because he has the bizarre belief that only America can tax American companies. So he has put new tarrifs on French goods.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/eur...n-s-spectacular-squabble-20191204-p53glr.html

"They're our companies, they're American companies," Trump told reporters. "If anyone is going to take advantage of the American companies, it's going to be us. It's not going to be France."


Macron's digital tax applies a 3 per cent levy to firms with an annual revenue of more than 25 million euros in France and 750 million worldwide. France only imposed the tax unilaterally and retroactively after Macron's push to have the regime apply across the European Union failed.
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Putin is laughing his ass off.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/...-leaving-markets-on-edge-20191204-p53gqx.html

That has shaken up markets in the past couple of days but Trump went further in London on Tuesday when he told reporters that he had no deadline for the "phase one" trade deal with China that was previously supposed to be close to finalisation and which would have halted the escalation in that trade conflict.

"If it’s not going to be a good deal I’m not signing a deal, he said.
"It can’t even be an even deal. If it’s an even deal it’s no good."
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No such thing as a "win/win".
 
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Segnosaur said:
Well, to nitpick a little....

The crime that Duncan Hunter was guilty of was misusing campaign funds (i.e. not using money the way it should have been). This is a different crime than Trump is accused of (his payment to Stormy was an illegal campaign contribution that should have been declared but wasn't).

Both are crimes, but the details around them are different.
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Oh so like the president does with kids cancer charities. Because kids with cancer are so much less likeable than following election laws.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
There won't be any discovery. It will be ruled frivolous from the starting gate.

You have to wonder who pays these lawyers to take hopeless cases, that is, if Nunes has a lawyer.
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Well the lawyer he had for a similar frivolous lawsuit was suspended from practice law twice and still has a geocities email address.
 
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