Trump

[saphireheartstone]

Honestly that doesn't even surprise me. I've read about multiple things he's built and they just were complete flops. Oh and don't mention his name to the Scottish... Or do in that case.

Oooh and don't forget his Trump Steaks. That he sold in the Sharper Image stores.

Seriously? Selling FOOD in an ELECTRONIC STORE?!

[Kurogane]

Every time I hear this idiot speak, he sounds like a fifth grader trying to bullshit his way through a book report.

It's like listening to fingernails down a chalk board! There is no end to his moronic regurgitation and yet, his followers adore him because "he tells it like it is!"

[Various]

This is a telling quote about tariffs from a Yahoo! article. They talked to the head of the Missouri Farm Bureau (farm bureaus are trade advocacy groups for farmers and ranchers).

"They developed the habit of buying from Brazil,” Hurst said about the Chinese. “They’ve developed confidence in Brazil as suppliers. It’ll take a generation for us to restore that.”

It's what's so stupid about Trump and his trade war. It behaves as if this is not a global market and as such, we're the only game in town. The US is the biggest producer of soybean, yes, but Brazil is a very close second (108 m. tons v. 87 m. tons). In effect, Trump's arrogance has driven China into the arms of another lover who is tanned and loves samba.

As always, I love, with all applicable schadenfreude, that the very people you'd imagine in MAGA hats are being screwed over the most by their false messiah (to be fair, he clearly sees them as slack-jawed rubes that are easy, easy marks). I also love that billions in federal handouts are being used to keep these people who claim to hate "socialism" afloat at a time when the pure market forces the GOP advocates for Democratic voting blocs would cause them all to go bankrupt.

[Kitteredge]

There was a good long form article a while back about how the South thought the world would come to their aid during the Civil War because they needed the cotton so much. Instead other places in the world, such as central Asia, started growing the crop and the market never really returned the same way, not even after the war. Hubris and short-sightedness.

[gaggedLouise]

This is a telling quote about tariffs from a Yahoo! article. They talked to the head of the Missouri Farm Bureau (farm bureaus are trade advocacy groups for farmers and ranchers).

It's what's so stupid about Trump and his trade war. It behaves as if this is not a global market and as such, we're the only game in town. The US is the biggest producer of soybean, yes, but Brazil is a very close second (108 m. tons v. 87 m. tons). In effect, Trump's arrogance has driven China into the arms of another lover who is tanned and loves samba.

As always, I love, with all applicable schadenfreude, that the very people you'd imagine in MAGA hats are being screwed over the most by their false messiah (to be fair, he clearly sees them as slack-jawed rubes that are easy, easy marks). I also love that billions in federal handouts are being used to keep these people who claim to hate "socialism" afloat at a time when the pure market forces the GOP advocates for Democratic voting blocs would cause them all to go bankrupt.

True, but Trump is mentally living in the forties and fifties when the US *was* the uncontested market leader in many kinds of foodstuffs and commodities, when there was very little modern industry or ditto agriculture in Latin America and South Asia, everyone bought imported American goods and traded at US banks (while the US could buy dirt cheap agricultural produce, metals and fuel from fairly backward tropical countries (and support their local dictators). He thinks that's how it should be again, with just a few changes and altered trade deals.

[Deamonbane]

GOP Congressman Justin Amash, from Michigan, says that Trump engaged in impeachable conduct.

Trump responds by calling him a loser.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-amash-impeachment-153829368.html

[Various]

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that financial records of Trump's must be handed over to Congressional investigator. The appeal is gong to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, headed by an obscure jurist named Merrick Garland.

Karma.

[Mathim]

Oooh and don't forget his Trump Steaks. That he sold in the Sharper Image stores.

Seriously? Selling FOOD in an ELECTRONIC STORE?!

Fry's Electronics is a chain store in my county and they have lots of food, and a cafe inside the store.

[gaggedLouise]

CNN has a story about how Trump aides are feeling oppressed by having to be close to their master on board AF1 flights and listen to his lengthy, loud rants - "being on Air Force One feels like being a captive". Infuriatingly funny when you think of that old movie named after the plane, where the presidential staff were *literally* taken hiostages on board the plane and the POTUS (Harrison Ford) had to clear up the situation... :D

Current and former officials have described White House trips as grueling endeavors accompanied by long hours, but several privately said the flights overseas are easily the worst. The duration can stretch nearly 20 hours. Sleeping space is limited. The televisions are streaming Fox News constantly. And if the headlines flashing across the bottom of the screen are unfavorable to their boss, aides know it's time to buckle up for a turbulent ride.

The President boarded Air Force One Friday for the 14-hour flight to Tokyo, and his staff were gearing up for a particularly hellish ride. An event the previous day was supposed to focus on relief for farmers who have been hurt by tariffs, but it quickly devolved into a venting session for Trump, who called the Democratic House speaker "crazy" and said Democrats were trying to inflict a "thousand stabs" on him.

"Keep stabbing," he said in the Roosevelt Room, while surrounded by farmers in cowboy hats.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/donald-trump-air-force-one-travel-foreign-trips/index.html

[gaggedLouise]

Meanwhile, actor Jon Voight say Trump is the greatest president since Lincoln...  :P

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/25/politics/jon-voight-trump-twitter-lincoln/index.html

[CrownedSun]

CNN has a story about how Trump aides are feeling oppressed by having to be close to their master on board AF1 flights and listen to his lengthy, loud rants - "being on Air Force One feels like being a captive". Infuriatingly funny when you think of that old movie named after the plane, where the presidential staff were *literally* taken hiostages on board the plane and the POTUS (Harrison Ford) had to clear up the situation... :D

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/donald-trump-air-force-one-travel-foreign-trips/index.html

I feel like the "best" part of this is that he's apparently cut back on foreign travel, especially long multi-cultural trips (prefering to visit one or two places at a time) because it makes him feel cut off from the political situation back home. I.e., he doesn't enjoy not being able to respond to the stuff that he sees on the news because he's overseas. Really hammers that home, that.

[gaggedLouise]

Trump is planning to impose punitive tariffs of up to 25% on all Mexican exports to the US until the southern neighbour stops the flow of migrants into the US. Essentially this is Trump saying (at least to his inner circle): "Yeah guys, we won't manage to get my Wall built any time soon, so here's my new idea: Let's force Mexico to become our Wall instead - and boy are they gonna pay for what they are ordered to do by Uncle Sam!"

Intended timetable: 5% tariffs on June 10 - 10% on July 1 - then  another 5% at the beginning of each month until a max level of 25%

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/politics/trump-mexico-tariffs.html

Trump wants his border cordon at any price, even at the cost of seriously damaging the US economy and also wrecking the revised NAFTA treaty he has been priding himself on trying to put in place with Mexico and Canada.  ::) What's more, every major trade power around the world will be noting the unpredictability of the US , and how much Trump really hates the very idea of multi-partner treaties on anything. His idea of business is that the US should be free to do as it pleases against any country, one-on-one.

No doubt he thinks this was a smart move - "if we can't have the physical Border Wall, let's force Mexico to act as the doorkeeper slave instead". 

[TheGlyphstone]

Continuing to prove that the man simply refuses to allow his brain to comprehend what a Tariff actually does.

[gaggedLouise]

Continuing to prove that the man simply refuses to allow his brain to comprehend what a Tariff actually does.

Yep, and I bet the reaction from many Latin American countries - both their governments, ordinary people and the press there - will be very irritated, too. Trump is essentially behaving like old Teddy Roosevelt - "the Latin countries are our back yard and we can do whatever damn thing we want with them" - this is as Gringo Uncle Sam as it gets excepting open war on a Central American country.

[Lustful Bride]

If you are on Disablity the Trump Administration may use your social media posts against you to take away your disabled benefits. Im sure this can only backfire horribly for the common folk.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/11/trump-administration-may-monitor-social-media-to-catch-disabilit/


Not sure if this was posted before but I only noticed it today.

[gaggedLouise]

Love the Donald Trump mock-up shown at the head of this article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/02/donald-trump-lashing-out-mexico-real-fight-home-democrats

Also, good analysis of why Trump is feeling so cornered (very visible when he was speaking to the press at the White House lawn a week ago on Mueller and others: he was absolutely enraged). His political ineptitude is coming home to roost.

[Mechelle]

Donald Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom has started today.

Today was a very ceremonial day, and although he couldn't resist having a go at Mayor of London Sadiq Khan just before he arrived, Trump has since been on his best behaviour and gave a gracious, polite, uncontroversial (and short) speech thanking the Queen for her hospitality. The general public have been kept away from him so far.

It is very unusual for an American president, particularly such a new one, to get a state visit. The D-Day anniversary's timing no doubt has helped, ignoring any current political requirements - mentioning D-Day, however, allows me to make a little personal complaint that my father was already on the continent then as part of the Eighth Army which were marching up through Italy, but somehow that campaign gets forgotten. I am getting off the subject, though.

[Lilias]

Led By Donkeys has created two awesome projections for the occasion. XD

[Mechelle]

Donald Trump's second day over here was embarrassing in a number of different ways.

There were protests, albeit in smaller numbers than last year, although Trump dismissed them as "fake news". He turned down a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, the democratically elected leader of the opposition despite my doubts about him, but did meet the unelected leader of the Brexit Party, Nigel Farage. I can't work out whether Trump refused to meet Corbyn after hearing that the latter was going to join the protests against him, or whether Corbyn decided to protest when Trump wouldn't meet him.
At the press conference, Theresa May clarified (to her successors' chagrin) that the NHS  was the National Health Service which Trump said would be on the table in any future deal. Talking of her successors, Trump said that he knew and liked Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, but didn't know Michael Gove. Odd as there was a picture of them grinning like a pair of buffoons and sticking their thumbs up after Gove had interviewed him in the past!

[Oniya]

Why would the UK's health care have anything to do with any 'deals' with the US?  O_o

[HairyHeretic]

Probably they want to carve it up, fully privatize it and make it like the US healthcare system. I don't see that idea being too popular with most of the voting population in the UK though.

[Mechelle]

Yes, I think that's it, as well as the chance to sell more pharmaceuticals to them.

I forgot to mention the important news that Larry, the Downing Street cat, was able to breach the defences of President Trump's highly fortified car when he decided to have a rest underneath it and refused to be moved.

[Kitteredge]

Any citizen of Britain ought to feel their gonads or ovaries or whatever they might have shrivel and shrink into their bodies at Trump's idea of accessing the NHS. The American healthcare system an utter disaster and getting worse, a profound rent-seeking gouging of consumers that may never be fixed. The Brits should rest assured this wasn't Trump's idea -- he's too stupid to come up with it -- but must be something batting around in conservative circles of Washington. It's so astoundingly mendacious. But this is exactly what Brexiteers should expect upon Leaving: they will be at the mercy of heavier trading partners. I don't doubt the Americans could prise the U.K. open and start feasting on the health services. Good God.

[Mechelle]

Trump has now withdrawn those remarks about the NHS being included in a trade deal, during an imterview with Piers Morgan.

[Kitteredge]

Trump has now withdrawn those remarks about the NHS being included in a trade deal, during an imterview with Piers Morgan.

Yeah, that's what he does, says shit, retracts it when the heat comes in, then comes back with it later. Good luck, U.K.!