The Trump Presidency

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Schmelzer said:
Fine. If you don't have more, I have no problem if you name as US, as Syria terrorist states.
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The US had to build new facilities, start up new programs, to establish torture as routine practice - and even then was using this stuff mostly on foreigners, and mostly by foreign-dealing agencies such as the CIA. Syria had it all up and running, under Assad, and was using it on its own citizenry as an adjunct of its domestic police forces.
Schmelzer said:
I have not done anything, because I'm not a US citizen to elect somebody in US elections.
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You belong to the propaganda wing of a political faction that has had more influence on recent US elections than mine has.
Schmelzer said:
I think that "incompetence, corruption, destruction of American political infrastructure and the like" will weaken the US government, and this is good news for the rest of the world, and for most American people too.
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Living and learning about fascism - your blind spot, as noted before.

The American government is what controls, moderates, civilizes, the American military/industrialist complex - not what powers it. You may take some pleasure in seeing the American people suffer, but the notion that the forces and factions behind US violence and impositions and bad meddling in foreign places will become weaker thereby is naive in the extreme - a fundamental mistake in analysis.
 
Paranoia and Unrest in the White House:

But to some Republicans outside the White House, Priebus is spending an inordinate amount of time managing Trump's whims, and not enough time molding a coherent administration agenda. Increasingly that job appears to have fallen to Kushner.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/politics/donald-trump-white-house-staffing/

Trump's 100 days have been chaotic to say the least. I've never seen so many reorganizations in such a short period of time. One could easily conclude Trump and his staffers don't have a clue. He hasn't been able do deliver much. He has loosened a few regulations and that's about it.
 
Well he went and done it!
59 cruise missiles on Syrian airfield on Trumps command...
Best wishes people! Uncharted waters ahead...

Trump's Speech:

"On Tuesday, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians.

"Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children.

"It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack.

"No child of God should ever suffer such horror.

"Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.

"It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.

"There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council.

"Years of previous attempts at changing Assad's behaviour have all failed and failed very dramatically.

"As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilise, threatening the United States and its allies.

"Tonight, I call on all civilised nations to join us in seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in Syria. Also, to end terrorism of all kinds and all types.

"We ask for God's wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world.

"We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed.

"We hope that as long as America stands for justice, then peace and harmony will, in the end, prevail.

"Good night and God bless America and the entire world.

"Thank you."​


src: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-07/donald-trumps-full-statement-on-syrian-strikes/8425326
 
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Trump's recent Syrian attack is diametrically opposed to what has been his often stated policy of non interventionism. So it's a bit perplexing as to why he did it. Is this a dramatic change in policy for Trump? Trump's attack just doesn't make sense if you believe all the crap he has been promulgating for the last few years. So why the change? Why now? This isn't the first time Assad has gassed children. This isn't the first time Assad has gassed children. Assad did it in 2013 causing Obama to draw his red line. At that time Trump opposed any US involvement in Syria. So why the dramatic turnaround?

I'll speculate:

1) It's a convenient diversion from his Russia problems, and this kind of stuff tends to fan the passions of nationalism within his base.
2) It feeds his massive ego.

It's all very dangerous stuff. Thus far Trump's presidency has been very troubling. If he begins using the military to boost his polling, that's a very bad thing. Trump has discovered a new toy. He is using the US military to boost his tough guy image.
 
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joepistole said:
Trump's recent Syrian attack is diametrically opposed to what has been his often stated policy of non interventionism. So it's a bit perplexing as to why he did it. Is this a dramatic change in policy for Trump? Trump's attack just doesn't make sense if you believe all the crap he has been promulgating for the last few years. So why the change? Why now?
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This is perfectly consistent behavior from Trump, and more or less consistent with any Republican president since Nixon.
joepistole said:
If he begins using the military to boost his polling, that's a very bad thing.
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Begins? He's a Republican President, beginning his Presidency.

Everyone in the US who is even slightly taken aback by Trump's promotion of a massive boost in the military budget coupled with increased quick-trigger military aggression in foreign countries, the whole in the service of domestic political needs, please burn your voter registration card now.
 
Beer w/Straw said:
Isn't, Trump. losing more of the Right wing Populace Vote because of being more aggressive militarily?
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Unlikely. The core Republican vote likes military aggression.

Unless you are talking about the overseas stuff, the foreigners, in which case why would Trump care? Or anyone else, actually - comical as it may be to listen to their expressions of surprise, you gotta wonder what they were thinking.
 
joepistole said:
Trump's recent Syrian attack is diametrically opposed to what has been his often stated policy of non interventionism. So it's a bit perplexing as to why he did it. Is this a dramatic change in policy for Trump? Trump's attack just doesn't make sense if you believe all the crap he has been promulgating for the last few years. So why the change? Why now? This isn't the first time Assad has gassed children. This isn't the first time Assad has gassed children. Assad did it in 2013 causing Obama to draw his red line. At that time Trump opposed any US involvement in Syria. So why the dramatic turnaround?

I'll speculate:

1) It's a convenient diversion from his Russia problems, and this kind of stuff tends to fan the passions of nationalism within his base.
2) It feeds his massive ego.

It's all very dangerous stuff. Thus far Trump's presidency has been very troubling. If he begins using the military to boost his polling, that's a very bad thing. Trump has discovered a new toy. He is using the US military to boost his tough guy image.
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The problem Joe that needs to be kept in mind is that Trump can not be assessed from a conventional or typical rational point of view.
To rationalise the insane, is the most insane thing you could attempt to do.
...and Trump is ...uhm... not a well man...
 
One of the things the USA military need to consider is that if Assad has chemical weapons and is supported by Russia, then it is a safe bet to assume that Russia also has significant chemical weapons at it's disposal.
 
The most troubling thing about this is that it happened just because of Trump's mood/emotions after watching cable TV and see the children who were victims of the gas attack.

All victims of all attacks are tragic figures. It doesn't make it worse just because there was a camera there. If someone convinces Trump that China abused some child is he going to send Tomahawks that way?
 
Seattle said:
The most troubling thing about this is that it happened just because of Trump's mood/emotions after watching cable TV and see the children who were victims of the gas attack.

All victims of all attacks are tragic figures. It doesn't make it worse just because there was a camera there. If someone convinces Trump that China abused some child is he going to send Tomahawks that way?
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Troubling? Fuck terrifying! This man a year ago said we need to kill their families, he said we should not go in there, now he has flipped to the neo-con position, we are going to war!

 
So much for draining the swamp, Trump announced this week that he would protect the privacy of lobbyists by not releasing the daily White House visitor logs as Obama had done.
 
The swamp spreads: http://projects.propublica.org/graphics/beachhead

The first guy in line there, Curtis Ellis, is a good illustration:

Trump is of course adding political oversight deadweight into dozens of Federal agencies, as W&Cheney did, to handle public relations and journalist's inquiries and so forth, but his hires for these positions are of even lower quality and greater threat for anyone concerned with science or factual accuracy in a democratic polity.

And people like Ellis highlight the problem. It's not just that Trump is packing key offices with lobbyists and poorly educated campaign workers in their twenties like W did, although he is, but the new level of threat posed by guys like this: http://politichicks.com/2016/08/curtis-ellis-trumponomics/

He's a columnist for World Net Daily, ok? He's been hired as a "Special Assistant" to the Secretary of Labor - so he doesn't have to be vetted in public.

Meanwhile, required public financial disclosure forms for a large number of Trump staff and administration hires who do have to pass vetting have not been released, and those that have been have been made as difficult and expensive as possible to examine. https://www.propublica.org/article/...-released-most-staffers-financial-disclosures
 
Seattle said:
The most troubling thing about this is that it happened just because of Trump's mood/emotions after watching cable TV and see the children who were victims of the gas attack.

All victims of all attacks are tragic figures. It doesn't make it worse just because there was a camera there. If someone convinces Trump that China abused some child is he going to send Tomahawks that way?
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It's not like gassing children is something new, Assad has been doing it for a very long time. Assad and his Russian ally have routinely bombed hospitals in violation of international law. For years I have wondered if Trump really is as dumb and ill informed as he appears to be, and as time goes by the more and more convinced I am he really is that dumb.

Trump's policies can best be described as erratic. It's not like we couldn't see this coming. A few weeks ago he was fine with Assad, now he isn't. Assad hadn't anything he hasn't done before. But suddenly and inexplicably he has turned against Assad.

Trump has flipped on a number of things, e.g. China, NATO, Syria, et al. What's next? Tomorrow, a few days from now, a month from now, he might flip back. Who knows?
 
joepistole said:
It's not like gassing children is something new, Assad has been doing it for a very long time. Assad and his Russian ally have routinely bombed hospitals in violation of international law. For years I have wondered if Trump really is as dumb and ill informed as he appears to be, and as time goes by the more and more convinced I am he really is that dumb.

Trump's policies can best be described as erratic. It's not like we couldn't see this coming. A few weeks ago he was fine with Assad, now he isn't. Assad hadn't anything he hasn't done before. But suddenly and inexplicably he has turned against Assad.

Trump has flipped on a number of things, e.g. China, NATO, Syria, et al. What's next? Tomorrow, a few days from now, a month from now, he might flip back. Who knows?
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I agree. I thought at one point that he might be reasonable intelligent but that he just likes drama and self-promotion (which he does of course) but now I'd agree that he is also just dumb. At a minimum he lacks the ability to focus.

I think he likes people (in general) so if he actually met Assad he would probably stop bombing Syria as well. :) The best thing the N. Korea leader could do would be to visit Mar-a-Lago.

Maybe he'll get rid of Bannon and let the moderates (and grown-ups) take over more so less damage will be done until the mid-term elections.
 
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