New Donald Trump thread

[swordfish]

On 9/22/2019 at 8:39 PM, gonzoron said:

Mike Pence takes eight-vehicle motorcade across island where cars have been banned for a century

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mike-pence-mackinac-island-cars-banned-motorcade-fournier-michigan-a9115631.html

FTA:

"The ban is so strictly enforced that when President Gerald Ford visited in 1975, he and first lady Betty Ford travelled by horse-drawn carriage."

OMG - Say it ain't so.....

[gonzoron]

53 minutes ago, swordfish said:

OMG - Say it ain't so.....

[swordfish]

https://fox17online.com/2019/09/23/pence-takes-motorcade-on-michigans-mackinac-island/

Banned?  SF remembers seeing some "banned" vehicles there last summer......But never mind the facts.......Pence is Satan's servant.......

[gonzoron]

5 minutes ago, swordfish said:

..But never mind the facts.......Pence is Satan's servant.......

On that we can agree.

Sounds like it's time to boycott Shepler's Ferry for abetting the criminals bringing vehicles to the island.

[swordfish]

1 minute ago, gonzoron said:

On that we can agree.

Sounds like it's time to boycott Shepler's Ferry for abetting the criminals bringing vehicles to the island.

😋

[gonzoron]

SPENDING CLAUSE

Evidence Increasingly Indicates Trump's Ukraine Pressure Tactics Usurped Congress' Power of the Purse—and that he may have Committed a Federal Crime in the Process

https://reason.com/2019/09/28/evidence-increasingly-indicates-trumps-ukraine-pressure-tactics-usurped-congress-power-of-the-purse-and-that-he-may-have-committed-a-federal-crime-in-the-process/?fbclid=IwAR1ogo-Rr9VSIz0ECrB_k25f7xOkuiDV3a35O1cGRUb-HRr5l3y21CJJgiY

[Muda69]

Trump's Civil War Tweet Is Bad. This Other Tweet May Be Unconstitutional.: https://reason.com/2019/09/30/trumps-civil-war-tweet-isnt-criminal-this-other-tweet-might-be/

Quote

Who had "Civil War fetishizing by the executive branch" on their 2019 bingo card? Because that's where we find ourselves this Monday morning after President Donald Trump spent the weekend (per usual) watching TV and tweeting furiously.

"If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal," Trump tweeted on Sunday night, quoting what Pastor Robert Jeffress said on Fox News. This followed Trump tweets accusing Rep. Adam Schiff (D–Calif.) of treason and fraud and saying Democrats were trying to "destabilize" America.

While the Civil War tweet is getting more attention, the Schiff tweet may be a bigger deal. The president accusing a member of Congress of treason for something they said on the House or Senate floor is unconstitutional. "Trump's tweet is by itself arguably impeachable," suggested political science professor Jacob Levy

 

His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber. He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2019

 

The relevant part of the U.S. Constitution is known as the speech and debate clause. It says:

For any Speech or Debate in either House, [members of Congress] shall not be questioned in any other Place.

This clause "serves various purposes: principally to protect the independence and integrity of the legislative branch by protecting against executive or judicial intrusions into the protected legislative sphere," notes Todd Garvey of the Congressional Research Service.

A president of the United States accusing a member of Congress of treason is literally unconstitutional and presumptively impeachable. Imagine this was happening in another country—it would signify a massive breakdown. You'd expect someone to fix it. And if not, you'd worry a lot https://t.co/shCRvCUyg8

— Paul Musgrave (@profmusgrave) September 29, 2019

 

The Schiff tweet has been overshadowed by Trump's subsequent mention of civil war. Many are insisting that Trump was threatening to start one and has violated a law against inciting "rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States."

So today Trump threatened a whistleblower, accused one or more of his top nat sec aides of being spies, demanded a House Chair be interrogated on suspicion of treason and threatened to foment a civil war if he is removed from office.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 30, 2019

 

The president didn't directly threaten to start a civil war, of course, nor make an actual attempt to incite one (yet). But Trump even broaching it as a possibility is disturbing and provides yet more evidence of his truly twisted, selfish way of looking at things.

"Even by Trump standards, this is a remarkably irresponsible tweet," said National Review's David French of this civil war quote. "The impeachment inquiry should focus not just on abuse of power but also fitness for office. This is repugnant."

"This what he wants from you, Republicans," tweeted Will Wilkinson of the Niskanen Center. "He literally wants you to fight & die in a bloody civil conflict to bail him out of the mile-deep mineshaft he's dug with a lifetime of bottomless corruption. That's how he sees your life: a human shield for him, worthless in itself."

Any president who would prefer civil war to being removed from office does not love their country and is certainly not serving it

— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) September 30, 2019

 

In between his busy schedule of making unconstitutional statements and walking the line on inciting violence, Trump took time this weekend to highlight the thoughts of randos who dislike the same people as he dislikes and a "Trump But About Sharks" parody account.

The President of the United States retweeted a parody account that makes fun of him for disliking sharks pic.twitter.com/evGXPQ7kvq

 

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 29, 2019

Really, Mr. Trump needs to get out of office.  I won't be voting for him in 2020 and I heartily recommend GID do not as well.

 

[Irishman]

A bit surprised that nothing has been posted about the foreign policy shift with Turkey. I see a lot of concerns being posted about the Kurds. They are really upset. I saw this posted this morning and am wondering...why are we abandoning them now? 

 

[DanteEstonia]

*Shah

[Irishman]

This may be the longest stretch of time on this topic that a question about a Trump policy/policy change has gone unanswered by his staunchest supporters here. Also interesting to see a number of prominent Republican legislators speaking up in opposition. It even sounds like the change will not be approved by congress. 

[Muda69]

Trump's Nearly $1 Trillion Deficit Is Worse Than a Broken Promise: https://reason.com/2019/10/08/trumps-nearly-1-trillion-deficit-is-worse-than-a-broken-promise/

Quote

One of the refrains from President Trump's most ardent defenders—as well as from the president himself—is that he keeps his promises. For the last several years, the Republican National Committee, which serves as a de facto arm of the president's political operation, has been touting "promises made, promises kept," a phrase that the president has repeated at campaign stops and rallies. The website PromisesKept.com is operated by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. 

The idea behind the slogan is to combat the idea that Trump has few policy accomplishments, and to portray the president as someone who can be relied on to follow through on his campaign promises. He's a president you can count on. 

Yet when it comes to the federal debt, Trump is clearly failing to live up to his own words. In April 2016, Trump told The Washington Post, "We've got to get rid of the $19 trillion debt." And he believed he could make that happen in a relatively compressed time frame. "I think I could do it fairly quickly," he said. How quickly? "I would say over a period of eight years." 

Nearly three years into his presidency, however, the debt has risen to surpass $22 trillion. And federal budget deficits—the annual gap between revenues and spending—are growing ever larger, hitting levels not seen since the aftermath of the recession during President Obama's first term. 

According to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the federal budget deficit for the 2019 fiscal year, which ended last month, was about $984 billion dollars. That just-shy-of-a-trillion dollar figure is higher than projected, and represents an increase of about 50 percent from when Trump took office, and an increase of about $200 billion from last year alone. It's more than double the $442 billion deficit under Obama in 2015. 

In the macro, political-difference-making scheme of the universe, it is almost certainly futile to dwell on the question of how Republicans would have reacted to such debt-and-deficit totals under President Obama, and yet: Imagine how Republicans would have reacted to such debt-and-deficit totals under Obama.

Actually, we don't have to imagine. We know. Because Republicans warned, loudly and repeatedly, that Obama's deficits, which came in the aftermath of a nationwide economic slowdown, were apocalyptic, catastrophic, world ending, and so on and so forth. 

Yet here we are. Trump is president, and he has allowed the deficit to soar beyond the increases that were already projected to happen. And Republicans in Congress have reacted with muted concern at best, and more like a collective shrug. Trillion-dollar deficits under a Democrat were a national emergency. Trillion-dollar deficits under Trump are no biggie. It's almost like the real problem, for many Republicans, wasn't the deficit. 

...

Uni-party to the max.

 

[gonzoron]

Trump Has Spent 278 Years Of Presidential Salary On Taxpayer Funded Golf Trips

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/08/17/cost-of-trump-golf-trips.html?fbclid=IwAR31qL5c54v9rvT6GVWVMissYcdwJqCk_gZ9HS7pM0Gp0g_sXIdu2Yu6v54

[Irishman]

Doubling down on the Kurds......”they didn’t help us in the second world war” 
Truly a sad situation for the Kurds who have been a strong ally for so long. 

[Impartial_Observer]

Forget the fact that we are there, that ship has sailed. We can't just bail on these people. BHO was wrong to leave, and Trump is repeating the same mistake. 

[swordfish]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/us/politics/beatles-isis-us-custody.html

The American military is moving to take as many as several dozen Islamic State detainees out of Kurdish-run wartime prisons in northern Syria, and already has two British men in custody who are notorious for their roles in the torture and killing of Western hostages, according to United States officials.

The decision comes as the Turkish military moved into northern Syria after getting a green light from President Trump. Turkey is targeting the American-backed Kurds — known as the Syrian Democratic Forces — who were the primary allies of the United States in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria. The Turkish invasion called into question the militia’s ability to continue securely holding some 11,000 captured ISIS fighters.

The officials spoke cautiously about the transfer operation because it was still underway, but Mr. Trump spoke openly on Wednesday afternoon about the fact that the United States was taking “a certain number of ISIS fighters that are particularly bad” in order to make sure that they did not get out.

“We are taking some of the most dangerous ISIS fighters out,” Mr. Trump said in remarks while signing some executive orders. “We’ve taken them out, and we’re putting them in different locations where it’s secure.”

Mr. Trump had previously said that Islamic State detainees in northern Syria would become Turkey’s responsibility, and it was not clear what his administration’s long-term plan would be for those who were instead coming into the American military’s custody.

For now, the military was taking at least some of the men to Iraq, where the United States has a base where it has held a handful of Islamic State detainees with American citizenship before transferring them to domestic soil — or, in one case, releasing a detainee in Bahrain.

So as Turkey moves into the border areas of Syria to remove the Kurds, and create a safe buffer zone (they have never liked the Kurds that close to their border), the US has quietly moved the high-value ISIS detainees out of the area.  Do you think DJT is relying on the Turk's habit of killing terrorists rather than detaining them to take care of the remaining detainees?

 

[Irishman]

38 minutes ago, swordfish said:

 

So as Turkey moves into the border areas of Syria to remove the Kurds, and create a safe buffer zone (they have never liked the Kurds that close to their border), the US has quietly moved the high-value ISIS detainees out of the area.  Do you think DJT is relying on the Turk's habit of killing terrorists rather than detaining them to take care of the remaining detainees?

 

Good question as far as allowing the Turks to do the dirty work. But it still does not really address the issue of the Kurds, and what they now face. 

[gonzoron]

[swordfish]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50091305

urkey has agreed to a ceasefire in northern Syria to let Kurdish-led forces withdraw, US Vice-President Mike Pence has announced.

The development followed talks in Ankara between Mr Pence and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

All military operations will be paused for five days, and the US will help facilitate an "orderly withdrawal" of Kurdish-led troops from what Turkey has termed a "safe zone" on the border.

Turkey launched its assault last week.

It aimed to push back the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia that Ankara views as a terrorist group, and resettle up to two million Syrian refugees in the area.

Critics raised fears that the move could trigger ethnic cleansing of the local Kurdish population.

The cross-border offensive came after US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling US forces out of the border region - a decision widely criticised in the US and internationally.

Mr Trump tweeted about the ceasefire before Mr Pence unveiled it, writing: "Millions of lives will be saved!"

He added later: "This deal could NEVER have been made 3 days ago. There needed to be some "tough" love in order to get it done. Great for everybody. Proud of all!"

 

inRead invented by Teads

Mr Pence credited Donald Trump's "strong leadership" during the announcement, saying: "He wanted a ceasefire. He wanted to stop the violence."

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists the offensive would only be permanently halted when the SDF had left the border zone.

"We are suspending the operation, not halting it," he said. "We will halt the operation only after [Kurdish forces] completely withdraw from the region."

Mr Pence said the US would lift economic sanctions imposed on Turkey when the military offensive ended, and would not impose more in the meantime.

The SDF was not represented at the talks between Washington and Ankara, and have not yet commented on the developments.

Mr Pence said the US had already contacted the Kurdish-led alliance, and would help facilitate its withdrawal.

 

 

[swordfish]

And this is why the MSM dislikes the President.....No matter what you think, I know he wants to get this information out to us in the most expedite way possible without the bias of a left-leaning media......Go ahead and google "trump turkey" see what comes up.......

From the President:

Just spoke to President Erdogan of Turkey. He told me there was minor sniper and mortar fire that was quickly eliminated. He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work. Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen. Too bad there wasn’t this thinking years ago. Instead, it was always held together with very weak bandaids, & in an artificial manner. There is good will on both sides & a really good chance for success. The U.S. has secured the Oil, & the ISIS Fighters are double secured by Kurds & Turkey. I have just been notified that some European Nations are now willing, for the first time, to take the ISIS Fighters that came from their nations. This is good news, but should have been done after WE captured them. Anyway, big progress being made!!!!

 

 

[Muda69]

Federal Deficit Hit $984 Billion Last Year—a Nearly 50 Percent Increase Since Trump Took Office. In three years in office, Trump has added more to the national debt than President George W. Bush did in his entire two terms.  : https://reason.com/2019/10/25/federal-deficit-hit-984-billion-last-year-a-nearly-50-percent-increase-since-trump-took-office/

Quote

During the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump said he'd be able to wipe out the national debt in eight years. Instead, after three years in office, he's overseen a nearly 50 percent increase in the gap between how much the government takes in and how much it spends.

The Treasury Department announced Friday that the official federal deficit for fiscal year 2019, which ended in September, was $984 billion—in line with what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated last month. The announcement serves as official confirmation that the federal government's mountain of red ink has grown dramatically during Trump's first three years in the White House. It is now approaching levels not seen since the early Obama years.

 

Chart by Eric Boehm. Source: U.S. Treasury data

The deficit is growing despite growth in tax revenues. The Treasury Department reported that corporate tax revenue was up 12 percent over the previous year, while overall tax receipts rose by about 4 percent. But spending grew by 8 percent.

In a statement, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the data showed "President Trump's economic agenda is working"; he also touted the low unemployment rate and ongoing economic growth. He added a boilerplate call for cutting "wasteful and irresponsible spending."

What's really irresponsible is spending growth that's outpacing revenue growth by a rate of 2-to-1. Trump's defenders will point out that he's not solely responsible for setting the government's budget. That's true, but he has the final say on all spending bills and he has been refusing to force the spending cuts Mnuchin says are necessary.

When Congress passed a bipartisan budget plan in March 2017 that annihilated Obama-era spending caps, Trump begrudgingly signed the bill while promising that he'd never agree to another spending hike like that. Earlier this year, when Congress passed another budget-busting spending bill, Trump signed it without so much as expressing a second thought.

Perhaps nothing demonstrates Republicans' complete abdication of fiscal conservatism as much as this: In three years in office, Trump has added more to the national debt than President George W. Bush did in his entire two terms. (Though Bush did have the advantage of starting out with a budget surplus in his first year.)

 

Chart by Eric Boehm; Source: U.S. Treasury data

Bush was no tightwad. In the early Obama era, it was not uncommon to hear Republicans admit that Bush's spendthrift ways had paved the way for worse. Now, on an annual basis, Trump's deficit spending is nearly as bad a Obama's was over two terms.

Give Trump a few more years and I'm sure he'll surpass Obama. That's because the nature of the current budget deficit is fundamentally different from the peaks of the early 2010s. Those deficits eventually tapered off for a variety of reasons. Recovery from the Great Recession boosted tax revenue. The spending binge approved in response to the recession faded away. And fiscally prudent Republicans imposed some modest caps on future spending growth.

Now? The country is running a massive (and growing) deficit despite a decade of economic growth and a low unemployment rate. "Higher outlays for Medicare, Social Security, Defense, and interest on the public debt" drove the deficit increase in fiscal year 2019, the Treasury Department says.

The current deficit isn't the result of temporary circumstances like World War II or a major recession. It's a systemic deficit, a result of poor budgeting and bad decision-making by members of Congress and the current administration. It's not going to resolve itself, and it's on pace to get much worse. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has called the federal government's current fiscal situation "unsustainable," and the CBO expects the national debt to hit "unprecedented levels" in the coming decades, well above the record highs set during World War II.

"A deficit of this size following the longest span of economic growth in history shows just how reckless our leaders have become. This is exactly the time when deficits should be contracting, not expanding," Leon Panetta, co-chairman of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement. "But instead of getting our fiscal house in order and preparing for the next downturn, our leaders continue to binge on debt-fueled tax cuts and spending hikes rather than showing the leadership necessary to set our fiscal path."

And there is no almost no interest in either major party in cutting spending or balancing the federal budget.

Democrats have abandoned all pretense of caring about the national debt, or even attempting to explain how they might pay for new federal programs. And Republicans seem capable of offering nothing more than obviously false promises and empty rhetoric.

 Yep, uni-party to the max.  Spending the country into oblivion,  leaving disaster for our children and grandchildren.  And I thought Mr. Trump was going to put a stop to this?

 

[gonzoron]

[Muda69]

I can believe this meme bothering those individual who believe the U.S. Federal Government is essentially one big charity, handing our "free this and free that" to everyone that asks.

 

[gonzoron]

DONALD TRUMP PROMISED TO ELIMINATE THE DEFICIT IN 8 YEARS. SO FAR, HE HAS INCREASED IT BY 68%

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-deficit-debt-cbo-data-obama-1463802?fbclid=IwAR1PwTGAGOIdXqwZGhk9ulmgPSk4yw7zFS52o5VsIE7V3ymi_GCvIU9LdWw

[Irishman]

I am not an economist but some things catch my eye and make me wonder. The mass of layoffs by Celadon is one of those things. We are told the economy is great, so why the layoffs? is 4,000 a large number? It seems so imo. 
https://cdllife.com/2019/celadon-makes-it-official-4000-jobs-wiped-out/
 

This is an article from March about how the year started off with only 432 layoffs in Indiana, and the average for the last couple of years is around 2,500. To me, 2,000 layoffs is a significant number, especially when you see it has happened more than one or two years. https://www.theindychannel.com/mass-layoffs-down-in-indiana-so-far-in-2019 

we are told that unemployment is at a record low. But there is this 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/07/that-50-year-low-in-unemployment-isnt-helping-worker-paychecks.html

We have been told at the Statehouse that fewer people are applying for SNAP assistance. The implication is that fewer people are living in poverty. What really has happened though is that 1. Fewer people may be applying, but the risk is if a parent is homeless, the children will be taken away. 2. The standards for SNAP eligibility have changed. 
 

So what gives? Am I the only one that is skeptical or concerned? 

 

 

[gonzoron]

12 minutes ago, Irishman said:

So what gives? Am I the only one that is skeptical or concerned?

No. https://www.wthr.com/article/celadon-files-bankruptcy-leaving-more-3000-without-job