politics Post Election Thread: Democracy Dies In Darkness And You Can Help

[Ramlaen]

52 minutes ago, Jeeps_Guns_Tanks said:

What is the point if NATO, in 2017?

 

(IMO) Its become a hybrid of a defensive alliance and a pan European military.

 

Quote

The USA has troops on the Russias border.

If Russia or China singed a defensive pact with Mexico and put troops there the US would treat it like an act of war.

 

 

It probably would, but the relationship/history between the United States and Mexico is an apples to oranges comparison with that of Russia and Eastern Europe.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Ramlaen

[Jeeps_Guns_Tanks]

Seems like the quickest route to ww3 is we keep inducting worthless border nations of Russia they invade one the USA has no reason to care about and Russia invades for what they consider valid defense reason and either the USA goes to war or don't honor the treaty. None of this seem to be in US interests.

[Collimatrix]

My take on Trump's international/trade strategy is that he sees the US in a great bargaining position that it's simply not taking advantage of.

 

From his point of view, the US is essentially subsidizing the cost of defense of its allied nations and not getting anything in return.  If he can instill the idea that the US is owed some sort of compensation for this service he could conceivably fund the enormous infrastructure and reform projects he has in mind without increasing domestic taxes.

 

From a negotiation stance it's shrewd.  The US is primarily a goods consuming nation, not a goods producing one.  So it is possible, for instance, to raise tariffs on imported goods without risking retaliation.

 

It would be a radical shift, but one I think Trump has a decent chance of implementing.  Whether that's running a protection racket or simply re-negotiating bad deals depends on where you sit, I suppose.

[Collimatrix]

I took a screenshot of CNN's frontpage today, not because today is particularly special, but because today seems pretty typical.

 

 

CNN, once considered the thinking man's cable news outlet, is completely mesmerized by someone that the staff of CNN would denounce to a man as an unsophisticated blowhard.  CNN is all Trump all the time.  Trump doesn't just command their attention, he is messily devouring their soul from atop a throne made from the bones of his enemies.  Bones coated in gold, that is.  Man has standards.

In short, CNN has fallen into exactly the same outrage-attention feedback loop as tumblr.

[Ramlaen]

Open mouth, insert foot, and probably have no idea what you just implied.

 

 

[LoooSeR]

lol

[Collimatrix]

This is significant, but I'm not sure how just yet.

[Walter_Sobchak]

 

Quote

 

But, according to three people who were present, Bush gave a brief assessment of Trump’s inaugural after leaving the dais: “That was some weird shit.” All three heard him say it.

A spokesman for Bush declined to comment.

 

 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/what-george-w-bush-really-thought-of-trumps-inauguration.html

[Sturgeon]

MY INTERNAL MONOLOGUE SAID THAT IN DUBYA'S VOICE

[ApplesauceBandit]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/03/30/eu_commission_president_jean-claude_juncker_if_trump_promotes_brexit_well_break_up_usa.html

 

wew

[ShamefurDispray]

1 hour ago, ApplesauceBandit said:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/03/30/eu_commission_president_jean-claude_juncker_if_trump_promotes_brexit_well_break_up_usa.html

 

wew

what a great way to incite a trade war with a guy who wants to declare trade wars with the entire world

[LostCosmonaut]

This could be interesting;

 

[ApplesauceBandit]

People seem to have sniffed out Comey's private twitter account.

 

http://gizmodo.com/this-is-almost-certainly-james-comey-s-twitter-account-1793843641

[Walter_Sobchak]

I have a feeling the Senate investigations are going to be more interesting than the House investigations for the simple reason that there are some Republican Senators that really hate Trump.  I'm pretty sure John McCain would gouge out Trumps eyes with his thumbs if he could actually lift his arms up that high.

[Sturgeon]

6 hours ago, ApplesauceBandit said:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/03/30/eu_commission_president_jean-claude_juncker_if_trump_promotes_brexit_well_break_up_usa.html

 

wew

 

The Brits tried that in the 1860s, it didn't work.

[Toxn]

5 hours ago, Sturgeon said:

 

The Brits tried that in the 1860s, it didn't work.

Make the USA novo Europa again.

[Legiondude]

12 hours ago, Sturgeon said:

 

The Brits tried that in the 1860s, it didn't work.

Georgian senator Richard Russell Jr. tried that in reverse in 1947(on the justification that the UK couldn't replay it's war debt to the US, they should be annexed), it didn't work.

 

The UK cited that the Confederate State of Georgia had a standing debt with them, suddenly the lines went cold

[EnsignExpendable]

Accurate

 

[LoooSeR]

Democrats’ Blind Obsession on Russia-gate

 

Not bad article on situation with plenty of links.

 

Quote

   Exclusive: Instead of focusing on President Trump’s poor policies – or fixing their own shortcomings – Democrats obsess over Russia-gate, though the case is flimsy and reeks of McCarthyism, as Daniel Lazare explains.

   By Daniel Lazare

 

   Democrats are jubilant now that “Trumpcare” has bit the dust. But they should be careful because Russia-gate, the pseudo-scandal that they’ve latched onto in hopes of driving Donald Trump out of office, is also flashing red. The more they ignore the warning signs, the greater the odds that they’ll go down in flames as well.

 

   Russia-gate, of course, is the story of how the Kremlin allegedly used surreptitious means to hijack the American political process and place a “Siberian candidate” in the White House. It purportedly started five years ago when, according to the famous Christopher Steele dossier, Vladimir Putin foresaw that Donald Trump would become president and set about turning him into a compliant tool of Russian interests.

   The Kremlin supposedly threw sweetheart real-estate deals his way (although a lucrative hotel plan never materialized for unexplained reasons) and fed him valuable intelligence about his opponents, all the while blackmailing him with a secret video showing him cavorting with prostitutes at Moscow’s Ritz Carlton.

 

   Then, at the height of last year’s election, Russia was said to have followed up by hacking Democratic National Committee computers and releasing thousands of private emails to WikilLeaks in order to embarrass Hillary Clinton and tip the contest in favor of Trump. This audacious effort succeeded when Trump eked out a victory by virtue of the Electoral College. As a result, Vladimir Putin now controls not one presidential office but two, one in Moscow and the other in Washington, DC.

 

   It’s a cool story about treason, international intrigue and hot babes, but it’s no more convincing than “Birthergate” was seven or eight years ago.....

 

[LoooSeR]

lol, those "military-related" sites articles.

 

This Whole 'Donald Trump' Thing Isn't Working Out For Russia at Foxtrot Alpha

 

Trump Aides and Russian Mobsters Pulled Strings in Putin’s Massive Ukraine Gas Scheme at Warisboring

[LoooSeR]

 

[Sturgeon]

I feel like the media is increasingly playing the role of Baghdad Bob to Trump, once again. I'm having flashbacks to October.

[Ramlaen]

Cernovich will post things before getting solid confirmation but this could get entertaining if Rice was the one who had those intelligence reports unmasked.

 

 

[Ramlaen]

 

[Ramlaen]

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-04-03/top-obama-adviser-sought-names-of-trump-associates-in-intel

White House lawyers last month discovered that the former national security adviser Susan Rice requested the identities of U.S. persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The pattern of Rice's requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government's policy on "unmasking" the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like "U.S. Person One."