Inauguration

Quote: rxwine

Looks like he's working hard on making some sort of crisis between Mexico and the US. It may be his first real accomplishment other than paper signing.

It's been building up for a while. A few weeks ago he went after Toyota and BMW for building auto plants in Mexico, threatening them with tariffs. This even though one company is Japanese, the other German, and neither was moving "jobs" from the US to Mexico.

Golden Boy may think this makes him look good, and to his supporters it might (but his supporters would also think him taking a shit in the White House lawn makes him look good). In fact it makes him look like a beggar threatening passerby with a sledge hammer.

I really hope all these displays of anger don't give him an aneurysm.

Quote: Nareed

It's been building up for a while. A few weeks ago he went after Toyota and BMW for building auto plants in Mexico, threatening them with tariffs. This even though one company is Japanese, the other German, and neither was moving "jobs" from the US to Mexico.

Golden Boy may think this makes him look good, and to his supporters it might (but his supporters would also think him taking a shit in the White House lawn makes him look good). In fact it makes him look like a beggar threatening passerby with a sledge hammer.

I really hope all these displays of anger don't give him an aneurysm.

The 3 biggest reasons I was a Republican in the past
free trade
low taxes
Against Russia.

Trump is against free trade, raising taxes to pay for a wall, pro Russia
Not much left for me in that party lol

Mexico called his bluff, Trump is holding nothing and going all in :-)

Quote: terapined

The 3 biggest reasons I was a Republican in the past

In a past life maybe, there's no way
you were anything but Lib in this
one. The Right is not exactly the
typical refuge for mixed race people.
You sound like very lifetime Lib I've
ever heard.

Donald is seriously mentally ill.

Trump pressured Park Service to back up his claims about inauguration crowd

Quote:

In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the National Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that they might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.

....

For Trump, who sees himself and his achievements in superlative terms, the inauguration’s crowd size has been a source of grievance that he appears unable to put behind him. It is a measure of his fixation on the issue that he would devote part of his first morning in office to it — and that he would take out his frustrations on an acting Park Service director.

Quote: terapined

The 3 biggest reasons I was a Republican in the past
free trade
low taxes
Against Russia.

Yeah, and they say there's no split in the GOP now....

Quote:

Mexico called his bluff, Trump is holding nothing and going all in :-)

The con man can fool anyone who wants to be fooled.

For instance, does anyone believe all it takes to build a multi-billion dollar wall is an executive order? Such orders deal with policy and actions by the executive branch. Congress still must provide the funding. I assure you the budget under operation now, doesn't include wall money.

And there are issues with the ownership of the land all along the border. Some of it may be federal land, some is private property. Of course, the orange man may not care about any of that.

So, sure, there may be money in the current budget that can be diverted to build some additional fencing, maybe a little brick and mortar wall that will look good in photo ops and keep the suckers happy. But not for a real wall.

Quote: Evenbob

The Right is not exactly the
typical refuge for mixed race people.
.

Why?
Is the whole party white?
Republicans make sure to not attract the mixed races?

Hmm
EB is going after me
The Trump administration IS walking back the 20% tariff
EB is beside himself
So angry he has to go after terapined because Trump not following through with the stupendously dumb idea of 20% tarriffs

Quote: terapined

Why?
Is the whole party white?
Republicans make sure to not attract the mixed races?

Hmm
EB is going after me
The Trump administration IS walking back the 20% tariff
EB is beside himself
So angry he has to go after terapined because Trump not following through with the stupendously dumb idea of 20% tarriffs

Wow, Bob's such a class act, he's gotta bring race into it.

What a guy! What a hero! I'm sure he's off to join the EPA right now.

Quote: Face

Count me as on edge. Good or bad, I don't like when .gov works so fast.

Well put. Bureaucracy is a double-edged, to be sure. A fast-moving government is bound to make more mistakes than a slow-moving government. And when the U.S. government makes a mistake it has the potential to affect tens of millions of lives.

Quote: Politico

The breakneck pace of Trump’s executive actions might please his supporters, but critics are questioning whether the documents are being rushed through without the necessary review from agency experts and lawmakers who will bear the burden of actually carrying them out.... By contrast, the Obama White House ran executive orders through a painstaking weeks-long process of soliciting feedback from agencies and briefing lawmakers, according to a former official. Sometimes it even asked expert lawyers in the private sector to check its work.

The key problem with Trump's speed is that he doesn't know what he doesn't know. Reminds me of that Rumsfeld quote about known unknowns and unknown unknowns...

Quote: Nareed

So, sure, there may be money in the current budget that can be diverted to build some additional fencing, maybe a little brick and mortar wall that will look good in photo ops and keep the suckers happy. But not for a real wall.

You live in Mexico, right Nareed?

Considering how much wealthier and powerful the U.S. government is relative to the Mexican government, don't you think the U.S. would win virtually any dispute with Mexico? In other words, Mexico needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs Mexico. (I'm open to the possibility that I'm completely wrong on this.)

It seems like China has far more leverage over the U.S. than little ol' Mexico.

Quote: ams288

Donald is seriously mentally ill.

Maybe. But isn't it also possible that his crazy Tweets are intended to shape the public discourse and distract us? I can't decide how much of his erratic behavior is an act.