US Politics

[Rich]

Lets see if we can keep this thread a little more civil.

I found this interview very interesting.  A lot of soft balls thrown at Trump, he explained his back pedalling on his more extreme issues as a lot of his claims as opening bids for negotiation purposes.  Which .. whatever .. I still think that those are insincere claims he used to get elected.

He does now come across way more presidential then he did prior to the election.  A lot of his noise, yelling, and rhetoric has been scaled back.

Do respect this one though:

Quote

 

Lesley Stahl: Are you gonna take the salary, the president’s salary?

Donald Trump: Well, I’ve never commented on this, but the answer is no. I think I have to by law take $1, so I’ll take $1 a year. But it’s a -- I don’t even know what it is.

Donald Trump: Do you know what the salary is?

Lesley Stahl: $400,000 you’re giving up.

Donald Trump: No, I’m not gonna take the salary. I’m not taking it.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-donald-trump-family-melania-ivanka-lesley-stahl/

[IC Khari]

Hoping for the best, that's all we can do right now ...

[The Unknown Poster]

10 minutes ago, IC Khari said:

Hoping for the best, that's all we can do right now ...

I made a comment in the other thread that one can hope Trump feels "dared" to be a good President.  He's all ego.  If he feels compelled, by his ego, to try and be "good", then he has the power to do that.  Generally, I think he will end up bogged down in nonsense.  Since winning, he cant even stay out of the cesspool so no reason to think he will as President.

Appointing Steve Bannon certainly doesnt signal to anyone that he wants to appear inclusive of all Americans. 

I will defend him on one thing - this stuff about his kids getting security clearance.  Its funny, his campaign manager confirmed there was informal talk but Trump claims its all a lie.  Notwithstanding the rules against it, if his kids have jobs in government where they might need to view classified information then obviously they should have clearance.  Trump's answer should have been that.  But whatever. 

His "slip" in his victory speech about doing good work "for the next two years" makes me think he has little desire to be in this for the long haul.

[Mark F]

The election of Trump might signal the real start of the decline of the America as the dominant country in  the world.

I suspect that  the rest of the world has finally reached a point of exhaustion with the destructive things done by the leaders of the USA. The Americans have been warring in Afghanistan for 14 years. incredible. close to three times as long as WW 2. Lot of people making a lot of money, of this mess. I just read that one cruise missile costs one million dollars.

Already China has said if USA tries to back out of the Paris climate agreement, that they will take it's place, and already increased the amount of money they're putting in. 

But if Trump cans the TPP, (we'll see about that)

that'll be cause for happiness.

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by Mark F

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Rise of the Rednecks is how I see it.

[kelownabomberfan]

40 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Rise of the Rednecks is how I see it.

http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/14/election-marks-end-americas-racial-detente/

[FrostyWinnipeg]

24 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/14/election-marks-end-americas-racial-detente/

Chrysler announces late addition to 2017 line up...

[JCon]

In terms of policy changes, it will be interesting to see how relations are between Canada and the US.

I don't really care about the personal relationship between Trump and Trudeau but rather those negotiating trade deals.

Trump has stated his desire to rework NAFTA. From a Canadian point-of-view, there are concessions that we can make in some areas, if it offsets US concessions in others.

Obviously, beef and softwood lumber are the high profile areas of concern for both countries.

Overall, looking at the deal is positive, as long as both sides are willing to negotiate.

[The Unknown Poster]

9 minutes ago, JCon said:

In terms of policy changes, it will be interesting to see how relations are between Canada and the US.

I don't really care about the personal relationship between Trump and Trudeau but rather those negotiating trade deals.

Trump has stated his desire to rework NAFTA. From a Canadian point-of-view, there are concessions that we can make in some areas, if it offsets US concessions in others.

Obviously, beef and softwood lumber are the high profile areas of concern for both countries.

Overall, looking at the deal is positive, as long as both sides are willing to negotiate.

Trade deals will be interesting.  Trump's bluster was really that these are bad deals for the US and he will make them better.  Well, the point when two nations negotiate deals is to compromise.  Will be interesting to see what happens.  Its not like in business where he can just decide not to pay.  I suspect with Trump, his bluster will give way when the people actually doing the job fill him in on how it really works.

[JCon]

8 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Trade deals will be interesting.  Trump's bluster was really that these are bad deals for the US and he will make them better.  Well, the point when two nations negotiate deals is to compromise.  Will be interesting to see what happens.  Its not like in business where he can just decide not to pay.  I suspect with Trump, his bluster will give way when the people actually doing the job fill him in on how it really works.

I think what will happen is that he'll get some concessions on things that irk some Americans but will have to give on others.

Both sides will claim victory. Both oppositions will call foul. Rinse, repeat.

[tacklewasher]

Jon Stewarts take on things.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jon-stewart-the-daily-show-former-host-election-2016-donald-trump-republicans/

“I thought Donald Trump disqualified himself at numerous points. But there is now this idea that anyone who voted for him is -- has to be defined by the worst of his rhetoric,” Stewart said. “Like, there are guys in my neighborhood that I love, that I respect, that I think have incredible qualities who are not afraid of Mexicans, and not afraid of Muslims, and not afraid of blacks. They’re afraid of their insurance premiums. In the liberal community, you hate this idea of creating people as a monolith. Don’t look as Muslims as a monolith. They are the individuals and it would be ignorance. But everybody who voted for Trump is a monolith, is a racist. That hypocrisy is also real in our country.”

Again, the people who voted Trump in are not all Rednecks, or terrible people or any one thing. They are 60 million people who voted for Trump for good and bad reasons. If the left continues to denigrate 60 million people without learning why they voted the way they did, the US will get the full 8 years of Trump.

Just like Canada is going to get multiple terms of Trudeau.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Stewart taking shots to the left. Why not it's a free for all now.

[SpeedFlex27]

Does anyone really know if NAFTA & these other international trade deals have made our lives better or worse? I just see jobs going to Mexico or China & the Phiullipines. Meanwhile you can't ship beer from one province to another among other things. I wish we'd take care of our own country first before trying to be wunderkinds on the world stage all the time & have everybody like us.

Edited November 19, 2016 by SpeedFlex27

[Goalie]

I've read many articles that state NAFTA was a whole lot better and more fair to Canada and the USA years ago. So if we go back to let's say 10 years ago... I think we are better off.  Mexico pays people peanuts and seem to benefit the most from the current agreement.  

 

I think Obama and Harper for that matter did some good things but I think they also did some things that perhaps weren't in the best interest of the majority of Canada and USA interests. 

Trump will be interesting. I actually agree with his immigration stance. I don't think illegals or criminals should be allowed to stay. I don't think families should be torn apart however if your family member is in the US illegally... well, to bad so sad in my opinion. 

 

I don't think all Muslims are terrorists either and I don't think it's smart to single out a group of people based on their religion. 

But.... Trump said what he said because he wanted to win. He won so I'd suspect that most of the stuff he promised he'd do.... he won't.  

He said he'd drain the swamp bug the people he is giving jobs in his administration to, well, not exactly draining the swamp.  

Trump took advantage of people's stupidity. Has said he loves stupid uneducated people... why? Cuz they are easy to manipulate.  

Not all 60 million people who voted for him are... but I'd suspect a large chunk Is. 

Edited November 19, 2016 by Goalie

[kelownabomberfan]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/rex-murphy-media-failures-1.3856599

[FrostyWinnipeg]

I just dont know how free trade benefits countries with higher wages then other counties. I'm old enuf to remember that when free trade started with usa we lost thousands of jobs as companies moved to USA.

Then you have free trade with Mexico?

Seems like we double losers.

 

[Jacquie]

Here's an excerpt from a June 28, 2016 article in the National Post about NAFTA:

Quote

 

Canada and Mexico both do far more trade with the U.S. than with each other.

The U.S. sees a modest, but positive, impact from NAFTA, most think-tanks agree. Some debate whether the deal has stymied Mexico’s growth. Canada is generally seen as a winner.

A special report from BMO Capital Markets last week shows Canada’s total trade within NAFTA went from $239 billion in 1994 to $567 billion in 2015. Concurrently, unemployment went from 10.4 per cent to 6.9 per cent.

The Council of Canadians blames NAFTA for the loss of about half a million jobs. But the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations estimates job gains in Canada at 4.7 million since NAFTA’s entrance.

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/reality-check-canada-has-no-appetite-to-scrap-trade-despite-nafta-poll

[Jacquie]

3 hours ago, Goalie said:

Trump will be interesting. I actually agree with his immigration stance. I don't think illegals or criminals should be allowed to stay. I don't think families should be torn apart however if your family member is in the US illegally... well, to bad so sad in my opinion. 

But.... Trump said what he said because he wanted to win. He won so I'd suspect that most of the stuff he promised he'd do.... he won't.  

The bolded part is a bit contradictory, don't you think. How do you deport a family member without tearing apart the family. 

Considering who Trump has appointed to his transition team, cabinet positions and his personal staff it's hard to fathom him not doing it.  

Nominee/Appointees

Senator Jeff Sessions - Attorney General

Quote

 

Sessions was one of only nine senators who, in 2005, voted against a measure sponsored by Senator John McCain to prevent torture by the military under George W Bush. A year earlier, graphic photographs of army reservists mistreating prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad became public. More recently he has questioned whether terrorism suspects should receive the protection of the US court system and objected to the planned closure of the prison on Guantanamo Bay.

The former federal prosecutor has also opposed nearly every immigration bill that has come before the Senate over the past two decades that has included a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. He is an enthusiastic backer of Trump’s promise to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Last year he wrote a 25-page report blaming job losses and welfare dependency on immigration.

 

Mike Pompeo - CIA chief

Quote

 

After the 2014 release of a landmark Senate report into CIA torture, Pompeo personally attacked Democrat Feinstein, the report’s leader, saying she had “put American lives at risk”. He called those at the CIA who participated in torture “heroes, not pawns in some liberal game being played by the ACLU and Senator Feinstein”.

Like Sessions, Pompeo has been a fervent opponent of closing the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. And he has waxed enthusiastic about rolling back the minimal restrictions on the US surveillance apparatus enacted during the Obama administration, using descriptions of those restrictions that have not always been accurate. In a January op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Pompeo incorrectly claimed the “collection of phone metadata under the Patriot Act was banned by Congress and finally ceased at the end of November”.

 

Michael Flynn - National Security Advisor
 

Quote

 

The retired soldier caused widespread controversy after sharing a video on Twitter along with a comment stating: "Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL: please forward this to others: the truth fears no questions..."

The video claims the term Islamophobia is an oxymoron as phobia means an irrational fear and that fearing Muslims is a logical reaction.

...

His relationship with Russia has been heavily questioned after he was paid to attend a Moscow gala hosted by the state-run Russian news channel RT. He was pictured seated next to President Vladimir Putin. 

 

These excerpts are from articles in the UK newspapers The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/18/trump-cabinet-appointments-sessions-pompeo-flynn) and The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-general-michael-flynn-national-security-adviser-transition-team-white-house-a7424271.html).

 

[Mark F]

11 hours ago, tacklewasher said:

In the liberal community,

 

And here John does the same thing he's complaining about.

It's not just the "liberal" community (whatever that is) it's all communities.

We are all treated like idiots by our betters.   We are spoken to as if we are simpletons.... there is always only one correct anwer for each question.

Quote

he was paid to attend a Moscow gala hosted by the state-run Russian news channel RT. He was pictured seated next to President Vladimir Putin. 

OH NO! . PUTIN!     current person (after Assad I guess, or Sadaam, (sp) or somebody) we are all supposed to be shaking in our boots about. Russia doesn't even have a serious army. It's a "shadow" of the Soviet military. Easy to find out more about this on the internet tubes.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Mark F

[Jacquie]

Perhaps you should speak to people in Ukraine, Syria and Crimea before dismissing Putin.

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/mike-pence-hamilton-musical/index.html

 

Nice story.

I think it would have been better if Dixon had used Trump's speech on unity, verbatim. 

Quote

"I'm asking America to join me in dreaming big and bold, and dream for wonderful things in our future. Let's close the history books on the failures in Washington and let's open a new chapter of success and prosperity for all of our people. We have a divided nation, a seriously divided nation. All of our people -- that is how we will truly make American great again,"

and see what Trump's response would have been. 

[Mark F]

36 minutes ago, Jacquie said:

Perhaps you should speak to people in Ukraine, Syria and Crimea before dismissing Putin.

Did I say I admire Putin? Or that i think he has done anything worthwhile? Don't think so.

I said he's no threat to us.

The European and American war mongers are trying to go back to the cold war, cause they  make a lot of money off of war, building and selling weapons systems (one cruise missile costs one million dollars)

hence they have to find a  Russian to demonize. It's Putin.

Russia/Putin is not a threat to anyone in Europe, or North America. I mean no threat whatsoever. If you want to ask the people in Syria who is killing them, there is a wide assortment of people and countries to choose from. Russia is one, so is USA, so is Saudi Arabia. Crimea is almost one hundred percent Russian, was part of Soviet Union till early fifties when Khruschev "gave" it to the Ukraine.

Ukraine is not doing so well these days either. 

I don't buy the propaganda  that we're fed... that when we bomb it's good, and when someone else bombs it's evil.

 

[Goalie]

Ask people in Iraq and Afghanistan what they think about the USA bombing them for the last what 14 years 

[The Unknown Poster]

On 11/18/2016 at 9:03 PM, tacklewasher said:

Jon Stewarts take on things.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jon-stewart-the-daily-show-former-host-election-2016-donald-trump-republicans/

“I thought Donald Trump disqualified himself at numerous points. But there is now this idea that anyone who voted for him is -- has to be defined by the worst of his rhetoric,” Stewart said. “Like, there are guys in my neighborhood that I love, that I respect, that I think have incredible qualities who are not afraid of Mexicans, and not afraid of Muslims, and not afraid of blacks. They’re afraid of their insurance premiums. In the liberal community, you hate this idea of creating people as a monolith. Don’t look as Muslims as a monolith. They are the individuals and it would be ignorance. But everybody who voted for Trump is a monolith, is a racist. That hypocrisy is also real in our country.”

Again, the people who voted Trump in are not all Rednecks, or terrible people or any one thing. They are 60 million people who voted for Trump for good and bad reasons. If the left continues to denigrate 60 million people without learning why they voted the way they did, the US will get the full 8 years of Trump.

Just like Canada is going to get multiple terms of Trudeau.

THis is a great take on it.  Certainly, you have to question the intelligence of those who voted for Trump.  But there are legitimate reasons some did.  But like Stewart I agree there disqualifiers.   I think that's the pain some people feel here.  You see it everywhere really (here certainly) where people blindly support a party no matter what.

But I doubt Trump wants the job for 8 years. 

[The Unknown Poster]

On 11/19/2016 at 8:26 AM, Mark F said:

 

And here John does the same thing he's complaining about.

It's not just the "liberal" community (whatever that is) it's all communities.

We are all treated like idiots by our betters.   We are spoken to as if we are simpletons.... there is always only one correct anwer for each question.

OH NO! . PUTIN!     current person (after Assad I guess, or Sadaam, (sp) or somebody) we are all supposed to be shaking in our boots about. Russia doesn't even have a serious army. It's a "shadow" of the Soviet military. Easy to find out more about this on the internet tubes.

The world has dictators and terrible people.  Is that a shock?  Like Putin is cool because he's the latest in a line of assholes?  Or do you mean Assad and Saddam were cool?