President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Be careful. Be very, very, very careful.

 

My goal is to retire at 56. I have no defined benefit pension. Just savings, both IRA/401k, and after-tax (savings). My house is paid for. Kids will be out of college. I am planning this out every single day.

Hell, I found a place on the ss.gov website that tells you what your reduction in SS payment is with what they show on your statement, vs. if I don't work from 56-62. There is a damn good calculator to work on it.

 

We already know that the Trump administration plans to deregulate markets, wage all-out war on “radical Islamic terrorism,” trash climate science and unleash a fossil-fuel frenzy. It’s a vision that can be counted on to generate a tsunami of crises and shocks: economic shocks, as market bubbles burst; security shocks, as blowback from foreign belligerence comes home; weather shocks, as our climate is further destabilized; and industrial shocks, as oil pipelines spill and rigs collapse, which they tend to do, especially when enjoying light-touch regulation.

All this is dangerous enough. What’s even worse is the way the Trump administration can be counted on to exploit these shocks politically and economically.

Speculation is unnecessary. All that’s required is a little knowledge of recent history. Ten years ago, I published “The Shock Doctrine,” a history of the ways in which crises have been systematically exploited over the last half century to further a radical pro-corporate agenda. The book begins and ends with the response to Hurricane Katrina, because it stands as such a harrowing blueprint for disaster capitalism.

That’s relevant because of the central, if little-recalled, role played by the man who is now the U.S. vice president, Mike Pence. At the time Katrina hit New Orleans, Pence was chairman of the powerful and highly ideological Republican Study Committee (RSC). On September 13, 2005 — just 14 days after the levees were breached and with parts of New Orleans still under water — the RSC convened a fateful meeting at the offices of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Under Pence’s leadership, the group came up with a list of “Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane Katrina and High Gas Prices” — 32 policies in all, each one straight out of the disaster capitalism playbook.

Get Ready for the First Shocks of Trump’s Disaster Capitalism

 

Yes, Trump understands blue collar and rural America so much better than the coastal elites. That's why he's proposing eliminating the Clean Waters Rule - which was supported by B.A.S.S., TU and every other fishing-related group in the country (and even DU too).

White House Targets Clean Water Rule for Elimination - Fishing Tackle Retailer

 

Wonder how many fishermen voted for Hillary? Guessing not many. Fuck em. Catch weeds like I used to.

 

To paraphrase Colin Powell: You broke it, you bought it, Red America.

 

Give me a break!

No one has ever had a more charmed political career than President Obama. Look at who he ran against!

 

Deflection, deflection, deflection. Don't look over here, look over there!

 

Can anyone make his hat a Yankees cap?

 

Those Badlands NPS tweets are now gone.

http://gizmodo.com/national-parks-service-cant-stop-serving-trump-shade-on-1791577919

 

I look forward to the day Field & Stream turns into a voice of protest against Trump's idiotic environmental agenda and destruction of public lands.

 

Nah.

Look, I'm happy to disagree with and/or criticize Trump.

But, as usual, the criticism is over the top, exaggerated, and often wrong.

And, when the pool report says that the MLK bust has been removed from the Oval Office -- it wasn't -- the reporters want to get away with saying, "oops, sorry, we got it wrong."

It wasn't a lie. It wasn't fake news. Just a simple mistake. (Though, every mistake regarding Trump coverage seems to make him look bad, and not good. Why is that?)

But, if Trump or Spicer says something wrong, it's a LIE!!!! and he's damaging democracy!

The pool report regarding the CIA visit was wrong too. They first reported that they didn't know who the folks cheering were. Then they said they were folks in Trump's camp who accompanied him there. Then they had to admit that they were CIA employees, but helpfully pointed out that it was a self selected audience, who gained admission to the event through a lottery, so of course they would cheer Trump, but the top brass at the CIA did not cheer. (And, btw, if you listen to the audio, it's a lot of folks laughing and cheering, not just a couple of folks who may have been in Trump's entourage.)

And, holy fuck, the web was drowning in BuzzFeed posts like, 18 ways the Obama's renewed our faith in marriage, in the waning days of his presidency, but now we're getting tons of speculative posts about how Melania hates his guts.

It's disgusting. It's not news. It's designed to drag him down.

And, it's the same play book with every republican President. They're dumb. They're mean. Their marriage sucks. The campaign manager is evil -- and ugly.

Holy crap. When Dems win, their campaign managers/strategist are fucking geniuses and heroes. If a female campaign manager had gotten a Dem elected President, she'd be the toast of Washington D.C.

But, here's the biggest thing of all... the public sees through this now. It's why Trump won.

So, after 18 months of stories about how Trump's campaign is finished, and he can't win, we start of his presidency with stories about how it's already a total failure -- on day 2!

LOL.

He's doing great as far as his supporters are concerned.

We like his cabinet choices. We like his ending funding of foreign abortions. We like the idea of building the Dakota and Keystone pipelines. We like the meetings he's already had with manufacturers, auto execs, and labor. We're excited about who he's going to pick to join the SCOTUS.

We have no problem with his press secretary calling on a reporter from the NY Post, as opposed to the AP -- oh, the sacrilege!

And, the media, obsessing over crowd size, and then accusing Trump of obsessing over crowd size just makes us laugh.

Heck, this NYTimes reporter was upset yesterday, when reporters were asking questions about policy, instead of crowd size!