US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6738

On February 02 2017 08:15 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
lol this 'skype caller' during the white house press conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F855i1Tzx_g&t=33m55s

That's so clearly a pre-arranged question for Trumps narrative...propaganda at it's finest

The other ones are equally narrative guiding. What a joke:

+ Show Spoiler +

Basically every question is 'great and honorable mister Spicer thanks for even looking at me, now I know Trumps plans are great but can you please repeat how great they are'

They'd probably love nothing more than to get rid of all real journalists and only do this for an hour in the future.

Republicans have overwritten the value of federal lands, easing the path to disposing of federal property even if doing so loses money for the government and provides no demonstrable compensation to American citizens.

The US dollar posted its worst January in three decades after US President Donald Trump and his trade adviser accused Germany, China and Japan of exploiting currencies to gain a trade advantage over the US.

In a meeting with senior pharmaceutical executives on Tuesday, Mr Trump said: “You look at what China is doing and what Japan has done over the years, and they played the money market and the devaluation market and we sit there like a bunch of dummies.”

Just hours earlier, Peter Navarro, the director of Mr Trump’s new National Trade Council, accused Germany of using a weak euro to exploit the US and its European Union trade partners. He told the Financial Times the euro was like an “implicit Deutsche Mark” whose low valuation gives Germany an advantage over its main trading partners.

“Suspicions that Washington may increasingly focus on the value of the dollar were catapulted into the limelight,” ANZ analysts wrote in a note.

“The early policy implication is that dollar competitiveness could have a prominent role to play in Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.”

For January, the US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, slid 2.6 per cent, its worst performance for the first month of the year since 1987, according Reuters.

Mr Trump’s accusations drew rebuttals from German and Japanese officials and the dispute looked likely to run for some time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Germany “has always called for the European Central Bank to pursue an independent policy”.

Meanwhile Japan’s top government spokesman told reporters it was “absolutely not the case” that Tokyo was devaluing the yen to gain an unfair trade advantage.

In the aftermath of Mr Trump’s election victory in November, strategists and economists had broadly expected the dollar to be fuelled by the President’s investment promises and pledges to cut back regulation and tax, but many are now saying that the uncertainty enveloping markets is deterring investors from placing big bets on the currency.

“It seems clear that Trump’s modus operandi seems to be to make public threats and bold claims first, before negotiating later,” Mark Dowding, a partner at BlueBay Asset Management, wrote in a note earlier this week.

“This is likely to lead to elevated volatility as investors seek to interpret the various tweets and messages coming from the White House and it will be important to monitor events in DC very carefully in the next few weeks.”

One thing that could spur fresh dollar strength is any kind of indication from the US Federal Reserve that it intends to raise interest rates imminently.

The Reserve kicked off a two-day meeting on Tuesday and will make a statement later on Wednesday.

On February 02 2017 08:28 LegalLord wrote:

Gotta find some new Russians then. The old ones might be disinclined to hack-n-leak.

On February 02 2017 09:16 GreenHorizons wrote:
I find it fascinating the conversation is so distorted that people are pondering whether the SCOTUS pick is a hill worth dying on, meanwhile there are several "Democrats" that haven't voted against any of his picks yet.

On February 02 2017 09:30 LegalLord wrote:

Leftists across the entire Western world are quite fractured right now. I don't see this being an easy fix.

On February 02 2017 09:35 biology]major wrote:


The party was fractured even more so by HRC. Almost lost to a self identified socialist, lost to a guy with middle name Hussein and then lost to guy who grabs people by the pussy. Truly a remarkable feat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop "bad hombres down there" unless the Mexican military does more to control them, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.

The excerpt of the call did not detail who exactly Trump considered "bad hombres," nor did it make clear the tone and context of the remark, made in a Friday morning phone call between the leaders. It also did not contain Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's response.

Still, the excerpt offers a rare and striking look at how the new president is conducting diplomacy behind closed doors. Trump's remarks suggest he is using the same tough and blunt talk with world leaders that he used to rally crowds on the campaign trail.

A White House spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. The Mexican government said the account was not accurate.

The phone call between the leaders was intended to patch things up between the new president and his ally. The two have had a series of public spats over Trump's determination to have Mexico pay for the planned border wall, something Mexico steadfastly refuses to agree to.

"You have a bunch of bad hombres down there," Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt given to AP. "You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it."

A person with access to the official transcript of the phone call provided only that portion of the conversation to The Associated Press. The person gave it on condition of anonymity because the administration did not make the details of the call public.

The Mexican website, Aristegui Noticias, on Tuesday published a similar account of phone call, based on the reporting of journalist Dolia Estevez. The report described Trump as humiliating Pena Nieto in a confrontational conversation.

Mexico's foreign relations department denied that account, saying it "is based on absolute falsehoods," and later said the statement also applied to the excerpt provided to AP.

"The assertions that you make about said conversation do not correspond to the reality of it," the statement said. "The tone was constructive and it was agreed by the presidents to continue working and that the teams will continue to meet frequently to construct an agreement that is positive for Mexico and for the United States."

Trump has used the phrase "bad hombres" before. In an October presidential debate, he vowed to get rid the U.S. of "drug lords" and "bad people."

"We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out," he said. The phrase ricocheted on social media with Trump opponents saying he was denigrating immigrants.

Trump's comment was in line with the new administration's bullish stance on foreign policy matters in general, and the president's willingness to break long-standing norms around the globe.

Before his inauguration, Trump spoke to the president of Taiwan, breaking long-standing U.S. policy and irritating China. His temporary ban on refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, aimed at reviewing screening procedures to lessen the threat of extremist attacks, has caused consternation around the world.

But nothing has created the level of bickering as the border wall, a centerpiece of his campaign. Mexico has consistently said it would not pay for the wall and opposes it. Before the phone call, Pena Nieto canceled a planned visit to the United States.

The fresh fight with Mexico last week arose over trade as the White House proposed a 20 percent tax on imports from the key U.S. ally to finance the wall after Pena Nieto abruptly scrapped his Jan. 31 trip to Washington.

The U.S. and Mexico conduct some $1.6 billion a day in cross-border trade, and cooperate on everything from migration to anti-drug enforcement to major environmental issues.

Trump tasked his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner — a real estate executive with no foreign policy experience — with managing the ongoing dispute, according to an administration official with knowledge of the call.

At a press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May last week, Trump described his call with Pena Nieto as "friendly."

In a statement, the White House said the two leaders acknowledged their "clear and very public differences" and agreed to work through the immigration disagreement as part of broader discussions on the relationship between their countries.

On February 02 2017 09:48 xDaunt wrote:
Just out of curiosity, to what extent do you liberals and democrats fault the message (ie the platform and ideology) and not just the messenger (Hillary)?