US Politics Mega-thread - Page 507

On July 20 2018 11:19 xDaunt wrote:

Far from it. Trump is doing exactly what I voted for him to do. Hell, he is acting more conservative than the fools on Capitol Hill. Earlier today, I saw an article (I think it was from The Hill) that discussed how Trump was unhappy with how the GOP refused to cut as much funding from various administrative agencies as Trump had requested. It is shit like that which makes congressional republicans so despised among the base.

Edit: Here is an article talking about it.

On July 20 2018 12:41 CorsairHero wrote:

Trump is so conservative he added a trillion to the debt. But sure, 2 billion in cuts to the EPA catches your eye.

On July 20 2018 12:15 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:

Even at the costs of others lives and well being, you're standing by this guy?

On July 20 2018 12:58 xDaunt wrote:

Like whom?

Almost from the day he arrived in Moscow as the U.S. ambassador in 2012, Michael McFaul and his family were subjected to a campaign of surveillance and harassment.

According to McFaul’s book “From Cold War to Hot Peace,” Russian authorities followed him to his son’s soccer game and on outings to McDonald’s. They trailed his children’s bus to school and sat behind the family at church. They slashed the tires of an embassy staffer’s car and broke into the homes of other employees.

Embassy security officials advised McFaul there was only one secure room at the embassy he and his wife should use if they ever quarreled because everywhere else was monitored by the Russian government.

Now, McFaul is one of 11 U.S. citizens a Russian prosecutor wants to question in connection with an investigation many U.S. officials say is bogus. The list is believed to include at least two other former diplomats, a congressional staffer, a CIA agent, a staffer for the National Security Council and two employees at the Department of Homeland Security.

The State Department has called the request for the Americans “absolutely absurd,” and the White House said Thursday that President Trump “disagreed” with the idea after initially declining to rule it out. The Senate voted 98 to 0 for a resolution calling on the administration to refuse to make any officials available to Russia for interrogation.

What began as Trump’s attempt to repair relations that had been deteriorating since the Obama administration ended up causing a bigger rift.

The fact he had even considered making Americans submit to questioning by Russian authorities sowed suspicion and outrage among current and former diplomats.

Russian President Vladi­mir Putin raised the issue when he met Trump in Finland this week, days after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian military officers suspected of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump initially called the offer “interesting.”

“It’s flabbergasting why the White House did not shut this down immediately,” said Nicholas Burns, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs. “The president should have said at the news conference that he would not go along with this.”...

On July 20 2018 13:11 Kyadytim wrote:

Hi. You might remember a couple of months ago I brought up how repealing the ACA without a robust replacement would literally kill me. That hasn't changed, but since then (in early July), the Trump administration has continued to undermine the ACA without any replacement plan by putting a hold on the risk adjustment transfers and cut funding for the enrollment assistance referred to as navigators again.

But we could also go back to discussing the kids in cages, the kids who weren't bathed for months, the kids who are attending their own hearings at one year old, and such if you'd rather focus on that avenue of harm.

On July 20 2018 15:09 ShoCkeyy wrote:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/putin-appears-to-be-targeting-us-officials-who-worked-to-sanction-russia/2018/07/19/289059ac-8b67-11e8-8aea-86e88ae760d8_story.html



This is a mob. This is how mobs work. Now with Putin coming to the U.S since 2007 is a new era... Republicans also now denied the interpreter for Putin and Trump. And they also blocked a measure on funding from foreign attacks on our election. Party over country. These are not republicans anymore.

https://mobile.twitter.com/thebaxterbean/status/1019986680793698312?s=21

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b50b75de4b0de86f48ac6d5

Oh Nunes... how has this country forsaken you.

[The EAC] just handed out $380 million to states to strengthen their voting systems. But nearly 70 percent of the states waited more than two months to ask for the money, a Hearst Television review of EAC data found. Now that the last state, Maine, requested it Friday, July 13, there’s no requirement they spend it to protect November’s midterm elections…

As of July 13, just 18 of the 50 states have asked DHS for free “risk and vulnerability” cyber assessments. States could also choose to hire private companies or do it in-house.

And only about half of state elections officials eligible for permanent security clearances from the federal government have them. They need that clearance to receive ongoing classified information about threats.

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, said Thursday he wanted the State Department interpreter to appear in closed session, saying Congress must “find out what was said” during the two-hour meeting.

The California lawmaker says he realizes it’s an “extraordinary” step to subpoena the interpreter, but it’s also extraordinary for the president to meet alone with a U.S. adversary.

On July 20 2018 07:10 Sermokala wrote:

It would be poor strategy or stupid if it was controlled in any way. Instead we get calls for impeachment every other development that everyone knows will go no where. We get predictions that muller will be fired in the week every single week. People even in this thread talk about civil war and a military coup to take trump out of power.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/opinions/americans-are-right-to-wonder-if-great-experiment-has-failed-richardson/index.html

This article by cnn is questioning if "the great experiment" of america has failed. They're talking about how america might be a failed state. If thats not hysterics you need to check yourself in.

On July 20 2018 07:10 Sermokala wrote:

It would be poor strategy or stupid if it was controlled in any way. Instead we get calls for impeachment every other development that everyone knows will go no where. We get predictions that muller will be fired in the week every single week. People even in this thread talk about civil war and a military coup to take trump out of power.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/opinions/americans-are-right-to-wonder-if-great-experiment-has-failed-richardson/index.html

This article by cnn is questioning if "the great experiment" of america has failed. They're talking about how america might be a failed state. If thats not hysterics you need to check yourself in.

President Donald Trump has indicated that he is willing to slap tariffs on every Chinese good imported to the U.S. should the need arise.

"I'm ready to go to 500," the president told CNBC's Joe Kernen in a "Squawk Box" interview.

The reference is to the dollar amount of Chinese imports the U.S. accepted in 2017 — $505.5 billion to be exact, compared to the $129.9 billion the U.S. exported to China, according to Census Bureau data.

Thus far in the burgeoning trade war, the U.S. has slapped tariffs on just $34 billion of Chinese products, which China met with retaliatory duties.

By sheer dollar volume, the Chinese won't be able to come close to the U.S. in a tit-for-tat battle. Trump's comments point to a willingness to push the envelope as far as the U.S. needs to get Chinese tariff concessions, along with a pledge to stop stealing American technology.

"I'm not doing this for politics, I'm doing this to do the right thing for our country," Trump said. "We have been ripped off by China for a long time."

Trump said the U.S. is "being taken advantage of" on a number of fronts, including trade and monetary policy. Yet he said he has not pushed the tariffs out of any ill will towards China.

"I don't want them to be scared. I want them to do well," he said. "I really like President Xi a lot, but it was very unfair."

Trump also said he was told by unspecified Chinese officials that "nobody would ever complain" from past administrations "until you came along — me. They said, 'Now you're more than complaining. We don't like what you're doing.'"

On July 20 2018 12:56 xDaunt wrote:

Presidents don’t draft budgets. Trump didn’t want what the GOP gave him, but they forced him to sign it or face a shut down.

On July 20 2018 20:49 Ciaus_Dronu wrote:


US democracy failed in 2000. Now it's just provably very far past the point of mere failure.

On July 20 2018 22:59 kollin wrote:

The interesting part of the debate is that we can't really know whether this is just a mid life crisis or terminal disease. One of the defining features of strong democracies appear to be their ability for self-correction, and regular function in the face of great duress - US presidential elections continuing throughout WW2 is an example of this. Whether the damage Trump wreaks on democratic institutions and norms is fatal or not is something we won't know until irs too late, but it's fun to speculate!

On July 20 2018 23:50 Slydie wrote:


Does it have much to do with Trump, though?

-You have a system for regulated corruption built into the presidental elections through the big donations.
-Electorial college... wtf is the point with that in 2018?
-The way congressmen and senators are elected differs WIDELY from how the population vote through an awful and outdated voting system.
-The same awful voting system makes sure you have only 2 parties while you should really have at least 6.
-The problem with the senators especially will get even worse, as even more people move to the big cities on the coasts.
-You allow Gerrymandering, which is incredible to outsiders.
-It is not a secret that big coorporations and organisations can easily buy inflence in Washington.
-Unions are surpressed, and workerrights are under constant fire.

But the ones benefitting from status quo are also the ones who can change it, so I have no idea how your country could ever improve as a democracy. Maybe if rich, populated states on the coast threaten to leave the US because they had enough of the misrepresentation and corrupt policies?

-The way congressmen and senators are elected differs WIDELY from how the population vote through an awful and outdated voting system.