[Nicodimas]

Trumps and co's victory over few days looks great just knocking them out of the park. I haven't see this much change in ages.. Look's like the Democrats are all board this administration, just like that, as they are really quickly introducing a trillion dollar's in infrastructure spending. See no fight needed here. Got to get in on the America first policy for certain. This would be a good time for Trump and Co to claim a victory as working across the isle looks good. That might be a good tit for tat for McCain's bill on department of Defense that outlay's five trillion. In a global mission of Peace this looks like bright days ahead for the world. In terms of working with other countries this would be a perfect time to really work with Russia on those oil pipelines and open dialogue to properly divide up interest between the flow of Europe. Also, working with Russian maybe the long game could be developing ground for a new Truman level plan that would dwarf all previous spending's in this way. A great way for the West to bring future peace perhap's, mainly a cool idea/musing. For now though it definitely looks to be a focus on policy at home.

In terms of America first, he is really strongly pushing for increased business interest's and helping the main corporations in terms of bringing more industry back to America. Hence Tax cuts..If they cut them they will come. I wonder how many job's he can create and help America out <pdf below>. The key thought process is a strong foundation of business with a government to co-ordinate/obfuscate <depending on what this media says..like really guy's all aboard> . Looks like America will have some very good years ahead with infrastructure and a pro-business president that is working toward getting Industry back. The tough part will getting cash strapped American's to buy America products. Protectionism and Nationalism work well together. So raising tariff's could help in this practice, but more would be definitely needed than a paltry 35 percent, it should bring more to parity the America worker's wage with benefits. Remember, America doesn't need the world...the world needs us. Which definitely leads to the next part. Trump and co definitely have introduce a place of Nationalism and get the fervor rolling through the masses. Excitingly, I heard something about more military parades? That sounds like quite a family time to celebrate our peacekeeping forces and celebrating as they bring America interest's first to the forefront.

(Check out some these projects....Neat stuff. Now get the media on board and hope Phoenix can get in on some of that infrastructure money...)

https://www.scribd.c...reen&from_embed

Sound's like they are just rolling through the changes so far...interesting what change's Trump and co bring.

I definitely hopeful Phoenix get's choosen and get's lots of fed money for certain. /sign me up.

[worry]

Literally none of that is true.

[worry]

On the other hand, the South are already getting a taste of what a profit-motive-only, pro-austerity government is gonna get them. And I say that with no relish, after the horrors of Katrina.
http://www.nbcnews.c...-across-n711071

[Terez]

death rattle, on 25 January 2017 - 01:44 AM, said:

On the other hand, the South are already getting a taste of what a profit-motive-only, pro-austerity government is gonna get them. And I say that with no relish, after the horrors of Katrina.
http://www.nbcnews.c...-across-n711071

Hattiesburg (Forrest County) is my college town. There was another tornado that hit them a couple of years ago and specifically hit my campus (this was after I had graduated though). This time, it missed my campus, but it got the William Carey campus not far away. I don't think tornadoes have ever been a big problem there before, but they sure have been lately.

[HoosierDaddy]

amphibian, on 24 January 2017 - 10:27 PM, said:

Itwæs Nom, on 24 January 2017 - 09:10 PM, said:

Out of curiosity, are there any laws regarding mental health of an US president?

The 25th Amendment talks about "discharging the powers and duties of the office". There would have to be an incapacitated Prez - going under for surgery (Reagan and W Bush), Reagan's assassination attempt, Nixon resigning - for the power to move to the VP or Speaker of the House.

There is some small elaboration on the amendment itself, but it's purposely vague to allow flexibility.

So doctors declaring a President unfit enough to require a 25th Amendment shift are going to be hard to find. That's a huge move to make on someone who flat out wants to be the most powerful person in the world and a vengeful President will ruin careers. I think the Reagan administration actually hid his Alzheimer's for years to avoid this.

I doubt Trump will ever be declared unfit to be President for medical reasons or specific mental health reasons.

It'd be seen as a coup by a lot I think, despite Pence's step-up. I don't think it'd happen outside truly crazy action, and at that point I think there are enough implements in place to handle it subtly and peacefully. That being said: normal politics has absolutely been thrown to the curb this election, so who really knows what. That's the scary part and the part that'll keep things status-quo.

[Slow Ben]

death rattle, on 25 January 2017 - 01:44 AM, said:

On the other hand, the South are already getting a taste of what a profit-motive-only, pro-austerity government is gonna get them. And I say that with no relish, after the horrors of Katrina.
http://www.nbcnews.c...-across-n711071

Maybe Trump can take some more Play-Doh.

[Cause]

Tapper, on 24 January 2017 - 08:57 AM, said:

Early stages of dementia and drug (ab)use have both been named as possible causes for Trump's speech pattern, which often features multiple repetitions shortly after one another ("natural talent. He is a natural. He has natural talent"), and multiple contradictions and abrupt changes of topic in one conversation or speech.

Never heard this before but sadly it does sound plausible. His speech pattern is definitely bizarre, but than again it could also be a way to buy time during his speeches without saying um and aah instead. He also seeminglky has a tendency to obfuscate questions or perhaps during his rambling he actually forgets what the question was about. Still if he does have serious Alzheimers they wont be able to hide it for long. It will only get worse.

Also does the president not undergo medical check ups before the inauguration? Someone would have noticed?

[HoosierDaddy]

Cause, on 25 January 2017 - 09:49 AM, said:

Tapper, on 24 January 2017 - 08:57 AM, said:

Early stages of dementia and drug (ab)use have both been named as possible causes for Trump's speech pattern, which often features multiple repetitions shortly after one another ("natural talent. He is a natural. He has natural talent"), and multiple contradictions and abrupt changes of topic in one conversation or speech.

Never heard this before but sadly it does sound plausible. His speech pattern is definitely bizarre, but than again it could also be a way to buy time during his speeches without saying um and aah instead. He also seeminglky has a tendency to obfuscate questions or perhaps during his rambling he actually forgets what the question was about. Still if he does have serious Alzheimers they wont be able to hide it for long. It will only get worse.

Also does the president not undergo medical check ups before the inauguration? Someone would have noticed?

Ah, you must have forgotten the infamous doctor's note that said Trump was literally "the healthiest president that would ever be elected." Which was written in 5 minutes while Trump and his limo were hanging outside.

Lol.

[Lady Bliss]

I just read a CBS poll that says that 48% of Americans think that we will be better off after Trump's presidency. Who the hell are these people? Is this more funny math?

[amphibian]

Lady Bliss, on 25 January 2017 - 05:20 PM, said:

I just read a CBS poll that says that 48% of Americans think that we will be better off after Trump's presidency. Who the hell are these people? Is this more funny math?

Depends on who is answering the polls. Life hasn't been uniformly good for all people within Obama's run (or GWB's run). Big parts of the country cratered pretty hard (assisted by horrible policies mostly enacted by the GOP and abetted by weak Democratic resistance if any was present). So it might be optimism on their part that "this is the guy that'll help us instead of the liberal elites who did well the last 10 years".

[Vengeance]

amphibian, on 25 January 2017 - 05:42 PM, said:

Lady Bliss, on 25 January 2017 - 05:20 PM, said:

I just read a CBS poll that says that 48% of Americans think that we will be better off after Trump's presidency. Who the hell are these people? Is this more funny math?

Depends on who is answering the polls. Life hasn't been uniformly good for all people within Obama's run (or GWB's run). Big parts of the country cratered pretty hard (assisted by horrible policies mostly enacted by the GOP and abetted by weak Democratic resistance if any was present). So it might be optimism on their part that "this is the guy that'll help us instead of the liberal elites who did well the last 10 years".

A lot of those people live in areas which had a single employer or type of employer (coal,steel,Cars) and once those jobs leave they never come back. They are for numerous reasons, the people are, unable to leave their area and move to area's where jobs are more numerous. Thus they feel left behind during the economic rebound. For the majority of these area the local politicians have underfunded education (variety of reasons) and so you have an under educated large group of people who know that they lost their job because Coal companies have left, or the chinese are undercutting the US in steel or.. (insert an excuse). When all of that is coupled with people who say that the reason that they are in the shape that they are is due to XXX people (liberal elites, Mexicans taking their jobs...) it is easy for them to feel left out and ignored rather then realizing that the situation that they and their community is in is due to the natural progression of society and migration of jobs. There isn't a fur industry any more at least not on the scale when it generated millions in profit for the HBC. The logging industry is much much smaller then it was 100 years ago. Creating steel in the USA is simply more expensive when you also want to have clean drinking water and not a dead lake Erie. Look at what has happened to the lakes and rivers and air in China as they have rushed through a 150 years of industrial build up in 20 years. Dead rivers, dead lakes, Air that is poisonous. Now they are putting tons and tons of environmental regulation into place to try to correct that.

What people don't seem to understand is that having regulations in place are not job killers. People have to be hired to meet the regulations. What regulations do is to cut into a companies bottom line and reduce the amount of money that is available for dividend payouts. It is always cheaper for a company to be able to dump into what ever is handy. You don't have to hire people to monitor anything nor put equipment into place in order to filter out hazards. Regulations aren't job killers. But that is something that has been sold to the people who live in the area's where their local industry has fallen off.

When you combine a narrow local view point with propaganda from corporations that left the area with a poor education you end up with Trump in office.

[worry]

So you've got the populist lies about jobs coming back, the 'othering' of scapegoats, and the big fat worm on a hook that is SCOTUS for the social conservatives.

Add to that the long con of trickle down economics for econ conservatives, and the libertarian indifference to suffering (I'll refrain from calling it 'glee' for now) you get from Silicon Valley/Peter Thiel types which affords them the ability to deceive people w/o compunction, and you get optimism about Donald Trump. These guys literally do the calculations of how many people they have to sacrifice to get what they want or see the world they want made, and due to that scapegoating mentioned above Trump supporters seem to think that pulls them out of the pyre. It's a simple trick, and all it really is is a temporary reprieve.

It's seemingly an odd partnership: neocons want wage-slaves who make just enough to draw wealth from collectively; tech-libertarians know that tech advances mean more and more of a post-labor economy, and instead of preparing everyone for that, they're fine w/ the "losers" (who they despise, hence the 'glee' I'm refraining from mentioning) being left behind, dying like leaves on a tree. They're both death cults, and what they have in common is extracting wealth from both the peasants they're scapegoating and the peasants they've made complicit in the scapegoating*.

*'Scapegoating' is a political term of art, a handy euphemism for 'human sacrifice', which all Trump supporters -- even those poor souls in dead industry ghost towns that 'moderate' dunces who make six figures writing spineless thinkpieces have demanded we find sympathy for -- have willfully colluded in.

[worry]

Trump's basis for his "voter fraud" claims: rooted in anti-Latino bigotry, completely anecdotal, largely misremembered:
https://www.nytimes....ting-fraud.html

He's gonna hunt people down like dogs and start up the raids that terrorized Latino communities in the 1980s.
http://www.slate.com...ive_orders.html

DACA and the DREAMers are very likely on the chopping block. Muslim ban in effect (though not total, yet).
http://www.vox.com/p...executive-order

They're really gonna (try to) build the wall. $15 billion +.
http://thehill.com/h...for-border-wall

It's only Wednesday here.
https://www.timeanddate.com/

[Garak]

Add this guy to the pile since Trump picked him: http://www.bbc.com/n...siness-38749884

[EmperorMagus]

Someone on twitter was claiming to be a midlevel white house staffer. His information is unverified but still interesting to read (and very SAD! that it sounds entirely plausible.)

http://imgur.com/a/TSrPJ

[MTS]

EmperorMagus, on 26 January 2017 - 06:29 AM, said:

Someone on twitter was claiming to be a midlevel white house staffer. His information is unverified but still interesting to read (and very SAD! that it sounds entirely plausible.)

http://imgur.com/a/TSrPJ

Considering Trump's temperament and the general unpreparedness during the transition I'm completely unsurprised.

There was some talk during the campaign of Trump basically becoming a figurehead with Pence and Priebus pulling the strings, but at this stage I'm pretty sure Trump will react very badly to any attempt to 'handle' him. At the same time Trump is all about 'results', so I imagine this will be a very reactionary, shoot-from-the-hip Presidency, with most real, considered change coming from the House.

Also, the positive behind a lot of these executive orders is they're pretty easily reversable, at least in the long term. Once they start being codified into law, then I'll start being worried.

[Macros]

[QuickTidal]

Looks like Scientific American is having none of this muzzling nonsense.

[worry]

You ever get the feeling that along with everything else about this election, it was also just another way to beat up nerds? Which, by the way, was exactly Obama's thing, second only to his blackness, in terms of national perception.

You know how people comfort nerd kids who've been bullied with lines like "I know it's bad now, but someday you'll be their boss"? President Trump embodies a pretty unmistakable rebuke to that sentiment.

[Lady Bliss]

I wonder if Trump will notice that Theresa May is getting more applause than him at the GOP retreat.