Trump Presidency and the Consequences

[Splitlink]

Whether or not the domino theory panned out is a matter of opinion, and there's plenty of information on it online. But one must remember that Cambodia and Laos were also involved, and SE Asia is hardly a bastion of democracy. As for whether or not Viet Nam would have evolved as it has without our intervention, one must also remember that totalitarianism is self-limiting.

As for "Trump is right in what he says", what he says is based on the kind of shallow thinking of the typical Trump supporter and can change -- and often does -- daily. Given his paranoia, his fondness for conspiracy theories, and his knee-jerk foreign policy, he is very much a loose cannon when it comes to that area of the world in particular, and given the continuing possibility of war, he is hardly an American problem alone.

SE Asia does not have to be democratic. As long as the people, there, get on with life the way they want. At that time communism was a very real threat and we are talking 50 years after the fact. Most of us were kids at the time. I was in my twenties. I was barely 20 when China became communist. and we were all very preoccupied with the red wave that was spreading from Moscow, across to Hong Kong and Korea. It, already, had a good chunk of Europe. So much for self-limitation! Whether they did some questionable things, or not, Thank God we had the US to go into Korea and Viet Nam. History books can be very unkind.

Different times. To-day, there are different problems to solve and, although Trump may be the wrong choice, we are all going to have to change---as, you, yourself have said. That is the danger of something new. In Spain, we have a couple of new parties, born with the same discontent that you have, over there.
People are not communists, but the parties that emerge have to be watched, with regard to who the leadership is. They have a vey democratic way of getting into power. Getting them out, again,is a different matter. Putin is an example.

 

[dbphoenix]

The self-limiting nature of totalitarianism does not manifest itself in a matter of weeks or months or even years. But eventually it fails because of the nature of man. South Viet Nam and South Korea had a negligible effect on the "red wave". We failed in both. Whatever they are now is due chiefly to their self-determination.

If the West really wanted to contain communism, they would have done so in 1943. But they needed Russia to provide an Eastern front. And they didn't balk at the partitioning of Germany because they needed Russia to help defeat Japan. They also wanted to establish the United Nations, which was and is largely ineffectual due to the demands of Russia.

S. Viet Nam and S. Korea were not worth the body count.

 

[dbphoenix]

The data is unequivocal on tax cuts not paying for themselves fully, and you can see it in many analyses such as this one from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Tax cuts can increase growth somewhat in the short term, but in the U.S. they have never created enough growth to make up for the lost revenue by increased tax receipts. In fact, in the past, investment of tax funds has regularly grown the economy more than cutting taxes and leaving the money in the hands of the rich. For example, the economy grew more under tax-increaser Bill Clinton than tax-cutter Ronald Reagan, and more under tax-increaser Obama than tax-cutter George W. Bush. This claim of tax cuts paying for themselves has never been respectable amongst professional economists; even George W. Bush’s economic advisor Greg Mankiw once labeled those who advanced this claim as “charlatans and cranks.”

--Wm Berkson

 

[Atilla]

Don't believe every word Trump says.

Fake whaffler! What a bumbling fool he is! Laff a minute. Pathetic small minded man that he is. 😆



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39020962



Sweden to Trump: What happened last night?

During another ferocious attack on the media on Saturday evening, US President Donald Trump cited a non-existent incident in Sweden, baffling many - not least Swedes.

"You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers.

They're having problems like they never thought possible," the new US president told a crowd of supporters at a rally in Florida.

It was not entirely clear which incident he was referring to, as many on Twitter pointed out, including the former Swedish prime minister:

What has he been smoking indeed!

 

[Oscar Reed]

Destroyed by US carpet bombing.🙁

http://www.travel-tramp.com/my-son-temple-vietnam/

Would have been bigger than Siem Reap.

 

[dbphoenix]

[Jeb] Bush, a former presidential candidate and Florida governor who took heat from Republicans for his relatively moderate stance on immigration, on Friday tweeted a link to a Wall Street Journal column that said Trump's plan is "easier said than done."

"Reality sets in," Bush wrote.

The piece, penned by GOP strategist Evan Siegfried, says the president has failed "to take into account the major hurdle the wall faces: eminent domain."

"To build the wall, the U.S. would need to own all 1,954 miles of the border," Siegfried writes.

He points out the U.S. government owns just 100 miles of the 1,254 miles of border land in Texas alone, and notes that the 2006 Secure Fence Act passed by Congress with bipartisan support to build a fence along 700 miles of the border still has significant gaps.

"The fence had to have holes to accommodate local ranchers whose cattle graze on the southern side, [and] due to property owners' fighting land seizures in court," Siegfried writes.

"How could Mr. Trump overcome this obstacle? He may be a great negotiator, but for logistical reasons alone it's unlikely he can personally make a deal with each of the hundreds, if not thousands, of landowners who'd turn to the courts to resist the seizure," he adds.

Also this week, conservatives in the House vowed to hold up additional funding to pay for the wall's construction unless the cost is balanced by cuts elsewhere.

"If all of a sudden we're not worried about pay-fors for our spending, then we have been hypocrites for six years," Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said at a discussion on the wall with members of the House Freedom Caucus and the conservative Republican Study Committee on Tuesday. "So we need to make sure that whether it's a fence, whether it's the military, whether it's any other issue that we're discussing here in Congress… I'm not going to vote for anything that just increases spending without looking at a way to pay for that in the future."

CNN reported Thursday that a plan being prepared by U.S. Customs and Border Protection prefers a barrier more like the existing fence – that border agents can see through – rather than a solid wall.

And while the plan outlines a proposal to build a barrier covering the 1,080 miles of border where a fence is not already in place, they have given it a price tag of $21.6 billion.

Such a wall, a source told CNN, is "only fantasy."

--U.S. News & World Report

 

[counter_violent]

Cor, look at you lot arguing politics 😆 This sort of thing never happened before Brexit !

 

[dbphoenix]

Cor, look at you lot arguing politics 😆 This sort of thing never happened before Brexit !

Beats starting an umpteenth thread about Forex 🙂

 

[Splitlink]

Trump's comments about the press are, only, what everyone has been saying about it for years. He is not saying anything new. The danger is that the President is saying it.

I am not saying that I like the guy. Just that he has won the election by feeding the listeners what they want to hear.

 

[kalott]

Don't believe every word Trump says.

Fake whaffler! What a bumbling fool he is! Laff a minute. Pathetic small minded man that he is. 😆



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39020962



Sweden to Trump: What happened last night?

During another ferocious attack on the media on Saturday evening, US President Donald Trump cited a non-existent incident in Sweden, baffling many - not least Swedes.

"You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers.

They're having problems like they never thought possible," the new US president told a crowd of supporters at a rally in Florida.

It was not entirely clear which incident he was referring to, as many on Twitter pointed out, including the former Swedish prime minister:

What has he been smoking indeed!

Sometimes the thruth hurts 😈

""Magnificent," said the two officials already duped. "Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!" They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff.

"What's this?" thought the Emperor. "I can't see anything. This is terrible!

Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people! - Oh! It's very pretty," he said. "It has my highest approval." And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn't see anything."

http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html

 

[Atilla]

President Donald Trump complains regularly about what he calls “fake news.” What’s got some statisticians worried, though, is the risk of doctored economic data coming from the administration itself.

While there are government directives in place to prevent that from happening, the number crunchers worry that the president’s occasionally cavalier comments on the economy and economic statistics, and his apparent disdain for economists in general, could mean trouble ahead.

One month into his presidency, Trump has yet to nominate anyone to the Council of Economic Advisers, established in 1946 to provide presidents with objective economic analysis and advice. Indeed, staffers at the council complain that the White House seems to be giving short shrift to the regular reports they produce on the economy, a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

There are rules that “protect the statistics from direct manipulation, but don’t address all my concerns about independence,” Brent Moulton, who retired in December after 32 years at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, wrote in a Jan. 24 blog post.

“For example, a Cabinet secretary could still order the statistical agency to drop certain statistics or to change methodologies in ways that seem politically expedient,” he added in the piece, entitled “Why I’m Concerned About the Independence of U.S. Statistical Agencies.”

Track the Progress of the Trump Economy

In what may be a sign that is happening, the Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that the Trump administration is considering changes that would make the U.S. trade deficit look bigger than currently reported. Citing unidentified people involved in the discussions, the newspaper said the new calculations could be presented to Congress, but that it wasn’t clear if they would be included in official government data on the economy.

Trump has repeatedly accused past administrations of failing to protect America’s interests on the trade front. Figures showing larger deficits would serve to buttress that argument and support the president’s calls for retaliatory action against China and other U.S. trading partners.

The fears about data manipulation also arise from the nontraditional approach the Trump administration has taken to interpreting economic data. The president himself has repeatedly cast the “real” unemployment rate as far above the official rate, using figures that incorporate all those of working age who aren’t employed.

“Don’t believe these phony numbers,” Trump told supporters of the jobless rate in early 2016. “The number is probably 28, 29, as high as 35 [percent]. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent.”

While this captures a broader swath of those without a job than the more well-known 4.8 percent jobless rate, it’s misleading because it includes those who choose to be out of work for reasons including school, parenting, care for a family member, or retirement. In 2015 Trump said the U.S. had 93 million people out of work.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reinforced the skepticism during his Senate confirmation hearing, stating outright that the “unemployment rate is not real” -- a view backed days later by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, in a briefing with reporters.

“My biggest concern right now is about the unemployment statistics, just because the White House has been attacking them, and I know how demoralizing that can be to employees when your statistics are being attacked and when you don’t have anyone at the agency level who can speak up for you and defend you,” Moulton said in a telephone interview last month.


https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/...-fears-he-ll-adopt-alternative-economic-facts

 

[Pat494]

The Swedish reaction to this non event according to the radio ranges between derision and laughter.

Should we feel sorry for this clown ? Let events unfurl first i.e. is it the calm before the storm ? Will he pounce on N. Korea perhaps ? Before he is dragged off to the funny farm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39023978

 

[Splitlink]

The Swedish reaction to this non event according to the radio ranges between derision and laughter.

Should we feel sorry for this clown ? Let events unfurl first i.e. is it the calm before the storm ? Will he pounce on N. Korea perhaps ? Before he is dragged off to the funny farm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39023978

Don't feel sorry for him. He does not feel anything for any of us. The Americans should feel very resentful against those who nominated him, especially since, after he has gone, they will still be there to nominate the next Republican candidate.

 

[NVP]

Sometimes the thruth hurts 😈

""Magnificent," said the two officials already duped. "Just look, Your Majesty, what colors! What a design!" They pointed to the empty looms, each supposing that the others could see the stuff.

"What's this?" thought the Emperor. "I can't see anything. This is terrible!

Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? What a thing to happen to me of all people! - Oh! It's very pretty," he said. "It has my highest approval." And he nodded approbation at the empty loom. Nothing could make him say that he couldn't see anything."

http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html

dont even go there asking me to imagine trump naked 😱

 

[sminicooper]

The Swedish reaction to this non event according to the radio ranges between derision and laughter.

Should we feel sorry for this clown ? Let events unfurl first i.e. is it the calm before the storm ? Will he pounce on N. Korea perhaps ? Before he is dragged off to the funny farm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39023978

Trump may have been commenting on a non-event but here's one Swedish take on their immigration situation: "anyone who wants to find out how not to handle a migration crisis is welcome to pay us a visit."

Full text here: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/09/how-sweden-became-an-example-of-how-not-to-handle-immigration/

 

[Pat494]

]Don't feel sorry for him. He does not feel anything for any of us. [/COLOR]The Americans should feel very resentful against those who nominated him, especially since, after he has gone, they will still be there to nominate the next Republican candidate.

Thereza had better take the above comment into her calculation as the President has inadvertently let slip his selfish policy. No more poodling please gal.
Let's hope Pence takes over soon.

 

[Signalcalc]

Trumps Swedish gaff is just his wording, he constantly mixes some of his words, just like we all do and all Presidents do. Except in this case it's broadcast by social media and then pounced on by the press to turn it into something more than it is. He was after all referring to a Fox News report the night before except it just didn't come out that way.

Just another celebrity leadership day in the news.

 

[Pat494]

This is why no one person should have such power and influence. Especially if they speak without thinking.

 

[dbphoenix]

Trump's comments about the press are, only, what everyone has been saying about it for years. He is not saying anything new. The danger is that the President is saying it.

I am not saying that I like the guy. Just that he has won the election by feeding the listeners what they want to hear.

Generally speaking, our presidents have not classified the press as "the enemy". Except, of course, for Nixon.

 

[Pat494]

Generally speaking, our presidents have not classified the press as "the enemy". Except, of course, for Nixon.

The Press isn't frightened of him yet. But the press are cowed in Russia/China. Yet another bad mistake by Dump. They will scrutinize all his moves and words now that he has had a go at them. Already he is ridiculed around the world.