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Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:37 pm
by Litwitlou
LanDroid wrote:[quote

President Trump knows he has the smartest brain, the best gut, powerful negotiating skills, the best words, and more knowledge than anyone on critical topics. Over the past two years he has decreased reliance on the advice of experts. Now he is surrounded by sycophants, feels unleashed, and is poised to take actions that previously have been stifled. It's time to buckle up our three point safety harnesses.


3 point? You're a brave man. I think Donnie running the country without adult supervision calls for...

https://www.zrtmotorsport.com/safety-6-point-harness/

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:53 pm
by geo
LanDroid wrote:
Why Mattis Had to Go
The defense secretary could no longer serve a president who no longer thinks he needs to listen to anybody.

By Blake Hounshell December 20, 2018
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... icy-223418
President Trump knows he has the smartest brain, the best gut, powerful negotiating skills, the best words, and more knowledge than anyone on critical topics. Over the past two years he has decreased reliance on the advice of experts. Now he is surrounded by sycophants, feels unleashed, and is poised to take actions that previously have been stifled. It's time to buckle up our three point safety harnesses.
You can read Jim Mattis' letter here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/us/p ... trump.html

What strikes me is how eloquently Mattis expresses the complex realm of war and diplomacy. And without even mentioning Trump's name, he explains why our country so desperately needs a competent leader.

I can't imagine Trump would understand the ideas expressed in Mattis' letter (if he were inclined to try to read it). Maybe Fox & Friends should make an animated presentation with a bouncing ball and music.

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 12:52 pm
by DB Roy
So now the government is partially shut down. The third shutdown under Trump and every single one of them came with a republican house and senate. What a great legacy they are leaving behind.

Classic Trump: “I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. The people of this country don’t want criminals and people that have lots of problems pouring into our country. I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you. I’m going to shut it down for border security!"

Then he tweets: "Democrats Now Own The Shutdown!"

He just lies and lies and lies. If we don't hold him accountable, he'll keep lying. He has no morals, no ethics.

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:19 pm
by DWill
DB Roy wrote:
You sure about that? According to Wiki: "In March, 2015, the charity watchdog group Charity Navigator added the Clinton Foundation to a watch list (a designation meant to warn donors that questions have been raised about an entity's practices), after several news organizations raised questions over donations from corporations and foreign governments. It removed the foundation from its watch list in late December of that year.[74] In September 2016, it gave it its highest possible rating, four out of four stars, after its customary review of the Foundation's financial records and tax statements.[75] A different charity monitor, CharityWatch, said that 88% of the foundation's money goes toward its charitable mission and gave the foundation an A rating for 2016. In 2015, based on revenue of $223 million and an expense ratio of 12% the foundation spent in excess of $26 million to complete its mission.[76]"
I think my wording led you to think I was down on the Clinton Foundation, but it's Trump's that I meant. While there could be some glitches to look at with the Clinton Foundation, I agree that it's generally very solid. Regardless of legitimate reasons to investigate it, a Republican House would have done so if Hillary had been elected.
DB Roy wrote:
DWill wrote:He can't resign, though. If he has less than five years in office, he can be indicted for the campaign finance charge that gave Cohen part of his sentence. Also, Trump's brand would be forever trashed if he quit, and he can't let that happen. I expect him to run for re-election, because even if impeached it's a very slight chance that the Senate will convict and remove him.
He may have no other choice. Suppose he is found guilty of tax evasion. The govt could threaten to seize Trump Tower and/or Maralago unless he resigns. Suppose he is found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the govt, that his entire presidency is unconstitutional, he might resign if they threaten to strike his name from the presidency, to annul it. There is no rule allowing this but there is no rule against it either. It's not likely to happen, of course, but if he is threatened with it or offered the chance to resign, who knows? I wouldn't bank on the latter scenario but seizing his tower and the winter kremlin might just work. Trump is--above all else--a very greedy man. His greed is without top or bottom. Taking away the signs of his wealth, his financial success, might be the blow he could not withstand. I don't think he holds the presidency above his greed or he would have gladly divested himself of his businesses in order to be president. Instead, the presidency is just one more part of greedy fantasy that this stupid, idiotic country allowed him to have even though we knew how disastrously crazy it was to hand it to him.
Is it too much to hope that with Republicans finally resisting Trump on the Khashoggi murder and the Syria pull-out, they might stand up for the country if Trump definitively surpasses the Nixonian level of corruption?

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 3:54 am
by Harry Marks
DB Roy wrote: Why is this damned judge veering off-script?? Must have been the Clintons and the Obamas bought him off!!

Meanwhile Trump has lost Anne Coulter and her nutball clones for reneging on two promises: 1. to build a wall, and 2. to lock up Hillary Clinton. Trump is learning the hard way that however it works in business, in politics, the promise once being made has to be kept.
What the Trumpistas have brought us is government for entertainment value. Just as Murdoch and Ailes made a business of journalism for entertainment value (bosomy and blonde, when possible), their Dear Leader has now brought it to the White House.

My question is still, when will the "adults in the room" take their eyes off the boob tube and take responsibility for the society they claim to care about?
DB Roy wrote: Blaming others for your incompetence only proves how abysmally incompetent you really are. That's why you have to hire experienced advisors and you have to listen to them.
The ideology of Davos Man, as taught in the M.B.A. programs that made America great, is to focus on success and disregard any pretense to responsibility. The great exemplars of this mode of operation include several who were indicted. The rot did not begin with Donald our Dear Leader.

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 4:03 am
by Litwitlou
Harry Marks wrote:The ideology of Davos Man, as taught in the M.B.A. programs that made America great, is to focus on success and disregard any pretense to responsibility. The great exemplars of this mode of operation include several who were indicted. The rot did not begin with Donald our Dear Leader.

Sociopaths Make Great CEOs

* Manipulative and Conning
* Grandiose Sense of Self
* Pathological Lying
* Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
* Shallow Emotions
* Incapacity for Love
* Need for Stimulation
* Callousness/Lack of Empathy
* Poor Behavioural Controls/Impulsive Nature
* Early Behaviour Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
* Irresponsibility/ Unreliability
* Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour/ Infidelity
* Lack of Realistic Life Plan/ Parasitic Lifestyle
* Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility

Sound like anyone we know?
http://archives.dailynews.lk/2013/02/12/fea26.asp

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 1:11 pm
by DB Roy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs6UcgiDwg0

Art imitates life to a shocking degree.

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:21 am
by Harry Marks
Maybe he's been up late to tweet so often because he is studying this old flick.

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:45 pm
by DB Roy

Re: The Art of No Deal

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 7:09 pm
by DB Roy
The shutdown is now over after 35 days--the longest in U.S. history. It ended with Trump accepting the same deal he refused earlier (even though it was exactly the deal he asked Congress to send him earlier saying that he would sign it and decided at the last minute not to). So, really, the shutdown was over nothing and should never have happened. All that was accomplished is that many government employees, who missed two paychecks, have lost money, had their credit ratings damaged and some are looking for new quarters having been evicted. One woman was forced to ration her insulin. While they will receive their back pay, they will not receive any financial reprieve from penalties incurred by delayed payments or any legal reprieve from any other punitive actions that may have been launched against them.

Many employees are afraid the govt may shut down again in three weeks when Trump and Congress will again haggle over funding for his wall since it very unlikely either side will budge. Trump has to understand that he not only owns the shutdown (which he very stupidly announced he would take credit for) but that he cannot win funds for his wall. I predict he will not dare shutdown the govt a second time. It will take some years for the govt machinery to recover from the havoc wreaked on it by this last shutdown. The American public squarely blames Trump for the shutdown--and rightly so--and if he shuts it down again, the public may howl for his impeachment for this this alone apart from any collusion or obstruction crimes.

He will probably go the route of declaring a national emergency but I can't see him pulling that off. You can't declare a national emergency by shutting down the govt--that in itself was becoming a true national emergency. Plus a national emergency requires immediate responses and a thousand miles of wall or slats doesn't exactly fall into that category. The repubs are leery about doing that because they don't want to find a democratic president in 2020 pulling the same shit on them. It's a bad precedent set by a bad president.

While Mitch McConnell could have ended the shutdown much earlier, he chose not to but I think people may have misinterpreted his actions. McConnell is not a fan of shutdowns. He has, in the past, counseled congressional republicans from resorting to them. He allowed them to shutdown the govt during Obama's administration not because he thought they would get what they wanted but so that they would understand the futility of resorting to such measures. It worked, they didn't try it again. So, it seems to me, he refused to end the shutdown in order to let Trump twist in the wind for a while. I think Trump may have consulted Turtle-face on the matter and McConnell may have told him not to shutdown the govt. Trump, believing himself a political genius greater than any other, ignored him and initiated a shutdown anyway to show McConnell how a master does it. Instead, it backfired spectacularly and McConnell just sat back and let Trump understand what his actions brought down on the nation because Trump clearly had no idea what he was doing to the country and didn't care. McConnell was probably thinking, "You baked this shit cake, now you eat it!" After watching Trump gagging on the excrement and country on the brink of a true crisis, he stepped up and put an end to it. I think Trump learned the lesson: hands off shutting down the govt.

Lindsey Graham had told the world that if Trump lets the shutdown end without funding for his wall, his presidency will have effectively ended. Well, now, Lindsey, old boy, what about it? Ann Coulter has apparently dismissed Trump out of hand. She realizes that this shutdown was it: either he got his funding for the wall or stick a fork in him, he's done. She's sticking the fork in right now.

But the big lesson to take from all this is just how weak, ignorant and clueless Trump really is. He bossed Congress around as long it was majority republican but with a democratic House, he is totally out of his league. Nancy Pelosi has completely schooled him. She not only got him to accept that his SOTU address was not happening in the House, she made him back off on his demand for wall funding. She slam-dunked his ass right into a shitcan. It was brutal and highly enjoyable to watch her force crow down Trump's throat. She has shown the world she is not to be trifled with and she's more than enough to handle a jerk like Trump. She has dominated him and solidified her power. She has the dems now solidly behind her and even some repubs because they see now that Trump will never beat her. She is stronger than him. She knows the game very well and he is an idiot. He thought he could redefine the game on his terms. She has proven he can't simply because she won't allow him to. She has earned respect. I admit, I thought Pelosi didn't know her ass from her elbow but I was wrong. She is a smart, shrewd woman. She has pretty much destroyed Donald Trump politically and she hasn't even delivered the coup de grace yet.

I still expect the republicans to have a trick or two up their sleeves and pull some surprise moves in the next three weeks but it looks like Pelosi is ahead of the game.

And it was funny what Schumer did because it was something that shouldn't have worked. He put that big, smelly turd log labeled "Govt Shutdown" on a plate and held it out to Trump and Trump, knowing full well what it was, grabbed it and took at great big bite of it. Schumer had to be thinking, "Holy fuck, is this guy stupid!!!" Any other president would have had the brains to push that plate away. NOBODY EVER wants to openly flirt with shutting down the govt--especially a president. A PRESIDENT!!! And Trump went and did it. Clearly, the man was clueless as to what a shutdown really means. His staff didn't know either. That idiot Wilbur Ross suggesting that furloughed workers should avoid going to the food bank and get a bank loan instead!! Is this guy for real??? Is this draining the swamp or pouring more crocodiles into it?? The public was stunned by the callousness. Trump himself appeared to be totally untouched by the hardship he was causing and only addressed when it seemed that he had better say something but his choice of words betrayed his lack of care. He called the workers "patriots." Patriots??? They didn't volunteer for this. They didn't want it contrary to Trump's incredible assertions that they did. Meanwhile, Pelosi and Schumer never failed to mention how important it was to get people back to work. It was public relations coup for the dems and utterly ruinous for the republicans.

Moreover, the public is behind Pelosi because Trump stupidly cast this whole thing as the dastardly villain. He was the evil guy shutting down the govt, even saying he was proud to do it. He tried to them push it off on the dems, even calling it Schumer's shutdown but it didn't work. All the tricks that Trump normally uses--the sophomoric nicknames, the taunting language, the smirks and sneers, the tweets--didn't work. The American public did not like what he was doing. It made too clear to them that he didn't know what he was doing, that he is flying by the seat of his pants. The public is both angry and frightened. The emperor's new clothes syndrome. We voted a 72 yo child as the most powerful man in the world. What were we thinking???? Trump made himself the villain and Pelosi looked like the knight who slew the dragon. It was a public communications disaster for Trump.

Moreover, because Pelosi forced Trump to fold on his demands, it revealed something that infuriates the public: Trump had no plan, no strategy. He simply forced a shutdown and waited for the dems to fold. He had nothing else up his sleeve, was holding no ace in the hole. He was just bluffing the whole time. Pelosi knew it and forced Trump to either show his hand or fold. Well, when you have nothing in your hand, folding is all you can do and so Trump folded. To shut down the govt with no plan. How stupid can you be??

So I think this wall thing is done simply because the public is sick of hearing about it. We don't care about any fucking wall and and we absolutely will not stand for any more needless govt shutdowns!! And once the public speaks on the matter, that's how it is. And that's how it is, folks.

To make matter worse, Mueller is getting uncomfortably close to Trump now by having Roger Stone arrested. You knew that would have to happen at some point and it fits the narrative many pundits foresaw two years ago--that Mueller was going to strip away everybody who could help Trump--one by one--until he was isolated and vulnerable. Cohen was a huge fish as were Flynn and Manafort but Stone was sort of the top ideologue of Trump's rise to power. In some ways, he is the biggest fish yet. He has vowed not to testify against Trump but he will. Once he confers with his lawyers and they spell out to him what he's looking at, he'll spill beans and a lot of them.

I said some months ago the wheels were slowing coming off and they are. Slowly and surely.