Trump II

[Petrus]

When I am in Chicago, I approach police patrols and ask to shake their hands, white, black, yellow or brown, male of female, thank then for their service and tell them not everyone is against them.

Just remember not have your cell phone in the other hand, or you might get shot.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

One day later, another violent event in southern Germany, with one dead and three injured. The shooter was killed by the police.
Since the shooter was an Iraker living there for a long time, technically (according to German police) they wouldn't call it a terrorism, but just in case, they had a helicopter hovering over the nightclub.

And in the USA on Saturday (also yesterday), 17 killed and 51 injured by gunfire alone.

It sure looks like Americans are more deadly than Islamists. Now that last Monday the defense budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 was increased over what Trump had suggested, with funding for the wall slipped in, I'm tempted to say, approve it and build that wall and keep the Americans in.

Cheers,
Bart

[Alan Klein]

And in the USA on Saturday (also yesterday), 17 killed and 51 injured by gunfire alone.

It sure looks like Americans are more deadly than Islamists. Now that last Monday the defense budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 was increased over what Trump had suggested, with funding for the wall slipped in, I'm tempted to say, approve it and build that wall and keep the Americans in.

Cheers,
Bart

Thats a silly Argument.   There are also over 40,000 Americans killed in car accidents every years.  Should we therefore ignore getting run over by a terrorist truck?

Regarding our defense budget, one of the reasons we had to raise it is because Europe's rich NATO allies aren't paying their fair share to defend their own countries.   If they would spend their money to defend themselves, we could use the savings and spend our money on our own health care.   

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

...It sure looks like Americans are more deadly than Islamists....

[pegelli]

Regarding our defense budget, one of the reasons we had to raise it is because Europe's rich NATO allies aren't paying their fair share to defend their own countries.   If they would spend their money to defend themselves, we could use the savings and spend our money on our own health care.

That's a silly argument, the US is spending multiple times what the next 5 superpowers are spending on defense. The "so called" underspending of some NATO countries is dwarfed by the increase the US is now proposing. So there is really no sensible relationship between the two. I know you believe Trump's hollow rhetoric on NATO countries underspending, but a lot of people see right through that.

I think Trump and the US should look at spending their money more efficiently before spending more.

But that doesn't help Trump's cronies in the defense industry, and there you have the main reason for Trump wanting to increase in US military spending. It has nothing to do with NATO or Europe, only with further filling his own swamp.

[jeremyrh]

I think Trump and the US should look at spending their money more efficiently before spending more.

Invading countries, and peppering empty fields with cruise missiles are expensive activities - no reason why anyone else should feel obliged to be similarly foolish.

[Alan Klein]

Invading countries, and peppering empty fields with cruise missiles are expensive activities - no reason why anyone else should feel obliged to be similarly foolish.

Everyone complains about American military action until they need us.  Some day, there's going to be another war in Europe or elsewhere, and Americans will decline to attend the party. 

[Alan Klein]

That's a silly argument, the US is spending multiple times what the next 5 superpowers are spending on defense. The "so called" underspending of some NATO countries is dwarfed by the increase the US is now proposing. So there is really no sensible relationship between the two. I know you believe Trump's hollow rhetoric on NATO countries underspending, but a lot of people see right through that.

I think Trump and the US should look at spending their money more efficiently before spending more.

But that doesn't help Trump's cronies in the defense industry, and there you have the main reason for Trump wanting to increase in US military spending. It has nothing to do with NATO or Europe, only with further filling his own swamp.

You're being so self-centered as most Europeans are.  You think we are increasing our spending only to defend Europe.  You know, there are other places in the world we care about enough to help and defend.   So our budget has to pay for a larger Navy for example to cover the Pacific as well as the Mediterranean and Atlantic and northern seas. 

Of course, we could spend our money more efficiently if you would defend yourselves.  Don't you have any pride, man?  You remind me of the scared little boy in the schoolyard who runs behind his mother's skirt when he gets frightened by the other boys.  Grow up and defend yourself. 

[jeremyrh]

[Something or other]

[pegelli]

You're being so self-centered as most Europeans are.  You think we are increasing our spending only to defend Europe.  You know, there are other places in the world we care about enough to help and defend.   So our budget has to pay for a larger Navy for example to cover the Pacific as well as the Mediterranean and Atlantic and northern seas. 

Of course, we could spend our money more efficiently if you would defend yourselves.  Don't you have any pride, man?  You remind me of the scared little boy in the schoolyard who runs behind his mother's skirt when he gets frightened by the other boys.  Grow up and defend yourself.

Wow, I didn't mean to get you mad and make you start slinging mud, I'm sorry I hit a nerve there, that was not intended.
I'm really surprized you ask me if I have any pride while you just take all the shit Trump feeds you? It would be much better to develop your own opinion because shit tastes very bad.

[Schewe]

Donald Trump Is Now the Poster Boy for Terrible Management Skills
By Erik Sherman
Contributor, Inc.com


Putting politics to the side, he's making classic mistakes in dealing with staff.

I avoid politics as a topic here, but sometimes politicians provide great lessons for the business world, like when the Democratic National Committee had an utter Twitter fiasco that could have been easily avoided. Or there was the question that Donald Trump brought up of whether unpredictability is useful as a negotiation tactic.

After this past week's turmoil in the White House, it's time to look at the issue of managing people. Trump has provided object lessons of what you should never do. Here are some of the classic mistakes.

Allowing employees to turn on each other
In running an organization, you want people to work together. If they don't, it negatively affects efficiency and may even make achieving goals impossible.

Undermining employees
Speaking of Priebus, or even Sean Spicer, his treatment shows how a chief executive should never act. Calling an employee weak or otherwise disparaging people working for you is an utter mistake. If someone bothers you that much, you fire them. You don't talk about them.

Putting personal loyalty above loyalty to the organization
But perhaps the worst step, one I've seen CEOs take time and again, is to mistake what should be most important. The institution and its goals should be. It stands above the chief executive just as the CEO is at the top of the organizational chart. The whole point of everyone being there is to achieve a set of goals that enables the overall strategy.

But, Trump puts ultimate value on one-way personal loyalty. Everyone else must put him first, although he's shown that he will not reciprocate. That makes it impossible to hear necessary criticisms or to examine actions in relation to the institution's goals.

This last point might be different if you looked at Trump in relation to his own company, which is basically an extension of his personal brand. But when you're at an entity that has its own existence, you need to keep your demands and ego and personal feelings in check.

Any way you look at it (with the exception of from the point of view of a reality show) the Presidency and the White House and the American government are in a shambles...what was the "Theme Week" topic that the White House wanted to push last week? Anybody know? If you don't know you can click on this LINK

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

An interesting analysis.

Without Priebus, Trump Is a Man Without a Party
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/30/trump-priebus-unbound-215440

QUOTE : "[...] Trump trampled Priebus from Day One, sending out press secretary Sean Spicer, a longtime Preibus ally, to deliver a demonstrably false rant about the inaugural crowd size. Trump resented the idea that his chief of staff was there to tame him, and resented even more the notion that Priebus was the conduit to a Republican Party he had conquered.

But Priebus was the conduit. By firing him, Trump has severed a critical connection to his own party—not simply to major donors and GOP congressional leaders, but to the unruly, broader constellation of conservative-affiliated organizations and individuals that Priebus had spent five years corralling.
[...]
Priebus was the first call Ryan made when things got hairy this year, and vice versa. Working with a West Wing that contains few other true allies—and with a volatile president who has viewed him suspiciously ever since the speaker accused him of making “the textbook definition of a racist comment” about a Hispanic-American judge—Ryan saw Priebus as his staunchest ally and bunker mate. And now he’s gone.
[...]
Looking around Trump’s inner circle, there is communications director Anthony Scaramucci, a political novice who in the past donated to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; chief strategist Steve Bannon, who used Breitbart to try and burn the Republican Party to the ground; National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, a lifelong Democrat; director of strategic communication Hope Hicks, who has zero history with GOP politics; and Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, a pair of self-professed Manhattan progressives. Of Trump’s closest advisers, only Mike Pence has any association with the Republican Party.
[...]
The fear now, among Republicans in his administration and on Capitol Hill, is that Trump will turn against the party, waging rhetorical warfare against a straw-man GOP whom he blames for the legislative failures and swamp-stained inertia that has bedeviled his young presidency. It would represent a new, harsher type of triangulation, turning his base against the politicians of his own party that they elected. [...]"


I've said it before, the GOP created their own monster of Frankenstein ...

Cheers,
Bart

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Transcript: Sen. Jeff Flake on "Face the Nation," July 30, 2017
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-senator-jeff-flake-on-face-the-nation-july-30-2017/

QUOTE:  ""Face the Nation" sat down on Sunday with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, author of the new book "Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle."

Flake discussed the book -- which New York Times opinion writer David Brooks calls "a thoughtful defense of traditional conservatism and a thorough assault on the way Donald Trump is betraying it" -- and why he wrote it.
[...]
JOHN DICKERSON: Why did you write the book?

SEN. JEFF FLAKE: Well, I felt that just like Goldwater had felt in his time 56 years ago when he wrote the original Conscience of a Conservative that the party had lost its way. And I think similarly today the party has lost its way. We've given in to nativism and protectionism. And I think that if we're going to be a governing party in the future and a majority party we've got to go back to traditional conservatism. Limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility, respect for free trade. Those are the principles that made us who we are.[...]"


But that's not what Trump will bring ...

Cheers,
Bart

[Alan Klein]

Wow, I didn't mean to get you mad and make you start slinging mud, I'm sorry I hit a nerve there, that was not intended.
I'm really surprized you ask me if I have any pride while you just take all the shit Trump feeds you? It would be much better to develop your own opinion because shit tastes very bad.

My opinion is decades old long before Trump.  Europeans have been sponging off the American taxpayer and America for years.  It's time for Europe to grow up.  It's a rich continent, technologically advanced.  Certainly filled with people who use to know how to make war and defend themselves -  I think, that's still true.  Otherwise, one day the sh!t's going to hit the fan and Europe will have forgotten how to fight just when they need too.  And America won't be there to bail you out again. 

[pegelli]

My opinion is decades old long before Trump.  Europeans have been sponging off the American taxpayer and America for years. 

That's easily said Allen, but quite unbelievable. If I would feel that way about a country I wouldn't go there vacationing and stay where I respected the people. Just stay in the US, even Canada doesn't even meet half your sacred 2%, so staying south of the border is much safer. However your feeling is also one-sided. The US has on average higher import duties on EU goods then US goods attract in the EU. So who is sponging off whom?

It's time for Europe to grow up.  It's a rich continent, technologically advanced.  Certainly filled with people who use to know how to make war and defend themselves -  I think, that's still true.  Otherwise, one day the sh!t's going to hit the fan and Europe will have forgotten how to fight just when they need too.  And America won't be there to bail you out again.

I'll repeat what I have said before. If Trump (and you) really want the other NATO partners ramp up their military spending faster just reduce your own military budget and reduce troops over here. Walk the talk is the best way to get things done. Trump's bullying is totally ineffective because his actions don't support his words. And the reason for that is simple, it would go against his "friends" in the defense industry and thereby dry up a large part of his 2020 reelection funds.

[Schewe]

It seems irony seems to follow Trump wherever he goes...

Behold the Trump boomerang effect


President Trump arrives at New York’s Long Island on Friday to deliver remarks on law enforcement at Suffolk Community College in
Brentwood, N.Y. (Nicholas Kamm/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Did your head spin when Utah’s Orrin Hatch, a true conservative and the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, emerged last week as the most eloquent spokesman for transgender rights? Credit the Trump boomerang effect.

Much has been said about White House dysfunction and how little President Trump has accomplished in his first six months. But that’s not the whole story: In Washington and around the world, in some surprising ways, things are happening — but they are precisely the opposite of what Trump wanted and predicted when he was sworn in.

The boomerang struck first in Europe. Following his election last November, and the British vote last June to leave the European Union, anti-immigrant nationalists were poised to sweep to power across the continent. “In the wake of the electoral victories of the Brexit campaign and Donald Trump, right-wing populism in the rich world has appeared unstoppable,” the Economist wrote. Russian President Vladimir Putin would gain allies, the European Union would fracture.

But European voters, sobered by the spectacle on view in Washington, moved the other way. In March, the Netherlands rejected an anti-immigrant party in favor of a mainstream, conservative coalition. In May, French voters spurned the Putin-loving, immigrant-bashing Marine Le Pen in favor of centrist Emmanuel Macron, who went on to win an overwhelming majority in Parliament and began trying to strengthen, not weaken, the E.U.

Good article and the irony of so much of what Trump said would happen didn't happen or happened in the opposite...Trump though pulling out of the Paris Accords would help America but in fact it's help China, India and Germany because they are ready to pick up the slack–and the governors, majors and CEO's of major US corps are going to do the work inspire of Trump. Boomerang Effect

Trump said on day one he would repeal and replace...6 months later ObamaCare has never had a higher approval rating–far outstripping Trump's appeal rating. Boomerang Effect

Travel Ban? Not so much...but they are working on it...maybe after the Supremes do their final ruling. The Wall? Well, now it's gonna be some better fences–maybe with color panels on top? Yeah, nope. Boomerang Effect

Transgender ban for the military? Came as a surprise to the military and the Pentagon basically said "a Tweet isn't an Order, get your act together and create a policy and get back to us"...then, of all people to stand up to Trump with support for Transgender people, Orrin Hatch says “I don’t think we should be discriminating against anyone. Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.” Boomerang Effect

From the article:

And Americans aren’t unique. Millions of people in Europe and around the world are just as appalled by the scapegoating of minorities and the celebration of police brutality.

That has an effect. Maybe Newton’s third law of motion doesn’t translate perfectly into the political sphere, but a version of it applies: For every malignant or bigoted action, there will be an opposite reaction. And you can never be sure where it will begin.

Boomerang Effect I hope Trump learns to duck...those boomerangs can be tricky things and can hurt when they come back to hit ya...The 2018 midterm elections are gonna be interesting.

[Schewe]

Filed under: The best laid plans often go awry...

Putin’s Bet on a Trump Presidency Backfires Spectacularly

By David E. Sanger, The New York Times

A little more than a year after the Russian effort to interfere in the American presidential election came to light, the diplomatic fallout — an unraveling of the relationship between Moscow and Washington on a scale not seen in decades — is taking its toll.

President Vladimir V. Putin bet that Donald J. Trump, who had spoken fondly of Russia and its authoritarian leader for years, would treat his nation as Mr. Putin has longed to have it treated by the West. That is, as the superpower it once was, or at least a major force to be reckoned with, from Syria to Europe, and boasting a military revived after two decades of neglect.

That bet has now backfired, spectacularly. If the sanctions overwhelmingly passed by Congress last week sent any message to Moscow, it was that Mr. Trump’s hands are now tied in dealing with Moscow, probably for years to come.

Just weeks after the two leaders spent hours in seemingly friendly conversation in Hamburg, Germany, the prospect of the kinds of deals Mr. Trump once mused about in interviews seem more distant than ever. Congress is not ready to forgive the annexation of Crimea, nor allow extensive reinvestment in Russian energy. The new sanctions were passed by a coalition of Democrats who blame Mr. Putin for contributing to Hillary Clinton’s defeat and Republicans fearful that their president misunderstands who he is dealing with in Moscow.

So with his decision to order that hundreds of American diplomats and Russians working for the American Embassy leave their posts, Mr. Putin, known as a great tactician but not a great strategist, has changed course again. For now, American officials and outside experts said on Sunday, he seems to believe his greater leverage lies in escalating the dispute, Cold War-style, rather than subtly trying to manipulate events with a mix of subterfuge, cyberattacks and information warfare.

But it is unclear how much the announcement will affect day-to-day relations. While the Russian news media said 755 diplomats would be barred from working, and presumably expelled, there do not appear to be anything close to 755 American diplomats working in Russia.

And all indications are Trump will be forced into signing because both the House and Senate had veto proof voting totals. The only thing worse than signing the law would be to veto it and have Congress slap down Trump's veto...

[Alan Klein]

That's easily said Allen, but quite unbelievable. If I would feel that way about a country I wouldn't go there vacationing and stay where I respected the people. Just stay in the US, even Canada doesn't even meet half your sacred 2%, so staying south of the border is much safer. However your feeling is also one-sided. The US has on average higher import duties on EU goods then US goods attract in the EU. So who is sponging off whom?
I'll repeat what I have said before. If Trump (and you) really want the other NATO partners ramp up their military spending faster just reduce your own military budget and reduce troops over here. Walk the talk is the best way to get things done. Trump's bullying is totally ineffective because his actions don't support his words. And the reason for that is simple, it would go against his "friends" in the defense industry and thereby dry up a large part of his 2020 reelection funds.

I don't see how Trump is doing this just for our defense industry.    But if he is, that still doesn't mean my point is wrong. 

After WWII when the Soviets occupied Eastern Europe and threatened Western Europe, America through it's Marshall Plan helped Europe back on it's feet.  We threw troops in there to hold the Communists back.  But over the years, Europe has gotten strong.  Then the Soviet Union collapsed freeing eastern Europe.  The Russians aren't going to attack.  Certainly Europe's wealth can support an effective counter-force against them without America.  We should go home but we're so use to being a super power that we don't know how to reverse course  even when it's OK to do that.  You're right that there are a lot on interests in America.  But that's not coming from Trump but from the usual forces in and out of government.  Actually, Trump is opposed to that "swamp" thinking.  That's opposite to what you're saying.  But you favor the old regime that pays for much of Europe's defense and Trump represents a threat to that. 

[Alan Klein]

Filed under: The best laid plans often go awry...

Putin’s Bet on a Trump Presidency Backfires Spectacularly



And all indications are Trump will be forced into signing because both the House and Senate had veto proof voting totals. The only thing worse than signing the law would be to veto it and have Congress slap down Trump's veto...

I'm glad we're doing this to remind them not in interfere in our elections.  But we need to get passed this and continue to work on having good relations with Russia.  We could use them as a bulwark against a more and more aggressive China that we're going to face in the future.  Having Russian friends on China's northern border are important as are having friends in India and Pakistan on China's southern border. 

Look what's going on even today.  China shifted an  army along their border with North Korea in the past few weeks.  I suppose they're doing that in anticipation of possible war on the Korean peninsula.  Remember they fought in the Korean War with the North Koreans against the west in the 1950's.  If they had to protect those other borders more, they would be in a weaker position to help NK.  We may be able to get them to help with the NK atomic situation.  Now, they're secure enough to put a larger army on the NK border making it more difficult for us to influence them to help us.  We don't have any leverage. 

[pegelli]

Actually, Trump is opposed to that "swamp" thinking.  That's opposite to what you're saying. 

That's BS. He's just against the former inhabitants of the swamp, he's just filling the swamp with his own friends. Swamp thinking is an integral part of his government.

But you favor the old regime that pays for much of Europe's defense and Trump represents a threat to that.

Totally wrong. Where did you get that? Point to one post where I said that.
You're so full of preconceived black and white notions that you assume way too much of what others think. And you're still surprised you can't convince others of your ideas, well I have a hunch. The world is more complicated then good/bad or black/white.
As the French philosopher Pierre Hassner said: "Apres trop d'anees de guerre froide voici le moment de la revanche de la complexité du monde" 

And I remain with my original point, if Trump really wants the other NATO countries to spend more the US needs to spend less and pull back.
As long as he doesn't do that it means he's got other interests that he's not talking about. You say he's a smart businessman and can smell a bad deal from miles away, well if it's really not in his interest to spend more and keep some US troops here tell me why is he staying? For sure it's not altruism, because that's not high on his priority list