The Donald Trump Score Card

Well at least he's going after the real threat to America.
And by that I mean Canada:

‘Insulting And Unacceptable’: Justin Trudeau Delivers Stunning Rebuke of Trump Labeling Canada a National Security Threat – Liberty And Justice For All

Canada.
A National Security Threat.

Do people actually support this?

 

"Once you accept the basic premise, you will accept all that follows." The basic premise here is that Trump is fit for office. Once that was accepted----and millions have done so---he and what he says will be totally fine with the Trump cult. Yup---Canadians must be bad news/taking advantage of the US and need to be punished, so of course this will somehow be just what 'WE" need.

 

Has anyone pointed out lately that we killed 5,000 Americans by doing nothing after Hurricane Maria. More than two Katrina's.

How does Puerto Rico's new Hurricane Maria casualties number compare with Katrina and other natural disasters?

 

Trump has had a consistent pattern of using underhanded tactics to circumvent established procedures and the law. An example is his payment to Stormy Daniels that was funneled through his attorney Cohen via a shell company set up in Delaware which is notorious for harboring such shady entities.

He is projecting these tactics onto national policy. He is using obscure sections of decades old Congressional acts to claim national security interests for the sake of imposing tariffs and quotas which in turn are being used as barganing chips (hostages) to try to obtain a better deal (ransom) on trade agreements such as NAFTA (and perhaps for himself and his family who have business interests in particular countries). It circumvents Congress and allows him to act solely and unilaterally. It also attempts to circumvent established venues such as the WTO that resolve trade disputes because national security can be deemed to be outside the jurisdiction of such venues.

Similarly, Trump has floated ideas about pardoning himself and his relatives. Pardons he has recently issued and ones that he has hinted he might issue are apparently being sent as a message to those who have been involved in his administration, and who are now under criminal investigation, that he will later pardon them as well (but not right now as it could be deemed obstruction of justice). It gives Trump leverage in the Mueller investigation by signalling to his associates that they need not be concerned about the issue of testifying against him because he is going to pardon them later. It is part of Trump's world view that he and his associates who are loyal and obedient to him can circumvent the law.

 

The worst part of it is that if he did pardon himself or his family, I am sure that FOX and Breitbart would spin it as a necessary step against an out-of-control justice system.

 

And 35% of the country would just take it all.

 

I often wonder just how far FOX and co. are willing to go.
Will they support putting journalists in jail?
The censoring or silencing of their rival networks?
If Trump named Erik Prince head of the FBI and he replaced all of the old agents with loyalists/mercenaries, would they applaud the move?

It's disturbing enough that the GOP is playing nice to give some tax breaks to their friends... the fact that certain media outlets are doing the same is really disturbing.

Prince has already proposed a private spy network running counter to the FBI/CIA... and it's not like Trump would stand in his way, because it would undoubtedly do everything it could to protect him.Trump blatantly, loudly, aggressively doesn't give a shit about justice, law and order, or anything except protecting himself and those loyal to him.

If We Stop Paying Attention: Erik Prince And Intelligence Undermined

All of this 'deep state' paranoia is really, really disturbing... I'm not saying the CIA isn't capable of terrible things (they are), but at the very least they aren't serving the interests of Christian fascists and wannabe authoritarians.

 

True, but at some point don't the republicans, in congress, and even his supporters say enough is enough?
At some point, authoritarianism effects everyone, just not his enemies.

 

I'm afriad

 

For some politicians, the threat of not being reelected is much more of a leveraging point than an appeal to respect the U.S. Constitution.

After the exemptions expired at the end of May, some of the members of Congress started voicing concern over Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and the EU because the retaliatory tariffs (which Trump calls unfair) are directed at red states which will hurt particular politicians. Other countries have leverage if they target Trump's base considering he won the election by a narrow electoral vote margin and because of the upcoming 2018 midterm elections. Special elections during the past year have shown election losses for Republicans in districts where Trump had a 20% or more lead in the 2016 Presidential election which indicates a vulnerability of Trump.

Other countries need to understand that appeasement doesn't work with Trump and that they have to hit him where it hurts. Countries with authoritarian leaders probably realize this fact more than the ones that have appealed to mutual diplomatic agreements and the rule of law.

Retaliatory tariffs are about the only issue that has irked the Congress enough for some members to dare say anything off-color about Trump. The few who have been critical since Trump took office include McCain and Flake, and they are from Arizona where politicians are known to think outside of the establishment.

 

If Trump thinks he's deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize, he probably thinks he should get a Purple Heart for his sexcapades.

 

He's real good at kissing Be Jamin Nothingyahoo's rump.

 

trump's argument of "national security" is a redneck's wet dream.

 

Canada 1
Trump 0

The tariff has, so far, actually enriched Canadian aluminum producers because they responded to the announcement in March by factoring the tariff into their prices,

"Trump essentially wrote a cheque for $600 million to Canadian aluminum producers," said Jorge Vasquez of Harbor Aluminum in Austin, Tex., who has served as an adviser to both the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Canadian Trade Tribunal.

 

Ex-CIA director Brennan blasts Trump’s ‘highly abnormal behavior’ in op-ed

 

Yeah, Nixon said the same thing to David Frost. Trump's "lawyer", Rudy Guilliani, even said Trump could kill Comby if he wanted to, and it wouldn't be a crime--until after impeachment.

 

You Don’t Have to Commit a Crime to be Impeached
By Gene Healy
8/8/17 at 10:31 AM

Trump doesn’t have to have committed a crime to be impeached

excerpt:

"But “high crimes and misdemeanors,” a term of art in British impeachment proceedings for four centuries before the Framers adopted it, was understood to reach a wide range of offenses that, whether or not criminal in nature, indicated behavior incompatible with the nature of the office.

For James Madison, impeachment was the “indispensable” remedy for “Incapacity, negligence, or perfidy” on the part of the president—categories of conduct dangerous to the republic, only some of which will also constitute crimes.

The criminal law is designed to punish and deter, but those goals are secondary to impeachment, which aims at removing federal officers unfit for continued service. And where the criminal law deprives the convicted party of liberty, the constitutional penalties for impeachable offenses “shall not extend further than to removal from Office,” and possible disqualification from future officeholding.

As Justice Joseph Story explained, the remedy “is not so much designed to punish an offender, as to secure the state against gross official misdemeanors. It touches neither his person, nor his property; but simply divests him of his political capacity.”"

 

I saw that on the telly, also. I think they are getting real brazen. They seem to be encouraged by the odd bits of …….legal alternative explanations of criminal conduct. I say Trump & CO need to stock up on petroleum jelly. They'll need it at the penetrationary.