Will Trump be a Good President? - Page 876

amogles · #**17501** 29.11.2018, 11:57

	Quote:	3Wishes
	Not all voters are affiliated with a political party, so it would be hard to say that any changes are a result of loving or hating Trump. For example, some states have closed primaries. That is, one must be affiliated with a political party in order to vote in the primary election. At least some people register as Republican or Democrat in order to vote in a primary, but immediately change registration to independent or unaffiliated after. It helps cut down on all the political spam mails and robo-calls.

but surely a massive heammorrage of support and sympathy should also be reflected in party membership, as the tip of the iceberg so to say?

marton · #**17502** 29.11.2018, 15:40

	Quote:
	President Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is reportedly set to plead guilty today for misstatements he made to Congress while testifying about his contacts with Russians during the presidential campaign.

Source

Ooohhh! Interesting. I suppose Trump already knows about this which is why over the last couple of days he has been launching ever more aggressive tweet attacks on special counsel Mueller!

Meanwhile Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) threat threat to vote against any of Trump’s court picks unless he gets a vote on the Mueller bill has been on full display this week.
Senators are currently juggling their schedules to fit in voting on the Yemen resolution, government funding and the border wall fight before year end. Now it looks like the easy passage of at least 30 Trump Court nominees, also before year end, will be disrupted.

Sen. Jeff Flake retires at the end of this year and was a frequent target of Trump attacks; what goes around comes around!!

marton · #**17503** 29.11.2018, 15:41

	Quote:	amogles
	but surely a massive heammorrage of support and sympathy should also be reflected in party membership, as the tip of the iceberg so to say?

Why do you think it is a massive haemorrhage of support?

amogles · #**17504** 29.11.2018, 15:45

	Quote:	marton
	Why do you think it is a massive haemorrhage of support?

i don't.

#**17505** 29.11.2018, 15:52

	Quote:	amogles
	but surely a massive heammorrage of support and sympathy should also be reflected in party membership, as the tip of the iceberg so to say?

“Party membership” for the most part is voter registration. So you might look at shifts in registration rolls, but because so many people are registered as neither Democrat nor Republican, and because people can vote across parties, not sure if that’s informative.

Perhaps examining political contributions is informative.

reids · #**17506** 29.11.2018, 16:02

Michael Cohen pleads guilty to making misleading statements to Congress regarding the Russia probe.

The timing is regarded as significant coming so soon after Spanky submitted his answers, the expectation is they will contradict Spankys written answers.

Look like a Mueller plan all along

#playedagain

marton · #**17507** 29.11.2018, 16:07

	Quote:
	Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump General Motors is very counter to what other auto, and other, companies are doing. Big Steel is opening and renovating plants all over the country. Auto companies are pouring into the U.S., including BMW, which just announced a major new plant. The U.S.A. is booming!

After this tweet BMW issued a statement denying any such announcement.

	Quote:
	BMW said it has "talked for the past few years about an engine plant to support our North American production and sales and we're now again investigating this option."

North America is not just the US but includes Canada and Mexico.

BMW has its largest plant in South Carolina, which ships more than 70 percent of its annual production to other export markets. Consequently building engines in a low cost country like Mexico, shipping them tariff free to the US under the new NAFTA agreement and exporting the completed vehicle makes financial sense.

And no "Big Steel" is not opening plants all over the country.
A couple of months ago U.S. Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox declined to comment on Trump's claim but said any "operational changes" such as the opening of new mills would be "publicly announced" and "made available on our website" if it occurred.

marton · #**17508** 29.11.2018, 16:40

If you are interested in Cohen's guilty plea you can read it here in full.

Warning, it is 10 pages long.

Some key points that negotiations with Russia continued until June 2016, not January.

Trump and members of his family were briefed by Cohen on progress at least three times.

Cohen and others had contact with Russian officials.

reids · #**17509** 29.11.2018, 19:02

	Quote:	marton
	If you are interested in Cohen's guilty plea you can read it here in full. Warning, it is 10 pages long. Some key points that negotiations with Russia continued until June 2016, not January. Trump and members of his family were briefed by Cohen on progress at least three times. Cohen and others had contact with Russian officials.

Hmmm, far be it from me to defend Spanky, but I just read the plea and I'm not sure I get it, so Spanky had an ongoing project in Russia while he was a candidate? why not? he might have lost, why give up the project?. Did he go on the record saying the project was stopped or something? big picture, someone give me the big picture.

marton · #**17510** 29.11.2018, 19:26

	Quote:	reids
	Hmmm, far be it from me to defend Spanky, but I just read the plea and I'm not sure I get it, so Spanky had an ongoing project in Russia while he was a candidate? why not? he might have lost, why give up the project?. Did he go on the record saying the project was stopped or something? big picture, someone give me the big picture.

The Cohen revelations are potentially significant because they appear to show that Trump was engaged in business dealings with Russia in the midst of a campaign in which Moscow interfered to help elect him.

Also Trump consistently denied he had business contacts with Russia during his campaign.

Then there is this tweet from Jul 2016 which fails to mention he was trying and failing to negotiate a deal with Russia up until Jun 2016.

	Quote:
	Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia. 12:50 AM - 27 Jul 2016

Edit: Not to forget Trump allowed his lawyer Cohen to lie to Congress about Trump's Russian project timescales without any attempt to correct the lies!

marton · #**17511** 29.11.2018, 20:08

	Quote:
	President Donald Trump's tariffs were supposed to shrink America's trade deficit, but it has instead grown for five straight months and is on track to hit a record high before the end of the year. The monthly goods deficit grew by $1 billion in October, according to a US Census report released Wednesday. The international trade deficit was $77.2 billion in October, up $1.0 billion from $76.3 billion in September; compare with October 2017 $48.7 billion. Exports of goods for October were $140.5 billion, $0.8 billion less than September exports. Imports of goods for October were $217.8 billion, $0.2 billion more than September imports. The Census report is one of the first measures of trade released since Trump imposed his biggest round of tariffs in September on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

Source

Basic issue is that US imports are rising despite US tariffs while retaliatory tariffs seems to be more successful and US exports are falling.

During the presidential campaign, Trump and his surrogates railed against the size of the deficit, with key campaign aide Peter Navarro, who is now a White House adviser, asserting they could eliminate the trade deficit "within a year or two."

Sadly for Trump; US trade deficit totaled $310 billion during the first nine months of 2018 compared with $273.7 billion during the same period in 2017, and compared to $257.6 billion in the same period for Obama in 2016.

So far Trump has been pushing up the trade deficit

marton · #**17512** 29.11.2018, 20:20

Federal agents have reportedly raided the Chicago City Hall office of a lawyer, Ed Burke, who previously did tax work for President Trump.

Over his 12 years working for Trump, Burke was allegedly able to cut the property taxes on the downtown Trump tower by more than $14 million.

Source

Possibly not a great idea for a US President to label his own intelligence agencies as Nazis?

reids · #**17513** 29.11.2018, 20:37

fyi, heres how you discredit a news story, Greenwald makes some good points. It will be interesting to see how this pans out

https://theintercept.com/2018/11/27/...-showing-this/

marton · #**17514** 30.11.2018, 11:03

	Quote:	reids
	Michael Cohen pleads guilty to making misleading statements to Congress regarding the Russia probe. The timing is regarded as significant coming so soon after Spanky submitted his answers, the expectation is they will contradict Spankys written answers. Look like a Mueller plan all along #playedagain

Donald Trump’s eldest son and other associates of the president may be at greater risk of prosecution after Robert Mueller, the special counsel, showed he is willing to criminally charge people for lying to Congress.

Donald Trump Jr and Erik Prince, an adviser to the Trump campaign in 2016, made statements to Congress that have since been contradicted by public reports.

Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee’s incoming Democratic chairman, has said he will share transcripts from the panel’s Russia inquiry with Mueller for consideration of further criminal charges.
Schiff said Republicans have so far declined to assist the special counsel.

Source

Pass the popcorn!

marton · #**17515** 30.11.2018, 19:32

A federal judge on Friday ruled against the Trump administration's move to withhold grant funding from law enforcement agencies of so-called sanctuary cities, saying it was illegal and unconstitutional.

Judge Edgardo Ramos, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, said the government “did not have lawful authority” to make states alert federal agents when an undocumented immigrant is going to be released from state or local custody and allow federal agents to question immigrants in custody about their legal status in order for states and cities to receive funding.

Source

Court of appeals for this court is in the 2nd Circuit, not the 9th! Whatever will Trump tweet now

marton · #**17516** 30.11.2018, 21:25

A federal district court judge on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request to block or limit the scope of a ruling that temporarily prohibits the government from enforcing its ban on transgender people serving in the military.

Source

The judge wrote; "‘it must be remembered that all Plaintiffs seek during this litigation is to serve their nation with honor and dignity, volunteering to face extreme hardships, to endure lengthy deployments and separation from family and friends, and to willingly make the ultimate sacrifice of their lives if necessary to protect the Nation, the people of the United States, and the Constitution against all who would attack them.’”

Court of appeals for this court is in the DC Circuit, not the 9th!
Whatever will Trump tweet now

reids · #**17517** 30.11.2018, 22:13

	Quote:	marton
	A federal district court judge on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request to block or limit the scope of a ruling that temporarily prohibits the government from enforcing its ban on transgender people serving in the military......

no Spanky fans commenting on his latest round of winning?

there is not enough popcorn.

greenmount · #**17518** 30.11.2018, 23:31

	Quote:	reids
	no Spanky fans commenting on his latest round of winning? there is not enough popcorn.

They're busy with Brexit now. Have patience.

marton · #**17519** 01.12.2018, 12:00

Aug 30, 2017; Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman [Dmitry Peskov] confirmed Wednesday he had received an email in January last year from an adviser to Donald Trump about a Moscow real estate project, but said he had neither replied nor discussed it with Putin.

Source

Nov 30, 2018; Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman [Dmitry Peskov]
said that Russian officials never responded by email to Cohen, instead contacting the lawyer by phone.

Source

I suppose it was useful for Russia to have a lever on Trump by not admitting the Trump Tower discussions?

Urs Max · #**17520** 01.12.2018, 23:38

	Quote:	reids
	no Spanky fans commenting on his latest round of winning? there is not enough popcorn.

There's only one explanation: Trump's got tired of winning.

#PassThePopcorn