American Politics Thread: Orange is the new POTUS (Archive)

[Drak]

Originally Posted by wwkayaker

Trump and many of his group didn't know to use the translator earpiece during the press conference with the Japanese Prime Minister. Lol! He was laughing at jokes the Prime Minister made despite not understanding but rather taking cues from others who did understand and knew to use the earpiece. He will be tweeting that he is fluent in Japanese now. What a comedy!

Is it that bad that staff won't even fill him in on these things because they're too scared to approach him? Then if they don't they probably get blamed anyway? Or is it that they canned the transition folks that offer these details and they're just winging everything?

Guy's so completely nuts.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Trump and "uncomfortable silence" were simply made for each other.

As soon as the door closed and the reporters allowed to observe for a few minutes had been ushered out, Trump began to talk about the election, participants said, triggered by the presence of former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who lost her reelection bid in November and is now working for Trump as a Capitol Hill liaison, or “Sherpa,” on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch.

The president claimed that he and Ayotte both would have been victorious in the Granite State if not for the “thousands” people who were “brought in on buses” from neighboring Massachusetts to “illegally” vote in New Hampshire.

According to one participant who described the meeting, “an uncomfortable silence” momentarily overtook the room.

Hillary Clinton narrowly won New Hampshire’s four electoral votes over Trump by nearly 3,000 votes. Ayotte’s margin of defeat was even slimmer: 743 votes.

The former senator could not be reached for comment Friday, but a GOP source familiar with the meeting noted that Trump also thanked Ayotte twice during the meeting for agreeing to serve as an congressional emissary for Gorsuch.

Trump also teased Ayotte, who distanced herself from him last summer after he attacked the parents of a Muslim Gold Star soldier for criticizing him during the Democratic Convention. “He told her, ‘You’d have won if you’d been on my train,’” one participant said.

During the meeting, Trump also reacted to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren being silenced on the Senate floor while trying to object to the nomination of former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general. According to participants in Thursday’s meeting, Trump referred to Warren several times as “Pocahontas,” the moniker he gave her during his campaign, and told the Democrats present he is glad Warren is becoming the face of “your party.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...meeting-234909

[chemgear]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/830078974889959429

[dash_pinched]

Andrew Marchand ✔ @AndrewMarchand
Michael Kay just reported Charles Oakley is banned for life from the Garden.

Charles should take his case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

[FlameOn]

Trump's Mexico border wall will cost $22 billion to build and take 3.5 years to complete

President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The report is expected to be presented to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly in coming days, although the administration will not necessarily take actions it recommends.

The plan lays out what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of fences and walls covering just over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) by the end of 2020.

With 654 miles (1,046 km) of the border already fortified, the new construction would extend almost the length of the entire border.

Many cost estimates and timelines have been floated since Trump campaigned on the promise of building a wall. The report seen by Reuters is the work of a group commissioned by Kelly as a final step before moving forward with requesting U.S. taxpayer funds from Congress and getting started on construction.

http://in.reuters.com/article/usa-tr...-idINKBN15O2ZZ

[Looch City]

That's like 22 CalgaryNexts!

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

That's like 22 CalgaryNexts!

Trump can take some money from a bunch of stadium and field house projects and incorporate them into the wall!

[Kybosh]

At $22B you could just hire someone to guard the border every 100 yards for the entire span of the border and likely still save money.

[northcrunk]

Trump tax plan:

https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/trump-tax-reform.pdf

If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000,
you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households – over 50% –
from the income tax rolls. They get a new one page form to send the IRS saying, “I win,”
those who would otherwise owe income taxes will save an average of nearly $1,000 each.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Trump tax plan:

https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/trump-tax-reform.pdf

Now he just needs to get into a war, to MAGA, like it was in 2008

[Goodlad]

Originally Posted by chemgear

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/u...=top-news&_r=0

I've been following this thread since the election, but not really contributing because I'm still in a state of shock and anger, but this article hits very close to home.
I live in the Fresno/Clovis area, so right in the middle of the areas the article references. It's very much a conservative County and was firmly in support of Trump.
Speaking with a lot of people here, both before and after the election, most people didn't agree with Trump unilaterally. It would be hard to when his speeches were constantly full of contradictions and opposing ideas. Most of his supporters here hoped he would follow through on the things they wanted and not the others.
Using the farmers as an example most of them have been fighting the EPA and other regulatory agencies for years over the use of water for their farms and subsequent effects on the state's environment. The news that the EPA could possibly be eradicated is a huge victory for them. Unfortunately they are also in danger of losing the vast majority of their labor force.
The construction industry in this state is also going to see a similar impact. As mentioned in the article so are many other local businesses that rely on these people as their clientele.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

At $22B you could just hire someone to guard the border every 100 yards for the entire span of the border and likely still save money.

I just did the math, and you're basically correct. If you paid them all minimum wage (7.25 USD/hr) and had a guard every 100 yards for 24 hours a day, $22B would afford you just over 10 years of border protection.

This would actually be smart, since instead of spending the money over 3 years and have a wall you have to maintain, this allows for the person who takes over the Presidency in the next 3 months to 3-4 years to just scrap the project and save whatever money wasn't spent.

[DuffMan]

Better to just build a moat and fill with hungry alligators.

or better yet, stock the border with Enforcement Droid 209's

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Better to just build a mote and fill with hungry alligators.

But where are you going to find molecule-sized alligators?

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

I just did the math, and you're basically correct. If you paid them all minimum wage (7.25 USD/hr) and had a guard every 100 yards for 24 hours a day, $22B would afford you just over 10 years of border protection.

This would actually be smart, since instead of spending the money over 3 years and have a wall you have to maintain, this allows for the person who takes over the Presidency in the next 3 months to 3-4 years to just scrap the project and save whatever money wasn't spent.

Ya, I actually did the math as well but the whole concept is quite inane in my eyes so I didn't bother to write it out. Another aspect to the whole wall construction is that THERE IS ALREADY A WALL! It isn't everywhere as I understand it, but there are segments with a wall of varying heights and protective measures already in place.

I wonder if illegal immigrants will be given a piece of paper that says "I win" on it as they're carted off to wherever they came from?

[Senator Clay Davis]

I guess Trump got tired of losing, because they won't appeal the travel ban to the Supreme Court. A new order obviously is likely instead.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

At $22B you could just hire someone to guard the border every 100 yards for the entire span of the border and likely still save money.

If you hired Mexicans you could probably get the thing guarded for half the price.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by bigtmac19

Love it!
The replies are pretty good too.

I'm not sure what was lamer, the size of the demonstration or the ease with which she gave up and went back to the Limo, it was so weird at first I thought it was an outtake from some low budget movie with Amanda Plummer from the 90's.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Trump tax plan:

https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/trump-tax-reform.pdf

I'll let someone do the math on whether it collects enough money to pay for itself but on the surface everything in there makes sense.

It's progressive, it has a high personal deduction before paying tax, it has low corporate rates and encourages corporations to keep money in the country.

It unfortunately leaves the mortgage interest deduction intact but you kind of have to to avoid a housing crash.

The details and revenue assumptions for growth and repatriation are what will make or break it but as a framework it looks reasonable.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by octothorp

But where are you going to find molecule-sized alligators?

fixed, to accommodate, yuge yungry gators