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

[InglewoodFan]

After twenty years working as an engineer in Canada, some of the better engineers I know are from Iran and Iraq. Iran before the ayatollahs took over had an amazing oil industry and had top notch universities to support it. Muslim or not, I am happy to have had them as colleagues and friends.

[chemgear]

2020

[RougeUnderoos]

Next up -- asking tourists to give up their social media information and contact lists.

Trump administration officials are discussing the possibility of asking foreign visitors to disclose all websites and social media sites they visit, and to share the contacts in their cell phones. If the foreign visitor declines to share such information, he or she could be denied entry.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/29/po...cts/index.html

Now my guess is that this actually comes from Trump wanting to catch his Twitter trolls at the airport so he can punish them and he doesn't think about anything beyond that, but they'll come up with some other nonsense.

Hawaii, Florida, California, New York, Nevada... and every other State with a significant tourist industry might have a bit of a problem with this.

The Canadian tourist industry will remain silent on the issue, I suspect.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by InglewoodFan

After twenty years working as an engineer in Canada, some of the better engineers I know are from Iran and Iraq. Iran before the ayatollahs took over had an amazing oil industry and had top notch universities to support it. Muslim or not, I am happy to have had them as colleagues and friends.

Are you sure they didn't have questionable training? Those sound like places with questionable training, those guys should probably be janitors just to be safe. We don't want to lower our quality here in Canada for professionals, which is what you get from non western countries.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by chemgear

2020

Pretty standard, no?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Next up -- asking tourists to give up their social media information and contact lists.


http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/29/po...cts/index.html

Now my guess is that this actually comes from Trump wanting to catch his Twitter trolls at the airport so he can punish them and he doesn't think about anything beyond that, but they'll come up with some other nonsense.

Hawaii, Florida, California, New York, Nevada... and every other State with a significant tourist industry might have a bit of a problem with this.

The Canadian tourist industry will remain silent on the issue, I suspect.

At some point this idea that everything that happens with this administration is Donald Trump stamping his feet and going with the direction of the wind that day will start to disappear and people will realize there's more power and people behind this movement and that these moves are all carefully calculated and implemented with intent.

Donald Trump is the goofy character that takes all the attention away from the direction the country is headed, and it's happening incredibly quickly. He's a narcissist and he's petty, but he's not stupid and has people behind him.

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Pretty standard, no?

No, not this early. It's highly unusual. I'll find the article, it creates more conflict of interest problems for him IIRC.

Edit: here we go. It causes issues with nonprofits speaking out against him it appears. For reference Obama filed in 2011 to run in 2012.


https://trofire.com/2017/01/29/donal...-sworn-office/

[DuffMan]

Well this is hilarious, but not surprising

Kellyanne Conway in an interview Sunday slammed the media, asking when network reporters will be fired over their coverage of the Trump administration.

"Who is cleaning house? Which one is going to be the first network to get rid of these people, the people who think things were just not true?" Conway asked on "Fox News Sunday."

I went on three network shows and spoke for 35 minutes on three network Sunday shows. You know what got picked? The fact that I said 'alternative facts,' not the fact that I ripped a new one to some of those hosts that they never cover the facts that matter," Conway said.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politi...xea?li=AAggNb9

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

No, not this early. It's highly unusual. I'll find the article, it creates more conflict of interest problems for him IIRC

https://twitter.com/resisterhood/sta...35325535252480

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by jayswin

At some point this idea that everything that happens with this administration is Donald Trump stamping his feet and going with the direction of the wind that day will start to disappear and people will realize there's more power and people behind this movement and that these moves are all carefully calculated and implemented with intent.

Donald Trump is the goofy character that takes all the attention away from the direction the country is headed, and it's happening incredibly quickly. He's a narcissist and he's petty, but he's not stupid and has people behind him.

Fair enough, but I have no doubt his pettiness and foot-stomping and ridiculous ego play a direct role in the decisions that are made.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

From December, 2015.

Governor Mike Pence@GovPenceIN
Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Oh, that's totally cool then. Carry on.

Abby D. Phillip@abbydphillip
Kellyanne Conway on Fox: "This whole idea that they’re being separate and ripped from their family... it’s temporary."

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Fair enough, but I have no doubt his pettiness and foot-stomping and ridiculous ego play a direct role in the decisions that are made.

That and the fact that he can use his Executive Order Word template to churn out these directives in record time doesn't help temper his whims.

But I still can't fathom why he is not in conflict of interest, as weird as it sounds, for not excluding countries from his ban that he has some of his business holdings in.

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Wormius

But I still can't fathom why he is not in conflict of interest, as weird as it sounds, for not excluding countries from his ban that he has some of his business holdings in.

I don't think he even cares. When he became POTUS without showing his tax returns, he knew, he could get away with anything in that regard.

[calumniate]

Wow Fareed had political commentator and hardened criminal Conrad Black on his show. What a joke (basically playing the paid surrogate role)

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Wormius

But I still can't fathom why he is not in conflict of interest, as weird as it sounds, for not excluding countries from his ban that he has some of his business holdings in.

He picked those 7 countries because they were already specifically mentioned in previous laws or government agency actions as countries of concern.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/02/18/...waiver-program

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by chemgear

2020

Wow...if I was the Republican party I would be taking that as a big FU to the nomination process.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Apologies in advance for scaring the #### out of you

It'd be even funnier if he had the standard North Korean smile

[PsYcNeT]

So these latest events have really started gravitating me back to some non-fic I haven't read in years.

Milton Meyer's They Thought They Were Free, which analyzes Germany from 1933-1945, is really hitting hard over the last couple days.

This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

Frankly, I'm not so sure posters a few pages back are that far off the mark.

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by accord1999

He picked those 7 countries because they were already specifically mentioned in previous laws or government agency actions as countries of concern.

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/02/18/...waiver-program

Except one big difference:

The new law does not ban travel to the United States, or admission into the United States, and the great majority of Visa Waiver Program travelers will not be affected.