US Politics: Terminal America

[Mexal]

10 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I think you mean higher.

I wonder who got in Trump's ear and told him to say that he intends to re-negotiate the US's commitment to the Paris accord? Is that Ivanka or Jared having whatever positive influence they can on him?

It doesn't matter what he says. The other countries say it's non-negotiable and it's clear not a single one trusts Trump to act in good faith. He has zero understanding of anything. I hate this so much.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

 

Doubtful. I certainly know we're not going to do anything to try to punish the USA. Australia won't, the UK won't, Canada won't, I don't think Japan will, I doubt China will, the Saudis certainly won't pull out of their $118bn military deal. To try to hit the USA economically over climate is to play a sort of economic brinkmanship for which I don't think enough / many / any countries have the stomach. 

The retaliation can occur in several ways: omit the U.S. from trade deals, withhold intelligence and military cooperation, uninvite us from major summits, etc. I don't think many countries will directly sanction us, but the rest of the world won't take this lying down.  

4 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Stupid me, I read "approval" instead of disapproval.

To be fair, I did the same thing at first.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, Mexal said:

It doesn't matter what he says. The other countries say it's non-negotiable and it's clear not a single one trusts Trump to act in good faith. He has zero understanding of anything. I hate this so much.

Thankfully there's an individual on this board who you can blame for all of this.

Was it worth it, @Jaxom 1974?

[Zorral]

If I got this right -- I was focused on something else -- I just heard on All Things Considered some old guys who call themselves the Rusty Zippers Club, located outside of Pittsburg,  say that it's states like Washington and Oregon who are at fault for the end of their good old days dying of black lung in coal mines. Because these states stopped buying their coal!  (Because natural gas, etc. are so much cheaper, etc.).  So ungrateful -- We powered them for years and then they stopped buying!  They should be made to start buying our coal again!  It's about time somebody gets rid of Paris!

This is a paraphrase, but I am not making this up.

[Kalbear]

25 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

 

Doubtful. I certainly know we're not going to do anything to try to punish the USA. Australia won't, the UK won't, Canada won't, I don't think Japan will, I doubt China will, the Saudis certainly won't pull out of their $118bn military deal. To try to hit the USA economically over climate is to play a sort of economic brinkmanship for which I don't think enough / many / any countries have the stomach. 

I think you underestimate the anger European nations have for the us about this. 

[S John]

8 minutes ago, Mexal said:

It doesn't matter what he says. The other countries say it's non-negotiable and it's clear not a single one trusts Trump to act in good faith. He has zero understanding of anything. I hate this so much.

I know how you feel.  I made it through the Bush years with some semblance of national pride still intact, but I just can't take this guy.  He's a big fucking embarrassment, and to have such a large segment of our population gleefully cheer-leading this dunce is about as much as I can stomach.  So much of what Trump and his followers do (and want to do) feels almost entirely motivated by spite rather than sense.  Bush made some absolutely colossal fuck ups that we are still dealing with today, but I personally never had the sense that anything GWB did was out of malice.  I disagreed with him, but I think he wanted what was best for all Americans.  In contrast, today's Republican party feels stripped of even the tiniest of nods toward human compassion, with some reckless irrationality sprinkled on top.  They should get rid of the elephant and replace it with a big middle finger.  I just wonder how long that is going to be politically sustainable and hope that the timeline on enough people getting tired of the schtick is < 4 years.  

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 Maybe this will cheer you schmoes up-Sassy Trumps Sings National Anthem at Arlington

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awjGc9j7cnA

 

/Moving

//My bowels, that is

 

[Zorral]

This is going to be a year of many hurricanes on the Atlantic side of the coast and the Gulf.

He's gutted FEMA's budget of money, resources and personnel.  There's nobody of experience leading it -- in fact there's no on there at the top and there hasn't been for quite some time.

Then there's the wildfires.

We're far beyond what state and local governments -- who mostly broke already -- can fund.

Let's see how happy his gleeful voters are by this fall.

Hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, climate change -- these are all interconnected.  But hey, we're outta the Climate Accords and saving loads of money (what money is being spent is mostly grants from corporations and not government money anway)! 

 

[Darryk]

16 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Then there's the wildfires.

We're far beyond what state and local governments -- who mostly broke already -- can fund.

Let's see how happy his gleeful voters are by this fall.

They will point blank refuse to acknowledge that the world is burning.

And when they are eventually forced to acknowledge the world is burning, they will blame anyone but their lord and savior Trump.

[Ormond]

18 minutes ago, Zorral said:

This is going to be a year of many hurricanes on the Atlantic side of the coast and the Gulf.

 

Not sure where you are getting that from. The University of Colorado prediction, one of the most widely used, expects this year to be about average:

http://webcms.colostate.edu/tropical/media/sites/111/2017/06/2017-06.pdf

Quote

PROBABILITIES FOR AT LEAST ONE MAJOR (CATEGORY 3-4-5) HURRICANE
LANDFALL ON EACH OF THE FOLLOWING COASTAL AREAS:
1) Entire U.S. coastline – 55% (average for last century is 52%)
2) U.S. East Coast Including Peninsula Florida – 33% (average for last century is
31%)
3) Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to Brownsville - 32% (average
for last century is 30%)

 

[Fragile Bird]

Hurricane predicting has become more and more difficult.

[Ormond]

1 minute ago, Fragile Bird said:

Hurricane predicting has become more and more difficult.

Oh, the "total number during a season" predictions have never been very good. Once one forms, though, I think they are better at predicting its path than they used to be. 

[Fragile Bird]

I just glanced at my Facebook feed and I saw a 2 hour old story that the Vatican is on fire. Anyone know anything? My phone is almost dead...

I hope this was not a terrorist attack. After the horrors in Kabul yesterday and Manchester last week I feel a sense of impending doom. Just imagine Trump after a terror attack in the US.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

4 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I just glanced at my Facebook feed and I saw a 2 hour old story that the Vatican is on fire. Anyone know anything? My phone is almost dead...

They are "washing" Trumpy's sheets.

[LongRider]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

If I got this right -- I was focused on something else -- I just heard on All Things Considered some old guys who call themselves the Rusty Zippers Club, located outside of Pittsburg,  say that it's states like Washington and Oregon who are at fault for the end of their good old days dying of black lung in coal mines. Because these states stopped buying their coal!  (Because natural gas, etc. are so much cheaper, etc.).  So ungrateful -- We powered them for years and then they stopped buying!  They should be made to start buying our coal again!  It's about time somebody gets rid of Paris!

This is a paraphrase, but I am not making this up.

I heard that and yeah and they called the Washington/Oregon folks 'prima donna's' cuz they don't buy as much of their coal anymore.   Gawd damn that cheap natural gas and shit.  Coal is king, don't they know that?

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

7 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

I heard that and yeah and they called the Washington/Oregon folks 'prima donna's' cuz they don't buy as much of their coal anymore.   Gawd damn that cheap natural gas and shit.  Coal is king, don't they know that?

Let them know that as soon as they start buying our 8 track tapes again, we'll put in a big order for their coal.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

On 5/30/2017 at 5:15 PM, Altherion said:

But is Trump really a threat to American institutions? Up until now, he has not even gone as far as previous Presidents (e.g. Andrew "the genocide" Jackson). Trump has not challenged the right of the courts to block his orders or taken any measures to coerce Congress. Everything he has done is within the rules of the system. Furthermore, he may not have held elective office prior to the Presidency, but Trump is no sans-culotte: he is the billionaire son of a multi-millionaire father and has moved among the highest political tier his entire life. There are elements of his base which aspire to what could be described as a variant of neo-fascism, but Trump himself is just a populist whose message was surprisingly well received and who is now struggling with the system (with predictable results).

So Trump is obviously just a populist struggling with the system while Obama was compromised by the front row kids as soon as he stepped foot in Washington.

[LongRider]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Then there's the wildfires.

Living in wildfire country for the past 20 years I gotta say this is a huge deal.  California had a lot of moisture this year but there is still plenty of potential for fire here, and in Nevada and so many other western and southwestern states.  But, wildfires have started happening in places one doesn't much hear about.  California/Nevada fire season is a regular thing but the Southeast?  The fires in the Southeast surprised me and it's got the potential to be really horrible again, and again and again. 

[LongRider]

14 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Let them know that as soon as they start buying our 8 track tapes again, we'll put in a big order for their coal.

The town Coalseam only has about 2400 folks, and sadly, only so many 8 track decks in old pickup trucks exist, so your market is limited.  dog-gone it!

[Altherion]

14 minutes ago, White Walker Texas Ranger said:

So Trump is obviously just a populist struggling with the system while Obama was compromised by the front row kids as soon as he stepped foot in Washington.

This is a bit difficult to evaluate without insider information, but yes, it looks that way. Obama had the support of the usual Democrat coalition and then some -- he raised literally twice as much money as his competition. Trump, on the other hand, was on the opposite side of that equation. More importantly, Obama had a much larger impetus for change to the system, but he stuck closely to the existing rules (even though they greatly limited him) whereas Trump is trying to push things such as the abolition of the filibuster (with mixed results, but at least he's fighting).