[Discussion] Hope to Remember The Trump Administration Thread as being 'transparent and honest'

Let's follow and discuss what our newest presidential administration gets up to, the good, the bad, the lawsuits, and the many many indictments.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Seriously though - is the answer there is no accommodation for animal migration?

To the best of my knowledge, no, there are no accommodations for animals.

The DHS is explicitly exempted from most environmental reviews by the Real ID Act of 2005.

The existing fencing is already bad for wildlife. Actually building The Wall would be catastrophic for the ecosystem.

Scientific American: Trump’s Wall May Threaten Thousands of Plant and Animal Species on the U.S.–Mexico Border
The region—called the Sky Islands—harbors more than 7,000 species, many of which struggle to cross human-made obstructions

Vox: The ecological disaster that is Trump’s border wall: a visual guide

LeapingGnome wrote:

Seriously though - is the answer there is no accommodation for animal migration?

"Of course we don't want animals to migrate! That's why we need to build that wall!"
- possible answer by Trump if caught off script

They don't have a plan for handling rivers, canyons, or people's backyards. Of course they don't have a plan for animals.

Trump asserts "wheels are older than walls"

"They say ‘a wall is medieval.’ Well, so is a wheel. A wheel is older than a wall," Trump said. "The wheel is older than the wall, you know that? There are some things that work. You know what? A wheel works and a wall works. Nothing like a wall."

Honestly. If my mom started talking like this, my siblings and I would be on the phone the next instant talking about medical and legal power of attorney.

Archaeological evidence
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/u9R2ksU.jpg)

JC wrote:

And now, in true republican fashion, they’re discussing taking money away from those most in need to fund the wall.

Of course they are. The other option is to take the money away from the funds to pay Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics. They are certainly not going to try doing that.

Tapper: Trump denies wall claim? Roll the tape

This is stating the obvious, but we shut down the US government because the president keeps insisting that they give him money to build his Maginot line.

(The analogy gets even better when you realize that most of the drugs he's talking about are coming through the existing ports of entry. Including ports of entry nowhere near the Mexican border through places like Florida, over the border from Canada, and shipped through the mail from China. Immigrants have similar stories, though I imagine fewer of them get shipped through the mail.)

'Not leadership': Pence in 2014 criticized using presidential powers on immigration reform

*odd since the "leader" of is party is doing that.

I am sure that was only when a democrat was doing it. For republicans it is the pinnacle of greatness, of so much winning, of whatever bootlicking Pence needs to do.

Sounds like the Freedom Caucus is now divided on whether to support the emergency powers idea. Worst idea in that whole piece: Mark Meadows suggesting that Trump could declare emergency powers to grab the funding but not reopen the government until after the courts let them get away with it.

You know, in many parliamentary systems, the government failing to pass a budget like this automatically triggers new elections. Just saying.

But America is perfect! 100% (unless a democrat is in office)

Corden introduces us to Backpedalin' Trump in Best of Late Night

Vote for your favorite late night hosts jokes about trump and his babyish "negotiations"

GoFundMe is refunding all donations made to the 'Fund the Wall' campaign

In his update, Kolfage said he had reached out to several experts in "law, politics, national security, construction, and finance" and created a team that "has spent countless hours over the holidays reviewing all issues pertaining to the construction of a southern border wall."

"Unanimously," Kolfage said, "we have all come to the conclusion that the federal government won't be able to accept our donations anytime soon."

He said this was why his new nonprofit would accept any donations previously made to the GoFundMe campaign.

Among the group of people listed on the GoFundMe page as being involved with the nonprofit are Erik Prince, an American businessman known for founding the security firm Blackwater (he is also Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' brother), David Clarke, the former Wisconsin sheriff known for expressing controversial views on immigration, and Mary Ann Mendoza, a proponent of stricter immigration laws whose son died when his car was hit by an intoxicated driver who authorities said had been in the country illegally.

I wonder if that had anything to do with the exceptionally unflattering article on Kolfage Buzzfeed dropped yesterday.

Remember how we’re leaving Syria but only if Turkey doesn’t attack the Kurds?

They don’t respect us enough to even pretend the lie is real.

oilypenguin wrote:

Remember how we’re leaving Syria but only if Turkey doesn’t attack the Kurds?

They don’t respect us enough to even pretend the lie is real.

No matter what Trump’s delusional followers believe, this is the weakest the US has ever been.

We’ve become Denethor, the crazy steward of Gondor*.

Edit:* As portrayed in the movies.

Reaper81 wrote:

We’ve become Denethor, the crazy steward of Gondor*.

Edit:* As portrayed in the movies.

What a great analogy!

farley3k wrote:
Reaper81 wrote:

We’ve become Denethor, the crazy steward of Gondor*.

Edit:* As portrayed in the movies.

What a great analogy!

I tried to find a GIF of the scene where he is on fire and runs screaming off that ledge but had no luck.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1vLsKiM.gif)

Helping.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/1vLsKiM.gif)

Helping.

Much appreciated.

Anybody following the NYT story on the FBI looking into Individual 1 as an actual Russian asset? It is nuts.

As if we need another thing to worry about with this ridiculous shutdown, and the likelihood that Trump would rather watch the country burn than be labelled a "loser." But here's this.

The White House's National Security Council asked the Pentagon last year for plans for launching a military attack against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported early Sunday, citing current and former US officials.
The request from the council, which is led by national security adviser John Bolton, came after an attack in September on the US Embassy in Baghdad by a militant group aligned with Iran, according to the Journal.
According to the paper, Mira Ricardel, the former deputy national security adviser, described the attacks in Iraq as "an act of war," and said that the US needed to respond accordingly.

We can only hope that some terrorist doesn't pull off even a modest attack in the next couple of years. Between Bolton and Trump's desire to look tough and distract from his other issues... I don't even want to think about it.

Top_Shelf wrote:

Anybody following the NYT story on the FBI looking into Individual 1 as an actual Russian asset? It is nuts.

My nightmare scenario has always been that Trump is literally a Manchurian Candidate and that the endgame is for Russia to win WWIII.

Maybe Russia knows that we will eventually have a fully operational ICBM shield and so made this play to guarantee that they can launch their nukes first and maybe prevent us from even retaliating. Maybe Trump is their gambit to remove the "mutual" part of the equation.

I mean, all of this is the stuff should be something from a far out there Clancy novel but it also seems to resemble the bizzaro-world we find ourselves in.

I don’t think Putin wants WWIII. I used to ask my family and friends who were still Republican, “What do you think Trump will do if Putin threatens to launch nukes?”

Now that we’re almost 3 years into the investigation I’m pretty confident it’s about money and the US being rubble wouldn’t help Putin and his cronies get their sanctioned money back.

It’s clear that no one has thought through what the endgame to any of this is and that’s scary.

DSGamer wrote:

I don’t think Putin wants WWIII. I used to ask my family and friends who were still Republican, “What do you think Trump will do if Putin threatens to launch nukes?”

Now that we’re almost 3 years into the investigation I’m pretty confident it’s about money and the US being rubble wouldn’t help Putin and his cronies get their sanctioned money back.

It’s clear that no one has thought through what the endgame to any of this is and that’s scary.

...I think he’s already got that going. A destabilization of NATO and the US shield over Europe, a shakier relationship with China, and because of tariffs and an easing of sanctions, more open markets for goods. It really feels like the only thing that could be even better is if we were to commit to another war in the Middle East, further tanking our economy.

Add that with a heavy dose of a lack of faith in our treasured government institutions and you’ve done enough without ever firing a nuke to consider the op wildly successful.

If we do end up in another war and people get tired of being in another Middle East theater, I wonder how much we’d actually support the Baltic states if Russia were to attempt another annexation. It kind of feels like some Germany - Chech land gobbling where the allied powers just let it happen with some intense finger waggling.

Putin is already fighting WW3. A third of America just willfully denies that our digital Pearl Harbor has been bombed.

Paleocon wrote:

Putin is already fighting WW3. A third of America just willfully denies that our digital Pearl Harbor has been bombed.

I think it's worse than that. It's not just that they're ignoring it. For a lot of them, they're cheering it because it's worth it to keep those people out of power. Ends justify the means, you know?

You know, when they told me that someday we'd get a social media president who used Twitter, I really didn't expect it to be a 72 year old man who retweets conspiracy theories.

I was expecting someone who at least gestures at being somewhat sober and responsible. Like @dril.

Gremlin wrote:

You know, when they told me that someday we'd get a social media president who used Twitter, I really didn't expect it to be a 72 year old man who retweets conspiracy theories.

I was expecting someone who at least gestures at being somewhat sober and responsible. Like @dril.

Trump is Leela to AOC's Jackie Anderson

#EverythingIsFuturama

So, http://berderking.com is a thing.