The suzerain Trump

[cronus]

I wouldn't believe anything about what is happening right now, really. Where is Pence while this....? And who suggested the idea to Trump?

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz ... mike-pence

[Tero]

Must be something wrong in America to end up with Trump. But what?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... ar-AAm9JNq

[pErvinalia]

Can't you post an excerpt for these, Tero?

[Forty Two]

That video actually made me guffaw. Well done, and the imitation of Trump's style was perfect! Good show.

I do find it a bit ironic that the Dutch would parody someone who thinks everything he does is "the best" and "most fantastic," etc. The Dutch really do think they have the best language, pony parks, tiny cities, waterways, windmills and everything else. The Netherlands could really be called Trumpland, given how absolutely fantastic the Dutch think their country is. American exceptionalism holds no candle to Dutch superiority.

[Tero]

But a new poll from Gallup is a reminder that Trump faces another big challenge, one that could make it more difficult for him to rally Congress or coalesce the American people around his agenda. More than almost all presidents over the past 50 years for which Gallup has data, Trump faces little agreement by the American public on the greatest test the nation confronts, a reminder not only of how politically polarized the country remains but how difficult the leadership task is that stands before him.

Eleven percent of the 1,032 adults surveyed in early January said the most important problem is the economy, while another 11 percent said it was dissatisfaction with the government. Another 10 percent put race relations at the top of the list, and 9 percent said health care. Eight percent each said unemployment and elections or elections reform.

That 11 percent at the top of the list for the economy and government dissatisfaction were, Gallup wrote in a blog post Friday, “the lowest percentages recorded for the most commonly mentioned ‘most important problem’ ” since the polling organization began asking the question in 1939.

Without an economic recession or the military's involvement in a major war, Gallup said, Trump faces less cohesion around a singular problem during his first month in office than most of his predecessors. In January 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn in for his first term amid the global financial crisis, 57 percent of respondents said the economy was the country's most dominant problem. At the time of Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, after the recession of the early 1990s, 35 percent named the economy and another 22 percent named unemployment as the country's chief quandary.

During both Ronald Reagan's and Gerald Ford's first month in office, 70 percent or more of Americans said inflation or the cost of living was at the top, while 41 percent of Americans named the Vietnam War when Richard Nixon was inaugurated in January 1969. (In its report, Gallup did not list the dominant problems for incoming administrations before 1969, and no data were available for the months of Jimmy Carter's and George H.W. Bush's inaugurations.)

Trump's numbers are relatively similar to the inauguration of George W. Bush, when, in the aftermath of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, 13 percent of respondents named “ethics and moral decline” as the country's top problem. Twelve percent named education, 9 percent said crime and violence, and 9 percent named dissatisfaction with government.

The dispersed opinion is a clear illustration of the polarized electorate that both Trump and Bush faced when they were inaugurated. Both won the electoral college but lost the popular vote in particularly divisive elections where there was not a “towering problem,” in Gallup's description, that a majority or near majority of Americans were most concerned about trying to solve.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... ar-AAm9JNq

[Forty Two]

He's made some backwards proclamation about abortion education. So much for 42's claim that Trump is a liberal.

I didn't call him "a" liberal. I said he was more liberal than any of the other Republican candidates - he's far more liberal than Cruz or Rubio, the two closest competitors. And, in many ways he is more liberal than Hillary Clinton - Clinton is the war hawk, who declared during the debates that she would try to place a no fly zone over all of Syria, which, of course, would be an act of war against Syria and its boss, Russia.

It's hard to find someone in American politics anymore who is accurately described as "a" liberal. The "Liberals" are leftists now (aka "Progressives"), and the conservatives are nutty religious folks of the Cruz ilk.

Liberalism in the US is dead...or if not dead, certainly moribund. What passes for "liberal" these days is the screetching regressive leftist, hollering about safe spaces and "harmful opinions."

[Tero]

Dead? Did you see all the pussy hats?

[Forty Two]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-2 ... -incredibl

Below is the full statement issued by the Teamsters' Jimmy Hoffa, who said "Withdrawal from TPP the Right Choice for U.S. Trade Policy"

The following is a statement from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa on President Donald Trump signing an executive order to formally withdraw the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership.

“Today, President Trump made good on his campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. With this decision, the president has taken the first step toward fixing 30 years of bad trade policies that have cost working Americans millions of good-paying jobs.

“The Teamsters Union has been on the frontline of the fight to stop destructive trade deals like the TPP, China PNTR, CAFTA and NAFTA for decades. Millions of working men and women saw their jobs leave the country as free trade policies undermined our manufacturing industry. We hope that President Trump’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Jan. 31 opens a real dialogue about fixing the flawed NAFTA.

“We take this development as a positive sign that President Trump will continue to fulfill his campaign promises in regard to trade policy reform and instruct the USTR to negotiate future agreements that protect American workers and industry.”

And with that statement, pundit attention will closely follow the Trump-Trumka relationship which promises to be one of the more interesting in US politics over the next few years. As Axios points out, "Trump and top advisers like Steve Bannon see an opportunity to destroy traditional political alliances. Their theory worked in the election: They peeled white working class voters (and many union households) away from the Democrats. Now, they believe that delivering major items for this constituency — watch also for a confrontation with Big Pharma — could further wreck the Democrats' hold on organized labor."

[Forty Two]

Dead? Did you see all the pussy hats?

If Leftist Progressive is "liberal," then they're liberal alright.

[Forty Two]

Cut regulations by 75%! http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/23/trump-te ... -more.html

Deep down New York City, close to Flushing, Queens
Way back up in Central Park among the evergreens
There stood a skyscraper made of steel and stone
Where lived a city boy named the Donald
Who never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could piss off Progressives just like a ringing a bell

Go, Donald, Go, Go!
Go, Donald , Go, Go!
Go, Donald, Go, Go!
Donald J. Trump1

[Tero]

Pussyhats and Springsteen. It will be quite a coalition in 2 years by mid term election.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15704M

[Tero]

Once the pipeline is there, free cash to oil company. Jobs amounts to very few permanent.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01 ... s-say.html

[Forty Two]

Pussyhats and Springsteen. It will be quite a coalition in 2 years by mid term election.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15704M

LOL - Springsteen used to be "for the working man..." -- now, he's for the bankers and supporting global free trade, which his peeps, the union guys, and the American blue collar workers, hate, because it takes their jobs....

"Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown" -- My Hometown, by Bruce Springsteen

[Tero]

Trade deal fail.

Washigton Post:
But what's changing with Trump is that we aren't even trying to lead on trade anymore. He doesn't see these deals as a way to win friends and influence people, but rather to win manufacturing jobs and influence his approval rating. That might sound like common sense to some people, but it does leave an opening for other countries — yes, China — to negotiate where we're not. The risk, then, is that globalization might not proceed on our terms or with our values.

[Tero]

Once the pipeline is there, free cash to oil company. Jobs amounts to very few permanent.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01 ... s-say.html

And this will happen under Trump's watch in the Dakotas:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1572UJ
Canada oil pipeline spills 200,000 liters on aboriginal land