Trump, the man with a dream of a Wall

[Seabass]

To be fair, he is marginally sane, not to mention gay. That's not what Trumpophiles signed up for!

...

[Forty Two]

Trump's call to militarize border comes as illegal crossings last year were lowest since 1971
CBS

It’s horrible that illegal crossings are so low. A caring and compassionate country would ensure a high level of illegal crossings.

[Forty Two]

Wall Street tumbles as China-US tariffs fuel trade war fears - business live

Is this Trump's plan B. He makes a killing on Wall Street?

The Dow was up 240 points today. I guess he didn’t short the market after all.

[Forty Two]

"Continuous stream of refugees walking straight to America, must stop with guns!" It's fake news.
CNN
Reality: There is an annual event organized by activists where migrants caravan through Mexico to the US, designed to highlight the dangerous journey that immigrants must undertake to escape violent and unstable conditions in their home countries. The migrants on the journey hope to make it to the US border, where they can make a claim that they qualify for asylum.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted Tuesday that Mexican officials had told her the "caravan is dissipating" and that several hundred of the migrants had been sent back to their home countries, while others are being offered refugee status. "I thank the GOM (Government of Mexico) for their partnership on this and other security issues," she tweeted.

They can seek asylum in Mexico. It’s not a shithole, so it should be fine for them there.

[Forty Two]

Obama unpopularity likely to do with "you must buy health insurance" which was reality by midterm election Obama's second year


TRUMP SAYS HIS APPROVAL IS HIGHER THAN OBAMA'S, IGNORING THE POLLS THAT SAY IT ISN'T

Three other polls published the same day by Gallup, Harvard, and Investor's Business Daily show the president with between 38 and 44 percent approval and 55 to 56 percent disapproval.

A combined average of polls give Trump a 41.8 percent approval and 53.2 percent disapproval rating.

Trump made a similar claim in early March. “Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are ‘somewhat low,’” he tweeted March 11.


It was not clear what Trump meant by “Cheatin’ Obama.” In Gallup polling from March 28 to April 3 in 2010, around the same time as in Trump’s presidency, Obama’s approval rating sat at 49 percent approval to 44 percent disapproval.

Read more: Trump claims he’s more popular than Obama, tells voters to ignore low approval ratings

Rasmussen polls from around the same time had Obama’s approval at around 47 percent and disapproval at 53 percent. A Fox News poll from early April 2010, however, had Obama’s approval at 43 percent and disapproval at 48 percent.

Indeed, it’s improper for Trump to view his poll numbers in the best light possible. Unless he follows the most pessimistic polls, or averages polls with different methodologies, he’s lying about his poll numbers. After all, so few media outlets will report negative Trump news and numbers. Trumps’s Tweets are a threat to democracy, as they prevent the media and public from accessing negative news and polls about The Donald.

[Forty Two]

How will 42, who is ostensibly a supporter of free markets, defend this shit?

“TRUMP IS LIKE, ‘HOW CAN I F--K WITH HIM?’”: TRUMP’S WAR WITH AMAZON (AND THE WASHINGTON POST) IS PERSONAL

With the West Wing finally calm, Trump is contemplating a multi-front campaign against Jeff Bezos.

For the first time in Donald Trump’s presidency, the West Wing soap opera appears to be in hiatus, with many of its starring characters (Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks) either permanently offstage or with much reduced roles (John Kelly, Jared Kushner). Currently, there’s one star—a situation Trump is obviously enjoying—and his new freedom is used to focus ever more closely on his perceived enemies and obsessions. Amazon, whose owner, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post, is currently the main target. Trump has ripped into Amazon in recent days, claiming in a series of tweets that Jeff Bezos’s tech giant benefits from billions in subsidies from the U.S. Post office while skirting sales taxes. “Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump tweeted. On Monday, he wrote: “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country . . . not a level playing field!” The tweets caused Amazon’s stock to plunge 5 percent on Monday.

Now, according to four sources close to the White House, Trump is discussing ways to escalate his Twitter attacks on Amazon to further damage the company. “He’s off the hook on this. It’s war,” one source told me. “He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos,” said another source. “Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?”

According to sources, Trump wants the Post Office to increase Amazon’s shipping costs. When Trump previously discussed the idea inside the White Hose, Gary Cohn had explained that Amazon is a benefit to the Postal Service, which has seen mail volume plummet in the age of e-mail. “Trump doesn’t have Gary Cohn breathing down his neck saying you can’t do the Post Office shit,” a Republican close to the White House said. “He really wants the Post Office deal renegotiated. He thinks Amazon’s getting a huge fucking deal on shipping.”

Advisers are also encouraging Trump to cancel Amazon’s pending multi-billion contract with the Pentagon to provide cloud computing services, sources say. Another line of attack would be to encourage attorneys general in red states to open investigations into Amazon’s business practices. Sources say Trump is open to the ideas. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

Even Trump’s allies acknowledge that much of what’s fueling Trump’s rage toward Amazon is that Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, sources said. “Trump doesn’t like The New York Times, but he reveres it because it’s his hometown paper. The Washington Post, he has zero respect for,” the Republican close to the White House said. While the Post says that Bezos has no involvement in newsroom decisions, Trump has told advisers he believes Bezos uses the paper as a political weapon. One former White House official said Trump looks at the Post the same way he looks at the National Enquirer. “When Bezos says he has no involvement, Trump doesn’t believe him. His experience is with the David Peckers of the world. Whether it’s right or wrong, he knows it can be done.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04 ... s-personal

Does being in favor of free markets mean that we should allow Amazon To receive “... benefits from billions in subsidies from the U.S. Post office while skirting sales taxes....”. Which other retailers have to pay? Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business as a result - does being in favor of free markets mean being in favor of that?

[Seabass]

Honestly, I can't tell if you're being disingenuous or if you really are this stupid.

[Tero]

Amazon will set up its own delivery service and PO will lose all that business.

[Brian Peacock]

It's the usual Trump trope: Find a fall guy, and make it personal.

[JimC]

Forty Two wrote:

Does being in favor of free markets mean that we should allow Amazon To receive “... benefits from billions in subsidies from the U.S. Post office while skirting sales taxes....”. Which other retailers have to pay? Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business as a result - does being in favor of free markets mean being in favor of that?

Doesn't your postal service operate on a for profit basis? Ours certainly does, and, in a similar way, was having big financial worries with the downturn in both private and business letters, given email and on-line bill paying etc. Their salvation came in the big increase of parcel delivery, including stuff from Amazon.

So, are you evil socialists over there, or will you let your postal service operate freely in the market? If their business plan lets them charge Amazon a bit more, then so be it...

[Tero]

Politicians not siding with Trump tantrum.
Poltico:
”But Trump’s frustration has long seemed aimed primarily at The Washington Post’s news coverage. Trump incorrectly suggests the newspaper is part of the same company as Amazon, going so far as to recently suggest it should register as a company lobbyist.

That means Amazon can’t follow the playbook other companies have employed when they drew his ire. When Trump bashed Lockheed Martin on Twitter during the transition, the company responded by promising to add jobs at a Texas plant and pledging to cut the cost of its F-35 fighter.

In other ways, though, Amazon is well positioned to weather Trump's attacks.

The company is a formidable presence in Washington, with 28 registered lobbyists on staff and several top firms on retainer. Amazon spent $12.8 million on Washington lobbying last year — more than five times what it spent five years ago — and its in-house lobbyists worked almost every corner of the federal government, according to disclosure filings, lobbying 30 federal agencies, Congress and the White House.

Administration staffers have continued to meet with Amazon lobbyists in recent weeks “irrespective of tweets,” according to a lobbyist familiar with Amazon’s strategy.

No members of Congress have joined Trump in denouncing Amazon in recent days, perhaps in part because Amazon employs people in many of their districts.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/ ... eud-502293

[Seabass]

Forty Two wrote:

Does being in favor of free markets mean that we should allow Amazon To receive “... benefits from billions in subsidies from the U.S. Post office while skirting sales taxes....”. Which other retailers have to pay? Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business as a result - does being in favor of free markets mean being in favor of that?

Doesn't your postal service operate on a for profit basis? Ours certainly does, and, in a similar way, was having big financial worries with the downturn in both private and business letters, given email and on-line bill paying etc. Their salvation came in the big increase of parcel delivery, including stuff from Amazon.

That's about right. Here's a fact-check of Trump's horse shit:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... g-fortune/

Additionally, there is also the issue of whether it is appropriate for a sitting president to single out and attack a particular company over a personal grudge.

[pErvinalia]

It's within the law, so by definition there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

[Forty Two]

So, his popularity, while still under 50, is at its highest level so far, at 42% -- http://theweek.com/articles/764645/why- ... -than-ever

Could he push 50? According to the Republican leaning Rasmussen Reports, he recently hit 50% among probable voters. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0 ... -per-cent/ I am not too trusting of Rasmussen. They haven't been right much.

A far more trustworthy source is 538.com, and they have him at 53% disapprove and 40% approve. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/tr ... l-ratings/ That leaves about 7% uncertain or neither. 538 got the election wrong, of course. But, Nate Silver knows what he's doing and they probably, I would imagine, are focusing really hard on their Trump predictions these days.

So, some upcoming interesting events might be big for the Trump-meister. The meeting with Kim Jong Un -- high risk, high reward - if he comes out of that with a denuclearization agreement, Trump will get a great boost.

He needs some development on the Wall - http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-bo ... bp-2017-10 - he's got prototypes going, but he needs to get shovels in the ground, so to speak, so he can show a fulfilment of at least part of that promise. Nobody expects the wall to be done completely, but he needs to have something going on it.

An economic growth of 5.4%, if that becomes real, would be astounding. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/01/economy ... shows.html

We had success in Syria, and now he is pulling the troops out. That's an excellent development that will prove very popular, I believe.

Trump's first year or so has been a nice success - https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 968842001/ and underreported https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/ ... 963040001/ and http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/ ... n-year-one

So what else can be said constitutes Trump success, and what more good news can be expected in the coming year or so?

Admin question - why merge this, when there are many varieties of negative Trump threads? CAn't we have one that is dedicated to the topic of Trump successes?

I created a thread about successes and accomplishments, which you merged with the thread that is specifically about the southern wall. Yet, there are several other threads out there running on different aspects of criticism of and ridicule of Trump. I wanted to create one a clearinghouse for news about where Trump has accomplished his policy goals or otherwise achieved success. Can you separate this post back to its own thread so that those interested can talk about those issues?

[Forty Two]

Amazon will set up its own delivery service and PO will lose all that business.

They might, but they'd have to be able to do so at a lower cost than the post office can give them. Right now, some genius at the post office is giving Amazon a sweetheart deal where the post office loses money. The reason amazon is using the post office is because the post office has ready to go national delivery systems.

Honestly, is there nothing at all that you see wrong here, with one of the biggest companies in the world paying zero sales tax on billions of dollars of goods, as brick-and-mortar stores must pay them? And, add to that a sweetheart deal with the post office to deliver to people 7 days a week?

Or, is this a brilliant move?