jcsmith

It's tough to deny climate change is happening unless you are looking for a reason and reading web sites sponsored by the energy industry. Keep in mind that prior to Pruitt taking control of the EPA Exxon was being sued for their role in trying to cover it up, very similar to what happened with the tobacco industry. With regards to the 97% consensus, that hasn't just been reached in one study, it's been reached in at least 5 separate studies. And a higher (90%+) has been reached in numerous more.

The money that goes into creating doubt is from the energy industries that directly benefit from it. The reality is that clean energy is viable. It's viable to invest in it now. And this will create jobs. But you can expect those profiting from oil and coal to fight this for as long as they can. And they have the perfect people in the white house to ensure they milk some profits (at the expense of the environment) over the next few years.

2 hours ago, jerojero said:

Universal health care? Like Canada? Never in a million years. USA political system including highly politicised supreme court will never come together for such a drastic social change. Universal health care is an outcome of social unity among citizens and socially minded politicians. That is not the US way.

A lot of Americans would support it. It was part of what made Bernie Sanders so popular. The establishment would fight against it, but I don't think it's an impossibility.

Trump promised the moon to voters, who seemed willing to overlook the fact that there was no substance to it. It was based on conspiracy theories and rhetoric, and his health care reform was a great example of that. He focused on what a "disaster" Obamacare was, promised to replace it with "something terrific" and once he was elected it became clear that he had no plan at all for how to fix it. In the end he jumped on Ryan's plan which reduced the number of people covered, reduced the quality of coverage, but managed to give a huge tax break to the top 2%. And when it failed, due to not being able to get the votes from his own party (which holds majority in the house) he blamed it on Democrats (who didn't have the votes to stop it) and now seems to be cheering for Obamacare (which he is sure to not support any improvements to) to fail at the cost of the American people. He's a con man. Always has been, always will be.

That last four minutes of Bill Maher's show this week pretty much covers Trump's political career:
 

16 hours ago, keep it real said:

it's been said that warren buffet owns the railway that currently transports the oil, and he gave Obama some 25M to block the damn pipeline.

It's also been said that Obama wire tapped Trump Tower... People say a lot these days.

It shouldn't have taken much vetting to know that Flynn was a nut. I mean the guy basically said 1.6 billion people were infected by the "vicious cancer" of Islam. That alone should have prevented him from taking that office. the fact that they knew in January that he had lied about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador and still did nothing. And we also now know that Mike Pence was warned about Flynn's Turkish lobbying as well before he took his post. Trump's people don't care about vetting. They care about getting their people into positions of power and then trying to cover up their tracks to keep them there.

4 hours ago, Graemej100 said:

 

The US currently has 622 bases outside of the US in 36 different countries. (Or more, depending who you believe.)

The rest of the countries in the world have, in total, 33 bases outside of their own countries. 

They are there at the will of those countries per agreements with those countries.

1 minute ago, Andaman Al said:

The President is not anything to do with an order to 'wire tap' anyone, he cannot order it. Wire tapping is a legal procedure that requires specific evidence and/or reason and is 'ordered' by a Judge who considers the request from the intelligence/law enforcement agencies. If Trump was wire tapped then this is going to get a whole lot juicer because he clearly does not grasp either how or why he was wire tapped.

 

Where are all his close circle senior advisors now? Oops Banner, Kushner and Conway have no legal or Government experience! Epic FAIL !

Exactly. If there was a wire tap it would show there was reasonable cause to put one there. In his effort to distract people from the Russian probes he's not only made himself look ridiculous with yet another unfounded claim (similar to his voter fraud one), but in the event that he was wire tapped, it shows that the FIS court deemed there to be probable cause for the taps which is going to do the exact opposite of what he hopes. 

The only thing more predictable than Trump making an outlandish and unfounded claim to try to distract from his own bad press is the fact that his fan base will find ways to defend it. Was Trump Tower wire tapped? Who knows? But if he was it was part of an FBI investigation and it was not something ordered by Obama. Trump seems to lack a basic understanding of the office that he holds.

2 hours ago, pegman said:

Watch what you wish for. If you are an American liberal, has a different meaning in my country, you will likely find Pense much worse for your cause.

Pence has some way out policies as well, but he is more deliberate and the circus will end. I think most people who dislike Trump wouldn't be thrilled about Pence, but would view it as far preferable to Trump.

I'd guess Putin realizes that all the Russian investigations have more support with the bromance continuing. He's trying to distance himself from it to make things easier on Trump. Trump isn't an asset to him if he's under scrutiny to be harder on him. His best bet for Trump as an ally is to let the Russian stuff die down first.

9 hours ago, SheungWan said:

The playbook is to put pressure on the company/news outlet in question so that they eventually fall in line. It only needs one 'domino' to fall and the rest topple over. At least that's the way it should go.

More likely it's just going to motivate them to go at him more.

7 hours ago, thaihome said:

What seems to be often lost in this discussion on US manufacturing is the fact that output is at record levels and all signs say it will continue to grow. The problem is it is being done with millions of fewer people.  

Good post on a topic that people seem to ignore or not understand quite often. Automation is going to cost many millions of more jobs. There's no stopping it, but many people aren't going to be fit for the more technical jobs. It's a serious issue that the world is going to be facing in the near future as AI, robotics, and automation improves, and prices on things like 3d printers are driven down. 

Trump is out of control. From banning press to briefings, to skipping the upcoming White House Press Dinner, to lying recently about saving $1BN off Air Force one cost. It's easy to get away with lies if you ban all the outlets who call you on it and your fan base is too loyal or dumb to question it.

1 hour ago, funandsuninbangkok said:

is it fake news that Swedish people seem to agree with President Trump?

Not only was the information false but let's see what the former PM of Sweden has to say about that... 

Quote

“Sweden? Terror Attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound,” 

Lol. I think that sums it up. That's from former Swedish PM Carl Bildt.

4 hours ago, Credo said:

It is extremely dangerous when the President of the United States starts spreading mis-information.   There is a lot at stake, not to mention the credibility.    What if he decides to say something like N. Korea or Iran launched a bomb (instead of a missile test)?    What if he watches a movie and decides it's true?

 

I have no idea how the diplomats and embassies are going to deal with this nut case.   

The problem here is that he and his staff repeatedly spread it. And then they try to convince the public that the media is against them and not to believe the media lies. Hey only listen to us while we make things up on the fly. The sad thing is that many Trump supporters will believe anything he says, and this is creating a dangerous environment. This is the second fake terrorist incident in the past couple weeks, and then you can add the anti-Muslim attack in Canada which clearly did not support their case, which Sean Spicer referred to as if it did which would make it three in a month.

7 hours ago, mike324 said:

Defense Secretary under Trump seems to be the only legit person. The rest are either crazy, incompetent, working to enrich themselves.

He's a bright guy, but I'd worry about him environmentally too. Considering he was the CEO of Exxon for years, while they were covering up or engagement in disinformation on climate change, and the potential for conflict of interest there if sanctions get lifted on Russia would be high for those same reasons. But compared to most of his cabinet I agree, Mattis and Tillerson seem to be the most level headed and competent of the bunch.

Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times. Got into deep water because he allowed people from the oil industries to write their own propaganda and then put his name on it as something official. And has for a couple of years fought against releasing what is likely compromising information about his interactions with them. That information has to be released by court order within the next 10 days, but congress decided to vote him in now before they can see that likely damning evidence. The fact that Republicans have voted in every single candidate so far despite many of them being off the rails crazy picks causes them to lose all credibility.

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

I found Stephen Miller's interview to be the most disturbing thing so far. The full speech is even more disturbing He's basically saying that the president doesn't need to obey the judicial branch and then goes on to talk about the military might. This is a play straight out of the dictator's handbook. And shortly after he gave the speech Trump praised him for it.

27 minutes ago, Ulysses G. said:

 

Yates was appointed by Barack Obama and told justice department lawyers not to defend his executive order. She refused to carry out her constitutional duty to enforce and defend the law. Not quite the same situation.

Yates refused to execute an unlawful order. 

15 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

        Even without the news of him talking with the Russkies (and pledging policy?) as a private citizen....Flynn is a nutjob.  Not surprising, when you look at the sorts of ding-dongs Trump puts forth for top positions.   Flynn said he saw signs along roads in Texas, written in Arabic, telling Muslim extremists (who supposedly snuck across the border from Mexico) .....where to go to find safe houses.  

 

       Funny, or perhaps not, that no one, except right wing conspiracy theorists, have seen such signs on Texas roads, or anywhere else.  Proof, if any were needed, that our mentally incompetent prez will choose mentally incompetent people.

Then add to that the fact that he said that 1.6 billion people were inflicted with the "vicious cancer of Islam", it's would be hard to imagine how this guy could get a top cabinet position... until you look at the rest of Trump's cabinet and then it becomes clear.

Thailand will never progress so long as there is an "if..." to that statement.

@bitcoinforever: Yeah and there was also slavery. But look how far you have to go back to find something like this. We had progressed as a society, and Trump is throwing us backwards in a time warp. 

@kowpot: You are grouping all muslims into something that a handful of extremists did. Most terrorist attacks by muslims are against other muslims. They are not the same thing.

There have been over 40 bombings of abortion clinics, along with individual murders, death threats, anthrax threats, acid attacks, and kidnappings against abortion clinincs over the past 40 years. Do you judge all Christians by this? Once again it should be mentioned that there have been zero terrorist deaths from immigrants of any of the 7 banned countries in the same time span. 

Can we really call Donald Trump the leader of the "free world"? This is a guy who treats the media as "the opposition", vows to put America's interest first, and seeks to ban the worlds second largest religion.