Trump Staff Picks, Co-Conspirators and the Revolving Door of Departures

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

So the Democrats are responsible for Trump? Fascinating.

Actually they are but not in the way that was presented here.

Americans have become very knee-jerk in their response to politics. There's a lot of reasons for it but it's a factor of how polarized politics has become since the 1990s.

Every 2 years, the public reacts to whatever happened in the previous election. Presidential politics seems to work on an 8 year cycle and everything else seems to be on a 2 year cycle.

The Jan 2017 issue of Atlantic will have an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates that pretty much lays out the case that Trump is the knee-jerk response to Obama.

IBM does not work on a day, by day basis when investing hundreds of millions in its business model.

I have much more faith in IBM by believing that their investment program decisions are the result of months, if not years of planning.

I don't know that employment has a strong connection to long-term corporate planning anymore. It seems a reaction to short-term demand, shareholder activism and general economic conditions. The planning part has more to do with HOW they hire/fire and less to do with the actual hiring or firing itself.

Presidents always love to claim credit for great economies but they find excuses when the economy isn't so great. It's largely fiction that Presidents have much to do with short-term employment numbers. The problem with economic policy is that it takes months or even years for economic policy to ripple through the actual economy. What happens more often is that Presidents inherit the effects of their predecessor and it takes years to improve or damage that legacy. Clinton benefited from Bush 41's painful choices (choice that probably cost Bush the presidency) and Obama spent a lot of his first term trying to recover from the economic disasters of the 2006-2009 from Bush 43's policies.

Americans (like many of the counterparts in other countries) are really good at complaining about their elected officials, completely ignoring the fact that in a democracy, the public is ultimately responsible for electing those same officials.

 

[Benvolio]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

If you watch the business news--CNBC for instance-- you will see business people expressing great optimism, inspired by Trumps promises. While the changes have not been adopted and it would take awhile for the to have an effect, the expectation and resulting optimization may inspire the confidence to make employment and expansion decisions now.
Footnote; the disaster in 2007 and 2008 did not result from policies of Bush.

 

[Kabluey]

If you watch the business news--CNBC for instance-- you will see business people expressing great optimism, inspired by Trumps promises. While the changes have not been adopted and it would take awhile for the to have an effect, the expectation and resulting optimization may inspire the confidence to make employment and expansion decisions now.
Footnote; the disaster in 2007 and 2008 did not result from policies of Bush.

Nice disclaimer there at the end. Meaningless though.

Companies can be optimistic about their own fortunes, but they'll be speaking about their profit and ability to exploit their position in the market for their shareholders.
Not their employees.

 

[eastofeden]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Actually they are but not in the way that was presented here.

Americans have become very knee-jerk in their response to politics. There's a lot of reasons for it but it's a factor of how polarized politics has become since the 1990s.

Every 2 years, the public reacts to whatever happened in the previous election. Presidential politics seems to work on an 8 year cycle and everything else seems to be on a 2 year cycle.

The Jan 2017 issue of Atlantic will have an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates that pretty much lays out the case that Trump is the knee-jerk response to Obama.


I don't know that employment has a strong connection to long-term corporate planning anymore. It seems a reaction to short-term demand, shareholder activism and general economic conditions. The planning part has more to do with HOW they hire/fire and less to do with the actual hiring or firing itself.

Presidents always love to claim credit for great economies but they find excuses when the economy isn't so great. It's largely fiction that Presidents have much to do with short-term employment numbers. The problem with economic policy is that it takes months or even years for economic policy to ripple through the actual economy. What happens more often is that Presidents inherit the effects of their predecessor and it takes years to improve or damage that legacy. Clinton benefited from Bush 41's painful choices (choice that probably cost Bush the presidency) and Obama spent a lot of his first term trying to recover from the economic disasters of the 2006-2009.

Americans (like many of the counterparts in other countries) are really good at complaining about their elected officials, completely ignoring the fact that in a democracy, the public is ultimately responsible for electing those same officials .

I would have to add how excruciating it is for me to hear people who never voted complain about ANYTHING...or who didn't vote "because blah blah blah...whatever whatever..."

I think apathy will be THE THING that brings us down in the end...

I also think the vote was a knee jerk reaction to Obama. A lot of it is because he was black...let's get that on the table right away because it was an issue for the racists who are now feeling empowered and becoming vocal about something anyone with a clue knew all along.....

Then you have the people for whom the pendulum swung too far. Sometimes it swings too far for me when all you have is the extremist POV on the table and they shut down anyone who doesn't agree 110%. EXTREMISTS DO ALOT OF DAMAGE....

On another gay board....I watched this group of pretty hard core people shut down anyone who didn't completely understand all the letters after LGBT.....and after listening to them...I have no desire to understand because they ask for things they aren't willing to give anyone else.

They are doing that damage right now on the right side of the aisle....watch it unfold. Trying to explain white supremecy....after the hard core audience in support of racism and the fringe around them take notes....there is a steep drop off in people who want to learn about white supremecy. Same with LBGFTRESGOLOIUYTFGHKKI...it is just the way it is...like it or not....

The jobs leaving America..they voted for the guy who participates in that himself...manufacturing his products overseas. The "change" they want..starts on a local level....and apathy about local politics is insane...so again...the complainers are often the ACTUAL target of their own complaints....

Does anyone else find it annoying that someone can name all the Kardashians but not the Vice President? I know it is supposed to be "funny and cute" but I want to throw up when I watch them....

The polarizing thing...the people who had limited access to potential voters now have an unprecedented amount of access to polarize and characterize the other side with disinformation and misinformation and lies. The rise of fake news is a serious new threat. It is true that the public now needs to take the time to seek out information and wade through an actual swamp comprised of the people who pretend they are draining it....but they always should have been doing that. I think all of these factors definitely played a bigger role than ever this year in politics....

The scariest thing IMO....when the facts don't agree with your narrative....and you insist the ACTUAL non partisan or award winning journalistic sites are working for whoever Alex Jones told you they were working for....probably no cure for that....and they vote too. I always hope they are as small a margin as I believe they are but they do seem to be growing.....

 

[Benvolio]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

I would have to add how excruciating it is for me to hear people who never voted complain about ANYTHING...or who didn't vote "because blah blah blah...whatever whatever..."

I think apathy will be THE THING that brings us down in the end...

I also think the vote was a knee jerk reaction to Obama. A lot of it is because he was black...let's get that on the table right away because it was an issue for the racists who are now feeling empowered and becoming vocal about something anyone with a clue knew all along.....

Then you have the people for whom the pendulum swung too far. Sometimes it swings too far for me when all you have is the extremist POV on the table and they shut down anyone who doesn't agree 110%. EXTREMISTS DO ALOT OF DAMAGE....

On another gay board....I watched this group of pretty hard core people shut down anyone who didn't completely understand all the letters after LGBT.....and after listening to them...I have no desire to understand because they ask for things they aren't willing to give anyone else.

They are doing that damage right now on the right side of the aisle....watch it unfold. Trying to explain white supremecy....after the hard core audience in support of racism and the fringe around them take notes....there is a steep drop off in people who want to learn about white supremecy. Same with LBGFTRESGOLOIUYTFGHKKI...it is just the way it is...like it or not....

The jobs leaving America..they voted for the guy who participates in that himself...manufacturing his products overseas. The "change" they want..starts on a local level....and apathy about local politics is insane...so again...the complainers are often the ACTUAL target of their own complaints....

Does anyone else find it annoying that someone can name all the Kardashians but not the Vice President? I know it is supposed to be "funny and cute" but I want to throw up when I watch them....

The polarizing thing...the people who had limited access to potential voters now have an unprecedented amount of access to polarize and characterize the other side with disinformation and misinformation and lies. The rise of fake news is a serious new threat. It is true that the public now needs to take the time to seek out information and wade through an actual swamp comprised of the people who pretend they are draining it....but they always should have been doing that. I think all of these factors definitely played a bigger role than ever this year in politics....

The scariest thing IMO....when the facts don't agree with your narrative....and you insist the ACTUAL non partisan or award winning journalistic sites are working for whoever Alex Jones told you they were working for....probably no cure for that....and they vote too. I always hope they are as small a margin as I believe they are but they do seem to be growing.....

It is too early to claim that they are "pretending" to drain the swamp since they have not taken office yet. Nor can you validly claim they should have been doing it before. Trump has never held office before and many of his appointees are similarly untainted.
"White Supremacy" is and epithet used by anti white racists and which does not accurately describe the position of the vast majority of the people who voted for Trump.

 

[eastofeden]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

It is too early to claim that they are "pretending" to drain the swamp since they have not taken office yet. Nor can you validly claim they should have been doing it before. Trump has never held office before and many of his appointees are similarly untainted.

It isn't too early because from where I sit..he invited the swamp to fill his cabinet positions....maybe even worse than the swamp...a new and different kind of dangerous swamp.

I am sure our definitions of swamp are very different as well.

For instance...I think Banana Republics are swamps.....

 

[eastofeden]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

"White Supremacy" is and epithet used by anti white racists and which does not accurately describe the position of the vast majority of the people who voted for Trump.

Bullshit.

White Supremecy is now celebrated by a select group of Americans who were pissed off about losing any of the white privilege they enjoyed...like having all white male presidents with one exception.

I don't need to guess or even accurately describe anything. They are doing it themselves....

I try to help them along when I can.....

Did you see my song dedication to you BTW? I was thinking of you The holidays get me all choked up

...and I would hardly call fair play on to the stage at this point..after all the characterizations you have made yourself...eh?

 

[Benvolio]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Bullshit.

White Supremecy is now celebrated by a select group of Americans who were pissed off about losing any of the white privilege they enjoyed...like having all white male presidents with one exception.

I don't need to guess or even accurately describe anything. They are doing it themselves....

I try to help them along when I can.....

Did you see my song dedication to you BTW? I was thinking of you The holidays get me all choked up

...and I would hardly call fair play on to the stage at this point..after all the characterizations you have made yourself...eh?

You are simply INVENTING what you claim they are pissed off about just as you have INVENTED that their objection to Obama is as to his race not his socialist, anti-American policies.

 

[Kabluey]

You are simply INVENTING what you claim they are pissed off about just as you have INVENTED that their objection to Obama is as to his race not his socialist, anti-American policies.

And Ben repeats his own invented story.

 

[eastofeden]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

You are simply INVENTING what you claim they are pissed off about just as you have INVENTED that their objection to Obama is as to his race not his socialist, anti-American policies.

No...wrong..not inventing anything....

I never said "all" ....I said a "select group" which is millions of people BTW....cheering him on with the Birth Certificate was the OBVIOUS indicator....same people now proudly and openly claiming tons of racist ideals. I encourage them to do so.....

They are all over facebook. Whenever I read some remarks...openly racist nasty remarks...I follow the trail back to their page for a quick look and a quick profile analysis...and it is ALWAYS there.. a pattern and a history of racist bullshit.....

In their words....

I don't need to do a thing except bring attention to it. People can make up their own minds....

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

I would have to add how excruciating it is for me to hear people who never voted complain about ANYTHING...or who didn't vote "because blah blah blah...whatever whatever..."

Add to your list of grievances the fact that 1.7 million voted but either by accident or by choice, made no selection for President.

The breakdown by state:

In a year that has been rich with irony....

And in the theme of "What comes around goes around", the Washington Post has a story today entitled "Trump’s national security adviser shared secrets without permission, files show".

A secret U.S. military investigation in 2010 determined that Michael T. Flynn, the retired Army general tapped to serve as national security adviser in the Trump White House, “inappropriately shared” classified information with foreign military officers in Afghanistan, newly released documents show...

The Army files call into question Flynn’s prior assertion that he had permission to share the sensitive information.

During the presidential race, Flynn campaigned vigorously for Republican nominee Donald Trump and drew attention for his scalding attacks against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified material.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

The professional educators have created the deficiency and aren't likely to solve it. Like all bureaucrats they will focus on their yearning for larger budgets and bigger salaries; plus their foolish focus on PC. It is easier to teach things the kids can get emotional about; racism, white privilege , global warming etc.

Of course the 'evangelical' school boards in a number of states trampling on the teaching of science have nothing to do with it.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Is it really good to devote so much of our educational resourses to foreign students? Are they given slots and scholarships while American students are turned away? Educational professionals in the US tend to subscribe to the anti-American ideology that diversity and multiculturalism are more important than educating Americans. Foreign students are likely to be liberal, giving schools the opportunity to exclude US students likey to be conservative, just as they exclude conservatives from faculty.
I hope the Trump administration and his nominee donot buy into the diversity-over-American ideology.

Until the GOP got racist about it, many if not most of those foreign students getting advanced degrees here stayed here, becamse citizens, and overall provided substantial numbers of jobs for Americans.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

You guys just voted for a woman who with her husband accumulated 150 million or so IN POLITICS but now you are worried that extremely wealthy businessmen are being appointed and they might make money from cabinet positions. What we know for certain is that Bill and Hillary would have looked for and found ways to profit from her position. These businessmen are used to workinging the full glare of disclosure to boards of directors, shareholders, SEC, DOJ, and dozens of other regulatory agencies. They are necessarily honest men.

No, they're thoroughly manipulative men. Like Trump, they'll push the edge of what's legal in order to make a buck.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Americans (like many of the counterparts in other countries) are really good at complaining about their elected officials, completely ignoring the fact that in a democracy, the public is ultimately responsible for electing those same officials.

In America there's good reason for that, since there hasn't been a candidate elected on the national scene in years with an actual majority of the voters. We settle for pluralities of the people who actually decide to go vote, which means that for the most part no public official has more than two-fifth of the public behind him. That's what we're looking at with Trump, who got about a third of American voters to support him.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

It is too early to claim that they are "pretending" to drain the swamp since they have not taken office yet. Nor can you validly claim they should have been doing it before. Trump has never held office before and many of his appointees are similarly untainted.
"White Supremacy" is and epithet used by anti white racists and which does not accurately describe the position of the vast majority of the people who voted for Trump.

Given the choices for his cabinet, Trump is definitely not draining the swamp -- he's actively aiming to pump in toxic waste.

 

[Kulindahr]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

You are simply INVENTING what you claim they are pissed off about just as you have INVENTED that their objection to Obama is as to his race not his socialist, anti-American policies.

Obama didn't have any "socialist, anti-American policies". He was too much of a wimp to really have any policies, an in what he did accomplish it tended to be total corporate sellouts.

 

[rareboy]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

Not a staff pick...but a bizarre pick for Ambassador to Israel.

But I guess Trump owes him big.

Donald Trump has named as his ambassador to Israel a pro-settler lawyer who has described some US Jews as worse than concentration camp prisoner-guards.

David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who represented the president-elect over his failing hotels in Atlantic City, served Trump’s advisory team on the Middle East. He has set out a number of hardline positions on Israeli-Palestinian relations, including fervent opposition to the two-state solution and strong support for an undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Well this should help bring on Armageddon.

 

[KaraBulut]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

In America there's good reason for that, since there hasn't been a candidate elected on the national scene in years with an actual majority of the voters. We settle for pluralities of the people who actually decide to go vote, which means that for the most part no public official has more than two-fifth of the public behind him. That's what we're looking at with Trump, who got about a third of American voters to support him.

But is the problem the candidates or is it the way that Americans regard politicians?

There's some good research coming out about how Americans pick which candidate they ultimately vote for. It confirms what many people suspect- that Americans ignore hard information and in the end vote for the candidate they "like"- with "like" defined more as a "gut" feeling.

There was also a lot of research saying that negative campaigning heavily influenced the election results, which is why 1.9 million people who voted didn't select a candidate for President. Of note is that one of the states with the highest vote was Arizona where there was a great deal of antipathy toward Donald Trump in the Mormon electorate and a lot of hesitation to vote for Hillary because of some of her liberal stances on issues like gun laws and abortion.

...But I guess Trump owes him big.

He's a bankruptcy attorney who works for Trump. So, given that specialty, you can assume that Trump owes him.

These ambassadorships are largely ceremonial positions since Foggy Bottom really controls the policy. Israel doesn't have oil reserves, so the Secretary of State designate is unlikely to pay them much attention.

...Well this should help bring on Armageddon.

He also wants to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I hope he has a lot of money in the budget for security. Notice who is in the right of the picture.

 

[Benvolio]

Re: Trump Staff Picks

I disagree that the people suporting a candidate are only thse who voted for him. Many people have a preference but just don't get around to voting; too busy, didn't feel well, forgot. A lot of people care but don't bother because one vote does not make a difference. Many feel that their oen lives are not affected.