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Our list of allies grows thin! Our list of enemies grows long! Trump thread continued.

985 replies

TheClaws · 03/07/2018 02:11

The above is a quote from The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, said by Lord Elrond. At this stage, with POTUS practically pissing off every ally the US has while cosying up with several dictators, it seems quite apt.

Previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3283037-trump-puts-kids-in-cages-because-he-wants-his-wall-how-low-can-he-go-the-authoritarian-shitshow-continues

OP posts:
Thread gallery
32
ohmymimi · 10/07/2018 21:33

Time to order take out under an assumed name, Mitch:
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/mcconnell-ditch-dinner-kentucky-restaurant

Maybe Gym Jordan likes small, dark, enclosed spaces just like prude boy Pence:
talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/another-wrestler-jordan-snickered-told-about-abuse

Well, he is consistent; always on the wrong side of history:

Patrick Eddington
@PGEddington
#Kavanaugh voted to allow FBI agents to detain & interrogate overseas a U.S. citizen, w/out due process of any kind. My NYT op-ed on the case: (link: www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opinion/how-the-fbi-can-detain-render-and-threaten-without-risk.html) nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opi… Meshal v Higginbotham decision: (link: www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/E8CAF3B08FAA9E8185257EE7004E2D02/%24file/14-5194.pdf) cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opini… #CatoSCOTUS
mobile.twitter.com/PGEddington/status/1016627662197010432

@RAICESTEXAS
We’re outside the White House with $20m check to offer Trump’s administration one payment to release 2,000 mothers NOW!

About to start a 24 hour #PeoplesFilibuster if you support come join us and watch live on our Facebook page and @nowthisnews
mobile.twitter.com/RAICESTEXAS/status/1016745950914727937

Birds of a feather:

Jessica Schulberg
@jessicaschulb

Mike Flynn, who is awaiting sentencing for lying to the FBI, is joining Nick Muzin's lobbying firm

Muzin stands accused of working with Qatar to hack Elliott Broidy's emails

Flynn's son, who thought Pizzagate was real, is also joining the firm

DC, man
mobile.twitter.com/jessicaschulb/status/1016749105484390400

Arrogant, avaricious scum, the lot of them, and the common thread in all this dirty business, on both sides of the pond, is, of course, Russia.

@nickconfessore

Good thread on how our @nytimes piece tonight intersects with earlier (and must-read) @guardian reporting.
@peterjukes
BOOM. In interviews earlier this week, Mr. Banks initially said he knew nothing about the Alrosa (diamond) project.

His friend, business partner and fellow Brexit backer, James Mellon, did participate.

This is the buried lede.
mobile.twitter.com/nickconfessore/status/1012863283521642496
mobile.twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1012859819634692097

Useful reminder as El Presidente prepares to prostrate himself at his idols feet:

www.stopfake.org/en/russophobia-how-russia-exploits-western-values-for-its-propaganda/

PerkingFaintly · 10/07/2018 22:27

Woah. This looks like big stuff coming out about Arron Banks. I'll have to sit down and digest all that tomorrow.

I mean, I knew he's potentially in a lot of trouble about misuse of his insurance company's personal data, in conjunction with Cambridge Analytica. And I knew he and Farage had close links with Trump.

But these meetings and deals with Russians are new on me.

PerkingFaintly · 10/07/2018 23:05

Also:

Christopher Wylie 🏳️‍🌈
@ chrisinsilico
5h5 hours ago
The findings of the UK criminal investigation into Facebook come out tomorrow. All I can say is, Facebook is going to have a bad day 🔥🔥🔥

lionheart · 10/07/2018 23:13

Carole Cadwalladr

Verified account

@carolecadwalla

#'So, the cat is officially out of the bag. Tomorrow’s ICO’s report on FT front page. Maximum possible fine for Facebook. Criminal enforcement against Cambridge Analytica. Huge investigation ongoing into MULTIPLE crimes potentially committed in referendum. The ICO is bringing it..'

Our list of allies grows thin! Our list of enemies grows long! Trump thread continued.
cozietoesie · 10/07/2018 23:43

Goodness.

cozietoesie · 11/07/2018 00:42

Thanks, lion.

TheClaws · 11/07/2018 01:51

Caroline O. @RVAwonk
13m13 minutes ago
More
omfg. The House of Representatives has introduced a bill called the “Unmasking Antifa Act of 2018,” which carries a potential 15-year prison sentence for anyone caught engaging in behaviors typically associated with anti-fascist activists.

OP posts:
PerkingFaintly · 11/07/2018 07:41

Oh dear, lord that article about Erik Prince and Blackwater (now called Academi).Shock

He's holding up the British East India Company as a model for the US's way forward in Afghanistan...

Which he describes as: "I am not advocating colonisation, of course, let’s leave aside the politics”.

To achieve his aims he recommends using armed private contractors, but they're 'not “mercenaries”'.

Mm. Yeah. We can see you.

Exclusive: Blackwater founder's plan to privatise America’s $76bn, 17-year war in Afghanistan
In a rare interview, Erik Prince speaks in depth about his pitch to Trump and Pompeo to slash costs by shifting military operations to an international team of 'contractors'
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghanistan-war-privatised-blackwater-founder-erik-prince-interview-a8440781.html

KevinTheYuccaPlant · 11/07/2018 10:40

Sorry if this has been posted before, it was written on 30th June, but I've only just seen it. Interesting thoughts on Trump and negotiations by a professor at Indiana University, David Honig:

www.facebook.com/david.honig.7/posts/10156849176590649

The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can't demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren't binary. China's choices aren't (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don't buy soybeans. They can also (c) buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation.

PerkingFaintly · 11/07/2018 11:08

Thanks, Kevin.

That's interesting and echoes what we've seen elsewhere about Trump: that he simply doesn't understand the concept of win-win situations.

More from that post:

Trump has raised tariffs on China. China responded, in addition to raising tariffs on US goods, by dropping all its soybean orders from the US and buying them from Russia. The effect is not only to cause tremendous harm to US farmers, but also to increase Russian revenue, making Russia less susceptible to sanctions and boycotts, increasing its economic and political power in the world, and reducing ours. Trump saw steel and aluminum and thought it would be an easy win, BECAUSE HE SAW ONLY STEEL AND ALUMINUM - HE SEES EVERY NEGOTIATION AS DISTRIBUTIVE. China saw it as integrative, and integrated Russia and its soybean purchase orders into a far more complex negotiation ecosystem.

Trump has the same weakness politically. For every winner there must be a loser. And that's just not how politics works, not over the long run.

For people who study negotiations, this is incredibly basic stuff, negotiations 101, definitions you learn before you even start talking about styles and tactics. And here's another huge problem for us.
[...]
And that means they look at Trump and, given his very limited tool chest and his blindly distributive understanding of negotiation, they know exactly what he is going to do and exactly how to respond to it.

From a professional negotiation point of view, Trump isn't even bringing checkers to a chess match. He's bringing a quarter that he insists on flipping for heads or tails, while everybody else is studying the chess board to decide whether its better to open with Najdorf or Grünfeld.

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 12:25

Trump already throwing his weight around in Brussels, being a classless arsehole. It is time for these heads of state to stop with the nicey, nicey and give back in equal measure. He's showing off like an ignorant 3 year old, but this is such dangerous stuff, playing right into Putin hands. He may feel emboldened by his recent 'successes', but he is, like all bullies, a craven coward. His comments about German and Russia are a reflection of both projection and his antipathy for Merkel (who hasn't fed the bottomless maw of his ego).

All the NATO members which do not contibute the target % of gdp have given him a stick to beat them with. But the US has chosen it's role as king of the world (and behaved like it); and it has both relished it and abused it. It has chosen to spend huge amounts on it's military, weaponery and military infrastructure. And it given all those with financial interest in preserving this overwhelming influence on, and access to, it's political structure - and SCOTUS has enabled this further with Citizens United. I'm even more sickened that the utter idiocy of Brexit and our own feeble politicians have so undermined and weakened us at a time this ugly American is spewing discord and chaos around us.

www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/jul/11/brexit-pmqs-nato-summit-trump-may-eu-countries-reimburse-us-for-defence-costs-trump-intensifies-criticism-of-nato-politics-live

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 12:46

Well, if any of them so easily 'flustered' by this gobby no nothing, they are not fit for purpose:
@damianpaletta
He’s sticking to the same script he used at G7. Antagonize counterparts ahead of key meetings so they are flustered and totally playing defense the whole time, then leave summit with global agenda in shambles.

@PhilipRucker
Just in: Trump will meet privately with Angela Merkel this afternoon in a pull-aside at NATO and plans to reiterate his morning assertion that Germany is captive to Russia, @PressSec told pooler @juliehdavis.

mobile.twitter.com/damianpaletta/status/1016984516265697280

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 12:47

know nothing

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 12:58

@OrinKerr
Do you have a clever strategy for getting Brett Kavanaugh to answer important substantive questions at his confirmation hearing? Here's why it won't work. link: www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/20/no-there-is-no-way-to-force-supreme-court-nominees-to-give-revealing-answers/?utm_term=.22f053d9df81 washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-co…

mobile.twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/1016895549570596864

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 13:06

Gosh, that is such a surprise, Kav. chose to mentor clerks with the same conservative bias, and a double hitter with a daddy SCOTUS justice:
Robert Barnes
@scotusreporter
It's a small world: One of the former Kavanaugh clerks signing a letter of endorsement for their old boss is Philip Alito, son of Justice Samuel Alito. (link: confirmkavanaugh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/BK-Clerk-Support-Letter.pdf) confirmkavanaugh.com/wp-content/upl…
mobile.twitter.com/scotusreporter/status/1016765811355201538

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 13:12

(Followed by a short thread on what could help)
Ezra 🌊 Levin
@ezralevin
Former congressional staffer here. I'm seeing a few different tactics/strategies being thrown out to #SaveSCOTUS, and a fair amount of misinformation. Here's a short thread on a few tactics that won't work.

mobile.twitter.com/ezralevin/status/1016767536296288258

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 13:24

'He was aware that a statement was being drafted, but he did not intend it to be issued at this time.' So, he 'has not 'yet' joined':
@jimsciutto
New: #MichaelFlynn’s lawyers tell CNN he has NOT joined consulting firm as WSJ reported earlier today: “General Flynn has not joined Stonington and did not personally issue any public statement” - Robert Kelner & Stephen Anthony, counsel to General Flynn
mobile.twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1016825822429278209

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 13:29

Jim Acosta
@Acosta
Trump, sounding sensitive to Putin criticism, to NATO Sec Gen: “No, you're just making Russia richer. You're not dealing with Russia. You're making Russia richer.”

mobile.twitter.com/Acosta/status/1017020582918008832

ohmymimi · 11/07/2018 13:36

Whoah, doesn't POTUS know about this? If not, shouldn't somebody warn him before Helsinki ..........
@jeffzeleny
An important reminder about what the US intelligence community said in 2017 about WHY Putin was meddling in the US election.

mobile.twitter.com/jeffzeleny/status/1016770107568197632

AcrossthePond55 · 11/07/2018 17:11

thehill.com/homenews/house/396404-unmasking-antifa-act-includes-15-year-prison-term-proposal

From the article: Under the act, anyone “wearing a mask” or in disguise who “injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege” would be subject to a fine or up to 15 years in prison."

So, does that include members of the KKK or other skinhead groups who tie bandanas around their faces bandit-style?

PerkingFaintly · 11/07/2018 17:14

Yeah, that will be interesting to see...

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