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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I don't know if you any of you were watching or reading annotations of the hearing this morning with John Brennan (former CIA director) but man...someon asked him something about why he thinks the Trump campaign did what they did (I was away from the computer at the time so I may be wrong,)
But his response was
I had to sit down.
Straight fire.
And the most damning question. Another asked him if the CIA knew the Russians were trying to cultivate Trump for eight year. He purses his lips for a moment and then simply says:
"No Comment."
edited 23rd May '17 10:41:24 AM by TacticalFox88
New Survey coming this weekend!
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
OPEC is extending their production cuts in response to this, and short of starting another war in the middle east, I don't really think oil prices are going to shoot up any time soon.
Lost in Space
Selling off oil reserves decreases prices in the marketplace, at least temporarily. The immediate effect is to suppress production, because lowered prices reduce the profit margin of extraction. Among other things, this hurts a lot of domestic producers, which do provide a great deal of direct economic value. Macroeconomically, those losses offset the gains from cheaper oil prices to some extent.
For the same reasons, while the government may realize a temporary cash windfall from the sale, tax revenues are decreased from oil production and from sales at the pumps, acting as another negative feedback mechanism.
In a nutshell: the oil reserves exist to offset large adverse shocks in oil supply, not as a "rainy day fund" that the government can raid for operating cash. They also have strategic value in the event that some kind of global crisis causes the United States to lose access to imported oil.
In this, as with many other things, Trump and his administration demonstrate their abject incompetence at understanding how government functions.
edited 23rd May '17 12:00:05 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
It really sucks he likely was lying about the Muslim thing. I guess i'm just grasping at all the hope I can get to prove he's not a complete dope.
Just another day in the life of Jimmy Nutrin
Destroyer of Worlds
He's a complete dope. It's hopeless. It's worse than grasping for reasons to think Bush Jr. Wasn't a complete dope.
Also damn, Melanie is straight burning him. You can tell she doesn't like him.
Also classic Trump going for an ass grab when she wouldn't hold his hand.
edited 23rd May '17 12:46:16 PM by MadSkillz
"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty."
Lost in Space
"Dubya" was practically a paragon of leadership compared to Trump, but that's an extraordinarily low bar to use as your basis of comparison. Sometimes I wonder if the GOP is playing some kind of game of dares with the Democrats: "You thought we couldn't elect someone worse than our last guy? Well, we'll show you!"
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Yeah. I have to say that the losers comment is well-put and accurate (and has some added amusement value because loser is like Trump's favorite insult/what he considers the worst thing to call someone). However, I expect him to get back to his usual Islamophobic stuff the moment he returns from his trip.
Oh, bother.
The comment itself was still idiotic since he called terrorism an ideology. It's not. It's a strategy.
Still, it's true that terrorists are pathetic losers.
edited 23rd May '17 1:05:53 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Honestly, I'd kind of give him a bit slack on that. Even without referring specifically to "radical Islam", a lot of people have some frankly very wrong impressions on what drives terrorist and terrorism.
use political terms to describe, not insult
Destroyer of Worlds
Well Corsicans do have more in common with Italians than they do with the French. Their native language is even a variant of Italian.
"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty."
That's nice but that's also not the point, given that Presidents usually are supposed to know what places are part of which particular countries. Plus, I doubt Trump even knows about Corsica's cultural ties to Italy if he doesn't even know Corsica is officially part of France.
Untrustworthy
Trump is a man who knows how to play a crowd. He's not insane enough to think that playing up the islamophobia angle would go well with crowds in the middle east.
That's all there is to it.
"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
I've said this before, but regardless of everything George W. Bush did wrong, he still meant well. Yeah, he was a terrible president, but he ran for president because he genuinely thought he would be the best for the country. That didn't happen, but he wasn't a monster. Some of his cabinet was but not W. Bush himself.
edited 23rd May '17 2:40:48 PM by Zendervai
Not Three Laws compliant.
Yeah, above all trump is too damn lazy to sitck with a whole narrative for a large period of time, what is daming is the low standar in the country allow him to get away with it.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Asgore Adopts Noelle
Frmr. Mayor of New York and Trump (unofficial) aide, Rudy Guliani, claims to a Federal Judge he had no part in crafting Trumps' Muslim Immigration/Travel Bans, contradicting earlier statements that he personally helped the President write the first Ban.
Professional Forum Ninja
That's good advice, honestly. He's probably right to be so forward-looking as well - I don't view demographics as destiny but I don't think you can just endlessly warp and twist your way out of them either.
edited 23rd May '17 6:21:04 PM by Draghinazzo
Professional Forum Ninja
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) called Trump's newest budget bill dead on arrival.
Asgore Adopts Noelle
Michael Flynn hit with 2 new Senate subpoenas, both aimed at his business. And unlike people, Business's can't plead the 5th. The leading Republican of the Senate Investigation, Richard Burr (R-NC) also said everything (including a Contempt of Congress charge) is on the table, except for Immunity for Flynn.
Flynn is pretty much screwed at this point.
Oh, bother.
Remember the Carrier Deal Trump boasted about that supposedly saved 1100 jobs, but actually only saved about 800?
About 300 of those jobs are moving to Mexico right before Christmas this year.
Guess offering tax breaks to corporations isn't the best way to save jobs after all.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Trump backpedalled on the carrier thing anyways, saying he didn't promise to "do that for carrier". The whole thing was flaccid from the start.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Flynn is going to die in jail isn't he?
Oh really when?
Oh, bother.
You mean because of getting a lengthy sentence beyond a projected human lifespan? Or because of the possibility of him being silenced while he's in prison?
Maybe waiting for higher oil prices makes sense, though.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman