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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243426: May 24th 2018 at 3:46:37 PM

Given the North Korean state of utter disrepair, famine, and being on the verge of collapsing into the Walking Dead—I feel like there's a lot of economic leverage which can be used on North Korea if it is a state of peace.

As these things begin with small steps.

But I'm not thinking of it as Trump's deal to make but Moon's with the US just a necessary part.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243427: May 24th 2018 at 3:46:57 PM

[up][up][up]Is their decision binding/is the final call in the hands of partisan officials anyway?

The problem with that section is that (under the understandable assumption that POTUS would be a mostly rational actor) its gives the Executive a lot of latitude in terms of definitions.

[up][up]And a lot of vehicles are Frankensteins in that they have a mix of America/Canadian/Mexican labour and parts; I doubt there are any purely US made vehicles anymore. Maybe Trump's industry friends will be able to sway him, they know that this would play havoc with their business model.

edited 24th May '18 3:54:47 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#243428: May 24th 2018 at 3:52:09 PM

[up]x2 Problem is, every time we've taken these small steps, North Korea hasn't used it to solve any of it's problems; it's gone to empowering the ruling elite (financially or militarily). If Trump had tried to go through with the 'Peace', the same thing would've happened to him that befell everyone else who's tried. Unlike Iran, you can't trust the Juche with anything.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#243429: May 24th 2018 at 3:52:31 PM

[up][up] It really depends on the results of the investigation. The President has a lot of authority over tariffs, but it's not unlimited. A specific tariff on cars like the one he's proposing needs justification, which is why he invoked national defense. The investigation itself doesn't actually create a policy, just lays out suggested courses of action and such.

edited 24th May '18 3:53:36 PM by archonspeaks

They should have sent a poet.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243430: May 24th 2018 at 3:59:45 PM

Assange's refuge in Ecuadorian embassy 'in jeopardy' [1]

(CNN) Julian Assange's nearly six-year refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London is in danger, opening the Wiki Leaks founder to arrest by British authorities and potential extradition to the US, multiple sources with knowledge tell CNN.

While Assange has in the past claimed his position in the embassy was under threat, sources say his current situation is "unusually bad" and that he could leave the embassy "any day now," either because he will be forced out or made to feel so restricted that he might choose to leave on his own. His position there is "in jeopardy," one source familiar with the matter said.

Assange's exit from the embassy could open a new phase for US investigators eager to find out what he knows.

CNN reported in April 2017 that the US has prepared charges to seek the arrest of Assange, who US intelligence agencies believe Russia used as an intermediary to distribute hacked emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

Assange and his lawyers say he has been detained without charge for 2,720 days — 53 of those "gagged" and isolated from visitors and outside communications — and that there is "not a shred of evidence that Assange has done anything but publish material just as the establishment media do every day," according to a tweet by his lawyers on May 19.

"The concern from day one until the present is that if Julian Assange walks out of the Embassy, he will be extradited to face what the executive director of the ACLU described as an 'unprecedented and unconstitutional' prosecution under the US Espionage Act," his lawyer Melinda Taylor told CNN.

Ecuador's newly elected president, Lenín Moreno, is under increasing pressure from the US to expel Assange, sources say. Moreno described Assange as an "inherited problem" and "more than a nuisance" in a television interview in January.

Sources familiar also believe Spain exerted pressure on Ecuador after Assange tweeted support for the separatist movements in Catalonia, a northeast region of Spain seeking independence.

Recently, the Ecuadorian government cut off Assange's access to the internet, making it virtually impossible for him to manage Wiki Leaks. He has also had his access to visitors severely restricted. Assange is now only allowed to see his lawyers, who say their mobile phones are jammed while they are inside the embassy. He is dealing with multiple lawsuits.

While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador declined to comment on Assange's case, it referred CNN to past statements made on the decision to cut his internet access. In statements, the ministry denied mistreatment and suggested Assange had not been abiding by his agreement with Ecuador by publicly discussing the internal affairs of other nations, presumably Spain and the US. The ministry "acts in the strictest adherence to the Constitution, laws and international law," according to the March 2018 press release.

British authorities have said that they would issue a warrant for Assange's arrest if he were to leave the embassy. He faces charges in the UK for breach of bail for failing to surrender for extradition to Sweden, a charge a British judge upheld in February despite the fact that Sweden stopped investigating an allegation of rape against Assange in 2017. Swedish prosecutors maintain the right to resume the investigation if Assange left the embassy.

edited 24th May '18 4:05:30 PM by megaeliz

CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#243431: May 24th 2018 at 4:45:03 PM

[up]Gonna love it when he's frog-marched out.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#243432: May 24th 2018 at 4:48:59 PM

Even if the fucker gets away with a fine or a few weeks in jail, it will be worth it.evil grin

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#243433: May 24th 2018 at 5:10:40 PM

And speaking of Assange

New: Emails Roger Stone did not turn over to congressional investigators obtained by @WSJ. "Please ask Assange for any State or [Hillary Clinton] e-mail from August 10 to August 30—particularly on August 20, 2011," reads one message.

https://twitter.com/christinawilkie/status/999742398677778439?s=21

edited 24th May '18 5:10:53 PM by megaeliz

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#243434: May 24th 2018 at 5:21:07 PM

I had a feeling that minting that commemorative coin for the US-North Korean summit was a bad idea. How is Fox News gonna try to spin this? Blame the Democrats?

What will happen to the prisoners of North Korea who are of South Korean origin?

This doesn't make Trump look like a good negotiator at all.

edited 24th May '18 5:22:26 PM by BearyScary

I liked it better when Questionable Casting was called WTH Casting Agency
RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#243435: May 24th 2018 at 5:24:05 PM

That's because he's an awful negotiator. I don't think anything is going to come of this, good or bad - Trump and Kim approached each other on either side of the chain-link fence, snapped and postured a little, and now they're being tugged away by their throats with nothing of substance changed.

It's been fun.
Imca (Veteran)
#243436: May 24th 2018 at 5:27:01 PM

I could have sworn that more of a Toyota is made in the US then a Ford. .-.;

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#243437: May 24th 2018 at 6:09:44 PM

Yes, all of the auto plants in W. Virgnia are Toyota.

It was a big stink with the "Buy American" thing from 20 years back.

Toyota manufacturing in the USA and Ford outside of it.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#243438: May 24th 2018 at 7:06:54 PM

From Today's WTFJHT feed:

1/ Trump canceled the planned nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and accused North Korea of "tremendous anger and open hostility." The phrase is an apparent reference to a recent North Korean statement referring to Mike Pence as a "political dummy." In his letter to Kim, Trump also appeared to include a veiled threat: "You talk about your nuclear capabilities," Trump wrote, "but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used." (CNBC / NPR)

The letter Trump sent to Kim Jong Un canceling the summit, annotated. (Washington Post)

Trump dictated 'every word' of the letter canceling North Korea summit. (The Hill)

North Korea demolished its nuclear test site just hours before Trump announced that he was canceling the proposed nuclear summit. North Korea officially closed the site with a series of landslide-triggering explosions, though the closure is not irreversible. (Associated Press)

Mostly nothing new. I do wonder about the "Trump dictated every word" one, though.

2/ Trump said the U.S. military "is ready if necessary" to respond to any provocation by North Korea. He also said Japan and South Korea are prepared to respond to any "foolish or reckless acts" committed by Kim in the wake of Trump calling off the nuclear summit. (NBC News)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he was "very perplexed" by Trump's decision to cancel the summit. He continued: "Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of permanent peace are historic tasks that can neither be abandoned nor delayed." (NPR / Yonhap)

Really, Moon? You had that much trust in Trump to not abandon the talks on the slightest whim?

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 250 points after Trump called off the North Korean nuclear summit. The S&P 500 fell 0.9 percent as a continued drop in oil prices and bond yields dragged down energy and financials stocks, respectively. (CNBC)
Bets on how Trump is gonna spin this one?

The commemorative North Korea summit coins are now being sold at a discount. The White House Gift Shop put its commemorative coins on sale for $19.95 — down from $24.95. (Daily Beast)
Hah! That's what they get for being so deluded as to think that Trump won't ruin things before they even start.

3/ The FBI seized control of a key server in Russia's global botnet of 500,000 hacked routers. One of the goals of the operation was to use the information from the seized server to build a comprehensive list of victims and short-circuit the Kremlin's ability to reinfect targets. The FBI targeted a malware program called VPN Filter that has been linked to the Russian hacking group responsible for the 2016 breaches of the DNC and Clinton campaign. (Daily Beast)
I'm utterly surprised that this malware could be so easily neutralized just by restarting the modem.

4/ Trump signed the largest rollback of federal banking regulations since the 2008 financial crisis. The legislation exempts scores of banks from strict federal rules put in place under the Dodd-Frank Act. It eases restrictions on all but the largest banks and raises the standard by which banks are designated too important to fail to $250 billion, up from $50 billion. It also eases reporting requirements for mortgage loan data. The bill was co-authored by three Senate Democrats. (The Hill / CNN / Chicago Tribune / CNBC)
... How bad is this?

5/ Trump said migrant children entering the country at the southern border are "not innocent," and warned that letting them in exposes the nation to increased gang crime. "They look so innocent," Trump said at a roundtable meeting at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center. "They're not innocent." (Washington Post)
Oh great. Bad enough he's splitting kids from their parents over "illegal immigration", now he's trying to unperson those same children for the "crime" of being the children of "illegal immigrants".

6/ Trump insisted he will not sign any immigration bill that emerges from Congress unless it includes "a real wall" along the southern border. Factions of the House GOP are at odds over certain provisions in various bills, including whether to provide permanent legal status for "Dreamers" under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (Washington Post)
Someone please explain to me why he's fixated on the idea of a contiguous physical wall along the border as a solution for illegal immigration. You'd think some of his smarter cronies would've managed to explain to him by now why that idea is useless.

House Republicans are holding last-ditch immigration talks as an internal showdown looms. House GOP leaders have temporarily halted an internal rebellion to force votes next month on protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation while they negotiate with GOP renegades to find a different path forward. (Washington Post)

The House broke for an 11-day recess as Republicans remain deadlocked over proposed legislation to protect "Dreamers" from deportation. So far, 23 House Republicans have signed a petition to force a debate and votes on a series of immigration bills as soon as next month. (Reuters)

Wait, I'm confused. Did they or did they not (temporarily) halt this internal rebellion within the party?

7/ Trump called for sweeping changes to the U.S. immigration legal process and questioned why immigrants should go through the legal system at all. Trump also suggested eliminating courts and judges from the immigration process: "Whoever heard of a system where you put people through trials? Where do these judges come from?" (CNN)
... I have no words.

8/ Trump said athletes who refuse to stand for the national anthem shouldn't be allowed to play and suggested they "shouldn't be in the country." "I don't think people should be staying in locker rooms," Trump said. (Washington Post / NPR / Fox News)
Now he's going after athletes. Who's he going to try unpersoning next? Artists whose works express unflattering opinions of himself and/or his administration?

Notables:
  • An ally of Vladimir Putin suggested the meeting in the Seychelles with Blackwater founder Erik Prince was more than a simple chance encounter "over a beer," as Prince told Congress. Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian fund manager present at the January 2017 meeting, said he had wanted to meet with Prince in order to improve relations between the United States and Russia. (ABC News)

  • Jared Kushner spent nearly seven hours with Mueller's team in April for his second interview with the Special Counsel. Both times, Kushner met with investigators as a witness, not a target, of the investigation. The most recent interview focused on the 2016 campaign, the transition, and the firing of James Comey. Kushner's financial dealings and family business were not discussed. (ABC News)

  • GOP Rep. Tom Garrett may not run for reelection in November. Garrett abruptly split with his chief of staff on Tuesday and has been unable to raise as much money as his Democratic opponent in Virginia's 5th Congressional District. (Politico)

  • Newly obtained documents and interviews provide the first on-the-ground account of a battle between American forces and 500 pro-Syrian government forces and Russian mercenaries. The incident was one of the bloodiest battles the U.S. military has faced in Syria since deploying to the country to fight the Islamic State. (New York Times)

  • Democrats were allowed to join Republicans at today's White House briefing on the secret FBI source who aided Mueller's Russia probe. After a day of negotiations, the White House reversed its earlier decision to only invite Republican lawmakers. (Washington Post)

  • Trump is considering imposing new tariffs on imported cars. He told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to consider an investigation into additional protections for domestic automakers, arguing American auto workers have "waited long enough." (NPR)

  • Trump's ban on global abortion funding has led to more abortions. Healthcare workers in Kenya say Trump's policy has left thousands of Kenyan women without access to family planning programs — and thus contraception — leaving many to rely on risky, backstreet abortions. (CNN)
I'd like to know who got it into their head that locking out the Democrats from the secret FBI source briefing was a good idea that couldn't backfire at all.

On that last one... I'm getting the feeling that this is exactly what the GOP wants to happen: for those "filthy negro subhuman" foreign women to die even more often than they already do just because they dare to perform the "godless" act of abortion.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Clarste One Winged Egret Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
One Winged Egret
#243439: May 24th 2018 at 7:24:20 PM

I've already seen Trumpers claiming that the North Korea deal falling through just means that Trump was smart enough to realize that he wouldn't be getting a good deal out of this. "Obviously if it were Obama he would have just gotten us another bad deal like Iran."

And to be fair, we did get some hostages released already so technically this is still a Trump win, sort of.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243440: May 24th 2018 at 7:27:41 PM

[up] Trumpers will make excuses for anything Trump does.

Unless it's tweeting "Happy Hanukkah".

Disgusted, but not surprised
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#243441: May 24th 2018 at 7:28:10 PM

[up]x3

Wait, I'm confused. Did they or did they not (temporarily) halt this internal rebellion within the party?

They're still negotiating the details; a path of citizenship for the Dreamers, and the tougher immigration measures and a border wall, being the main thorns for a Republican-centric DACA deal. I'm surprised that 23 Republicans are publicly supporting it. If every Democrat also supported the measure, they would be 2 away... Unfortunately, 3 Texas Democrats will not sign the measure for fear that a Wall will be bundled with the deal. Meaning that 29 Republicans in total has to sign the measure for it to happen, so it might not happen (the measure must happen by June 17th or it fails).

edited 24th May '18 7:28:41 PM by DingoWalley1

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#243442: May 24th 2018 at 7:36:33 PM

How many of those Republicans supporters are up for reelection?

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#243443: May 24th 2018 at 7:37:00 PM

I can't really blame those Texas Democrats. A border wall would just hurt the Texan economy rather than help it, right?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#243444: May 24th 2018 at 7:44:38 PM

[up]x2 All of them; all members of the House are up for election every 2 years. Most of them do come from more Left-leaning States (like California, Colorado, Michigan), though. The Koch Bros. and some other Republican donors are threatening to withhold funds for those who won't support Dreamers, too.

[up] I don't support the wall either, but I do want to save Dreamers. Problem is I don't think anything will survive the Senate anyways.

edited 24th May '18 7:47:06 PM by DingoWalley1

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#243445: May 24th 2018 at 8:25:47 PM

...Why is North America in charge of global abortion funding? Is it a part of general global aid?

I liked it better when Questionable Casting was called WTH Casting Agency
JBC31187 Since: Jan, 2015
#243446: May 24th 2018 at 8:35:06 PM

"Really, Moon? You had that much trust in Trump to not abandon the talks on the slightest whim?"

I think it's part of the larger "let's pretend we don't have an asshole, idiot man-child in the White House" movement. You can see it in the media and very serious types who keep looking for Trump's presidential pivot. In Moon's defense, he has to do it, because there are very literal guns pointed at him. The Americans trying to convince us that everything's fine are the real idiots.

TheRoguePenguin Since: Jul, 2009
#243447: May 24th 2018 at 8:40:16 PM

[up][up]"Global abortion funding" is sorta misleading. Rather, it's not allowing our foreign aid to be used for any cause that provides abortions.

RedSavant Since: Jan, 2001
#243448: May 24th 2018 at 8:55:03 PM

Yeah, I feel pretty bad for Moon. He has to act like he's dealing with rational actors when it's more like he's playing daycare manager.

It's been fun.
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#243449: May 24th 2018 at 8:56:09 PM

Eh, he still went too far with that Nobel comment. Yes I know he didn't actually say Trump deserved a Nobel, but still.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Imca (Veteran)
#243450: May 24th 2018 at 10:26:47 PM

Trumpers will make excuses for anything Trump does.

Unless it's tweeting "Happy Hanukkah".

They were incredibly pissed about his comments about taking guns away from criminals too, it actually tore r/the_donald in 2, and the thread covering it had an outstanding 60 something % of comments deleted.


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