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CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#190401: May 24th 2017 at 1:16:17 PM

All the shenanigans Russia has been pulling makes me nostalgic for Kievan Rus'.

"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."
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#190402: May 24th 2017 at 1:19:06 PM

One thing I've noticed in regards to Trump that is rather unique in a politician - he has a distinct tendency to change his mind on a dime, but when he does so, he does so with absolute conviction, so the "flip-flopper" label can never stick on him. It's downright bizarre to see in practice anywhere, let alone with an elected official, let alone the President.

Trump is two things: a showman and a salesman. He is a TV Personality before he is a politician, which is why he does everything with conviction. Any time you see him, he's trying to sell you something.

every road seems to Russia. Don't they realize it's not the Cold War anymore?

Yes, it is. The Cold War only ended because Russia's economic collapse prevented them from continuing it. That is no longer the case.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#190403: May 24th 2017 at 1:22:37 PM

Cold War never ended. It was just put on hiatus.

Honestly though, considering how utterly terrible the 90s was for Russia when it was forcefully rejecting communism in favor of rapid privatization, they're current status right now is a goddamn miracle.

New Survey coming this weekend!
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#190404: May 24th 2017 at 1:28:12 PM

Someone photoshopped Damien from The Omen into the picture of Trump and family meeting the Pope...

Do not obey in advance.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#190405: May 24th 2017 at 1:53:04 PM

One again proving the GOPs' motivation basically boils down to "OBAMA BAD!!!", The House's health care bill would leave nearly twice as many uninsured by 2026 than the current setup.

https://t.co/OvaRtT03tN

edited 24th May '17 1:53:29 PM by sgamer82

nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#190406: May 24th 2017 at 1:57:52 PM

Link to the CBO report.

I look forward to seeing the GOP defend this by saying the new bill will give 1 million people health insurance compared to the previous bill.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#190407: May 24th 2017 at 2:01:30 PM

I wonder if the GOP Senators will dare pass this one, along with Trump's "fuck poor people, and the middle class to" budget? If they do it will suck, but I think it could be a deathblow for them politically.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#190409: May 24th 2017 at 2:07:27 PM

More on the Budget Proposal
White House denies 'egregious' budget accounting error

Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers pointed out the spending plan double-counts $2tr (£1.5tr).

Mr Summers, also formerly chief economist of the World Bank, was one of the first to spot the apparent mistake.

The budget forecasts about $2tr in extra federal revenue growth over the next 10 years, which it uses to pay for Mr Trump's "biggest tax cut in history".

But that very same $2tr is then used to reduce the budget deficit.

"My observation is that there appears to be a logical error of the kind that would justify failing a student in an introductory economics course," Mr Summers wrote.

A prominent conservative economist agreed there was a discrepancy.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the Los Angeles Times the numbers "don't seem to match".

Mr Mulvaney said during a press briefing on Tuesday that the alleged gimmick was done "on purpose".

"The money can be used to both reduce the budget deficit and offset Mr Trump's proposed tax cuts," he told reporters.

He added: "There's other places where we were probably overly conservative in our accounting."

That is not the only problem with President Trump's $4.1tr federal budget, according to analysts on both sides of the political divide.

It hinges on the country achieving 3% annual growth, but most economists say this is unlikely for the US.


Trump's budget cuts would make UN peacekeeping 'impossible'
The United Nations has warned that President Donald Trump's plans to cut contributions to peacekeeping will make such work "impossible".

The US administration signalled heavy cuts to UN operations, in its budget proposals released on Tuesday.

The US foots more than a quarter of the UN's $7.9bn (£6.1bn) peacekeeping bill.

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the organisation was willing to discuss how peacekeeping could be made more cost-effective.

The spokesman said the UN was studying Mr Trump's plan. "The figures presented would simply make it impossible for the UN to continue all of its essential work advancing peace, development, human rights and humanitarian assistance," he said.

The BBC's Nick Bryant at the UN says such a warning from the organisation is unusually blunt.

The US provides 28.5% of the United Nations peacekeeping budget - almost three times as much as the next-highest contributor, China.

While Mr Trump's plan does not include details, the US is known to want to cap its contributions to a maximum of 25%.


Trump budget: Global losers of 'America First' plan
Just a quick summary and selected reactions to changes in military assistance, the state department, and green initiatives...

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#190410: May 24th 2017 at 2:13:57 PM

[up] @Budget Accounting Error: ... Is Trump trying to steal 2 Trillion Dollars a year? It's awfully suspicious that it apparently says "We're gonna make 2 Trillion in Taxes! ... And then the 2 Trillion is going into the Defecit...".

Economics and Banking is not my strongest suit, but that sounds awfully shady to me.

TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#190411: May 24th 2017 at 2:28:31 PM

Hold on, I need to verify what I'm hearing because it can't be right.

Are you guys telling me that Donald Trump, a man who has been through multiple bankruptcies, whose primary method of saving money is to just not pay employees, a man who doesn't seem to have any idea how much money he actually has besides "probs a billionaire", might be bad at economics?!

My whole worldview is shattered.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#190412: May 24th 2017 at 2:38:53 PM

It's not Trump who's at issue here. Nobody in his administration who's responsible for the budget plan either realized that there was an error or was willing to stick their neck out to correct it. That's the truly disgusting problem here. We know Trump is grotesquely incompetent, but he didn't write the plan.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#190413: May 24th 2017 at 2:39:24 PM

NVM

edited 24th May '17 2:42:58 PM by BearyScary

Do not obey in advance.
fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
#190414: May 24th 2017 at 2:42:33 PM

I'm assuming that he intended to swindle the money and just hoped no one would notice.

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#190415: May 24th 2017 at 2:57:24 PM

Trump thinks that if the economy has gone down the toilet, all you need to do is, "Umm, fibulate the interest rates. Denooberate the money markets. And have the US mint print more dough. Bingo, problem solved."

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#190416: May 24th 2017 at 3:12:34 PM

I'm almost confident that the GOP will block this budget, at least in the Senate. Those guys aren't stupid, and value their jobs if nothing else.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#190417: May 24th 2017 at 3:20:51 PM

Meanwhile, Ben Carson calls poverty ‘a state of mind’

“You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there. And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom.”
At least its the one of most succinct explanations of Republican philosophy.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#190418: May 24th 2017 at 3:22:37 PM

Is Ben Carson qualified to comment on the mind of anything?

ViperMagnum357 Since: Mar, 2012
#190419: May 24th 2017 at 3:24:31 PM

[up]Perhaps the actual neurological structures, which is to say I would sooner trust a high-schooler who scraped by Intro to Psych with a C - .

edited 24th May '17 3:25:08 PM by ViperMagnum357

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#190420: May 24th 2017 at 3:30:39 PM

Trump’s hotels are failing to track payments received from foreign governments.

https://t.co/yCTZse62WS

The Pentagon is in shock that Trump told Duterte about the submarines.

https://t.co/u4Iwk714O8

edited 24th May '17 3:31:47 PM by sgamer82

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#190421: May 24th 2017 at 3:30:49 PM

As a poor person, I feel I'm qualified to say: fuck the fuck off, Ben.

IFwanderer use political terms to describe, not insult from Earth Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
use political terms to describe, not insult
#190422: May 24th 2017 at 3:32:11 PM

[538] Donald Trump’s Base Is Shrinking. While Trump's approval rating is holding steady(ly underwater) at ~38% (against ~55% disapproval), many of them are going from "strongly approve" to "somewhat approve".

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
3of4 Just a harmless giant from a foreign land. from Five Seconds in the Future. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Just a harmless giant from a foreign land.
#190423: May 24th 2017 at 3:38:17 PM

[up][up][up]At this point I wonder if opening a Booze store in the E Ring would be a sound business investment.

"You can reply to this Message!"
Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#190424: May 24th 2017 at 3:47:19 PM

The UK and US are having a spat over intelligence leaking on the US side regarding the Manchester bombing. Cross-posted from the British politics thread:

Apparently there's been two spats between the UK and the US over this. The first was because the bomber's name was leaked by the US before the UK authorities were ready to publicly announce it (they wanted more time to close in on people who might not have known at that point that the police had identified), and now there are photographs of the crime scene in US papers.

The first, the leak of the bomber's name, seems to have gone all the way to the top of the Home Office as Amber Rudd claimed she had to step in personally — which suggests problems with the US political appointees, rather than the US intelligence agencies themselves, given that she'd be dealing with her political counterparts rather than the rank and file of the US intelligence agencies.

Andy Burnham (the mayor of the Greater Manchester area) has apparently also been in touch with the US ambassador about it.

Manchester attack: Anger at US 'evidence' photos leak

UK investigators have reacted with anger after a US newspaper published photos apparently showing the scene of the Manchester bomb attack.

Counter terror police chiefs said the leak undermined their investigation and victims' and witnesses' confidence.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he had raised the leaks with the US ambassador.

Earlier the UK home secretary said she was irritated with the US for releasing information about bomber Salman Abedi.

Amber Rudd said she had told Washington "it should not happen again".

The UK's National Police Chiefs' Council said it valued its relationships with "trusted intelligence, law enforcement and security partners around the world", saying this allowed "privileged and sensitive information" to be shared in the fight against terrorism.

But it added: "When that trust is breached it undermines these relationships, and undermines our investigations and the confidence of victims, witnesses and their families.

"This damage is even greater when it involves unauthorised disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major counter terrorism investigation."

Mr Burnham told Newsnight a decision had been taken to adopt a "cautious approach" to making information public, "and yet the first reports were coming seemingly out of the United States".

"But it worries me greatly and in fact I made known my concerns about it to the US ambassador," he said, adding: "The British police and security services need to be in the lead when this is a live investigation here."

Labour's Yvette Cooper, who chaired the influential Commons Home Affairs Committee before the general election campaign started, tweeted: "V troubled by US leaking intelligence UK has given them in middle of live investigation where public safety at risk. What is going on?"

edited 24th May '17 3:48:17 PM by Wyldchyld

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
#190425: May 24th 2017 at 3:54:00 PM

Trump praised Duterte on doing an "amazing job" on illicit drugs? The person who declared open season on drug users in his country?

O_o

Do not obey in advance.

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