Trump Tweets (no more)

[Archon_Wing]

Well, that makes me feel a bit safer for folks in South Korea and Japan. Not sure if that sentiment is shared.

Though honestly, gonna hope none of this actually has to be used. And in all fairness, preemptive strikes haven't really been going to well for us.... well the actual strike works fine. The aftermath is another story.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by CrowKenobi

Perhaps a reading of this is needed: War Powers Resolution

Originally Posted by monir

For argument sake, suppose you're right.... Then I'm sure congress will wrestle away their war power by trout slapping Trump in the coming days and put him in his place. Or at least reprimand Trump just like they did to Obama (98 senators) in 2011 when he went to Libya because he could not stand by and watch Gaddafi slaughter his own people.

Trump's executive action in Syria is constitutional and will remain constitutional until congress can prove otherwise or repeal the current war power and enact a new legislation with clear outline to the role of the Executive branch. Until then..............

I'm quite aware of what past presidents have done. I don't agree when Obama did it, and I don't agree when any other President did it. This is not constitutional. You're insane if you think launching ~60 tomahawk missiles into another country doesn't count as an act of war. The reason we're in this situation is become congress is feckless and is unwilling to put their rubber stamp on anything when it's easy to just be in opposition after the fact. Abdication of their duties, but what else is new.

Regardless, the Obama administration did not get involved in Syria originally for two reasons. One the British Parliament pulled the rug underneath him internationally by refusing to support the attack. Second, Russia and Syria did a grand bargain in which Syria gave up craploads of chemical weapons for destruction. Obviously as we see now there is still some that existed or got made after the fact (The results now would be a lot worse otherwise), but this deal wouldn't have been possible had Russia not taken Obama's line in the sand talk very seriously. We know the Obama administration at the time was considering a much larger attack than whatever the hell Trump just did. Obama considered really going after their capacity to deliver chemical weapons (Not just scuff up a runway that is still operational after the fact). Unless there is a real strategy here at the end of the day, you're basically just doing useless posturing to Russia and Syria and end up looking more powerless as a result.

[Blueknight78]

going back to my comment and the answers for what i get USA did basically the "same as we do here on brazil" or vote in a crazy dude for the "sake of things goes wild since no one believe anymore in the country, or vote in the "jesus savior" which is the "father of the poors" and will save the day (lula is a crap exemple of that( which in the end is just another crap politician want to swin on the royal treasure and steal as many as possible like in the petrobras and odebretch case.

this is really something annoying, when for that reasons we get even worst president than previous ones just because peoples or just want the "hell of all happen" or are too "mindless" to believe someone gona miraculous save the country.


now going back to NK vs USA problem well i really feel bad for SK, japan and even maybe china if that decide to help usa, they can be potential backfire damage, but looking at NK size and how much superior war weapons usa must have i thing if trump really decide go all and if china decide to help they can actually maybe shoot down NK before they can try to "nuke somoene with nuke bombs, or even if they have time i think probably they still don't have that big ammount of nuclear weapons to really threat a whole country before they can be erased from the map in the worst case, i really feel like the NK leader is a crazy guy trying to pick war with too many peoples and think which he can scary everyone.

[Ithekro]

The island formerly known of South Korea. Mind you that is already what it looks like at night from orbit.

[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by mangamuscle

I disagree, the only thing china does not want is a reunified Korea. They ratter have a misbehaving mix of Haiti and Cuba on their border (that would never bite their hand).

That's not it. What the Chinese don't want is a re-unified Korea within the US-Japanese alliance. That, for the Chinese, is the main point. If they could trade North Korea for a re-unified Korea leaving that alliance, they'd do that in a heartbeat. Similarly, I'm convinced that the Chinese leadership, despite their rhetoric, wouldn't mind Japanese re-armament if it meant the end of US military presence over there. China is wary of US intentions, not Korean or Japanese intentions.

[monir]

Trump tweets:

Economic confidence is soaring as we unleash the power of private sector job creation and stand up for the American Workers. #AmericaFirst

One by one we are keeping our promises - on the border, on energy, on jobs, on regulations. Big changes are happening!

Jobs are returning, illegal immigration is plummeting, law, order and justice are being restored. We are truly making America great again!

I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will! U.S.A.

Things will work out fine between the U.S.A. and Russia. At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!

The only solid stats right now we have is on the illegal immigration which is 93% down. So he is right about that.

Jobs? I'm not so sure about that. Law and order? Uhm... Donald is funny. Economic confidence? We don't have enough data yet to make the same assessment as Donald. Consumer confidence is certainly high but how it will translate to our overall economy remains to be seen. Obama paved the way. Donald will reap the benefit.

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

I actually thunk Trump is playing this pretty good.

I think so too! Upcoming national poll will tell how well he played the N. Korea/Syria hand.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Kakurin-san

That's not it. What the Chinese don't want is a re-unified Korea within the US-Japanese alliance. That, for the Chinese, is the main point. If they could trade North Korea for a re-unified Korea leaving that alliance, they'd do that in a heartbeat. Similarly, I'm convinced that the Chinese leadership, despite their rhetoric, wouldn't mind Japanese re-armament if it meant the end of US military presence over there. China is wary of US intentions, not Korean or Japanese intentions.

It's just political posturing. China gets to show off as the regional superpower. North Korea gets to prove its still useful to China. Trump looks tough to his voters. Everyone forgets whatever stupid shit happened domestically for a little bit and then things return to normal. It's a "win" for the sides that need the distraction. It's a lose because it's a giant waste of time that could go horribly wrong.

Does the dog wag the tail, or does the tail wag the dog? Setting up big distractions over small things is a standard tactic for those who want to hide something else.

[mangamuscle]

Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesda

Am I the only one horrified due to the possibility that Trump might manage to slash the corporate tax to 15%? I just saw on youtube an advertisement (in english) that criticized Brazil's left leaning government, but it is exactly this kind of irresponsible behaviour what made Brazil's economy plummet like lead. ATM Trump's good numbers in the economy are thanks to Obama, but they will not last long.

[ganbaru]

Slashing the tax of corporation and of the 1% has been done by already by W Bush and Reagan, it good for those than got their tax slashed and very bad for everyone else. If one would want to help the economy with tax cut, it should target the middle and higher-middle class, not those than are already swimming in too much money.

[Key Board]

It's hard to convince rich people that trickle down economics don't work

[GDB]

No, they know it doesn't work. What's hard is convincing them to care.

[monir]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

If one would want to help the economy with tax cut, it should target the middle and higher-middle class,

He's apparently asking also for 3 different rates of 10/25/35 percent. Individual under 25k apparently won't pay taxes. For the massive lowering of corporate taxes to 15% was supposed to be offset by the border-adjustment tax (as GOP proposed before) which Trump doesn't want either. Then there is the elimination of estate tax and slew of other elimination of taxes people with millions currently pay. The huge question, once again, is how such massive tax cut can be paid for without increasing US deficit by trillions more.

If this proposal somehow comes to fruition Donald benefits the most just because he doesn't want to pay any taxes, country be damned.

[SeijiSensei]

I suspect 15% is a low bid expecting the eventual figure to come in midway between that and the current 35% rate. The OECD average is 24%. However a large number of corporations pay nowhere near 35% because of the effects of various deductions and exemptions built into the tax code.

According to the General Accounting Office, "In each year from 2006 to 2012, at least two-thirds of all active corporations had no federal income tax liability. Larger corporations were more likely to owe tax. Among large corporations (generally those with at least $10 million in assets) less than half—42.3 percent—paid no federal income tax in 2012. Of those large corporations whose financial statements reported a profit, 19.5 percent paid no federal income tax that year. [emphasis mine]

"When foreign and state and local income taxes are included, the average [effective tax rate] across all of those years increases to just over 22 percent."

Estimates of the cost of reducing the corporate rate appear to start at about $2 trillion over the next decade. Since government spending isn't really as amenable to cutting as Trump and Mick Mulvaney want us to believe, most of the loss in tax revenues will be paid for by additional borrowing as was the case for the Reagan and Bush tax cuts.

Abolition of the Alternative Minimum Tax alone would have saved Donald Trump about $31 million in 2005 alone, the one year for which his taxes have been leaked. Of course, abolishing the estate tax will save his children hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars.

I favor tax "reform," too, but not these types of changes that largely benefit only the wealthy. One thing that doesn't appear in Trump's proposal is treating all sources of income identically, rather than applying much lower rates to income earned from capital rather than income earned from labor. For me, any fair tax plan needs to start from that premise.

[Valky]

His tax plans seems solid so far. His first tax plan is to not release his tax report, and the second one is to enrich him and his peers. Quite a nice perks of being a president.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by GDB

No, they know it doesn't work. What's hard is convincing them to care.

Panama Papers Scandal more or less showed they likely never will care.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Panama Papers Scandal more or less showed they likely never will care.

Americans sees themselves as the Superpower due to their inherent superiority. And a large part of the population attribute their superiority to Capitalism. Thus until and unless America collapse entirely, the population will support unfettered greed even if it kills them.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Americans sees themselves as the Superpower due to their inherent superiority. And a large part of the population attribute their superiority to Capitalism. Thus until and unless America collapse entirely, the population will support unfettered greed even if it kills them.

Correct, comrade. Death to the capitalist pigs!

[MCAL]

Oh don't be too hard on Trump guys. He thought this leader of the Free world thing would be easy.

[SeijiSensei]

He's coming to realize it is a lot harder than he thought: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...o-be-president

Two useful summaries of the tax "reform:"

Distributional consequences: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/u...ax-wealth.html

Effects on the national debt: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/u...publicans.html

[monir]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

He's coming to realize it is a lot harder than he thought: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...o-be-president

Two useful summaries of the tax "reform:"

Distributional consequences: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/u...ax-wealth.html

Effects on the national debt: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/u...publicans.html

Tax reform is long overdue but as you've already pointed out, not this kind of "reform."

Now, the time for Donald's latest tweet:

North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!

I lose it every time he ends a tweet with the word, "bad" despite the gravity of the situation. One reply to that tweet reads, "STOP TWEETING ABOUT North Korea. You are going to kill us all."