Straight Dope Message Board

[Rick Kitchen]

Trump's twitter account is linked to a nonsecured Gmail account. And he uses an unsecured phone to use it. 701

[QuickSilver]

Mexico cancels meeting. 702

[Little_Pig]

White House press secretary says border wall will be funded by 20 percent import tax on Mexican goods.

Not only are Strawberries and Tomatoes and Avocados going to get more expensive ...

Its the price you are going to pay for "Making America Great Again". 703

[Euphonious Polemic]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

White House press secretary says border wall will be funded by 20 percent import tax on Mexican goods.

Not only are Strawberries and Tomatoes and Avocados going to get more expensive ...

Its the price you are going to pay for "Making America Great Again".

Not to mention that 40% of parts in a typical Mexican product actually originate in the United States.

And that's a key reason why 6 million U.S. jobs depend on trade just with Mexico, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
These numbers represent the core of how free trade works in North America and how supply chains of thousands of businesses flow through the three countries. Certain products are made in the United States, others in Canada and others in Mexico. Assembling the product also happens across borders.

a 20% tax on Mexican goods is a simple solution by a simple mind to a complex problem and will result in a clusterfuck of lawsuits, regulations and lost jobs. Kiss the economy goodbye for a few years folks. We're being governed by beliefs, feelings and fucking idiots. 704

[asahi]

Originally Posted by Euphonious Polemic

Not to mention that 40% of parts in a typical Mexican product actually originate in the United States.




a 20% tax on Mexican goods is a simple solution by a simple mind to a complex problem and will result in a clusterfuck of lawsuits, regulations and lost jobs. Kiss the economy goodbye for a few years folks. We're being governed by beliefs, feelings and fucking idiots.

The best part of it is, republican business interests will suffer. They're going to have to eat their fucking shit sandwich. 705

[jsc1953]

Originally Posted by asahi

The best part of it is, republican business interests will suffer. They're going to have to eat their fucking shit sandwich.

Well, that may be the good news. Who do you think Congress is going to listen to: republican business interests, or vague and anonymous MAGA/Build the Wall voters? 706

[ZPG Zealot]

Originally Posted by Rick Kitchen

Callista Gingrich is being considered as Ambassador to the Vatican. I wonder what the Vatican thinks of having an adultress as the US ambassador.

In all fairness though I think she would be lousy as an Ambassador, I imagine the Vatican is thinking somewhere along the lines of "been there, done that." She won't be first ambassador they have had that viewed the 10 commandments as challenges. 707

[Euphonious Polemic]

Originally Posted by jsc1953

Well, that may be the good news. Who do you think Congress is going to listen to: republican business interests, or vague and anonymous MAGA/Build the Wall voters?

I think they're currently shitting themselves thinking about which of these constituencies they are going to piss off first. 708

[Vinyl Turnip]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

White House press secretary says border wall will be funded by 20 percent import tax on Mexican goods.

Not only are Strawberries and Tomatoes and Avocados going to get more expensive ...

And limes, which are already bloody expensive.

So much for margaritas. Guess it's a good time to switch to Russian vodka. 709

[Euphonious Polemic]

Originally Posted by Vinyl Turnip

Guess it's a good time to switch to Russian vodka.

<Mr. Burns> Excellent! (tents fingers) </MB> 710

[running coach]

Originally Posted by Vinyl Turnip

And limes, which are already bloody expensive.

So much for margaritas. Guess it's a good time to switch to Russian vodka.

Putinka.

Putinka (Russian: Путинка) is a brand of Russian vodka made by the state-owned Moscow Distillery Crystal company, and created in 2003 by Vinexem Brand Manager Stanislav Kaufman.[1] The brand plays upon President Putin's name and popularity among Russians.

Stay thirsty, Comrade. 711

[Happy Lendervedder]

One after another, each post in this thread reveals something more insane than the previous. Bannon may just be the oozing love child between Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Satan. 712

[Colibri]

Originally Posted by running coach

Putinka.

Stay thirsty, Comrade.

In Spanish, putinka sounds like it might be a pet name for a Russian hooker. 713

[JohnT]

Donald Trump was the fast sperm. Can one imagine how the slower ones would have turned out...? :shudder: 714

[TonySinclair]

Originally Posted by Lord Feldon

The biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl.

Wait, what does that even mean? There were about 400 people at his CIA speech, and over 70,000 at Super Bowl L. If you count people watching on TV, it's like 600 people vs a billion, so that's no help. Is he saying that only 300 people out of the 70,000 cheered Manning? That doesn't sound right...

Oh, I know. He's saying that fewer people watched Superbowl L and cheered Manning while sitting in front of the wall of honor at CIA headquarters, than attended his speech. I guess he's probably right.

What a fucking buffoon. But just like W, he will do stupid things every day, and we will all laugh at him, but while we're laughing, he will be fucking up the economy, the environment, our foreign relations, our national security, and will probably appoint two or three total disasters to the Supreme Court, ensuring that his horrible influence lasts decades. 715

[jshore]

The New York Daily News is reporting Trump plans to slash EPA’s budget by $1 billion (out of an $8 billion budget).

Ebell declined to discuss specific numbers of EPA staff that could be targeted for pink slips. Asked what he would personally like to see, however, Ebell replied that slashing the agency's workforce by half would be a good start.

Ebell, whose academic credentials are in philosophy and political theory, said Tuesday the purge is necessary because EPA's leaders under President Barack Obama "politicized" global warming and allowed activists within the agency to publish "junk science."

(Myron Ebell ran the EPA transition team and now is back at his job at the bat-shit crazy Competititive Enterprise Institute.) 716

[Little_Pig]

STAY IN YOUR HOME, REMAIN CALM. THE NUMBER ONE ENEMY OF PROGRESS IS QUESTIONS. -Jello Biafra 717

[jshore]

Actually, that story I posted seems to originate with the Associated Press. A version of it in the Chicago Tribune has some even more alarming comments from Ebell but also this quote:

Asked about Ebell's comments, former Republican EPA Administrator William K. Reilly cautioned calm, saying that often transition teams have little to do with what eventually happens in an agency.

"I would tell the EPA staff that, in my experience, transition teams often have zero influence," said Reilly, who ran the environmental agency under Republican President George H.W. Bush. "They shouldn't be taken that seriously. They're just ideologues. They don't work for and are not even known to the incoming cabinet."

I guess Reilly might be right...but I think Ebell has worked very hard to make sure he would leave his mark...and having chosen Pruitt to head the EPA is probably about as extreme a pick as he could have hoped for. 718

[Steve MB]

Originally Posted by GIGObuster

So, the Secret Service gave a secured phone to the Cheeto in chief and even when his yes men complained Trump has ignored them so far.

http://www.computerworld.com/article...-to-tweet.html

We have a president that does forget quickly even lessons that he had learned already.

Trump’s Still Using His Old Android Phone. That’s Very, Very Risky

The headlining concern around Trump using Android is that he’s likely not protected against phishing attacks or malware. All it takes is clicking on one malicious link or opening one untoward attachment -- either of which can appear as though it were sent from a trusted source -- to compromise the device. From there, the phone could be infected with malware that spies on the network the device is connected to, logs keystrokes, takes over the camera and microphone for surreptitious recording, and more....

Based on some photo analysis, Android Central thinks Trump may use a Samsung Galaxy S3, a model that was first released in 2012. Another report pegged it as a slightly more recent Galaxy S4....

So... he's carrying a device that's a few years behind the cybersecurity curve which could already be photographing and recording everything in range. 719

[ThelmaLou]

Originally Posted by Steve MB

Trump’s Still Using His Old Android Phone. That’s Very, Very Risky



So... he's carrying a device that's a few years behind the cybersecurity curve which could already be photographing and recording everything in range.

Hey! The Trumpster knows that The Cyber is really important shit. So are computers. And the Interwebs. Whatever those are. 720

[Superdude]

Apparently, Trump was right about voter fraud. Tiffany Trump registered to vote in two states. 721

[running coach]

Originally Posted by Superdude

Apparently, Trump was right about voter fraud. Tiffany Trump registered to vote in two states.

So is (or was) Steve Bannon. 722

[ThelmaLou]

Originally Posted by Superdude

Apparently, Trump was right about voter fraud. Tiffany Trump registered to vote in two states.

So did Jared and Sean.

This is great! We've located the voter fraud! Yay! 723

[drad dog]

Originally Posted by running coach

So is (or was) Steve Bannon.

Steve (99 homes) Mnuchin too 724

[amarinth]

Yet another weird thing about the voter fraud thing is that based on the story that prompted this investigation as Trump told it*, someone who is not legally allowed to vote was not allowed to vote. Which would tend to indicate that voter fraud isn't really a problem.


*which is very likely totally untrue as the person who Trump claims told him the story is denying ever having been in the situation or having told the story to Trump. 725

[Fiveyearlurker]

When you are shitty enough that you're politically activating scientists, then you're remarkably shitty. 726

[Snarky_Kong]

I hope they don't investigate voter fraud. Not because I'm worried they'll find anything, but that it'll be used as an excuse to purge voter registration and make voting more difficult for Trump's opponents. 727

[Little_Pig]

Stephen Bannon Says Media Should 'Keep Its Mouth Shut'. 728

[jshore]

Originally Posted by Little_Pig

Stephen Bannon Says Media Should 'Keep Its Mouth Shut'.

I particularly like the quote "The media’s the opposition party.” Actually, it's facts, evidence, logic, and science that are the opposition party. Those damn facts are biased again! 729

[Siam Sam]

Especially after starting the ball rolling to spend billions of dollars on that stupid wall and pissing off the Mexican president enough for the latter to cancel his trip, Trump has already proven himself to be the biggest clown and buffoon as US president since Warren G Harding. 730

[foolsguinea]

While that's technically true, I think [farting noise] is the biggest clown and buffoon in the office ever. 731

[Siam Sam]

I never thought I'd be pining for the Nixon days. 732

[Happy Lendervedder]

I remember a time when I thought poli sci students would be studying the atrocious campaigning of Donald J. Trump-- that it would be a case study of incompetent campaigns.

Then, as this week has gone on, I'd become convinced the incompetency of Trump's presidency would be studied by poli sci students for generations.

But the more I'm witnessing, and observe the doublethink being shoved down our throats, I half expect future generations will probably be studying what a great and noble man Tsar Trump was, and that he was a wonderful prophet of the Lord, and that his intelligence and good looks were second to none throughout history. 733

[Siam Sam]

I guess you could say we're in a Mexican standoff with our southern neighbor.

Trump's trying to say the meeting cancellation between the two presidents was a "mutual agreement," but that's complete bullshit. Loser Trump got ditched, and good on the Mexican president, I say. 734

[Jack Batty]

I just heard on CNN that the Trump administration has cancelled scheduled ads encouraging people to sign up with Obamacare. These were scheduled to run in the last weeks of open enrollment. I would assume the ads have already been produced and as Obamacare is currently the law of the land and it is in open enrollment, it seems to me a waste to not run them.

Or is Trump just trying to get a jump on just how many people he can make sure don't have insurance going forward?


Yes. I know. This is all academic/rhetorical. I'm fully aware that Trump is just a petulant fuckhead and he's doing it just to metaphorically have prostitutes piss on another one of Obama's beds. 735

[Monty]

Originally Posted by Siam Sam

I guess you could say we're in a Mexican standoff with our southern neighbor.

Trump's trying to say the meeting cancellation between the two presidents was a "mutual agreement," but that's complete bullshit. Loser Trump got ditched, and good on the Mexican president, I say.

Completely agree. The real question now is what's Trump going to do when the economy tanks after Mexico and other countries enact punitive tariffs in response to Trump's. 736

[septimus]

AFAIK, silencing scientists and much of the other right-wing claptrap was never part of Trump's limited political outlook. He's pushing the GOP agenda to maintain good relations with his Congress and right-wing supporters. Similarly, the GOP was never enthusiastic about strenuous anti-immigrant measures but will pursue them now to maintain good relations with (and popular support for) their man in the White House.

So expect this Administration to provide both horrid right-wing policies which Trump doesn't really believe in, along with the irrational fancies of the Sociopath-in-Chief. Huuuuuge mistakes. Sad. 737

[Nava]

Originally Posted by ZPG Zealot

In all fairness though I think she would be lousy as an Ambassador, I imagine the Vatican is thinking somewhere along the lines of "been there, done that." She won't be first ambassador they have had that viewed the 10 commandments as challenges.

Or Cardinal, or Pope...

Originally Posted by Colibri

In Spanish, putinka sounds like it might be a pet name for a Russian hooker.

Remove the n and it directly means little whore. 738

[BigAppleBucky]

Originally Posted by septimus

AFAIK, silencing scientists and much of the other right-wing claptrap was never part of Trump's limited political outlook. He's pushing the GOP agenda to maintain good relations with his Congress and right-wing supporters. Similarly, the GOP was never enthusiastic about strenuous anti-immigrant measures but will pursue them now to maintain good relations with (and popular support for) their man in the White House.

So expect this Administration to provide both horrid right-wing policies which Trump doesn't really believe in, along with the irrational fancies of the Sociopath-in-Chief. Huuuuuge mistakes. Sad.

It works the other way too. Ryan and McConnell will go along with Trump's craziness in order to eliminate Public Education funding, NPR, PBS, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, etc. They'll probably also approve whatever wars he wants. 739

[BigAppleBucky]

Meanwhile, Voice of America is poised to become a Trump propaganda organ.

Page 1,404 of the Defense authorization bill passed in December after the election, gives control of VOA to Trump.

Rachel Maddow

Scary stuff.

Yes, the Trump administration is a clusterfuck. Did anyone seriously think it wouldn't be? 740

[running coach]

Originally Posted by BigAppleBucky

Meanwhile, Voice of America is poised to become a Trump propaganda organ.

Page 1,404 of the Defense authorization bill passed in December after the election, gives control of VOA to Trump.

Rachel Maddow

Scary stuff.

Yes, the Trump administration is a clusterfuck. Did anyone seriously think it wouldn't be?

There's this clown. 741

[enipla]

Originally Posted by Rick Kitchen

Trump's twitter account is linked to a nonsecured Gmail account. And he uses an unsecured phone to use it.

What, we're worried a 12 year old will hack it and start saying intelligent things? 742

[JohnT]

Let's not forget email security is the defining issue of the 2016 election. I am shocked, SHOCKED, that this transgression has gone this long without the electorate blindly reacting by giving the Presidency to Alfred E. Neuman. 743

[Morgenstern]

Originally Posted by BigAppleBucky

...
Yes, the Trump administration is a clusterfuck. Did anyone seriously think it wouldn't be?

Yes, there are a few operating thetans here, like John Mace who think this won't be a bumpy road. But, he has old age and senility fueling his opinions. 744

[jsc1953]

I haven't googled it yet: but if there isn't a Downfall parody video, of Trump looking at inauguration pictures of the National Mall and being told that his crowd is smaller than Obama's....there should be. 745

[Vinyl Turnip]

The trick, I suspect, would be convincing Trump to glue on the Hitler mustache. 746

[Steve MB]

Originally Posted by jsc1953

I haven't googled it yet: but if there isn't a Downfall parody video, of Trump looking at inauguration pictures of the National Mall and being told that his crowd is smaller than Obama's....there should be.

Trump reacts to reports on inauguration crowd size 747

[running coach]

Nikki Haley takes a gulp of Kool-aid.

New U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has arrived at the United Nations, announcing a new way the U.S. does business: She says the Trump administration's goal is to show U.S. strength, use its voice and defend its allies — and as for countries opposing America, "We're taking names."

She said it's a time for "fresh eyes" on the United Nations and the U.S. is going to make everything that's working better, try to fix everything that isn't working. She says "anything that seems to be obsolete and not necessary, we're going to do away with."

I thought she was supposed to be one of the sane ones. 748

[elucidator]

Originally Posted by Morgenstern

Yes, there are a few operating thetans here, like John Mace who think this won't be a bumpy road. But, he has old age and senility fueling his opinions.

Get thee behind me, Thetan! 749

[elucidator]

Originally Posted by running coach

...I thought she was supposed to be one of the sane ones.

Two competing influences, sanity vs. ambition. CRUNCH! Oh, well, only one after all! 750