I thought their brains ran out their ears.
Dubya demonstrated one virtue that Trump has not: explicit rejection of the corrosive premise that The West is at war with Islam. Trump’s campaign rhetoric, and some of the people he’s picked for key national-security posts, have supported that premise. Bizarrely, it aligns them perfectly with ISIS, who profess to believe the same thing. :rolleyes:
I think it entirely possible that if a Trump administration implements policies based on that premise, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” on the terrorism front. :eek: To which Trump et al. could very well respond with “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” levels of military force with no consideration of collateral damage.* Which would engender a terrorist response, which would engender an unrestrained military response ad nauseam ad infinitum. So no zombies or nuclear war, “just” a cycle of escalation that could make the terrorist attacks of the last couple of years look like a pickpocketing compared to a school massacre and be even more bloody for the “other” side. 
*Ignoring for now the prospect of domestic official repression of Muslims, which is not as straightforward for a President and his Cabinet to carry out as the external use of military force. The courts have a lot to say about domestic measures, and aren’t in Trump’s control except until “enough” Federal judges die or retire, but the war powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief have been interpreted very broadly.
I’m thinking a new Great Depression, the end of American democracy, theocracy, state mandated racism, sexism & other bigotry, and yes, probably the use of nuclear weapons. Not so much a “war”, as a one sided attack; probably on either Mecca or Tehran.
And that’s only some of what I expect from Trump and the Republicans.
Trump has ordered all politically appointed ambassadors to leave their posts by election day. We’re going to be almost totally unrepresented in the world until the Senate gets around to approving all of his nominations.
In the meantime, Republicans have reinstated an obscure law that allows Congress to reduce the salary of any federal employee to as little as $1.
No longer satisfied with threatening US companies that move production outside the country, Trump has now threatened Toyota with a “big border tax” if it produces vehicles for the US market in Mexico.
Toyota is planning to expand an existing plant in Baja California that makes Corollas. It is also planning to build a new plant in Guanajuato. It doesn’t appear that they have announced that they’re moving any US production to either location.
I want to see good quality blue collar jobs in the US as much as the next guy. But, does Trump have any coherent plan for creating those jobs? Or is it going to be four years of odd threats and small scale deals with companies for a few thousand jobs here and there? Is he planning on a “big border tax” for ALL foreign cars? I’m no economist, but I thought protectionist tariffs had fallen out of favor.
He’s a little behind. That was announced back in April 2015.
That just shows that way back then, Toyota knew who was going to be President. They’re smart people, the best.
Someone needs to tell this guy that politically appointed ambassadors are basically figureheads and that the staff do the real work. We will not be unrepresented in any way.
Both Houses of Congress would have to agree and the law has to be reapproved every year.
A House Rule is not the same thing as a law.
Oh, so that means they can’t really do it? Groovy! Finally, you got some good news!
About 70% of ambassadors are career diplomats (Foreign Service Officers) and not political appointments. It is moronic to do what Trump is doing. Previous administrations have given temporary extensions to the FSOs while cutting loose the political appointees. Many of the FSOs were then reconfirmed or shuffled around.
The article specifically pointed out that those asked to resign were the political appointees. Unless I am missing something.
Each of those embassies has a career bureaucrat that is more than capable of holding down the fort until a replacement is selected.
I don’t buy the notion that Trump sold cabinet positions but you can certainly buy ambassadorial appointments.
That’s only if everyone else retaliates with their own tariffs. Then we get worldwide recession.
It is not unheard of for powerful nations to force other nations to adopt favorable trade policies. Opium Wars - Wikipedia
I think Trump could sink this low and I think there is a significant portion of the population that would support America’s use of military power to extract economic concession from the rest of the world. We have already heard Trump talk about making other nations pay for our protection and making them pay for a wall.
We have the most powerful military the world has ever know. The rest of the world acting in concert would have trouble dealing with our military and we could wipe several of them off the face of the earth before breakfast. Why not simply turn the rest of the world into de facto tributary states? I don’t think anything is beyond possibility anymore.
No, maybe I am. I had heard he was firing all of Obama’s ambassadors, not just the political appointees. If he is just getting rid of the thirty odd percent that are not career ambassadors, then it may not be as stupid as I originally thought.
State mandated racism, huh? That’s breaking new ground, ever for you DT. I’m wondering how that would work…
Dateline July, 2019. Charles Kelly, a 45-year-old white man, was arrested at his La Jolla Surf Shop Saturday morning for allegedly refusing to use the “n word” when Darrel Jefferson, a 35-year-old black man, entered the store just as it was opening. Friends of Mr. Kelly (known locally as “Gnarly Charlie”) were not surprised. “The new mandated racism laws just don’t sit well with the Gnarlster” said his longtime friend and surf buddy Clyde “Hang Ten” Kennedy. “Those laws are, like, a totally bummer man. Not rad!!!”
True enough. A senior officer will take over the day-to-day as chargé d’affaires. I betting we’ll see an Ambassador Palin or an Ambassador Giuliani. Or the hot dog vendor outside his building. You know: whomever he last saw.
Jim Crow laws were certainly state mandated racism. Not saying those are coming back but they serve as precedent.