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The overgrown Oompa Loompa threatens NATO again, Vladamir has got to be a happy camper:
Trump torches allies, threatens NATO pullout after tense WWI memorial trip to Paris
President Donald Trump, upon returning home from a World War I memorial event in Paris, unloaded on the US's European allies and appeared to threaten to pull out of NATO.
French President Emmanuel Macron was critical of Trump's leadership and politics during the Paris trip and floated the idea of forming a European army that would in part defend the continent from the US.
Trump called the idea "very insulting" and returned to his old talking points challenging NATO.
Trump said he told US allies in Paris that US protectorship of European countries amid trade deficits could not continue.
Trump typically condemns any kind of trade deficit with any country, though the metric usually indicates the US has a strong economy that can afford to buy more from a given country than that country can buy from the US.
If the stakes weren't so high, this would be funny.
"There is no creature more arrogant than a self-righteous libertarian on the web, am I right? Those folks are just intolerable."
"It's no secret that the great American pastime is no longer baseball. Now it's sanctimony." -- Guy Periwinkle, The Nix.
"Juilliardk N I ibuprofen Hyu I U unhurt u" - creekster
Do you think that, given the number of terrible fires in California over the past many years, fire prevention hasn't been a major priority? BTW, your question is like asking what Texas is doing about hurricanes.
Sure, even more needs to be done, but the timing and content of Trump's lone tweet on the subject is akin to visiting a widow on the day of her husband's death and announcing he should have taken better care of himself. Even if true, he's still an asshole.
"If there is one thing I am, it's always right." -Ted Nugent.
"I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists." -SU. "Yet I still see wisdom in that which Uncle Ted posts." -creek. GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!
I was on the fence until I saw it came with a certificate of authenticity. Looking forward to winter nights wrapped in the flag whilst brushing Trumpy's hair.
Yeah, Drumpf is an asshole. But a lot of time the asshole is actually right.
Swish...
California’s Paradise Lost
Trump is a bully, but he’s right about bad forest management.
One problem with President Trump’s bullying rhetorical style is that he gives his critics reason to ignore him even when he has a point. Consider his weekend threat to yank federal funds from California amid its horrific wildfires.
[...]
Once upon a time the U.S. Forest Service’s mission was to actively manage the federal government’s resources. Yet numerous laws over the last 50 years, including the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, have hampered tree-clearing, controlled burns and timber sales on federal land.
California also restricts timber harvesting and requires myriad permits and environmental-impact statements to prune overgrown forests. As the state Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) dryly noted in April, “project proponents seeking to conduct activities to improve the health of California’s forests indicate that in some cases, state regulatory requirements can be excessively duplicative, lengthy, and costly.”
One problem for landowners is disposing of deadwood. Dozens of biomass facilities that burn tree parts that can’t be used for lumber have closed due to emissions regulations and competition from subsidized renewables and cheap natural gas.
To burn leaves and tree limbs, landowners must obtain air-quality permits from “local air districts, burn permits from local fire agencies, and potentially other permits depending on the location, size, and type of burn,” the LAO explained. “Permits restrict the size of burn piles and vegetation that can be burned, the hours available for burns, and the allowable moisture levels in the material.”
The LAO recommended that California prune its regulations, facilitate timber sales and ease permitting for burning biomass. Environmentalists oppose this, but one irony is that destruction from fires imperils species far more than does regulated tree-clearing.
Thinning forests could also save Californians billions of gallons of water each year, according to an April study by the National Science Foundation. The good news is that the Trump Administration is expanding timber sales on federal land and this year’s harvest will be the biggest in two decades.
Restoring California’s forests to health could take years, but the lesson of these fires is that the feds and state should drop their political blinders and do it.
"If there is one thing I am, it's always right." -Ted Nugent.
"I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists." -SU. "Yet I still see wisdom in that which Uncle Ted posts." -creek. GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!
Hardly a swish (it was off the backboard and ratted around the rim for a while but ultimately dropped in), although it reflects a Trumpian tendency to claim a clear victory where the facts are vastly more complicated. In fact, the current fires weren't forest fires at all, and the remedies the WSJ recommends, while good, wouldn't have prevented this. You've seen this before with calls for gun regulation in the wake of a mass shooting--some good recs that wouldn't have stopped the incident in question.
In other news, I assume you and other Trump supporters enjoyed his berating the leaders of the Baltic States a couple of days ago for all their wars in the '90s that led to the break-up of Yugoslavia. The leaders looked around at each other in bewilderment until they realized Trump had confused the Baltic States with the Balkan States--I guess the subject of European Geography never came up in his pillow talk with Yugoslav Melania.
Hardly a swish (it was off the backboard and ratted around the rim for a while but ultimately dropped in), although it reflects a Trumpian tendency to claim a clear victory where the facts are vastly more complicated. In fact, the current fires weren't forest fires at all, and the remedies the WSJ recommends, while good, wouldn't have prevented this. You've seen this before with calls for gun regulation in the wake of a mass shooting--some good recs that wouldn't have stopped the incident in question.
Taking away all guns would prevent gun related violence. That is a fact. Of course, it is hard to implement. It would be like cutting off every male's dick to prevent rape. Dems lack the commonsense to back commonsense laws that would lessen the impact. Simply blaming climate change and doing nothing about dry dead trees and grass is not going to help lessen the impact of wild fires. Commonsense regulations and laws are needed: controlled burns of state lands that are over grown, timber cutting permits to thin the trees, etc. Sure, it won't prevent a wild fire but would take away a lot of the fuel making the fire easier to fight. Given that these fire weren't not forest fires then clearly they fall under the mis-management of state and local governments. "But what about that endangered beetle?" Well, I am guessing that beetle just became more endangered now and the CO2 levels have increased so climate change has some more fuel.
"If there is one thing I am, it's always right." -Ted Nugent.
"I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists." -SU. "Yet I still see wisdom in that which Uncle Ted posts." -creek. GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!
I was on the fence until I saw it came with a certificate of authenticity. Looking forward to winter nights wrapped in the flag whilst brushing Trumpy's hair.
I noticed that Nancy Pelosi has one of these Trumpy Bears in her new public service announcement...
"If there is one thing I am, it's always right." -Ted Nugent.
"I honestly believe saying someone is a smart lawyer is damning with faint praise. The smartest people become engineers and scientists." -SU. "Yet I still see wisdom in that which Uncle Ted posts." -creek. GIVE 'EM HELL, BRIGHAM!
Taking away all guns would prevent gun related violence. That is a fact. Of course, it is hard to implement. It would be like cutting off every male's dick to prevent rape. Dems lack the commonsense to back commonsense laws that would lessen the impact. Simply blaming climate change and doing nothing about dry dead trees and grass is not going to help lessen the impact of wild fires. Commonsense regulations and laws are needed: controlled burns of state lands that are over grown, timber cutting permits to thin the trees, etc. Sure, it won't prevent a wild fire but would take away a lot of the fuel making the fire easier to fight. Given that these fire weren't not forest fires then clearly they fall under the mis-management of state and local governments. "But what about that endangered beetle?" Well, I am guessing that beetle just became more endangered now and the CO2 levels have increased so climate change has some more fuel.
I agree with this (including not cutting off penises). A lot has already been done and with fires increasing as a result of climate change, more work in this area is underway.
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