President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[PaloAltoCougar]

You know often a choice has to be made.

Good guy you can partner up with. You will do OK, but never really have a successful business.

Asshole who you can partner up with and just shake your head at the things he says, but his business instincts are good and you will have a successful business.

Value judgement, yea go with the good guy. I choose the a-hole.

Just so I'm clear, Trump is the asshole in your parable, right? If so, I have serious doubts whether his business instincts are good. He's apparently worth billions, but I recall reading awhile back that if he had simply taken all the money he was gifted, loaned or bequeathed by his pops and put it in a market index fund he would be worth even more than he has. He's done some very successful things, but he's also done a lot of stupid things (Trump Mortgage on the eve of the housing market collapse, Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Taj Mahal, AVN--a company that paid him millions in 2008 for promoting the next hot product, videophones!, etc. etc.), and along the way left creditors and vendors holding many hundreds of millions in unsatisfied obligations.

My sense is that the top business movers and shakers regard Trump as a mediocre businessperson who has succeeded on sheer force of will and the power of branding. I doubt those skills translate well to long-term governance. Certainly our foreign competitors won't be bowled over. Will Trump's towering ignorance on foreign and domestic matters (Who knew health care was so complicated? What's a nuclear triad?), when paired with his unmatched ego, translate well into world leadership? I remain very skeptical but we'll see. At least we agree that we chose the asshole.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Just so I'm clear, Trump is the asshole in your parable, right? If so, I have serious doubts whether his business instincts are good. He's apparently worth billions, but I recall reading awhile back that if he had simply taken all the money he was gifted, loaned or bequeathed by his pops and put it in a market index fund he would be worth even more than he has. He's done some very successful things, but he's also done a lot of stupid things (Trump Mortgage on the eve of the housing market collapse, Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, Taj Mahal, AVN--a company that paid him millions in 2008 for promoting the next hot product, videophones!, etc. etc.), and along the way left creditors and vendors holding many hundreds of millions in unsatisfied obligations.

My sense is that the top business movers and shakers regard Trump as a mediocre businessperson who has succeeded on sheer force of will and the power of branding. I doubt those skills translate well to long-term governance. Certainly our foreign competitors won't be bowled over. Will Trump's towering ignorance on foreign and domestic matters (Who knew health care was so complicated? What's a nuclear triad?), when paired with his unmatched ego, translate well into world leadership? I remain very skeptical but we'll see. At least we agree that we chose the asshole.

Dude, stop criticizing Trump. Don't you care about the economy?!

[BlueK]

Dude, stop criticizing Trump. Don't you care about the economy?!

The only reason we're getting "establishment" GOP stances from Trump right now on taxes, healthcare and deregulation is because those issues don't matter that much to Darth Lord Bannon. As soon as we get through these things I think the focus goes back to the dopey "economic nationalism" of stifling trade, killing traditional alliances, punishing consumers for daring to buy foreign, slamming the doors shut on all forms of immigration, etc., and those things will likely counteract anything positive in the economy that may come from whatever marginal tax cuts we get. Anything not born or made in America is evil!

[Walter Sobchak]

Ron Paul ran on the libertarian ticket a time or two. I keep thinking that his son, Rand, will come around.

Rand is a GOP stooge at this point. He said he would not support investigating Trump because he is a republican.

Rand has lost his libertarian soul. He started as one of Trump's biggest critics out of the field of republican presidential candidates, but then suddenly morphed into one of his biggest cheerleaders, ala Jeff Sessions who is about as anti-libertarian as there is.

when exactly has paul been cheer leading trump

Senator Paul is a Putin stooge, just like President Trump... per McCain today:

Embedded Tweet

[Walter Sobchak]

New travel ban blocked. It's almost like this arcane system of checks and balances works. Go figure.

[wuapinmon]

[Commando]

[Commando]

Oh- that ^ reminds me of this song and video- featuring the great Michael Rapaport. Some of snoop's best stuff in a decade. Bad language, so... don't turn it up around sensitive ears.

[BlueK]

Good news in the Dutch elections today. The party that likes free markets, free trade, small government, deregulation and open democracy trounced the party led by Geert Wilders, who basically espouses more or less the same ideology of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump in regard to Islam, foreigners, and really anything that doesn't come from Holland. Very "nationalistic" or isolationist. He wants out of free trade agreements, the EU, NATO, etc. It was thought this party was making inroads and had a chance of winning, but this appears to be a pretty embarrassing loss, as they finished tied for fifth in the number of seats to parliament. This is who Trump wanted to win. We'll see what happens in Germany and France, but I've read those parties in those countries are likely going to go down as well in upcoming elections. Maybe Trump winning here is actually hurting these similar candidates in Europe.

[Uncle Ted]

Senator Paul is a Putin stooge, just like President Trump... per McCain today:

Embedded Tweet

The old man is getting insane... he is acting just like a democrat.

[Commando]

Good news in the Dutch elections today. The party that likes free markets, free trade, small government, deregulation and open democracy trounced the party led by Geert Wilders, who basically espouses more or less the same ideology of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump in regard to Islam, foreigners, and really anything that doesn't come from Holland. Very "nationalistic" or isolationist. He wants out of free trade agreements, the EU, NATO, etc. It was thought this party was making inroads and had a chance of winning, but this appears to be a pretty embarrassing loss, as they finished tied for fifth in the number of seats to parliament. This is who Trump wanted to win. We'll see what happens in Germany and France, but I've read those parties in those countries are likely going to go down as well in upcoming elections. Maybe Trump winning here is actually hurting these similar candidates in Europe.

100% it is. Trump doesn't even pretend to not be a thoughtless buffoon. People are thinking 'maybe this isn't such a good idea- look at America... errr..."

[Uncle Ted]

Good news in the Dutch elections today. The party that likes free markets, free trade, small government, deregulation and open democracy trounced the party led by Geert Wilders, who basically espouses more or less the same ideology of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump in regard to Islam, foreigners, and really anything that doesn't come from Holland. Very "nationalistic" or isolationist. He wants out of free trade agreements, the EU, NATO, etc. It was thought this party was making inroads and had a chance of winning, but this appears to be a pretty embarrassing loss, as they finished tied for fifth in the number of seats to parliament. This is who Trump wanted to win. We'll see what happens in Germany and France, but I've read those parties in those countries are likely going to go down as well in upcoming elections. Maybe Trump winning here is actually hurting these similar candidates in Europe.

Wow... they have more than two parties? It must be nice to not have regulations that pretty much only gives you two choices on the ballot and forces their government to consider other ideas than just "left" and "right".

[Uncle Ted]

Good news in the Dutch elections today. The party that likes free markets, free trade, small government, deregulation and open democracy trounced the party led by Geert Wilders, who basically espouses more or less the same ideology of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump in regard to Islam, foreigners, and really anything that doesn't come from Holland. Very "nationalistic" or isolationist. He wants out of free trade agreements, the EU, NATO, etc. It was thought this party was making inroads and had a chance of winning, but this appears to be a pretty embarrassing loss, as they finished tied for fifth in the number of seats to parliament. This is who Trump wanted to win. We'll see what happens in Germany and France, but I've read those parties in those countries are likely going to go down as well in upcoming elections. Maybe Trump winning here is actually hurting these similar candidates in Europe.

I am confused... It seems Geert is claiming a minor victory for his party on his tweeter feed.

Embedded Tweet

So did his party actually finish 2nd?

Of course,...

[Uncle Ted]

So the Maddow just destroyed the narrative that Trumps large tax loss in 1995 resulted in him not paying taxes for the past two decades. It also shows his effective tax rate is in line with others in his income bracket.

Way to go Maddow. Way to destroy your parties dumb narrative.

Looks like the liberals are now claiming Trump himself leaked the tax return in an effort to change the narrative. If true, that means Maddow is even dumber than we all thought.

Not only Maddow... this long time white house correspondent is very confused about what it means to be a billionaire and posted the following:



She later made her feed private.

[frank ryan]

Shocker, one of Trumps henchman has connections to a Hungarian fascist party:

http://forward.com/news/national/366...orka-as-sworn/