The Trump Presidency | Biden Inaugurated

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PedroMendez said:
It links me to a pay-wall. I am not disputing that Russia eventually hacked and leaked the podesta/DNC emails (via wikileaks) and I am also not disputing that Trump has financial interest all over the world – including in Russia – and those interests are going to influence his decision-making. There are already few other examples of other politicians, where this applies(ed), so obviously Trump will be particularly susceptible to such influences. I am not denying any of that. He probably also adores any confident strongman in the world, because he’d love to be like them.

This foreign influence might make him lift completely inefficient sanctions and he might talk differently about Russia, because in the end he is fairly indifferent to these things anyway. It is important to repeat that many people in Europe share the view, that escalation with Russia is a bad idea and it is also important to repeat that Obama – rhetoric aside – was fairly uninterested in opposing Russia. So up to this point Trump didn’t change course at all and there is no evidence that he’ll care about Putin’s opinion on any issue that is going to matter to him.
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Does that not worry you? Particularly given he's the president and in charge of the most powerful army ever? Even Nixon didn't have the gall to go into the presidency with such conflicts of interest, and he was a crook.
 
afrocentricity said:
Who are you talking about?
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Grinner said:
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PedroMendez said:
It links me to a pay-wall. I am not disputing that Russia eventually hacked and leaked the podesta/DNC emails (via wikileaks) and I am also not disputing that Trump has financial interest all over the world – including in Russia – and those interests are going to influence his decision-making. There are already few other examples of other politicians, where this applies(ed), so obviously Trump will be particularly susceptible to such influences. I am not denying any of that. He probably also adores any confident strongman in the world, because he’d love to be like them.

This foreign influence might make him lift completely inefficient sanctions and he might talk differently about Russia, because in the end he is fairly indifferent to these things anyway. It is important to repeat that many people in Europe share the view, that escalation with Russia is a bad idea and it is also important to repeat that Obama – rhetoric aside – was fairly uninterested in opposing Russia. So up to this point Trump didn’t change course at all and there is no evidence that he’ll care about Putin’s opinion on any issue that is going to matter to him.
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The main event underpinning all of this is when back in whatever month Manafort, presumably, had the opposing/condemning of Russia's acts in Crimea and Ukraine stricken from Trump's FoPo list. It was seemingly gratuitous. If an incoming administration wanted to review the Russia policy (rationally), I still don't think you'd strike that from your policy list, because they're exactly your bargaining chips. Its also the opposite of what he's doing towards China, where in a couple of acts he escalated what were assumed to be resolved issues, and now there's potential for compromise on those and other economic topics (or potential for a shooting war, fun). So its inconsistent with what is allegedly his own modus operandi, and therefore its hard to take his actions regarding Russia at face value. I buy into no specific strain of the conspiracy, except that they hacked the DNC email and then forwarded that to Wikileaks to harm HRC (who they probably presumed would be elected anyways). But we're still lacking a rationale when it comes to Russia.
 
Silva said:
In another case classic whataboutism, barros forgot to add digits to the figure to make it look like the liberals are worse.
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No mention of the amount of years that money was spent over either.
 
'On Monday 20th February, parliament will be debating whether or not to allow Donald Trump a state visit. In coordination with One Day Without Us: UK National Protest, we are calling for a nationwide day of action to stand up and say no to the future of hatred, racism and division that Donald Trump is trying to create – and to say no to the disgraceful complicity of Theresa May and the British government in supporting him.

Protests this week saw tens of thousands take to the streets at just a day’s notice. With a bit of work we can make this national day of action massive! We’ve linked up with One Day Without Us, who are already running protests on the same day, to fight for migrants’ rights. Make sure to link up with them where you can. (www.1daywithoutus.org)

So on February 20th, organise! If you’re in London, join the march on parliament at 6pm.'
 
Silva said:
Does that not worry you? Particularly given he's the president and in charge of the most powerful army ever? Even Nixon didn't have the gall to go into the presidency with such conflicts of interest, and he was a crook.
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Well. I think the cold war is over. While I think that some level of deterrence against Putin is wise, I am confident that NATO is doing the job and Trump won’t change that. Non-Nato neighbors of Russia are fecked, but the reality is, that Russia already meddled with their affairs in the past and neither Bush nor Obama were willing to go beyond symbol politics to oppose that. We can discuss long and hard what the right course of action would be for these cases, but nobody is going to argue, that Obama and Bush didn’t intervene in any meaningful way because they are Russian puppets. Blaming Russia for the situation in the Middle East would be also fairly stupid (I don’t support their military or political interference either!).
When I look at Trump’s foreign policy I am worried about Flynn, who is a conspiracy peddling nut-case, who wants to wage war against Iran. I am starting to get worried about Bannon, who is also nuts and I am concerned about Trump doing something stupid in regard to China. These are much more dangerous and pressing issues, that should concern everyone.
So de-escalation with Russia, even if it is just down to corruption/influence, is the least of my concerns and overall no negative.

(not directed @Silva ):

It is interesting that people start worrying again about (foreign) monetary influence on the administration, while it was considered “crazy talk” to bring up similar concerns about other influential politicians during the last 8 years….
 
PedroMendez said:
Well. I think the cold war is over. While I think that some level of deterrence against Putin is wise, I am confident that NATO is doing the job and Trump won’t change that. Non-Nato neighbors of Russia are fecked, but the reality is, that Russia already meddled with their affairs in the past and neither Bush nor Obama were willing to go beyond symbol politics to oppose that. We can discuss long and hard what the right course of action would be for these cases, but nobody is going to argue, that Obama and Bush didn’t intervene in any meaningful way because they are Russian puppets. Blaming Russia for the situation in the Middle East would be also fairly stupid (I don’t support their military or political interference either!).
When I look at Trump’s foreign policy I am worried about Flynn, who is a conspiracy peddling nut-case, who wants to wage war against Iran. I am starting to get worried about Bannon, who is also nuts and I am concerned about Trump doing something stupid in regard to China. These are much more dangerous and pressing issues, that should concern everyone.
So de-escalation with Russia, even if it is just down to corruption/influence, is the least of my concerns and overall no negative.

(not directed @Silva ):

It is interesting that people start worrying again about (foreign) monetary influence on the administration, while it was considered “crazy talk” to bring up similar concerns about other influential politicians during the last 8 years….
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They're not really doing the job since Putin is using alternative means (ie. funding populist/right wing movements in both eastern and western Europe) to undermine NATO from within, so he can then reorient those states towards a Russian sphere of influence.
 
Raoul said:
They're not really doing the job since Putin is using alternative means (ie. funding populist/right wing movements in both eastern and western Europe) to undermine NATO from within, so he can then reorient those states towards a Russian sphere of influence.
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- Putin is doing his thing
- Chinese are literally buying countries with debt/loan/development diplomacy

And we're acting like fools :(
 
The Russian sanctions thing looks like it was a clarification put forward by the Obama administration, so no panic there yet.
 
Sean Spicer referre to the Saudi Ship attacked by the Houthis in Yemen as 'our ship' - I don't know what else is going to happen...but, I know for sure, there are going to be thousands of US troops in Yemen in 2019.
 
Raoul said:
Tillerson will wind up one of Trump's best picks along with Mattis.
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How so? The man's got literally no experience in politics or national security let alone conflicts of interest. Am I missing something?
 
Raoul said:
Tillerson will wind up one of Trump's best picks along with Mattis.
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I acknowledge that you are quite enthusiastic about it but I don't share your optimism. I expect him to be as horrible as the other ones. That he refuses to hold a common presser with our Minister of Foreign Affairs who meets him today confirm my suspicion.
 
barros said:
Vacation only but would be interesting how much we paid for her to go to China and Europe, just to compare because anything from Trump you guys go over the roof.
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You're going give me a bingo all on your own
 
langster said:
:lol: You must suffer from altitude sickness being up on that high horse all the time. However, we know who is wearing the blinkers, and it sure isn't the horse.
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I know you guys are way more intellectual than anything on the right, the left is so superior they can't understand they lost the elections to an outsider and may take months maybe years for them to understand the Republicans won this elections.....get over.
 
Neutral said:
Get away from the Pro-Russian stuff....he's even keeled and not a raving lunatic. He's going to help smooth over a lot of the shit Trump says and does with both allies and adversaries.
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Why? Why should it be ignored that one of the most powerful government figures has interests in Russian sanctions being lifted?
 
barros said:
Vacation only but would be interesting how much we paid for her to go to China and Europe, just to compare because anything from Trump you guys go over the roof.
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I know you have problems understanding certain things, like, I really do. But what do normal things like having a friggin' vacation (and we both know it wasn't just a vacation) have to do with the fact we know effectively have a second Secret Service base of operations in the US for no reason?
What you are doing here (including your stupid 85 Million $ figure) is the best example of fake news. I have a pretty low meaning of you as a person and as a participant in the political process, but...don't even you realise such things? I mean, you must be over the a certain level of intelligence which at least allows you to understand basic coherency.
 
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