The Trump Presidency | Biden Inaugurated

Status
Not open for further replies.
Pexbo said:
I'll be interested to see just how long it takes for this coal "bubble" (if you could even call it that) to burst and to see how spectacularly it actually bursts.

It'll either be renewable technologies squeezing the market so hard that the mines are no longer economical to run.

Or it will be automation bearing the brunt of disgruntled mining communities who still can't get employed despite the mines being in operation. .
Click to expand...

You're right to be reticent about calling it a bubble. Someone needs to be excited for it to be a bubble.
 
Pexbo said:
I'll be interested to see just how long it takes for this coal "bubble" (if you could even call it that) to burst and to see how spectacularly it actually bursts.

It'll either be renewable technologies squeezing the market so hard that the mines are no longer economical to run.

Or it will be automation bearing the brunt of disgruntled mining communities who still can't get employed despite the mines being in operation. .
Click to expand...

The coal industry themselves are saying their won't be jobs, and that graphic of increasing production versus falling worker numbers over the past 100 years shows why.
 
Kushner Family, China's Anbang End Talks Over Manhattan Real Estate Deal
  • Negotiations to redevelop an office tower owned by the family of President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at 666 5th Avenue in Manhattan have unraveled.

    Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images
    The family of President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, has called off talks with Chinese insurance company Anbang to redevelop a Manhattan office tower — a deal that raised ethical concerns.

    "Kushner Companies is no longer in discussions with Anbang about 666 5th Avenue's potential redevelopment, and our firms have mutually agreed to end talks regarding the property," read a statement from the Kushner family. "Kushner Companies remains in active, advanced negotiations around 666 5th Avenue with a number of potential investors."

    Jared Kushner bought the property in 2007, before the mortgage crisis hit. It subsequently lost a lot of money and nearly became insolvent.

    Anbang, a company worth $300 billion that has ties to the families of several past Communist leaders, "had discussed investing more than $400 million as part of a $4 billion transaction with Kushner Cos. that may have included terms that some real estate experts considered unusually favorable for the Kushners," Bloomberg reported.

    The potential deal raised the ire of lawmakers, who were worried about a well-connected and powerful Chinese company exerting influence over the family of one of president Trump's closest advisers. As Bloomberg writes, "Five Democratic lawmakers asked the White House in a March 24 letter to explain whether Kushner was involved in any talks about the possible partnership with Anbang and also asked for additional details on Kushner's divestment from his family's company."



    Although Jared Kushner sold the 666 5th Avenue property to the rest of this family to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, legal scholars said that because Kushner had already met with Chinese leaders as an adviser to the president, it raised some serious questions.

    "Is it reasonable for us to trust that Jared Kushner actually has the interests of the public at heart when he is advising the president or dealing with the Chinese, who have apparently just enriched his family to an extraordinary degree?" Washington University of St. Louis law professor Kathleen Clark said in an interview with NPR during Anbang's negotiations with the Kushner family.

    In recent years, Anbang has been eager to buy property in the United States. It purchased the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, and it owns many other assets.

    However, because of concerns regarding Anbang's ties with China's Communist Party, its deals in the United States nearly always attract scrutiny from the U.S. lawmakers. Last year, when Anbang attempted to buy a resort in California, the federal government wouldn't approve it because it was too close to a naval base.

    The cancellation of the Kushner family deal with Anbang comes at a time when Jared Kushner is under increased scrutiny by government officials. Senate investigators plan to question him as part of its investigations into ties between the Russian government and Trump's 2016 campaign.
Click to expand...

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ang-end-talks-over-manhattan-real-estate-deal

This deal stank.
 
berbatrick said:
Yes, I'm not an expert but that's the feeling I get too. Which is why I included left/liberals. I think a response to climate change would have needed to be international and drastic, and with huge govt interventions to stave off the side-effects on poverty, etc (but you know my bias on this issue). What you cannot have is a competition between countries to do less.
We have had a single activist environment minister in the history of independent India - among other things he suggested we should commit ourselves to a binding emissions cap. He was criticised by the English press, opposition, and his own party. Yes, the west should help us with technology, but we should recognise that CO2 released in India will cause as much damage as CO2 released in the west, and that in fact any CO2 anywhere will hurt us more than it hurts Europe/ US/ Canada (effects on the main Himalayan rivers and on Bengal/Bangladesh, where some islands are already disappearing.)
Click to expand...

My point is, that the "oh noe Trump is killing us all, because he doesn't care about climate change", strikes me as quite wrong. The difference between Trump and a democratic alternative is marginal compared to the magnitude of the problem. It is a bit like when you have a forest fire and one group wants to do nothing, while the other proposes to pour a few buckets of water into it.
Most of my opinion is based on one meta study that tried to summarize the state of research during the the Paris agreement. I was quite impressed by the difference of the message between what I read there and what was written in normal papers. That said it is a single data-point, that could be misleading. Thats where somebody who has genuine knowledge about the current research findings would be helpful.
 
PedroMendez said:
Aren't even the most committed politicians engaging largely in irrelevant/symbolic policy? I could be totally wrong about that, because I don’t know enough about it. Looking rather superficially at some of the academic forecast papers, even the most optimistic ones come to the conclusion, that even the effort of the countries that are leading the pack is too late/too little. It is imo not even close and no politicians have credible (= in any way realistic) strategies how to solve this problem. We are not willing to radically change our way of life and current technology is just not advanced enough yet. Obviously that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try, but in the grand scheme of things, 4 years of Trump won’t make much difference. We’ll live or suffer depending on technologic innovation.
Click to expand...

This article influenced me a lot: http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt

And this quote is relevant:
In a 2012 essay that appeared in the influential scientific journal Nature Climate Change, Anderson and Bows laid down something of a gauntlet, accusing many of their fellow scientists of failing to come clean about the kind of changes that climate change demands of humanity. On this it is worth quoting the pair at length:

. . . in developing emission scenarios scientists repeatedly and severely underplay the implications of their analyses. When it comes to avoiding a 2°C rise, “impossible” is translated into “difficult but doable”, whereas “urgent and radical” emerge as “challenging” – all to appease the god of economics (or, more precisely, finance). For example, to avoid exceeding the maximum rate of emission reduction dictated by economists, “impossibly” early peaks in emissions are assumed, together with naive notions about “big” engineering and the deployment rates of low-carbon infrastructure. More disturbingly, as emissions budgets dwindle, so geoengineering is increasingly proposed to ensure that the diktat of economists remains unquestioned.
Click to expand...
 


The GOP are simply rotten to the fecking core. I bet it's a case of they don't want to know what's in them and are shit scared, so it's better nobody knows. Hopefully the Dems don't give up and they keep on until they get their way.
 
I honestly don't think enough is being made out of the climate change regulations Trump has just torn up and undone in one swift move. Apparently some of the laws/regulations he has destroyed took over SIX YEARS to pass and he ruined all that hard work in seconds. Surely this will have people enraged?

Let's not forget meals on wheels as well, that's 2.4 million elderly people who needed the service mightily pissed off and presumably very hungry, and probably seriously ill now. He wont care though because he probably thinks most will be dead in 4 years time so he's not bothered.

I think we should start a little test to count how many voted he's losing all the time. So far I can see he's pissed of the Tea Party, many Republicans, the 2.4 million people who got meals on wheels, everyone who relied on funding for the arts and anyone who cares about the environment. Aside from a few rich executives here and there and apparently about 50,000 miners and their families I'm struggling to see anyone who he's actually helping or impressing at the moment. In all seriousness though, these environmental laws he's ripping up are a disgrace and as mentioned here earlier he's even been warned about backing out of the Paris agreement by Exxon fecking mobile for goodness sake, this is on top of a similar warning from China. I think we have all been looking in completely the wrong direction and maybe the uproar from this will be what breaks him. I can see him facing serious pressure from other countries about this, because after all, we all live on the same planet and other countries are not going to like what he's doing. I'm betting Germany will have something to say as I think Merkel will have it in for him after the disgusting way he treated her recently. I can honestly see him facing a backlash at the upcoming G20 and G8 meetings and I'm betting (if he even attends) that he won't like it and will cause a massive scandal.
 
He made his stance about the environment clear from the offset. Anyone who voted for him thinking that he'd go against what he said and keep environmental laws in place need their head checking.

There's a large part of his fanbase who don't give a shit about the environment. The second amendment, the wall and pro-life matters are generally what they care about.
 
Damien said:
There's a large part of his fanbase who don't give a shit about the environment. The second amendment, the wall and pro-life matters are generally what they care about.
Click to expand...

I'm not even sure most of them are pro-life. The evangelical crowd, yes, but the rest seem to either not give a shite or simply using it as a stick to beat 'liberals' with.

Anyway, Troy has fallen and there's little solace to be found for the Cassandras of this thread/election thread.
 
  1. Claim anthropogenic global warming hasn't been proven but cut off funding to research that might prove said existential threat
  2. ???
  3. Profit
 
I think the climate change stuff has just beaten people into submission.

The US is such a ridiculously money=power driven country that the big oil and other fossil fuel companies hold way too much sway over everything.

Add in easily bought politicians and a cynical and stupid population that refuses to change their ways because climate change MIGHT be a hoax (it's plainly not but they've bought into it now so we're screwed) and you're never gonna get anywhere.

It actually sickens me thinking that the US is the most powerful country in the world because it's a cesspit politically and the last thing we need when we're trying to sort out our impact on the planet is a cesspit of cnuts looking for a quick buck at the expense of the human race.

If it can take six years to finally get people to agree to start (and it must be emphasized that it's barely a start) to curb emissions and deal with the climate problems ahead of us and then some despicable orange cnut completely ruins that because he's thick as pigshit, corrupt as feck and completely out of his depth then what's the point in even fighting to save ourselves?

Honestly I thought that the Presidency would go about as bad as humanly possible and in reality my assumptions would be a bit exaggerated but Trump is smashing through each expectation every damn day.

How are there not riots outside of congress over Nunes and the indescribably obvious misconduct he's committing? Seriously how the feck does he get to be in charge of the investigation into the very person he helped put into the White House? The fact that it's happened should tell you everything you need to know about the chances of the investigation revealing anything. How does he get away with accessing intel on his own, running off to the White House to warn them about it and then refuse to tell his fellow investigators on the committee about what it was or where it came from?

How are there not riots outside Mar-a-Lago over Trump constantly golfing and clearly benefitting his own resort by drawing attention there and therefore new customers? Every time he goes down there it costs the taxpayer millions, the Secret Service can't afford it. Each and every time he's down there it makes the news so people are constantly thinking and talking about a Trump brand location giving him free publicity and more revenue which he's not supposed to have as President.

How are there not riots even from his own supporters over the proposed health care and budget reforms that are literally going to kill millions of at risk people? It'd be a lot worse if a substantial portion of those at risk individuals weren't the fecking idiots that voted for him in the first place but I'm having a hard time giving sympathy to them.

It's just the most impossible thing to imagine that it's happening and yet it really is happening. An utter nightmare that you can't wake up from.

Each day something new comes to light that makes you laugh because it's so obvious and everyone on the planet knows exactly what is going on and yet the prospect of him and everyone around him getting pulled up on it is less than 0% likely.
 
That moment when...two of the biggest corporations in America which are both heavily invested in burning fossil fuels criticize your environmental policy laxness.
 
Organic Potatoes said:
That moment when...two of the biggest corporations in America which are both heavily invested in burning fossil fuels criticize your environmental policy laxness.
Click to expand...
Seriously, when an oil company is more environmentally conscious than you...

I believe things like this can actually sway Trump though, of all things. When big businesses are calling him out, and he's portraying himself as a big business guy, it puts his image at risk.
 
What makes me absoultely livid on the climate change issue is that it will produce high double-digit million numbers of refugees that of course those who primarily are responsible for emitting CO2 and methane will refuse to take in or provide substantial aide.

While the US is very guilty here, so are many other countries, including us citizens.
 
Damien said:
He made his stance about the environment clear from the offset. Anyone who voted for him thinking that he'd go against what he said and keep environmental laws in place need their head checking.

There's a large part of his fanbase who don't give a shit about the environment. The second amendment, the wall and pro-life matters are generally what they care about.
Click to expand...

Of course and we have been saying all that for over a year now, but the point I was trying to make is when are people going to start fighting back? He's a flat-track bully and he's even started to try and bully other foreign leaders now. The environment affects us all on this planet and when a country hasn't pulled its weight or cooperated in the past then usually huge international pressure is applied, I'm just hoping the same happens to the USA. It's clear Trump has gone rogue and I personally think his behaviour has been disgusting, especially to the Japanese PM and to Merkel and I think he will be ostracised when the G20 and G8 meetings come around. I also think that especially with the environmental laws he's destroying that he will face stiff opposition from not only the Dems, but also other world leaders. The real test will be if he stays in the Paris agreement or not, if he pulls out of that then I think he will be crucified. The key test will be his reaction to political pressure from other countries. He hasn't faced any yet, and we saw how poorly he handled healthcare reform and the events since the bill failed. I can only imagine how he will react to a more serious world problem and I don't think many other countries or leaders will take kindly to his petulant tantrums or his lies.

I am just hoping that people start standing up to this bully. He is doing whatever he wants completely unopposed and many things such as not removing himself from his businesses or travelling to his hotel each weekend and making a fortune from it, or the country paying millions to protect his wife in her multi million dollar apartment in his building, well I just cannot see people putting up with it all for long. He's going to be fighting too many battles sooner or later and he keeps making enemies with everything he does, and he's making some pretty powerful ones too.
 
Crossie said:
What makes me absoultely livid on the climate change issue is that it will produce high double-digit million numbers of refugees that of course those who primarily are responsible for emitting CO2 and methane will refuse to take in or provide substantial aide.

While the US is very guilty here, so are many other countries, including us citizens.
Click to expand...

And of course the same far-right types who deny climate change will continue to stir up anti-refugee sentiment during said process with the aim of being elected. Funny how they stand to benefit from it...
 
Damien said:
He made his stance about the environment clear from the offset. Anyone who voted for him thinking that he'd go against what he said and keep environmental laws in place need their head checking.

There's a large part of his fanbase who don't give a shit about the environment. The second amendment, the wall and pro-life matters are generally what they care about.
Click to expand...

His environmental stances aren't new either, or something intended to stir up his base and garner support. Go back on Twitter and it's not just a single tweet questioning it...it's something he did regularly because he's too unintelligent to try and understand the issue in genuine terms.
 
berbatrick said:
I'm skeptical of the whole Russia-Trump link but I can definitely believe this - there is some previous regarding Russian paid trolls pushing nationalistic viewpoints. Not just Putin, but much of the political landscape in Russia is strongly traditional/nationalist and Trump is a good match for that. So it may not just be the govt, it could be the sincere viewpoint of many people. I don't know what the long term gain is. Maybe a retreat from free trade will make the rest of the world less advanced vs Russia? Maybe Putin genuinely wants a global reactionary movement because of some sincere belief?

What I find harder to believe is that Trump is a long-term plot and is completely compromised. And links like that CNN above are just so random - he met a bank, bank financed someone; that is just desperate digging IMO. Banks deal with thousands of shady people; HSBC financed drug deals in Mexico for example.
Click to expand...

https://swalwell.house.gov/russia
 
But the source with knowledge of Comey’s request says that the FBI director wanted the Russian interference made public earlier and that it was a sluggish White House that denied Comey and delayed the announcement. “The White House shut it down,” that source says. “They did their usual—nothing.”
Click to expand...

 


I know a few people here don't like The Young Turks, but this is outlining perfectly what changes Trump is making regarding Climate Change and the Environment. It's just so depressing, it really is.
 
If there's anything positive about Trump's environmental changes it'll be that a lot of states might resist on an individual level, with certain policies they can pass on their own etc. Not exactly a positive as such...but a help at least, I guess.

No doubt the small government, states' rights Republican party will be happy to see states taking action on climate change...yeah, maybe not.
 
:lol: Louise Mensch has just been accused of being a Russian Spy on Twitter and she has reported that the very popular "Rogue White House Staff" Twitter account is actually run by Steve Bannon and is just spreading misinformation.

What a crock of shit. All of it.
 
Cheesy said:
If there's anything positive about Trump's environmental changes it'll be that a lot of states might resist on an individual level, with certain policies they can pass on their own etc. Not exactly a positive as such...but a help at least, I guess.

No doubt the small government, states' rights Republican party will be happy to see states taking action on climate change...yeah, maybe not.
Click to expand...
California has acted already along those lines and vowed to continue resistance to the sell-out of the environment.

Having said that, each and everyone of us has great consumer power to contribute our own share to saving CO2 and methane emissions. As much as I despise Twitler for eradicating climate change measures, it's too easy to point to politicians and businesses alone.
 
Crossie said:
Having said that, each and everyone of us has great consumer power to contribute our own share to saving CO2 and methane emissions
Click to expand...

Very true and the two biggest areas, especially in the States are cattle farming for beef and of course stupidly big engines on cars and trucks. A small dent has been made in recent years with many European cars becoming much more popular in the States, but no way enough. The rising petrol price has helped a little, but it's still as cheap as shit compared to here in the UK. I filled up today and it's gone up to £1.15.9 a litre which is fact approaching the highs of a few years ago. When I had my license revoked last year when I was ill it was down to £1.02 a litre which is still crazy compared to the USA. It really irks me when people from the States moan about petrol prices, they really have no clue at all.
 
Crossie said:
California has acted already along those lines and vowed to continue resistance to the sell-out of the environment.

Having said that, each and everyone of us has great consumer power to contribute our won share to saving CO2 and methane emissions. As much as I despise Twitler for eradicating climate change measures, it's too easy to point to politicians and businesses alone.
Click to expand...

Yeah a state as big as California still taking significant action suggests that Trump's impact is always going to be partially minimised.

Everyone needs to take individual action, but sadly I think actual change can only really come through what governments do. It's amazing how small changes in environmental policy can often force small but useful change - the carrier bag charge over here, for example. Tiny but has reduced usage massively.
 
langster said:
:lol: Louise Mensch has just been accused of being a Russian Spy on Twitter and she has reported that the very popular "Rogue White House Staff" Twitter account is actually run by Steve Bannon and is just spreading misinformation.

What a crock of shit. All of it.
Click to expand...

She's tweeting "U mad bro" to Glenn Greenwald now. What the feck is going on?:lol:
 
Cheesy said:
the carrier bag charge over here, for example. Tiny but has reduced usage massively.
Click to expand...

I read somewhere that the USA was going to follow suit, but i'm not sure if that's the case now.

Cheesy said:
She's tweeting "U mad bro" to Glenn Greenwald now. What the feck is going on?:lol:
Click to expand...

They are having a bit of a Twitter war at the moment, she's saying he's Putin's mate and calling him a Russian stooge.

Check her feed..

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch

:lol: The last 20 or so Tweets have just been her repeating "U mad bro" or similar to Greenwald. She's probably been drinking too much after celebrating Brexit, stupid fecking twot.
 
langster said:
They are having a bit of a Twitter war at the moment, she's saying he's Putin's mate and calling him a Russian stooge.

Check her feed..

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch

:lol: The last 20 or so Tweets have just been her repeating "U mad bro" or similar to Greenwald. She's probably been drinking too much after celebrating Brexit, stupid fecking twot.
Click to expand...

It's incredibly bizarre. Mensch is just a strange one in general - it's like she's realised no one likes or cares about her and is now trying to appear both relevant and likable to a certain base.
 
@langster @Cheesy Fossil energy is way too cheap, agree, and as the charge for plastic bags has demonstrated, a little can go a long way. However, I find it still too easy to wait for politicians to make policies with drastic changes. In almost all situations - food, clothes, transportation, energy, travel etc etc - we in the so-called 'developed countries' have choices between a smaller and a bigger carbon or methane footprint of our consumption and actions. If millions of consumers opt for smaller footprints, it goes a very long way.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.