America under President Trump

Omni · May 25, 2017

9 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

The first EO was amended and clarified to not include legal resident aliens.

If fewer illegals result from the mere threat of Trump's travel ban, then it is a good thing.

Looks like the reduction in tourists is a lot higher than illegals. "Cutting off nose to spite face".

bush_cheney2004 · May 25, 2017

Illegal entry from Canada or Mexico into the United States is way down....just need to go after those illegals already in the country.

Deport them all....just like the millions deported by President Obama.

Some guy from Canada was whining about being banned after he was caught trying to pass himself off as a U.S. citizen in Florida (voter registration).

Something about President Trump's evil USA is just irresistible to these folks....can't stay away.

Omni · May 25, 2017

24 minutes ago, bush_cheney2004 said:

Some guy from Canada

I bet he is one of those 3 million.

kimmy · May 26, 2017

On 5/23/2017 at 5:29 PM, Hal 9000 said:

This may be an honest response, but will get trolled by the not so bright but...

First lady's are almost expected to take on a pet project in this day and age. Melania prefers to stay out of the limelight while Ivanka (first daughter) has some very real causes that she'd like to assist - mainly women's issues, and helping working/entrepreneurial women. I think it's good cause regardless of her "hotness". Women should be applauding her.

"Saudi Arabia giving $25 million, Qatar, all of these countries. You talk about women and women's rights? So these are people that push gays off business - off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money." -Donald Trump, during the October debate.

"Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!" -Donald Trump in June 2016.

I wonder if Trump will be telling Ivanka to return all that money? I wonder if Trump will be returning that crazy gold necklace they gave him?

During the election, Trump and his supporters thought accepting money from the Saudis was disgusting and hypocritical. Now it's apparently to be applauded.

To be clear, I don't object to the Saudis donating money to the charity. I just think it's hilarious how stuff that Trump and his supporters criticized and ridiculed in the recent past is stuff that Trump himself is doing right now, while his supporters make any excuse for him.

In the same file:
-bowing to the Saudi king
-first lady "insulted" the hosts by not covering her hair.
-won't say the words "radical Islamic terror"
-wasting taxpayer money on expensive vacations
-spends too much time golfing when there's so much work to be done
-attacking Syria without approval from Congress
-mishandling sensitive data

-k

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

18 minutes ago, kimmy said:

"Saudi Arabia giving $25 million, Qatar, all of these countries. You talk about women and women's rights? So these are people that push gays off business - off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money." -Donald Trump, during the October debate.

"Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!" -Donald Trump in June 2016.

I wonder if Trump will be telling Ivanka to return all that money? I wonder if Trump will be returning that crazy gold necklace they gave him?

During the election, Trump and his supporters thought accepting money from the Saudis was disgusting and hypocritical. Now it's apparently to be applauded.

To be clear, I don't object to the Saudis donating money to the charity. I just think it's hilarious how stuff that Trump and his supporters criticized and ridiculed in the recent past is stuff that Trump himself is doing right now, while his supporters make any excuse for him.

In the same file:
-bowing to the Saudi king
-first lady "insulted" the hosts by not covering her hair.
-won't say the words "radical Islamic terror"
-wasting taxpayer money on expensive vacations
-spends too much time golfing when there's so much work to be done
-attacking Syria without approval from Congress
-mishandling sensitive data

-k

I've never had any issue where Hillary got money - and I think you'll find that post a few pages back. The issue is what is done with that money. Hillary claimed to be a champion of women, took money from SA and pretty much kept it, then may or may not have given favours to SA. If Ivanka takes their money and uses it for the intended purpose, then good on her. If not, then we can compare and criticize. I've always maintained that we and/or americans have to do business with countries who have human rights violations - it's not the best scenario, but if we didn't, we'd not do any business at all. Even Canada is a huge human rights violator as far as the U.N is concerned.

The Saudi's are sheet bags - no doubt, but if we can use their money for the betterment of society, well.....so be it.

Omni · May 26, 2017

30 minutes ago, Hal 9000 said:

Hillary claimed to be a champion of women, took money from SA and pretty much kept it

I assume you have some sort of backup for that statement.

Wilber · May 26, 2017

A country that doesn't let women drive and doesn't allow them to get a passport, leave the country, work or have a bank account without their husband's or male guradian's permission, isn't interested in a bunch of "working/entrepreneurial women", so what are they expecting for their 100 million?

Edited May 26, 2017 by Wilber

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

1 minute ago, Wilber said:

A country that doesn't let women drive and doesn't allow them to get a passport, leave the country, work or have a bank account without their husband's or male guradian's permission, isn't interested in a bunch of "working/entrepreneurial women", so what are they expecting for their 100 million.

They already got what they were expecting - the 110$Mil Arms deal. You'd know that if you understood the way Trump deals.

Wilber · May 26, 2017

Just now, Hal 9000 said:

They already got what they were expecting - the 110$Mil Arms deal. You'd know that if you understood the way Trump deals.

The Saudis are buying the arms, not selling them. It was the Americans who got the arms deal. So try again.

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

1 minute ago, Wilber said:

The Saudis are buying the arms, not selling them. It was the Americans who got the arms deal. So try again.

OMFG! That's exactly the point. Holy FCK. "You want our Helicopters, you'd better pay up". "And, sign a deal with a couple other US companies too".

It's like you people have never heard of "Art of the deal" or understand business.

Wilber · May 26, 2017

Just now, Hal 9000 said:

OMFG! That's exactly the point. Holy FCK. "You want our Helicopters, you'd better pay up". "And, sign a deal with a couple other US companies too".

It's like you people have never heard of "Art of the deal" or understand business.

Other people sell helicopters and all kinds of arms. In case you haven't noticed, countries don't bribe companies in order to buy arms, it's works the other way around.

Wilber · May 26, 2017

So what you are saying is the 100 million for Ivanka lets the Saudis buy arms from the US that wouldn't otherwise be sold to them. That fits the definition of corruption exactly.

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

...And another thing, I was gonna explain this to Omni, but I might as well talk to my house cat, but...everytime someone donated to The Clintons, they wound up with a deal that had them selling (or making money). Dealing with Trump (or Ivanka) it was exactly opposite. It was donating money, then signing a buyer's deal. Big difference.

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

7 minutes ago, Wilber said:

So what you are saying is the 100 million for Ivanka lets the Saudis buy arms from the US that wouldn't otherwise be sold to them. That fits the definition of corruption exactly.

Firstly, from what I understand, not all the money was from the Saudi's and secondly, it would seem that it was an outside idea and was never asked for.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Hal 9000

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

12 minutes ago, Wilber said:

So what you are saying is the 100 million for Ivanka lets the Saudis buy arms from the US that wouldn't otherwise be sold to them. That fits the definition of corruption exactly.

How is that corrupt, it happens in real estate all the time?

Omni · May 26, 2017

14 minutes ago, Hal 9000 said:

...And another thing, I was gonna explain this to Omni, but I might as well talk to my house cat, but...everytime someone donated to The Clintons, they wound up with a deal that had them selling (or making money). Dealing with Trump (or Ivanka) it was exactly opposite. It was donating money, then signing a buyer's deal. Big difference.

Apparently you get your info. from you house cat. I've asked you to provide some/any backup to your claim Hillary kept any undue portion of donations to her foundation, and nada. And btw, the arms deal was $110 billion, not million.

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

1 minute ago, Omni said:

Apparently you get your info. from you house cat. I've asked you to provide some/any backup to your claim Hillary kept any undue portion of donations to her foundation, and nada. And btw, the arms deal was $110 billion, not million.

Yeah, correct. Typing too fast - my bad.

Omni · May 26, 2017

3 minutes ago, Hal 9000 said:

Yeah, correct. Typing too fast - my bad.

Understood of course, but insignificant relative to the misunderstanding as to conflating some sort of misbehaving on a real estate deal and a hefty donation to a rather nebulous charity run by the POTUS daughter to help grease the wheels of a "yuuuuge" sale of arms to a hugely corrupt state. Especially after Trump campaigned in part by suggesting we ban all Muslim's from coming into the US, and throw all the ones already in, out.

Wilber · May 26, 2017

2 hours ago, Hal 9000 said:

How is that corrupt, it happens in real estate all the time?

This isn't real estate, it is using a public office for personal advantage. You don't seem to comprehend the difference. Do you honestly think the Saudis would have made that contribution if Trump wasn't president and she wasn't one of his chief advisors?

Wilber · May 26, 2017

1 hour ago, Omni said:

Understood of course, but insignificant relative to the misunderstanding as to conflating some sort of misbehaving on a real estate deal and a hefty donation to a rather nebulous charity run by the POTUS daughter to help grease the wheels of a "yuuuuge" sale of arms to a hugely corrupt state. Especially after Trump campaigned in part by suggesting we ban all Muslim's from coming into the US, and throw all the ones already in, out.

I guess a city politician using his position to take a contribution to a personal cause, in order to engineer a real estate deal for some company would be just fine with Hal.

Hal seems to think US industry didn't want to sell 110 B worth of arms to the Saudis until Trump made them do it.

Omni · May 26, 2017

Just listened to gianforte give his little victory speech. What a scummy little piss ant. Would he have apologized for his street thug activity had he not have won I wonder? I think not. Now he's off to Washington to help Trump "drain the swamp". He sounds to me like the very type of swamp dweller Trump will cozy up to big time.

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

6 minutes ago, Wilber said:

This isn't real estate, it is using a public office for personal advantage. You don't seem to comprehend the difference. Do you honestly think the Saudis would have made that contribution if Trump wasn't president and she wasn't one of his chief advisors?

Look, putting a little extra cheese on the plate to ensure that someone sells to you is quite normal, common and legal. This is why sometimes people offer more than the asking price for certain items including real estate. Putting a little extra cheese on the plate to ensure that that person buys from you is corruption and illegal. This is why handing someone in power money so that they'll turn around and give you a contact is unlawful.

EG. If SA offers a few million dollars in goodwill whilst purchasing $100Billion in helicopters, this is OK. Whereas, If SA offers the secretary of state (or their foundation) $10million and receives a very large contract in return, this is not OK.

There is a clear difference.

Hal 9000 · May 26, 2017

4 minutes ago, Wilber said:

I guess a city politician using his position to take a contribution to a personal cause, in order to engineer a real estate deal for some company would be just fine with Hal.

Hal seems to think US industry didn't want to sell 110 B worth of arms to the Saudis until Trump made them do it.

Who is buying and who is selling - that's the key here. I honestly can't believe that you don't see it.

Omni · May 26, 2017

4 minutes ago, Wilber said:

I guess a city politician using his position to take a contribution to a personal cause, in order to engineer a real estate deal for some company would be just fine with Hal.

Hal seems to think US industry didn't want to sell 110 B worth of arms to the Saudis until Trump made them do it.

I've heard tell that the military industrial complex does have a bit of sway. I just don't seem to be able to connect the dots as to how selling a few billion worth of high tech arms to a vicious, oppressive, completely undemocratic government, in any way augments the idea of "draining the swamp".