US Politics

Thanks for that link.
The Rosneft transaction is particularly pertinent.

Thanks for sharing

All this "looking tough on terror" nonsense victimises a lot of people that would other have been victims. People from Christian families/the "wrong" type of Muslim aren't having a good time in the ME, they are thrown under the bus as well over a few terrorist attacks.

Sorry to hear what happened to your friend :(

Fuck...

Meh, he only lost an expensive holiday. Still it gives you an idea how fucking insanely paranoid they were even before Trump.

My buddy's rich and single not easily flustered though. He flew out to Ibiza for a last minute week of debauchery the next morning instead.

Has this been bookmarked yet, lol

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The Rosneft transaction is particularly pertinent.

It's nuts. Absolutely bonkers.

American politics has gone totally mental. It actually seems unbelievable. I thought UK politics was bad enough. There seems little doubt we're going to get dragged down by it all. We have put ourselves in a position where we have forced a choice between America and Europe. And Brexit means we are effectively bound to side with the Americans. This is not going to end well. It feels like the beginning of the end of the world - or at least the start of a long period of darkness :(

It's not the end of the world.

Not the end. It will get worse.
And then better. I hope.

So that rosneft thing. He already doubled his money or something like that if it's true?
Working out nicely, it seems.

https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/what-things-going-wrong-can-look-like-400f84a0cc3a#.6zmmrxbie

Linked to in that article: how bad it could get

I’m reading this as “1933 playbook continues on schedule, pace slightly higher than last time: something between maybe 1.2x and 2x, but without the possibility of a major land war to show up on the horizon.” For foreign-born Muslims and Latinos who are undocumented, related to someone undocumented, or who might be confused for undocumented, I’d say that the red flag is up, and it’s time to consider exit strategies with a 6-month window. US-born Muslims, Latinos who have more stability inside the country, and Jews have a somewhat longer time horizon available, but I’d start quietly thinking about options for when things change. Advice for the black and trans communities is simpler, because everyone already knows it: Organize! The advantage there is in numbers and shared strength, and in community. That’s also good advice for all of the other groups: even if you’re thinking about your exit strategy, you have very good reason to make common cause, and for everyone to work and pull together. That’s the thing that has a chance of preventing all of this, and of saving the most lives when that fails.

Dunno. Sounds like scare mongering to me.

No, it's probably not the end of the world just yet :)

But the current sense of political risk feels like the greatest I've known in my lifetime.

I was at a lunchtime working paper talk being given by a prominent American political scientist. His topic was not specifically related to Trump, but generally discussed American presidents. At one point he skipped a slide (Trump tweet) and awkwardly said something akin to: "I can't show that. I was going to make a joke here, but it's not appropriate. What was a national disgrace is now a national emergency." Shit's real.

Yes, talking about it in those terms feels like it's appropriate.

"BREAKING: Trump to sign exec. order this morning requiring that for every 1 new regulation, 2 regulations have to be revoked - sr. official"

From CNBC.

It looks like the CBP (45,000 strong and with a further 15,000 being actively recruited) are ignoring legal representations in favour of obeying Trump (and his administration) directly.

Has the balloon already gone up?

Thought their twitter intern was having a laugh, but no.

Trump campaigned on a promise to reduce federal regulations that he said burdened American businesses.

MAGA, by working for less and not having a weekend anymore. good jerb!

Know what's great about regulations? They're harmonised in trade deals. Generally towards the lowest common denominator.

hence the struggle with TTIP and them coming up against the EU regs, no problem now that Blighty is unshackling itself from those monstrous red tape, devolved regulation monsters.

'chlorinated chickens' are an american thing. so that's something we have to look forward to.

It looks like the CBP (45,000 strong and with a further 15,000 being actively recruited) are ignoring legal representations in favour of obeying Trump (and his administration) directly.

Has the balloon already gone up?

With Congress and legal process currently being ignored, and Trump's team removing power from traditional government in favour of his own people, at what point does the USA become a dictatorship ?

Or, rather, at what point is it recognised?