Trump's Card

[Levin]

Is the genesis of this to prevent Chinese dumping of steel or is it a more general protectionist thing?

[Ginger Yellow]

Both. It's supposedly retaliation against dumping, but Trump has pushed an explicitly protectionist agenda.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/969525362580484098?s=21

[Lang Spoon]

Fucking hell.

[Satchmo Distel]

There's a massive hole in the Constitution's supposed balancing and moderating function if it allows a POTUS to fight a trade war where everybody loses.

Meanwhile, given the NRA's visit to the White House, would another 180 shift indicate that the NRA have info that could damage Trump, or would it simply be Trump being Trump, where his mood swings depending on whom he last spoke to?

[Ginger Yellow]

There's a massive hole in the Constitution's supposed balancing and moderating function if it allows a POTUS to fight a trade war where everybody loses.

These specific powers are statutory.

[ursus arctos]

And the NRA doesn't need Kompromat on 45.

All they need to do is to tell him is that they will whip his base if he tries to do anything.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/969547132641464320

[Tubby Isaacs]

Opening bell on Wall Street. This should be fun.

[San Bernardhinault]

A trade war looks like it might see the end of Cohn, and even possibly Mnuchin, in the adminsitration. They believe in nothing but money, and Cohn appears to be very upset and likely to walk out of the door. Add the attacks on Sessions, that McMaster looking like he's about to walk, and so on, and the administration might end up staffed by Ben Carson, Rick Perry and nobody else.

[ursus arctos]

The most terrifying aspect of that is that Bolton is a favourite to replace McMaster.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Would Bolton pass confirmation?

[ursus arctos]

The position doesn't require confirmation.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Oh fuck.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm glad they didn't elect that candidate who was gung-ho about wars.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-icha...-cf7deb8beaf0/

Trump confidant dumped millions in steel-related stock last week

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is encouraging.

http://www.tbo.com/florida-politics/...ts-for-felons/

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that Florida voters overwhelmingly support restoring the voting rights of convicted felons, an issue that will be on the November ballot.

The survey shows that 67 percent favor the idea and 27 percent oppose it. The statewide poll was conducted Feb. 23-26 and has a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.

"Every single party, gender, education, age and racial group supports this idea," Quinnipiac said in a release.

[Satchmo Distel]

Wouldn't that be a crime in the UK?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know. Does having political info come under insider trading? Isn't that more a tip from within the business?

[ursus arctos]

Congress exempted themselves (which is a scandal), but if Icahn was trading on material non-public information he is at risk.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Trump is some fool. What's going to happen is this. He imposes tariffs that affect the EU, The EU reaches for its file of responses to a US trade war, and imposes a series of sanctions targeting the home states of senior congressional republicans, (But not the wider economy, because EU companies own so much of it) and if that doesn't quickly end the trade war, then they move on to targeting swing states. Trump probably only started thinking about a trade war the other morning, and is unaware that he is dealing with a) a massive totalitarian regime that is no slouch when it comes to contingency planning, and is the source of an awful lot of stuff that americans buy on a day to day basis b) a massive unified trade bloc, staffed with professionals, that thinks about little else, all day, every day. When he rings up the state department or the relevant department to come up with an appropriate response, that phone will keep on ringing, until it is eventually answered by the only person in the building, the head of the department, a 24 year old idiot son of a trump donor.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

So it turns out that Clean Coal is a stinking pile of bollocks. Who could have guessed.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Oh look, the EU Knows where Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are from. What a shuddering surprise.

[ursus arctos]

It is going to be interesting to see how this is going to be implemented, assuming that it eventually is. It appears that no one at Commerce, Treasury or State had any advance notice of the announcement, so they are going from a standing start (and will now have to deal with Mitch and Paul whining).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Is there anyone left at those departments that can technically pull this off?