1629

I’m pretty impressed with how quickly shit is unraveling. I thought we’d get at least another couple of years out of the USA.

1630

Yep. I’m already hearing giddy regurgitation of “Trump edicts” (my term for the random collection of statements signed or tweeted by Trump) that random Fox News Commentator 15 declares to be the most revolutionary thing any president has done in 50 years. Trump gets rid of Obamacare penalty! Trump tells government officials to “leave Americans alone” and in a dispute “serve the people” and not the government. He sure is getting shit done. Whoop Trump! Etc.

1631

It’s all Bannon. His admitted goal is to be as destabilizing as possible.

1632

No confirmation on whether he was asked to leave or resigned on his own, but those familiar with him say he was not a political person.

1633

15% of Trump voters looked at the pictures and processed the large white areas as the sections set aside for Klan members attending the inauguration.

1634

Hahahaha I posted that klansmen in white image on Facebook and a person asked me if that was fake news or if klansmen in full dress really attended the inauguration! :P

1635

Keep in mind, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is a PAS position, as are all the senior State Department jobs held by the people in the article @barstein posted. A PAS position is appointed by the Administration, often requiring Senate confirmation (though they don’t always do actual hearings for every position). As such, all the State Department senior officials and the top Customs and Border Patrol guy were all asked by Trump’s transition team to turn in resignations effective Jan 20th.

Most administrations don’t accept these resignations all at once. They replace the major positions first, then gradually work their way down, leaving leadership in place, decision makers in offices, ambassadors in embassies, etc. until well into their administration so that the machine keeps working. Sometimes a new President won’t even replace lesser appointed positions, instead keeping the original person in place, especially if they are vital to an agency and are non-political (like the Border Patrol guy).

Trump’s people are dumping everyone all at once. Don’t be fooled by the “we can’t confirm if he was asked to leave” bullshit, they were asked to leave. This is Trump and Bannon looking to gut and destabilize the United States Government. With dozens of lesser departments and agencies reeling from executive orders that cripple their functions, and no experienced senior management to stand up to said orders, things will fall apart very quickly.

1636

Can we expect the Russian paratroopers in Colorado anytime soon? Basically Red Dawn minus the Red Star iconography?

1637

“The chair is against the wall, The chair is against the wall. John has a long mustache, John has a long mustache.”

1638
1639

Good for President Pena. I haven’t found a translation for his statement but this goes into a bit more details.

1640

Foreign policy in real time, live, and based on the tantrums of your insane President.

1641

We’ve gone to a trade war and breach of NAFTA in 25 mins.

Will we get to the end of the week without war?

1642

Yes, impose a tax on Mexican imports, which will just get passed on to consumers.

So in the end the US citizenry will pay for the wall no matter what.

1643

But this way they can be sure that as much of it as possible is offloaded onto the Lessers and Have Nots. Can’t have Trump’s billionaire friends actually contributing to the effort of keeping the country white, however much they might long for that end-goal.

1644

Don’t you understand? Trump said Mexico will pay for the wall by having Americans pay a 20% tax. The logic is perefct. Period.

1645

I hope the press has the guts to describe this as, “Donald Trump just announced his first tax increase.” Because that’s what it is.

Edit: I see WaPo and NBC referring it to as a “tax” rather than the obscurer term “tariff” so that’s good. Now they just need to use the magic phrase “tax increase.”

1646

Exactly. It’s not just about Ford building cars and car parts in Mexico. Here’s a little list of the things American’s buy all the time that are likely to be imported from Mexican plants/producers:

Telecommunications equipment - $11 billion - Everything from telephones to cell phone parts to routers and switches

Vegetables and Fruits - $6 billion - Do you like tomatoes? Get ready to pay twice as much for them, as well as avacados, berries, peppers and many other fruits and vegetables.

Alcohol - $9 billion - “I don’t always call my President a moron, but when I do it’s President Trump.” If you like Mexican beers, wines, tequila, etc., get ready to pay lots more for them.

Refrigeration Equipment - $5 billion - This includes both kitchen refrigerators and the equipment used by shipping companies to keep trucks refrigerated. So you might be paying a 20% premium on that new stainless steel model for your house, but you’ll certainly be paying an added cost for anything you buy at the grocery store that requires refrigerated shipment.

HVAC Equipment - $4 billion - Trump touted his efforts to keep Carrier from moving a plant to Mexico, but there are already several plants there manufacturing parts for HVAC units (which is partly why Carrier wanted to move there to begin with, to be closer to the supply stream). Hope your heating or AC doesn’t go out in the next 4 years, as parts will be 20% more expensive.

There’s a ton of other stuff too, from toys to agricultural equipment to television screens and more. A 20% tax on everything coming out of Mexico will basically be a 20% tax on many things sold here that people purchase every day, and there is no way in hell said tax is going to convince companies to close down factories in Mexico and move production back to America, as the cost to do that (and pay American workers) will far outweigh any loss in sales they take by passing the 20% increase on to American consumers.

The Trump Administration does not have the first clue what the fuck it is doing, in this and in all things. We are less than one week in and it’s already an international disaster and laughing stock. Trump’s people are in WAY over their heads. The GOP is finally getting to play out every wet dream they’ve ever had about sticking it to our trade partners, to environmentalists, to global corporations, etc., and we will be the one’s to pay the price.

1647

So if all this is true, I’d expect sales to fall, affecting the bottom line of these companies. The GOP is beholden to corporate interests, so they’ll exert pressure to undo this, and reign in Trump, right? Right?

1648

OR, they will simply extend tax credits to the companies involved. That way they can say “See, we used the import tariff on Mexico to pay for The Wall!” while also running up the deficit which they will blame on carryover from the Obama Administration. WIN-WIN!