Donald Trump and the aftermath of his presidency

[AlterEgo]

Afghanistan is unlikely to devolve into a nuclear war, so I think it's safer to focus on Afghanistan.

Or just stare at the sun some more.

There are no good solutions in Afghanistan. It's spend blood and treasure endlessly, or abandon it to self-destruct and fall back under the Taliban or ISIS.

But we like the Taliban now because the Taliban hate ISIS.

 

[najaB]

But we like the Taliban now because the Taliban hate ISIS.

'Like' is probably stretching things a bit. I think it's recognition that they'll never be eradicated (initially spelled it as irradiated) so the pragmatic thing to do is try to deal with the least radical of the lot.

 

[dosxuk]

'Like' is probably stretching things a bit. I think it's recognition that they'll never be eradicated (initially spelled it as irradiated) so the pragmatic thing to do is try to deal with the least radical of the lot.

That worked out well for us last time we decided the taliban were the least radical.

 

[najaB]

For those keeping score, some recent developments:

• President Drumpf has gone on his weekly vacation while ignoring the Governor of Texas' request for an emergency declaration ahead Hurricane Harvey hitting the state.
• He did manage to find time to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio who hadn't even been sentenced yet - despite the normal process for pardons not kicking in until after the convicted person has been in jail for five years.
• Sebastian Gorka has left the White House. If you're not sure who he is: his Newsnight appearance gives you a flavour of his style.

 

[DaleCooper]

For those keeping score, some recent developments:

• President Drumpf has gone on his weekly vacation while ignoring the Governor of Texas' request for an emergency declaration ahead Hurricane Harvey hitting the state.
• He did manage to find time to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio who hadn't even been sentenced yet - despite the normal process for pardons not kicking in until after the convicted person has been in jail for five years.
• Sebastian Gorka has left the White House. If you're not sure who he is: his Newsnight appearance gives you a flavour of his style.

Gorka would have left earlier but he was having trouble extracting his head from Trump's backside. He achieves previously unheard levels of sycophancy.

 

[J-2739]

Well, I wonder how he's gonna handle this hurricane.

 

[najaB]

Well, I wonder how he's gonna handle this hurricane.

Initially: poorly. As mentioned above he ignored requests from the Governor and Congresspeople of Texas to make initial Federal funds available ahead of landfall. This would have allowed them to better conduct the evacuation and prepare for the aftermath.

It remains to be seen how the after effects are handled, one interesting point is that the current head of FEMA was the agency's Hurricane Program Manager from November 2001 to January 2006 (Katrina was in 2005).

 

[Groningen]

Remember Donald Trump on 10/30/2012 on Twitter (of course): Hurricane is good luck for Obama again- he will buy the election by handing out billions of dollars.

So Donald Trump will save money by doing nothing?!

 

[DaleCooper]

Well, I wonder how he's gonna handle this hurricane.

Either he'll say it's a fake hurricane or he'll promise to build a "hurricane wall" to be paid for by Cuba.

 

[najaB]

...or he'll promise to build a "hurricane wall" to be paid for by Cuba.

Oh, I forgot that one from the 'recent Trump news'. He's threatened to allow a US Government shutdown next month unless Congress provides funding for construction of the wall.

So much for "...and Mexico is going to pay for it!"

 

[Groningen]

From what i have heard Donald Trump is at Camp David.

 

[najaB]

From what i have heard Donald Trump is at Camp David.

He is, indeed. So much for:

[youtube]claPetUPO7s[/youtube]

 

[Groningen]

Meanwhile president Donald Trump pardons sheriff Joe Arpaio. A person with all disregard for the law.

About his conviction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiF7NtTUxGA

 

[najaB]

Oh, one more thing that President Trump did on Friday: he made the ban on transgender people serving in the military official.

 

[fowler9]

Oh, one more thing that President Trump did on Friday: he made the ban on transgender people serving in the military official.

Glad to see he is keeping up with the important stuff.

 

[najaB]

Glad to see he is keeping up with the important stuff.

In normal Trump fashion he didn't actually enforce the ban, he gave the DoD six months to figure out what the ban actually means and how to implement it.

 

[fowler9]

In normal Trump fashion he didn't actually enforce the ban, he gave the DoD six months to figure out what the ban actually means and how to implement it.

It baffles me how this idiot got so rich. He is a turtle on a post, much like Theresa May. "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just want to help the poor stupid guy get down."

 

[J-2739]

It baffles me how this idiot got so rich. He is a turtle on a post, much like Theresa May. "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just want to help the poor stupid guy get down."

From his rich daddy (who tbf, probably earned the money, rather than inherited it).

 

[EM2]

It baffles me how this idiot got so rich. He is a turtle on a post, much like Theresa May. "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just want to help the poor stupid guy get down."

He isn't really as rich as he should be though.
https://www.moneytalksnews.com/why-youre-probably-better-investing-than-donald-trump/

Donald Trump traveled (sic) an old-fashioned route to fortune.

As he explained when he announced his bid for the 2016 Republican nomination for president:

“I made it the old-fashioned way. It’s real estate. You know, it’s real estate.”

While Trump did have a big head start — his father, Fred, was a multimillionaire New York real estate developer — there’s no doubt The Donald has created a fortune of his own. But if he’d stopped working 30 years ago, he could have done much better.

All he had to do was shift away from real estate and park his money in the same place that you can: an unmanaged stock index fund.

The background

To compare Trump’s performance to that of an unmanaged index fund, we need to know two things: his beginning net worth and his current net worth.

There’s considerable debate about Trump’s net worth. It’s estimated at $4.1 billion in the latest “Forbes 400” list, which puts him in the No. 133 spot of the richest folks in America. However, in July, he issued a press release announcing his net worth at $10 billion.

Fine. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his net worth is $10 billion.

Now we need to establish his net worth at some point in the past.

Trump was on the Forbes 400 in 1982, when the magazine published its first annual list of America’s wealthiest denizens.

That year, Forbes said Trump’s fortune was “estimated at over $200 million,” but also acknowledged that Trump claimed it was “$500 million,” according to Timothy L. O’Brien’s book “TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald.”

Again, let’s give Trump the benefit of the doubt and assume he was worth $500 million in 1982.

The math

Imagine Trump had retired in 1982, sold his real estate holdings and invested his $500 million in the S&P 500 — that is, 500 stocks representing the American stock market.

From 1982 through the end of 2014, the S&P 500 index had an annualized return, including reinvested dividends, of 11.86 percent, according to MoneyChimp’s S&P 500 Compound Annual Growth Rate calculator.

Per this calculator, every dollar invested in January 1982 would have been worth $40 by December of 2014. That means Trump’s initial $500 million would have grown to $20 billion. That’s twice what Trump says he’s worth today.

You can beat The Donald

This comparison is notable for two reasons. First, it reveals that Trump may not always be as shrewd as he’d have you believe, especially considering he’s filed four corporate bankruptcies since 1982.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

He is a turtle on a post"

Now that you mention it, I have to wonder if Trump is related to Yertle the Turtle...

 

[najaB]

Now that you mention it, I have to wonder if Trump is related to Yertle the Turtle...

Surely if anyone in the GOP is related to a turtle it's Mitch McConnell:

 

[TheNewNo2]

Trump may be rich, but he's not elite rich. He's the poor man's idea of a rich person, a weak man's idea of a strong person. He managed to bankrupt his companies several times, refused to pay workers, and made enough that someone noticed him for a book deal. From that he goes on the Apprentice, and becomes a household name.

 

[Cowley]

It baffles me how this idiot got so rich. He is a turtle on a post, much like Theresa May. "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just want to help the poor stupid guy get down."

I hope you don't mind but I've used this analogy today while talking about him. I really like it and so did my friend.

 

[Cowley]

Trump may be rich, but he's not elite rich. He's the poor man's idea of a rich person, a weak man's idea of a strong person. He managed to bankrupt his companies several times, refused to pay workers, and made enough that someone noticed him for a book deal. From that he goes on the Apprentice, and becomes a household name.

And that bit's rather good too .

 

[Groningen]

Donald Trump is still in campaign modus.

I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!

Donald Trump

 

[AlterEgo]

Trump may be rich, but he's not elite rich. He's the poor man's idea of a rich person, a weak man's idea of a strong person. He managed to bankrupt his companies several times, refused to pay workers, and made enough that someone noticed him for a book deal. From that he goes on the Apprentice, and becomes a household name.

Donald Trump was a household name long before he was on the Apprentice! He was in Home Alone 2, with a cameo appearance. Trump has been A-list for a very, very long time.

 

[najaB]

Trump has been A-list for a very, very long time.

He largely disappeared from the 1990s to early 2000s. His bankruptcies ruined his brand.

 

[AlterEgo]

He largely disappeared from the 1990s to early 2000s. His bankruptcies ruined his brand.

Ringo Starr was a raging alcoholic for about 20 years but it didn't mean he wasn't A-list the whole time.

Trump was created by the media like any other celebrity, which is why it's so laughable he claims to be a victim of the same media today.

 

[AM9]

Hurricane Irma has been busy trashing Trump's Chateau Des Palmiers holiday home on St Martin, and forcing the evacuation of his resort of Mar-a-Lago in Florida, probably followed by serious damage to two of his golf clubs, Trump International and the Jupiter Trump National.
Will we get a big new revelaton that the extreme weather conditions this summer are being caused by manmade climate change, - by twitter first of course.

 

[SteveP29]

Now that you mention it, I have to wonder if Trump is related to Yertle the Turtle...

Liking the Red Hot Chili Peppers (when they were good) reference