What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[LaCroix]

It makes it much easier, actually.  Text allows you to express yourself much more thoroughly, so it's much harder to conceal when you really have nothing worthwhile to express.

And while it's true in theory that somebody can be really intelligent but choose to come off as a moron online, I don't know of any such people, and I have a hard time seeing why they would do so.  It doesn't take an effort to be intelligent, you either are or you aren't, so not being yourself sounds like the more difficult task.

dude, someone can put as much or as little effort into their text as he likes, and this has no bearing on intelligence

[DGuller]

It makes it much easier, actually.  Text allows you to express yourself much more thoroughly, so it's much harder to conceal when you really have nothing worthwhile to express.

And while it's true in theory that somebody can be really intelligent but choose to come off as a moron online, I don't know of any such people, and I have a hard time seeing why they would do so.  It doesn't take an effort to be intelligent, you either are or you aren't, so not being yourself sounds like the more difficult task.

dude, someone can put as much or as little effort into their text as he likes, and this has no bearing on intelligence

It does.

[LaCroix]

It does.

[Syt]

From a Scottish newspaper (http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/15024376.Damien_Love__39_s_TV_highlights/#)

[Syt]

Trump with Michael Gove.

...

Is that Tattoo from Fantasy Island on the Playboy cover?

[katmai]

No it is the Donald.  Circa 1990

[Tamas]

So, apparently, Jared, the son in law, will be negotiating peace in the Middle East.

[Syt]

It will be the best peace ever. There will be so much peace, you'll be getting tired of it (some argue this has already happened).

[Ed Anger]

I look forward to a more action oriented right wing.

You need to be looking forward to mandatory birth control.

Fuck off.

[CountDeMoney]

I look forward to a more action oriented right wing.

You need to be looking forward to mandatory birth control.

Fuck off.

Stop acting like a black professional athlete then.

[The Larch]

How to make friends and influence people...not.

Donald Trump's first UK post-election interview: Brexit a 'great thing'
US president-elect tells Michael Gove that Britain voted to leave EU because people 'want their own identity'

Donald Trump has praised Britain as "smart" for opting out of a European Union that he believes is dominated by Germany and on the brink of collapse, in an interview with former Tory leadership contender Michael Gove.

The president-elect promised to draw up a trade deal with the UK "quickly" after Brexit and said he could understand why voters chose to leave in last year's referendum. "You look at the European Union and it's Germany. Basically a vehicle for Germany. That's why I thought the UK was so smart in getting out," he told Gove.

Gove, the first senior Conservative to meet Trump, spent an hour chatting to the president-elect in what he called his "glitzy, golden man cave" in Trump Tower, New York, for an interview with the Times.

Trump stressed his fondness for the UK and said other countries could follow its lead and leave the EU, something Gove predicted during the referendum campaign. "I believe others will leave. I do think keeping it together is not gonna be as easy as a lot of people think," said Trump.

Asked whether he would press ahead with a trade deal with the UK that would come into force after Brexit, Trump told the former justice secretary: "Absolutely, very quickly. I'm a big fan of the UK. We're gonna work very hard to get it done quickly and done properly. Good for both sides."

He said he was keen to meet the prime minister after his inauguration, which will take place on Friday. "I will be meeting with [Theresa May]. In fact if you want you can see the letter, wherever the letter is, she just sent it. She's requesting a meeting and we'll have a meeting right after I get into the White House and ... we're gonna get something done very quickly."

But Trump also underlined that he is likely to be a tough negotiating partner, threatening to slap a 35% import tax on BMW cars if the German company sticks to a decision to build a plant in Mexico. Such protectionism would risk retaliatory measures from Germany, which was the target of many of the most combative comments in the interview.

Trump blamed the decision of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to welcome refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, for jeopardising the stability of Europe. "I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that was taking all of these illegals, you know taking all of the people from wherever they come from. And nobody even knows where they come from.

"People, countries, want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity. But I do believe this: if they hadn't been forced to take in all of the refugees, so many, with all the problems that it ... entails, I think that you wouldn't have a Brexit."

In a separate but simultaneous interview with the German paper Bild, Trump said he might contemplate tightening restrictions on Europeans wanting to travel to the US. "That could happen, but we'll see. I mean, we're talking here about parts of Europe, parts of the world and parts of Europe, where we have problems, where they come in and cause problems. I don't want to have these problems."

The president-elect also made a series of provocative comments about foreign policy, reiterating that he could do a deal with Russia that would result in sanctions being lifted. And he said he believed the Nato military alliance is obsolete and needs reform. "They have sanctions on Russia – let's see if we can make some good deals with Russia. For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that's part of it. Russia's hurting very badly right now because of sanctions but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit."

He said he would appoint Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, as a Middle East peace envoy.

Trump's blunt remarks underlined how radically different his approach will be from that of his predecessors, who have traditionally sought to build a close relationship with the EU – and how difficult he will be to work with for his counterparts from other countries.

Gove, who is usually regarded as being on the liberal wing of the Conservative party – and is known for not suffering fools gladly – praised Trump's business acumen, saying he "campaigned in 140-character Twitter storms and intends to govern by spreadsheet". Gove added: "Intelligence comes in many forms."

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, Gove said Trump appeared "emotionally and financially invested" in seeing Brexit become a success.

Asked if he trusted the president-elect over his promises to seek a rapid trade deal, Gove replied: "I can't make a window into Donald Trump's soul. What I can tell is he was enthusiastic about Brexit. He feels, in a way, a vicarious sense of ownership."

Gove said he was left with the impression Trump "wants to have something signature-ready at the earliest possible opportunity", on trade with the UK.

Gove said he could not predict the specific timetable for this: "I'm not a trade negotiator, but the president-elect is a dealmaker. He's confident that he can get a good deal, a win-win, for Britain and America relatively rapidly."

Asked about Trump's statements and views, Gove said he found some "outrageous", and stressed he could not back all the president-elect's policy positions.

He added: "But if you are making a decision about what's in the best interests of this country, and what's in the best interests of people's jobs, I think a good relationship with the incoming administration is a good thing."

By securing the interview, which took place alongside a journalist from German newspaper Bild, Gove stole a march on the prime minister, who has not yet confirmed a date to meet her US counterpart. The timing of the interview was awkward for May, taking place as her advisers draw up the final draft of a speech on Brexit that she is due to give on Tuesday. The prime minister will reportedly warn her EU partners that she is ready to walk out of the single market and the customs union.

Philip Hammond, the chancellor, set the tone in an interview on Sunday with a German paper, Welt am Sonntag, saying that Britain would respond aggressively if it were shut out of the EU's markets. Asked if Britain saw its future business model as being a tax haven, Hammond replied: "Most of us who had voted remain would like the UK to remain a recognisably European-style economy with European-style taxation systems, European-style regulation systems etc. I personally hope we will be able to remain in the mainstream of European economic and social thinking. But if we are forced to be something different, then we will have to become something different."

In the early days after his election, Trump appeared keener to pose for photos with the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage than to build a relationship with Downing Street. He even suggested that Farage would be a good candidate for US ambassador.

His enthusiasm for drawing up a new trade agreement with the UK is in stark contrast to the warnings of Barack Obama during last year's referendum campaign that Britain would be at "the back of the queue" for trade talks if it voted to leave the EU.

Since being sacked by May, Gove has written a regular column for the Times. He worked at the newspaper before being elected as the MP for Surrey Heath and is known to be close to its owner, Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News network was often favourable to the Trump campaign.

Trump insisted that he was determined to keep tweeting when he enters the White House. "The tweeting: I thought I'd do less of it. But I'm covered so dishonestly by the press – so dishonestly – that I can put out Twitter – and it's not 140, it's now 280 – I can go bing bing bing ... and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out – this morning on television, Fox – 'Donald Trump, we have breaking news'."

The interview took place as it emerged that Trump had been told by the departing director of the CIA to adopt a more careful approach to US national security, with a warning that the president-elect should not be carelessly "talking and tweeting" without understanding the threat posed by Russia.

In an outspoken television interview, John Brennan added that the president-elect's recent criticism of the intelligence agencies was offensive, after Trump had accused them of allowing a controversial dossier about alleged contacts between his campaign and Vladimir Putin's Russia to appear in press reports.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, the outgoing CIA director said: "Now that he's going to have an opportunity to do something for our national security as opposed to talking and tweeting, he's going to have tremendous responsibility to make sure that US and national security interests are protected."

And Germany's answer:

Germany hits back at Trump criticism of refugee policy and BMW tariff threat
Deputy chancellor blames America's 'flawed interventionist policy' for refugee crisis and warns of 'bad awakening' for US carmakers

Berlin has mounted a staunch defence of its policies after Donald Trump criticised the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, for her stance during the refugee crisis and threatened a 35% tariff on BMW cars imported into the US.

Germany's deputy chancellor and minister for the economy, Sigmar Gabriel, said on Monday morning that a tax on German imports would lead to a "bad awakening" among US carmakers since they were reliant on transatlantic supply chains.

"I believe BMW's biggest factory is already in the US, in Spartanburg [South Carolina]," Gabriel, leader of the centre-left Social Democratic party, told the Bild newspaper in a video interview.

"The US car industry would have a bad awakening if all the supply parts that aren't being built in the US were to suddenly come with a 35% tariff. I believe it would make the US car industry weaker, worse and above all more expensive. I would wait and see what the Congress has to say about that, which is mostly full of people who want the opposite of Trump."

In an interview with Bild and the Times, the US president-elect had indicated that he would aim to realign the "out of balance" car trade between Germany and the US. "If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, isn't that the case?" he said. "How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all ... it's a one-way street."

Asked what Trump could do to make sure German customers bought more American cars, Gabriel said: "Build better cars."

Shares in carmakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen fell on Monday morning following Trump's comments. BMW shares were down 0.85%, shares in Daimler were 1.54% lower and Volkswagen shares were trading 1.07% down in early trading in Frankfurt.

All three carmakers have invested heavily in factories in Mexico, where production costs are lower than the US, with an eye to exporting smaller vehicles to the American market.

A BMW spokeswoman said a BMW Group plant in the central Mexican city of San Luis Potosi would build the BMW 3 Series starting from 2019, with the output intended for the world market. The plant in Mexico would be an addition to existing 3 Series production facilities in Germany and China.

Responding to Trump's comments that Merkel had made an "utterly catastrophic mistake by letting all these illegals into the country", Gabriel said the increase in the number of people fleeing the Middle East to seek asylum in Europe had partially been a result of US-led wars destabilising the region.

"There is a link between America's flawed interventionist policy, especially the Iraq war, and the refugee crisis, that's why my advice would be that we shouldn't tell each other what we have done right or wrong, but that we look into establishing peace in that region and do everything to make sure people can find a home there again," Gabriel said.

"In that area Germany and Europe are already making enormous achievements – and that's why I also thought it wasn't right to talk about defence spending, where Mr Trump says we are spending too little to finance Nato. We are making gigantic financial contributions to refugee shelters in the region, and these are also the results of US interventionist policy."

In brief remarks on Monday, Merkel said of Trump's comments on Nato and the European Union: "We Europeans have our fate in our own hands." Speaking during a press conference with New Zealand's prime minister, Bill English, she said: "He has presented his positions once more. They have been known for a while. My positions are also known."

Trump's remarks on Nato were met more favourably in Moscow, where Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, agreed with the US president-elect that the alliance was "obsolete".

"Since Nato is tailored toward confrontation, all its structures are dedicated to the ideals of confrontation, you can't really call it a modern organisation meeting the ideas of stability, steady growth and security," he said.

But Trump's suggestion that the US could lift its sanctions on Russia in exchange for an agreement to reduce the countries' nuclear arsenals elicited a cooler response.

Peskov said Russia had not been conducting talks with the US about nuclear arsenal reduction and said cancelling sanctions was not a political goal in Russia.

"Russia wasn't the initiator in introducing these restrictions, and Russia, as the president of Russia has underlined, doesn't intend to raise the issue of these sanctions in its foreign contacts," he said.

Last month, Putin said Russia needed to strengthen its strategic nuclear forces. Leonid Slutsky, a Russian MP, said he "wouldn't connect these two issues and make the cancellation of sanctions a negotiating point in such a delicate area as nuclear security".

Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian senate, said the cancellation of sanctions was "definitely not an end in and of itself for Russia".

"It's not even a strategic goal for which something needs to be sacrificed, especially in the security sphere," he told state news agency RIA Novosti. "We think [sanctions] are a bad legacy of the departing White House team that need to be sent after it into history."

Following Trump's election victory in November, Merkel had offered the president-elect close cooperation on the basis of the shared values of "democracy, freedom, and respect for the law and the dignity of man, independent of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or political views".

Gabriel, who is expected to run as the centre-left candidate against Merkel in Germany's federal elections in September, said Trump's election should encourage Europeans to stand up for themselves.

"On the one hand, Trump is an elected president. When he is in office, we will have to work with him and his government – respect for a democratic election alone demands that," Gabriel said. "On the other hand, you need to have enough self-confidence. This isn't about making ourselves submissive. What he says about trade issues, how he might treat German carmakers, the question about Nato, his view on the European Union – all these require a self-confident position, not just on behalf of us Germans but all Europeans. We are not inferior to him, we have something to bring to the table too.

"Especially in this phase in which Europe is rather weak, we will have to pull ourselves together and act with self-confidence and stand up for our own interests."

Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the chancellor had read the Trump interview "with interest", but declined to comment in more detail until the president-elect had been sworn in. "We are now waiting for President Trump to start his term and will then work closely with the new government," he said.

Martin Schäfer, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry, rejected Trump's labelling of the EU as a "vehicle for Germany". He said: "For the German government, Europe has never been a means to an end, but a community of fate which, in times of collapsing old orders, is more important than ever."

The foreign ministry also rejected Trump's criticism that creating "security zones" in Syria would have been considerably cheaper than accepting refugees fleeing the war-torn country. "What exactly such a security zone is meant to be is beyond my comprehension and would have to be explained," said Schäfer, adding that there had not been enough willingness among the international community to lend military support to create a no-fly zone in Syria.

Pierre Moscovici, European economic affairs commissioner, also found fault with Trump's assertion that other European countries would follow in Britain's footsteps and leave the EU.

"I'm not worried, I think this idea that Brexit is going to be contagious is a fantasy, a bad fantasy," Moscovici told reporters in Paris. "Brexit is not a great thing," he said, warning Trump that comments advocating a break-up of the EU would not get the trans-Atlantic relationship off to the best start.

I await Zanza's analysis on the diplomatic spat over luxury cars. 

[mongers]

Spot the buffoon:




Hint, not the guy with the funny hair.

[CountDeMoney]

Enjoy learning Russian, mongers.  How 'bout that Royal Navy?  Your asses are on your own, thanks to all those sand nigger-loving continentals.  Ha ha, what what. 

NO BLOOD FOR BEEMERS

[LaCroix]

I'd support trump wholeheartedly if he managed to annex england

[CountDeMoney]

Is that Tattoo from Fantasy Island on the Playboy cover?

Here's the text of that interview: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-01/trumps-1990-playboy-interview-we-are-being-laughed-around-world

How do you respond when people call you ostentatious, ego-ridden and a greedy symbol of the Eighties?
Rich men are less likely to like me, but the working man likes me because he knows I worked hard and didn't inherit what I've built. Hey, I made it myself; I have a right to do what I want with it.

With so much poverty on the city streets, isn't it embarrassing for you to flaunt your wealth?

There has always been a display of wealth and always will be, until the depression comes, which it always does. And let me tell you, a display is a good thing. It shows people that you can be successful. It can show you a way of life. Dynasty did it on TV. It's very important that people aspire to be successful. The only way you can do it is if you look at somebody who is.

This was my favorite part--

What were your other impressions of the Soviet Union?
I was very unimpressed. Their system is a disaster. What you will see there soon is a revolution; the signs are all there with the demonstrations and picketing. Russia is out of control and the leadership knows it. That's my problem with Gorbachev. Not a firm enough hand.

You mean firm hand as in China?
When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak ... as being spit on by the rest of the world—

Why is Gorbachev not firm enough?
I predict he will be overthrown, because he has shown extraordinary weakness. Suddenly, for the first time ever, there are coal-miner strikes and brush fires everywhere–which will all ultimately lead to a violent revolution. Yet Gorbachev is getting credit for being a wonderful leader–and we should continue giving him credit, because he's destroying the Soviet Union. But his giving an inch is going to end up costing him and all his friends what they most cherish–their jobs.

Besides the real-estate deal, you've met with top-level Soviet officials to negotiate potential business deals with them; how did they strike you?
Generally, these guys are much tougher and smarter than our representatives. We have people in this country just as smart, but unfortunately, they're not elected officials. We're still suffering from a loss of respect that goes back to the Carter Administration, when helicopters were crashing into one another in Iran.  That was Carter's emblem. There he was, being carried off from a race, needing oxygen. I don't want my President to be carried off a race course. I don't want my President landing on Austrian soil and falling down the stairs of his airplane. Some of our Presidents have been incredible jerk-offs. We need to be tough.