What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[celedhring]

Seems to me he was trying to write "negative press coverage" and fell asleep / ivanka took his phone after a tug of war.

[Solmyr]

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/inside-a-bdsm-dungeon-with-a-hillary-dom-and-a-guilty-diaper-clad-trump-voter

The process of Mike's atonement was extraordinarily byzantine and seemed very painful. In character as Trump, he had his nipples electrocuted while Madame Hillary demanded he confess that he had colluded with the Russians during the election ("I'm Putin's bitch!" he cried dutifully); was bullwhipped until he admitted he had lost the popular vote; placed in the stocks and flogged, then pelted with fake used tampons, for attacking women's rights; paddled with such force that the walls of the dungeon seemed to reverberate until he acknowledged that the slogan "Make American Great Again" only applied to his rich, white friends; and eventually was mounted and ridden around like a pony while wheezily proclaiming, "I'm with her."

[FunkMonk]

Just finish us off Donald. Nuke the world. 

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/climate/trump-quits-paris-climate-accord.html

Trump Poised to Pull U.S. From Paris Climate Accord

President Trump was poised Wednesday to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, two officials with knowledge of the decision said, making good on a campaign pledge but severely weakening the landmark 2015 climate change accord that committed nearly every nation to take action to curb the warming of the planet.

But White House officials cautioned that the decision is not yet final.

Faced with advisers who pressed hard on both sides of the Paris question, Mr. Trump appears to have decided that a continued United States presence in the accord would harm the economy; hinder job creation in regions like Appalachia and the West, where his most ardent supporters live; and undermine his "America First" message. But advisers pressing him to remain in the accord were still pressing up to the final announcement.

The exit of the United States, the world's largest economy and second-largest greenhouse gas polluter will not dissolve the 195-nation pact, which was legally ratified last year, but it could set off a cascade of events that would have profound effects on the planet. Other countries that reluctantly joined the agreement could now withdraw or soften their commitments to cutting planet-warming pollution.

"The actions of the United States are bound to have a ripple effect in other emerging economies that are just getting serious about climate change, such as India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia," said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton, and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that produces scientific reports designed to inform global policy makers.

Once the fallout settles, he added, "it is now far more likely that we will breach the danger limit of 3.6 degrees," the average atmospheric temperature increase above which a future of extreme conditions is irrevocable.

The aim of the Paris agreement was to lower planet-warming emissions enough to avoid that threshold.

"We will see more extreme heat, damaging storms, coastal flooding and risks to food security," Professor Oppenheimer said. "And that's not the kind of world we want to live in."

Foreign policy experts said the move could damage the United States' credibility and weaken Mr. Trump's efforts to negotiate issues far beyond climate change, like negotiating trade deals and combating terrorism.

"From a foreign policy perspective, it's a colossal mistake — an abdication of American leadership " said R. Nicholas Burns, a retired career diplomat and the under secretary of state during the presidency of George W. Bush.

"The success of our foreign policy — in trade, military, any other kind of negotiation — depends on our credibility. I can't think of anything more destructive to our credibility than this," he added.

But Mr. Trump's supporters, particularly coal state Republicans, cheered the move, celebrating it as a fulfillment of a signature campaign promise. Speaking to a crowd of oil rig workers last May, Mr. Trump vowed to "cancel" the agreement, and Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump's chief strategist, has pushed the president to withdraw from the accord as part of an economic nationalism that has so far included pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral trade pact, and vowing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Coal miners and coal company executives in states such as Kentucky and West Virginia have pushed for Mr. Trump to reverse all of President Barack Obama's climate change policies, many of which are aimed at reducing the use of coal, which is seen as the largest contributor to climate change.

In a May 23 letter to Mr. Trump from Attorney General Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia and nine other state attorneys general, Mr. Morrisey wrote, "Withdrawing from the Paris agreement is an important and necessary step toward reversing the harmful energy policies and unlawful overreach of the Obama era." He added, "The Paris Agreement is a symbol of the Obama administration's 'Washington knows best' approach to governing."

Although the administration has been debating for months its position on the Paris agreement, the sentiment for leaving the accord ultimately prevailed over the views of Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and close adviser, who had urged the president to keep a seat at the climate negotiating table.

Other countries have vowed to continue to carry out the terms of the Paris agreement, even without the United States.

President Xi Jinping of China, the world's largest greenhouse gas polluter, has promised that his country would move ahead with steps to curb climate change, regardless of what happens in the United States.

During a telephone call in early May with President Emmanuel Macron of France, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mr. Xi told the newly elected French leader that China and France "should protect the achievements of global governance, including the Paris agreement."

But the accord's architects say the absence of the United States will inevitably weaken its chances of being enforced. For example, the United States has played a central role in pushing provisions that require robust and transparent oversight of how emissions are monitored, verified and reported.

Without the United States, there is likely to be far less pressure on major polluting countries and industries to accurately report their emissions. There have been major questions raised about the accuracy of China's emissions reporting, in particular.

"We need to know: What are your emissions? Where are your emissions?" said Todd D. Stern, the lead climate negotiator during the Obama administration. "There needs to be transparent reporting on countries' greenhouse gas emissions. If the U.S. is not part of that negotiation, that's a loss for the world."

[Syt]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/31/trump-breaks-protocol-telling-world-leaders-to-call-him-on-personal-cellphone

Trump breaks protocol telling world leaders to call him on personal cellphone

US president urged Mexican, French and Canadian leaders to contact him directly, bypassing the traditional secure phone lines

Donald Trump has been handing out his cellphone number to world leaders and urging them to call him directly, an unusual invitation that breaks diplomatic protocol and is raising concerns about the security of the US president's communications.

Trump has urged leaders of Canada and Mexico to call on his cellphone, according to former and current US officials with direct knowledge of the practice. Of the two, only Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has taken advantage of the offer so far, the officials said.

Trump also exchanged numbers with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, when the two spoke immediately following Macron's victory earlier this month, according to a French official, who would not comment on whether Macron intended to use the line.

All the officials demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the conversations. Neither the White House nor Trudeau's office responded to requests for comment.

The notion of world leaders calling each other up via cellphone may seem unremarkable in the modern, mobile world. But in the diplomatic arena, where leader-to-leader calls are highly orchestrated affairs, it is another notable breach of protocol for a president who has expressed distrust of official channels. The formalities and discipline of diplomacy have been a rough fit for Trump — who, before taking office, was long easily accessible by cellphone and viewed himself as a freewheeling, impulsive dealmaker.

Presidents generally place calls on one of several secure phone lines, including those in the White House Situation Room, the Oval Office or the presidential limousine. Even if Trump uses his government-issued cellphone, his calls are vulnerable to eavesdropping, particularly from foreign governments, national security experts say.

"If you are speaking on an open line, then it's an open line, meaning those who have the ability to monitor those conversations are doing so," said Derek Chollet, a former Pentagon adviser and National Security Council official now at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

A president "doesn't carry with him a secure phone," Chollet said. "If someone is trying to spy on you, then everything you're saying, you have to presume that others are listening to it."

The caution is warranted even when dealing with allies. As the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, learned in 2013, when a dump of American secrets leaked by Edward Snowden revealed the US was monitoring her cellphone, good relations don't prevent some spycraft between friends.

"If you are Macron or the leader of any country and you get the cellphone number of the president of the United States, it's reasonable to assume that they'd hand it right over to their intel service," said Ashley Deeks, a law professor at the University of Virginia who formerly served as the assistant legal adviser for political-military affairs in theUS State Department.

Throughout last year's presidential campaign, he lambasted Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for using a private email server while she was secretary of state, insisting she should not be given access to classified information because she would leave it vulnerable to foreign foes.Trump has struggled more than most recent presidents to keep his conversations with world leaders private. His remarks to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, and Russian diplomats have all leaked, presumably after notes of the conversations were circulated by national security officials.

Under Barack Obama, the first cellphone-toting president, worries about cyber intrusions — particularly by foreign governments — pulled the president's devices deep into the security bubble. Many of the functions on Obama's BlackBerry were blocked, and a very small handful of people had his phone number or email address, according to former aides.

"Government sometimes looks like a big bureaucracy that has stupid rules, but a lot of these things are in place for very good reasons and they've been around for a while and determine the most effective way to do business in the foreign policy sphere," said Deeks. "Sometimes it takes presidents longer to figure that out."

[derspiess]

Just finish us off Donald. Nuke the world. 

Pence will save us all.  And honestly, the bar has been set so low he won't have to do much to look good.

[derspiess]

They can't convict a husband and wife for the same crime!

THE FONZ!!

[derspiess]

I like the Kathy Griffin bit. As if anyone cares about her.

She was never easy on the eyes, but man she is turning into a cross between Putin and Nicholas Cage.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm not too sure about Pence.  Appears competent, but there's a level of vapidity there that comes out under enough scrutiny.  Hides it much better than, say, Rick Perry.

[HVC]

I like the Kathy Griffin bit. As if anyone cares about her.

She was never easy on the eyes, but man she is turning into a cross between Putin and Nicholas Cage.

Her "aren't I outrageous, why does everyone hate me" schtick run thin. She's the female andy dick... or andy dick is the female Kathy. I don't know who came first.

[CountDeMoney]

Reminds me of a redheaded Kellyanne Conway. Roughly hewn plastic, obviously late war slave labor.

[Barrister]

I'm not too sure about Pence.  Appears competent, but there's a level of vapidity there that comes out under enough scrutiny.  Hides it much better than, say, Rick Perry.

Doesn't "Appears competent, but with a level of vapidity there" sound pretty good right about now? 

[Maladict]

Any chance leaving the Paris agreement could be overturned by a court?
Because it would endanger the population, or something like that?

[CountDeMoney]

Doesn't "Appears competent, but with a level of vapidity there" sound pretty good right about now? 

Amen, I'll take American Taliban over American Idiot any day.

[CountDeMoney]

Any chance leaving the Paris agreement could be overturned by a court?
Because it would endanger the population, or something like that?

Treaties fall under the US Senate.