Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 157: Happy Holidays!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ashethan posted...

I think the big thing about Corrik's post is that he calls "Coke" "pop". That's just inexcusable.

Hey now, lets not get too crazy here. *is from a pop-saying region*
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Mr Lasastryke posted...

it's crazy how often alt right pundits resort to the "LEFTISTS ARE SO UGLY" argument (lauren southern frequently does this too). goes to show that they have the wit (and mental capabilities) of a 12 year old.

perhaps a cherry-picked image of 10 young blonde white female republicans and 10 senior citizen democrats will change your mind
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i like how in that one picture some of their examples of "hot republican women" are ann coulter and michele bachmann. there's nothing as hot as old women drenched in makeup, i guess.
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12/28/2017
THE HILL - Trump administration sees record first-year staff turnover: report

During the president's time in office, his administration saw a 34 percent turnover rate among senior aides, the newspaper reported, citing a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has tracked White House turnover rates over three decades.

According to the analysis, 21 of the 61 senior officials tracked have either resigned, been fired or been reassigned.

The rate of staff turnover during Trump's administration has shown to be higher than that during former presidents' first years in office.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the turnover rate during former President Reagan's first year in office ? which was the next-highest first-year turnover rate in the last 40 years ? was 17 percent in 1981.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/366651-trump-administration-sees-record-first-year-staff-turnover-report

Man known for firing people in reality TV competitions has a hard time keeping staff in politics.

Obama's first year in comparison: 9%.
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Kenri posted...

perhaps a cherry-picked image of 10 young blonde white female republicans and 10 senior citizen democrats will change your mind

The funny thing is they later like to complain about how liberal hollywood is. How quickly they forget it when they post those misogynist pictures. (As if a woman's only value is her appearance. Which is exactly what most of them believe)
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Ashethan posted...

I think the big thing about Corrik's post is that he calls "Coke" "pop". That's just inexcusable.

Pop is fine. Soda is fine. Calling everything Coke is the incorrect one

Sorry for your wrongness
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From Texas, where too many people call everything "coke".

SEP is 100% correct. Fuck those people.

Also apparently the AL senate election results were certified today. Good stuff.
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Orange Pop.
Grape Soda.

easy.
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Regaro posted...

From Texas, where too many people call everything "coke".

SEP is 100% correct. Fuck those people.

Also apparently the AL senate election results were certified today. Good stuff.

Been out of the loop due to deep diving in video games. Has Roy Moore conceded yet?

I hope he shows up trying to get in the Senate floor and they have to boot him like so many Alabama malls and theaters
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Roy Moore filed a lawsuit in the wee hours of the night alleging voter fraud, in an attempt to block certification
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Jakyl25 posted...

Regaro posted...

From Texas, where too many people call everything "coke".

SEP is 100% correct. Fuck those people.

Also apparently the AL senate election results were certified today. Good stuff.

Been out of the loop due to deep diving in video games. Has Roy Moore conceded yet?

I hope he shows up trying to get in the Senate floor and they have to boot him like so many Alabama malls and theaters

Nope.

In fact, today he's insisting the election was fraudulent, still.
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Yeah, but Alabama certified Jones' win anyways, freeing him to be sworn in.
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Once again, Roy Moore lacks understanding of the word 'no'
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Once again, Roy Moore lacks understanding of the word 'no'

Don't worry, he'll show up at congress anyway and get kicked out, making it the second mall he's banned from.
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HaRRicH posted...

12/28/2017
THE HILL - Trump administration sees record first-year staff turnover: report

During the president's time in office, his administration saw a 34 percent turnover rate among senior aides, the newspaper reported, citing a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has tracked White House turnover rates over three decades.

According to the analysis, 21 of the 61 senior officials tracked have either resigned, been fired or been reassigned.

The rate of staff turnover during Trump's administration has shown to be higher than that during former presidents' first years in office.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the turnover rate during former President Reagan's first year in office ? which was the next-highest first-year turnover rate in the last 40 years ? was 17 percent in 1981.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/366651-trump-administration-sees-record-first-year-staff-turnover-report

Man known for firing people in reality TV competitions has a hard time keeping staff in politics.

Obama's first year in comparison: 9%.

Does this also account for the number of positions still unfilled?
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I don't think it accounts for unfilled positions, and I'm unsure that it accounts for the people on boards that resigns or that he closed down either.

dowolf posted...

Orange Pop.
Grape Soda.

Don't tell Kel.
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It's been awhile since I updated this.....

DONALD TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: SEPTEMBER 2017

Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hLi9CtuMP3TZnPO2EuCKhCRYOul4mRQhVLNRgaHh4F8/edit?usp=drivesdk

On September 1st, John McCain accused Donald Trump of often being impulsive and poorly informed. Donald provided examples of this the rest of the month.

SON OF A BITCH

The most covered story was probably the dumbest and most manufactured: DONALD VERSUS SPORTS. Stephen Curry was uninvited to the White House after he said he didn't want to attend, then LeBron James called Donald a bum for that petty move. This all happened earlier in a day with a strange Luther Strange rally Donald spoke at, where he called for every son of a bitch who takes a knee to be fired.

Suddenly the sports world was pissed off, especially football. Hundreds of players kneeled that weekend. The NFL and at least nine individual teams denounced the comment in written statements supporting its players. Even the MLB has their first baseball player take a knee. This led to conversations about how the government pays the NFL for players to stand for the flag as a recruitment tool. Former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva immediately had the best-selling jersey since he stood for the flag that weekend, but then he apologized for making his team look bad; the Steelers agreed not to come out for the anthem, but Villanueva stood by the entrance to the field and unintentionally let cameras capture him standing.

Something overshadowed in this football controversy was when earlier in the month Clevelands police wouldn't participate in the National Anthem out of protest:

https://twitter.com/tomscocca/status/904368419130224640

Also earlier in the month was when eight-year-olds were kneeling:

http://www.wpxi.com/news/hot-topics/8-year-old-football-players-kneel-in-protest-during-national-anthem-/611937231

I assume Donald was not calling them sons of bitches, but its hard to predict.

Regardless, in a time when Colin Kaepernick was cut from the NFL -- arguably blacklisted -- and the kneeling controversy was looking to become an issue to fade away after this season, Donald made it needlessly explode bigger than ever.

For the record, Donalds rally appearance wasnt enough for Big Luther. He easily lost to Roy Moore in late September. Donalds support was then questioned on whether or not it actually helps Republican candidates; this led to him going to bed embarrassed and pissed the night of their primary election. Whatever the case, Roy looked like a six-point favorite for Republicans to keep the Alabama Senate seat over Doug Jones in December...which would change about seven points by election-time.
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BIG WATER

Hurricane-talk plagued Donald through September. It began with Hurricane Harveys lingering effects from August. It was left unknown whether Donalds $1,000,000 donation to Texas would be from his own money or from other people through his foundation. National Prayer Day was announced and religious leaders thanked Donald profusely for allowing time on a Sunday to pray. He proved a tendency of spinning tragedies into excitement for himself along the way.

As for how the rest of the Republican party handled Harveys hurricane relief, there was a 316-90 House vote on a hurricane relief package where all 90 no-votes were Republicans...so a little under half of them wanted to refuse relief. In that sense, at least Donald enjoyed helping Texas.

After that, heres a GIF to visualize three other hurricanes that came this month.

https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon/status/906368107437891585

And that doesnt even cover them all! This GIF left off Hurricane Maria, which rocked Puerto Rico terribly since they had no running water, electricity, or working ATMs for a long time. Despite this, Donald took opportunities to talk down on them like theyre lazy in a way that he didnt do to the states. He insisted that they have to work with him because they have poor leadership and cant expect to have everything done for them. The White House didnt expect to send a disaster aid request to Congress to vote on until the first or second week of October. First responders often referred to the support they received as fucked up. Media barely covered Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in comparison to how they covered Harvey in Texas or Irma in Florida; it was later studied how less than half of America considers Puerto Ricans to be American citizens, so this may be chalked up to American ignorance and therefore a lack of interest in their fellow territory.

More generally about these hurricanes: Mexico has offered aide to the US at one point. After they suffered an earthquake in their capital and Hurricane Katia though, they saw Donald did not send so much as any condolences...so the aide was rescinded to help themselves. Donald then later blamed Mexicos cell phone reception for the lack of contact.

DACA

Donald revoked Obamas executive order for DACA to make it end in March 2018, and then an odd thing happened.

There was a DACA swerve early in the month that upset a lot of Republicans. Donald began working with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi on a DACA deal. It appeared that Schumer and Pelosi were able to schmooze with him and Donald liked the good press from crossing over party lines.

Donald did this at a time when he rejected an internal study stating refugees are a net positive for America, however. We would also see later in 2017 Donald demand support for the wall for his continued DACA support, so I dont know how much was actually done for DACA during this time...but Democrats had hope for Dreamers this month.

RUSSIA

Donald flip-flopped between thinking James Comey was too easy or too hard on Hillary Clinton. He also used campaign/RNC funds on legal bills regarding the Russia probe, making him the first President in the modern campaign-finance era to spend these funds on criminal investigations. Donald Jr. testified in front of Congress, which was then immediately followed by a public warning about the dangers of false statements.

Robert Mueller got an early draft of the letter eventually used to fire Comey, enlisted the IRS for his investigation, and warned Paul Manafort hell be indicted.
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NAZIS

Donald used a signing statement to amend a resolution intended to condemn the Nazi rallies in Charlottesville, softening the impact of this denouncement. Christopher Cantwells lawyer defended him on the grounds of being a shock jock. Breitbart used MS-13 gang pictures to represent US DACA recipients.

HEALTHCARE

Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy introduced their healthcare bill, which upset Jimmy Kimmel who claimed Cassidy lied to his face about how it would help people. It was later shot down this month.

Oklahoma also wrote to Tom Price and Tom Mnuchin about how Health and Human Services missed their reinsurance plans deadline, resulting in 30% higher premiums for the state.

TAXES

The tax plan that came to pass in December seemed to have its roots in Septembers, where even at this time it was kept secretive outside of the expectations that it would benefit the wealthiest the most.

TWO WAYS REPUBLICANS REFUSED TO VOTE

Republicans refused to vote on whether federal spending should be used at Donalds properties and if Donald should release his tax returns.

MAR-A-LAGO

Mar-a-Lago was supposed to release their visitor logs this month. They released only twenty-two names and are being sued for the rest. What did get released about Mar-a-Lago though is that this location was charging federal officials $546 a night to stay.

GOOD NEWS WITH NORTH KOREA?!

In some brighter news for Republicans, its worth noting the UN Security Council unanimously voted 15-0 to adopt their toughest sanctions yet on North Korea. Donald could have influenced that.

BAD NEWS DEMOCRATS

In bad news for Democrats, they had two bad sexual abusers get caught this month. Anthony Weiner had previously avoided jail for his part in fucking one of the worlds youngest superpowers named AMERICA in 2016, but now Carlos Danger is getting real jailtime for sexting an actual minor. Seattles Mayor Ed Murray also resigned due to multiple molestation accusations, including one from a cousin that seemed to seal the deal against the Mayor.

THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS...

And then there were the other crazy messes -- yeah, theres more. Martin Shkreli had a $5,000 reward for Hillary Clintons hair, Juggalos marched, Erdogans security attacked American protesters again, Twitter increased the size of its tweets from 140 to 280 characters, at least six people in the Trump Administration useused private emails for their work, and Donald fell for a footage-rerun of Iran launching a ballistic missile like it was really happening live.

Also, Jeff Sessions said Antifa is like the KKK because they wear masks, and he said this in a speech about free speech while protesters are ejected. Yes, this one deserved its own paragraph.

This months been a handful, but good news! Donald can handle a handful because he knows how big his hands are: my hands are too big.

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/904038771657773056
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WHY IS THERE ALWAYS A TWEET

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/276410893519183873

I am happy to hear that Pres.Obama is considering giving Anna Wintour @voguemagazine an ambassadorship. She is a winner & really smart!

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I laughed in the comments of that Tweet when Donald says "Always go with the truth!"
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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946531657229701120
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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946531657229701120

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/12/28/a-response-for-people-using-record-cold-u-s-weather-to-refute-climate-change/#1d38176a5680
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it's just another example of feels over reals
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Peace___Frog posted...

If you're at all curious about what the world missed out on with (no) respect to milo's book, here's a thread for you.

https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/946347142012051456

The publishing editor's comments on his draft are public record thanks to the lawsuit. They are a true gold mine. This editor agrees with Milo politically on a number of issues, and even he got sick of milo's bullshit.

Was going to share this if it hadnt already been shared. Its so delightful.

I wish people would realize that Milo isnt very wise, and certainly shouldnt be considered part of any conservative intelligencia. I think his manner of speaking carries him a lot farther than his actual thoughts deserve.
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That editor-thread is funny...makes me wonder how other books get broken down before release.
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I have a close friend in publishing and he's said in the past that basically most rubbish doesn't make it as far as an editor, it gets thrown out long before this stage. This would only have gone this far because they already paid for the book because Milo's name was attached.
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Jakyl25 posted...

I wish people would realize that Milo isnt very wise, and certainly shouldnt be considered part of any conservative intelligencia. I think his manner of speaking carries him a lot farther than his actual thoughts deserve.

yeah, he's a lot like stefan molyneux in that regard.

then you have other alt right pundits like lauren southern who are dumb and come across dumb. but people on the right still act like her tweets are super important just because she's a popular conservative.
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HaRRicH posted...

More generally about these hurricanes: Mexico has offered aide to the US at one point. After they suffered an earthquake in their capital and Hurricane Katia though, they saw Donald did not send so much as any condolences...so the aide was rescinded to help themselves. Donald then later blamed Mexicos cell phone reception for the lack of contact

lol what. I missed this one.
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http://www.newsweek.com/trump-blames-bad-cell-service-failure-call-mexico-earthquake-665260
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http://thehill.com/policy/finance/366779-rubio-gop-tax-bill-probably-went-too-far-to-help-corporations

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who voted for his partys tax bill, admits in a new interview that the legislation probably went too far with its tax cuts for corporations, predicting that some of them will be forced, because theyre sitting on historic levels of cash, to pay out dividends to shareholders which isnt going to create dramatic economic growth.

If theyre sitting on historical levels of cash, why are wages so low?
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/366779-rubio-gop-tax-bill-probably-went-too-far-to-help-corporations

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who voted for his partys tax bill, admits in a new interview that the legislation probably went too far with its tax cuts for corporations, predicting that some of them will be forced, because theyre sitting on historic levels of cash, to pay out dividends to shareholders which isnt going to create dramatic economic growth.

If theyre sitting on historical levels of cash, why are wages so low?

Wow, it's almost like the tax bill wasn't intended to spur economic growth or help 99% of Americans!
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The argument I've heard is that due to America's tax rates and the bizarre policy of taxing foreign income, those companies are holding their money out of the states and can't bring it in without losing 35% of it. The idea behind lowering taxes on them is that they can afford to bring the money back into the states, which would be good for the economy.

At least, that's what I was told when I talked to someone I know in accounting.
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JeffreyRaze posted...

The argument I've heard is that due to America's tax rates and the bizarre policy of taxing foreign income, those companies are holding their money out of the states and can't bring it in without losing 35% of it. The idea behind lowering taxes on them is that they can afford to bring the money back into the states, which would be good for the economy.

At least, that's what I was told when I talked to someone I know in accounting.

From what I understand this is true, but it's also not the full story, cause like...

this is not the first tax bill that has done this. Several tax bills recently have included a "tax holliday", which basically waives the taxes that companies would normally pay when they bring all their money back into the US.
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True, but lowering the tax rates makes them more likely to relocate their headquarters and R&D stuff to the states as well. I think. This is all secondhand knowledge.
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More importantly, the corporate tax rate wasn't actually 35%, due to all the various deductions, loopholes, and what have you. A lot of corporations paid something closer to 0%. Small businesses, on the other hand, couldn't take advantage of those loopholes and had to pay something closer to the actual rate.

This does nothing to fix that; it just lowers the base rate and makes the tax code significantly more complicated.
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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/366779-rubio-gop-tax-bill-probably-went-too-far-to-help-corporations

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who voted for his partys tax bill, admits in a new interview that the legislation probably went too far with its tax cuts for corporations, predicting that some of them will be forced, because theyre sitting on historic levels of cash, to pay out dividends to shareholders which isnt going to create dramatic economic growth.

If theyre sitting on historical levels of cash, why are wages so low?

Because wage growth isn't tied to corporation profit. Demand for job skills grows wages.

A corporation with big profits - the CEO is literally bound by his fiduciary duty to return those profits as stock dividends if he is running a publicly traded corporation.

The only way to justify raising wages and making other investments into your company is if you think it will lead to even greater profit later. This is the entire idea behind what Raze said. Its a bet that a large number of corporations will see the new tax code as worth making new investments in the US.

This is fucking basic microeconomics. Word Life
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Eddv posted...

A corporation with big profits - the CEO is literally bound by his fiduciary duty to return those profits as stock dividends if he is running a publicly traded corporation.

The only way to justify raising wages and making other investments into your company is if you think it will lead to even greater profit later.

where do bonuses to the CEO come in
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It makes him or her more incentivized to continue exploiting labor for stockholder benefit
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Eddv posted...

Because wage growth isn't tied to corporation profit. Demand for job skills grows wages.

The skill of effectively exploiting labor is in very high demand
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Jakyl25 posted...

It makes him or her more incentivized to continue exploiting labor for stockholder benefit

ah, so money's at the root of all evil, i wonder why no one's ever realized that before
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https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/946724075157651457

approximately
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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946731576687235072

Fuck him. Such a heartless piece of shit.
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Politics topic people disappoint me sometimes. Hardly any talk of foreign policy anymore despite it being way more interesting than tax reform.

ISIS has lost 95% of its territory, Saudi Arabia has effectively had a coup, and now Iran is on the brink of democratic reform. I guess if Trump isn't indelibly attached to something then no one cares?
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Most people in this topic dont really care much about foreign policy as I've discovered.

Saudi Arabias had a coup and even NPR managed to make it sound like the meaning of that shift was hard to grasp.

ISIS has been in full blown retreat since 2016 they just have finally been broken which is just what happens when the US and Russia both bring serious resources to bear.

The Iran thing i think youre being naively optimistic if you think Democracy is the most likely result even if regime change is achieved.
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Eddv posted...

Most people in this topic dont really care much about foreign policy as I've discovered.

this. when i posted an article about mugabe resigning (which is kind of a big freaking deal) nobody gave a shit.

people in general just care more about things that directly affect them (like tax reform) than things that don't affect them (like foreign policy). board 8 is no different in this regard.

that being said, we did talk about ISIS being on the run. don't think there's any news on that front...?
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I struggle with foreign policy so I often don't have much to say on it, but also keep 'em coming because I won't learn more without the links and conversations.
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Eddv posted...

The Iran thing i think youre being naively optimistic if you think Democracy is the most likely result even if regime change is achieved.

^

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Green_Movement

Iran had a much larger series of protests at the start of the decade and literally nothing came of it. I dont see how you can say Iran is on the brink of democratic reform just yet considering what has been shown by very recent history.
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I mean, yes, I care about things that will affect me (or affect people I know) so I don't mention foreign policy too much.

That said, I care about foreign policy waaaaay more than I care about Trump tweets. (Seriously, if every post in this topic about a trump tweet was replaced by a post about foreign policy instead I would be happy).
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