Friday Open Thread

13 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. Donald Trump proves once again that he doesn't care to learn anything about international affairs in preparation for the presidency.

   He arrives in Scotland congratulating the Scots for their victory in taking their country back via the Brexit vote. One small problem. Scotland, unlike the rest of UK, overwhelmingly supported Remain as expected since the  majority of Scots have been supporting Remain and stating that they see their future as being part of the European Union all along.

   All of this escaped Trump. Granted it's a business trip (in the middle of a presidential campaign) but since he's running for President you'd think he'd have perhaps asked to be briefed on the rather earthshaking referendum the whole world was watching? Anyhoo, he didn't and now Scots are letting him know via his his beloved twitter just what they think of his….ummmm…. intelligence.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-brexit-scotland-angry_us_576d059ae4b017b379f592c7?section=

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2. And about that Scottish Golf Course of his? Another money losing failure, another huge con, big promises that have come to nothing. Why does anyone still have confidence in this flim flam man who has been exposed such time and again? 

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-top-example-of-foreign-experience-a-scottish-golf-course-losing-millions/2016/06/22/12ae9cb0-1883-11e6-9e16-2e5a123aac62_story.html

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   1. This bit from the article offers some insight into how his claims of being a multi-billionaire are most likely, as many real billionaires have suggested, more of the same flim flam assuming his claims concerning other ventures to be just as …ummm.. accurate?  Mark Cuban is not alone in estimating Trump's real worth at under 200 million. Not exactly spare change but he did inherit 250 million decades ago so ……?

      According to reports filed with the British government, Trump said the Aberdeen course has lost more than 4.71 million pounds since 2012 — the equivalent of $6.9 million at current exchange rates. British authorities were told that the course lost 1.14 million pounds, or about $1.67 million, in 2014 alone.

      Yet in a July 2015 disclosure filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Trump valued Aberdeen at “over $50 million” and put his income from the course at $4.2 million between mid-2014 and the end of 2015.

      A similar pattern holds for records filed for his Turnberry golf resort on Scotland’s west coast, which he will also visit this week, and at a third Trump course in Ireland’s County Clare — millions in losses reported in overseas records, millions in profits reported on U.S. forms.

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3. Best point I saw this morning is how the work of building institutions and communities takes years and their destruction can come in a single moment or vote. While "majority rules" is drilled into us and many elections result in candidates winning with less than 50% of the vote, a fundamental change in government structure ought to take more.

   The EU is an outgrowth developed in many ways since 1945 and explicitly since the mid-1970s. In the 1975 election to join, the UK voted 2 to 1 to join. Now, they leave due to a vote of 51.9% supporting the change on a single day. There are short term shocks to the economy – but the ripples will go on for years.

    

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4. Another item worth mentioning: Larry Sabato and the Crystal Ball team released an updated Electoral College map. Overall, " Our Electoral College totals have not budged: 347 electoral votes Safe, Likely, or Leaning to Clinton and 191 Safe/Likely/Leaning Trump." Colorado is still only a "Leans Democratic" state (9 EVs out of 120).

   "Now you see why we dropped the drum roll. The revised map is anticlimactic — though startling in another sense because it doesn’t show what so many people may have expected. We simply detect no compelling reason to change very much, thus our subtitle, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

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   1. That would be a very nice result.

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      1. A nice result would be a complete drubbing of Trump of the McGovern or Mondale level. Given the partisan state of the nation, I'll probably not get either of those, but I'd settle for getting Trump down into Dukakis range (111 EV).

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5. GOP politico Mike Murphy is thinking what I'm thinking:

   … as the Trump campaign moves into full meltdown, Republicans are seeing a presumptive nominee on a mission of political suicide. Nobody in the party wants a nominee with the Secret Service code name “Certain Train-wreck.” The question is: Can anything be done about it? The answer is yes. If Trump rolls into the convention broke and with a terrible deficit in the polls, the delegates may indeed act. Under convention rules, they have the power to do so. GOP conventions are party affairs empowered to pick the best candidate to win the general election. If Trump’s incompetence doesn’t change, he may well get fired in Cleveland.

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trumps-political-suicide-mission/2016/06/22/40b55a28-3876-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na

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   1. Trump continues to prove that as soon as you drag him away from the teleprompter, he's an out-of-control narcissist. His Brexit comments were insane.

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6. Brexit cost me $6,000 from my IRA this morning.  Thanks a lot, Trump!

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   1. If figured this was coming. Got completely out of the market 2 weeks ago.

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      1. Excellent timing.   However if I tried that on my IRA, tax consequences would be brutal.  

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         1. It'll come back.

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