Sessions is out as AG

[Angrboda]

Well Turd burglar is now threatening that the senate will cause problems if the Dem controlled house launches any sort of investigations against Trump.

Trump is all about threats and transactions. If you do X, I'll do Y, which is bad. Between the carrot and the stick, he's all stick and no carrot. His foreign policy and trade policy are excellent examples of this. Instead of negotiating better deals, he backs out of or threatens to abandon current deals in order to coerce the other side into negotiating on his terms. Sometimes it's successful, but it leaves a lot of broken agreements in its place, taking us backwards instead of forwards. Trump's response to the Kashoggi affair is a case in point. He has no response to Saudi Arabia's heinous behavior because his usual playbook of sanctions and threats would hurt the U.S. as much as it hurts them. So instead he has no response. His foreign policy is a joke. And the failure of his method is playing out in North Korea as well, where sanctions and threats have no effect, and he's being outplayed on the negotiation front.

[The Grand Nudger]

Blowing up deals and then claiming victory has been his brand for decades.  His business deals have been unmitigated shit for all those decades as well, kept afloat only through the influx of illegal funds and bankruptcy arbitration unavailable to the common man.

Bad at business, bad at government, great at stealing shit and conning people, lol.

Fine as far as it goes for one random grifty asshole...but definitely not ideal when that grifty assholes habits and actions have consequences for an entire country and it's federal apparatus.

[Mister Agenda]

Prediction: New permanent AG will be Lindsey Graham, Nikki Hailey will replace him as senator from SC.

[Crossless2.0]

Prediction: New permanent AG will be Lindsey Graham, Nikki Hailey will replace him as senator from SC.

Bingo!

That's exactly my prediction, as well.

[I_am_not_mafia]

He isn't my president.

Which is exactly what non-Americans say when they hear the phrase 'leader of the free world'.

[The Grand Nudger]

Whatchoo got against angela merkel?  

[RobbyPants]

We can only hope Trumps ploys fail .Of course this just makes him look guiltier .

Historically, the Mueller probe becomes more popular when Trump moves or speaks out against it. It also becomes more popular any time it releases detailed indictments. There will likely be a public backlash if he does anything too obvious. The question is: will it matter?

[downbeatplumb]

We can only hope Trumps ploys fail .Of course this just makes him look guiltier .

Historically, the Mueller probe becomes more popular when Trump moves or speaks out against it. It also becomes more popular any time it releases detailed indictments. There will likely be a public backlash if he does anything too obvious. The question is: will it matter?

He will shut the investigation on camera then deny he did it.

Its worked in the past for him, his supporters believe anything he says no matter how obviously false.

[Deesse23]

Whatchoo got against angela merkel?  

Her days are pretty much numbered now. I highly doubt that she will finish the next 4 year term. Since Germany is a parlamentary democracy, the chancellor can be *dethroned* and a new one elected basically any day. IMO this wont happen tomorrow, but maybe within the next year.

Since Merkel stepped down as party leader (= first sign of resignation as chancellor as well, or at least for not going another term), there will be an election within her party in December. 11 people *applied* for the job as top dog. One of them is particularly worrying. His name: Friedrich Merz.

A short overview of his career and political positions, which maybe, just maybe will ring some bells to you.

Merz lost a power struggle to Merkel in the early 2000s, became a businessman in 2009, is now a multimillionaire and, hold your breath, chairman of supervisory board of the german branch of BlackRock. I guess americans will be already used to the term "conflict of interest."

His political positions and policies in the past were:

• advocated a simple tax system with only 3 brackets
  
• wants to reduce "sozialstaat" = welfare state
  
• promoted increase of age to retire to 70
  
• wants to reduce public education. People should pay for education
  
• emphasiszes *german culture leadership* over muslims and other minorites
  
• promoted various deregulations
  

He is basically a libertarian, however also heavily critcizes Trump and right wing populists.

From wiki:

After Angela Merkel announced her intention to step down as Leader of the CDU party, Merz announced he would run in the subsequent party leadership election in December 2018. His candidacy was promoted by the former CDU chairman and "crown prince" of the Kohl era, Wolfgang Schäuble

Friedrich Merz has focused on economic policy, foreign and security policy and family policy. He has described himself as socially conservative and economically liberal, and is seen as a representative of the conservative and pro-business wings of the CDU. He has been chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke association which promotes German-American understanding and Atlanticism, and is a staunch supporter of the European Union and NATO. In 2018, he described himself as "a truly convinced European, a convinced transatlanticist" and said that "I stand for a cosmopolitan Germany whose roots lie in Christian ethics and the European Enlightenment and whose most important political allies are the democracies of the West. I gladly use this expression again: The democracies of the West." He especially advocates closer relations between Germany and France. Merz has criticized Donald Trump more harshly than Angela Merkel did and has especially criticized Trump's trade war against Europe. In 2018, he co-authored an article in defence of the European project, which among other things called for "an army for Europe."

[Cecelia]

Looking through the guy’s Wikipedia page, that seems to be the biggest controversy of any consequence, except for being caught up in the World Patent Marketing scandal. That’s more than can be said for Sessions. Then again, I’m sure he’ll make up for lost time when he actually does the job.

He also disagrees with Marbury v. Madison, and has said that only Christians should be judges.  (And not "He said it 10 years ago in college!"  he said it just two years ago.  For both)