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Permalink Reply by Bmichael on
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Carrier Plant Where Trump 'Saved' Jobs Plans Layoffs
Harriet Sinclair - Newsweek - Tuesday, May 23, 2017
A plant where jobs were purportedly saved by Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration is set to make at least 600 staff cuts, many before Christmas.
Carrier had opted in December 2016 not to move a number of jobs to Mexico from its Indianapolis furnace factory, following a visit to the plant by Trump. The president claimed he had convinced Carrier to retain 1,100 jobs in Indianapolis rather than outsourcing them in Mexico. And of those 1,100 jobs Trump spoke of, 300 had reportedly never been threatened with a move to Mexico—meaning a total of 800 jobs had been saved.
But the company has since announced that at least 600 employees at the factory will still be laid off, with the final 290 job cuts coming just ahead of Christmas.
In a filing seen by CNN, the company announced it would be making an initial 338 job cuts in July, four in October and a further 290 jobs on December 22, just three days before Christmas.
During a press conference at Carrier, Trump said: “that big, big beautiful plant behind us… will be even more beautiful in about seven months from now. They're so happy. They're going to have a great Christmas. That's most important.
He added: “And that these companies aren't going to be leaving anymore. They're not going to be taking people's hearts out. They're not going to be announcing, like they did at Carrier, that they're closing up and they're moving to Mexico, over 1,100 jobs.
“And by the way, that number is going to go up very substantially as they expand this area, this plant. So the 1,100 is going to be a minimum number,” he said.
The plant said at the time the number of jobs saved was closer to 800, but explained it would be replacing some of the jobs that were saved with an automated system in order to save money, although CEO Greg Hayes did say there would be less money saved by the company in doing so than if they moved production to Mexico.
Carrier did not immediately respond to Newsweek’s request for comment.
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Permalink Reply by Carol T on
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Is there anything positive he won't take credit for, and anything negative he won't blame on someone else?
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Permalink Reply by Westerly_2 on
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The answer is an emphatic "No," sigh
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Excerpt from the Associated Press, June 1, 2017 regarding Donald McRonald's plan to pull the US from the Paris climate change accord :
Trump doesn't "comprehensively understand" the terms of the accord, though European leaders tried to explain the process for withdrawing to him "in clear, simple sentences" during summit meetings last week, Jean-Claude Juncker said in Berlin. "It looks like that attempt failed," Juncker said. "This notion, 'I am Trump, I am American, America first and I am getting out,' that is not going to happen."
The problem is that they didn't use pictures and diagrams to explain.
Congratulations, Mr. Precedent, now you've confirmed your ignorance to the rest of the world.
What a covfefe!
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Ha!
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Donald Trump Poisons the World
By DAVID BROOKS - The New York Times - Friday, June 2, 2017
Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of MSN or Microsoft.
This week, two of Donald Trump’s top advisers, H. R. McMaster and Gary Cohn, wrote the following passage in The Wall Street Journal: “The president embarked on his first foreign trip with a cleareyed outlook that the world is not a ‘global community’ but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage.”
That sentence is the epitome of the Trump project. It asserts that selfishness is the sole driver of human affairs. It grows out of a worldview that life is a competitive struggle for gain. It implies that cooperative communities are hypocritical covers for the selfish jockeying underneath.
The essay explains why the Trump people are suspicious of any cooperative global arrangement, like NATO and the various trade agreements. It helps explain why Trump pulled out of the Paris global-warming accord. This essay explains why Trump gravitates toward leaders like Vladimir Putin, the Saudi princes and various global strongmen: They share his core worldview that life is nakedly a selfish struggle for money and dominance.
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It explains why people in the Trump White House are so savage to one another. Far from being a band of brothers, their world is a vicious arena where staffers compete for advantage.
In the essay, McMaster and Cohn make explicit the great act of moral decoupling woven through this presidency. In this worldview, morality has nothing to do with anything. Altruism, trust, cooperation and virtue are unaffordable luxuries in the struggle of all against all. Everything is about self-interest.
We’ve seen this philosophy before, of course. Powerful, selfish people have always adopted this dirty-minded realism to justify their own selfishness. The problem is that this philosophy is based on an error about human beings and it leads to self-destructive behavior in all cases.
The error is that it misunderstands what drives human action. Of course people are driven by selfish motivations — for individual status, wealth and power. But they are also motivated by another set of drives — for solidarity, love and moral fulfillment — that are equally and sometimes more powerful.
People are wired to cooperate. Far from being a flimsy thing, the desire for cooperation is the primary human evolutionary advantage we have over the other animals.
People have a moral sense. They have a set of universal intuitions that help establish harmony between peoples. From their first moments, children are wired to feel each other’s pain. You don’t have to teach a child about what fairness is; they already know. There’s no society on earth where people are admired for running away in battle or for lying to their friends.
People have moral emotions. They feel rage at injustice, disgust toward greed, reverence for excellence, awe before the sacred and elevation in the face of goodness.
People yearn for righteousness. They want to feel meaning and purpose in their lives, that their lives are oriented toward the good.
People are attracted by goodness and repelled by selfishness. N.Y.U. social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has studied the surges of elevation we feel when we see somebody performing a selfless action. Haidt describes the time a guy spontaneously leapt out of a car to help an old lady shovel snow from her driveway.
One of his friends, who witnessed this small act, later wrote: “I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running, or skipping and laughing. Just being active. I felt like saying nice things about people. Writing a beautiful poem or love song. Playing in the snow like a child. Telling everybody about his deed.”
Good leaders like Lincoln, Churchill, Roosevelt and Reagan understand the selfish elements that drive human behavior, but they have another foot in the realm of the moral motivations. They seek to inspire faithfulness by showing good character. They try to motivate action by pointing toward great ideals.
Realist leaders like Trump, McMaster and Cohn seek to dismiss this whole moral realm. By behaving with naked selfishness toward others, they poison the common realm and they force others to behave with naked selfishness toward them.
By treating the world simply as an arena for competitive advantage, Trump, McMaster and Cohn sever relationships, destroy reciprocity, erode trust and eviscerate the sense of sympathy, friendship and loyalty that all nations need when times get tough.
By looking at nothing but immediate material interest, Trump, McMaster and Cohn turn America into a nation that affronts everybody else’s moral emotions. They make our country seem disgusting in the eyes of the world.
George Marshall was no idealistic patsy. He understood that America extends its power when it offers a cooperative hand and volunteers for common service toward a great ideal. Realists reverse that formula. They assume strife and so arouse a volley of strife against themselves.
I wish H. R. McMaster was a better student of Thucydides. He’d know that the Athenians adopted the same amoral tone he embraces: “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” The Athenians ended up making endless enemies and destroying their own empire.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.
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So is the author's opinion that all the people who voted for Trump have no moral compass? That seems wrong.
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I think many who voted for him thought that they were promised a better life - jobs, better health care, drained swamps, push-back on government interference in their lives. They were wrong.
Stores and businesses are failing, grass growing in the cracked sidewalks. They were desparate for someone to come along and fix it.
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I agree -- which is why I don't believe they have no moral compass. I don't believe the Trumpkin has one, but most of his supporters probably do.
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In Trump's White House, Everything's Coming in 'Two Weeks'
Toluse Olorunnipa - Bloomberg - Tuesday, June 6, 2017
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump has a plan. It’ll be ready in two weeks.
From overhauling the tax code to releasing an infrastructure package to making decisions on Nafta and the Paris climate agreement, Trump has a common refrain: A big announcement is coming in just “two weeks.” It rarely does.
On Feb. 9, Trump boasted that his administration was “way ahead of schedule” on a tax overhaul.
“We’re going to be announcing something I would say over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax and developing our aviation infrastructure,” Trump said while meeting with airline executives.
Eleven weeks elapsed before the White House released a one-page outline of the tax plan.
In an April 29 interview on “CBS This Morning” Trump said of his promised $1 trillion infrastructure construction program: “We’ve got the plan largely completed and we’ll be filing over the next two or three weeks -- maybe sooner,” Trump said.
No legislation has been filed. The White House has yet to outline the plan, beyond broad principles described in Trump’s proposed budget.
Self-Imposed Deadlines
Trump’s habit of self-imposing -- then missing -- two-week deadlines for major announcements has become a staple of his administration as it’s struggled to amass policy wins. The president has used two-week timelines to sidestep questions from reporters or brag to CEOs at the White House. But his pronouncements have also flummoxed investors, Congress and occasionally even members of his staff.
The president’s inability to meet his own deadlines highlights his struggle adjusting to the pace of Washington. It also foreshadows the trouble that lies ahead as his administration faces a series of hard deadlines in Congress over the next few months.
“The president and his team work around the clock to fulfill the promises he has made to the American people,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement listing some of Trump’s accomplishments as president. “There is no question that this administration has been turning the president’s promises into policy at a remarkable rate.”
It’s been 15 weeks since Trump promised an aviation infrastructure proposal in two weeks. Trump sent a set of ”principles” for overhauling the U.S. air-traffic control system to Congress on Monday.
Paris Deal
At an April 29 rally, Trump drew applause when he promised an imminent announcement on whether he’d keep the U.S. in a landmark global climate agreement.
“And I’ll be making a big decision on the Paris accord over the next two weeks,” Trump said in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
A month later, Trump was still weighing his decision. Top advisers said his thoughts continued to evolve. Trump announced his decision to pull the U.S. out of the agreement on June 1.
Trump’s penchant for casually announcing short deadlines without a plan to make good on them underscores his improvisational approach to the presidency, said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. Skills the one-time reality television star honed in New York’s impulse-driven media and real-estate circles haven’t translated well in the halls of Washington, Perry said.
“For someone who bills himself as the master of the art of the deal, well, where’s the art and where’s the deal?” she said. “Trump continues to be in campaign mode with a lot of promises that he’s not fulfilling.”
Campaign Bombast
Since taking office, Trump has continued to employ the bombast of his campaign, where he pitched voters a presidency full of easy wins and quick fixes. At various times, Trump has claimed to be “ahead of schedule” on building a border wall, fixing veterans’ health care, cutting taxes, repealing regulations and releasing a school-choice plan.
On June 1, Trump said tax legislation was “moving along in Congress,” although no such bill has been filed. When journalists have asked Trump about specific policy positions or the progress he’s made fulfilling his campaign promises, Trump has repeatedly retreated to his “two weeks” line.
“We’re going to make an announcement in two weeks,” Trump said in an April 5 interview with the New York Times, when asked his position on the Davis-Bacon law regulating wages on federally funded infrastructure projects. “It’s going to be good.’’
The Trump administration has made no announcement on the Davis-Bacon law.
In a March 15 interview on Fox News, Trump was asked about his March 4 tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson asked the president why he made the accusation without providing any evidence.
“I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks,” Trump said.
The White House has never produced evidence of illegal wiretapping by Obama. During a House Intelligence Committee hearing on March 20, top intelligence officials said there was no evidence supporting the president’s claim.
Art of Exaggeration
In his 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” Trump defended “an innocent form of exaggeration” as a useful negotiating strategy.
But he also offered a warning about over-promising and not delivering.
“You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole,” he wrote. “But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.”
Trump has recently taken his promotional approach abroad.
“We are doing very well in the fight against ISIS,” Trump said May 21 during a meeting in Saudi Arabia with the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah. “We’re going to be having a news conference in about two weeks to let everybody know how well we’re doing.”
Officials in the White House press office were unaware of plans for a news conference focused on the war against Islamic State militants.
Two weeks have passed. No news conference has been announced.
To contact the reporter on this story: Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning
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(Sighs) How long can this go on?
By Kathryn Watson CBS News June 11, 2017, 12:39 PM
"You're your own worst enemy here, Mr. President," Graham tells Trump
Last Updated Jun 11, 2017 12:56 PM EDT
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told President Trump that he is his "own worst enemy" when it comes to tweets that Graham says feed a "lynch mob" mentality in the press.
"All I can say is there's a lynch mob mentality about the Trump administration in the press," Graham said Sunday on CBS News' "Face the Nation." "They're about as fair as a lynch mob. But these tweets that he does feeds that lynch mob. You're your own worst enemy here, Mr. President. Knock it off."
Graham made the comments after a week in which the president has tweeted in response to fired FBI Director James Comey's explosive testimony. Since the testimony Thursday, Mr. Trump -- on Twitter -- has called Comey a "leaker" and described the former FBI director's decision to disclose memos of his conversations with the president "'cowardly.'" The president is also refusing to say whether there are tapes of his conversations with Comey, after the president hinted there might be in a tweet last month.
Graham said the president is "totally" getting in the way of his own agenda.
"Can you be a street fighter on all things all the time and still be a good president?" Graham said. "My advice to the president is every day you're talking about Jim Comey and not the American people and their needs and their desires, their hopes and their dreams, you're making a mistake."
When asked about comments Comey and Mr. Trump have made about each other, Graham said it's "more like a wrestling match than anything else."
"At the end of the day, he's got a good agenda," Graham said of the president. "But this does get in the way of it. So, the hearing was pretty good. No collusion with the Russians yet. I don't think obstruction of justice exists here. But every time you tweet about Comey, it's almost like the wait for the next wrestling match between Comey and Trump."
Graham also said that "what's so frustrating" for Republicans like him is, "You may be the first president in history to go down because you can't stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that if you just were quiet, would clear you."
Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wants to hear directly from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from investigations involving the Trump campaign. Sessions said Saturday he has agreed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, although members of the committee have said the details of his appearance are not yet finalized. It's unclear whether such testimony would take place in an open or closed setting.
Graham also wants former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to testify before the Senate, after Comey stated in his testimony that she asked Comey to call the FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email server a "matter," rather than an "investigation."
Graham said he sees "no evidence" that the president colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 election.
"He can't collude with his own government, why do you think he's colluding with the Russians?" Graham said.
But Graham also said Congress will pass a bill this week to "punish" Russia for meddling in American politics and politics across the globe. There is "overwhelming evidence that Russia is trying to destroy democracy here and abroad."
"We're gonna' punish the Russians," Graham said, adding that if the president doesn't sign the bill he would be "betraying democracy."
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