Eliot A Cohen @EliotACohen
After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. They're angry, arrogant, screaming "you LOST!" Will be ugly.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

pacino wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:

pacino wrote:woody, i'm sure whoever is in charge of the EPA come January 2017 will take this #$!&@ seriously. we will come together as a country and we will make sure we stick to our agreements with the rest of the world and that they stick to theirs.

OK, now that I have that out of my system... The EU might enact a carbon tax on the US if we pull out of the Paris Agreement.

a source to Reuters says he may try to scrap it all:

The source said the future Trump administration is weighing alternatives to accelerate the pull-out: sending a letter withdrawing from the 1992 international framework accord that is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement; voiding U.S. involvement in both in a year's time; or issuing a presidential order simply deleting the U.S. signature from the Paris accord.

Withdrawing from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) would be controversial, partly because it was signed by former Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and approved by the U.S. Senate. The action also could antagonize many other countries. [L8N1DB41L]

The UNFCCC sets a goal of avoiding "dangerous" man-made damage to the climate to avert more heat waves, downpours, floods, extinctions of animals and plants and rising sea levels.

The 2015 Paris Agreement is much more explicit, seeking to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of the century and limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

I'm pretty sure (~80%) that the President cannot unilaterally pull out of a treaty that was approved by Congress and ratified.

Congress wouldn't even vote on a goddamn action in Syria that a President they hate initiated, you think they'll stop this?

See my edit. The thing that would stop him would be the penalties assessed against the US for a treaty violation. I have no idea what they are, but I'm guessing it's things like other countries assessing taxes and penalties on us.

JFLNYC wrote:I imagine the Republican response to international penalties would be: Just try to collect.

"Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him," Williams told The Hill in a phone call.

"Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

CalvinBall wrote:he ran for president! and presumably those feelings were true when he did that because he still has no government experience.

“He’s an ‘African’ American. He was, you know, raised white,” said the world-renowned neurosurgeon, whose single mother worked three jobs – and occasionally relied on government aid – to elevate Carson and his older brother from the grinding poverty of ghetto life.
“I mean, like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected, but … he didn’t grow up like I grew up … Many of his formative years were spent in Indonesia. So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch.”
Carson also suggested that what passes for racism now – in the age of Ferguson and Freddie Gray – isn’t comparable to the overt discrimination he encountered a half-century ago as a young man.
“Remember now, I’ve been around for 64 years, you know,” he added. “I’ve had a chance to see what real racism is.”

NBC Nightly News @NBCNightlyNews
NEW: Source: Trump transition team undergoing "Stalinesque purge of people close" to Gov. Christie. http://nbcnews.to/2fUqIKF

"Christie was demoted bc he wasn't seen as sufficiently loyal to Trump, failing to vocally defend him at key moments on the campaign trail."

Soren wrote:Yea I'm sure comparing Trump internal politics to one of the most brutal dictators of all time is exactly what is going to help break down the barriers between liberals and moderate conservatives.