> Trump acted on a recommendation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

Seems legit.

I know we all love to bash Trump, but he might not be entirely evil. Sometimes he's not treated fairly, that said it's all well deserved that's for sure :)

Or, his random chaotic approach may accidentally do the right thing sometimes out of shear probability. A broken clock is right at least twice a day, a random clock is right randomly.

Or, he isn't operating on a random chaotic approach.

No rational person actually believe that POTUS really is 'random' and 'chaotic'.

This type of comment has no purpose except as a cheap shot at a disliked president. It simply lowers the S/N ratio and brings HN closer to reddit.

Also, correct spelling is 'sheer'.

Speak for yourself. Trump acts almost entirely on impulse which is close enough to random.

In fact, he described his own thought processes perfectly in the quote: "I don't stand by anything." [1]

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/05/...

As everyone here is saying the merger would create too much concentration and not enough competition, but that's not the justification that the White House put forward. They said national security which seems far-fetched.

If the merger had gone through, and national security was a concern, I'd imagine someone could make good, reliable money by manufacturing chips in the US for the government at a small scale.

National security here is an excuse to stick it to China.

Many problems with this post.

First, you're assuming that Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but it is very difficult to differentiate between 'please go away with your bullshit because it is distracting' agreement, and a 'here is some money so you don't talk' agreement. If you have special insight into this matter that has not been reported on, please do share it.

Second, you're saying he is 'completely devoid of ethics and morals' because he allegedly cheated on his wife when she was pregnant. Has no one with morals or ethics ever cheated on their wife? Do you lose your ethics and morals by cheating on your wife, or are they just never there?

Finally, let's assume this did happen. Do you know the relationship status of Donald and Melania? What if they both agreed to have a sexually open marriage before they got married? It wouldn't be too out of left field - Trump was a known playboy.

The length Trump supporters will go to spin his behavior. Cheating on a pregnant wife is now acceptable.

Personal attacks are not allowed on HN, regardless of how wrong someone may be. Would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here?

Please try to make a point in this discussion instead of contentless ad hominems, and I'll respond to it. It may be hard, but I'll be here for you when you finally make it.

Please don't respond to a hostile comment with another hostile comment. That just makes this place worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> First, you're assuming that Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but it is very difficult to differentiate between 'please go away with your bullshit because it is distracting' agreement, and a 'here is some money so you don't talk' agreement. If you have special insight into this matter that has not been reported on, please do share it.

I'll bet you a dollar he did, happy to negotiate terms.

> Second, you're saying he is 'completely devoid of ethics and morals' because he allegedly cheated on his wife when she was pregnant. Has no one with morals or ethics ever cheated on their wife? Do you lose your ethics and morals by cheating on your wife, or are they just never there?

Equivocation.

> Finally, let's assume this did happen. Do you know the relationship status of Donald and Melania? What if they both agreed to have a sexually open marriage before they got married? It wouldn't be too out of left field - Trump was a known playboy.

Everyone knows it was and remains a business transaction.

> Everyone knows it was and remains a business transaction.

Then why would having sex outside of a loveless, business-transaction of marriage make you 'completely devoid of morals and ethics' as OP indicated?

Boy, I'm impressed with all this insider Trump knowledge that has been coming out in this thread. All of you guys should get together and hand these stories to Michael Wolff, as they all exist with approximately the same level of vetting.

So, are we betting a dollar or not?

Sure, I bet on coin flips, so why not? If you're willing to transact over XLM?

Let's say the bet comes due Nov 7, 2018(day after midterms)?

Also, please keep in mind that the point of my post is that it is unknown if Trump slept with Stormy Daniels, and even if he did, you still don't know what arrangement if any exists between Melania and Donald to be able to say that he is "completely devoid of ethics and morals"

Don't care about the point of your post, and I made no value / moral / ethical judgment in my reply regardless.

You just agreed to a bet. I said "bet you a dollar he did" and you said "sure."

I agree - my point was that the bet and the point of my post were orthogonal. It was not intended to have any kind of consequence on our bet.

You go from trump cheating on his Wife to being funded. If we take the first bit away this is basically every single president and politician America has had for god knows how Long and will continue to have for ever. No decision is made because it’s the right decision. They are made cos someone slips an envelope under the table.

Just because you and your social group continually assert in any marginally relevant forum that Trump is "completely devoid of ethics" and a "completely evil man"(to take two choice quotes from this thread) doesn't make it true - no matter how much you wish for it.

Just to be clear, we're talking about the same guy that settled a fraud case for $25M right as he was taking office and said that the judge on the case couldn't be fair because he's of Mexican decent.

Don’t forget the $30M bribe son-in-law Kushner received while acting as a member of the administration, or the money he’s been funneling into criminal organizations. Just search for:

Kushner israel money

Do we really need to be clear, or are you just trying to make a poor point about a legal strategy that was used by his lawyers?

Also, I wasn't aware that a settlement was an admission of guilt. Why are you treating it as such? Does no innocent person ever settle?

Does doing something as a legal strategy automatically make it ethical?

Would you not say that it is fair (if not correct), based on Trump's history of other questionable ethics (birtherism, infidelity, lying), to assume that his settlement is likely evidence of further unethical behavior? Or should we use the court system as the infallible dispenser of all truth and ethics? If so, I think the American public owes O.J. an apology.

I'm not attempting to take sides, but the judge was documented to be heavily involved in the local Mexican community, which certainly could suggest a bias in judgment against a president who wanted to build a wall to stop illegal immigration from Mexico.

I would say that it is tenuous at best.

The validity of both arguments assume the existence of evil. That is not a given.

Unless you were born on February 29.

It has happened 4 times before, once by the current administration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Foreign_Investmen...

My previous employer (Sourcefire) was blocked from being bought by Checkpoint by CFIUS. Though the president didn't sign an order, the deal got a lot of scrutiny and likely would have been blocked.

https://www.securityfocus.com/news/11382

I wonder how many cases there were like this.