Posts Made By: James Lacey

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

Don’t buy the hysteria. President Trump is simply trying to pressure our biggest competitor to buy more American goods. That should be a good thing, even if you don’t like him.

The thing is Greg if fixing U.S. and China trade and investment relations was as easy as going it alone and imposing hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese imports, then why didn't anyone think of it or do it before? Is it that everyone else before Trump was just monumentally stupid, or is it that Trump truly has a simple solution to a complex problem? Given all available evidence, it seems pretty clear that what Trump is doing is not working; it's only making things worse. Maybe pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a colossal mistake. Maybe it would have made a lot more sense to stay in the TPP and form trade alliances that would have been able to effectively battle China's unfair trade practices and protected statuses it no longer deserves. Let's be honest, Trump pulled out of the TPP simply because his ultra-fragile ego couldn't handle the fact that the TPP was started under Obama. The man is a moron and the sooner we are rid of him, the better.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Fox's Chris Wallace get all over Mnuchin i today's exchange:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/recession-trump-mnuchin-china-trade-tariffs
Take a look at the Dow futures along side...

Here's the thing. The argument on the right seems to be, "The tariffs are tiny and of no real consequence, so quit thinking they are doing great harm to the economy." On the other hand, business confidence and the markets sure seem to think they are a big deal, and if they are of no consequence, then why have them at all? If they are of no effect, then why would they ever have the ability to affect China's behavior? All China is doing is going to other markets for soybeans, or corn, or pork or whatever it is they are looking to import. All Trump has done is destroyed specific commodity markets that were profitable for farmers like soybeans. But have no fear, soon he will strike a deal that returns everything to the status quo, and then he will declare victory. We have seen this script too many times.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

John Bolton bites it! He, along with a multitude of others, depart the TRUMP administration on less than amicable terms. 
Ah, yes, those distant echoes of TRUMP saying he's going to surround himself with the "best people"! It's like him saying we're going to have the biggest and the best health care insurance at the lowest cost. Or that perennial favorite of Greg, Mexico paid for the wall!!!

I suppose we can at least be grateful he didn't start another unnecessary foreign war before he left, but it is freaking hilarious to see Trump supporters spinning the sacking of Bolton as a positive outcome. We have no national security decision-making apparatus or strategy anymore. All we have is Trump's ego and the sycophants who daily try to make the messaging match Trump's mood du jour.

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

You guys do realize I'm talking about Trump and his tweet, not Obama. All I said was if Obama had tweeted the same thing you guys would have gone bananas. 

The double-standard is, of course, appalling, but nothing new for our local Trump apologists. Trump could shoot someone dead on 5th Avenue, and his base supporters would claim his impending murder trial was biased and a witch hunt perpetrated by the deep-state.

What is truly appalling is that Trump precipitated this crisis with Iran by reneging on a perfectly fine international nuclear deal with Iran. Why did he renege on the deal? Simply because his fragile narcissistic ego couldn't stand the fact that Obama and our allies brokered it. By reneging on that deal and declaring economic war on Iran, we now face a significant security challenge that was totally and completely preventable. Even worse, Trump has depleted our diplomatic capabilities, and if we wanted to broker some deal with Iran now, it would be all but impossible. It is mind-boggling to think that anyone could still support Trump when it comes to foreign policy. Not to mention that Trump has put himself in a disadvantageous position. Sure, let's start a shooting war with Iran and send gas prices sky-high and potentially trigger a recession. That will do wonders for his re-election chances. The man is a fraud of epic proportions.

Originally Posted by Mel Maki

Jim, how much leeway should presidents have when talking to other leaders? What if Trump told the N. Korean leader, "Make an agreement, join the world of nations, trade with them and it will make you filthy rich." The guy is a bastard and should our president tell him we will make him filthy rich? What if it got him to sign a good agreement? But not planeloads of cash at night with a road map to your first nuclear weapons some years down the road.

Mel,

Of course, the President has a lot of freedom when conducting foreign policy on behalf of the country. However, if it turns out that Trump was attempting to extort Zelensky to do some dirty work to help his re-election in exchange for military assistance approved by Congress, then I guarantee you Trump is about to get another special-counsel or at least an FBI investigation.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Ok, troll, Nobody in their right mind thinks "locked and loaded" has anything to do with petroleum products or anything other than what locked and loaded actually means. Meanwhile, Pompeo is calling the attack, "an act of war" while Trump is calling for more financial sanctions against Iran which is what Obama did...

This whole Iran thing is just nuts and completely unnecessary. Trump and his cabinet all said they were willing to meet with Iran without preconditions. Then when the media reported this easily verifiable fact, they cried foul and fake news. Why the non-sensical reversal when it's easy to find multiple accounts on video where Trump, Mnuchin, Pompeo and others all said that they would meet with Iran without preconditions? No one knows except that for Trump lying is as natural as breathing, and his policies seem to mostly be driven by whatever his daily whim happens to be. Trump is so desperate to make a deal with Iran that he's floated the idea of giving them a $15Bn line of credit to come back to the table. This bribe is far worse of a capitulation than simply unfreezing Iran's assets under JCPOA. So, why scrap a perfectly fine deal that the entire international community agreed to, and is still trying to honor, only to offer up an even bigger surrender than anything the JCPOA offered? It must be, as Britain's ambassador said, "an act of diplomatic vandalism," simply because his predecessor agreed to it. And to think that Trump voters still tell us that Hillary could not be trusted with our national security because of her emails.

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

Besides, Trump has already confessed on TV. 

The White House reaction so far has been incompetent to the point of being comical. For example, they sent a copy of their talking points on Trump/Ukraine to the House Democrats, and then once they realized their mistake followed up with a "recall" email asking them to please disregard the talking points. For people that are obsessed with emails, they sure don't seem to know how to use email well. Who actually believes that message recall works in email? 

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi James:

Since impeachment, plus removal from office by 2/3 of the Senate is not going to happen in either case, the tactical issue is, "how will this whole drama play with the small cohort of persuadable, on-the-fence Trump/Biden/Warren voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin?"   I don't have a clue about that. 

Jim

The whistle-blower complaint reportedly contains information about a systematic effort to conceal this military aid for political dirt scheme that is much bigger than one transcript of one "beautiful" phone call. Reportedly, there were multiple calls, and the calls had pre-conditions that investigating the Biden's had to be discussed. Additionally, it seems the White House was moving the records of the calls to a non-standard storage system. They knew what they were doing and were actively trying to conceal it. I have no clue how this will all play out either, but it's much larger than just the controlled release of one transcript of one phone call.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi Richard:

Have you read the complaint and partially redacted exhibit?  What do you think?  Jim

I've read them, and they are incredibly damning. The complaint alleges that White House lawyers have been stuffing politically troubling records of presidential calls into highly classified storage to hide them from scrutiny throughout Trump's Presidency. The complaint cites multiple US officials who can independently corroborate the charges. Trump has been using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election, and now we know where all the evidence can be found. Trump is so fucked.

Originally Posted by Greg Shaffer

https://nypost.com/2019/09/26/the-trump-ukraine-whistleblower-complaint-looks-just-like-steele-dossier-2-0/?utm_campaign=iosapp&utm_source=facebook_app&fbclid=IwAR2UrCQztr-oG9SNnF-3sWTXZ3YjVs-JPkq7pSgtOOXXEwEWlNHR-lXXMas

What we have here is yet another nothing burger all you dims and Trump haters.....let down again huh?

Nothing has changed but the mantra....it was "RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA" which of course fell flat on its face.....Now its "UKRAINE UKRAINE UKRAINE" which from all indications is falling flat again. My heart is bleeding purple panther piss for you SNORT!!

The New York Post is a daily newspaper in New York City. The Post also operates the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com and the entertainment site Decider.com, and co-produces the television show Page Six TV. The modern version of the paper is published in tabloid format.

It's a tabloid for crying out loud. You might as well link an article from the National Enquirer.