SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on May 15, 2018 7:05:23 GMT -5
"Best people" -- just another fake tough guy. It's a shame (but not unexpected) that Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress do nothing about it. Besides, Pruitt missed out on serving in the military in his youth to set up a “Christian Legal Services” firm — presumably built around the core values of integrity, transparency, and thrift that he’s brought to his not-at-all contentious tenure at the EPA. Who knows? Maybe he can find a CH-53 to take him on his final ride out of Washington when he’s finally sh*tcanned. Or rather, if he’s ever sh*tcanned. taskandpurpose.com/epa-chief-scott-pruitt-taking-blackhawk-helos-battlefield-circs-now/
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2018 8:59:50 GMT -5
1) China invests in a Trump project. 2) Trump orders rescue for Chinese gov't-owned phone maker. 3) WH refers questions to Trump Organization, Trump's family business.
Trump’s lawyer Sheri Dillon:
Oh....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2018 9:23:48 GMT -5
Latz: Israel has right to defend itself. Every nation does. I pray the government will use non-fatal measures with protestors. Too much Israeli blood. Too much Palestinian blood. Too many grieving. Too many tears.
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SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on May 15, 2018 9:30:04 GMT -5
The chaos Presidency continues: Senior U.S. officials struggled Monday to explain and act on President Trump’s abrupt decision to rescue Chinese telecom giant ZTE — a move that caught many of them by surprise. ZTE said last week that it would shutter major operations after the United States announced punitive measures in response to the company’s failure to comply with a settlement of charges for violating sanctions on Iran and North Korea. But Sunday, in a stunning reversal that officials said came without a formal policy process at the White House, Trump tweeted that he had ordered Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to save ZTE from collapse, saying the company’s failure would cost too many jobs in China. The rapidly changing U.S. position highlights the stakes — and the confusion — ahead of crucial negotiations Tuesday between Trump’s senior economic team and a Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He. After Trump’s Sunday tweet, White House officials spent much of the next 24 hours attempting to walk back his statement, saying ZTE’s fate would ultimately be left up to a review by Ross. And Monday afternoon, Ross insisted in a speech at the National Press Club that ZTE would not be a factor in the trade talks, saying, “Our position has been that that’s an enforcement action separate from trade.” Just three hours later, Trump tweeted again, contradicting Ross’s statement that the issues would be kept apart. www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trumps-zte-tweet-sows-confusion-before-trade-talks-with-china/2018/05/14/d2cd049c-57b4-11e8-8836-a4a123c359ab_story.html?utm_term=.4ba9899bd392
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TC
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Post by TC on May 15, 2018 11:29:08 GMT -5
Which part of it is "America First" when you bail out a Chinese firm ostensibly to save Chinese jobs but really because a Chinese bank lent some money to an Indonesian firm that brands properties with your name?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2018 12:04:53 GMT -5
Which part of it is "America First" when you bail out a Chinese firm ostensibly to save Chinese jobs but really because a Chinese bank lent some money to an Indonesian firm that brands properties with your name? The "Trump First" part. It's in the paragraph before the America First section....
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SSHoya
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Post by SSHoya on May 15, 2018 12:18:52 GMT -5
And you thought Trump was fighting for YOU?? He's only for himself and his corrupt family and friends. The Grifter-in-Chief. THE BIG IDEA: President Trump sometimes seems impervious to the second and third order consequences of his decisions.
Several recent developments have highlighted the unintended — though often foreseeable — consequences the president’s policies are having on his own supporters. In many cases, he’s following through on campaign promises — like cutting the flow of immigrants, renegotiating trade deals and rolling back regulations put in place by Barack Obama. But in the deeply interconnected global economy, the devil is always in the details and the implementation of some policies may do more to hurt than help the people who put their faith in him to fix their problems. Here are four examples: -- Small business owners who voted for Trump might be forced to shut down because the president is making it harder for them to hire guest workers. Here’s a story that appeared over the weekend in the Herald Leader of Lexington, Ky.:“Eddie Devine voted for [Trump] because he thought he would be good for American business. Now, he says, the Trump administration’s restrictions on seasonal foreign labor may put him out of business. ‘I feel like I’ve been tricked by the devil,’ said Devine, owner of … Devine Creations Landscaping. ‘I feel so stupid.’ Devine says it has been years since he could find enough dependable, drug-free American workers for his $12-an-hour jobs mowing and tending landscapes for cemeteries, shopping centers and apartment complexes across Central Kentucky. So for years he has hired 20 seasonal workers, mostly from Guatemala, through the U.S. Labor Department’s H2-B ‘guest worker’ program. Importing these workers for a few months cost him an additional $18,000 in fees and expenses beyond their wages, which must be the same as he pays American workers. But that’s the only way he could serve his customers. “Restrictions on guest-worker visas, which began during President Barack Obama’s second term as immigration became a hot issue for conservatives, have gotten worse under Trump. And it’s even more of a problem now that the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in years. Devine says he lost a $100,000 account because he didn’t have enough men to do the job. … “He isn’t alone. Cuts in H-2B visas are hurting small businesses across the country that can’t find Americans willing to do hard, manual labor: Maryland crab processors, Texas shrimp fishermen, and Kentucky landscapers and construction companies. Devine said he believed Trump’s America-first promises. But cutting off a good supply of seasonal foreign labor when Americans won’t take those jobs is only hurting American business owners and the U.S. workers they employ, he said. These workers aren’t immigrants, and there is no path to U.S. citizenship. When their seasonal work is done, they return home. That’s why Devine thinks the Trump administration’s stifling of guest-worker programs has more to do with racism than economics. ‘I think there’s a war on brown people,’ he said. “But what makes him most angry is that Trump’s properties in Florida and New York have used 144 H-2B workers since 2016. ‘I want to know why it’s OK for him to get his workers, but supporters like me don’t get theirs,’ Devine said.” -- General Motors is cutting its second shift at the Lordstown Assembly plant outside of Youngtown, Ohio, next month. The move could cost 1,500 jobs at the 3,000-employee plant that builds the Chevrolet Cruze. This is in the heart of the Mahoning Valley, long a Democratic stronghold that broke toward Trump in 2016 because of his popularity with the kinds of blue-collar workers who are about to lose their jobs or reluctantly take buyouts.GM says it’s downsizing because there is “lower customer demand for compact cars.” The plant already downsized last year, moving from three shifts to two, partly because consumers are buying more crossovers, SUVs and trucks at the expense of smaller vehicles. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who represents the plant, blames reduced demand, and the pending layoffs, on Trump’s decision to scrap fuel efficiency standards — which the auto companies did not want. “While low gas prices paved the way for the decline of compact cars … Trump’s April announcement to weaken fuel economy standards put his thumb on the scale in favor of the larger cars and SUV’s made elsewhere, hurting our community specifically,” the congressman said in a statement last Friday. “The truth is, the fuel economy standards help sell more Chevy Cruzes.” -- Ironically, gas prices might go up because Trump pulled out of the Iranian nuclear agreement last week. (Iran is the world’s fifth-biggest oil producer.)
-- The president’s decision to pull out of the Iran deal, and reimpose sanctions, will cost Boeing contracts worth as much as $20 billion to replenish Iran’s aging fleet of commercial planes. The Chicago-based aerospace giant downplayed the impact last week, noting that there’s already a backlog of orders for 737 aircraft so production won’t slow. But $20 billion in planes represents quite a lot of manufacturing work. Those jobs will now go to other countries — specifically Russia. “Russian aircraft makers, who can skirt the U.S. sanctions, are already working on deals,” the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. “A Russian aircraft maker is exploring plans to make a modified version of its Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional airliner so Iranian airlines can buy the jet.” -- The trade war with China is increasing uncertainty for farmers and may still lead to punishing retaliatory tariffs.
China buys 60 percent of all U.S. soybean exports, and growers of the crop could be pressed hard if the administration cannot cut a deal with Beijing. Soybean-producing counties went for Trump by a margin of more than 12 percent in 2016. Dave Walton, who voted for Trump and tends soybeans, corn and livestock in eastern Iowa, is not sure his farm could take the added stress. “If this turns into a longer-term thing, we’re going to see friends and neighbors go out of business,” he told Caitlin Dewey last month. “If this stretches into years, we ourselves won’t be able to sustain it.” Walton’s 800-acre farm, in his family for 118 years, has already been struggling to stay above water with falling crop prices, and tariffs could make profitability difficult. “Right now, soybean growers in Iowa and across the nation are encouraging the administration to engage positively with China,” he said. And if that doesn’t happen, he added: “Iowa leads the nation in many things. The presidential election is one of them.” www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/05/15/daily-202-trump-supporters-suffer-unintended-consequences-of-his-policies/5afa0c8830fb0425887994fd/?utm_term=.ca01715ff648
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tashoya
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Post by tashoya on May 15, 2018 14:24:23 GMT -5
In a sense, I feel for those people whose businesses are struggling. But, at the same time, it was easy to see the writing on the wall for the landscapers, crabbers and the auto industry. With regard to the auto industry, maybe those building the compact cars will benefit from rising fuel prices but it will be directly at the expense of those building the larger vehicles as it will be up to the manufacturers to make more efficient SUVs and they rarely act until they've sustained significant losses. As for the soybean farmers, I would assume that trade policies regarding China would have been a huge factor in securing their vote in the 2016 election. Why they'd have chosen Trump is baffling.
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SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on May 16, 2018 5:47:47 GMT -5
How's that Nobel Peace Prize working out for you? Professor Gordon Chang noted that Kim's blast at the US and threat to withdraw from the summit came in the immediate aftermath of Trump's reversal of his own Commerce Department sanctions against ZTE and loss of jobs ("Too many jobs in China lost") which Trump wishes to protect ($500 million to Indonesian project which includes Trump-branded properties). Not to mention the USIC's assessment that ZTE (as well as Huawei) are threats to US national security.
Chang also noted that oil and energy prices in North Korea have recently dropped indicating that the PRC is loosening its alleged sanctions against North Korea.
IOW, Trump is being played by both the PRC and the DPRK.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 7:43:20 GMT -5
How's that Nobel Peace Prize working out for you? Professor Gordon Chang noted that Kim's blast at the US and threat to withdraw from the summit came in the immediate aftermath of Trump's reversal of his own Commerce Department sanctions against ZTE and loss of jobs ("Too many jobs in China lost") which Trump wishes to protect ($500 million to Indonesian project which includes Trump-branded properties). Not to mention the USIC's assessment that ZTE (as well as Huawei) are threats to US national security. Chang also noted that oil and energy prices in North Korea have recently dropped indicating that the PRC is loosening its alleged sanctions against North Korea. IOW, Trump is being played by both the PRC and the DPRK. The Art of the Deal
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Elvado
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Post by Elvado on May 16, 2018 7:45:46 GMT -5
How's that Nobel Peace Prize working out for you? Professor Gordon Chang noted that Kim's blast at the US and threat to withdraw from the summit came in the immediate aftermath of Trump's reversal of his own Commerce Department sanctions against ZTE and loss of jobs ("Too many jobs in China lost") which Trump wishes to protect ($500 million to Indonesian project which includes Trump-branded properties). Not to mention the USIC's assessment that ZTE (as well as Huawei) are threats to US national security. Chang also noted that oil and energy prices in North Korea have recently dropped indicating that the PRC is loosening its alleged sanctions against North Korea. IOW, Trump is being played by both the PRC and the DPRK. The Art of the Deal It would certainly appear Trump is getting worked here. God knows we don’t need another half-baked deal with bad guys...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 9:03:30 GMT -5
This morning I wrote a piece on the poor state of transatlantic relations. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44128158 … This afternoon Donald Tusk illustrated just how poor. President of the European Council
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 10:01:21 GMT -5
Why is everybody so slow... Lol
Saudi's and China have been throwing cash at Trump the moment he was sworn in. They don't sense weakness, they know like everybody else with half a brain knows that if you want Trump to do something, throw him a couple dollars and/or flatter him... Not hard.....
I guarantee they already sensed this. Good for them I doubt Trump views lining his own pockets as a weakness...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 10:50:55 GMT -5
It would certainly appear Trump is getting worked here. God knows we don’t need another half-baked deal with bad guys... How could we possibly end up in a half-baked deal when the greatest dealmaker in the history of deals is in charge?
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Elvado
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Post by Elvado on May 16, 2018 10:55:45 GMT -5
It would certainly appear Trump is getting worked here. God knows we don’t need another half-baked deal with bad guys... How could we possibly end up in a half-baked deal when the greatest dealmaker in the history of deals is in charge? We have had them before on the watch of the man who was going to lower the seas and heal the planet, so I discount no bad alternative...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 11:07:14 GMT -5
How could we possibly end up in a half-baked deal when the greatest dealmaker in the history of deals is in charge? ...the man who was going to lower the seas and heal the planet... I just searched on Amazon and can't seem to find Barack Obama's famous book "The Art of Lowering the Seas and Healing the Planet." Send me a copy if you have an extra one around the house.
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Elvado
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Post by Elvado on May 16, 2018 11:12:16 GMT -5
...the man who was going to lower the seas and heal the planet... I just searched on Amazon and can't seem to find Barack Obama's famous book "The Art of Lowering the Seas and Healing the Planet." Send me a copy if you have an extra one around the house. [b Have you already forgotten his descent from Olympus in Denver?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 11:24:43 GMT -5
I just searched on Amazon and can't seem to find Barack Obama's famous book "The Art of Lowering the Seas and Healing the Planet." Send me a copy if you have an extra one around the house. [b Have you already forgotten his descent from Olympus in Denver? Was that the time when he gave the speech proclaiming that he alone could fix all the problems in this country?
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Elvado
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Post by Elvado on May 16, 2018 11:32:47 GMT -5
[b Have you already forgotten his descent from Olympus in Denver? Was that the time when he gave the speech proclaiming that he alone could fix all the problems in this country? No he was going to fix the whole planet...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2018 11:59:19 GMT -5
How could we possibly end up in a half-baked deal when the greatest dealmaker in the history of deals is in charge? We have had them before on the watch of the man who was going to lower the seas and heal the planet, so I discount no bad alternative... Can you tell me what your issue was with the Iran deal without snark? I'm legit curious... Don't think we can expect any President, Trump included, to get everything we want considering it's a deal between multiple nations...
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