[tw2113]

Anyone heard of any asteroids or something similar that should take out humanity as we know it? We could use it.

[Skuj]

I know I've said this before, but, whatever......

Trump should be impeached for this evening's tweetstorm alone. It's full of bullshit, which of course he will not explain or answer to. Just getting these lies out is enough for this asshole. This fucking moron who is clearly unfit for the job, and is destroying the country.

Additionally, he is clearly in panic mode now. He knows what Cohen and Mueller has. This next two weeks is going to be very ugly, and very enlightening.

This is the real turning point, folks.

[The Soup Nazi]

If Cohen tells/has already told Mueller that Trump OK'd the meeting with the Russians at Drumpf Tower, it should be game over IF THE UNITED STATES WEREN'T CHOCK-FULL OF IDIOTS. Too big of an if, Skuj.

[The Soup Nazi]

Zakaria's latest:

THE TRUMP TWO-STEP STRIKES AGAIN

Listen closely. That sound you heard at Wednesday's joint news conference between the presidents of the European Commission and the United States was Donald Trump backtracking once again. This has become a familiar routine. It goes something like this: Begin by hurling insults at the other side, some of which have a basis in reality but are mostly wild exaggerations. Threaten extreme consequences. Then meet with the other side, backpedal and triumphantly announce that you have saved the world from a crisis that your rhetoric and actions caused in the first place. Call it the Trump two-step.

Think about Trump's actions with regard to North Korea. He began by calling Kim Jong Un "a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people" and threatening "fire and fury . . . the likes of which this world has never seen before." He solved his own crisis by making unilateral concessions to Kim and gushing about how the North Korean people "love" their absolute dictator and how he, Trump, trusts him. The same pattern applies with the European Union, which he only recently described as "worse than our enemies." Now, he tells us, after meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, that the E.U. and America truly "love each other." Expect to hear a similar climb-down on China one of these days.

For Trump, there is no cost to this strategy, because his words are weightless. He starts with what he described in "The Art of the Deal" as "truthful hyperbole" (as opposed to the many outright falsehoods that he also tells) and then, when confronted, adjusts to something closer to reality.

There are those who assert that Trump's seemingly bizarre and unpredictable behavior is actually all part of a canny and wise strategy, that he is playing a kind of four-dimensional chess, operating in space-time. Well, if so, he is getting beaten badly here on Earth. In none of these situations has he actually been able to extract real concessions. His usual approach is to announce something vague, as with North Korea and the trade talks with Europe, or something already in place, such as NATO members' promise to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024, and claim it as a victory.

But there is a cost to this bluster and flip-flopping. Trump is creating a reputation for the United States as erratic, unpredictable, unreliable and fundamentally hostile to the global order. Leader after leader in Europe has made this clear. George Osborne told me that when he was Britain's finance minister, you knew "the United States president had your back." Neither Britain nor any other country can be sure of this anymore. As Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, put it, "With friends like that who needs enemies[?] . . . We [realize] that if you need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm."

Economist Adam S. Posen argues that countries are now bypassing the United States and constructing a "post-American world economy." You can see this in the flurry of trade agreements that don't include the United States, from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was signed minus America, to the trade deal the E.U. just struck with Japan. Many others are in the works.

The most dramatic indication of the world sidestepping the United States, Posen says, is the decline in foreign investment. "It's fallen off a cliff," he told me. On average, net foreign investment into the United States has dropped by half since 2016. "The decline is all the more worrying," Posen writes in Foreign Affairs, "since many factors should have been pushing direct investment in the United States up this year. The massive fiscal stimulus passed by Congress should have increased [foreign investment] in three ways: by boosting spending, which increases U.S. growth prospects; by making the tax code more favorable to production in the United States; and by cutting the corporate tax rate."

Perhaps some of the decline in investment is part of a longer-term trend — other countries are growing faster than the United States. But for decades, that reality has been countered by another reality — that among the world's rich nations, the United States was unique in having good growth prospects coupled with stable, predictable, pro-market policies. Trump's attacks on trade and allies, his willingness to punish and reward individual companies, and his general unreliability all add up to a picture of policymaking that looks more like that of an erratic developing country run by a strongman. The difference is, America's strongman has the power to disrupt the entire global economy.

(c) 2018, Washington Post Writers Group

https://fareedzakaria.com/columns/20...-strikes-again

[The Soup Nazi]

Here we go:

Rudy Giuliani just obliterated the goal posts on Trump-Russia collusion

"I don't even know if that's a crime — colluding with Russians," Giuliani said on CNN. "Hacking is the crime. The president didn't hack. He didn't pay for the hacking."

No, seriously, HE DID SAY THAT.

[h8kurdt]

No collision

[h8kurdt]

No collision

[ilduclo]

Patriot Prayer's Portland rally site could allow supporters to bring guns

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/...and_rally.html

[The Soup Nazi]

From CNN:

Donald Trump didn't tell the whole truth about the Russia investigation 7 times in 1 tweet

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by ilduclo

Patriot Prayer's Portland rally site could allow supporters to bring guns

Your boys antifa are calling for people to come and bring guns to assault the free speech people with whom they disagree.



it is funny you don't see antifa at bohemian grove or at the fed or at bank of americas, they are just focused on physically attacking other americans exercising free speech. it is telling that the crew on this board that constantly attack me promote this kind of violence against peaceable people exercising freedom of speech.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Fareed Zakaria

This has become a familiar routine. It goes something like this: Begin by hurling insults at the other side, some of which have a basis in reality but are mostly wild exaggerations. Threaten extreme consequences. Then meet with the other side, backpedal and triumphantly announce that you have saved the world from a crisis that your rhetoric and actions caused in the first place. Call it the Trump two-step.

Think about Trump's actions with regard to North Korea. He began by calling Kim Jong Un "a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people" and threatening "fire and fury . . . the likes of which this world has never seen before." He solved his own crisis by making unilateral concessions to Kim and gushing about how the North Korean people "love" their absolute dictator and how he, Trump, trusts him. The same pattern applies with the European Union, which he only recently described as "worse than our enemies." Now, he tells us, after meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, that the E.U. and America truly "love each other." Expect to hear a similar climb-down on China one of these days.

And here we go again:

Trump says he would certainly meet Iran's Rouhani

[Skuj]

Why the fuck would Iran come to the table now, after Trump nixed the deal? Who should trust in American deal-making now?

By the way, how's that whole Iran nuclear thing going ever since Trump nixed the deal? Are we safer now?

How about Kim and NK? Everything working out?

I see Intelligence in my job. I can assure anyone who thinks that I am not Fake News that both of those dealings made things worse, not better.

[Skuj]

Worst of all, if Trump actually paid attention to the PDB, he would understand that he fucked up on both accounts.

But, he doesn't care about reality. Perception is everything.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Why the fuck would Iran come to the table now, after Trump nixed the deal? Who should trust in American deal-making now?

How about Kim and NK? Everything working out?

Oh, things are just

 

:

North Korea reportedly appears to be building one or two new intercontinental missiles

https://news.google.com/stories/CAAq...S&ceid=US%3Aen

Pompeo lists conditions for talks with Iran, just hours after Trump said he had no 'preconditions'

https://news.google.com/stories/CAAq...S&ceid=US%3Aen

 

This shitshow is off the fuckin' charts.

[Skuj]

Mattis always looks exhausted, and Kelly always looks embarrassed.

One of the great mysteries of our time is, how did so many seemingly very intelligent people sell their souls to Trumpism?

I think Pompeo is a very intelligent guy, who knows better, but he has chosen this path.

Why?

How?

[ilduclo]

not Pompeo. He's deep in the Tea Party racist wing of the R party. And also a military industrial guy. He's a creep as are the 2 generals you're citing.

[!@#$%!]

so general r. kelly is gonna stay with la trompeta's golden shower show till the end of his days, embarrassment or not

[Rob Instigator]

Trump is making all the millionaires and billionaires on both supposed "sides" tons of fucking money, and he will be making them more and more, especially if he manages to change the capital gains tax rules. The moment someone's personal wealth becomes more important than the collective good, that person becomes a Trumper.

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

The moment someone's personal wealth becomes more important than the collective good, that person becomes a Trumper.

"Collective Good" is an illusion. I used to believe in it, but personal experience, for instance on this board, has proven to me it is bullshit.

I'm not going to work today for the "Collective Good" - I'm going to work for my own self interest.

I'm not going to work today so the homeless can lay around jerking off in the subways, although this is what the "Resistance" considers normal. Of course, this "Resistance" thinks standing around in large groups turning on their cell phone lights at the same time is social change!

[tw2113]

I've generally reasoned that I don't necessarily want handouts, I want an infrastructure and the tools in place for anyone of any social level, to use to pull themselves up in society, for those wanting to work for it. The opportunities to move up the economic and social ladders. I also accept and believe that we need a baseline/minimal "safety net" for those who simply do not have the ability to, whether it be physical or mental.