The Donald Trump Score Card

Colin Powell on trump
Powell Says Trump Constitution Reads 'Me The President'

 

That's a lot of damage-control welfare checks for Trump to hand out.


Trump tariffs sting farmers, businesses from sea to shining sea
By DOUG PALMER
08/01/2018 07:09 PM EDT

Trump tariffs sting farmers, businesses from sea to shining sea

excerpt:

KANSAS — $361 million of exports threatened by retaliatory tariffs

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Lost sales of mead, lobster

TENNESSEE — Canceled home appliance plant expansion

MAINE — Bleacher manufacturer caught in a price squeeze

ALASKA — Salmon, cod and shellfish jobs put at risk

ARKANSAS — Hardwood lumber mills losing China sales

WEST VIRGINIA — Auto supply chain vulnerabilities

DELAWARE — Prospect of lost chicken sales to South Africa

WASHINGTON STATE — Apples, cherries and pears caught in the crossfire

TEXAS — Hitting cattle and dairy farmers at a bad time

MINNESOTA — Three biggest agricultural export markets threatened by tariffs

MONTANA — Indebted young farmers worried about the future

NEW JERSEY — Bitten by South Korean steel quota restrictions

MARYLAND — Forking out big bucks, and time, for tariff exclusion requests

FLORIDA — Frustrated by government bureaucrats

 

The right will blame Hillary, Obama, and George Soros, as ususal.

 

A 1950s Approach to 21st Century Issues
The tariffs discussion is important but distracts from confronting other pressing economic issues.
By James Warren, Contributing Editor for Opinion
March 7, 2018, at 2:15 p.m.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/econ...nald-trump-doesnt-get-about-trade-and-tariffs

excerpt:

"But what people forget is that our open capital markets mean that we are selling assets. Simply put, the rest of the world buys our assets. The trade deficit is what happens when the world is selling us more stuff precisely because they are buying some of our assets. They help fund Apple and Google and the same municipal debt that builds our bridges, or funds kids' educations if a family is borrowing.

"When we say let's get rid of the trade deficit, we are saying let's stop borrowing from rest of world or, equivalently, let's no longer have rest of the world invest in the U.S.," she says. That, she underscores, is a rather different conversation whose ramifications are profound and maybe not well understood.

Don't want that deficit and, thus, investment from afar? Watch interest rates rise, fewer bridges get built or not as many kids winding up in college or trade schools. "That's what we mean when we say, 'shrink the deficit,'" she notes.

So don't just pick out a company or an industry, take a mercantilist perspective and declare that the battle involves our company against somebody else's. It misses how we are borrowing and lending with the rest of the world."

 

On the topic of other countries loaning their money to the U.S., China and Japan provide a credit of over $2 trillion to the U.S. which is about 40% of what is provided by countries outside the U.S.

Trump has a long record of not respecting his creditors during his real estate years. During the era of his casino bankruptcies, he sued U.S. banks when he owed them money and they later stopped doing business with him. He doesn't realize the significance of other countries being sources of credit to the U.S. economy and doesn't respect them for it. During the 2016 campaign, Trump, made statements about potentially negotiating to not pay back some of the U.S. national debt.

It's another example of Trump projecting his warped personal Manhattan real estate mentality onto international affairs.

 

A pretty good description of trump supporters.

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   An anguished question from a Trump supporter: "Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?"
   
   The serious answer: Here’s what we really think about Trump supporters - the rich, the poor, the malignant and the innocently well-meaning, the ones who think and the ones who don't...
   
   That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine."
   
   That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay."
   
   That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem."
   
   That when he made up stories about seeing muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue."
   
   That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you chirped, "He sure knows me."
   
   That when you heard him illustrate his own character by telling that cute story about the elderly guest bleeding on the floor at his country club, the story about how he turned his back and how it was all an imposition on him, you said, "That's cool!"
   
   That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw.
   
   That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?"
   
   That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense."
   
   That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!"
   
   That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!"
   
   That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!"
   
   That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be."
   
   That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!"
   
   That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!"
   
   That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense."
   
   That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!"
   
   That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids. has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “well, ok then.”
   
   That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise.
   
   What you don't get, Trump supporters in 2018, is that succumbing to frustration and thinking of you as stupid may be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.
   
   Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are *less* flattering.
   
   
   
   Original post by Adam-Troy Castro.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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Trump is still making confusing statements that a tariff war will somehow reduce the U.S. national debt. He has made similar statements in the past such as during an interview with the Wall Street Journal when he confusingly said he would reduce the national debt by reducing the trade deficit.

All else being the same, tariffs will raise the cost of goods and services purchased by the U.S. and raise the national debt. The lack of confidence in the U.S. by other countries could also make them less willing to finance the U.S. debt which would tend to increase interest rates and increase the national debt.



Trump makes bizarre claim that tariffs will help pay down the massive U.S. debt
By Heather Long
August 5, 2018

Analysis | Trump makes bizarre claim that tariffs will help pay down the massive U.S. debt

excerpt:

"President Trump tweeted Sunday morning that his tariffs are “working big time” and made a bizarre claim that the money raised from these new import taxes will go a long way to helping pay down America’s large debt. (Short answer: That’s not what will happen).

Trump portrays the tariffs as a tax on foreigners, but the reality is that tariffs are taxes on U.S. companies and consumers. When a big U.S. retail chain or an equipment manufacturer has to pay 10 or 25 percent more to get steel from Canada or a certain part from China, that U.S. company has to pay the tax when it imports that item. U.S. businesses either eat that extra cost or pass it along to consumers."

 

Excellant post 10365--Flagme. And there it is--all laid out for trumpkins to see. Will they take stock of their preferences and how they judge his character? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha--sheeeeit!

 

Nikki Haley claimed that the UN members were not laughing at Trump but rather with him as a show of respect to him.


'They love to be with him:' Nikki Haley says the UN was laughing WITH Trump out of RESPECT and world leaders were 'falling over themselves to get a picture with him and congratulate him on his speech'

- Nikki Haley went on Fox and Friends and criticized the media's coverage of Trump's speech Tuesday in which the world leaders laughed at him
- Trump bragged that his administration has done more in two years than any other in history and was laughed at further when he added 'So true'
- Haley says the world leaders really appreciate his honesty and respect him
- Haley also said leaders were 'falling over themselves' to get a photo with him
- She added world leaders were eager to congratulate him on his 'strong speech'

By Jessica Finn For Dailymail.com
Published: 14:04 EDT, 26 September 2018 | Updated: 19:23 EDT, 26 September 2018

Nikki Haley says the UN was laughing WITH Trump out of RESPECT & world leaders love being with him | Daily Mail Online

 

Trump calls for 'stop-and-frisk' policing at another one of his campaign-style rallies. This is his new jingle after his old threat: "If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible 'carnage' going on ... I will send in the Feds!"

He also might want to consider a 'stop-and-check for toilet paper on your shoe' policy.



Trump calls on Chicago to embrace stop-and-frisk policing
Associated Press DEB RIECHMANN and MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press
October 8, 2018

Trump calls on Chicago to embrace stop-and-frisk policing

 

I'm eating lunch with a bunch of mostly Trump supporting guys tomorrow. None of them are stupid in the usual sense of the word. If I showed them your list, they'd shrug their shoulders and say "Whatever". I don't think any of them would take issue with anything. They just wouldn't care. Why is this? They're either Republicans or libertarians. The Republicans' partisan reflexes kick in. It's like carrying on a conversation with NotMyRealName. The libertarians are basically Republicans who want more liberal drug policies and think Jordan Peterson is brilliant. All hate Hillary, political correctness, and identity politics. A couple are racist, others not so much. All pride themselves in not watching the news. They get it in second hand summaries from right wing sources, or watch bits and snatches on the local channel or Fox. Basically, they're unreachable by facts and arguments. I don't know what you call that. Closed-minded, I guess. What would get their attention? A major economic setback, I think, if it affects their jobs or investments. Until that happens, I'll be biting my tongue and hoping I don't confuse it with my sandwich.

 

Flag

Good post but sorry but I’d have to go with Okie on this.

Many of the people that support Trump don’t care about the things on that list or think them funny or even see them as good moves.

I agree with you in that any rational and reasonable individual would see the things on it as disqualifications for support but first we are not talking in many cases of people that have really thought through their ideas and second its seems to me to be wrong to see this as individuals but as of a self-reinforcing group, a collective within a bubble. It is the same kind of thing you get in a cult, from the outside it might seems nuts but from the inside there is a sense of belonging with all the nuts supporting all the other nuts and making the nuttiness the norm while frowning on anyone that even hints at dissention.

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Trump University – Trump saw a business opportunity and took it, the dumb arses that signed up to it have only themselves to blame.

Stiffing his creditors – just shows he’s a good businessman.

Proudly bragging about his own history of sexual abuse – men’s locker room talk

Making up stories – all politicians lie look at what the Clintons did

Muslims – its well-known Muslims did cheer 9/11

I could go on with relies to all the things in the list but I think you get the picture.

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If a cult is small you might see such people as victims, for larger cults (‘cough’ scientology ‘cough’) it might be seen as sinister but when such cults get hold of political power then history has taught us that things can get dangerous and even turn bloody.

What can be done?

Well sometimes the bubble bursts, sometimes it busts after the shit has hit the fan when the detrimental effects become so bad that even the true believers can ignore it but then again that can on the other hand just make those true believers double down on their beliefs.

So all anyone can do is to try and keep them away from power – get out and vote

 

As Balbus pointed out, they would just find a way to blame Democrats.

 

Sigh
I never liked Haley, policy-wise, as a governor, but I thought she was competant and intelligent and reasonable on occasion. And she went against all the rednecks and good ol boys in her party and removed the confederate flag from the capitol so she got points for that. So when she left her governorship to join the Trump administration i thought maybe she could serve as a voice of reason

But she has really ended up being nothing but a propaganda mouthpiece. Disappointing.

 

Interesting
Some thought she and trump were having a fling
Some thought she was behind the letter to the NYT

Nikki Haley resigns as US ambassador to the United Nations

 

Oh snap spoke too soon, guess she tired of being the propaganda mouthpiece

 

Do you suppose she's positioning herself for a Senate race if and when Lindsey Graham moves into a cabinet slot like Attorney General, which seems imminent after the elections?

 

Perhaps, but I have a different theory. I think trump will appoint Rosenstein as AG.

Now for the conspiracy theory. It wasn't Rosenstein who wanted to invoke the 25th amendment. It was Haley.