Now what about the braggadocios lying about not knowing, then trying to play him.

our nation consumes a lot; trade deficits are not exactly the smartest way to look at our relationships with countries. gotta love that this is the #1 concern with our economy now, not that jobs don't pay well for millions of people and that people have massive amounts of personal debt hanging over them

pacino wrote:our nation consumes a lot; trade deficits are not exactly the smartest way to look at our relationships with countries. gotta love that this is the #1 concern with our economy now, not that jobs don't pay well for millions of people and that people have massive amounts of personal debt hanging over them

canada aside it generally means 'WERE SUPPORTING NOT WHITE PEOPLE'

Re: the Kudlow thing--I guess everyone has me on ignore.

It's probably hopeless, but someone should try to explain to people that the word "deficit" in "trade deficit" is probably an unfortunate problem in branding. A trade deficit is really not at all like a budget deficit. For one, it's not like an annual trade deficit accumulate in a trade debt that needs to be paid back at some point. It doesn't mean that we have to pay interest or anything like that.

There's the book. (Actually it's 2 volumes, but I digress.) It came out more than 200 years ago. It's called Wealth of Nations, and explained why mercantilism is bad.

We could easily eliminate our trade deficit today by the way in a couple of ways. The easiest one would be to collapse the American economy so we could no longer afford to buy things from overseas. It would be unfortunate that we couldn't by domestically produced goods, but well, we'd have a trade surplus.

Eliminating a trade deficit with Mexico would actually be terrible. Mexico has a smaller, poorer population than the US. So of course we buy more stuff from them than they buy from us.

We could also wreck our currency--a few years ago there was talk about the dollar no longer being the reserve currency of the world, challenged by the Euro (bwahaha) and the Pound. Well, we're still #1! But if we decided to print a bunch of dollars, and doing the kind of things that lead to hyper inflation, we would buy a lot less from overseas because no one would want our worthless dollars. So we could become like Venezuela.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... 8e4d902a66

(I know it's the pinko Wapo, but the piece was in fact written by a Republican, so something for everyone.)

Yet another ally being cast aside by El Presidente:

In a fundraising speech in Missouri, Trump told donors South Korea had become rich but that American politicians never negotiated better deals, according to audio obtained by The Washington Post and confirmed to CNN by an attendee. "We have a very big trade deficit with them, and we protect them," Trump said, according to audio obtained by the Post. "We lose money on trade, and we lose money on the military." "We have right now 32,000 soldiers on the border between North and South Korea. Let's see what happens," Trump said.

The President went on to argue, "Our allies care about themselves. They don't care about us."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/politics ... index.html

but doesn't a trade deficit imply a transfer of wealth from one country to another? iPhones and Billy Big Mouth Bass depreciate a lot quicker than currency.

Bucky wrote:but doesn't a trade deficit imply a transfer of wealth from one country to another? iPhones and Billy Big Mouth Bass depreciate a lot quicker than currency.

A big chunk of the trade deficit is foreigners investing in our economy. (Among other things, they're financing our budget deficit, which may not be benign. So, I guess we could also forbid foreigners from lending us money. I am pretty sure that would end rather badly.)

"I don't deny anything" in ‘Fire and Fury’ book, Steve Bannon 3/15/2018

"The book has been authorized then I don't deny anything from what is inside"

He wants us to know that he is not dead yet, and since he is persona non grata all over the place, this is a little look at me. He is hiding out in France.

On Firestorm Friday, there was a piece that slipped out that in exchange for a limited interview with DJT (i.e., a session where nothing will be answered), Mueller would wrap up the investigation in 60 days. Deal making at its finest.

Don’t know why it surprises anyone that Trump announces (or even makes up) things like trade deficits, security, etc., with nations like S Korea or Canada. It’s just standard negotiating tactics with him. He wants to try to back foot anyone he’s negotiating with right at the beginning of negotiations to try to convince them they already owe him something at the outset and have them negotiate from a hole.

A smart negotiator from, say, S Korea should immediately come back with something like: “I’m glad you brought that up. For acting as the USA’s first line of defense against Communist aggression on the Korean Peninsula, for acting as, in effect, your ambassador to N Korea and State Department on the Peninsula and for providing cheap goods to American consumers and manufacturers we think the USA should be providing more troops and military equipment at an even lower price and recompensing us for our diplomatic activities on your behalf.”

Trump reportedly considering 'Fox & Friends' host Pete Hegseth for Cabinet position

Come on, this shit can't be real.

Earlier this week, Trump called Hegseth in the middle of a meeting with a surprised Shulkin and asked the Fox & Friends host to analyze new legislation that would impact the VA, according to a report by Axios’ Jonathan Swan.

thephan wrote:Trump reportedly considering 'Fox & Friends' host Pete Hegseth for Cabinet position

Come on, this shit can't be real.

Earlier this week, Trump called Hegseth in the middle of a meeting with a surprised Shulkin and asked the Fox & Friends host to analyze new legislation that would impact the VA, according to a report by Axios’ Jonathan Swan.

If I was six years old and elected president, I’d probably try to fill my cabinet with my favorite tv show characters too.

In all seriousness, it seems like Trump is done considering people who others suggest to him, and is simply going with familiar names and faces. I know people say Trump likes loyalists, but I would guess while there are plenty of people who are willing to pretend they're Trump loyalists to get something from him, there are hardly any people who are truly loyal or even know what loyalty is. Since it is pretty clear right now that working in the Trump administration is a career killer, the Cleveland Browns of politics if you will, there are none of these loyalists left.

Uncle Milty wrote:Can't be long until he taps into the BSG braintrust.

I want to be the Secretary of Agriculture. Free Food!!!!

Bill Green can't legally run for Congress but he doesn't seem to care

RIGGING OF ELECTIONS IN SOUTHWEST PA!!!! impound the machines!

pacino wrote:Bill Green can't legally run for Congress but he doesn't seem to care

Well, nobody seemed to care that Obama couldn't "legally" be President either.

Mueller subpoenas Trump org for all documents related to dealings with Russia

On a related note smoke seen billowing out of trump tower (ok that part isn’t true)

pacino wrote:RIGGING OF ELECTIONS IN SOUTHWEST PA!!!! impound the machines!

When in doubt, claim a rigged election. "I saw a three buses with NY plates out front of my polling station".

Me too, which seemed a bit odd as it was a school day and I live in the the VA side of the DC suburbs.