[Winstonm]

 hrothgar, on 2018-March-02, 15:32, said:

This president speaking about the tariffs sounds like someone who has no grasp on reality, who fantasizes his world is the one he grew up in where U.S. Steel was preeminent and all he has to do to turn the clock back to the 1950s is to impose tariffs.

Certainly is good to know someone with this much self-control and grasp of reality has the keys to the nuclear arsenal.

[Winstonm]

Useful idiots again?

NPR

Quote

A prominent Kremlin-linked Russian politician has methodically cultivated ties with leaders of the National Rifle Association and documented efforts in real time over six years to leverage those connections and gain deeper access into American politics, NPR has learned.

Russian politician Alexander Torshin said his ties to the NRA provided him access to Donald Trump — and the opportunity to serve as a foreign election observer in the United States during the 2012 election.

[kenberg]

 hrothgar, on 2018-March-02, 15:32, said:

NBC: Nobody at State, Treasury or Defense was told a tariff decision was being announced yesterday; no paperwork was ready; there was no plan for communicating with foreign countries, Congress or the public; people at the meeting hadn't been vetted.

Back maybe a year or so there was a thread with a title something like "How could I vote for such a disgusting man?". Being disgusting is of course a bad feature but it pales in comparison with items like you quote above. We have a president who does not seem to know on Tuesday what he will do on Wednesday, and sees no problem with that. On PBS last night Mark Shields reminded us that the Trump supporters tell us that we should not take the president literally when he says something. This is somehow supposed to reassure us.

The decisions, if "decisions" is even the right word for spur of the moment acts, affect us all. Trade wars are good? Another thing that we are not to take literally? How should we take it? Why do we have to take it at all?

I don't think of myself as an "I told you so" sort of guy but for me the problem with a Trump presidency was always Trump. Republicans can be expected to advocate Republican policies. I might disagree, or in some cases agree, but there will be some sort of coherence. Not with Trump.

As the saying goes, Houston, we have a problem.

[diana_eva]

I just hope next time Muller goes for one in his family he won't decide to nuke some random country just because he's pissed and looking for a fight.

[Al_U_Card]

Ken, during past presidencies, were you not aghast at Bill Clinton's peccadilloes? Or disgusted by Nixon's illegalities? Or W's lack of "presence" etc.?
Is not Trump just another in a fairly long line of "objectionable" characters? Is not your system of government somewhat used to and protected from them? (The price being gridlock and inertia perhaps but necessary apparently.)
Here, in Canada, less is in play so we have smaller concerns.

[hrothgar]

 diana_eva, on 2018-March-03, 07:57, said:

I just hope next time Muller goes for one in his family he won't decide to nuke some random country just because he's pissed and looking for a fight.

I don't think that Trump will randomly nuke some country.

Rather, I think that Trump is going to try to "bloody North Korea's nose" due to some combination of

1. Wanting to distract from Mueller / rally the flag
2. Mental instability
3. General stupidity

After which I would not be at all surprised to see the North Koreans

1. Launch either a nuclear or chemical attack against Pusan
2. Start massive shelling of Korea

[Al_U_Card]

Trump will be in a rally in steel country so he had to play to his support. A minor move but understandable. Transparency by any other name would seem as strange (my excuses to the bard)....

[Winstonm]

I am shocked, shocked to find that insider trading may be occurring:

WaPo:

Quote

President Trump’s decision Thursday to impose crippling tariffs on the imports of steel and aluminum took many by surprise — particularly investors, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day’s trading down more than 400 points, or 1.7 percent, at 24,608.

But one billionaire investor and former Trump adviser, Carl Icahn, was seemingly unvexed, having dumped a million shares tied to the steel industry a week before the president announced 25 percent tariffs for foreign-made steel.

[Winstonm]

 Al_U_Card, on 2018-March-03, 08:03, said:

Ken, during past presidencies, were you not aghast at Bill Clinton's peccadilloes? Or disgusted by Nixon's illegalities? Or W's lack of "presence" etc.?
Is not Trump just another in a fairly long line of "objectionable" characters? Is not your system of government somewhat used to and protected from them? (The price being gridlock and inertia perhaps but necessary apparently.)
Here, in Canada, less is in play so we have smaller concerns.

Let me help you understand the similarities between Nixon and Trump. Nixon was a politician and a crook; Trump is not a politician.

[Al_U_Card]

 Winstonm, on 2018-March-03, 10:13, said:

Let me help you understand the similarities between Nixon and Trump. Nixon was a politician and a crook; Trump is not a politician.

Already crystal clear. Your system has its pros and cons (do they ever go to prison?) so you have to roll with it. Our pols are mostly boring or ineffectual but that suits our national temperament... . Who was your last Prez that you admired and why?

[kenberg]

 Al_U_Card, on 2018-March-03, 08:03, said:

Ken, during past presidencies, were you not aghast at Bill Clinton's peccadilloes? Or disgusted by Nixon's illegalities? Or W's lack of "presence" etc.?
Is not Trump just another in a fairly long line of "objectionable" characters? Is not your system of government somewhat used to and protected from them? (The price being gridlock and inertia perhaps but necessary apparently.)
Here, in Canada, less is in play so we have smaller concerns.

Generally I stay away from "Ok, X has his flaws but look at Y' arguments. There is some point to them, but it's also a distraction. But let's look a little.

Clinton and peccadilloes: I sort of liked Paula Jones. Monica not so much. Having sex with someone who is married (let alone someone who is president) requires that you shut up abut it. Paula, as I recall, told him to put it back in and zip it up, and then she walked out of the room. Bravo Paula. As to Trump. I haven't said all that much about Stormy whoever. It's not good, and his wife had just given birth so it's really not good, but this, by itself, does not exactly put the country at risk.

Nixon is a complex case. His actions, in Watergate and the cover-up, were a threat to our political system.And there were other things. For all of his many faults, he was not the out of control nut job that our current president is. I am not defending Nixon here, I do think the whole issue is complex. Trump is not complex.

As to your question to Winston about admiring presidents, I am not much into admiration. I have never wished to be admired. I think, for example, George H. W. Bush was a serious experienced person who did a decent job. I think he would be satisfied, perhaps even pleased, to be described that way. Our current guy needs constant adulation. That's a very unhealthy need for anyone.

[Winstonm]

 Al_U_Card, on 2018-March-03, 10:31, said:

Already crystal clear. Your system has its pros and cons (do they ever go to prison?) so you have to roll with it. Our pols are mostly boring or ineffectual but that suits our national temperament... . Who was your last Prez that you admired and why?

I thought Washington was O.K.

[Winstonm]

How to turn a headline from TheOnion into a legitimate headline:

TheOnion:

Quote

Legendary Bass Fisherman President Trump Explains How Easily He'd Catch The Fish Monster From 'The Shape Of Water'

FTP

[y66]

 kenberg, on 2018-March-02, 11:05, said:

The country, and the world, is caught up in questions of identity so the question of just what makes us who we are has relevance. I am at the extreme opposite end of those who can, for example, trace their family back to the first American settlers. As mentioned, I am adopted. My adoptive father came to this country when he was 10, brought by his older brother who was 16, an adult at the time. He was always unsure of what country he came from. Ellis Island says Hungarian nationality, Croatian ethnicity. He thought he was Austrian or maybe Czech. I have never developed the need to "search for my roots", not in any substantive way, but naturally I am curious. I never completely understood what Sartre meant by "Existence precedes essence" but if it was meant to place importance on choices I agree with it.

I suspect you understand the gist, even if you have perhaps not read everything he wrote on the subject, and that what you believe makes you you (essentially), which is influenced by genetic makeup and other factoids but not determined, is not so different from his ideas about freedom, responsibility and choice which I know as much about as anyone who's taken a one semester class. I also suspect your thoughts on this subject preceded your introduction to Sartre and that you both may have some common ancestors who enjoyed talking about this stuff.

[ggwhiz]

 kenberg, on 2018-March-03, 12:12, said:

As to your question to Winston about admiring presidents, I am not much into admiration.

I don't believe in admiration in an overall sense and think it is very unhealthy, required by cults and Trump. Respect may be grudging and is a better benchmark.

I respect individual actions and of some otherwise ridiculously horrid people. For example, when Cubans were washing up on Florida beaches and being welcomed, Castro emptied his insane asylums and put them on rafts.

Credit should likely go to a nameless Cuban pencil pusher but all I could think of was "well played sir".

[Al_U_Card]

I gather that the Russian "reach" also extends to environmental causes, especially where the US fossil fuel sector is concerned. More angling to provide an advantage to Russia but who amongst the anti big-oil and climate change zealots are useful idiots, stooges or fellow travellers? So, perhaps the Trumps were simply doing counter-intelligence surveillance when they met with all those Russkies? (Beware of flying pig droppings...lol )

[Al_U_Card]

 Winstonm, on 2018-March-03, 09:40, said:

I am shocked, shocked to find that insider trading may be occurring:

WaPo:

What is one fundamental difference betwèen free trade and tariffs? In the former, corporations determine supply based on profit motives independant of electorate preference (for better or worse). In the latter, politicians appoint a bureacracy to satisfy an electorate with beneficial (subject to detrimental aspects) economic conditions and those politicians are subject to electorate wrath. One is more transparent and democratic and less subject to machiavellian manipulations than the other.

[Winstonm]

Yahoo story:

Quote

Report: Donald Trump didn’t help UCLA players get out of Chinese jail
Rob Dauster,NBC Sports Fri, Mar 2 2:33 PM CST

This is how crazy college basketball has been during the 2017-18 season: Did you remember that three UCLA players, including LaVar Ball’s middle son LiAngelo, were arrested in China for shoplifting and, according to the president himself, had to be rescued by Donald Trump during his trip to the country.

Well, they were.

And, as it turns out, LaVar Ball was right when he said that the president did nothing to help get Gelo out of jail. The way the story was told by the New York Times in November is that Trump, while meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, “intervened” to get the police in Hangzhou to let the players leave.

But that’s not really how it played out, according to a story from ESPN:

“The players were already checked into the hotel before the public discovered they were arrested,” a team source said. “They also were not under house arrest. It was our decision to keep them at the hotel until the situation was resolved. The charges were dropped, they weren’t reduced, and that happened two days before we heard from Gen. Kelly.”
Remember when Trump tweeted “I should have left them in jail”?

Interesting.

Surely someone should be left in jail, though.

[Winstonm]

This is new from the NYT, pm on 3/3:

Quote

WASHINGTON — George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, has hovered on the fringes of international diplomacy for three decades. He was a back-channel negotiator with Syria during the Clinton administration, reinvented himself as an adviser to the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and last year was a frequent visitor to President Trump’s White House.

Mr. Nader is now a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned Mr. Nader and have pressed witnesses for information about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to support Mr. Trump during the presidential campaign, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

The investigators have also asked about Mr. Nader’s role in White House policymaking, those people said, suggesting that the special counsel investigation has broadened beyond Russian election meddling to include Emirati influence on the Trump administration. The focus on Mr. Nader could also prompt an examination of how money from multiple countries has flowed through and influenced Washington during the Trump era.

In one example of Mr. Nader’s influential connections, which has not been previously reported, last fall he received a detailed report from a top Trump fund-raiser, Elliott Broidy, about a private meeting with the president in the Oval Office.

Mr. Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the United Arab Emirates, and he extolled to Mr. Trump a paramilitary force that his company was developing for the country. He also lobbied the president to meet privately “in an informal setting” with the Emirates’ military commander and de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan; to back the U.A.E.’s hawkish policies in the region; and to fire Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson.

A copy of Mr. Broidy’s memorandum about the meeting was provided to The New York Times by someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington.

I guess this is what happens when there is an investigation of a New York crime family.

[barmar]

 kenberg, on 2018-March-03, 07:29, said:

Back maybe a year or so there was a thread with a title something like "How could I vote for such a disgusting man?". Being disgusting is of course a bad feature but it pales in comparison with items like you quote above. We have a president who does not seem to know on Tuesday what he will do on Wednesday, and sees no problem with that. On PBS last night Mark Shields reminded us that the Trump supporters tell us that we should not take the president literally when he says something. This is somehow supposed to reassure us.

How about the whiplash we all got last week, trying to follow Trump's stance on gun control?

When he had the listening session with the high school students, he was all about arming teachers.

A few days letter he met with legislators, and accused them of being afraid of the NRA. He advocated increased gun control, including violating due process to take guns away from potentially violent people.

Then he met with NRA leaders, and his views shifted again, they were very happy with the results of the meeting.

We're all familiar with politicians who flip-flop, but it's usually over the course of years. Trump seems to have more stances on some issues than there are days of the week.