Trump's tariff nonsense is like an firefighter starting a fire, publicly admitting it, putting it out, and then having half the town hail him as a hero for putting out the fire, while the other half shun him for starting it in the first place. I know I'm just being a RINO, and not appreciating all the winning that's going on.
No matter, we're on to Gaza now. Threatening to take over the entire territory will surely expedite the release of the remaining hostages ;-(
He did a lot of stuff like that in the first term too. It creates a ridiculous amount of drama, economically, geopolitically, constitutionally, etc. Just exhausting.
Thanks for actually making me laugh at the Trump insanity and pointing out that he actually did cave in the end.
I think one narrative that both extreme pro-Trump and extreme anti-Trump people are prone to swallow too quickly, is the idea that he's a political genius who always wins and gets his way. Of course there's harsh disagreement between the two camps, whether he's an evil genius or not. But in this case, Trump actually backed down.
Yeah, I've never been in the "genius" camp when it comes to Trump... though the ability to con people so easily, I suppose, does require a certain level of intelligence.
President Trump has a streak of genius, some uncanny political instincts or whatever you want to call it. It was an unusual talent to sew up about 35% of Republican primary voters and hold them for this long. It's possible that he stumbled into this, but I doubt it He's a primo demagogue and snake oil salesman.
Years before President Trump entered the political ring, Bil Clinton said that voters generally prefer someone strong and wrong to someone weak and right (something to that effect). Hello Mr. Trump.
Yeah, we only write so many pieces in a week, and there is a ton of news stories to choose from. For example, Trump just declared ownership of Gaza or something, I guess since the Greenland thing didn't work out. So that will be the talk of the next few days.
No, there is no linkage. I wanted to comment on a different issue but couldn’t find a place to do that other than one of Bernie’s posts. I had DM’ed on X one time but received a message that was not preferred.
Whatshisname - face it, Trump is an international ball buster right now, you and your RINO cadres are feeling the squeeze and your whining is getting old already. Get over it. This is what winning - for a change - looks like. You have been used to losing for so long, you think that it's normal. Your 'losing world' is being rocked. Hooray for TRUMP!! BR (now let the insults begin)
"International ball buster" is an extremely creative way of describing someone nut-punching himself and my country on the world stage.
Well done.
The "now let the insults begin" auto-signature, however, seems to have flipped back on. Please try and remember that it doesn't make any sense to employ it when "Bob" is the one beginning the exchange with insults. It just tips new people off that he's a bot.
Looks like the latest software patch is a dud, time to back it out. The comically ironic "let the insults begin" must have gotten merged back into the main code branch. The code seems to confuse you as a RINO as opposed to a Biden loving liberal, which is how you are typically branded, and the coder seems to have given up on the byline recognition thing and just settled on calling you "Whatshisname". One step forward, two steps back...
You're right John Mexico had 10,000 troops at the border under Biden, but the question is how effective were they? Fentanyl continues to be a major export of Mexico along with illegal immigration. My opinion is that Mexico is corrupt and have done nothing to slow their illegal exports and that the Cartel has now stronger influence within the government.
Many of the tariffs Trump put in place during his first term stayed in place under Biden. Under the Biden administration tariffs nearly doubled on lumber from Canada due to Canada's dumping policies. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with Trump at Mar-a-lago to discuss oil exports from Canada and Trump reduced the tariff threat to ten percent. Alberta has a ton of oil.
I'm willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on his tactics. I think you can agree that one of the biggest and most dangerous threats to the US is our national debt. If Trump can cut costs along with raising revenues maybe we can get back on a path to a balance budget. We serviced nearly $600 billion in debt last year. The Republican philosophy of open borders and free trade will not get us out of debt without our citizens bellying up either through increased taxes or tariffs. We are well beyond that point of no return. At least with tariffs there is a chance of improving American production. This has already happened in the lumber industry.
And John, if Trump fails, we can always go back to the policy of spending like mad men and opening up our borders to anyone including criminals and drugs.
I'm not arguing that Fentanyl is no longer a problem at the Mexican border (it is). I'm saying that:
1. Trump didn't attach his tariff on Mexico to that problem.
2. Tariffs (which are self-defeating to our country) are a terrible way of addressing that problem (or practically any problem for that matter).
>>Many of the tariffs Trump put in place during his first term stayed in place under Biden.
I know. I complained about it here on this website. Trump's tariffs during his first term only hurt our country. So did Biden's, more so during a period of already high inflation. The ones Trump applied over the weekend (before backtracking) were much larger, and would have been far, far worse for our country.
>>I'm willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on his tactics.
Why? Tariffs fail time after time. They are provably bad policy that drive up consumer prices, taxes, and government subsidies. They hurt domestic manufacturing and farming, and they fail to achieve their stated goal. Trump doesn't know what he's doing. His trade ideas are economically illiterate.
>>I think you can agree that one of the biggest and most dangerous threats to the US is our national debt.
I've been saying that for as long as I've been writing for this site.
>>If Trump can cut costs along with raising revenues maybe we can get back on a path to a balance budget.
Tim, Trump's policies have only exploded the debt. He added nearly $8 trillion dollars in just four years, most of it prior to the pandemic, and three of those years during an economic boom period with record tax revenue. The fact that Biden sucked on this too doesn't make Trump suck less. And again, tariffs don't cut costs, they raise them.
>>The Republican philosophy of open borders and free trade will not get us out of debt without our citizens bellying up either through increased taxes or tariffs.
The Republican philosophy of open borders? Tim, the ONLY meaningful way to deal with our debut problem is to reform entitlements, which Trump (along with the Democrats and now the rest of the GOP) refuses to do. Yeah, at this point, higher taxes are inevitably going to have to be part of the picture too (thanks to the last few presidents), but that doesn't change the underlying driver of the debt.
>>At least with tariffs there is a chance of improving American production.
No there's not. These tariffs from Trump and Biden have only hurt American manufacturing and farming. I've cited the numbers many times in my columns. You can probably list one or two sectors where that wasn't the case, but almost across the board, it's absolutely been the case.
>>And John, if Trump fails, we can always go back to the policy of spending like mad men and opening up our borders to anyone including criminals and drugs.
Tim, we never stopped spending like mad men. Trump is spending like a mad man, just like Biden did. And we can beef up border security without screwing up our economy with self-harming trade wars.
Trump's tariff nonsense is like an firefighter starting a fire, publicly admitting it, putting it out, and then having half the town hail him as a hero for putting out the fire, while the other half shun him for starting it in the first place. I know I'm just being a RINO, and not appreciating all the winning that's going on.
No matter, we're on to Gaza now. Threatening to take over the entire territory will surely expedite the release of the remaining hostages ;-(
He did a lot of stuff like that in the first term too. It creates a ridiculous amount of drama, economically, geopolitically, constitutionally, etc. Just exhausting.
Harold Hill: "My next step will be to get your town out of the serious trouble it's
in."
Marcelus Washburn: "River City isn't in any trouble."
Harold Hill: "Then I'll have to create some."
Thanks for actually making me laugh at the Trump insanity and pointing out that he actually did cave in the end.
I think one narrative that both extreme pro-Trump and extreme anti-Trump people are prone to swallow too quickly, is the idea that he's a political genius who always wins and gets his way. Of course there's harsh disagreement between the two camps, whether he's an evil genius or not. But in this case, Trump actually backed down.
Yeah, I've never been in the "genius" camp when it comes to Trump... though the ability to con people so easily, I suppose, does require a certain level of intelligence.
President Trump has a streak of genius, some uncanny political instincts or whatever you want to call it. It was an unusual talent to sew up about 35% of Republican primary voters and hold them for this long. It's possible that he stumbled into this, but I doubt it He's a primo demagogue and snake oil salesman.
Years before President Trump entered the political ring, Bil Clinton said that voters generally prefer someone strong and wrong to someone weak and right (something to that effect). Hello Mr. Trump.
And all this time I thought USAID was about providing food and clean drinking water to those without. Boy, was I wrong!
The USAID does/did lots of things, but that has nothing to do with tariffs.
When will you and Bernie comment on USAID and DOGE or are you taking a pass on that?
I'm happy to comment on it in tomorrow's Q&A, Len. I'll add your question.
I commented here because I saw no place where Bernie or you were on that story.
Yeah, we only write so many pieces in a week, and there is a ton of news stories to choose from. For example, Trump just declared ownership of Gaza or something, I guess since the Greenland thing didn't work out. So that will be the talk of the next few days.
Trump is averaging 2-3 crisis per week. You and Bernie need to step up your game, lol....
That's one thing about Trumpian politics... there's always something to write about.
Can a subscriber comment or ask a question on a new topic or are we limited to only commenting/querying on those topics already being covered?
Feel free to comment on whatever you like!
It just felt to me like you were linking the two topics, hence my confusion.
No, there is no linkage. I wanted to comment on a different issue but couldn’t find a place to do that other than one of Bernie’s posts. I had DM’ed on X one time but received a message that was not preferred.
Whatshisname - face it, Trump is an international ball buster right now, you and your RINO cadres are feeling the squeeze and your whining is getting old already. Get over it. This is what winning - for a change - looks like. You have been used to losing for so long, you think that it's normal. Your 'losing world' is being rocked. Hooray for TRUMP!! BR (now let the insults begin)
Dear Bob's programmer:
"International ball buster" is an extremely creative way of describing someone nut-punching himself and my country on the world stage.
Well done.
The "now let the insults begin" auto-signature, however, seems to have flipped back on. Please try and remember that it doesn't make any sense to employ it when "Bob" is the one beginning the exchange with insults. It just tips new people off that he's a bot.
You're getting there, though. Baby steps.
Looks like the latest software patch is a dud, time to back it out. The comically ironic "let the insults begin" must have gotten merged back into the main code branch. The code seems to confuse you as a RINO as opposed to a Biden loving liberal, which is how you are typically branded, and the coder seems to have given up on the byline recognition thing and just settled on calling you "Whatshisname". One step forward, two steps back...
Solid analysis.
You're right John Mexico had 10,000 troops at the border under Biden, but the question is how effective were they? Fentanyl continues to be a major export of Mexico along with illegal immigration. My opinion is that Mexico is corrupt and have done nothing to slow their illegal exports and that the Cartel has now stronger influence within the government.
Many of the tariffs Trump put in place during his first term stayed in place under Biden. Under the Biden administration tariffs nearly doubled on lumber from Canada due to Canada's dumping policies. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with Trump at Mar-a-lago to discuss oil exports from Canada and Trump reduced the tariff threat to ten percent. Alberta has a ton of oil.
I'm willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on his tactics. I think you can agree that one of the biggest and most dangerous threats to the US is our national debt. If Trump can cut costs along with raising revenues maybe we can get back on a path to a balance budget. We serviced nearly $600 billion in debt last year. The Republican philosophy of open borders and free trade will not get us out of debt without our citizens bellying up either through increased taxes or tariffs. We are well beyond that point of no return. At least with tariffs there is a chance of improving American production. This has already happened in the lumber industry.
And John, if Trump fails, we can always go back to the policy of spending like mad men and opening up our borders to anyone including criminals and drugs.
I'm not arguing that Fentanyl is no longer a problem at the Mexican border (it is). I'm saying that:
1. Trump didn't attach his tariff on Mexico to that problem.
2. Tariffs (which are self-defeating to our country) are a terrible way of addressing that problem (or practically any problem for that matter).
>>Many of the tariffs Trump put in place during his first term stayed in place under Biden.
I know. I complained about it here on this website. Trump's tariffs during his first term only hurt our country. So did Biden's, more so during a period of already high inflation. The ones Trump applied over the weekend (before backtracking) were much larger, and would have been far, far worse for our country.
>>I'm willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on his tactics.
Why? Tariffs fail time after time. They are provably bad policy that drive up consumer prices, taxes, and government subsidies. They hurt domestic manufacturing and farming, and they fail to achieve their stated goal. Trump doesn't know what he's doing. His trade ideas are economically illiterate.
>>I think you can agree that one of the biggest and most dangerous threats to the US is our national debt.
I've been saying that for as long as I've been writing for this site.
>>If Trump can cut costs along with raising revenues maybe we can get back on a path to a balance budget.
Tim, Trump's policies have only exploded the debt. He added nearly $8 trillion dollars in just four years, most of it prior to the pandemic, and three of those years during an economic boom period with record tax revenue. The fact that Biden sucked on this too doesn't make Trump suck less. And again, tariffs don't cut costs, they raise them.
>>The Republican philosophy of open borders and free trade will not get us out of debt without our citizens bellying up either through increased taxes or tariffs.
The Republican philosophy of open borders? Tim, the ONLY meaningful way to deal with our debut problem is to reform entitlements, which Trump (along with the Democrats and now the rest of the GOP) refuses to do. Yeah, at this point, higher taxes are inevitably going to have to be part of the picture too (thanks to the last few presidents), but that doesn't change the underlying driver of the debt.
>>At least with tariffs there is a chance of improving American production.
No there's not. These tariffs from Trump and Biden have only hurt American manufacturing and farming. I've cited the numbers many times in my columns. You can probably list one or two sectors where that wasn't the case, but almost across the board, it's absolutely been the case.
>>And John, if Trump fails, we can always go back to the policy of spending like mad men and opening up our borders to anyone including criminals and drugs.
Tim, we never stopped spending like mad men. Trump is spending like a mad man, just like Biden did. And we can beef up border security without screwing up our economy with self-harming trade wars.