COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Endless and Useless US Wars - While Washington Bombs and Destroys, China Trades and Builds

China’s Xi says Silk Road plan boosts finance, security ties


BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping called Sunday for closer cooperation among countries across Asia and Europe in areas from anti-terrorism to finance, as officials from dozens of governments met to promote a Beijing-led initiative to expand trade links across the region.

Speaking to an audience that included Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of 29 other countries, Xi outlined the most ambitious political vision yet for the “Belt and Road Initiative,” a multibillion-dollar project to build ports, railways and other facilities. It covers an arc of 65 countries reaching from the South Pacific through South and Central Asia to Europe and Africa.

The initiative would provide some of the $7 trillion of investment in infrastructure the Asian Development Bank says the region needs this decade. But governments including Russia, the United States and India are uneasy that China is using its status as the second-largest global economy to expand its political influence.
Xi insisted his government has “no desire to impose our will on others.” But he also called for economic integration and cooperation on financial regulation, anti-terrorism and security — all fields in which China’s economic heft would give it a prominent voice.

“We should foster a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and create a security environment built and shared by all,” said Xi. He called for stepped-up action against terrorism and what he called its root causes of poverty and social injustice.

In a reminder of the potential security threats facing the region, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile Sunday that flew for a half-hour and reached an unusually high altitude of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles). The launch was seen as a challenge to a new South Korean president who was elected last week and came as U.S., Japanese and European naval forces gathered for war games in the Pacific.
The “Belt and Road” is Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative. The two-day meeting that started Sunday gives him a platform to promote his image as a global leader and an advocate of free trade in contrast to President Donald Trump, who has called for import restrictions.

Xi said Beijing will contribute an additional 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) to the Silk Road Fund set up in 2014 to finance infrastructure projects. He said his government will provide aid worth 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) to developing countries and international organizations.

Two Chinese government-run banks also will set up lending facilities valued at a total of 380 billion yuan ($55 billion) to support the initiative, Xi said.

Speaking after Xi, Putin echoed the Chinese president’s theme that economic development would help to nurture political stability. The Russian leader said the rise of trade protectionism is creating a “breeding ground for international extremism and terrorism.”

“Russia believes that the future of the Eurasian partnership is not just about fostering ties between a few countries and economies,” said Putin. “It should change the very political and economic landscape of the continent bringing Eurasia stability, prosperity.”

Xi said Beijing plans to announce dozens of new investment and other agreements during the two-day event.

Other leaders at the gathering included Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile. No major Western leaders attended, though Britain, France and Germany were represented by top finance officials.
The U.S. delegation was led by Matt Pottinger, special assistant to Trump and senior director for East Asia at the National Security Council.

The United States and other governments have said “Belt and Road” is a natural outgrowth of China’s status as the biggest global trader and they welcome the investment. But they also have expressed concern Beijing might undermine human rights and international standards for lending or leave poor countries with too much debt.

Most of the Chinese financing is loans, instead of grants.

India delivered an implicit criticism of China’s initiative Saturday in a statement that said such an initiative should meet international norms and not create unsustainable debt.

India has objected to Chinese state-owned companies working in the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both sides. New Delhi sees that as an endorsement of Pakistan’s control.

“No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement said.

Some diplomats and political analysts say Beijing is trying to create a political and economic network centered on China, push the United States out of the region and rewrite rules on trade and security.

Xi promised to avoid forming a “small group” of allies, which he said might harm regional stability.
Economy & Business Alerts
Breaking news about economic and business issues.
Instead, he said, Beijing wants “partnerships of friendship” and a “big family of harmonious coexistence.”
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Brown and Gillian Wong in Beijing and Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

WHAT IS THE US DOING?

138 comments:

  1. US MISADVENTURES IN THE MIDDLE EAST:

    “From now on,” President Donald Trump declared in his inaugural address, “it’s
    going to be only America first, America first!”


    If so, no region stands to be more affected than West Asia and North Africa—what Americans call “the Middle East.” America’s interests there are now entirely derivative rather than direct. They are a function of the self-appointed roles of the United States as the warden of world order, the guarantor of other nations’ security, the shepherd of the world economy, and the custodian of the global commons. If America is now to look out only for itself, it has little obvious reason to be much involved in the Middle East.

    The United States is a secular democracy. It has no intrinsic interest in which theology rules hearts or dominates territory in the Middle East. It is not itself now dependent on energy imports from the Persian Gulf or the Maghreb. For most of the two-and-a-half centuries since their country was born, Americans kept a healthy distance from the region and were unharmed by events there. They extended their protection to specific nations in the Middle East as part of a global struggle against Soviet communism that is long past. What happens in the region no longer determines the global balance of power.

    U.S. wars in the Middle East are—without exception—wars of choice. These wars have proven ruinously expensive and injurious to the civil liberties of Americans. They have poisoned American political culture with various manifestations of xenophobia. Islamophobia has transitioned naturally to anti-Semitism and other forms of racism and bigotry. In the region itself, American military interventions have produced more anarchy than order, more terror than tranquility, more oppression than democratization, and more blowback than pacification.

    More than in any other region, America’s misadventures in the Middle East illustrate the need for the United States to decide whether it is the vindicator only of its own interests or the champion and protector of all the world’s prosperity and security. Can America go its own way or must it keep commitments it made under different circumstances in the past? Are Americans accountable for the damage their interventions have wrought, or free to leave to others the task of remedying the miseries they helped create?
    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {...}

      In essence, these choices come down to whether the United States needs to deploy its power on a worldwide basis or just carries on doing so because it did in the past and still can. The state of affairs in the Middle East affects America’s global power. The region is where Africa, Asia, and Europe converge. It is a way station or choke point on air and shipping routes between Asia and Europe. It is where the world’s energy supplies are concentrated. It is the point of origin of the three Abrahamic religions and the driver of global contention between them.

      The freedom to transit the Middle East is central to the ability of the United States to project its military power around the world. Cooperative relations with the nations of the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and/or Iran are necessary to assure their facilitation of overflight for U.S. warplanes and passage through the Suez Canal by the U.S. Navy. The hostile state of U.S. relations with Iran makes Saudi Arabia and Egypt the logistical linchpins of America’s worldwide military reach. If the United States remains committed to military operations all over the world, it must stay politically and militarily engaged with at least these two nations. Disengaging from them would imply a decision to greatly reduce America’s global footprint and reach.

      U.S. allies and partners everywhere defer to the United States in part because they count on its unique ability and demonstrated willingness to use force to assure untrammeled global access to Persian Gulf energy supplies. These constitute about 28 percent of world energy production. They are a decisive factor in fueling global prosperity. In practice, the only international defender of global access to these resources is the United States.

      Fracking and horizontal drilling techniques have made the United States once again an energy exporter. Oil and gas shipments from the Persian Gulf now both complement and compete with oil and gas from America. Yet preventing the disruption of access to Persian Gulf energy is a service that the United States continues to provide free of charge to the global economy. America does not ask the principal consumers of these exports—China, the EU, India, Japan, and Korea—to assume or even share the burden of assuring their own energy security. Arguably, this deprives these countries of reasons to build navies that might rival that of the United States and thus helps to preserve America’s global military primacy. But it’s hard to see what other U.S. interest it now serves.

      What costs and benefits would accrue to the United States from phasing in arrangements to share responsibility with others for managing threats to global security and prosperity from the Persian Gulf? Clearly, as Asian navies expanded into what has long been an almost exclusively American operational area, the United States would lose its regional monopoly on naval power. But relieved of the burden of protecting the supply lines of others, the U.S. Navy might be freed to focus on areas and issues with more direct effects on American interests. If “it’s going to be only America first,” this tradeoff calls out for systematic examination.
      {...}

      Delete
    2. [...}

      So, of course, do America’s wars in the region. They include the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, as well as the conflicts in the Sahel that escalating combat with a disorderly jumble of transnational Islamist movements has spawned. None of these military operations is authorized by a congressional declaration of war that justifies the commitment of U.S. forces, sets parameters and objectives for their uses of force, and establishes a legal state of war. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution requires such a declaration to make wars of choice legal. The Constitution’s assignment of the war power to the Congress is unequivocal and fundamental to the separation of powers.

      {...}

      Delete
    3. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/americas-misadventures-in-the-middle-east/

      Delete
    4. .

      The neocons and the MIC won the day when Bush declared a 'War on Terror' a telling phrase that launched the US into the long war...nay, the eternal war as terrorism as a tactic has been used for millennia and shows no signs of disappearing.

      .

      Delete
    5. .


      Trump promised to end the continuous state of war but as with most of his promises that one amounted to another fart in the wind.

      .

      Delete
    6. Obama was not involved.

      In QuirkMSMWorld

      Delete
    7. Having a totally corrupt, dishonest press has no effect, as "any intelligent person can see through it."

      So Quirk continues to watch and convinces himself he is not influenced.

      Hilarious.

      Delete
  2. The United States is a secular democracy. It has no intrinsic interest in which theology rules hearts or dominates territory in the Middle East.

    If the theology in question wishes and intends a world without us we certainly ought to have an intrinsic interest in it lest we end up vacated from the pages of history.

    See:

    May 14, 2017
    Ayn Rand, Altruism, and Jihad
    By Eileen F. Toplansky

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/05/ayn_rand_altruism_and_jihad.html


    BobSun May 14, 02:59:00 AM EDT
    Ayn Rand Making Some Sense

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not only has the Congress ...

    None of these military operations is authorized by a congressional declaration of war that justifies the commitment of U.S. forces, sets parameters and objectives for their uses of force, and establishes a legal state of war. Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution requires such a declaration to make wars of choice legal. The Constitution’s assignment of the war power to the Congress is unequivocal and fundamental to the separation of powers.


    The Congress purposefully voted down a Presidential request to use military force against Islamic radicals in the Middle East. The President still engages militarily in Syria, without legal authorization, and the Congress applauds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robrt "Draft Dodger" Peterson promised US "Constitutional" government with Donald Trump in the White House.

      It has not happened yet.

      Delete
    2. Robert


      I had to laugh, watching President Trump tell US that the US government will have to go another $10 to $20 trillion in debt. He says it will "prime the pump".

      Instead of reforming the Entitlement Programs that are bankrupting the Government.

      Delete

    3. Instead of reforming the Defense Department Programs that are bankrupting the Government.

      Delete

    4. Instead off building a $10 billion "Border Wall" that is not needed.

      Delete
    5. .

      Careful, rat, Mome will say your thinking is out of the mainstream. On the other hand, Doug will accuse you of being a pawn and mouthpiece for the MSM and that you are reflecting 'conventional thinking' evidently a bad thing in his mind.

      The upside, of course, is it's not so bad being a man for all seasons.

      .

      Delete

  4. President Trump thinks he invented a term “a couple of days ago” that he has been using for months and that economists have for more than a century, and it wasn't even the least accurate thing he said in his latest interview.

    Now, everyone is understandably laughing at Trump's history of the phrase “priming the pump.” That, of course, is the long-standing idea that the government should fight recessions by cutting taxes and increasing spending.

    It really entered the lexicon in the 1930s — that's the first time the Economist used the term — but it goes back to at least 1916.

    Trump, though, has some alternative facts. “Have you heard that expression used before?” he asked the Economist, before explaining that “I haven't heard it ... I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good.”

    This is puzzling. First off, Trump's question doesn't make any sense on its own terms. How could they have heard of it if he just came up with it? And second, how could he think he just coined it when he used the very words “priming the pump” back in March and December?

    Who knows.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Why ask why?

      The carney barker's pitch adjusts to fit the crowd.

      .

      Delete
  5. Ah God, I thought this late there be a ratsass free space.

    No so.

    Ciao

    ReplyDelete
  6. .


    Ladies and gentlemen, the faux farmer has left the building.


    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jack should hang out more often though I can see how that is a conundrum for old Bob - his number of readers doubles but with someone actually reading his posts his idiocy is highlighted.

      Delete
    2. .

      In defense of Bob, at least, he has the balls to take a position. While I disagree with him on most of them at least he is willing to put them out there.

      Others here are not quite as forthcoming. Rather than lay out an argument in favor of their position they merely deny the validity of yours or blame everything they disagree with on the MSM and then accuse you of being a mindless agent of the MSM with no independent thoughts of your own. In the first case, an easy out and in the second, a whiny excuse.

      .

      .

      Delete
    3. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson lies and libels.

      He has chased away any number of contributors.

      The first to come to mind, Melody ...
      Whom the "Draft dodger" called a "CUNT".
      Trish, who he referred to as a syphilitic slut.
      Rufus, continually referred to as a drunken Indian.

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson is a racist bigot.
      Endorsing a Eugenics Program, here in the US, for Blacks citizens.

      He can stand up for his positions, all he wants.
      He will never be unchallenged, never be left to lie, libel and spew hate.

      Not while I am 'on the blog'.

      {;-)

      Delete
    4. "There's something really wrong with you, Rat"

      Delete
    5. bobal Fri Mar 20, 06:03:00 PM EDT
      Trish always was a syphilitic slut

      You disrespected Trish with the 'syphilitic slut' comment, now you want to make up and attribute a quote, one that you cannot reference in time or space ...

      You really are quite the misogynist, aren't you, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson?

      Delete
    6. So did Whit. And he was one of the creators of this place.

      Desert Rat Mon Dec 4, 02:47 PM EDT
      Trish always was a syphilitic slut

      Delete
  7. .

    You gotta love this one...

    WASHINGTON — President Trump's lawyers say that their review of his tax returns for the last 10 years do not "reflect any income of any type from Russian sources"  — with "a few exceptions."


    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Personal income is but one of many business items that influences decision mak8ng.

      Delete
    2. .

      Not sure of your point, Ash.

      My intent was merely to point out the lawyer's initial point was rendered meaningless by the conditional at the end.

      .

      Delete
    3. Oh, I agree. I simply wanted to reinforce your POV that the lawyer statement easy meaningless smoke.

      Delete
    4. Is meaningless smoke. How android got easy us beyond me.

      Delete

  8. Andrew Harnik / AP


    Scoop: Trump, irked at cabinet and staff, mulls sweeping shake-up


    At the urging of longtime friends and outside advisers, most of whom he consults after dark, President Trump is considering a "huge reboot" that could take out everyone from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, to counsel Don McGahn and press secretary Sean Spicer, White House sources tell me.

    Trump is also irritated with several Cabinet members, the sources said.

    "He's frustrated, and angry at everyone," said one of the confidants.
    Keep reading 475 words

    The conversations intensified this week as the aftermath of the Comey firing pushed the White House from chaos into crisis. Trump's friends are telling him that many of his top aides don't know how to work with him, and point out that his approval ratings aren't rising, but the leaks are.
    "The advice he's getting is to go big — that he has nothing to lose," the confidant said. "The question now is how big and how bold. I'm not sure he knows the answer to that yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Trump has two complaints about Cabinet members: Either they're tooting their own horns too much, or they're insufficiently effusive in praising him as a brilliant diplomat, etc. Among the cross-currents:

      His friend Wilbur Ross at Commerce this week took what was perceived as a victory lap on a China trade announcement that does little new in actuality.

      Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a big announcement about increasing prison sentences, at the same time that Jared is working on criminal-justice reform.

      HHS Secretary Tom Price shares the blame for the glacial pace of health-care legislation.


      Delete
    2. .

      Soon Trump will be totally isolated. Paranoid and insecure he trusts no one but family members and soon that small groups will be the only capos in Trump's operation. And real estate and fashion lines do not provide a wide breath of experience when it comes to addressing economic or foreign policy issues.

      Trump is already way behind in nominating key second tier slots in many major federal agencies. And, if he starts dumping top level cabinet heads and staff, what qualified person will be willing to take those positions given the way he treats people currently in those positions?

      .

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Ruled by King Trump, Prince Jared and the lovely Princess Ivanka.

      Deuce's longing for the America of yore may come to pass.

      Delete

  9. Since taking office, Trump has backed away from his campaign pledge to move the embassy in a gesture to Israel, instead saying he’s still studying the issue. But Tillerson linked Trump’s deliberations directly to his aspirations for brokering Mideast peace.

    “The president is being very careful to understand how such a decision would impact the peace process,” Tillerson said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said Trump’s decision would be informed by feedback from all sides, including “whether Israel views it as helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction.”

    Trump’s decision is being closely watched as the president prepares to depart Friday on his first foreign trip. After stopping in Saudi Arabia, Trump will visit both Israel and the Palestinian territories, in a nod to his nascent bid to strike the Israeli-Palestinian deal that has eluded his predecessors.

    Jerusalem’s status is one of the most emotionally charged issues in the conflict, with both sides laying claims. Israel captured east Jerusalem — claimed by Palestinians for the capital of a future independent state — from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it, a move not internationally recognized.

    U.S. presidents of both parties have repeatedly waived a U.S. law requiring the embassy be moved to Jerusalem. The most recent waiver — signed by former President Barack Obama — expires on June 1. Trump is expected to sign a six-month renewal of the waiver before it expires, as he continues deliberating.

    In another sign the White House is proceeding cautiously, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, plans to work out of the current embassy in Tel Aviv rather than out of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, as some had urged him to do. Friedman, who owns an apartment in Jerusalem, is expected to live in the U.S. ambassador’s official residence in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herziliya.


    Another campaign promise to be broken ...

    ReplyDelete

  10. Trump's New China Deal May Increase U.S. Trade Deficit


    Gordon G. Chang,
    I write about Asia, especially the Chinese economy.

    Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department announced the U.S. had reached a trade deal with Beijing. “The first real breakthrough that we’ve had with China in decades” is how Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross described the agreement to Neil Cavuto of Fox Business on Friday.

    The new pact could be a “breakthrough,” but it may not constitute progress, at least from the U.S. perspective. On the contrary, it might actually increase America’s bulging trade deficit with China.


    https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2017/05/14/trumps-new-china-deal-may-increase-u-s-trade-deficit/#6d48448d62ff


    ReplyDelete

  11. Even FOX News seems to intimidate the Trump Administration, now

    MIA: White House officials willing to publicly defend and explain Comey’s firing


    “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace opened his show this week by highlighting who was not on his guest list.

    As President Trump's decision to abruptly fire FBI director James B. Comey continues to dominate the news, Wallace said he wanted to feature a White House official “to explain the president's reasoning and to discuss the fallout.” Wallace said that on Saturday morning, the White House announced it would not make anyone available to discuss that topic — but did offer to book senior officials to talk about the president's upcoming foreign trip.

    “When we said we were going to focus on Comey for at least the first half-hour of this program, they put those officials on other shows,” Wallace said.

    He then introduced his two guests for the morning: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), co-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is investigating possible links between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russia, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a member of the Judiciary Committee who has long been critical of Trump.


    If Mr Trump loses Rupert Murdock, FOX News and the Wall Street Journal, his Administration will be toasted, 120 days in.

    The Trump Presidency ... EMASCULATED.

    ReplyDelete
  12. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/report-chinas-military-capabilities-are-growing-shocking-18316

    Report: China's Military Capabilities Are Growing at a Shocking Speed

    China’s military is developing ships, submarines, aircraft, intelligence systems and foreign bases in a bid to become a global military power, according to a forthcoming congressional China commission report.

    "Its six nuclear-powered Type-093 submarines are being augmented by two even more advanced nuclear submarines that by 2020 will make China the third most powerful state for attack submarines, behind the United States and Russia."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. The operative line in "Ordure's piece ...

      ... behind the United States and Russia

      The Chinese have two 3rd class carriers (one a Russian vessel that was sold as scrap).
      Definitely not a threat to the 12 nuclear powered Carrier Groups the US deploys.

      Now tactical nuclear attacks on any those 12 carrier groups are a real threat, but not one that can be countered, conventionally.

      But ...
      The Chinese only have a few hundred nuclear warheads, while the US has stockpiled thousands of them...

      MAD works.


      Delete

  13. How Republicans are paving the way for single-payer health care


    ...
    There are grounds to think a single-payer system would be comparatively popular. A third of Americans are already in one — through Medicare, Medicaid, or military or veterans insurance. Three-quarters of people in these programs are satisfied — a higher figure than among those with employer-provided or individual policies.

    Single-payer systems are not the only path to near-universal coverage. The U.S. could achieve it with some combination of employer-based insurance, subsidized coverage for individuals and adequately funded high-risk pools, alongside Medicare and Medicaid.

    But if Republicans succeed in scrapping the law, they will reduce the number of people with insurance rather than expand it. They will also ensure that upon regaining power, Democrats will not bother resurrecting Obamacare.

    Democrats are more likely to try to build a single-payer system one brick at a time. Starr, for example, proposes "Midlife Medicare" — opening the program to uninsured people between ages 50 and 64. Further expansions could follow when the time is right.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman/ct-single-payer-health-care-republicans-perspec-20170512-column.html

      Delete
    2. Single payer us the way to go.

      Delete
  14. Trump's doing fine, the more the MSM bitch and complain? the more the Democrats scream and whine? The better.

    The American public understands what is happening.

    The leftist, the elites, the progressives heads are collectively exploding..

    Trump is pushing America back to the MIDDLE.

    The extremists on the left, the globalists, the elitists are freaking out..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. 36% approval is not the "Middle", "O"rdure, it is the fringe.

      Mr Trump started out as a 'Minority' President, with only 48.1% of the electorate supporting him. It is evident that he has lost support among the "Middle".

      The Left is not exploding, "O"rdure, it has focused upon emasculating the President, and they are succeeding.

      Delete

    2. In Georgia's 6th District's Special Election Primary Jon Ossoff received 48.1% of the vote.

      Delete

    3. Rupert Murdock, his man Chris Wallace cannot be listed among the "Leftists", though they do qualify as "Globalists".

      But then so is Mr Trump, just look at his portfolio of hotels and resorts around the world.
      He, in his private life, has NEVER been an American First person.
      Not at all.

      You've been played, "O"rdure, by a New York liberal elitist that donated to Chuck Shummer in 2010, Donald Trump.

      Delete

    4. The Georgia 6th, Newt Gingrich's District, Tom Price's District.
      48.1% did not win, there.

      It was not a 'Majority'

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. The facts are clear.

      The Democrat party has lost it's national mandate.

      The House, the Senate, Governorship, The Whitehouse and yes the Supreme Court.

      That's the facts...

      Now some here play statistics without understanding the game, it's like counting passing yards gained and ignoring the score board..

      But if you are not from America you'd miss the understanding.

      Delete
  15. The Republicans will pick up more Senate seats next year, and keep the House.

    The pissing screaming whining by the Dems and folks like Quirk and Ash and all the MSM is a realization that the Pubs will be the biggest influence on USA politics for quite a while. And the Pubs already control about 2/3 of the states.

    Another Supreme Court pick or two may be coming sooner rather than later too.

    Our Ship of State, which was badly listing to the left, and out and out criminality, is beginning to right itself.

    While Ash is always irritating, it is kinda fun watching poor Quirk piss his pants so....

    I thought once, out of compassion, to buy him one of those Red Rubber Catheters he used to advertise ....but no, watching the piss run down his leg is too much fun to pass up.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here are the real thoughts of a Tump supporter

      Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson own words, calling for an Eugenics Program, for black citizens of the United States.


      bobal said...
      ah, hell, after having thought it over, and considerging that my brother was a doctor, and my sis a med tech, who almost got roughed up by some niggers in Oakland, California, maybe the best thing to do is let the niggers abort, abort, abort themselves.

      They do a good job of that.

      bobal Thu Nov 13, 01:29:00 AM EST

      ... the best thing to do is let the niggers abort, abort, abort themselves.


      Not the "Middle", not at all.



      Delete
    2. Planned Parenthood is the national Eugenics program, supported by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.

      Jack, are you sad, this mother's day, that your own "wife" didn't abort the child you never took responsibility for?

      Delete
  16. It was fun reading Mark and what was her name take our self confessed war criminal, dead beat dad, Jew hater, and world class liar to the ringer yesterday. I hope they show up again.

    I am going to take my wife out for a day of Mother's Day activities now.

    Cheers to all but the self confessed war criminal !

    Wonderful nice day here in North Idaho too !!

    Ciao

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kim Sun Oct 19, 03:54:00 PM EDT
      Bobal: Powell is a black racist, like the others.

      No. Powell is a 35 year veteran, wounded in Vietnam, who single-handedly rescued several men from a burning helicopter. He was chairman of the JCS during the Gulf War and author of the "Powell Doctrine" which minimizes friendly casualties by applying overwhelming force, rather than the do-more-with-less approach of the neocons. He was troubled by the "false intimations that Obama was Muslim." He stated that Obama has always been a Christian, and continued, "...what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America." So Colin Powell is precisely the opposite of a racist, and he is troubled by the whisper campaign of his nominal party during the run up to this election.




      Kim knows the truth about Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson

      Delete
    2. That asshole sucked off the Republicans all his life. I would have voted for him at one time. Then, when a black skin comes along, a commie one too, with such a shitty background, he dumps it all and votes for his 'tribe', all his former principles be damned.

      Yup, Colin Powell turned out to be a racist, voting race over principle.

      That's what racists do.

      Delete


    3. Mr Powell was in the US Army for 35 years, "Draft Dodger".
      The US Army is not an institution of the Republican Party.

      You are a fool, a thief and a racist, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson

      Delete
    4. Jack, did you not tell us the you were a "gun" for hire in central america?

      Is that how you pay back the US Army? Going rouge?

      Tell me, after I reported you to the AZ FBI for cyber threats, you bragged that you had a source in the FBI and you read classified intel on me, what does that make you? A liar or a criminal?

      Delete
  17. It didn't take ratass' wife long to figure this out....immediately after "dropping the kid" in the USA she fled rat'sass back to Central America, and has raised the child all by herself ever since, with not a peso support coming from our DEAD BEAT DAD.

    Lucky child, lucky woman !

    You Will Hate Your Husband After Your Kid Is Born

    Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

    By Jancee Dunn

    Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Thinkstock.

    The following is adapted from Dunn’s How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids, published by Little, Brown.

    Two months into our daughter’s existence, my husband, Tom, and I nearly came to blows over whose turn it was to empty the Diaper Genie, whose plastic entrails had become bloated and coiled like a postprandial Burmese python. Normally we’re peaceable types, so the volcanic ferocity of our anger surprised us both. I remember glancing down at my hands, clutching the Genie sack, and envisioning them around Tom’s neck. When he yelled that he did it “last time,” I hollered back that I had carried and delivered the baby “the last time.” This was a tired, if effective, retort.

    Advertisement

    On this upcoming day of celebrating mothers, here’s a cautionary note, something many mothers-to-be don’t expect when they’re expecting: If you have a husband, you will hate him when your kid is born. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Don’t be fooled by the pictures on your social media feed of your friends serenely beaming with their infants. When they’re not letting you know they’re #SoBlessed, they’re probably fighting.

    Perhaps the single most widely cited piece of research on marriage and children comes from couples’ therapists John and Julie Gottman, who found that 67 percent of couples are less satisfied with their marriages after having a baby....

    http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2017/05/happy_mother_s_day_you_will_hate_your_husband_after_having_a_baby.html

    :) I guess I'm born lucky, my wife never really felt that way, perhaps because I was there all the time, and have changed some thousands of diapers in my day.

    Crapper rat wouldn't even know what a Diaper Genie is....

    Thought the article hit mark today as far as our self confessed killer and true DEAD BEAT DAD is concerned.

    Again, Cheers to all you others....and best regards and wishes to all the Moms.

    Ciao

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, the truth hurts, which is why you a wigging out.

      Your lies and libel, they slide on off, because there is no basis in reality to what you write.
      You have come to believe your own lies.

      Your mental state is suspect, at best.
      Cognizant, but not rational

      So sad, not.

      {;-)

      Delete
    2. Jack, you told us you had a wife that had a daughter that you never supported..

      On this mother's day? You still take no responsibility..

      A true measure, or lack thereof, of a man..

      Delete

  18. Are they debating TrumpCare in the Senate, no ... the focus is on Russia and Comey
    Are they debating Tax Reform in the House ... Nope.

    Emasculation ... your word for the day, "O"rdure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jack, the Senate and House doesn't play checkers, they do more than one thing at a time.

      Now you?

      You are a one trick pony..

      LOL

      I at least have a wife and kids...What's your story?

      Baby daddy?

      LOL

      Delete
  19. .

    The American public understands what is happening.

    :o)

    I always find it amusing when Trump or his minions or the Trumpettes indicate they represent 'mainstream' thought or that what Trump is doing is what the 'American people' want.

    No, he's not. Take a look at the numbers. They're there for those who choose to see. And Trump is getting further from the mainstream every day and the GOP is right there with him. For god's sake, I just read this morning that Ryan still has plans to privatize Medicare.

    While Trump's base is still behind him and willing to give him more time to come through, the man has already promised to go back on every key pledge he made to them.

    And anyone who thinks Trump's base Americans represent most Americans is nutz.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump's Americans aren't base Americans.

      You are debasing your fellow American citizens, like Hillary, you cad.

      You are deplorable and irredeemable.

      And, please don't poison your poor mutt to death with Crest toothpaste, you idiot.


      Desert Rat Mon Dec 4, 02:47 PM EDT
      Trish always was a syphilitic slut

      "There is something really wrong with you, Rat"

      Trish

      I'm outta here.

      Delete
    2. Your mental state is suspect, at best, Robrt "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
      Cognizant, but not rational

      So sad, not.

      {;-)

      Delete
    3. Quirk, America gets it.

      I don't buy into the polls or the MSM daily, if not hourly refresh of nonsense.

      Look at the macro trends.

      :)

      Delete
    4. .

      Oh, I watch the trends. I also watch Trump.

      Trump promised to reverse many of those trends, constant war, loss of jobs, stagnant wage growth. He also promised the bestest health system ever, better and cheaper for all and an improvement in all regards over ACA, to reign in the banks and Wall Street, to 'drain the swamp'. On most of these he has done the exact opposite.

      He made those promises to the people in flyover country who put him over the top in the election. What do you think the trend will be when they discover he as screwed them over? Thank you sir, may I have another? I kind of doubt it.

      .


      Delete
  20. God dammit you guys!
    Stop making me rethink everything I've learned.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These morons confirm everything I always knew was true.

      :)

      Delete
    2. "Vat ve neeedt isst Gut King !"

      My Grandfather

      Delete
    3. Gut = Goooodt for non Swedish speakers

      Delete
    4. Poor Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, he personifies ...

      “There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
      ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

      Delete

  21. At best, this was caused by extreme negligence on the part of the US government.

    An unprecedented global “ransomware” attack has hit at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, Europe's police agency said Sunday - and predicted that more damage may be seen Monday as people return to work and switch on their computers.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should know, we all know the US Government should have locked your sorry ass up when it could, and didn't.

      Delete

  22. James Comey, the FBI director sacked, then vilified and threatened by Donald Trump last week, is poised to exact his revenge on the US President by testifying against him publicly before congress.

    Although Mr Comey has declined to appear before the Senate intelligence committee at a closed hearing this Wednesday, he has made clear via friends that he wants to strike back against Mr Trump in an open session that could be one of the most-watched events in US political history.
    ...
    CNN claimed Vice-President Mike Pence was “rattled” last week and White House morale was at rock bottom. By talking publicly about the dinner, Mr Trump appears to have waived executive privilege, and Mr Comey is said to be “relaxed” about the existence of any tape.

    Whatever the outcome of the FBI’s Russia investigation or the congressional inquiries into ­related matters, it is clear Mr Trump’s presidency is being consumed by the drama surrounding his impetuous actions.

    “He ­demands loyalty but trusts no one. He decries ‘fake news’ but shows such a casual disregard for the truth that no one can believe anything that the White House says any more,’’ a ­Capitol Hill ­Republican said. “I never thought I’d ever say this, because I’ve spent much of my life opposing the Clintons, but I’m beginning to wonder whether it might have been better for all of us if Hillary had won.”


    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/sacked-fbi-chief-comey-plots-strike-at-trump-in-congress/news-story/05061699e8076df98daca2e6ab4483c2

    Bye-bye Tax Reform ....

    ReplyDelete

  23. (CNN)Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the Senate should refuse to confirm a new FBI director until the Department of Justice appoints a special counsel to lead a probe into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

    "I think there are a lot of Democrats who feel that way," Schumer said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We'll have to discuss it as a caucus, but I would support that move."

    Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, proposed the idea after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last week.

    Trump has yet to name his choice to replace Comey, for which interviews have taken place this weekend, and the Justice Department thus far has declined to appoint a special prosecutor.

    Republicans leading Congress have also declined to compel a special prosecutor or create an independent investigative commission.

    Acknowledging Democrats' limited influence in Congress, Schumer told anchor Jake Tapper, "The key here, of course, is getting some of our Republican colleagues to join us."

    Schumer said the need for a special prosecutor is stronger after Trump fired Comey, who was leading the FBI's investigation into the collusion allegations. The New York Democrat called on Republicans to put an independent investigation over party loyalty, and referenced the Republican senator who said of then-President Richard Nixon during the Watergate investigation: "What did the President know, and when did he know it?"

    "Where is the Howard Baker of 2017?" Schumer asked.


    His name is John McCain, he is laying in wait, getting ready to ambush the man that libeled the Senators military service.

    ReplyDelete
  24. lots blah blah by dummy rat

    ReplyDelete
  25. like others drives me out too bye

    ReplyDelete
  26. SMIRK'n'QUIRK are unwittingly - what else could they be - The Donald's greatest assets -

    The Irrationals: Trump’s Opponents Are His Greatest Asset
    Derek Hunter Derek Hunter |Posted: May 14, 2017 12:01 AM



    It wasn’t a good week for President Donald Trump, but it could have been a lot worse. For all his faults – and there are many – the president is blessed with one important thing: opponents so unhinged, so irrational, that even when compared to him, he comes off better.

    The ham-handed and, frankly, classless way in which the president fired FBI Director James Comey could have and should have been handled better. The White House can find out where the head of the FBI is at any given moment, so wait until he’s in the office to fire him or pick up the phone and do it right. Instead, Comey saw it on TV.

    That said, he had to go. But media reports suggest the White House was shocked at the reaction. If true, that itself is shocking. If Donald Trump saved a puppy, the media and Democrats would complain about it, so firing the head of a department currently investigating the Trump campaign and being shocked about blowback is amateurish.

    Luckily for the president, “worse than amateurish” is the perfect way to describe his opponents.

    Democrats who days or even hours earlier had been hyper-critical of Comey spun on a dime to proclaim his firing an affront to justice. They declared he had no credibility, then expressed outrage at his no longer “leading the investigation into President Trump.”

    Of course the head of the FBI was not “leading the investigation” any more than the CEO of a car company leads the investigation into a faulty brake pad. But why let the facts stand in the way of a good freak-out?


    CARTOONS | KEN CATALINO

    VIEW CARTOON

    Nearly every Democrat, journalist, and cable news personality clutching their pearls over Comey’s firing has a trail of pronouncements expressing disgust at one or more of his actions in the recent past.

    Which leaves these leftists having to argue that a man they repeatedly declared unsuited for the job should not have been removed from it.

    But that’s not all. Not even close.

    President Trump is known for, shall we say, contradicting his staff and himself. Previous statements are regularly deemed inoperative, many times within the same day. Normally, that would be fatal for a politician. But nothing in the age of Trump is normal.

    Liberals appear to have a lack of self-control when it comes to all things Trump. Every move, every tweet is a threat to democracy, an affront to humanity, and surely will lead to the end of life as we know it. There’s no proportionality. When a 5 would do, they turn it up to 11. They can’t help it.

    Simply shutting up would serve them better than what they’re doing, but they’re incapable.

    No conspiracy, no anonymous source is too far-fetched to be believed about the president.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This week saw the media fall flat on their faces time and again. Anonymous sources wove conspiracies of Comey requesting more money to expand the Russia investigation just before being fired and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatening to resign if his letter was used as justification for its sole purpose for being.


      The funding story was undercut by Interim Director Andrew McCabe’s testimony before the Senate, and the resignation tale was destroyed from the mouth of Rosenstein himself.

      Anonymous sources, it seems, are the order of the day. One Washington Post story involved 30 of them; 30! That’s five more than a major league baseball roster.

      As if whispers from the shadows weren’t enough, many have taken to simply lying. The truth is bad enough sometimes, but to be compelled to lie on top of it must be some sort of disorder.

      MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, for example, could have just played a full clip from Trump’s interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt and pointed out his inconsistencies. But she couldn’t just do that; she had to turn it up to 11.

      Maddow played the President saying, “Regardless of recommendation (from Rosenstein), I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it (fire Comey), I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.” She then mugged for the camera for a couple of seconds like the Muppet Beaker caught in headlights.


      After her comedic pause, Maddow feigned outrage and talked about how Trump had just admitted to removing Comey because of the Russia investigation and how he should be impeached because of it.

      But of course, that’s not at all of what the president said in that answer. Context, which was all the rage with liberals during the Obama years, has gone out the window, it seems, and been replaced with rage and lies.

      What the president said, completely, was, “And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won. And the reason they should've won it is the Electoral College is almost impossible for a Republican to win. It's very hard because you start off at such a disadvantage. So, everybody was thinking they should've won the election. This was an excuse for having lost an election.”


      He continued from there, but did you notice the difference between what Maddow showed her audience and the truth? He wasn’t talking about why he fired Comey, he was talking about the Russia investigation. He went on to say. “But I said to myself I might even lengthen out the investigation. But I have to do the right thing for the American people.”

      If you got your “news” from Rachel Maddow you were lied to; you were misinformed.

      But liberals don’t care. No lie is too much, no conspiracy too extreme to be believed as gospel truth. They’re irrational.

      And those irrationals are helping Donald Trump. If they could control themselves, be honest, or even just silent and rational for a while the president could find himself in trouble. But they can’t.

      The juxtaposition between anything Trump does or says and dozens of journalists and cable news talking heads screaming “the sky is falling” is no contest.

      There is no media monopoly anymore. When reporters lie, people find out about it. The old model just doesn’t work. Even people who don’t like Trump like irrational Chicken Littles less. They may be Donald Trump’s greatest asset.

      https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2017/05/14/the-irrationals-trumps-opponents-are-his-greatest-asset-n2326570

      Delete
    2. Here's a sop for our Two Saps

      How Trump May Save the Republic

      Bret Stephens MAY 12, 2017

      Photo

      Leopoldine Konstantin and Claude Rains as Madame Sebastian and her son, Alexander, in “Notorious.” Credit RKO Radio Pictures/Photofest

      The question in the title of Timothy Egan’s latest column for The Times is “Who Will Save the Republic?” My answer is Donald Trump, of course.

      I mean this in the Anna Sebastian sense — Madame Sebastian being the shrewd, sinister and very Teutonic mother played by Leopoldine Konstantin in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 classic, “Notorious.”

      Anna’s adult son, Alexander (Claude Rains), is part of a group of well-heeled Nazis living and scheming revenge in Brazil when he marries Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), a beautiful young woman he deems trustworthy because her father was a convicted German spy.

      Too late, Alexander realizes that Alicia is really an American agent, and that exposure of the fact will mean certain death for him at the hands of his fellow Nazis. When he confesses the problem to mother, she responds with the most reproachful reassurance in movie history:

      “We are protected by the enormity of your stupidity — for a time.”

      Just so with our 45th president. His views are often malevolent, and his conduct might ultimately prove criminal. But we, too, are protected, for a time, by the enormity of his stupidity....

      https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/opinion/how-trump-may-save-the-republic.html?_r=0

      :)

      Delete
    3. You two guys ought to wait until The Donald actually has to, and does, make a weighty decision....like what to do about N. Korea, for instance, or Iran, or something else of real moment, and then attack his ass.

      All this pissing around about Comey and tapes and alleged Russian influence in our elections and on and on is very poor gruel, and quite meaningless.

      Hold your fire until you actually have a living target.

      Delete
  27. :):):):)

    As a Harvard Law Student, Barack Obama Said Becoming Donald Trump Was The American Dream

    BY AARON MANSFIELD

    Aaron Mansfield is a writer based in Raleigh, N.C. Follow him here.
    MAY 12, 2017

    Image via Getty

    Donald Trump pops up a lot in books from the 1980s and 1990s. At that time, he was a popular symbol for American success. Nowadays, of course, Trump is a far more polarizing figure. Apparently, Barack Obama once associated the current U.S. president with success as well.

    In 1991, Obama, a 29-year-old soon-to-be Harvard Law School grad, wrote a paper with a friend, Robert Fisher, called “Race and Rights Rhetoric.” Obama summed up the average American’s mindset with the following sentence: "I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don't make it, my children will."

    This quote came to light following the publishing of Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, a new 1,460-page biography of the former U.S. president by David J. Garrow. That law paper was previously unpublished.

    Here’s the full excerpt:

    “[Americans have] a continuing normative commitment to the ideals of individual freedom and mobility, values that extend far beyond the issue of race in the American mind. The depth of this commitment may be summarily dismissed as the unfounded optimism of the average American—I may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don't make it, my children will.”

    In case you’re thinking of checking out the biography, it has gotten mixed reviews. The New York Times called it "a bloated, tedious and...ill-considered book that is in desperate need of editing, and way more exhausting than exhaustive.”....

    http://www.complex.com/life/2017/05/harvard-law-student-barack-obama-becoming-donald-trump-american-dream

    ReplyDelete
  28. "Nearly every Democrat, journalist, and cable news personality clutching their pearls over Comey’s firing has a trail of pronouncements expressing disgust at one or more of his actions in the recent past.

    Which leaves these leftists having to argue that a man they repeatedly declared unsuited for the job should not have been removed from it."

    ===

    Not a problem for Maxine, Quirk, and the MSM.

    See no evil.

    Unless it's Trump.

    It always is.

    ReplyDelete
  29. clutching their pearls is good.

    I can imagine Quirk - and Maxine ?- 'clutching his pearls' over The Donald.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OOOO....I love to clutch Quirk's pearls.

      Delete
  30. The United States goes into Tetanus.

    Over something that did not happen.

    But it's really over Trump.

    Which did happen.

    ReplyDelete
  31. "Giants win 3rd straight with rare onslaught of runs."

    Amazing they could do it with the shits.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Let's put this question to rest -

    Trump could lawfully record Comey

    Alex Brandon / AP

    Trump tweeted Friday that his fired FBI Director James Comey better hope there aren't any tapes of their conversations, which critics quickly noted only further links him to Nixonian practices.

    But it's not illegal for a President to record conversations: After Watergate, there weren't any policies added to limit presidents from recording, per Politifact. Plus, "one-party consent" is all that's needed to tape a conversation lawfully in Washington, D.C.

    And presidential taping is more common than you might think: The history of presidents taping conversations isn't exclusive to Nixon.

    The Washington Post , Politifact , and NYDaily News have consolidated the details on which presidents have recorded conversations throughout history:

    The first president to tape in the Oval Office was FDR, and Harry Truman inherited his recording device.
    Dwight D. Eisenhower had a hidden button in a fake telephone on his desk to record conversations.
    JFK increased the number of recording devices during his term.

    Lyndon B. Johnson recorded phone calls (including a notorious call where he ordered about six pairs of slacks). Johnson also increased the number of mics in the Cabinet room.

    Nixon himself used seven microphones in the Oval Office, two in the Cabinet room, four in his EEOB office next door to the WH, a recording system at Camp David, as well as in the Sitting Room of the residence. Only a few WH employees knew of their existence until July 1973.

    The anti-tapers: Gerald Ford gave firm instructions to remove taping equipment after Nixon's scandal, and he only recorded two phone calls with foreign leaders. Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush wouldn't allow any tapings either. There's no evidence Bill Cinton taped anything.

    On the fence: Ronald Reagan allowed tapings of meetings and conversations extensively, and NPR reports Obama may have been recording conversations with visitors around 2013.

    https://www.axios.com/trump-could-lawfully-record-comey-2405296033.html

    And, if it happened, Comey would certainly have been aware of the possibility or probability or certainty that he was being recorded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Nixon didn't face impeachment over tapes but over what was on them.

      Anyone with Trump's temperament would be nutz to have tapes around that could be subpoenaed.

      Lindsay Graham is already talking about Congress getting the tapes if they exist.

      .

      Delete
  33. “Slump” in Chinatown tourist trade blamed on nonexistent Trump travel ban
    POSTED AT 2:01 PM ON MAY 14, 2017 BY JAZZ SHAW

    Out in San Francisco, the most definitely “woke” citizens are dealing with an economic crisis. Tourism is down in the Chinatown district and that’s pretty much the lifeblood of the area. And what’s the cause of this depressed economic activity? Global warming? Fear of a major earthquake? Nope. According to this report from the San Francisco Gate, it’s President Trump’s travel ban.

    Foot traffic is down, tours feel light, stores aren’t moving as much Chinatown kitsch as they usually do, business owners said Friday. The question is why, and no one seems to be sure.

    At a news conference in the Clarion Music Performing Arts Center, members of several small-business advocacy groups blamed President Trump’s embattled travel ban for a slowdown that some business owners say has amounted to anywhere from 10 to 50 percent less spending than usual for this time of year…

    “My phone used to be busy all the time, especially with summer coming,” [travel guide Cynthia] Yee said. “No one calls me anymore. We used to have three or four guides out every weekend. Now, it’s just me.”

    Although Trump’s ban, designed to keep travelers from six Muslim-majority countries out of the U.S. over fears of terrorism, has been stalled for months by federal court proceedings, San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations President Henry Karnilowicz said the damage has largely been done.

    I see. So the cause of fewer visitors arriving from overseas is the travel ban. If memory serves, you’re talking about the ban that was actually in effect for all of about fifteen minutes before some liberal judges shut it down. Or perhaps you mean the second version of the travel ban. You know… the one that never even made it into effect before the same set of judges slammed the brakes on that one too. Is that what you’re talking about? Man… the President must have some serious mental superpowers along the lines of Professor X to affect that many travelers just with the power of his imagination.

    But there’s another wrinkle in this story. The San Francisco Travel Association predicts a 2% increase in tourist trade for the year. In fact, the people whose job it is to monitor tourism aren’t seeing anything unusual at all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Visitors are expected to spend as much as $9.22 billion in the city, nearly 3 percent more than they did in 2016, according to the association’s most recent forecast, from March.

      “Tourism is not down really,” said Laurie Armstrong, the association’s director of media relations for the U.S. and Canada. “It seems to be doing just fine.” …

      Yet the travel association expects 2.9 million international visitors this year (with more than 526,000 from China). That’s a slight bump of a third of a percent over last year’s tourism numbers.
      So not only is this “crisis” in the tourist trade being caused by a travel ban which isn’t in effect, the crisis in question isn’t even real. You know, somehow the phrase “fake news” doesn’t really even do this one justice. This takes the game to an entirely new meta-level. You can obviously blame Trump and “Resist!” all the live long day over any perceived evil you choose, from global warming to trade policy. But when you have to invent a new crisis out of whole cloth in order to affix more blame you’ve moved your armies into an entirely new battlefield.

      But in closing, keep in mind that the people in the article who were blaming Trump specifically said that tourist traffic “feels light.” And the stores “seem to” be moving less merchandise. So I suppose the actual amount of sales or tourists walking the streets doesn’t really matter all that much. These days you can pick your own gender or, in the case of Rachel Dolezal, your own race based solely on how you feel. So if you feel like commercial activity is lower than usual I guess it is. And if anyone dares to bring up the actual numbers they’re clearly a racist. Or a sexist. Or something.

      http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/14/slump-chinatown-tourist-trade-blamed-nonexistent-trump-travel-ban/

      Delete
  34. .

    You two guys ought to wait until The Donald actually has to, and does, make a weighty decision....

    Bull titty.

    We've already seen what he was able to do on his own, some of it bad, reversing water and environmental rules on coal; and some of it good, cancelling TPP and nominating Gorsuch (although TPP would never have been passed in the Senate anyway and we won't know what we've got with Gorsuch until he starts voting.)

    Other actions are on hold by the courts at the moment.

    As for things of 'real moment' he's already given us an indication of what he will do. The AHCA which polls show only about 20% approve of is now in the Senate. His budget priorities will soon be taken up in the house. One of Trump's campaign promises was to eliminate needless foreign interventions; yet, his budget calls for a 10% increase in military spending and massive cuts in other discretionary programs to pay for it. If these pass as proposed, Trump's approval numbers will continue to fall as the people who voted for him once again take it in the ass. If any of these things change, it won't be because of Trump but because saner minds forced it.

    That's policy. But the man is also embarrassing. He is rude and crude. He is insecure and therefore dangerous. The Comey issue is just the latest example.

    In it's reference to Maddow above, the Townhall article claims to make a point but actually makes an opposite one.

    The only good thing about the article was the description of Maddow as being like the Muppet Beaker. However, Maddow is irrelevant to the story. She was quoting Trump's own words and those words have been repeated in all the media. They are the money words now. Yet, the author insists on adding 'context' supposedly to prove Maddow is some crazy wacko and therefore...what...that Trump's words and actions don't matter?

    The problem, of course, is that the context itself does nothing to change the meaning of Trumps words.

    What the president said, completely, was, “And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won. And the reason they should've won it is the Electoral College is almost impossible for a Republican to win. It's very hard because you start off at such a disadvantage. So, everybody was thinking they should've won the election. This was an excuse for having lost an election.”

    The context merely further points out Trump's pathology. How many times must we see the same meme repeated? Trump will still be complaining about it in 2020. It shows his fixation on the election. It shows his insecurity about any questions raised about the results. He just can't let it go. The author seems to think this context explains Trump's actions in firing Comey but it just raises more questions.

    Did Trump actually think that firing Comey would somehow bring the FBI investigation to an end. If so, he is dumber than he looks and the charge of interfering in a criminal investigation just expands.

    The trouble with most Trumpettes is that they usually attack only the messenger and divert from or ignore the message. In this case, the author at least attacks the message, with a few ad hominems thrown in for good measure, but he does a piss poor job of it.

    .


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems you basically agree that he really hasn't done much yet, nothing to warrant mindless hysteria.



      Delete
    2. .

      Mindless hysteria is Doug insinuating that what Trump says and does isn't the problem but rather the real problem is the MSM reporting on what Trump says and does.

      Some people would call that censorship but most simply call it Doug being Doug.

      As for assuming I agree with you that is always a high risk bet.

      In this case, I agree that he hasn't accomplished much but that is not to say he hasn't tried, and what he has tried shows his intent and the direction in which he is willing to move, and it is his intent and the direction in which he is willing to move that I condemn him for.

      .

      Delete
  35. I sit with bated breath waiting for Trump to do 'something' about the latest projectile fired by the NORKs. Maybe he fell asleep and missed the media reports - one can hope anyway.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ash, trump is doing...

      He's pressuring China.

      Try reading the "Art of War"

      Delete
    2. .

      Trump threatens and Kim lights another cigar. Though ol' Kim he may be pushing things a little far. His last missile hit 60 miles from Russian territory and Putin doesn't seem like a guy who would worry responding in kind.

      .

      Delete
    3. Play "go" not checkers Quirk.

      Kim pisses off more than Trump with his fun...

      Delete
    4. Trumo will get his buddy Putin to take care of it? Kim will produce Putin to take care of it?

      Dead South Koreans just collateral damage?

      Delete

  36. India delivered an implicit criticism of China’s initiative Saturday in a statement that said such an initiative should meet international norms and not create unsustainable debt.

    India has objected to Chinese state-owned companies working in the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both sides. New Delhi sees that as an endorsement of Pakistan’s control.

    “No country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement said.


    The Hindus have it right

    ReplyDelete
  37. Quirk, not to get into a long drawn out discussion but a small point,

    "But the man is also embarrassing. He is rude and crude. He is insecure and therefore dangerous. The Comey issue is just the latest example. "

    How I Trump ANY different than any of the leaders we have had in 30 years?

    If private tapes of any of them were exposed orin their public statements were held to the same standard?

    Sounds like they are all the same.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      A wise man once said: "They're all dicks."

      They belong to the 'Brotherhood of Dicks'.

      Trump is simply the current top dick. However, they all express their dickdom in different ways. Odds are Trump won't be any worse than the others in the end (not a compliment); however, our experience with him in his first 4 months seems unique at least within my memory, his narcissism, his paranoia, his insecurity, his bluster, his inconsistency, his lack of tact, his willingness to reverse himself 180 degrees on campaign promises, his crudeness, his cupidity, his inexperience, all promise to provide a stormy ride over the next 4 years.

      One doesn't need the MSM to explain this. All one needs is to pay attention to Trump himself, his tweets, his interview, his speeches, his pep rallies, his changing positions and policies.

      .

      Delete
  38. I'm counting on General Ash to see us through the N. Korean problems myself.

    A couple of months of General Ash and the Norks will have given up their nukes, missiles, be members in good standing in the UN, will not be threatening Japan, S. Korean, USA, Australia or anyone else....and will be working to peacefully reunite with S. Korea to begin living a truly democratic life respectful of human rights.

    And Kim will have been peacefully retired to end his days on some balmy island somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Kim Jong-un in 'state of paranoia' as latest North Korea missile lands MILES from Russia

    NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in a “state of paranoia” as it was revealed his latest nuclear missile test landed just miles from Russia.

    By ALIX CULBERTSON
    22:20, Sun, May 14, 2017 | UPDATED: 22:56, Sun, May 14, 2017

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/804563/North-Korea-nuclear-missile-test-Kim-Jong-un-Russia-Trump-United-States

    The missile may have gone off course.

    This sure is a real confidence builder, as my dad would have said.

    La Russe may be begging us for THAAD next thing we know.

    Should we respond positively, keeping the system under our control with our gals and guys, of course ?

    ReplyDelete
  40. Now this is the kind of creative geo-political thinking we are desperate for -

    Trump Should Access Hollywood to Gain Leverage over China


    America should welcome China’s arrival in the moviemaking business, but not with unequal access to U.S. marketplaces.

    Benjamin Domenech
    May 11, 2017

    When it comes to negotiating with China, President Donald J. Trump and his team have the opportunity to use an underappreciated leverage point: the desire of Chinese audiences for American films.

    If you’ve wondered why blockbuster films in recent years have featured international casts shot in scenes increasingly filled with effects, explosions and grandly staged car races in exotic locations, the answer is China. While the moviegoing audience and box office revenue in the United States has stagnated, China continues to grow by leaps and bounds—and Chinese audiences love American movies....

    http://nationalinterest.org/feature/trump-should-access-hollywood-gain-leverage-over-china-20614?page=show

    Overthrow Kim, get rid of his nukes, we'll send you some more John Wayne type movies, updated to the more modern era....

    ReplyDelete
  41. I'm thinking, speculatively of course, it might have been a grand thing if Kim's missile had entered La Russe and killed a few people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. General Ash would sigh relief, thinking it's out of my hands now Pooty will take care of it.

      Delete
  42. Pooty can play a pretty mean piano, I have read. Surprised at this....

    Phony fly fisherman though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Recently scored 7 goals his own self, putting all other ice hockey legends to shame.

      Delete
    2. Word is the defense was positively punishing.

      Delete
    3. Pooty makes Bobby Orr look like a piker.

      Delete
    4. On the ivories and ebonies Pooty makes Claudio Arrau look like a honky tonk

      Claudio Arrau (1903-1991)

      It’s said that this great Chilean pianist could read music before he could read words. It wasn’t long before he was playing works like the virtuosic Transcendental Etudes by Liszt. He’s perhaps best-known for his interpretations of the music of Beethoven. The legendary conductor Colin Davis said of Arrau: “His sound is amazing, and it is entirely his own… His devotion to Liszt is extraordinary. He ennobles that music in a way no one else in the world can.”

      Honky Tonk

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNVguvNE7qc

      Ebony and Ivory

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZtiJN6yiik

      I've always loved Pooty doing the Transcendental Etudes by Liszt.

      Delete
    5. Off topic, but here's Karen White and the Quirkettes:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbwGnTO0Q8

      Quintessential Quirk at the Soho

      Delete
    6. Compared to Pooty doing The Transcendental Etudes they really suck.

      Delete
    7. I always played by ear.

      Then I went tone deaf.

      Delete
  43. Putin's Birthday Victory:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Q_BfwbkJs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too bad they didn't put up the whole game.

      Delete
    2. I thought that was the whole game.

      The poor guy is in his sixties, after all.

      Delete
    3. I was pretty spry and healthy in my sixties.


      That was then.

      Delete
  44. Pooty at the Piano

    May 14, 3:29 PM EDT

    PUTIN SITS DOWN AT PIANO IN CHINA, PLAYS SOVIET SONGS

    MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, known for his passion for the outdoors, showed off his softer side during a visit to China when he sat down to play the piano Sunday.

    VIDEO

    Putin is in Beijing on a state visit to discuss a $1 trillion infrastructure plan that strives to revive the ancient Silk Road.

    After speaking at the summit in the morning, Putin headed to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at his residence.

    Putin is habitually late for meetings, but this time he was the one who was made to wait, Russian news agencies said.

    So, Putin played some songs on Xi's piano. Russian state television showed excerpts of at least two tunes he played - "Moscow Windows" and "City on the Free Neva" - both Soviet classics.

    Putin has demonstrated his music talents before. In 2010, he took the stage at a charity concert with a jazz band to play and sing "Blueberry Hills."

    But in recent years, Putin - occupied with the annexation of Crimea, the crisis in eastern Ukraine and Russia's role in Syria - preferred to demonstrate his virile side in Kremlin-distributed pictures of him hunting and fishing.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_PUTIN_ON_PIANO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-14-15-29-22

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meanwhile, Quirk reports that the MSM reports that Trump is one order shy of a Happy Meal.

      Delete
  45. What will the military do ?

    Opposition in Venezuela in desperate plea to military

    AFP AFPMay 14, 2017
    Venezuelan Congress President Julio Borges (C), pictured on May 11, 2017, made an appeal to the military to engage in a candid debate regarding the country's political crisis

    Venezuelan Congress President Julio Borges (C), pictured on May 11, 2017, made an appeal to the military to engage in a candid debate regarding the country's political crisis (AFP Photo/Ernesto BENAVIDES)

    Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's opposition Sunday urged the armed forces to consider dialogue, despite its loyalty to embattled President Nicolas Maduro in the country's deadly political crisis.

    "I am appealing to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez to open the doors of a sincere debate in the armed forces," said Julio Borges, the speaker of the National Assembly, the only opposition-led government body.
    Opposition leaders believe Maduro and some of his supporters met this week with Padrino Lopez to rally support for his plan to convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.

    "If (key supporters and) Maduro have the right to give a partisan argument to the military on the chaos Venezuela is going through, we ought to have that right as well," Borges argued.

    Elected in 2013, Maduro, the handpicked successor of the late long-time leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, is resisting pressure for an early vote, calling the crisis the result of a US-backed conspiracy. His opponents have branded him a dictator.

    Protesters also oppose his plans to elect an assembly -- and do it sidestepping the country's political parties -- to overhaul the constitution, dismissing it as a way to put off elections.
    Increasingly violent near-daily protests that began April 1 have left a toll of 38 dead, and hundreds wounded and under arrest.

    Dozens of mothers dressed in black were out on Caracas's streets Sunday to mark a Mother's Day of protest, hours after violent unrest in the towns of Caja Seca and Pueblo Llano....

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/opposition-venezuela-desperate-plea-military-205532765.html

    "Civil war is the best war for a writer, the most complete"

    Ernest Hemingway

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ernie, The Turning Point

      https://books.google.com/books?id=x2F6MOgogEoC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=a+civil+war+is+the+most+complete+-+Ernest+Hemingway&source=bl&ots=wMsoy-zU26&sig=LhiPNEWfoJOqsk3g742ne6LpaGk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK0OLLlfHTAhUE32MKHQmEC-oQ6AEIYDAJ#v=onepage&q=a%20civil%20war%20is%20the%20most%20complete%20-%20Ernest%20Hemingway&f=false

      Delete
  46. WHY ONLY TRUMP CAN WIN IN NORTH KOREA
    It’s time to think outside the box.
    May 15, 2017 Daniel Greenfield


    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam

    America is facing the same old bad choices in North Korea.

    Either we apply multilateral sanctions hoping that Kim Jong-un, unlike his dad, Saddam Hussein and the Supreme Leader of Iran, will be suitably impressed by having to smuggle his iPhones through three other countries. Or we build a multilateral coalition to take out its military with minimal civilian casualties and then spend the next decade reconstructing and policing it into a proper member of the United Nations.

    Is anyone surprised that after Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans have little appetite for either alternative?

    How is it possible that we beat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in less time than it’s taking us to figure out that we can’t even trust the clods of dirt in Afghanistan? Let alone reach a peace deal with them.

    But WW2 was a war. It may have been the last war in which we leveraged all the firepower at our disposal to smash an enemy. We don’t fight wars anymore. Instead we’re the world’s policeman.

    The military and the police have very different functions. The military destroys a threat. The police keep order. What we’ve been trying and failing to do in Afghanistan is keep order. It’s what we want to do in North Korea. Get that obnoxious kid next door to stop testing nukes every time he has a bad day.

    The vocabulary is a dead giveaway. When we call a country a “rogue state” instead of an “enemy”, we’re not saying that it’s a deadly threat to us, but that it’s not behaving the way a member of the global community should. But being a “rogue state” is only a crime to globalists. Our problem isn’t that North Korea is failing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Treatment of Radishes. It’s the nukes.

    To solve a problem, you have to clearly define it because your solution will follow your formulation.

    To globalists, the problem is an anti-social withdrawal from the global community. The solution is global “shunning” sanctions followed by a return to the loving arms of the global community.

    That’s why the Iran nuke deal disaster happened. The diplomats didn’t care a radioactive fig about Iran’s nukes. They were invested in Iran’s membership in the “international community”. And they got what they wanted. They once got North Korea to sign on the dotted line too. And if you stand downwind of the latest test site with a Geiger counter, you know how that worked out.

    If we want to win wars, we should stop being the world’s policeman. And defend ourselves instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Multilateral sanctions and multilateral coalitions aren’t our only two options. They’re our only two options if we want to spend our time enforcing the will of an imaginary international community.

      The international community is a failed illusion. We’ve sacrificed far too many lives and too much money trying to defend our national interests by the rules of a post-national global order. That tragic mismatch dragged us into a disastrous and horrifying series of stalemates and lost wars. These stalemates, like Afghanistan, never end for the same reason that the cops in Chicago can never just declare victory.

      Keeping order is an endless job. Policing means accepting the way things are and trying to keep them from getting too far out of hand while hoping that social conditions will somehow improve.

      Police officers serve the public. They are expected to die for civilians. That’s exactly what our soldiers have been expected to do in Iraq, Afghanistan and the other societies that we’ve been policing.

      If there’s any president who can actually break the cycle and replace policing with war, it’s President Trump. Trump is the first president in a long time to express skepticism about international commitments and the global order. And to propose that we serve our own national interests instead of serving the international community. And that is what needs to happen in North Korea.

      Our old reasons for being in Korea expired with the fall of Communism. South Korea just elected a leftist president who likes North Korea better than he likes us. But that sort of thing has been known to happen. Like American leftists, South Korean leftists believe the stalemate with North Korea is our fault.

      They have the right to test out that theory.

      Our concern with North Korea is not that it might endanger our shipments of Samsung phones, but that its nuclear weapons will endanger us. Any hostile country with nuclear weapons is a potential threat. But North Korea has repeatedly threatened to use its nuclear weapons and has exported its technology to Islamic terror states. Even if we could shrug at the former, we can’t afford to ignore the latter.

      Nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists is the great threat of this century. Imagine the Islamic terror attacks of the last few years if the Jihadists didn’t have to make do with guns, bombs and cars. If we don’t turn off that pipeline in North Korea, Iran and Pakistan, the day will come when we aren’t watching dozens, hundreds or thousands dying on television in the cities of the West, but millions.

      Preventing that moment from happening in this century must be our primary strategic objective.

      Our post 9/11 engagements drifted from strategic objectives in our national interest that were achievable by military means to international community building projects in which armed force was an obstacle to its diplomatic objectives. That is how Obama’s Afghan surge cost the lives of so many soldiers by tying their hands with rules of engagement that did not allow them to engage the enemy.

      Delete
    2. President Trump has the opportunity to change all that in North Korea. To win in North Korea, we have to stop thinking in globalist terms. That means discarding talk of “isolating” North Korea. The Norks are already as “isolated” as they’re going to get. Any nation with nuclear weapons and the ability to threaten the United States will always be able to find friends among our enemies.

      The trouble with North Korea isn’t that it’s a “Rogue State”. There’s nothing wrong with being a rogue state. We ought to try being one for a change instead of asking the UN for permission to sneeze. The international community is not the problem with North Korea. Nor is international law the solution.

      Once we define the problem, we can define the objective. The problem is that North Korea is a dangerous enemy because of its nuclear program. We have two options. Ignore or act.

      Plenty of presidents have kicked the nuclear Nork can down the road. Now it’s Trump’s problem.

      There will be those around him who will urge him down the same dead end of sanctions, multilateral conferences, condemnations and negotiations. The can will go on rolling down the road. And one fine day, it will go off. Or we can actually end the threat that the North Korean nukes pose to us.

      We have grown used to constant military action everywhere around the world. And we have also come to expect that it won’t accomplish anything except to exact an endless cost in money and lives. But those are not wars. They are internationalist police and peacekeeping actions in which we bomb lightly and invade only to rebuild. We are the world’s beat cop with tanks and bombers. It has been a long time since we used the huge warfighting arsenal of our defense industry to actually make war.

      Wars don’t have to be long. They do have to be decisive. Their goal isn’t to reunite a lost sheep in the international community, but to destroy the enemy. Since the Cold War ended, we have not truly contemplated a war of destruction. But if we intend to win again, now might be the time to start.

      We have spent a great deal of time trying to achieve diplomatic objectives through military means and military objectives through diplomatic means. What we have not done is tackle military objectives through military means. North Korea is not a diplomatic problem, but a military one.

      Three options lie before us. We can walk away, withdraw all our forces, limit the potential risk and see what develops. We can destroy North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and as much of the regime infrastructure as we can manage. Or we can continue kicking the can down the road. That is the existing policy and it is the worst of all the three because it exposes us to the most risk with the least upside.

      President Trump is the best hope for dropping an existing policy so stupid that only an establishment could cling to it. As an outsider, he is instinctively skeptical of the way things are.

      When Alexander the Great was told that to rule he would have to untie a complex knot, he used his sword to cut it apart. The Gordian Knot of our foreign policy looks complicated until you take a sword to it. We can spend the next century trying to make everyone love each other. Or we can fight to win.

      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266682/why-only-trump-can-win-north-korea-daniel-greenfield

      Delete
  47. Cooper's Butt Plug Malfunction:

    http://adamcarolla.com/wp-content/gallery/2017-05-15-atchity/11-James-woods-cooper-tweet_1.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  48. Grapes of Dope:

    http://www.thecannifornian.com/cannabis-business/agriculture/green-rush-salinas-valley-turns-fields-chrysanthemums-cannabis/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (top picture is a video - click on it if it doesn't start)

      Delete
  49. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete