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."

Monday, March 05, 2018

From 1960 to 1970, the US had an ANNUAL TRADE SURPLUS in excess of $3 billion : : From 2007 to 2017, the US had ANNUAL TRADE DEFICITS of over ($500 Billion)

U.S. Trade Deficit by Country, with Current Statistics and Issues








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•••

The United States has the world's largest trade deficit. It's been that way since 1975. The deficit in goods and services was $566 billion in 2017. Imports were $2.895 trillion and exports were only $2.329 trillion.
The U.S. trade deficit in goods, without services, was $810 billion. The United Statesexported $1.551 trillion in goods. The biggest categories were commercial aircraft, automobiles, and food.
It imported $2.361 trillion. The largest categories were automobiles, petroleum, and cell phones. 

Why America Can't Make Everything It Needs

The United States could make almost everything it needs. But some countries can make products just as well for a lower price. It makes more sense to pay less for these goods. The savings are then invested in the industries America does best. 
For other products, America has an advantage. These are agricultural products and industrial supplies like organic chemicals. They also include capital goods like transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers, and telecommunications equipment. 

The United States runs a deficit with countries who fit at least one of the following three criteria.
  1. They can produce things more cheaply than the United States can, such as consumer products or oil. That is changing with U.S. production of shale oil.
  2. They don't need what America is good at making. 
  1. They trade a lot of everything with the United States, but America imports more than it exports.
Most of the trading partners that the United States has deficits with fall into the first two categories. The two largest are China and Japan. Some of the largest deficits are with countries in the last category.
They include Canada, Mexico, and Germany.

That's why the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits in goods are not always its most important trading partners. Some nations export a lot without importing much. But the top five trading partners also have the largest deficits. Please note that the Census provides trade data by country for goods only, not services.
  1. China - $636 billion traded with a $375 billion deficit.
  2. Canada - $582 billion traded with an $18 billion deficit.
  3. Mexico - $557 billion traded with a $71 billion deficit.
  4. Japan - $204 billion traded with a $69 billion deficit.
  5. Germany - $171 billion traded with a $65 billion deficit.
The Largest U.S. Deficit Is With China
More than 65 percent of the U.S. trade deficit in goods was with China. The $375 billion deficit with China was created by $506 billion in imports. The main Chinese imports are consumer electronics, clothing, and machinery. America only exported $130 billion in goods to China.

Note that many of the imports are sold by American companies that ship raw materials to be assembled for a lower cost in China. They are counted as imports even though they create income and profit for these U.S. companies.
Nevertheless, this practice does outsource jobs

Japan Is Next 
The second largest trade deficit is $69 billion with Japan. The world's fifth largest economy needs the agricultural products, industrial supplies, aircraft, and pharmaceutical products that the United States makes. Exports totaled $68 billion in 2017. Imports were higher, at $137 billion. Much of this was automobiles, with industrial supplies and equipment making up another large portion. Trade has improved since the 2011 earthquake, which slowed the economy and made auto parts difficult to manufacture for several months.

Germany Is Third
The U.S. trade deficit with Germany is $65 billion. The United States exports $53 billion, a large portion of which is automobiles, aircraft, and pharmaceuticals. It imports $118 billion in similar goods: automotive vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, and medicine.

The United States Has a Deficit With Its NAFTA Partners
Canada, the United States, and Mexico are partners in the world's largest trade agreement, NAFTA. The trade deficit with Canada is $18 billion. That's only 3 percent of the total Canadian trade of $582 billion. The United States exports $282 billion to Canada, more than it does to any other country. It imports $300 billion. The largest export by far is automobiles and parts. Other large categories include petroleum products and industrial machinery and equipment. The largest import is crude oil and gas from Canada's abundant shale oil fields. 
The trade deficit with Mexico is $71 billion. Exports are $243 billion, mostly auto parts and petroleum products. Imports are $314 billion, with cars, trucks, and auto parts being the largest components. 

How the U.S. Trade Deficit by Country Fits Into the Balance of Payments

Balance of Payments

  1. Current Account
  2. Capital Account
  3. Financial Account
Chinese Foreign Reserves by Year:


73 comments:

  1. Cruel, mean, nasty, stupid Trump thinks that this situation is not a good thing and is doing something about it. The financial geniuses disagree.

    Who you gonna trust?

    ReplyDelete
  2. China does not want a trade war with the US ... [But] we will not sit idly by and will take necessary measures if the US hurts China’s interests.

    — Zhang Yesui, Chinese vice foreign minister

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is in China's interest to have $500 billion trade surpluses with the US.

    How do I say this politely? Fuck the Chinese?

    ReplyDelete
  4. What about the Germans?
    What about the Mexicans?

    They have all done so much to help the US

    Trump just doesn't get it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here is a tiny particle of the damage done to the World and freedom by the US disastrous trade deals with the Chinese:

    China is emerging as a massive creditor to its economic allies taking up projects to upgrade roads, harbors and airports, making it an increasingly important financial influence on the world stage.

    China is financing as much as $8 trillion in deals as part of its "Belt and Road Initiative" in 68 countries winding through Asia, Africa and Europe.

    New data from the Center for Global Development, an international think tank, estimate the program has left eight countries financially vulnerable: Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

    Those countries occupy footholds in Southeast Asia (Laos), an African port city-state (Djibouti), an inroad to Europe (Montenegro), a string of Indian Ocean ports (the Maldives and Pakistan), and a network of historic road and rail routes across central Asia known historically as the Silk Road.

    Montenegro is using its Chinese funding to build a super highway that will improve its connections with Balkan neighbors. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are getting rails, roads, hydropower plants and a major gas pipeline. Mongolia will receive funding to build hydroelectric power plants and a major highway from the airport to the capital.
    X
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    In the process, debt levels and dependence on China are rising. Kyrgyzstan's debt from infrastructure projects is projected to rise from 62% of gross domestic product to 78%, and China's share of that debt will jump from 37% to 71%. China's share of debt in Djibouti, where it has its only overseas military base, will rise from 82% to 91% of GDP as a result of infrastructure funding, according to authors Scott Morris, John Hurley and Gailyn Portelance.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Two more countries -- Cambodia and Afghanistan -- could soon owe more than half their external debt to China, though unlike the other eight their overall debt hasn't reached alarmingly high levels.

    An example of China's financial sway was evident in December at the sprawling Hambantota Port on the Indian Ocean in Sri Lanka. The nation struggled to make payments on over $1 billion of Chinese debt. Chinese officials negotiated to relieve the debts in exchange for a Chinese state-owned company leasing the port for 99 years. Only about 12% of Sri Lanka's debts are held by China, though that figure will rise to about 17% due to Belt and Road projects.

    "If Sri Lanka happens again and happens again, I do think it represents a challenge for China's president Xi Jinping," said Mr. Hurley. "He's promoting the Belt and Road Initiative as being in the best interest of other countries and their people."

    Mr. Jinping has said the guiding principles of the projects are "peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit."

    In Pakistan, China's projects have sparked protests from locals in Baluchistan, including fishermen who are being displaced by Chinese developments around the Gwadar port. Kaiser Bengali, the former economic adviser to the Chief Minister of Baluchistan, estimates 91% of revenue at the port will go to China, and only 9% to Pakistani authorities.

    "No one gives anybody free money," said Mr. Bengali. "The Chinese companies are getting blanket tax concessions," he said, and "instead of buying materials from here they buy in China. So the multiplier effect of development happens in China not here."

    ReplyDelete
  7. China had no military and no currency that anyone wanted until US trade deals saved the Communist Party. They had no technology until the absurd US trade deal handed the Chinese Communist a road map to steal trillions in technology and investment.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Chinese surpluses allow them to create artificial islands and military bases in the South China Sea to subjugate South East Asia. The Chinese will use the same tactic to put a base on the Moon using stolen US technology and their vast capital to develop it and claim it as Chinese territory.

    Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize for putting a beginning to the end of this political and economic catastrophe to freedom.

    ReplyDelete
  9. From Pat Buchanan’s Suicide of a Superpower:


    In the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, a net of zero new jobs was created.

    Average households were earning less in real dollars at the end of the decade than at the beginning.

    The net worth of the American family, in stocks, bonds, savings, home values, receded 4 percent.

    Fifty thousand plants and factories shut down.

    As a source of jobs, manufacturing fell below health care and education in 2001, below retail sales in 2002, below local government in 2006, below leisure and hospitality — that’s restaurants and bars — in 2008, for the first time. Be it shoes, clothes, cars, furniture, radios, TVs, appliances, bicycles, toys, cameras, computers, we buy from abroad what we used to make here. Our economic independence is history….

    ReplyDelete
  10. IT GOT WORSE

    With the abolition of tariffs and with U.S. guarantees that goods made in foreign countries would enter America free of charge, manufacturers began to shut plants here and move production abroad to countries where U.S. wage-and-hour laws and health, safety, and environmental regulations did not apply, countries where there were no unions and workers’ wages were below the U.S. minimum wage. Competitors who stayed in America were undercut and run out of business, or forced to join the stampede abroad.



    In that same first decade of the twenty-first century, the United States issued 10,300,000 green cards inviting foreigners to come compete for the remaining jobs of U.S. workers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Buchanan notes, the consequences of these trade “imbalances” have been the “deindustrialization of America. A growing dependence on China for the necessities of our national life and the loans to pay for them. A loss of millions of the best jobs Americans ever had. A median wage and family income that have been stagnant for a decade. A steep decline in the global purchasing power of the dollar. A loss of national dynamism. A debt bomb that went off in our face in September 2008.”

    Buchanan quoted former South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings who wrote in 2010, “The defense industry has been off-shored. We had to wait months to get flat panel displays from Japan before we launched Desert Storm. Boeing can’t build a fighter plane except for the parts from India. Sikorsky can’t build a helicopter except for the tail motor from Turkey… Today, we can’t go to war except for the favor of a foreign country.”

    ReplyDelete
  12. The European Commission has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China to stop them flooding Europe’s struggling steel market.

    They have already been docking the Chinese exports with duties ranging from 18.1 percent to 35.9 percent.

    ReplyDelete
  13. FUCK THE EU

    Posted on March 4, 2018 by Sundance

    Oh, how the European hypocrisy is in overdrive on the tariff issue. According to BBC U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump had a phone call where the British leader expressed “deep concern” over the Trump administration’s pending tariff’s on Steel and Aluminum.

    Theresa May has told Donald Trump of her “deep concern” at his plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US.

    Amid an escalating war of words between Washington and the European Union, the Prime Minister told the US President that “multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity in all parties’ interests”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said. (read more)

    Mrs. May must think Americans are unambiguously stupid because it was less than two years ago when the U.K. urgently applied tariffs against Chinese steel in an effort to stave off the losses within their own steel industry:

    APRIL 2017, – BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China to stop them flooding Europe’s struggling steel market.

    The Commission said Thursday that an investigation has confirmed that Chinese hot-rolled flat steel has been sold in Europe at dumping prices. The Chinese exports will now be taxed with duties ranging from 18.1 percent to 35.9 percent. (read more)

    ReplyDelete
  14. The $20 trillion U.S. economy is the market, the customer, that all European countries want/need access to. We are the customers in the equation. We can crush them in any trade conflict. Apply a 20% tariff to imported Audi’s, or simply apply a reciprocal trade tariff toward their auto’s identical to those they apply on ours…. wait and see just how long Germany chooses to play stupid.

    Pro-tip, they wouldn’t last a day without our business.

    President Trump has the highest approval rating compared to the leaders of largest economic countries in Europe. However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise because it was evident in Germany’s recent election that Merkel -in victory- had less support in Germany than President Trump holds in the U.S.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Fuck the Mexicans if they don't like it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. The nation's largest federation of unions on Thursday praised President Trump's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, even as GOP lawmakers in Congress and U.S. trade partners condemned the proposal.

    "For years, we have called attention to the predatory practices of some steel exporting countries. Such practices hurt working people and cheat companies that produce in the U.S. We applaud the administration's efforts today to fix this problem," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.

    Trumka has signaled the organization's willingness to work with Trump on labor issues in the past, but has criticized the president for not following through on his long-standing promises to revitalize trade deals.

    ReplyDelete
  17. .

    Trump Tariffs


    They won't work. They won't last, certainly not in the form they were initially proposed. They're not targeted. It's a broad brush approach, something Trump is good at.

    Example, Chinese overcapacity is one of the main reasons for lower steel prices worldwide; yet, the tariffs aren't going to bother China. They aren't even in the top 10 of steel importers to the US. On the other hand, Canada is the number 1 importer of steel to the US; yet, we actually have a trade surplus with Canada.

    Trump is a bull in the China shop while our trading partners are a little more sophisticated. You'll notice the first things the EU threatened in retaliation were those affecting states like Wisconsin (Paul Ryan) and Kentucky (Mitch McConnell). Wait until it reaches agriculture.

    Trump, the great negotiator. His style is the same as that of all bullies. Demand major concessions before you even enter negotiations. The same as he is using with North Korea. In order to start talks with them, he demands that they completely disassembly their entire nuclear program something that just isn't going to happen.

    "Trade wars are good and easy to win."

    The man is nutz.

    Bush 2002 Steel Tariffs of 8% - 30% (Canada and Mexico were exempt because of NAFTA penalties)

    They were scheduled to be in effect from 2002 - 2005. They were pulled in 2003.

    The effects:

    - WTO ruled against the US and imposed penalties of $2 billion.

    - Steel production rose slightly during the period of the tariff. [7] The protection of the steel industry in the United States may have had unintended consequences and perverse effects. A study from 2003 that was paid for by CITAC, a trade association of businesses that use raw materials, found that around 200,000 jobs were lost as a result.[8][9]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_United_States_steel_tariff

    .

    ReplyDelete
  18. .

    The article above...

    U.S. Trade Deficit by Country, with Current Statistics and Issues

    by Kimberly Amadeo

    is misleading.


    For instance, the article shows a trade deficit with Canada; yet that is because it only talks about manufacturing. It doesn't count services. When the exchange of reciprocal services are counted, we actually have a trade surplus with Canada.

    The main reasons US manufacturing has declined as a percentage of GDP are offshoring for lower prices, technological advancements, and a choice by the powers that be to concentrate on services rather than things. Trade deficits follow from the others.

    .




    ReplyDelete
  19. What part of this is misleading?

    From 1960 to 1970, the US had AN ANNUAL TRADE SURPLUS in excess of $3 billion : : From 2007 to 2017, the US had ANNUAL TRADE DEFICITS of over ($500 Billion)

    ReplyDelete
  20. I saw what was happening in Latin America 12 years ago and said so at The Belmont Club. I was right then. I said if we wanted to shift to lower cost manufacturing, do it in the Americas. I see nothing that changes my mind other than it is worse than I imagined.

    ReplyDelete
  21. NAFTA was a ruse for China to send parts to Mexico and send products to the US, duty free, "Hecho en Mexico".

    ReplyDelete
  22. China controls the Suez Canal and has obliterated small and medium companies in Latin America. Real wages have gone down and the US has become the welfare state for the poor, made poorer, by China and the Latin ruling elite.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The biggest whores in Latin America are not the poor young women in the bars for fat ass American has beens and never wasses. The real whores are the Latin upper classes that sold them out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      For years you have been complaining about the neglect the US has shown to Central and South America in commercial and diplomatic terms. Now, you blame other countries for filling the void.

      .

      Delete
    2. I am not blaming other countries whose politicians are smarter than ours. I am agreeing with Trump. The game has changed, With Trump everything is a negotiation. I'll take Trump's negotiating skills over either Bush, either Clinton and Kenyatta. You may not like his style, but I am with the majority and don't care. If he wins, we win.

      Delete
    3. .

      Sorry.

      I missed it.

      What has he won?

      .

      Delete
  24. Don't believe me. I added a chart at the bottom of the post that shows Chinese Foreign Reserves by year. Where do you think those reserves came from?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Click on the chart and say thanks to the globalists.

    ReplyDelete
  26. If deficits are not important, why does China, Germany, Japan, Korea and others work so hard for a surplus?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Of course, deficits are important. Also, what you do with those deficits is important. Yet, Trump and the GOP go out of their way to give us more deficits but nothing productive ever seems to happen from them.

      Look at some of those shit hole countries Trump is always taking about. They are building. Their infrastructure is new and performing and makes the US look like a shithole country in comparison. They have a plan and are pursuing it. In the US we eat the seed grain and its business as usual.

      How many wars is China involved in at the moment? How about the US? We spend $700 to $800 billion a year on the military and you can't make a damn thing with it. China spends their $billions on molds and presses and in tying up long term raw material contracts.

      While the US backs away from a leadership position on everything, trade, climate change, etc., China steps in to fill the void.

      Think the current Trade deficit is bad. Take a look at the interest on our debt. If the interest the FED sets for barrowing goes up a few percentage points and gets back to the average before 2008, we could owe a $ trillion in annual charges in a few years. And as long as we keep running deficits those charges won't shrink, they will only grow.

      And the response? Blame China.

      .

      Delete
    2. If you want to defend mercantilist China, be my guest. China is the all time intellectual property thief of all time.

      Delete
    3. .

      Right, ignore everything I said about the US.

      .

      Delete
    4. I have done so many posts on the US feckless military adventures and the consequences of them, i can only guess that the number is somewhere between 500 and 1000.

      Delete
    5. Yet, the funny thing is, you supported every one of those feckless US military adventures when they were undertaken. You not only supported them you actively advocated for them. Heck, you even volunteered to go to Vietnam.

      Delete
  27. Right-Wing Victory In Italy Was Even Larger Than Predicted
    JAZZ SHAWPosted at 8:01 am on March 5, 2018

    Yesterday, when we looked at the final polling going into the Italian elections, it appeared that the coalition of right-wing parties seeking to curb forced migration would take roughly a combined 32 to 35 percent of the vote. As it turns out, they did even better, coming in with an estimated 37%. This is still short of a single-party majority, but impossible to ignore. It adds up to what is likely 123 seats in the lower house of the legislature where they previously held 22. (CNN)....

    https://hotair.com/archives/2018/03/05/right-wing-victory-italy-even-larger-predicted/

    ReplyDelete
  28. .

    What part of this is misleading?

    From 1960 to 1970, the US had AN ANNUAL TRADE SURPLUS in excess of $3 billion : : From 2007 to 2017, the US had ANNUAL TRADE DEFICITS of over ($500 Billion



    Think.

    Coming out of WWII, the industrial base in most of the world was destroyed as were the economies. The US had just completed a massive build up with no place to sell our goods. The Marshall Plan was instituted as much or more to create as market for our goods as it was to help the countries devastated by the war.

    It took the world a long time to get back in the game in any meaningful way but eventually they did. Not only that but when they were ready to compete they were doing it with all new equipment and facilities. And I might say ideas. With regard to that last point, just look at the auto industry.

    After the war, the Big Three were the only game in town. And what did they do? Business as usual, they continued along fat dumb and happy coming up with gas guzzling monsters and passing along the cost to consumers. Design obsolescence was their main business plan. The unions wanted something they gave it to them and passed the cost on to the consumer. And don't blame the union for all of this. Every auto company wanted to be picked as the target company during negotiations so that they could shape them to their advantage and screw with the others. That idea of a jobs bank where unneeded workers sat around watching TV all day or being sent out to do charity work rather than be laid off wasn't a union idea. It came from GM.

    And what was happening in Japan. They had an industrial policy favoring certain industries with autos being one of them. They had Deming come over to help them overcome their negative 'made in Japan' reputation. They started building quality cars that were cheap. In addition, unlike the Big Three dealerships, they stressed customer service and satisfaction. And it worked. Their imports to the US grew throughout the 70's. And it took a long time for the domestics to respond. Come 1982 and the gas embargo and sale of those big gas guzzlers went in the tank.

    You can blame the current trade deficits on whatever you want or you can blame it on immigrants as with most other things but the truth is we have met the enemy and it is us.

    .


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Really, Doug?

      Thanks for the insight.

      It's good to see you're at the top of your game.

      .

      Delete


  29. .

    Contributing to our economy.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/san-antonio-drivers-confrontation-with-alleged-drunk-driver-goes-viral/2018/03/01/9874798c-1d72-11e8-98f5-ceecfa8741b6_video.html?utm_term=.1ee893858b4a

    .

    ReplyDelete
  30. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A tariff is a tax. It is not a tax 'others' pay but rather US folk pay for US tariffs. The US domestic company is exempt from the tariff so they get to 'collect the tariff themselves' through the higher price. Will a 25% price margin (proposed Steel tariff) give US companies enough money to invest and expand? Will that additional 25% compensate for lost business through foreign sales declines and retaliatory tariffs? I doubt it.

      It is interesting that the news today is how it is a negotiating tactic re NAFTA. The US negotiating position appears to condemn the current round of negotiations to failure. While the politicians cry 'Free, Fair, and Reciprocal trade' The US negotiating position has been decidedly the opposite - they have consistently asked for a reduction in access to the US market while asking for increased access to Canadian and Mexican markets topped off with the removal of an independent dispute resolution mechanism replaced by US decision making. Will the revocation of NAFTA and application of US protectionist tariffs improve the US economy? I doubt it.

      Delete
    2. .

      Trump views everything as a zero sum game.

      There can only be one 'winner' and he wants to assure the winner is him.

      If NAFTA is dropped everyone will be hurt. Likely Canada and especially Mexico more than the US but the US will also be hurt. Key US industries like agriculture and autos will suffer a lot.

      Canada and Mexico are already moving away from the US on trade pacts, Canada is pulling closer to the EU and Mexico is pulling closer to China and Asia.

      Trump says 'America first' but it will eventually end up 'America against the world'.

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      That's not to say there aren't some adjustments that could be made to any of these trade deals that would help the US but actually negotiating isn't Trump's style.

      .

      Delete
    4. My impression was that Canada was willing to open up Canadian markets to the US even more (dairy for example) but dealing with the other asks and lack of reciprocity has decreased the likelihood they will move on this particular issue. The chaos and unpredictable changes coming out of the US administration coupled with past and continuing disputes (softwood lumber, aviation, meat, Buy American) has made the Canadian side very cautious backed by a public opinion not very favorable to the US.

      Delete
  31. Heavy

    http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/twitter-oscars-ad-hereweare-women-empowerment-1202717037/

    ReplyDelete
  32. Tech Giants Google and Facebook are currently purging conservative content from Facebook and YouTube — They are hiding conservative stories on Google — They are shadow-banning conservative news on all social media.

    In February Facebook launched a new algorithm to ensure that conservative news would not spread on the social media platform. The algorithm change caused President Donald Trump’s engagement on Facebook posts to plummet a whopping 45%.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/03/conservative-pufascism-in-action-here-is-the-tech-giant-purge-list-of-prominent-conservative-websitesrge-list/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      No.

      Just...

      Oh, Gateway Pundit.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      Every time I try to pull up one of your Gateway Pundit posts to mock it, something purporting to be from Adobe Flash pops up and tells me I have to update my Adobe Flash. Windows Defender immediately flags it as carrying a Trojan marked 'severe'.

      If nothing else, it's one more fake news site I don't get view.

      .

      Delete
    3. I just checked out the gateway pundit for the first time. No problems with Flash (I use edge which doesn't use flash) nor any windows defender warnings, but, my god, it's a loony toon wingnut right wing website. Right up the 3 stooges alley.

      Delete
  33. Replies
    1. Italian election results: Country HIT by Brexit and Trump effect, says finance expert

      ITALIAN ELECTION results have been hit by "Trump and Brexit effect", according to financial expert Davide Serra, after swathes of voters backed anti-establishment and anti-European Union parties.

      By Charlotte Davis PUBLISHED: 13:02, Mon, Mar 5, 2018 | UPDATED: 14:58, Mon, Mar 5, 2018
      Expert: Brexit and Trump effect will impact Italian markets

      The finance boss said the shock election results, indicating a huge populist movement in Italy, so far suggest the Italian people want change.

      Davide Serra, CEO and founder of Algebris told Bloomberg News, he said: “I think the result mimics very much the Brexit vote and Trump vote.

      “So basically, we want a change.”

      A large majority of Italian electorate so far appear to have voted for Eurosceptic parties. Five Star Movement, League and Fratelli d’Italia have all campaigned with an anti-EU agenda. While their positions are varied, all have criticised the impact of the euro on Italy's economy.

      Delete
  34. Senate just passed a school safety bill which now goes to the House.

    ReplyDelete
  35. After White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed his role in the campaign, saying he had a “lack of knowledge” about its inner workings," Nunberg shot back: “She’s a joke. Okay, fine, yeah, she’s unattractive, she’s a fat slob.

    ...

    Nunberg fiercely defended former Trump campaign manager Roger Stone, suggesting that he'd be willing to fall on the sword for his friend. “I’m worried they’re trying to make a case against Roger Stone,” Nunberg said, suggesting that Stone could be in hot water over his communications with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange.

    “Roger did not do anything,” Nunberg said. “Roger was treated terribly by Donald Trump.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "I haven't had a drink"

      https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2018/03/05/i-have-smelled-alcohol-cnns-burnett-questions-nunbergs

      Video's a bit sloppy.

      Delete
    2. Tower Records founder Russ Solomon died with a drink in his hand and a smart-aleck remark on his lips.

      The swashbuckling, visionary entrepreneur who built a global retailing empire and the most famous company in Sacramento history died Sunday night of an apparent heart attack. He was 92.

      Solomon was watching the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night at his Sacramento-area home when he was stricken, said his son, Michael Solomon, the former chief executive of Tower.

      "Ironically, he was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his wife) Patti to refill his whiskey," Solomon said. When she returned, he had died.

      http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article203542104.html

      Video history

      Delete
  36. .

    Never Pass Up a Chance to Make a Buck

    President Donald Trump loves putting his name on everything from ties to steaks to water — and, of course, his buildings. But now the Trump Organization appears to be borrowing a brand even more powerful than the gilded Trump moniker: the presidential seal.

    In recent weeks, the Trump Organization has ordered the manufacture of new tee markers for golf courses that are emblazoned with the seal of the President of the United States. Under federal law, the seal’s use is permitted only for official government business. Misuse can be a crime.

    Past administrations have policed usage vigilantly. In 2005 the Bush administration ordered the satirical news website The Onion to remove a replica of the seal. Grant M. Dixton, associate White House counsel, wrote in a letter to The Onion that the seal “is not to be used in connection with commercial ventures or products in any way that suggests presidential support or endorsement...”


    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/‘trump-inc’-podcast-extra-the-trump-organization-ordered-golf-course-markers-with-the-presidential-seal-that-may-be-illegal/ar-BBJSt5G?ocid=spartanntp

    The word tacky comes to mind.

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  37. The results of Cadet Bone Spur's truncated foreign policy are not impressive.

    Turkish bombardment kills 13 in Syria’s Afrin: YPG, monitor


    No Testosterone

    ReplyDelete

  38. Panama Hotel Owner Declares Victory and Trump’s Name Is Removed



    No Testosterone

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