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."

Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Which one of these men did the US Media have the most fun with?

China's investment in Greece tangles Europe relations - Washington Times


ATHENS, Greece — Unlike many in Europe, Chinese investors saw the Greek economic crisis of the past decade not as a disaster but as an opportunity.
Since 2008, Chinese business leaders have agreed to almost $9 billion worth of infrastructure and business deals — equivalent to about 5 percent of Greek gross domestic product — involving ports, telecommunications companies, energy facilities, real estate and tourism, according to the American Enterprise Institute.
For many, it’s a case study of how Chinese investment dollars lead to political payoffs. As Greek political leaders feuded with principal members of the European Union — notably Germany — over an imposed policy of harsh austerity, Chinaoffered an economic lifeline. In return, Greece became a leading voice inside the EUto take a softer line on China’s political failings and to offer a warmer welcome to Chinese investments.

“The Greek economy is thirsty for investments, and the presence of Chinese companies is important and we welcome it,” Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in September during a business conference in Thessaloniki that featured representatives of Chinese business.

Although the economic situation has improved, Greece remains mired in a decade of economic turmoil. The unemployment rate still tops 20 percent, growth lags and punitive high taxes are necessary to pay off a debt burden that amounts to 180 percent of GDP.

The Institute of International Economic Relations, in a major survey of the burgeoning Sino-Greek economic relations released in December, noted that “Greece’s debt crisis has definitely contributed to the rapprochement between Athens and Beijing.”


Chinese officials have openly played on the tensions between Greece and its fellow EU states. The state-controlled Chinese news site Global Times noted in an editorial that “different from the EU, which has treated Athens as a delinquent borrower, Beijing designates the country as a ‘trusted partner.’”

At a popular level, Greeks are split. Many are thankful that China invested at a time when few other foreigners would take a chance and say Greece badly needed the cash and the jobs. A Pew Research Center survey in early 2017 found that 50 percent of Greeks had a positive attitude toward China, compared with 40 percent negative. The Greek pollster Kapa Research last year found China behind only Russia among countries that Greeks would most like to see closer bilateral relations.

Culture clash 
But others are concerned about Chinese influence and Chinese-style management in a southern European country, where management traditionally respects labor rights and workplace conditions.

China Ocean Shipping Co., or COSCO, a state-owned company, purchased a majority stake in the port of Piraeus from the Greek government in 2016 for $456 million — the largest Chinese investment in Greece to date. The port is now a major node in China’s $1 trillion Belt and Road initiative, a system of trade routes and infrastructure projects that follow the old Silk Road and maritime passages through the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal.

Labor unions negotiating a new contract with COSCO are likely to have to accept lower wages. Since 2009, when a COSCO subsidiary purchased two piers at Piraeus, workers lost overtime and faced pay cuts of 30 percent.

“This deal shouldn’t make the port into a Chinese colony,” said Giorgos Gogos, secretary of the Piraeus dockworkers union. “It’s important to secure good labor conditions and make sure the state actually profits from the investment.”
As real estate prices in Greece continue to fall, 850 Chinese nationals have purchased properties worth more than $310,000, making them eligible for Golden Visas that allow them to travel within 26 European countries that have eliminated internal border controls. Golden Visas have generated more than $500 million in revenue for Athens, according to Enterprise Greece, a state economic development agency.

Even so, Chinese money is raising political questions about Beijing’s influence in Greece and its long-term ambitions for countries all along Europe’s eastern flank.
In June, Greece’s left-wing government surprised European leaders by blocking a critical EU statement at the U.N. Summit on China’s human rights record. A year earlier, Greece, Croatia and Hungary — where Chinese investments are also extensive — opposed a joint EU statement on China’s military expansion in the South China Sea. Without the required consensus, the EU statement was blocked.
China uses Greece in order to have a strong foothold in the European Union,” said Michael Tsinisizelis, a professor of international and European studies at the University of Athens.

Greece is in line for membership in Beijing’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In November, the government sent a delegation to the so-called 16+1 annual summit of China with 16 Eastern and Central European nations. Athens and Beijing in May signed a three-year action plan to guide investment and trade deals. In December, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered an ardent speech under the Acropolis, where he expressed concern about Greek and European economic weaknesses that Beijing could target and keep the bloc from speaking with a united voice about global issues.

“Our European sovereignty is what will enable us to be digital champions, build a strong economy, and make us an economic power in this changing world and not be subjected to the law of the fittest — the Americans and, soon, the Chinese — but our own law,” he said.

China is now the EU’s second-biggest trading partner behind the United States. In 2016, China spent $40 billion compared with $23 billion in the prior year.

Regulation
While COSCO is expanding its footprint at Piraeus, among the world’s fastest-growing ports, the EU is looking to closely regulate foreign investments in European strategic assets, including ports.

“There’s a general uneasiness in the EU concerning Chinese investments,” said Polyxeni Davarinou, a researcher at the Institute of International Economic Relations in Athens. “The EU wants to have a better control. At the same time, though, Greece and Eastern European countries really need these Chinese investments.”

She said Greece and Europe have the power to contain Chinese influence if leaders enact bold rules to monitor foreign investment.

“There are voices in Europe that believe Greece is too close to China, and that’s because we’ve given them reasons to see it that way,” she said. “Greece’s problem is how to develop a clear and steady strategy.”

The survey by the Institute of International Economic Relations noted that Greece is still emerging from a period when it could hardly afford to be choosy about who invested in its beleaguered domestic economy.

“It is an indisputable fact that, trapped in its severe fiscal and economic predicament, Greece is not in a position to discourage foreign investment from any legitimate source,” the report concluded. “In fact, a certain diversification of foreign investment from countries outside the EU is even welcome.”

But the survey also cautions that, “engulfed by its economic woes and disenchantment with the EUGreece welcomes China with a coherent strategy.”
In Piraeus, meanwhile, cranes are offloading shipping containers from huge cargo ships around the clock. COSCO is planning to invest an extra $372 million to build three five-star hotels and a new dock that can accommodate 14 cruise ships.
Still, Mr. Gogos, the union leader, is pessimistic about Greece’s recovery. No matter how much Chinese money flows into Greece, he said, the country is still laboring to repay its debts. Greeks won’t see the benefits of their hard work for generations, he said.


“Nothing will change for Greece,” Mr. Gogos said. “All the money ends up in the country’s black hole, repaying its humongous public debt instead of rebuilding the economy.”

Ross Perot "People who do not make anything cannot buy anything."

96 comments:

  1. ITALY

    Salvini, the League’s 44-year-old leader, is increasingly viewed as the next prime minister in a center-right government. He emerged as the alliance’s candidate after Forza Italia failed to match the League’s performance.

    Below are five things to know about Salvini, whose party is widely viewed as far-right and anti-immigration.

    1. Backs “Italy First.” One of Salvini’s mottos is on par with U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” mantra.

    “Our guiding principle is: Italians first,” Salvini said during the election campaign, a Wall Street Journal report noted. “If saying ‘Italians first’ is xenophobic, then I don’t know what to say.”

    2. Talks tough about “Italexit” or “Quitaly.” Salvini has often voiced support for the British vote to exit the European Union, saying Italy could be the next country to leave the EU, points out a report by the Daily Express, a U.K. newspaper.

    “Why on earth would free people remain prisoners in a cage of absurd laws and regulation, with rigid constraints that humiliate the true needs of the people and their country?” Salvini told the paper.

    “With the Italian vote, the EU will have its last chance to reform itself. Otherwise, Brexit will be nothing else than the start of an inevitable crumbling process, with all the consequences and dangers this comes with.”

    ReplyDelete

  2. Italy now poses an ‘existential threat to the eurozone’ — analysts react to election


    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/italy-election-brings-back-existential-threat-to-eurozone-analyst-react-to-sundays-vote-2018-03-05


    Trade Wars - Debt & Inflation

    What could possibly go wrong


    ReplyDelete
  3. .

    Fat. Dumb. Possibly Happy (Who knows?)

    The US Military faces a growing threat of a manpower shortage

    According to 2017 Pentagon data, 71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the United States military.1

    Put another way: Over 24 million of the 34 million people of that age group cannot join the armed forces—even if they wanted to. This is an alarming situation which threatens the country’s fundamental national security. If only 29 percent of the nation’s young adults are even qualified to serve, and these negative trends continue, it is inevitable that the U.S. military will suffer from a lack of manpower.

    The military depends on a constant flow of volunteers every year to meet its requirements, and as the number of eligible Americans declines, it will be increasingly difficult to meet the needs. This is not a distant problem to address decades from now. The U.S. military is already having a hard time attracting enough qualified volunteers. Of the four services, the Army has the greatest annual need. The Army anticipates problems with meeting its 2018 goal to enlist 80,000 qualified volunteers, even with increased bonuses and incentives...2

    =====================

    In 2009, a group of retired U.S. generals and admirals formed a nonprofit group “Mission: Readiness”4
    Mission: Readiness Is Part of the Nonprofit Council for a Strong America, https://www.strongnation.org/ (accessed January 26, 2018) to draw attention to this growing problem. In their report “Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,”5
    Mission: Readiness, “Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,” undated, http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/NATEE1109.pdf (accessed January 26, 2018) they report that the main causes of this situation are inadequate education, criminality, and obesity.

    =========================

    The issue of growing ineligibility for military service among America’s youth must be a national priority. The former commander of the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, Major General Mark Brilakis, says, “There are 30 some million 17- to 24 year-olds out there, but by the time you get all the way down to those that are qualified, you’re down to less than a million young Americans...”6


    Soon we'll be like the Romans hiring foreign mercenaries to fight our wars. In fact, that process has already started.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  4. .

    “Nothing will change for Greece,” Mr. Gogos said. “All the money ends up in the country’s black hole, repaying its humongous public debt instead of rebuilding the economy.”

    First there was Greece then there was Rome.

    How soon the US?

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Like all Greeks, he wanted to come to America"

      Ernest Hemingway

      Delete
  5. POPULIST REFORMERS WIN BIG IN ITALY’S 'TRUMP ELECTION'

    The people send a message to the European establishment.

    March 6, 2018 Lloyd Billingsley 11


    ​“The contours of the new regime are still unclear,” explained the Washington Post, “but an old one is certainly passing.” And the headline told the tale even better: “Italy’s election is another blow to the European establishment.”

    The big loser was European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who feared a “worst scenario.” The two big winners were “the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, founded less than a decade ago by a comedian, which won about 32 percent of the vote, and the League, a far-right, anti-immigrant, Euroskeptic party.”

    In similar style, CNN headlined, “Italy’s voters choose populists, deliver stinging rebuke to Europe.” As the piece contended, “Italy was plunged into political uncertainty” with no party or coalition with enough votes to rule alone. A “right-wing coalition of parties won the most seats of any bloc in parliament with about 37% of the vote,” and the big winner in that group was “the anti-immigrant and xenophobic League.”

    This result “will be met with alarm by European leaders who feared that big wins for Italy's anti-establishment parties would spell further trouble for a continent already struggling to cope with the destabilizing rise of populist and far-right movements in France, Germany and elsewhere.” CNN quoted a tweet from “French far-right leader” Marine Le Pen that “The European Union is going to have a horrible evening.”

    In its headline, the New York Times offered “4 Takeaways From a ‘Throw the Bums Out’ Italian Election.” As the piece explained, “migration matters” and “the mainstream parties have no answer.” The Italian economic recovery has been weak and Brussels was not much help, “further harming the center-left.”

    Italian elites are “considered generally corrupt and inefficient,” explained Mark Leonard of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Few wanted to vote for mainstream parties that were the authors of the stagnation of the last decade.” For Matthew J. Goodwin of the University of Kent, the Italian election fit a common European pattern: the demise of traditional social democratic parties; the rightward shift of voters. As the Times noted, “the Italians voted largely for parties that are euroskeptic.”

    The Guardian editorialized that Italian election was “a lesson for progressives.” Italian politics may be unpredictable, but “this general election is not business as usual.” As noted, “anti-establishment parties look to have won comfortably more than half the vote, an uncomfortable milestone for protest politics in a western liberal democracy.”



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. According to the Guardian, when center-left parties abandon a progressive agenda, “they end up resembling the conservatives they are meant to compete with. Progressives in Europe should not fence themselves into spaces they cannot get out of and let nefarious populists occupy their territory.”

      That was pretty much the pattern for the old-line establishment media. American Greatness did better with “Apocalypse Ciao: Italy’s Trump Election.” As author Angelo Codevilla explains, Donald Trump was not on the Italian ballot and little of what Italians “think they know of him is true.” The question was whether “Trump-like popular sentiment would sweep away the cozy arrangements between old-line leftist and rightist parties that have been governing the country.” The result? “Trump won big.”

      Italy’s governing Democratic Party, which as Codevilla notes is “the Communist Party’s descendant,” was reduced to around 18 percent of the vote, “cast mostly by government-empowered limousine elites as well as Communist diehards in Tuscany and Emilia.” The biggest loser was Democratic Party’s former prime minister Matteo Renzi, “the international Left’s Boy Wonder, the Italian Obama.” He could not stop the “populist virus” that elected Trump and has now spread to Italy.

      The vote, “changed Italian politics generationally from below. Nothing like this had happened in a century” but the result was a mixed bag. Under Italy’s parliamentary system, “the next government’s character will be the result of mostly backroom deals between mostly the usual suspects,” including a leftist president. Still, for Codevilla the lesson is clear, and it has nothing to do with any “ism” or with Donald Trump: “When voters are ruled by officials and associated corporate types who despise them, sooner or later they will find ways of returning the favor.”

      The Academy Awards eclipsed coverage of the election, but so far no reports of Vladimir Putin attempting to influence the outcome through Facebook ads and fake demonstrations for all parties. No mysterious dossiers have prompted investigations, and Matteo Renzi has not announced plans for a “What Happened” book tour.

      Meanwhile, if Jean-Claude Juncker is indeed the biggest loser, that is not a bad thing. As Bruce Thornton noted, the European boss “has long been a champion of increased centralization” and his selection by the European parliament was “an affront to democratic accountability.”

      As Thornton shows, the European Union is “grounded in false assumptions about human nature and the role of the nation in creating a people’s identity,” hence the motto of “United in Diversity.” Based on the latest election, the Italians seem to prefer something like “Viva L’Italia!”

      https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/269509/populist-reformers-win-big-italys-trump-election-lloyd-billingsley

      Delete
  6. ASH was one of the Canadian Snowflakes who always used to HOWLs about the situation in South Africa.

    Update for ASH -

    South African Political Leader: 'Go After White Man'...

    'We Are Cutting Throat of Whiteness'....DRUDGE


    Those of us with some whiskers KNEW this would be the end result.

    For those that can't think, like ASH, there is no solution.

    De Clerke really fucked the pooch. The place should have been formally divided up into different nations states.

    Violence & Starvation are now all that is left on the horizon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nation states and an exchange of peoples.

      Delete
    2. there you go, AGAIN, b00bie, making shit up out of whole cloth. Link to just one post, Bob, where I mentioned South Africa. c'mon dude, just one post is all it'll take. good luck! Idiot!

      Delete
    3. I have a rat trap memory, guilty dude, but don't take notes on you.

      Just take my word for it.

      And recall, Quirk has confirmed I'm smarter than Trump.

      Though don't have his energy level.

      But smarter than Trump.

      Put that in your stew and munch on it.

      Delete
    4. No, it is just another example of your living in a fantasy world that has no basis in reality.

      Delete
    5. You voted for Turdeau, even worked to get out the vote for the child.

      What else needs to be said ?

      Delete
    6. Again, more shit you've fantasized. Like all your ramblings - you project your fantasies and believe they are true. As usual, when asked for proof you fail to deliver. That is another thing you have dreamed up all on your own. Dementia maybe?

      Delete
    7. Now you are lying.

      I recall distinctly you saying you were going out to work for Turdreau in get out the vote.

      Shame on you, shame, shame, shame.

      Delete
    8. Like I said, you project, fantasize, and therefore believe. You distinctly recall a fantasy of yours.

      Delete
  7. By the way if you want to watch Fox News with the fewest breakdowns and interruptions, go here:

    http://www.freeintertv.com/view/id-1799

    ReplyDelete
  8. "The amateurism at the White House is absolutely astonishing

    DAVID ROSENBERG
    SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
    PUBLISHED MARCH 5, 2018

    David Rosenberg is chief economist with Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. and author of the daily economic newsletter Breakfast with Dave.

    Donald Trump and his band of protectionists need to enroll in an Econ 101 course – there are few 'winners' in a trade war. They will then be able to learn some basics like 'Harberger's triangle', an area of the supply-demand diagram of tradeable goods depicting the size of the 'deadweight loss' to society from what is otherwise a tax on global production and U.S. consumption. If you are not one of the 400,000 workers in the steel or aluminum industry, you should be up in arms about this. What I find truly amusing is how all the Trump enthusiasts were saying in the campaign and shortly after the election, that we should take him "seriously, not literally". In other words, we were supposed to believe that Mr. Trump would ensure that all the 'good stuff' like tax reform and 'dereg' would occur and that all the bad stuff was just rhetoric.

    Well, it was more like a deficit-busting tax relief package that included having to bribe the personal sector with cuts of their own at a time of full or near-full employment. And most of the deregulation moves were restrictions set to expire in any event, so yet another mere hoax. The changes in immigration, like trade, is deemed to be a 'protection' act, but it comes at the expense of growth. And the pledge of having Mexico pay for the wall is looking like an embarrassment and is underlined by the resignation of the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, which does little to raise the odds of NAFTA surviving.

    The amateurism at the White House, I have to say, is absolutely astonishing. Seriously, to see Wilbur Ross on TV with a can of Campbell's soup in his hand – I'm sure that was a first for him. He should have also shown a farm tractor, a car, a piece of natural gas pipeline, an airplane, and some construction equipment to show the viewing public too – because the increase in cost and decline in production from this stupid tax is going to cut a very wide swath. Something tells me Mr. Ross will be crying in his can of soup once the economic carnage is tallied up.

    This is all part and parcel of the Trump team's attempt to eliminate the trade deficit, as if that is a desirable goal. You'd be surprised (as would the President) that in periods when the U.S. ran a trade deficit, GDP growth was stronger than when the country ran a surplus. How do you like that? The deficit actually represents strength in domestic demand to the rest of the world. And while Donald Trump has no education in economics, the fact that Peter Navarro doesn't know this tells me something about the quality of the PhD program at Harvard. Clearly overexaggerated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The White House already has stated that there will be no exemptions and that the actions on steel and aluminum are being taken for 'national security' reasons. That would be funny if it weren't so sad. Frozen electricity – which is essentially what aluminum is – is deemed to be a security of supply issue. The world is awash in steel capacity and this is somehow a national security issue? No. It is rather a political issue. And while the headlines always seem to read about how the trade tensions are really about China, the reality is that the President, for whatever reason, has a bee in his bonnet about Canada. Maybe it's because nobody ever wanted to stay at his downtown Toronto hotel at Bay and Adelaide. But the reality is that he is the only President in modern times to have not visited ‎Ottawa at this juncture of the post-election cycle. His disdain for Justin Trudeau is pretty apparent. His trade team thought Chrystia Freeland and her group would simply roll over, and the fact that they haven't has raised the ire of the U.S. trade protectionists. In any event, the first trade volley was against Canadian dairy farmers and then it was softwood lumber, always an easy target, and then Bombardier, but the global trade courts did rule the other way on that one. Canada is the top exporter of steel to the United States while China is No. 10 on the list. How Canada stands in the way of U.S. national security interests is anyone's guess. And we should also keep in mind, that the United States exports US$2-billion annually more steel to Canada than the other way around. Canada is the United States' best friend in every respect. This is all so sad. And make no mistake, consider NAFTA dead.

      The White House doesn't seem to believe that U.S. trading partners will retaliate because of this smug attitude that nobody will cut off their nose to spite their face. This is very naive and shows a total lack of knowledge or understanding of history. My bet is that there is going to be retaliation and that an outright global trade war is going to occur. And with the classic chip that every bully wears on his shoulder, Donald Trump tweets out "trade wars are good, and easy to win". Brave words from the guy who claimed he would have run into the school to save those kids in Florida. Words are cheap, and yet, at the same time, loose lips sink ships.

      Let's examine the claim that 'protecting' industries that employ 400,000 people in a work force of 130 million will not cause any damage. After all, nearly seven million Americans work in industries that will be negatively affected by the tariffs. Well, the economic impact will actually take 10 to 20 basis points off annual real GDP growth. The job loss will range anywhere from 190,000 to 380,000 – as the gains in Ohio and Pennsylvania will be swamped by declines in the states most sensitive to the cost run-up in other segments of the industrial economy such as Indiana, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama – all states that Mr. Trump carried in the 2016 election. The "easy win" that he talks about may end up translating into some hefty political losses for him, but his yearning to please his base obviously knows no bounds. Pursuing policies for the greater good seems to be lost on this administration.



      Delete
    2. So look – before the hardcore Trump supporters get all in a tizzy, I never said that the President "doesn't know what he's talking about" as the weekend Wall Street Journal editorial pages asserted. I only said he needs an immediate crash course in Economics 101, along with his entire trade team.

      Now if NAFTA is abrogated, and I see no reason why the amigos to the north and south would be keen on sustaining the talks which aren't going anywhere after no fewer than seven rounds of discussions, the estimates I have seen from Moody's Analytics is 1.8 million jobs lost. That isn't Canada. That isn't Mexico. That is 1.8 million jobs lost in the United States. And if the White House is wrong on its gamble and there is global retaliation, a full global trade war would generate a decline in U.S. employment of nearly four million. So any of these two scenarios, with obvious nontrivial risks at this point, would create the conditions for an outright recession. And what do I receive on my desk practically daily now? Reasons to buy the stock market dip. Good grief.

      I'll tell you who comes out a winner on all this. Vladimir Putin. I mean, who else would be smiling at what could be construed as a trade attack on NATO-member countries? And isn't it interesting – sorry, I meant disturbing – to be enduring presidential tweets on how "trade wars are good" with his allies, and yet nary a tweet on his supposed adversary, Comrade Putin, who just lobbed some fresh threats to the West with the announced development of an "invincible" nuclear missile. (And daring to show an animation of a potential strike on Florida; I guess so long as it was far away from Mar-a-Lago, it didn't deserve a response.) But as we saw in Georgia, Crimea and the Ukraine, Mr. Putin relishes the opportunity of upsetting the apple cart when the West is in disarray, as is the case today. I guess that alone is an endorsement for gold."

      https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/trump-team-needs-to-go-to-economics-school-quickly/article38215494/

      Delete
    3. The professionalism of the Hillary State Department was truly something to behold. Hillary didn't need to go to economics school to find where the money was, and how to steal it.

      Delete
  9. Elephant Bar Fight

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RqDG4I4iAk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ash finally gets his long overdue well deserved mugging ?

      That looks like it hurt though, and I don't wish that, just scary.

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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DRUDGE FLASHING RED LIGHT HEADLINE

      GARY COHN OUT

      Resigns Over Tarrifs

      Delete
    2. .

      Since it's a Drudge story, I don't know if it's true but it shouldn't surprise. Word is that for the last couple days he has been meeting with the White House staff and others like Wilbur Ross, Kelly and others to organize a resistance to the tariffs. GOP Congressional leaders (Ryan, et al) are against it and are pushing for him to at least make any tariffs targeted ones.

      Not surprisingly, it's said the Dems are pushing to go ahead as planned.

      This will probably be another hit to the markets. They liked Cohn.

      .

      Delete


    3. .

      I would bet my life on the veracity of a NY Times article chosen at random.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      On the numerous departures from the WH in Trump's first year, Trump says...

      "So many people want to come in. I have a choice of anybody. So many people want to come in. I have a choice of anybody," Trump continued. "I could take any position in the White House and I'll have a choice of the 10 top people having to do with that position, everybody wants to be there.

      Then why do you keep hiring people like Porter and Sorensen, Scaramucci and Price?

      .

      Delete
    5. "In a riff Saturday at the Gridiron Dinner, an annual white-tie affair, Trump engaged in a rare bout of self-deprecating humour, comparing the Oval Office job to his past career as the host of the reality-television show The Apprentice.

      "In one job I had to manage a cutthroat cast of characters, desperate for TV time, totally unprepared for their roles and their jobs and each week afraid of having their asses fired – and the other job I was the host of a smash television hit.""

      https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-politics/white-house-economic-adviser-gary-cohn-to-step-down/article38225956/

      Cohn's out. Kudlow is being considered...Kudlow. Lordy!

      Delete
    6. You're just prejudiced against media stars.

      Delete
  11. Sex in the cemetery !

    Recently, a TBI special agent revealed in a search warrant affidavit that investigators had uncovered nude photos of a woman taken on Forrest's police-issued phone while he was traveling with the mayor and while he was on the clock.

    Then, NewsChannel 5 Investigates uncovered security video showing the two making frequent visits in the early morning hours to Nashville's historic City Cemetery.

    https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/city-hall-scandal/nashville-mayor-megan-barry-expected-to-resign

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quickies, 12 - 24 minutes.

      https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/city-hall-scandal/security-video-shows-mayor-bodyguard-during-early-morning-cemetery-visits

      Delete
  12. Advocates also point to a 2009 study by a Princeton University professor that concluded an Asian American applicant would need to score 140 points higher than a white applicant on the 1600-point SAT, 270 points higher than a Latino applicant and 450 points higher than a black applicant to have the same odds of being admitted to 10 elite colleges that he examined.

    http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article196035824.html

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

    ReplyDelete
  14. China has been doing the exact same thing in Australia as Greece for the exact amount of time (10 years). Buying up (or attempting to buy):

    1. Energy companies
    2. Mining companies
    3. Ports
    4. Real estate (Chinese investment is a major contributor to house price inflation)
    5. Sports teams (Deal is being finalized this week for Chinese purchase of Adelaide, United - South Australia soccer)

    Carbon copy of Greece.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The civil suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by NBC News, alleges that her agreement not to disclose her "intimate" relationship with Trump is not valid because while both Daniels and Trump's attorney Michael Cohen signed it, Trump never did.

    Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, signed both the agreement and a side letter agreement using her professional name on October 28, 2016, just days before the 2016 presidential election. Cohen signed the document the same day.

    ...

    Clifford had previously given conflicting accounts of her relationship with Trump. In the lawsuit, Clifford alleges that in January 2018, Cohen, "concerned the truth would be disclosed ... through intimidation and coercive tactics, forced Ms. Clifford into signing a false statement wherein she stated that reports of her relationship with Mr. Trump were false."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Money grubbing bitch.

      The Donald should have better taste in women.

      It's his own damn fault.

      Delete
    2. That's what I think too.

      I just do it for free and forget about, whether the man is rich, or on his last advertising legs, like my funny Quirkie.

      Delete
    3. The Mayor did it in the cemetery.

      ...her citizens paid for her stud.

      Delete
  16. Guess who won the Dem Gov primary in Texas between Lupe Valdez and Andrew White!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we've had our first and last orange president.

      Delete
    2. Louie Gohmert got 42,000 votes, the two Dems totaled 9,000.

      https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/texas/

      Delete

  17. The market opening tomorrow is trending down around 327 last I looked.

    Trade Wars are easy to win


    Promise Made - Promise Kept ... maybe

    ReplyDelete
  18. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-coen-brothers-big-lebowski-is-20-a8241731.html

    ReplyDelete
  19. Trump has the balls to take on the Chinese in the absurd trade deals made by Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama. That was his promise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Trump put a tariff on Chinese steel you'd have a point, but he didn't. He is proposing a blanket tariff on all imported steel. That won't hurt the Chinese, if anything it'll help them by increasing the global price for Steel.

      Delete
    2. We had this argument years ago when I complained about Chinese manufacturers gaming
      NAFTA and the Caribbean Trade Initiative, by selling components through third party non-Chinese trading companies, assembling in Latin America and getting free access to UAS markets.

      Steel is all about China. Trump is wisely forcing third and front trading nations to crack down on Chinese goods being funneled through their countries.

      The Chinese will fuck a snake if someone holds it for them.

      Delete
    3. How is the state of the mills and ovens in Pennsylvania? Nice clean modern affairs all waiting to be fired up?

      Delete
    4. or is the plan to fire up the old ones, stuff the ovens with cheap coal, and make the place more like China?

      Delete
    5. .

      Steel is all about China.

      Tell that to Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, well everyone else.

      It's a typical Trump move. Go in strong and only back off if you get concessions. China may be Trump's biggest target but this specific move was meant to influence Canada and Mexico.

      .

      Delete
  20. Trump also promised infrastructure. Infrastructure means steel. Steel and infrastructure are labor unions, who used to be Democrats. The Democrats get their NEA freak show. Trump gets the construction trades.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the US will pay 25% more for the steel used in infrastructure projects. woohooo!

      Delete
    2. The multiplier affect paid to US steel workers will more than offset the incremental price of the steel. It also reduces costs of social service to unemployed and under employed. Ancillary suppliers and vendors also further offset the price increase. You will also get a better grade of steel for $ spent.

      If you think $800 billion trade deficits are good things, dream on.

      Delete
    3. Only if they buy American steel will the knock on effects occur. if they buy tariffed foreign steel no. Forcing a Buy American steel is a different issue not addressed by the tariff.

      Delete
    4. .

      We used to hear a lot about infrastructure. Right now, not so much.

      Will we see it this year?

      It's already March. Seven months to the mid-terms. Still no budget finalized. No DACA. Everyday key people leave the White House (almost 40 in 13 months) and about 6 more who are on Trump's shit list. With no signaling or advance warning, Trump pulls up some issue like tariffs and shakes things up drawing the oxygen out of the room for a week or two.

      Infrastructure?

      I'll believe it when I see it.

      .

      Delete
  21. March 7, 2018
    Why Trump will demand Jeff Sessions's resignation
    By Robert Steven Ingebo

    Why haven't James Comey, Hillary Clinton, and certain DOJ leaders been investigated by a special counsel as the Trump team members have? There's certainly enough evidence for an investigation.

    A second special counsel needs to be created to investigate the FISA warrant abuses, the classified information found on Hillary's and her staff's personal electronic devices, and the huge donations the Clinton Foundation received when Hillary signed off on the Uranium One deal.


    In order to properly investigate these potential crimes, a special prosecutor must be appointed by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions. How can there be an impartial investigation if the DOJ is investigating itself?

    When we look at Jeff Sessions, we find that he recused himself from the Trump-Russia investigation and later said his inspector general – who has no prosecutorial authority – will investigate the alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the FBI.

    This action on the part of Jeff Sessions was condemned by President Trump on February 28, 2018, because without a second special counsel, Hillary Clinton, James Comey, and other members of the FBI and the DOJ will never be brought to justice.

    Any hope of bringing justice upon the alleged perpetrators lies with President Trump. He has the authority to demand Jeff Sessions's resignation and can appoint a new attorney general, who will then appoint a second special prosecutor.

    Why hasn't the president already done so? Perhaps he is afraid of retaliation by the Democrats, that the same thing will happen over again that occurred when he fired James Comey.

    The president knows that if he asks the attorney general to resign, the Democrats will seize upon the resignation and say it's a pattern with Trump, possibly giving them probable cause to have Mueller's special counsel investigate him for obstruction of justice.

    One of Donald Trump's campaign promises was to "drain the swamp." His supporters, most of whom are American citizens living in the flyover states, will hold him accountable. They want to see justice served, so it makes political sense for Trump to ask for Jeff Sessions's resignation if Sessions continues to avoid appointing a second special prosecutor to investigate the FBI, the DOJ, and Hillary Clinton.



    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/03/why_trump_will_demand_jeff_sessionss_resignation.html#ixzz5949mFNwT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      :o)

      The Bob boys, Idaho Bob and 'Moonbeam' Bob Ingebo. Ya gotta love it.

      .

      Delete
  22. Carl Vinson docked at Da Nang

    A U.S. Aircraft Carrier Anchors Off Vietnam For The First Time Since ...
    https://www.npr.org/.../a-u-s-aircraft-carrier-is-docking-in-vietnam-for-the-first-time-sin...
    2 days ago - The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, anchored off the coast in Danang, Vietnam on Monday. ... The arrival of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, at Vietnam's port city of Danang is a reminder of that growing ...


    Perennial fear of the Chinese by the Vietnamese.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The numbers:

    The U.S. trade deficit climbed 5% in January and hit a nearly 10-year high, continuing a steady rise since President Trump took over that could exacerbate already tense disputes between the administration and key trading partners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Americans are rich and they are spending and buying. The American government, not so rich, but it is spending and buying up a storm. Soon to increase too - all that infrastructure, at inflated prices to boot!

      Delete
    2. .

      Ouch.

      The trade deficit is up about 12% since Trump took over.

      That's got to hurt.

      .

      Delete
  24. Magoo is finally doing something right....suing the State of California.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. USA VS CALIFORNIA
      SUIT OVER SANCTUARY....DRUDGE


      http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/06/trump-doj-sues-california-over-interference-with-immigration-enforcement.html

      Delete
  25. That Stormy Weather is a hell of a storm, a 10.

    ReplyDelete
  26. MSNBC SURGE: MADDOW NO. 1 SHOW ON ALL CABLE....DRUDGE

    Leading indicator that the USA is finished.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Governor Moonbeam says Sessions has declared war.

    ReplyDelete
  28. .

    You will also get a better grade of steel for $ spent.

    A bit misleading.

    The tariffs as currently described by the administration will also hit Japan and South Korea. Japan produces the highest quality steel. The best US steel is produced at joint ventures between US companies and the Japanese. South Korea produces steel on a par with that of the US.

    But the whole issue of the 'best quality' steel involves a smaller universe than you might think. That's why there are so many grades and types of steel out there. There are plenty of products where you don't need the highest quality steel and no one is going to spend more for their raw materials than they have to.

    .

    .

    ReplyDelete
  29. U.S. STEEL Restarting Plant Operations Amid Tariff Plans... .DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
  30. The markets get crushed, emulsified, shredded, a Total Trump Collapse:


    24,804.18 -79.94 (-0.32%)

    NASDAQ
    7,396.65 +24.64 (+0.33%)

    S&P 500
    2,727.00 -1.12 (-0.04%)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can someone please do anything to get Gary Cohn to reconsider?

      Delete
  31. Isn't it written in the stars that China is supposed to have 50% of the World's steel making capacity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. why complain if they are willing to subsidize your purchase of steel?

      Delete
    2. I'm a lucky guy:

      Some stud with AIDS just paid me 500 bucks to get buttfucked.

      Delete
    3. hey, if you need steel for something and supplier A is willing to sell it cheaper than seller B, why pay more?

      Delete
    4. You have a point: Is the swamp better than Mao 2 ?

      ...or Trudeau?

      Delete
    5. The steel being equal quality.....

      Delete
    6. Mourning the death of repressive dictator Fidel Castro, Trudeau hailed his longtime family friend as a “larger than life leader” who “served his people for almost half a century.” Actually, El Comandante ruled with an iron fist and firing squads – serving himself to all of the island’s land, private businesses, and media, along with his own private yacht, private island, 20 homes, fleet of Mercedes limos, and bevy of mistresses.

      Trudeau’s ridiculous mash note to the “legendary revolutionary and orator” caused the social-media backlash of the year. The hashtag #TrudeauEulogies erupted to mock Trudeau’s soft-soaping of tyranny.

      “As we mourn Emperor Caligula, let us always remember his steadfast devotion to Senate reform,” one Twitter user jibed in Trudeau-speak.

      “Although flawed, Hitler was a vegetarian who loved animals, was a contributor to the arts & proud advocate for Germany,”

      another joked. “Kim Jong Il will always be remembered fondly for his leadership and contributions on climate change,” another chimed in.

      Delete
    7. I read once the Chinese mix a little of their radioactive waste into their steel exports. Cheaper than storing it at home.

      Before buying, check you Geiger Counter.

      Delete
    8. Good young fool Turdeau.

      Always making a turd out of himself.

      What a sad joke he is....

      Delete
    9. Stung, the Canadian tundra hunk’s office announced Monday that he will not attend services for his beloved Uncle Fidel, who had served as a pallbearer at his former Canadian PM father’s funeral. But if Trudeau thinks the damage to his celebrity brand is temporary, he has another thing coming.

      Our neighbors to the north are now discovering what disillusioned Barack Obama worshipers realized too late: Beneath the shiny packaging of supermodel progressivism lies the same old decrepit culture of corruption.

      Beneath the shiny packaging of supermodel progressivism lies the same old decrepit culture of corruption.

      Political watchdogs have been buzzing about Trudeau’s shady fundraising ties to Chinese-communist moguls. Like Obama, Trudeau promised unprecedented transparency in government — “sunny ways” that would shed open light on how the Liberal party was conducting the people’s business. Dudley Do-Right’s party declared there would be “no preferential access, or appearance of preferential access” in exchange for campaign cash and purported to ban favor-seekers with direct business before the government from attending political fundraisers.

      https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/11/justin-trudeau-fidel-castro-apologist/

      Delete
    10. Castro taught the Cubans the art of ocean swimming, inner tubing, and rafting.

      Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar never did that.

      Delete
    11. Behind closed doors, however, Trudeau was selling out to wealthy Chinese-Canadians and Chinese nationals seeking government green lights for their business deals. According to his conservative critics, Trudeau and the Liberal party have held 80 such cash-for-access fundraisers crawling with lobbyists and access traders over the past year.

      #related#The Globe and Mail newspaper revealed last week that Trudeau and his Liberal party fundraisers had secretly organized one tony $1,500-per-head private residential gala in May attended by Chinese billionaires and bankers gunning for federal approval of projects. Echoing the operations of the Clinton Foundation pay-for-play money machine, the nonprofit Trudeau Foundation and the University of Montreal raked in $1 million from a wealthy Chinese businessman a few weeks after the fundraiser. The donation includes funding for a statue of Pierre Trudeau, who once wrote a book hailing Chairman Mao.

      The self-aggrandizing-Commie-fanboy apple doesn’t fall far from his cultural-Marxist tree.

      — Michelle Malkin

      Delete
    12. hey, if you need statue for something and supplier A is willing to give it to you...

      Delete
  32. There is $50 trillion in idle money in the World. To those that own it, change and volatility is necessary for them to put that money to use. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Pat Buchanan - Conservative commentator, columnist and author. "the economy should be made and established for the benefit of the American people"

    John Cox - Republican Candidate for Governor in California on Sessions lawsuit against California "It's overdue as far as i'm concerned"

    https://www.podcastone.com/The-Laura-Ingraham-Show-Podcast

    ReplyDelete
  34. How an Obama-Administration Precedent May Doom California’s Effort to Make Itself a ‘Sanctuary State’

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/how-an-obama-administration-precedent-may-doom-californias-effort-to-make-itself-a-sanctuary-state/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Moonbeam is gonna lose that case.

      Magoo's gonna win.

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

      Delete