Life in the Trump Era, Part 2

[Ma'ake]

China is doing the same thing in Kenya and other African countries. In Kenya, the Chinese are "loaning" money, equipment and manpower for improving roads and infrastructure throughout the country.

I was talking with a coworker from mainland. They mentioned there are *lots* of Chinese workers in Africa, and increasingly, Latin America. "It is just like America did before."

Building infrastructure is important, unquestionably. But it's the Next-Gen wireless networking technology that's even more crucial. Huawei is buying marketshare, even in Europe. In Pence's speech in the Security Forum in Europe recently - where he got the silent treatment when mentioning greetings from President Trump - he specifically said "it will be hard to defend the West if they get their technology from the East".

Several European nations already use Huawei wireless technology and are satisfied. It's a particularly bad time to have rocky relations with our historic allies.

[Ma'ake]

NBC Poll - "Most Americans don't think Trump is in the clear on Russia, yet" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/mee...e-mode-n989061

It's one poll, the split basically reflects the divide on Trump in general, maybe this reflects the deep cynicism people have in general.

But one part of the poll sticks out - 31% of those polled say they're not sure if Trump has been cleared, yet: 45% of this group are independents, 27% are Democrats, but curiously, 25% are Republicans.

This last group is a fascinating demographic to consider. Do they think it's because Adam Schiff & Jerry Nadler are going to keep the issue going? Are they not entirely comfortable with Trump's odd deference to Putin, or overt attempts to curry loyalty, or aren't sure Mueller got to the bottom of things because Trump struggles to tell the truth about just about every topic?

I admit I thought Mueller would find fairly strong evidence of collusion/conspiracy, based on a wide variety of evidence, and Trump's tendency to act like a mob boss. But there was some doubt, notably from Cohen, who said he didn't see direct evidence of collusion, but thought there could be, or Brennan specifically saying while he was in office he didn't see direct evidence in the Intel, but saw very concerning "parallelism" in events that suggested there could be some.

Hopefully Trump will now support efforts to improve election security and better protect the nation from the cyber threat from the outside. I think Trump might keep stoking doubts about his innocence vis-à-vis Russia alive by continuing the weird "free speech" attacks on Twitter and Facebook, helping the Breitbart/InfoWars/Jerry Corsi conspiracy sector, and Trump over-selling the summary of the Mueller report to include a complete exoneration on obstruction of justice.

[LA Ute]

Ma'ake: NBC Poll - "Most Americans don't think Trump is in the clear on Russia, yet" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/mee...e-mode-n989061

It's one poll, the split basically reflects the divide on Trump in general, maybe this reflects the deep cynicism people have in general.

But one part of the poll sticks out - 31% of those polled say they're not sure if Trump has been cleared, yet: 45% of this group are independents, 27% are Democrats, but curiously, 25% are Republicans.

This last group is a fascinating demographic to consider. Do they think it's because Adam Schiff & Jerry Nadler are going to keep the issue going? Are they not entirely comfortable with Trump's odd deference to Putin, or overt attempts to curry loyalty, or aren't sure Mueller got to the bottom of things because Trump struggles to tell the truth about just about every topic?

Here’s another poll that I am sure the Democrats are going to pay attention to, if they are smart:



It’s not surprising at all that many people still doubt Trump. He doesn’t act like he cares whether people believe him or not. For example, all of those puzzling friendly statements about Putin. Did they indicate he has some affinity for the guy? Or were they simply his ham-handed efforts to exercise diplomacy? I’m not sure will ever know.

I do think that most fair-minded people listen to political hitmen like John Brennan saying that the president is a Russian asset and has committed treason, rolled their eyes at least a bit and took the whole thing with a healthy dose of skepticism. We could’ve use more skepticism about all that during the last two years.

[Irving Washington]

So what do people think about Trump planning to nominate two people with strong political views to the Federal Reserve, one of who's mail claim is former CEO of Godfather Pizza (no need to discuss numerous allegations of sexual misconduct). My very conservative father would have been aghast at the prospect.

[LA Ute]

So what do people think about Trump planning to nominate two people with strong political views to the Federal Reserve, one of who's mail claim is former CEO of Godfather Pizza (no need to discuss numerous allegations of sexual misconduct). My very conservative father would have been aghast at the prospect.

I saw that he was going to nominate Herman Cain. I'm not a fan. Wasn't it the Domino's guy who had the sexual misconduct issues?

[Ma'ake]

So what do people think about Trump planning to nominate two people with strong political views to the Federal Reserve, one of who's mail claim is former CEO of Godfather Pizza (no need to discuss numerous allegations of sexual misconduct). My very conservative father would have been aghast at the prospect.

Aside from Herman Cain as a new catalyst for the #MeToo movement, his ideas on economics are extremely malformed. Anyone remember his "3 nines" plan for the economy? Stephen Moore said "I have a lot of homework to do" to come up to speed on issues the Fed deliberates on. These two would be Trump loyalists first & foremost, having sage economic minds isn't really part of the calculus.

It's a pretty transparent move to support Trump's pressure to lower rates and breathe more life into a record long expansion, basically a 2nd shot of starter fluid to follow the 2017 tax cuts, whose stimulative effect has petered out, with the economy settling back toward a more long term sustainable 2% growth rate... but now with sustained $1.x Trillion deficits.

[LA Ute]

NBC Poll - "Most Americans don't think Trump is in the clear on Russia, yet" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/mee...e-mode-n989061

It's one poll, the split basically reflects the divide on Trump in general, maybe this reflects the deep cynicism people have in general.

But one part of the poll sticks out - 31% of those polled say they're not sure if Trump has been cleared, yet: 45% of this group are independents, 27% are Democrats, but curiously, 25% are Republicans.

This last group is a fascinating demographic to consider. Do they think it's because Adam Schiff & Jerry Nadler are going to keep the issue going? Are they not entirely comfortable with Trump's odd deference to Putin, or overt attempts to curry loyalty, or aren't sure Mueller got to the bottom of things because Trump struggles to tell the truth about just about every topic?

I admit I thought Mueller would find fairly strong evidence of collusion/conspiracy, based on a wide variety of evidence, and Trump's tendency to act like a mob boss. But there was some doubt, notably from Cohen, who said he didn't see direct evidence of collusion, but thought there could be, or Brennan specifically saying while he was in office he didn't see direct evidence in the Intel, but saw very concerning "parallelism" in events that suggested there could be some.

Hopefully Trump will now support efforts to improve election security and better protect the nation from the cyber threat from the outside. I think Trump might keep stoking doubts about his innocence vis-à-vis Russia alive by continuing the weird "free speech" attacks on Twitter and Facebook, helping the Breitbart/InfoWars/Jerry Corsi conspiracy sector, and Trump over-selling the summary of the Mueller report to include a complete exoneration on obstruction of justice.

You’ve pretty much proved my point.

[LA Ute]

Analysis: True.

The obstruction case against Trump is not conclusive. In fact, his indiscretion and ineptness could be seen as evidence that he did not think he was breaking the law. But at the same time, he recklessly created the appearance that he was guilty of something, disregarding sound legal advice from people who knew better. If arrogant stupidity were a crime, Trump would be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

https://reason.com/2019/04/18/trump-...ant-stupidity/

[LA Ute]

This is pretty funny. You've got to read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

“You just don’t know who you’re going to get.”


Staff listed a spare room in the Embassy figuring it would be easy money given the desirable central London location, though they only intended to rent it on weekends during the summer.


“Instead this guy arrives and refuses to ever leave....”

http://www.breakingburgh.com/ecuador...-airbnb-again/