Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

[CGVT]

Annnnd, they still defend this jackass.

Good Lord, this country is fucked

[THE_WIZARD_]

Good to know. I can sleep tonight now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This is sort of significant and coming from a guy who I ripped earlier this week

Ron Johnson gave an interview with the WSJ where he says that the Ambassador to the EU (Sondland) told him in August that Trump was making aid to Ukraine conditional on Kiev opening up investigations. Johnson called Trump on August 31 who flat out denied it and demanded to know who had told him that. So what's more believable, the State Dept had a rogue operation run by Giuliani and Sondland? Or that Trump lied to the Senator's face?

Another sign that Senate Republicans are showing Trump they are tired of covering for his bad behavior?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-used-potential-meeting-to-pressure-ukraine-on-biden-texts-indicate-11570205661

[Jeff Buchanan]

DSL, you're great, man ...... but you're a drama queen!

I think we get that you don't like DJT. There's ample evidence the guy lies like a rug, tries to shape messaging by lying and reminds anyone with a sense of history that in that regard, he and his inner circle are the historical equivalent of the Third Reich. Oh, and his foreign policy is a fucking mess ..... that we get too.

But the Republic seems fine.

BTW, I'll overlook your breathless drama creation because I'm getting my news feed on Washington politics from you. As Queen's Freddie Mercury would say, "I like it."

[Dr. Strangelove]

Thanks, Jeff

Also, STFU

[froot loops]

Don't listen to him DSL, you are providing a great service to the forum.

[crashcourse]

this unholy dsl/AA alliance disturbs me

I don't defend trump because I like him

I defend trump because I think America is better off then we were in the Obama years and bush years and Clinton years

biden is about the only one I thought had a chance against trump --the more corrupt he is the better chances trump has getting elected.

i'm sure bidens sins are exaggerated and that most in DCV do similar things--biden just happens to be running for president and his sone made out like a bandit with our greatest economic foe

for an entire party to support the green new deal, open borders for everytbody, free medical care free college tuition--sorry but instead of a fantasy worlkd ypou need to back someone that isn't talking total nonsense

trump is an idiotic egotistical thinskinned blowhard but has gotten rid of the bullshit that helps business and the workforce be great again

and ive seen nothing from the other side except one long sustained "this is it we got him now" rendering our US congress and our traditional media impotent to do anything else but go on another wild goose chase

you wanna get him do it at the ballot box

[Jeff Buchanan]

Good post, Crash ..... sort-of. I was on the don't like Trump but like his policies bandwagon until sometime mid-summer when his outbursts and tirades against political enemies, people he didn't like or anyone that said something bad about him revealed a personalty defect and probably a mental illness that I had trouble believing he could put that aside/deal with it and then deal with China, NK and Iran. I also became skeptical of his understanding of global economics and markets. Then I sort-of punted to the notion that people in his administration were smart and would provide guard-rails - most of them are gone and what is left are sycophantic yes men.

The place where I depart from your characterization of the Impeachment Inquiry is, to me, this does not look it's just another "wild goose chase." I can't buy the everybody does it or has done it line - that is, pressure foreign governments to undertake policy favorable to the US in exchange for favorable treatment of those governments. I get that. What I don't get is pressuring Zelenski to dig for dirt on Biden(s) in exchange for me (DJT) not holding up military aid. I think that crosses my line. Not only that but Trump is so full of himself that he thinks this kind of shit is fine, flaunts it and think no one is going to give a shit. Well, those swing voters that got him elected do give a shit.

Trump could have won re-election had he been smart enough, or kept people around him that were smart enough, to keep his dumb ass stunts in check or when they occurred, make sure that nobody found out about them. That didn't happen. He's probably done. If he doesn't get impeached, his chances of skating by the suspicion of voters that he is sleazy and unfit for the office of the presidency are about .001%.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Changing the subject ....... all of us here have talked about stock market swings as supporting or refuting our particular views of any number of things. Fact is, and I think we all know this, interpreting market swings as a means of assessing a policy approach are pretty useless. The market moves up or down for usually fleeting reasons. I'm going to link you to a very interesting article in the Economist below about how machines are taking over financial markets. It's titled, Masters of the Universe - the rise of the financial machines. I'll admit, I'm not a sophisticated investor but I do understand how much machine trading is present in global stock markets and how that can rapidly accelerate or decelerate market ups and downs.

This article goes into some technical detail that I only have a superficial understanding of but what struck me is the degree of AI that is present and the heated debate about how effective or ineffective it can be in managing investment portfolios of any size. In the past, humans looked at company data, made human decisions about what companies were good or bad investments and bought and sold without the aid of machines. They did this in person on the stock exchange floor. Then came machine ordering. That precipitated data gathering that made it much easier and faster to make investment decisions. Then came the need to manage the data which machines are good at. That has morphed into basically eliminating the past buy/sell activity of humans from the trading floor and now, the application of AI to make buy/sell decisions. Its fascinating and not as ominous as I expected it to be when I first saw the article title. If interested have a read. As before, you can sign-up and read a set number of articles per month. Worth the effort.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/10/03/the-rise-of-the-financial-machines?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/2019/10/3n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/318851/n

[Ghengis Jon]

Again, I'd like to see a secret vote on the Trump trial. Give the GOP the opportunity to put country and Constitution over Trump and his cowering ass lickers. Trump's removal from office would not only rid America of an unfit criminal chief executive (think of a political version of Jeff Skilling with even fewer morals) but the stock market would likely take off. The stock market hates uncertainty and reacts violently to it. Removing very unstable non-genius would eliminate much of the world unpredictability the market despises and I believe it would react accordingly. Those with stock investments or 401(k)s should be praying Trump is removed.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Gordon Sondland, the Ambassador whose fingers are all over the Ukraine mess, will be testifying next tuesday.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Another note, Bernie Sanders actually had a heart attack. Little bit more serious than his campaign was letting on

[Dr. Strangelove]

When you're a liar, a bully, and a cheat, most of your aides will secretly hate you...and when you start looking weak, won't fear you at all

********************************

for a Nobel Prizemurder and poisoning

************************

Trump and Xi


https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...80b_story.html

[Dr. Strangelove]

Second whistle-blower with more direct knowledge of Trump & Ukraine may soon come forward

The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower, whose complaint that Mr. Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower, one of the people said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/second-trump-whistleblower.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share