Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Hannibal]

We carried the large burden of defense cost for decades because we wanted the soft power that came along with it.

Maybe. I think that there was also the fear that nobody else was willing to do it, so we were stuck with it. But we do, indeed, shoulder much of the blame ourselves. We were helicopter parents and then we found out when our kids grew up that they had no life skills.

[Da Geezer]

Geezer I'm not going to waste my time chasing your hail marys/objective inquiries,...

C'mon man, this gets old. You never seem to have time to answer legitimate questions.

The entire attempted coup that is now going on in DC is predicated on the assumption that "the Russians hacked the election to help Trump." I am just pointing to at least two indisputable facts that make this whole line of "inquiry" laughable.

1. Why would a state that relies on hydrocarbons, particularly natural gas, for almost all of its foreign exchange, want a change in US domestic policy that will increase the global supply of hydrocarbons?

2. Why would the # 1 geopolitical enemy of the US want a President who has already asked for $ 54 billion extra for the US military? Why wouldn't Russia want another 8 years of "leading from behind" aka letting the military become functionally obsolescent, instead? Why would Russia want generals and billionaires in charge of US policy rather than community organizers?

Your whole premise makes no sense. That is why you don't try to answer the questions, because they are not answerable. Oh, and I'll add a third: Why didn't Obama bring any of this up during the election? He had the intelligence agencies investigating the Trump campaign. Why not make Trump's alleged contacts with Russians public? If Wikileaks was a Russian front, why not say so?

[Da Geezer]

Geezer -- your prediction was correct...

Heh. And good on you for posting the other sites. Always remember that the Alinskyites here will attack the source, even if the story is widely reported.

Actually, it is kinda interesting that this guy was a journalist and a communist. Sorry for being redundant.

[hack]

Dunno, man. But it's pretty clear that they did and still do. You can dwell on theories that make a little bit of sense on paper, if one ignores several relevant factors, or you can consider all factors. I mean, it's not as if there isn't tons of information out there. Pretty reasonable to read up on the very basic factors of the global LNG trade and return back to these timelines here, which are firming up and show some very likely quid pros quo that answer your question very clearly. Or you can carry on with what you are doing.

[Whitley]

Trump's budget proposes a 97% cut to the EPA's Great Lakes pollution cleanup program, from $300M to a mere $10M (might as well just take it to nothing). Even some Rust Belt Republicans objecting

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/..._epa_cuts.html

Hey let's pollute it all and have all the Great Lakes on fire just like Cleveland. That will be a proud legacy for the Trump people.</sarcasm>

[froot loops]

Trump operative JD Gordon directed the GOP platform change on Ukraine at the GOP convention on a direct order for DJT.

This is in direct conflict with the Trump campaign's claim that they had nothing to do with that change.

[Da Geezer]

Talent:

I don't know if you have seen this, but I found it quite an interesting way to undo some of the unlawful legislating by the executive branch.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/draining-the-regulatory-swamp-1488328398

A delicious irony if the ineptitude of the bureaucracies in not filing the proper "paperwork" would allow Trump to roll back thousands of harmful regulations.

[Da Geezer]

Dunno, man. But it's pretty clear that they did and still do. You can dwell on theories that make a little bit of sense on paper, if one ignores several relevant factors, or you can consider all factors. I mean, it's not as if there isn't tons of information out there. Pretty reasonable to read up on the very basic factors of the global LNG trade and return back to these timelines here, which are firming up and show some very likely quid pros quo that answer your question very clearly. Or you can carry on with what you are doing.

Well, the quid pro quo does seem to be the issue doesn't it? Can you name any qpq that Trump gave to the Russians?

As to LNG, Econ 101 would teach that a disruptor like Trump who wants to dramatically increase US production of all hydrocarbons will affect the overall market for LNG. So what if we sell to the Far East and someone else sells to Europe. The net effect of an increase in the quantity supplied will result in a lower global price. Russia's almost total reliance on oil and gas means they would be negatively impacted by lower global prices.

Sorry, but I haven't seen anything Trump has done for the Russians. I don't care what MSNBC says or Buzzfeed. I'm waiting to see the Trump administration actually change policy in a way beneficial to Russian interests. Hasn't happened. Unless you count Trump saying nice things about Putin or saying he (Trump) hoped for good relations with Russia.

In retrospect, I guess Trump should have sent another plastic button to the Kremlin. He could then have expected praise from the controlled media.

[The Oracle]

It's been a month dude. The idea is to get to that before it happens.

[hack]

I think we're done talking about Russia. Trump's own aides are now making clear what happened. If I have to continually coax you into recognizing reality just to generate a cogent response, that's not worth my time.

Theories are applied in reality. The LNG market is largely government-to-government deals, just as a significant proportion of the oil market is. Long-term contracts, which are increasingly linked to the price of oil but haven't historically been. This is not your typical d/s scenario. Less so than most things on the market thanks to the massive cost of capital and the long payback periods. By the time the US could scale up to any extent that would alter Putin's calculations, both Putin and Trump will be dead.

Anyhow, all that's irrelevant. Putin and Trump are pals. Trump and his circle are lying about Russia contacts even though they've formally done nothing illegal -- yet. Multiple people mentioned in the golden-showers document have mysteriously died since it was leaked. It doesn't take a whole lot to figure out where the investigative pot of gold is here. If you don't want to, that's on you.

How much gold is a good and serious question, if you want to move from wishful thinking to realism. Might be not very much at all, but Trump doesn't appear very good at crisis management. John Dean of all people is mocking him for it.

[Da Geezer]

I think we're done talking about Russia. Trump's own aides are now making clear what happened. If I have to continually coax you into recognizing reality just to generate a cogent response, that's not worth my time.

Well, you were the one who brought up a quid pro quo. I'm just asking what Trump has done to benefit Russia? I haven't heard any answer because there is none. If you are basing your belief on the "Buzzfeed dossier", then there is no way to talk rationally about this Trump/Russia nexus. That is every bit as crazy as the birther arguments. Trump is an admitted germophobe, and he is supposed to have hired a Russian (read KGB) hooker to piss on him? C'mon.

Theories are applied in reality. The LNG market is largely government-to-government deals, just as a significant proportion of the oil market is. Long-term contracts, which are increasingly linked to the price of oil but haven't historically been.

That is just silly. OPEC has tried to set prices since it successfully did so in the early 70's. It hasn't worked since then. Within the last 3 years, the price of oil has been at roughly 100 to 29. No government would want such a deviation if they had any control of the price, government to government. Socialist governments may "own" the proceeds of sales, but (1) there is a lot more o+g sold to market economies than to controlled economies, and (2) the development of fracking has tremendously increased the overall supply of hydrocarbons.

This is a classic case of the Julian Simon Bet. In the 70's the world was fretting about running out of oil. Oil was basically rationed in the US, with "new oil" and "old oil", rotating days to buy, price controls, and the like. What actually happened in the real world was the discovery of several new horizons for oil, a dramatic increase in drilling, and a lower price for o+g. Then came fracking. Now we are swimming in the stuff.

As an aside, the same exact folks who are now fretting over anthropogenic global warming were the ones who predicted we would run out of oil by 2000. "Experts" never anticipate disruptive technologies, they merely project the present into the future. This procedure has been wrong ever since Thomas Malthus.

When I was in 7th grade, our science teacher told us not to totally rely on the "experts". He recommended that we analyzed the word itself. By syllable, ex- means "has been", like an ex-con. Spert is a "drip under pressure". So an expert is a "has been drip under pressure". Truer today that ever!

[Da Geezer]

Anyhow, all that's irrelevant. Putin and Trump are pals.

Simply untrue. Evidence (other than Buzzfeed) please.

You know, when you say things like "oil is mostly traded government to government" or "Trump and Putin are pals" you hurt your credibility.
These things are provably false. And Oracle brings us full circle to the point where we are to preemptively wiretap the Trump campaign in order to prevent criminal/illegal conduct in the future. That is fascism by any reasonable definition of the word.

Again, Obama had this information prior to the election. WHY DIDN'T HE BRING IT TO THE PUBLIC AND LET THE VOTERS DECIDE? Why didn't he at least leak it? Dems say it is because Obama thought Hillary would win. What does that have to do with potentially traitorous conduct by a presidential nominee?

[froot loops]

President Trump is drowning and he just threw himself an anchor. What a maroon, being a President is hard, even harder when you are speed dialing Russian mobsters and spies.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I would think he would avoid calling for any types of investigations.

[hack]

I'm gonna have to take back my pledge not to talk about Russia with Geezer. After this morning, there may not be much else to talk about. The piece up by Ryan Lizza in the NYer on Kislyak today is really good. Also just finished this week's NYer story by Evan Osnos. Excellent work.