Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Bolton often gets called a NeoCon but he's really a PaleoCon. NeoCons are a lot more idealistic.

Gonna be a wild week for stocks by the looks of it.

Ah, yes ..... heard the term but had to do a little looking up. The difference between a Paleocan and a Neocon is fairly significant in the current context that includes Trump's ME FP.

I found a New Republic article on Bolton shortly after he was designated NSC Adviser in place of the more moderate H.R. McMaster.

observedpreemptive strike on North Korea, encouraging nuclear proliferation in Asia, and growing allianceswar with Iran

Interesting stuff.

https://newrepublic.com/article/147640/scarier-neoconserative-john-bolton-radical-nationalist

[Jeff Buchanan]

[iam416]

Israel is kicking the shit out of Hamas in Gaza and probably Iranian Revolutionary Guards Units that are there as well. The Iranians blame the US for green-lighting Netanyahu.

In other troubling news for President Deals,

I hope you're not suggesting Israel's response to Palestinian violence is "troubling news for PDJT." I mean, I guess he'd rather have a deal there, but, lol.

Gonna be a wild week for stocks by the looks of it.

Maybe you'll finally get that recession you've been hoping for for so long.

I may have missed it, but did you post the super strong economic news? Growth, wages, unemployment...all of that. Probably not. I'm sure you're devastated.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Talent ...... no, I think having the Israelis kicking the shit out of Hamas is a very good thing overall. I think the Trump administration's approach to Iran has potential. I just worry about a a knee jerking, gut reacting, trigger happy Trump fucking it up.

TR, in the article detailing the historical Venezuelan circumstance I linked to, had a stick and carrot approach to US FP and in his time, the great powers did not include America. However, he clearly understood the value of power projection utilizing US naval forces. That singular undertaking raised the perception of America's capability to intervene among Europe's military powers of the time when it served the hemispheric interests of the US. In this case South America.

The difference, say, as if TR was dealing with Iran, TR was much more deliberately thoughtful about the use of military power than I believe Trump is although all of this stuff going on in the ME with Iran/Israel and Venezuela have John Bolton's finger prints all over them. Trump seems to listen to Bolton and the guy, whether you like his act or not, is pretty sharp..... or at least his history as the US Ambassador to the UN would indicate that. He bridged no shit from the General Assembly whiners of the world and was quick to call them out. Not the most popular guy but he was effective in representing US interests in that body along with silencing the give me stuff demands of countries poorly led, poorly managed and incapable of self governance esp. at their respective national levels.

But, admittedly, what you are seeing in these recent developments is Trumpian FP. I don't have a problem with that if what we are seeing is actually reflective of it. What I do worry about is over-reaching (extending the US Navy/USMC beyond their actual operational capabilities), unintended consequences of it along with Trump's belligerence and escalation from minor threats to a shooting war. Still, I'm along for the ride.

[Da Geezer]

Jeff: The New Republic article you posted said:preemptive strike on North Korea, encouraging nuclear proliferation in Asia, and growing allianceswar with Iran

Can you name a concrete example of Trump being "trigger-happy"? I think he has shown remarkable restraint given what he said during the campaign about being a nationalist. What you are doing is the typical leftist meme of postulating that something "may" happen and expressing "concern" about it. This then gets morphed by the compliant media into a general statement that Trump is a hot-head, or a right-winger, or most often a Nazi. I think he has shown remarkable restraint, given the potential benefit he could have gained by trying to push Putin around in order to prove he is not Putin's lackey. What he has done is to use US economic power to try to change the behavior of our enemies. And make no mistake, China, North Korea, Russia and Iran are our enemies.

[Kapture1]

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[Dr. Strangelove]

The list has grown to 400+ since this article was first posted.

Hundreds of former federal prosecutors say enough evidence exists to charge Trump with obstruction and its only him being President that saved him from those charges

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-would-have-been-charged-with-obstruction-were-he-not-president-hundreds-of-former-federal-prosecutors-assert/2019/05/06/e4946a1a-7006-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?utm_term=.94148bd4ba1b

So that's 400+ federal prosecutors saying one thing. But on the other hand, we do have Talent saying otherwise, and his ego is bigger than those 400 combined. I think he does Estates and Wills for little old ladies desiring to ensure only the "good" grandchildren wind up with their spoon collection.. A taxing subject, intellectually.

Talent: Hello

I'm sure there are plenty of individually interesting names on the list but one is Elkan Abramowitz, whose client list includes former Trump pal and AMI CEO David Pecker.

[Kapture1]

The list has grown to 400+ since this article was first posted.

Hundreds of former federal prosecutors say enough evidence exists to charge Trump with obstruction and its only him being President that saved him from those charges

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.94148bd4ba1b

So that's 400+ federal prosecutors saying one thing. But on the other hand, we do have Talent saying otherwise, and his ego is bigger than those 400 combined. I think he does Estates and Wills for little old ladies desiring to ensure only the "good" grandchildren wind up with their spoon collection.. A taxing subject, intellectually.

Talent: Hello

I'm sure there are plenty of individually interesting names on the list but one is Elkan Abramowitz, whose client list includes former Trump pal and AMI CEO David Pecker.

They are using a broadened, incorrect reading of the obstruction statute, whereas the Attorney General of the United States is using a proper, contextual interpretation of the statute.

Trump wins. wipe your ass with the list, it's all it's useful for.

[Kapture1]

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[froot loops]

Effin Vincent Kompany

[Jeff Buchanan]

They are using a broadened, incorrect reading of the obstruction statute, whereas the Attorney General of the United States is using a proper, contextual interpretation of the statute.......

Agree with you in general but this thing only supports undertaking an impeachment process in Congress. Not going to happen, and IMO, it shouldn't. Further, I don't give a rat's ass about any legal formulation upon which an obstruction case can be made. He's the fucking President. He can't be indicted. He can be impeached but see above!

I keep going back to this point. Why and for what purpose do the angry Dems continue to push their agenda to damage Trump politically? Waste of time and distracting from matters of state for both the party in and out of power. The voters are going to become numbed by all of this. If I'm going to vote for another presidential candidate besides DJT in 2020, I haven't seen one yet that I can get behind that's any better than the ass-clown currently in the WH and who, BTW, essentially is implementing or working to implement policy at a high level that I can get behind. The Ds would be well advised to start talking policy and forget about pimping Trump.

Geezer, you make a decent point regarding supposition about Trump's behavior turning into matters of fact by the press from which springs continued questions about Trump's stability and state of mind.

Still, I don't think it takes a psychiatrist or mental health professional to assess the implications of Trump's public behavior on his Twitter feed and elsewhere. Blurting out that he's going to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 25% as a means of lighting a fire under Chinese trade decision and policy makers was a knee jerk, gut reaction, IMO, with potentially unintended consequences - a hardening of positions by the Chinese. That's one example. He's an unabashed liar and I don't trust most of what he says - that's another. The long list of his appointees that have walked because they can't stand the guy could be thrown in there too as an example of him not listening to good advice and acting instinctively instead of intuitively and rationally.

Look, I've made it pretty clear I support specific aspects of the Trump administration's national and international policies. My problem is with how Trump presents and articulates these policies to American citizens as well as international leadership. It is the later that has the potential of sparking misunderstanding and subsequent miscalculations leading to accidental military conflict.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The Party that had Diamond & Silk testify before Congress to complain about their Facebook account also says Bob Mueller has nothing of any importance to say and it's a waste of Congress' precious time to hear from him.

[iam416]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Some GOT spoilers and thoughts

SPOILER

* I'm really disappointed in what they've done to Dany's character in Seasons 7 & 8 and her transformation into another "mad King" is just about complete. I'd feel better about this if the change was more gradual and subtle but her personality changes dramatically after the 6th season. She's much more angry than before and demands everyone worship her without really giving them a reason to do so other than fear. I feel like somewhere around the end of season 6 (and at that point the source material was pretty much exhausted) the writers were told that in the end Jon was going to be King and figure out an acceptable way to make the audience not feel bad for Dany when that happens. I guess they could still surprise me with another sudden change and have her kill Jon (lol) and give us the totally nihilistic ending we all deserve.

* Tyrion too has gone from having many of the best scenes on the show to being mopey and brooding. And frankly, he's been almost completely inept as Dany's Hand.

* Doesn't it undermine the scene in Episode 2 where Jamie knights Brienne to now have them get drunk and fuck two episodes later?

* I can accept that Euron is a great admiral and all but a fleet of ships ambushing a dragon? Nope.

[iam416]

Perhaps Mueller forgot to say something important in his 400+ page report. Apparently the Ds think he does really shoddy work and omits critical details and arguments.