Cont: The Trump Presidency VIII

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China Buys Record Amount of Russian Soy as It Shuns U.S. Growers

China, the world’s biggest soybean importer, almost tripled purchases from Russia amid a trade dispute with the U.S., the biggest producer.

Russia sold about 850,000 metric tons of soybeans to China from the start of the 12-month season in July through mid-May, according to Russia’s agriculture agency Rosselkhoznadzor. That’s more than during any season before and compares with about 340,000 tons sold during all of the previous period
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...amount-of-russian-soy-as-it-shuns-u-s-growers

American Soybean Association on Donald Trump’s trade dispute with China:

“Soybeans are the top agriculture export for the US & China is the top market for purchasing those exports. The math is simple. You tax soybean exports at 25% & you have serious damage to US farmers”
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The Don said:
What are these "contributions" you refer to ?

Among some there seems to be the misapprehension that there's some sort of central fund into which NATO members pay and then NATO-related expenses are met from that central fund and that the US pays more than its fair share into that fund - none of that is the case.

It's true that the US spends a greater proportion of its GDP on its military than any other NATO member. That doesn't mean that it's subsidising the other NATO members in any way. I'm no military expert but it's entirely possible that the US could significantly reduce its military expenditure significantly and have no measurable impact on its ability to defend itself and/or meet its NATO obligations.

GOP orthodoxy dictates that military expenditure must always increase.



2% is IMO an arbitrary target. A country like the UK has all kinds of global ex-imperial obligations that a middle-European country simply doesn't have. "Our" 2% has to go a lot further than, say, Poland's. Who knows why individual countries agreed to a 2% target ?
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It's also the case that the US is involved in military matters on a world scale, and this is simply not true of all NATO members. We spend something like 3.3% on the military, but it's ridiculous to think that all of this is spent due to NATO.

Trump is, and I think I'm the first person to notice, a moron. No one else has ever said so. But now that I've said it, people are agreeing.
 
I note he's having dinner tonight at Blenheim Palace. An inspired choice, as pointed out by a poster elsewhere:

a Palace which looks like a Palace, has the word Palace in it and will certainly convince the American Delegation that they got to visit a Palace..............whilst simultaneously being the only "Palace" in the land not to be either a Royal or Church residence. There's only the Duke of Marlborough to arm twist into doing it, and his prescription drug addiction and prison sentences mean he probably owes the Authorities favours anyway.
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Yet another forehead slapping NATO summit circus brought to you by The Orange Clown™...

I've looked into my crystal ball, rubbed a magical pink stone counterclockwise three times around my bellybutton and have come up with this prediction:

Jim Mattis will hand in his resignation within 6 months.



Eventually he's going to get fed up with having to stomp out fires before the little voice in his head finally convinces him to jump ship:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-mattis/united-states-100-percent-committed-to-nato-mattis-says-after-summit-idUSKBN1K2269
 
AnonyMoose said:
Yet another forehead slapping NATO summit circus brought to you by The Orange Clown™...

I've looked into my crystal ball, rubbed a magical pink stone counterclockwise three times around my bellybutton and have come up with this prediction:

Jim Mattis will hand in his resignation within 6 months.



Eventually he's going to get fed up with having to stomp out fires before the little voice in his head finally convinces him to jump ship:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-mattis/united-states-100-percent-committed-to-nato-mattis-says-after-summit-idUSKBN1K2269
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I don't know, you think he has to be afraid what would happen if someone who cared more for Trump than america was there and was backing Trump up on his nonsensical lies about NATO.
 
Segnosaur said:
At least he doesn't want to paint it gold.
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Hmm... maybe not the outside. :(

I swear, if he got to redecoreate the interior, I can see it ending up looking like some Arabian Nights' harem. In other words... any of his tacky penthouse residences. :(
 
Jim_MDP said:
Re: Air Force 1....
At least he doesn't want to paint it gold.
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I swear, if he got to redecoreate the interior, I can see it ending up looking like some Arabian Nights' harem. In other words... any of his tacky penthouse residences. :(
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I prefer the John Oliver description:

A cross between C3PO's colon and a museum that nobody ever learned anything in.
 
Jimbo07 said:
Oh, are you kidding? This whole 2% or 4% business is just a tactic. The numbers themselves don't mean anything. Same with lashing out at Germany over Russia. It's meant to be disruptive.

But to what end? I'm not sure. It could be to play to his base, or maybe Putin has something on him, or it may even serve conservative interests. I don't have enough knowledge to say, certainly.

I have a guess tho...

I'd bet that part of it is personal. I think he doesn't like being lectured by the adults in the room. I think allied leaders stand in the way of his feelings of self importance. Dictators don't have to respond to their constituency, so it's easier for them to throw him parties!
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I agree its just a tactic. I'm simply doubting it's efficacy at accomplishing anything of substance.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
China Buys Record Amount of Russian Soy as It Shuns U.S. Growers
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...amount-of-russian-soy-as-it-shuns-u-s-growers
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Darat said:
You have to give him this, he said trade wars were easy to win..... he just didn't make it clear he meant China would find it easy to win.
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They love Trump
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... in Russia!


Way to go Donald!
 
Trump Tweets

"Great success today at NATO! Billions of additional dollars paid by members since my election. Great spirit!"
 
Trump Tweeted

"Germany just started paying Russia, the country they want protection from, Billions of Dollars for their Energy needs coming out of a new pipeline from Russia. Not acceptable! All NATO Nations must meet their 2% commitment, and that must ultimately go to 4%!"

2 percent of GDP is the agreed upon defence expenditure for each member state to reached by 2024. That's six years from now.
And just last night Trump said the U.S. spends too much on defence.

The U.S. spends 3.7 percent of it's GDP on defence, this is not going all to NATO commitments.


Now he wants to increase to 4 percent of GDP? That means spending more, not less. Does he know that?
 
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