The Trump Presidency 13: The (James) Baker's Dozen

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Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Tweets

I am pleased to announce that Kelly Knight Craft, our current Ambassador to Canada, is being nominated to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations....

....Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level. Congratulations to Kelly and her entire family!
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And the countdown to Kelly deciding she wants to spend more time with that family begins.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Retweeted

Sec. Sonny Perdue
@SecretarySonny

BREAKING: In Oval Office meeting today, the Chinese committed to buy an additional 10 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans. Hats off to @POTUS for bringing China to the table. Strategy is working. Show of good faith by the Chinese. Also indications of more good news to come.
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"Additional" to what, one wonders, and at what price?
 
This is from Bloomberg.
Since the U.S.-China trade truce began in early December, Chinese buyers have scooped up at least 6.9 million tons of American beans, government data show. People familiar with the transactions have said the Chinese have already bought close to 10 million tons. News of additional purchases could be what’s needed to kick-start prices that have been trading in a narrow range this year. Prices could trade higher by as much as 10 cents a bushel when the market reopens on Sunday night, according to Rich Feltes, head of market insights for Chicago-based R.J. O’Brien & Associates. Link
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Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Retweeted

Sec. Sonny Perdue
@SecretarySonny

BREAKING: In Oval Office meeting today, the Chinese committed to buy an additional 10 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans. Hats off to @POTUS for bringing China to the table. Strategy is working. Show of good faith by the Chinese. Also indications of more good news to come.
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”Vote for me, Donald Trump. Solving problems I caused since taking office! MAGA!”
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump Retweeted

Sec. Sonny Perdue
@SecretarySonny

BREAKING: In Oval Office meeting today, the Chinese committed to buy an additional 10 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans. Hats off to @POTUS for bringing China to the table. Strategy is working. Show of good faith by the Chinese. Also indications of more good news to come.
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25 million tons of US soybeans went unsold due to the new tariffs. So congratulations on still being 15 millions tons behind the eight ball, I guess?
 
Aridas said:
That is wrong, yes. Even the old 60 vote threshold was only a limiting factor on the partisanship, not at all an elimination of it. The norms addressed that, though, to a fair extent. Until the Republicans decided to ignore them, which led to the reduction to the simple majority threshold.
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Well, telling the whole story would include the fact that the breakdown of the 60 vote threshold began when Harry Reid, a Democrat majority leader, eliminated it for all but the Supreme Court. The GOP merely extended it to include the Supreme Court.

Now, Harry will tell you that his move was necessary because the GOP refused to approve highly qualified candidates. But who among us would believe that Republicans would play an obstructionist role in the Senate? :rolleyes:
 
Beelzebuddy said:
The weird thing is how well it's worked up until now. No one seems to have realized we were on the honor system until one party stopped being honorable.
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If you've got a group of people intelligently working towards the same goal of serving the country, honor works just fine, after all. The Republicans have been going almost observably further and further to the "party over country" mindset, though, since Limbaugh and Fox News became influential.

Segnosaur said:
And it was ultimately Trump's decision to nominate him for a cabinet post as well. (The evidence that it was a lenient plea deal had been public knowledge for quite some time. Even if Trump didn't know the details, he should have competent advisors who could warn him.

One thing to note: Republicans have been complaining about Democrats' attempt to block/slow down various nominations. Yet several members of Trump's cabinet have either been fired, or have been caught in scandals (many of which received near unanimous consent from Republican senators).
Perhaps Republican senators should, you know, actually start paying attention to the Democrats. If they do, they'd be far less likely to approve people who go out and cause scandals.
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If only they hadn't demonized the Democrats so much?

Bob001 said:
Trump makes interns sign non-disclosure agreements under threat of big penalties:
https://www.salon.com/2019/02/22/do...eatening-to-financially-destroy-them_partner/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump...ndas-and-threatening-them-with-financial-ruin
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For what it's worth, this isn't new news at all and applies to pretty much everyone there, apparently. Trump's been doing it all along and it's been one of the longstanding things that I've had a problem with. Luckily, the NDAs are fairly certain not to hold up in court, though even introducing them into the picture is severely problematic.

Norman Alexander said:
So are tariffs with China still in effect or not, Mr Tariff Man?
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Still in effect. The price of goods have dropped significantly, though, given how very much excess supply without an outlet there was. The price has fallen by... dollars per measured unit, by the look of it. A 10 cent increase is good news for the farmers, but still leaves things in horrible territory overall.

SezMe said:
Well, telling the whole story would include the fact that the breakdown of the 60 vote threshold began when Harry Reid, a Democrat majority leader, eliminated it for all but the Supreme Court. The GOP merely extended it to include the Supreme Court.

Now, Harry will tell you that his move was necessary because the GOP refused to approve highly qualified candidates. But who among us would believe that Republicans would play an obstructionist role in the Senate? :rolleyes:
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My apologies, I thought that the part where Democrats changed the rule was pretty clear. Heh.
 
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Another successful detrumping:

Manhattan luxury condo owners vote to strip Trump's name

Big, brassy letters spelling "Trump" will be ripped off another New York City apartment tower, the last of six luxury condominiums that once displayed the president's name.

Owners got an email Friday from the board of a high-rise on Manhattan's west side confirming that "Trump Place" will disappear from the facade in coming weeks.

The move comes after the majority of owners at 220 Riverside Blvd. voted to remove the Trump name, though the Trump Organization still manages the condo.
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CapelDodger said:
Like we know how much a bushel of soybeans went for this morning. :rolleyes: This is not professional quality journalism, but it may be what they're left with.
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Stacko said:
25 million tons of US soybeans went unsold due to the new tariffs. So congratulations on still being 15 millions tons behind the eight ball, I guess?
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Yeah, we may not know the exact price of beans, but it's for damn sure a lot less now that it was a year ago. So China basically just got a huge discount on these 10 million tons of beans, and Trump is trying to spin that as a win. Which is, of course, just par for the course.
 
Soybeans are traded on commodity markets. Yesterday they closed at $9.1025 per bushel. The price has been in decline since peaking at just over $16.00 a bushel in 2012.

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Horatius said:
Yeah, we may not know the exact price of beans, but it's for damn sure a lot less now that it was a year ago. So China basically just got a huge discount on these 10 million tons of beans, and Trump is trying to spin that as a win. Which is, of course, just par for the course.
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A year ago, soybeans were about $10. After his tariff announcement, they dropped to $8.80, and now are up to about $9. But yeah, and extra 10 cents is really a great help....
 
Horatius said:
Yeah, we may not know the exact price of beans, but it's for damn sure a lot less now that it was a year ago. So China basically just got a huge discount on these 10 million tons of beans, and Trump is trying to spin that as a win. Which is, of course, just par for the course.
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We do know the price of soybeans, what they're trading at on the commodity markets. The prices are recorded. From the chart I linked to:

  • Feb. 20, 2017 - $10.1780
  • Feb. 23, 2018 - $10.3850
  • Feb. 22, 2019 - $9.1025

Trying to spin a loss into a win is par for the course with Trump. As Trump's business history clearly shows, outside of real estate development, most of his businesses have been disastrous. His strategies have seldom worked. This is not partisan. There's a reason most (if not all) major U.S. banks will not make him business loans.

You can see these flaws so clearly with the wall situation. After two years with a Republican majority in both houses he was unable to get the wall funded. The bottom line is, his own security people have told him it won't work, at least not in the way he says it will, and it's a waste of a lot of money. It will also cause a lot of collateral issues (private property rights, environmental problems, politically divisive). While the Republicans were in control he avoided a showdown. Once the Democrats took control of the House, he started a confrontation. His request for an appropriation was reduced in the budget bill. Once passed, it becomes law. Trump then refused to sign the bill, maneuvered into a federal government shutdown which he tried to use as pressure to make House Democrats put money back into the budget for the wall. They refused. Ultimately Trump gave in, signing the budget bill. Then he began threatening to get the money by declaring a national emergency.

All for what, an expensive wall that no one thinks will work other than his base. People behind the scenes have indicated even Trump knows it won't work. He wants it because it was a campaign promise, a major one. Even most of his hardcore supporters, privately, may not believe it will work either. I think it's become more a psychological symbol than anything else.
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
https://twitter.com/rulajebreal/status/1099009568938647552
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I've seen this a lot, but I don't think it means all that much. The question is, does he refuse to talk about Trump? Or does he refuse to talk about socializing with under 18 year olds?

Now, if the questioning had been
"Have you ever socialized with Trump?"
"yes"
"Have you ever socialized with under 18 year olds?"
"yes"
"Have you ever socialized with Trump and 18 year olds?"
"Taking the 5th"

that would have been more meaningful. But it's likely he was just avoiding admitting hanging out with pre-18 girls.

But this discussion of Epstein completely misses the ball. Everyone knows (now) that Epstein is slime, and it certainly taints everyone he has been involved with, including Trump and Bill Clinton. That's not the issue. The issue is, the prosecutors broke the law in giving him a soft deal in the way they did, and protecting him. And that is not merely an opinion, that is a judicial ruling. And that prosecutor who did that is now the Secretary of Labor. So we have a Secretary of Labor who has been found guilty of protecting a child predator.

Of course, this issue was raised by Diane Feinstein at his approval hearing, and was dismissed by those who supported him. Her concerns are now vindicated. Unless, of course, you think it's not big deal that a child predator protector is Secretary of Labor, because, hey, he's done a great job so far!

Only the best people...
 
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