U.S. Politics: You Didn't Think It Would Be So Easy, Did You?

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Hey guys, if any of you need a good pair of running shoes, time is running out. A $150 pair is going to be $210 or $220 after the tariffs hit. I understand good work boots go up even more.

Though the cost to import, including tariffs is still only $15.

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Though the cost to import, including tariffs is still only $15.

Well, apparently a Nike running shoe that retails for $100 on average costs Nike $28.50. They sell the shoe to the retailer for $50.00 and the retailer sells it for $100.

Factory fob cost is $25 + $1.00 sea freight and insurance + $2.50 in duty = $28.50.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

Well, apparently a Nike running shoe that retails for $100 on average costs Nike $28.50. They sell the shoe to the retailer for $50.00 and the retailer sells it for $100.

Factory fob cost is $25 + $1.00 sea freight and insurance + $2.50 in duty = $28.50.

 

Wow, so my total guess was not that far off. $150 Nikes probably cost $30, and $200 Nikes $35. Or may even have the same wholesale cost.

[maarsen]

9 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Hey guys, if any of you need a good pair of running shoes, time is running out. A $150 pair is going to be $210 or $220 after the tariffs hit. I understand good work boots go up even more.

The best work boots are made in Canada. Terras. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

17 hours ago, Zorral said:

Why is the media not even mentioning the total staged temper tantrum?

It seems you got what you wanted. Every media source I frequent has panned Trump for his obviously staged performance.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

12 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Hey guys, if any of you need a good pair of running shoes, time is running out. A $150 pair is going to be $210 or $220 after the tariffs hit. I understand good work boots go up even more.

Say what now BIRD!? I’m going to have to pay even more for my sweatshop Jordans? This is absurd!

This is America damn it! Tell those other kids with them pumped up kicks that they better run, out run my gun! 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

It seems you got what you wanted. Every media source I frequent has panned Trump for his obviously staged performance.

But not one of those I frequent even mentioned it was totally staged.  And still aren't doing so.

But then, I don't do twitter, so .... 

[Jace, Extat]

4 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Say what now BIRD!? I’m going to have to pay even more for my sweatshop Jordans? This is absurd!

This is America damn it! Tell those other kids with them pumped up kicks that they better run, out run my gun! 

Talking about guns is dangerous.

You should be careful.

You can't change the 2nd Amendment. 

It can never be changed.

Don't make us change you.

[Zorral]

"Crazy Nancy" (guess who calls her that ....) -- crazy like a fox?

Strategy, They / Some Suggest, is to get him to reveal constantly how deranged he is:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/politics/impeaching-trump-nancy-pelosi.html?

Quote

 

.... Mr. Trump had “another temper tantrum,” she told reporters at her weekly news conference at the Capitol. “Again, I pray for the president of the United States. I wish that his family or his administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”

Her remarks — intended to belittle Mr. Trump in the same way he denigrates his political opponents — are part of a calculated campaign by the speaker to pair public comments with private calls for House Democrats to avoid being goaded into impeachment.

His response just hours later suggested that it was working.

Ms. Pelosi faced down calls from about 25 House Democrats who want her to move immediately on impeachment during a meeting with her caucus on Wednesday. Instead she urged them to “follow the facts” by allowing court cases to play out before passing final judgment.

Since then, a federal court on Wednesday affirmed the House’s right to obtain Mr. Trump’s financial records, the second such ruling this week.

“What really got to him,” Ms. Pelosi said, was “these court cases and the fact that the House Democratic caucus is not on a path to impeachment.”

“That’s where he wants us to be,” she told reporters, adding, “The White House is just crying out for impeachment” to divide Democrats and take the focus off the president’s failures and policy inaction.

Earlier Thursday, during a closed-door session with her caucus, Ms. Pelosi made the case more explicitly, arguing that the president hoped to provoke impeachment in order to achieve public exoneration by the Republican-controlled  Senate, which acts as the final arbiter on impeachment hearings....

 

But ... I'm not sure.  It's impossible to strategize anything concerning a deranged person.  He's deranged and there is simply no way a non-deranged person can get inside of that head. You cannot predict what someone like him will do, or manipulate someone like him either, because you are not deranged and he will never behave like anybody else, even other evil persons.

 

[Jace, Extat]

9 minutes ago, Zorral said:

"Crazy Nancy" (guess who calls her that ....) -- crazy like a fox?

Strategy, They / Some Suggest, is to get him to reveal constantly how deranged he is:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/politics/impeaching-trump-nancy-pelosi.html?

But ... I'm not sure.  It's impossible to strategize anything concerning a deranged person.  He's deranged and there is simply no way a non-deranged person can get inside of that head. You cannot predict what someone like him will do, or manipulate someone like him either, because you are not deranged and he will never behave like anybody else, even other evil persons.

 

Actually it's the best strategy I've seen employed. Emasculation is the only thing that would make Daddy unappetizing to his followers. 

And highlighting his insanity is exactly what you wanna do. Intelligent people who are just Republican for the tax cuts and deregulation actually do get put off by him at his most gibbering. I've seen it myself. Whether you can push him enough to get those people to actually flip is a question that needs an answer.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 hours ago, Zorral said:

But not one of those I frequent even mentioned it was totally staged.  And still aren't doing so.

But then, I don't do twitter, so .... 

Twitter is a cesspool. I mainly rely on NPR, NBS, CNN and a number of online publications like the NYT, WaPo and especially The Guardian. And from what I'm seeing, that narrative has basically been in all of those places in one way or another.

54 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Actually it's the best strategy I've seen employed. Emasculation is the only thing that would make Daddy unappetizing to his followers. 

And highlighting his insanity is exactly what you wanna do. Intelligent people who are just Republican for the tax cuts and deregulation actually do get put off by him at his most gibbering. I've seen it myself. Whether you can push him enough to get those people to actually flip is a question that needs an answer.

Agreed. Angry Trump is likely to say whatever is on the top of mind. However, there is the risk of this causing him to do something insane. I thought I heard something like he mentioned in passing that he's considered deputizing the military. WTF would that actually mean?  

[Jace, Extat]

Just now, Tywin et al. said:

 

Agreed. Angry Trump is likely to say whatever is on the top of mind. However, there is the risk of this causing him to do something insane. I thought I heard something like he mentioned in passing that he's considered deputizing the military. WTF would that actually mean?  

Let's find out.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Let's find out.

Given your title, you shouldn't test the unknown, like seeing what happens when you fight a silly Caucasian girl who likes to play with Samurai swords.

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

"Crazy Nancy" (guess who calls her that ....) -- crazy like a fox?

Strategy, They / Some Suggest, is to get him to reveal constantly how deranged he is:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/politics/impeaching-trump-nancy-pelosi.html?

But ... I'm not sure.  It's impossible to strategize anything concerning a deranged person.  He's deranged and there is simply no way a non-deranged person can get inside of that head. You cannot predict what someone like him will do, or manipulate someone like him either, because you are not deranged and he will never behave like anybody else, even other evil persons.

 

When people say "he wants the democrats to do this" what they really mean is his handlers who do understand the strategic value of the House rabidly going after impeachment while there is a Republican majority in the senate. For a Republican senate to convict Trump they would have to see Trump's base evaporate, and their individual electoral fortunes be placed at great risk, and then they might act. Though voting to convict based on a Democratic House impeachment would still need them to calculate whether they would lose more by convicting or by not convicting. Agreeing with or cooperating with Democrats is pretty much the king of all sins.

[HoodedCrow]

Watching Trump in action is like seeing a Toddler with poopie pants deny that he needs changing, and then flings his faeces.

NP has a great strategy. I do hope dems stick together even more than last time so that the people can fire the orange menace. Go Nona Nancy!

Keep the legal pressure up. Let’s uncover his criminality, as that is the other civilized method of treating treasonous, cheating, unprofessional, immature and fraudulent behavior.

Any Republicans think that extortion and a TT  to do avoid doing the job he was elected for is worth supporting? But no he can’t, because NP used a forbidden word. Cover up. Let’s count up all the times Trump has baselessly insulted people.

[Martell Spy]

So now, we find ourselves in a situation where families and companies are paying billions of dollars in extra taxes each year, part of which are being funneled to farmers who can no longer sell their soybeans, because Beijing decided to slap retaliatory tariffs on their crops. According to the White House, $14.5 billion of the bailout fund will be paid directly to farm owners; most of the rest will be used to buy some of the commodities piling up in lots so they can be sent to schools, food banks, and programs for the poor. This is all on top of a $12 billion package Trump announced last year. The grand total, $28 billion, is about what the U.S. spent last school year on Pell grants for college students. It’s not a small amount of money.

Politically, this makes obvious sense. Rural voters are a key constituency for Trump. And angry farmers could create enough political pressure to force him to back down in his conflict with Beijing. Your typical middle-class shopper, meanwhile, probably isn’t going to notice the price bump from tariffs on her Walmart receipt. By keeping soy and corn growers happy, Trump is making it possible to keep waging his trade fight. He’s deflecting the blow to people who won’t necessarily feel it.

I, for One, Am Displeased About Having to Pay for Trump’s New $16 Billion Farmer Bailout

https://slate.com/business/2019/05/trumps-usd16-billion-farmer-bailout-for-tariffs-what-the-heck.html

[Martell Spy]

24 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Can you imagine if the situation was reversed and a Dem president was going for a government bailout for a sector destroyed by the market as it is?  Of course, in this reality, Dems will likely not start attacking the farmers receiving this bailout as handout seekers or special interest as would have been the case in the alternate reality.  

Well, I think it is clearly time to take away the farmers' welfare. They deserve the nobility and dignity of work, as Paul Ryan would put it. Get their lazy asses into an Amazon warehouse. And take away their food stamps. I mean, I saved money, I should not have to subsidize these lowlifes. The grasshopper and the ant or something. 

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Martell Spy said:

So now, we find ourselves in a situation where families and companies are paying billions of dollars in extra taxes each year, part of which are being funneled to farmers who can no longer sell their soybeans, because Beijing decided to slap retaliatory tariffs on their crops. According to the White House, $14.5 billion of the bailout fund will be paid directly to farm owners; most of the rest will be used to buy some of the commodities piling up in lots so they can be sent to schools, food banks, and programs for the poor. This is all on top of a $12 billion package Trump announced last year. The grand total, $28 billion, is about what the U.S. spent last school year on Pell grants for college students. It’s not a small amount of money.

Politically, this makes obvious sense. Rural voters are a key constituency for Trump. And angry farmers could create enough political pressure to force him to back down in his conflict with Beijing. Your typical middle-class shopper, meanwhile, probably isn’t going to notice the price bump from tariffs on her Walmart receipt. By keeping soy and corn growers happy, Trump is making it possible to keep waging his trade fight. He’s deflecting the blow to people who won’t necessarily feel it.

I, for One, Am Displeased About Having to Pay for Trump’s New $16 Billion Farmer Bailout

https://slate.com/business/2019/05/trumps-usd16-billion-farmer-bailout-for-tariffs-what-the-heck.html

I dunno.  The midwest farmers are supposed to get the money directly, as individuals, not funneled through agencies.  In the meantime, they are unlikely to have crops this year anyway, because of the rain, flooding and the rest of the terrible weather.  They've not planted either wheat or corn in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Illinois.  So they're gettin' a twofer out of our taxes.

That is going to make some people who suffered so much in the crash, the small business people, the people who lost their houses, and who received no bailouts.  Which is why they voted for him in the first place.  But if the farmers get bailed out yet again, those voters may desert him too.

[DMC]

Well, not for nothing, but it was FDR and the New Deal that established certain farm subsidies as essential to the national economy based on production, etc.  Has that gotten out of hand and are the political dynamics now entirely different?  Of course, but there were indeed certain people on the right back then that compared it to communism.

55 minutes ago, Zorral said:

The midwest farmers are supposed to get the money directly, as individuals, not funneled through agencies.

That's not true.  It's all funneled through agencies.

[Fragile Bird]

You need farmers to grow the food you eat, folks.

And in the meantime, Trump continues his bald lie about ‘and China’s paying for it’.

Apparently staff in the WH have told Trump farmers aren’t stupid and they’re getting mighty pissed off every time he says it.

Meanwhile, on the Pelosi front, Trump’s comments about Pelosi being a sick woman who is unable to perform her job (‘did you see those hand movements?!’) has apparently influenced some of his supporters to post slowed-down versions of her speeches, making it look like she slurs her words, either because she’s had a stroke or is stoned on meds or just drunk, and they have flooded social media with the videos.

Sometimes I just loathe your country so very much.