The First 100 days

I think Russia's whole game is economic. Creating a world where the US and China are more adversarial is good for them. Creating a culture of nationalism with the people of Russia v. the USA is good for his administration as he syphons $ out for him and his cronies. Creating a world where Iran and Israel are at each other's throats is good for them. A chaotic middle east with high oil prices is good for them. Europe with tons of refugee problems is good for them. Putin is really doing some amazing work for himself if you pull back and look at it. The rumor is that he's now the richest man in the world based on a salary of about $100k per year.

 

This is a common meme but was it posted here? Sadly, I'll never understand getting upset at a meme like this then turning a blind eye to crap that JoeFan posts. I think that's part of the problem and a frustration of mine.

 

But crimea was always part of Russia. Europe fought a really stupid war over this in the 1850s. See “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Putin only “invaded” after a non-democratic pro-EU coup overthrew the democratically elected government. I would agree with you if he had invaded all of Ukraine or all of Georgia. Instead he took only the part of Georgia with his pipeline, his navel port (which should have been part of russia in the first place) and he has half-heartily supported eastern Ukraine in their civil war. Those are not the actions of an aggressor. Those are defensive actions.

And that is also why I dont think he has any plans of actually attacking a NATO country or doing anything that would lead to a real conflict. When push comes to shove, he is a mafia boss. He is bad, sure. He wants wealth, he wants power, but he is not interested in starting a direct conflict where he could lose everything. He wants $, not world domination. “Standing up” to the west with little border actions keeps his popularity up.

No because you are assuming some sort of crazy Falklands scenario where if we do not have tanks there, Putin will take it as a sign he can move in. I just do not think that is the case. He did not take the whole of Georgia and only is half heartily supporting eastern ukraine. He is not going to do anything that would lead to a direct conflict with NATO.

The red army does not exist anymore. If there ever is a conventional war between nuclear powers on NATO soil, it will quickly turn nuclear.

I will also add, I am not sure we can trust the western Ukraine any more than Russia.

 

This is how everyone sounds to me talking about the Russian threat. “Oh no! If Crimea is full of Russians like it always has been, dominos will fall and Putin’s unmaintained, out of date army will conquer the world!”

All I am saying, is give peace a chance.

 

CNN reported this as "Trump ignores little boy for 37 seconds"

 

No they didn't. Here is the genesis of the rumor you just spread.

If you click through to read the twitter thread you can see that many responses don't even realize that the person who posted it made it up.

 

Should be on page 127 or 128 of this thread, if he didn't delete it.

 

One year ago today

 

Guilty. What and whom was the response for though? Context is important.

 

Damn, there's so much crap here to correct. This is your foreign policy equivalent of the Nikki Haley rants. I can't get to it until probably Sunday or Monday.

 

Peace with Putin in our time and Nikki Haley is the devil = universal truths.

 

I still don't get what y'alls problem with Nikki Haley is. Everytime I see her speak to the UN, I agree with her. I must be considerably more anti-UN than y'all.

 

I don't have a problem with Haley. I didn't think she was qualified to be UN ambassador, but she has clearly proved me wrong. I don't agree with every foreign policy move the Administration has made (such as moving the embassy), but she has conducted herself well.

 

NFP Day
+223,000 jobs in May
Wage growth of 2.7% year-on-year
3.8% unemployment rate

 

Let's talk Dinesh D'Souza. David Frum said it best.

 

Meanwhile, unemployment hits it's lowest rate in 50 years while the stock market is at record levels. I could care less about him pardoning D'Souza as long as Hillary, Lerner and Comey walk around free.

 

The law is a political instrument?

 

In case you did not know it, pardons by the POTUS are constitutional. Obama pardoned drug offenders, Clinton pardoned people who gave him cash.

 

The presidential pardoning problem predates Trump. Obama flat out pardoned a very violent drug offender who was prosecuted on lesser drug charges in Corpus Christi that had NO BUSINESS being let out.

 

Don't mistake my condemnation of the Dinesh pardon for acceptance of others. I was openly critical of those pardons to that were done as they exited the Oval office. Trump is pushing the envelope by not waiting until the end of his term. He also loses credibility by claiming laws are important then pardoning the admitted and/or obvious law breakers. No need to comment yet on the other pardons Trump is reportedly considering.

Hypocrisy might be Trumps legacy characteristic though.

 

Is it really hypocritical to enforce the law and pardon someone later? If they are both Constitutional then the apparent conflict is moot. He is not circumventing the legal process at all. It only allows a President to review the circumstances surrounding the case and as we all know, there are miscarriages of justice and there are people who are fully rehabilitated. The Jack Johnson pardon was great. I don't know much about the others as I've not researched the background of those cases. I'd like to see him pardon some Dreamers who are on the verge of being deported (but can you pardon someone accused of violating our immigration laws or does the deportation process need to fully take place) that are clearly assets to our country in terms of their efforts to make a good lives for themselves. It would send a nice message out.

 

After his pardon, Mark Rich helped the Clintons set up their Foundation. At the time, he was considered "world class" at avoiding scrutiny.
Trump wrote a best-seller about making business deals but the Clintons were none too shabby themselves at the Art of the Backroom Deal

 

I have no problem with the Jack Johnson pardon. I do have issues with the Joe Apaio and now Dinesh pardon. Miscarriages of justice? The latter admitted he intentionally violated campaign finance laws to funnel $40k to a local candidate and the former continually disregarded federal judge orders, the lone check on his power. They were politically motivated pardons. Neither of those cases did he even ask for guidance from the Justice dept. Now Trump has said himself he's considering pardons for Martha Stewart and Blogoyevich (sp?) who both happened to be contestants on his reality show. This is political favoritism. Is it legal? Absolutely. Is it ethical? Absolutely not.

 

No disagreement here. They are all political, even the Jack Johnson. Who knows, maybe he will be able to pardon Hillary in 6 years?

 

I used the term miscarriage of justice in the general sense as to the merits of pardons. As for those who committed real crimes and are clearly guilty then I do have questions as to the point of the pardon process. That's what parole and good time served should accommodate. Helping connected felons serves no purpose to society. Maybe a President can simultaneously uphold the Constitution in terms of following the law but later pardon someone if they feel the law itself is unjust or was onerously applied as a political signal to Congress.

 

Paging Stormy Daniels --

According to the Atlanta Fed, we are on pace to have 4.7% GDP growth in Q2

 

North Korean official Kim Yong Chol arrives at White House

 

Why did D'Souza even need to be pardoned? He already confessed his crime and did his time in a half way house. His pardon isn't protecting him from some diabolical crime. Plus, Obama received donations to his campaign fund that violated donation rules by way more than D'Souza did and they were never charged. Maybe they payed a very small fine. D'Souza's charge was politically motivated itself. To his credit, he didn't fight it, he knew he had done wrong.

 

Serious question Joe, why do you post these positives about the economy? Do you think it will help those who oppose anything this administration does to say 'Wow! They are doing a great job.'