Monday, May 13, 2019

Last Call For Trump Trading Blows, Con't

We're now to the point where we've gone from Americans will be helped by Trump's idiotic trade war with China, to Trump's trade war probably won't hurt, to it will hurt but it's okay, to GOP Sen. Tom Cotton this morning telling Americans that the pain in your pocketbooks is less than the pain of those serving in our endless wars, so suck it up loser.

As the U.S. and China inch closer to an all-out trade war, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton says that the sacrifice Americans will pay for President Trump's tariffs are "minimal" compared to those serving overseas. President Trump has maintained that Americans would not be fronting the brunt of the cost for tariffs, but many, including the president's own economic adviser, say they will.

"There will be some sacrifices on the part of Americans, I grant you that, but I also would say that sacrifice is pretty minimal compared to the sacrifices that our soldiers make overseas that are fallen heroes that are laid to rest in Arlington make," Cotton told "CBS This Morning" when asked about the impact of tariffs on farmers in his own state of Arkansas.

Cotton, the author of "Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery," said that in the long term, the goal is to make sure that the U.S. "remains preeminent as a global super power both in the economic and the security" worlds.

The price tag for that "preeminence" on the average American family, according to trade experts falls between $700 to $1,000.

"If we remain the world's largest economy and the world's largest economic super power in the short term, I say it is worth that cost," said Cotton

Enjoy your Trump Patriotic Trade Tax and pay it proudly, citizen!  This money will go to...something.  I'm sure.  But this is the price of your freedom, so pay up.  And keep paying up because Leader Trump says so.  You're a real American, aren't you?

Your grandfather died fighting socialists so that you could have freedom but freedom comes with a price, which is roughly $1000 in extra costs for goods this year so quit whining, liberal!

Tariffs for some, tiny American flags for others!

Trump meanwhile wants more money going to farmers because they are getting wrecked by his policies, but it's okay if the rest of us buy them off because Trump Patriotic Trade Tax.

President Donald Trump is seeking an additional $15 billion in U.S. subsidies in an effort to protect farmers from the devastating impact of his trade war with China. That’s on top of $12 billion already earmarked for the farmers to help them weather the fallout.

That would be an additional bill for U.S. taxpayers already shouldering the cost of increased tariffs in the form of higher costs for products and parts from China.

Trump revealed the subsidy figure in a tweet Friday. He suggested the government use the funds to buy agricultural products to ship to other nations for humanitarian aid, though setting up such a system would be extremely complicated. In his most recent budget proposal, Trump proposed eliminating three food aid programs, Politico noted.

The president appeared to dismiss the impact of the cost as he falsely claimed — again — that “massive” tariff payments are being paid by China “directly” to the U.S. Treasury, which would presumably be used to cover the cost of the subsidy. There is “absolutely no need to rush” to negotiate a deal with China, he tweeted.

In fact, the tariffs are paid by U.S. importers, who pass on the extra costs to the American consumer in the form of higher prices for products, a fact White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow admitted Sunday. Economists have estimated that the trade war is costing the U.S. more than $3 billion a month.

So who's protecting the American consumer from Trump's trade war?

Nobody.  Now go do your patriotic duty and pay that tariff.

The Reach To Impeach, Con't

The Very Serious Washington Pundits™ tell us that super cunning Trump wants to be impeached, a trap that must be avoided because Trump will never be removed from office by the Senate, and loser Democrats will only lose and Trump's popularity will skyrocket in the wake of a failed attempt.

It seems a crazy idea that any president would actually want to be impeached. 
But Donald Trump has so subverted Washington logic with his wild, norm-crushing presidency that there is now a serious conversation -- at least among Democrats -- about whether he views the ultimate constitutional crisis as a weapon in his re-election campaign. 
The possibility is shaping the strategies of Democratic leaders as they weigh the political risks of impeachment and their duty to defend principles of American governance. 
Many Democrats fear that Trump may be laying an impeachment trap that could consume the House majority, distract them from key issues like health care and alienate persuadable voters. 
But it's also possible their leaders could be talking up the idea that Trump wants to be impeached as a way to quell discontent among some base activists that Washington Democrats are not doing more to constrain the President.  

Now, imagine that those are the only two possibilities, one, that Democrats have already inevitably lost the impeachment battle, and impeachment leads to Trump's master stroke of a 2020 government completely controlled by Republicans eager to exterminate all Dems, or two, that everything in scenario one is correct so that Democrats are using this as the excuse not to impeach in order to save the country.

The question is not going away, given Trump's staggeringly broad effort to subvert investigations of his presidency, campaign, personal finances and business career. 
"The President is almost self-impeaching because he is, every day, demonstrating more obstruction of justice and disrespect for Congress' legitimate role to subpoena," Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday. 
One of Pelosi's top lieutenants, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, is, like Pelosi, wary of the risks of impeachment. But he acknowledged Trump's own actions might be propelling Washington toward a precipice. 
"Part of our reluctance is we are already a bitterly divided country and an impeachment process will divide us further," Schiff said Sunday on "This Week" on ABC News. "He certainly seems to be trying and maybe this is his perverse way of dividing us more ... He thinks that's to his political advantage, but it's certainly not to the country's advantage." 
Trump dodged a question in a Politico interview last week about whether he wanted to be impeached. And he argues that if anyone committed crimes over the 2016 campaign, it is Democrats, not him. 
At other times he has, however, seemed to be testing out arguments that he could use in his defense in an impeachment showdown. 
"It's hard to impeach somebody who hasn't done anything wrong and who's created the greatest economy in the history of our country," Trump told Reuters in an interview in December.

Judging by this article, Democrats have already surrendered.

If that's true, we're done as a country.

The Perpetual Outrage Machine, Con't

For a change of pace, Republicans are attacking Muslim Democrats other than Rep. Ilhan Omar as anti-Semitic, and that of course means taking Rep. Rashida Tlaib out of context entirely.

House Republican leaders took aim at Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Sunday for a podcast interview in which she discussed her support for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In an interview on Yahoo News’s “Skullduggery” podcast published Saturday, Tlaib was asked about her position on the issue. The freshman lawmaker began her response by noting that the United States commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day two weeks ago. She then discussed her Palestinian ancestors and the founding of the state of Israel, saying she was “humbled by the fact that it was my ancestors that had to suffer” to create a safe haven for the Jewish people.


Now, any actual student of history knows this is true, that Palestinians were forcibly removed from parts of what is now Israel in order to make a homeland for the Jewish people after the Holocaust.

She added that the events of the past have informed her views on how to approach a solution to the conflict.

“I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that [safe haven], in many ways,” Tlaib said. “But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right? And it was forced on them. And so, when I think about one-state, I think about the fact that, why couldn’t we do it in a better way?”

Tlaib’s comments were picked up by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which published an article with the headline, “Tlaib Says She Is Humbled Her Ancestors Provided ‘Safe Haven’ for Jews After Holocaust.”

But two of the top House Republicans on Sunday criticized her use of the phrase “calming feeling,” falsely accusing her of using the phrase to describe her views about the Holocaust itself.

And that out-of-context garbage is all that matters.

“There is no justification for the twisted and disgusting comments made by Rashida Tlaib just days after the annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in a statement. “More than six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust; there is nothing ‘calming’ about that fact.”

Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 Republican in the House, issued a statement describing Tlaib’s remarks as “sickening.”

“I call on Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer to finally take action against Representative Tlaib and other members of the Democratic caucus who are spreading vile anti-Semitism,” she said, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). “All of us, regardless of party, must stand as Americans against the evil of anti-Semitism. If the Democratic leadership continues to stand by in silence, they are enabling the spread of evil.”

And of course, Liz Cheney and Steve Scalise are behind this, two of the most vile, perfidious liars in the GOP.  Expect another week of "Democrats hate Jews" and "How can an American Jew vote for a Democrat" as the needle gets moved off the Trump regime's journey towards autocracy.


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