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Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,743
European officials draft radical plan to take on Trump and U.S. tech companies
European Union officials have drawn up an aggressive 173-page plan to counter both President Donald Trump’s trade moves and American tech giants including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook.

According to a document obtained by POLITICO, European Commission officials are pushing their president-elect, Ursula von der Leyen, to set up a European Future Fund that would invest more than $100 billion in equity stakes in high-potential European companies.


The goal: get Europe competing head-on with the American and Chinese tech giants it has lagged behind for decades.

They’re also advocating for Europe to show more grit in Trump’s trade war, saying the EU should slap tariffs unilaterally on the United States.

While it’s unclear if the proposals will gain traction, the framework amounts to the most forceful acknowledgment yet that Europe is at risk of slipping further behind the U.S. and China in the race to solidify themselves as the global economic powerhouses of the future.

The shadow of Brexit — the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on October 31 — also looms over the proposals. As an EU member, the market-oriented U.K. would almost certainly veto any such proposals. Without U.K. influence, the EU is free to pursue the more interventionist economic policies France and Germany have long-favored, with mixed results.

Trump Says a Recession Isn’t Possible Because Everyone Is Rich
President Trump isn’t worried about the economy. No really, he isn’t. Everything is going to be fine. Seriously. All of that talk of a recession last week and over the weekend, spurred by a few ominous market indicators, a sputtering global economy, and Trump’s continuing trade war with China, was overblown hype peddled by forces that want nothing more than to make the president look bad. After all, how bad could things really be when we’re all so rich?

“I don’t think we’re having a recession,” Trump told reporters on Sunday in an attempt to quell fears over a potential market crash. “We’re doing tremendously well. Our consumers are rich. I gave a tremendous tax cut and they’re loaded up with money.”

“I don’t see a recession,” he continued. “I mean, the world is in a recession right now. Although, that’s too big a statement.”

This doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, nor does citing his 2017 tax cut, which very much did not load consumers up with money. Despite what Trump promised prior to the tax cut’s passage, the bill did not result in soaring wages for workers, the deficit has skyrocketed, and the primary beneficiaries have been corporations and the wealthiest Americans. Meanwhile, growth is slowing, and Americans who aren’t about to board a luxury helicopter are struggling to make ends meet. A study published by the Federal Reserve earlier this year found that 39 percent of Americans don’t have enough cash on hand to cover an unexpected $400 expense.

Never mind any of this, though. The president says consumers are rich, which means the only explanation for swelling economic anxiety is, what else, a conspiracy.

On Thursday, for example, Trump accused the media of deliberately precipitating an economic apocalypse in order to run him out of office. “The Fake News Media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election,” he wrote on Twitter. “The problem they have is that the economy is way too strong and we will soon be winning big on Trade, and everyone knows that, including China!”

The paranoia doesn’t end there. The New York Times reported on Sunday that in addition to his public grievances about the economy — which have also been directed at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom Trump has accused of hamstringing growth by not cutting rates by enough — the president has been griping privately to aides and allies that everyone is out to get him and that all of this talk of an economic downturn is part of a multi-pronged scheme perpetrated by enemies who he believes are more concerned with sticking it to him than they are with the welfare of the United States. Very sane. Very normal.

Americans better hope Trump is right, though, because if the nation is indeed on the brink of a recession, the White House is in no way prepared to deal with it. Trump can’t stop pouring gasoline on the still-raging tariff war with China, and the administration can’t seem to get its story straight as to whether the import taxes are hurting China or American consumers. Trump has repeatedly, falsely, said China is paying them, but his decision last week to delay the imposition of a new round of tariffs out of concern for holiday shoppers seems to indicate the opposite.




When asked about the apparent contradiction on CNN’s Face the Nation, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Sunday that business leaders “had already bought everything that was going to be on our shelves [for the holidays], but they’d done it in dollar contracts, which means they weren’t able to shift the burden back to the Chinese.”

So the tariffs aren’t hurting China, then? What’s going on here? When host Jake Tapper explained to Navarro that several studies have shown U.S. importers shoulder 95 percent of the price change from the tariffs, Navarro said “that dog won’t hunt” before once again claiming that the tariffs “are not hurting anyone” in the United States. (The farmers the Trump administration tried to appease with $16 billion in subsidies this year might disagree.)

White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro says the US tariffs on China are “not hurting anybody here” in the United States, despite studies suggesting otherwise. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/6eBnWszOtp

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 18, 2019



None of this makes any sense, and it’s terrifying to think how Trump’s economic Dream Team would tie themselves in knots trying to spin — much less stem the actual effects of — economic collapse.

The team’s point guard is chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who joined Trump and Navarro on Sunday in calling for everyone to chill out and hope for the best. “We are doing pretty darn well in my judgment,” he said on Meet the Press when asked by Chuck Todd whether the trade war with China could ultimately lead to a recession. “Let’s not be afraid of optimism.”

Anticipating this response, Todd presented Kudlow with a pretty damning receipt: “In 2007, right before the second-worst downturn in American history, this is what you wrote: ‘There’s no recession coming. The pessimistas were wrong. It’s not going to happen. … The Bush boom is alive and well. It’s finishing up its sixth consecutive year with more to come.'”

“I plead guilty to that,” was Kudlow’s response.
 

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,743
Extreme right rating. Not surprised.

Newsbusters
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These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.


  • Overall, we rate Newsbusters Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the right. We also rate them borderline questionable due to the use of poor sources and numerous failed fact checks. One additional failed fact check will push this source by default onto the Questionable list.
 

Thuglife13

✝👦🍕🍦🍩
Dec 15, 2018
20,385
27,213
Extreme right rating. Not surprised.

Newsbusters
Has this Media Source failed a fact check? LET US KNOW HERE.

Share:
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RIGHT BIAS
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy. See all Right Bias sources.


  • Overall, we rate Newsbusters Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the right. We also rate them borderline questionable due to the use of poor sources and numerous failed fact checks. One additional failed fact check will push this source by default onto the Questionable list.
 

jason73

Yuri Bezmenov was right
First 100
Jan 15, 2015
72,781
134,158
15 former spooks who work at CNN and MSNBC now

CNN added to its deep roster of former FBI and CIA officials-turned-analysts Friday with the hiring of Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director fired for lack of candor during an investigation last year.

McCabe is the tenth ex-FBI, CIA or intelligence community official CNN has hired during the Trump administration, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis. MSNBC has followed closely behind, having hired five former officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan.

CNN was widely mocked on Friday after announcing the McCabe hiring, largely because the network has criticized its competitors for hiring former Trump administration officials. But the personnel move is also part of a larger trend that has come under scrutiny from some media observers.

Jack Shafer, a media critic who writes for Politico, noted the potential pitfalls of networks like CNN and MSNBC having a stable of ex-spies and G-men as paid, on-air contributors.

“But the downside of outsourcing national security coverage to the TV spies is obvious,” Shafer wrote in a Feb. 5, 2018 article at Politico. “They aren’t in the business of breaking news or uncovering secrets. Their first loyalty — and this is no slam — is to the agency from which they hail.”
 

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,743
National Farmers Union condemns new tariffs: 'Trump is making things worse'
The National Farmers Union (NFU) on Friday hammered President Trump over his escalating trade war with China, saying he is “making things worse.”

The statement came the same day as Washington and Beijing boosted tariffs in the widening dispute, with China targeting cars and farm products, further harming farmers who have already borne the brunt of the Chinese penalties.

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“It’s no surprise that China is slapping even more tariffs on American products. Every time Trump escalates his trade war, China calls his bluff – and why would we expect any differently this time around? And it’s no surprise that farmers are again the target,” NFU President Roger Johnson said in a statement.

nstead of looking to solve existing problems in our agricultural sector, this administration has just created new ones. Between burning bridges with all of our biggest trading partners and undermining our domestic biofuels industry, President Trump is making things worse, not better.”

The latest escalation in the year-plus trade war took place Friday morning, when Beijing announced new tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, saying the move was in response to measures from the U.S.

Trump fired back hours later, announcing that a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods set to go into effect on Sept. 1 would increase to 15 percent, and that an additional $250 billion being tariffed at 25 percent will be hit with a 30 percent tariff starting Oct. 1. The president also urged companies to seek “an alternative” to doing business in China.

The latest salvo in the trade war rattled markets, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 623 points and the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 ending Friday down 3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. Trump blasted China's moves Friday and announced the details of the latest U.S. response after the markets closed.

Beijing has targeted agricultural products in many of its tariffs, appearing to try to take aim at one of Trump’s core bases of political support. Trump has appeared unfazed by farmers’ concerns, arguing that in the end they will be “the big winners.”

Our Great Farmers know how important it is to win on Trade. They will be the big winners!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2019
However, the president appeared to acknowledge the trade war may have short-term pitfalls of the economy, telling reporters that he had to intervene to rectify the U.S.’s trade relationship despite such concerns.

“Whether it’s good for our country or bad for our country, short term, it had to be done,” Trump said Tuesday. “Someone had to take on what China was doing to the United States economically.”
Donald Trump orders US companies to 'start looking for alternatives' to China in trade war
"Sadly, past administrations have allowed China to get so far ahead of fair and balanced trade that it has become a great burden to the American Taxpayer," Mr Trump tweeted.

"As President, I can no longer allow this to happen! In the spirit of achieving fair trade, we must balance this very unfair Trading relationship."

Earlier, Mr Trump tweeted: "Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing … your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China's Tariffs this afternoon."

It's unclear what legal authority Mr Trump would be able to use to compel US companies to close operations in China or stop sourcing products from the country.
 

Sheepdog

Protecting America from excessive stool loitering
Dec 1, 2015
8,912
14,237
It's funny how you retarded cocksuckers can even be led into supporting full-blown authoritarian, centrally-planned economics as long as it's comrade Trump who is doing it.

You've have never had any ideologically coherent values. You are defined solely by your prejudices, your fear and your stupidity.
 

KWingJitsu

ยาเม็ดสีแดงหรือสีฟ้ายา?
Nov 15, 2015
10,311
12,758
It's funny how you retarded cocksuckers can even be led into supporting full-blown authoritarian, centrally-planned economics as long as it's comrade Trump who is doing it.

You've have never had any ideologically coherent values. You are defined solely by your prejudices, your fear and your stupidity.
 

Disciplined Galt

Disciplina et Frugalis
First 100
Jan 15, 2015
26,030
30,881
Had a class on parts of the body and what you can do with them on Saturday. One PowerPoint slide showed a picture of trump smiling. One student let out a boo. I asked why? He said trump is bad, I asked why? He’s racist. Really, how do you know that? He couldn’t answer. Orange man bad has reached Thai 13 year olds.