Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Jeremiahflex]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

TRUMP TRADE WAR
https://claytoonz.com/2018/04/07/trump-trade-war/

I watched Anderson Cooper interview Roger Stone last night on CNN, and Stone said that Trump is his own wordsmith. Are you kidding me? Trump can’t even spell “Smith.”

Someone commented on this blog earlier this week and took issue with the first sentence where I wrote about Trump’s stupidity. The reader leaving the comment said I’d probably have more readers if I didn’t start my columns with such a biased statement. That person might want to stop reading today’s entry right now.

Donald Trump is stupid. I don’t think it’s biased to believe he’s stupid. The man doesn’t know the difference between vocational schools and community colleges. He believes there are invisible airplanes. I’m still amazed people can support him, as being dumb is just a part of his collection of horrible traits. When you add corruption, treason, nepotism, lies, self-obsession, thin skin, immaturity, bad taste, and racism, the stupidity just compounds the danger our nation is in. And then, you have the illiteracy.

Donald Trump cannot read. OK, that’s not fair. He can read, but it’s at a third or fourth grade level. We decided to take the issues of national security, the economy, trade, Russia, North Korea, immigration, and hand it off to be solved by a guy who can’t read.

Sycophants support this. They support just about every dumb thing Trump does, and they make excuses for it, lie about it, or rejoice in it. Now, they can excuse, lie, or rejoice in the fact that many of them will be the hardest hit by Trump’s trade war with China.

In retaliation for Trump’s increased tariffs on that nation, China has imposed large sanctions on American products and agriculture. The bulk of these tariffs hit red Trump country. Trump has always complained that China’s leaders were smarter than ours. Well, they are now.

Trump is right that the disparity in trade between us and China is an issue, but he’s not the first politician to notice this. It can’t be dealt with as a challenge to his ego. He claims we’re not in a trade war, while he raises, tariffs, China retaliates by raising tariffs on us, and then he talks about raising them even more. Have you seen the stock market this week?

Trump’s policies are creating a trickle-down that’s going to trickle on all of us. But, it’s not going to be the good kind of trickle. It’ll be more like the kind Trump paid prostitutes for in a Moscow hotel room.

Nobody wins a trade war. Unfortunately, we have a president too stupid to understand that.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Donald Trump and his advisers spent much of Friday telling everyone that the U.S. is not in a trade war with China, but investors weren’t buying it. Equity markets took a major header, falling by more than 2% across the board. Maybe investors are starting to look at the damage Mr. Trump may do to the Farm Belt states and to the GOP’s chances of holding Congress.

Mr. Trump raised the stakes late Thursday in his tariff showdown with Beijing, vowing to impose another $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods in light of its “unfair retaliation” after his initial $50 billion in tariffs. The latest target list still hasn’t been drawn up, and the silver-lining crowd is hoping that Mr. Trump was merely popping off as part of his negotiating strategy. Maybe that’s right. But then China popped off in return, saying it is ready to “forcefully” strike back if the new tariffs are imposed.

That’s the problem with protectionism. The other side can strike back, and businesses and markets don’t know when the politicians will decide to stop pounding their chests.

***
We’ve been warning since Mr. Trump first emerged as a candidate that his nationalist economics should be taken seriously. This is one policy he seems truly to believe in, he has empowered protectionist advisers, and previous Congresses have given a President wide latitude to act unilaterally. Trade was always the biggest economic risk of the Trump Presidency, and now we’re living through his punch-first policy as he tries to stare down Xi Jinping.

Mr. Trump doesn’t even seem to mind if the tariffs do some economic damage while he’s supposedly fixing the U.S. trade deficit. “I’m not saying there won’t be a little pain, but the market has gone up 40%, 42%, so we might lose a little bit of it. But we’re going to have a much stronger country when we’re finished,” the President told a New York radio show on Friday. Nice to know it will all turn out for the best.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are arguing that what could be key evidence against him should be kept out of court because the FBI violated his Constitutional rights by illegally entering a storage locker belonging to Manafort's firm.

The FBI first got into the Alexandria, Va. storage unit last May with the assistance of an employee who worked at two or more of Manafort's companies, an agent told the federal magistrate judge who issued the warrant. Then, the agent used what he saw written on so-called Banker's Boxes and the fact there was a five-drawer filing cabinet to get permission to return and seize many of the records.

In a motion filed Friday night in federal court in Washington, Manafort's defense team contends that the initial entry was illegal because the employee did not not have authority to let the FBI into the locker. The defense also argues that the warrant was overbroad and that agents seizing records went beyond what limits the warrant did set.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]