Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/02/trump-asks-court-to-allow-firing-of-watchdog-agency-official/

Notice how the case presented on behalf of the Trump government is chock full of issues of merit while the appellate court decision is a procedural matter.

Hmm, I wonder how the conservatives of the court will do with those...

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi David:

We may or may not disagree on nuances of Trump's strategy with regard to Russia/Ukraine, but I do have concerns about your endorsement of the alleged Ukrainian soldier's alleged comments.   

If you really think Putin = Bin Laden,
If you really think Putin is not a legitimate leader,
If you really think a phone call is an outrage; 

then it seems reasonable to ask if you and Canada are willing to support and encourage the US to invade Russia and eliminate the threat?  Just like we did with Bin Laden and Al Queda.   Are you really that eager for us to launch a nuclear WWIII?  

I doubt it.   So, why oppose and ridicule efforts at diplomacy?   I suspect that you are reflexively opposing everything Trump does, just because he's Trump.

No Jim, I think the Ukrainian soldier got it right in his story and with his analogies as did the two GOP senators in the initial link of this thread. Putin is that bad and he should be stopped from seizing Ukraine and not be encouraged by Trump to do it which is exactly what Trump is doing.

If not, the next thing we may be hearing from Trump is "Moldova should have never started the war" or "Poland should have never started the war."

Originally Posted by James Brown

I agree 100%with the bolded, with the caveat of no broader war to achieve this goal.  What is the best plan to stop Putin from seizing Ukraine?  In your opinion of course.  I think it involves diplomacy, not broader war.  Diplomacy involves phone calls and meetings.  So I am not sure why we should care that the alleged Ukrainian soldier is so incensed that Trump called Putin.   

I imagine you are incensed, because you think Trump will happily sell the Ukraine down the river, but that has not occurred yet, you are speculating.

Even if you are right, what would you have the US do instead?

Putin thinks Ukraine is not a country and he said so to a stunned George W Bush during his presidency. Putin understands only one language: Action. Putin respects only one word: Force.

Putin has placed his entire country and its economy on a war footing and that will, by its nature, continue to be the vehicle for his ambitions.

There is only one way to deal with him and appeasement is not the way. Sustained and aggressive military deterrence is the only way to stop him.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Putin thinks Ukraine is not a country and he said so to a stunned George W Bush during his presidency. Putin understands only one language: Action. Putin respects only one word: Force.

Putin has placed his entire country and its economy on a war footing and that will, by its nature, continue to be the vehicle for his ambitions.

There is only one way to deal with him and appeasement is not the way. Sustained and aggressive military deterrence is the only way to stop him.

BTW, Here's Fox news gameshow host Pete Hegseth's idea to reduce American military defense spending by billions of dollars explained in an OMG moment:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/video/hegseth-military-budget-cuts-impact-sanner-ac360-digvid

Instead of repeating Putin's talking points by making the asinine claim that Ukraine started the war, he should be listening to what these two GOP senators said today:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/video/roger-wicker-john-kennedy-trump-putin-digvid

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

I have a new highly rated brokerage firm that is hard to join and only got in riding the coattails of my rich BIL. LOL. Transferred all my investments and they advised staying out of the market for a while to see what's going to happen in the short term. I have mixed feelings and don't want to miss out on any rallies, but I also don't want to get back in if there is a big correction coming that is overdue. Guess I'll leave it to the professionals and hope for the best.

Looks like your team is right:  

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/20/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

I have a new highly rated brokerage firm that is hard to join and only got in riding the coattails of my rich BIL. LOL. Transferred all my investments and they advised staying out of the market for a while to see what's going to happen in the short term. I have mixed feelings and don't want to miss out on any rallies, but I also don't want to get back in if there is a big correction coming that is overdue. Guess I'll leave it to the professionals and hope for the best.

Trump is really screwing the economy:

"Prominent investor Steve Cohen gave some negative comments on the market and economy from a conference in Miami."

“It’s definitely a period where I think the best gains have been had and [it] wouldn’t surprise me to see a significant correction,” Cohen said, citing proposed tariffs dragging on the economy, as well as some of the government’s cost-cutting efforts."

"Stocks sold off on Friday as new U.S. data sparked concern among investors over a slowing economy and sticky inflation, leading them in search of safer assets."


https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/20/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

"Wall Street is falling again Tuesday as U.S. households get more pessimistic about the economy because of inflation, tariffs and other policies coming from Washington."

"the latest update said confidence among U.S. consumers is falling by more than economists expected."

"But for the first time since June, a measure of consumers’ expectations for the economy in the short term fell below a threshold that usually signals a recession ahead, according to The Conference Board. The increase in pessimism was broad-based and carried across both higher- and lower-income households, as well as older and younger ones."

https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-rates-tariffs-china-86706b1215b5be59466c77f577ae888b

Another Republican, another recession...

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"Wall Street is falling again Tuesday as U.S. households get more pessimistic about the economy because of inflation, tariffs and other policies coming from Washington."

"the latest update said confidence among U.S. consumers is falling by more than economists expected."

"But for the first time since June, a measure of consumers’ expectations for the economy in the short term fell below a threshold that usually signals a recession ahead, according to The Conference Board. The increase in pessimism was broad-based and carried across both higher- and lower-income households, as well as older and younger ones."

https://apnews.com/article/stocks-markets-rates-tariffs-china-86706b1215b5be59466c77f577ae888b

Another Republican, another recession...

"Both the broad market index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq are on pace for their worst week since September 2024."

"In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced the proposed tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada will take effect on March 4 after the one-month moratorium ends. Trump claimed that the two countries had yet to curb the flow of drugs over the border by enough. The president also stated that China, which already faces 10% tariffs from the U.S., would face an additional 10% levy."

"Besides Trump’s tariff declaration, a jump in jobless claims also subdued sentiment, adding to recent concerns of economic softening. Jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 22 came in at 242,000. This was up 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000, according to a Labor Department report Thursday."

"This comes on the back of several other recent economic reports — including a softer-than-expected consumer confidence reading, disappointing retail sales numbers and a weak consumer sentiment reading — which have rattled stocks and raised worries about the health of the U.S. economy."

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/26/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

How's that for bang-up job Trump is doing for the economy?

Presto-ChangeO: AKA sleight of hand on how Trump's team will have a balanced budget: 

"The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts"

"Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can impact the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists."

"Musk’s efforts to downsize federal agencies could result in the layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, whose lost income could potentially reduce their spending, affecting businesses and the economy at large."


https://apnews.com/article/trump-gdp-economy-government-spending-lutnick-7414ba1bd441bd4bf64620bfd66923b2

Gee, wasn't that easy? Why didn't anybody think about doing that before?  Maybe because it's not kosher?....