Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Didn't put anything there.

Then who did?  Have you let Herb know that your account has been hacked?  (snicker, laugh)  Richard, your denial of controlling your own profile is the lamest, most childish lie of all time.

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck

He's trying to give the impression that someone is doing it to him. Poor Richard, some mean old liberal is hacking into his profile and changing it. Heck, if I, the famous AM world traveler, was editing his profile there would be a lot of descriptive words that are much more accurate than something as lame as "The Tormentor".

No kidding, If anyone else had control of his account, they'd be posting lefty screeds to make you and Rod blush!  Love letters to Biden and Obama, lengthy poetry extolling Kamala Harris's many virtues.   That sort of thing.

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

Really?  Sure seems to as you protest so much about it. 

One aspect of it bothers me a lot.  

Obviously you put “the TORMENTOR” in your profile since you are the only one with access to your profile.   This is proved beyond a shadow of any doubt by your “I don’t care” response.   If you had actually been hacked, you would go ballistic due to the personal violation. Kind of like the many times you challenged people to fistfights over minor or non-existent insults you thought you received.   Also a real hacker would do a lot more than add “the TORMENTOR” to your profile.

So, you are obviously lying to us.   Lying repeatedly and obviously after being exposed.   This is a low stakes lie of course, but your blatant dishonesty bothers me.  Your internet troll personality is bad enough, but you clearly demonstrating that you have zero personal integrity (again) does bother me.   It bothers me to think of the wasted times I’ve tried to engage with you reasonably.   It bothers me to know a serial liar lacking any personal integrity exists to stain and ruin this forum, a forum I have otherwise enjoyed for decades.   Jim

The Hughes Fire looks like it is right on Castaic California.  I'm not sure where Rod Kaufman lives compared to town, but it seems likely that he and his family are threatened and maybe being evacuated.  Let's keep Rod in our thoughts and prayers.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Jim,
Thanks for your comments and kind thoughts. We did have to evacuate on Wednesday but we were able to return on Thursday afternoon. 

The fire consumed approximately 10,000 acres but most of that was in hilly and brush covered terrain with the large lake in castaic serving as a natural fire break so, as far as has been reported, no structures were lost. Humidity in the area has been 6% or less and that level of dryness turns the brush into kindling, ripe for a fire.

The Cal Fire department was on top of it with heavy duty tankers and helicopters with a short trip to the lake for refills and that enabled a quick response to the fire line.

We finally have rain predicted for the weekend so we may get relief from the abnormally hot and dry conditions through SoCal.

Sounds good.  Hopefully this event does not disrupt your business and community too much.  I hope you and all of Southern California get that overdue rain!

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

Remember my thread about the leopards coming to eat the faces of R voters and with D voters as collateral damage?  It got poo-pooed at the time. 
Well, I stand by the overall concept.  Millions will discover the ugly truth of what they voted for and millions more will only be able to try to muddle through . 
Up here in Canada we are mounting a stout ‘buy Canadian ‘ ethos and if we can’t buy stuff domestically then Europe, Mexico, Asia etc can be our source.  
Dave

It got poo-pooed at the time.

Hi David, that was probably me doing the pooh-poohing. I am feeling a bit vindicated since it is obvious Trump is using the threat of tariffs as a negotiating (or threat) tactic, but would (or at least his economic advisors would) prefer not to actually implement them.    J

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

"Canada’s tariff list targets Republican states, Trump allies"

"The list includes oranges and fruit from Florida, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort; household appliances from South Carolina and Ohio, states to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Vice President J.D. Vance; and motorcycles and coffee from southern Pennsylvania, which helped return Trump to the White House."

"The full list, which you can read here, contains food and agriculture products, textiles and furniture."

"Energy and tech products were not included in the first round of tariffs. A second list will be published in the coming days."


https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/03/canada-tariff-targets-00202005

I didn’t know that California was out of the ag business.    Or are you a red state now?

Originally Posted by James Lacey

But what has he successfully negotiated? Other than some overtures and platitudes about more cooperation regarding border control, there is not much. In the meantime, markets are roiled and volatile because of Trump's erratic and unpredictable behavior. During the campaign, Trump promised that tariffs would magically and overnight lower American prices. Now, he's saying the tariffs are about immigration and fentanyl. Trump has changed his tune and now says there will be economic pain due to tariffs, but it will all be worth it to make America great again. This is the most feckless and harmful negotiation I've ever seen, and it's also mostly wholly unnecessary.

Hi James: reasonable initial point, but according to the BBC, which is probably as impartial as any source, Trump did get some border security benefit out of his unorthodox negotiation tactics.  

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c805jjk2klko

Obviously, Trump did not get a complete epic win, like he would typically claim, and the presidents of Mexico in Canada can claim they were successful too. I’m OK with that. So, the cartoon David posted immediately above is funny, but of course inaccurate/oversimplified. Also, I would argue that the stock markets are no more roiled than is typical.

I have not yet studied the Panama deal, but it looks like Rubio/Trump were able to make some progress disentangling Panama from Chinese influence. That is good, wouldn’t you agree?  J

Originally Posted by James Lacey

But what has he successfully negotiated? Other than some overtures and platitudes about more cooperation regarding border control, there is not much. In the meantime, markets are roiled and volatile because of Trump's erratic and unpredictable behavior. During the campaign, Trump promised that tariffs would magically and overnight lower American prices. Now, he's saying the tariffs are about immigration and fentanyl. Trump has changed his tune and now says there will be economic pain due to tariffs, but it will all be worth it to make America great again. This is the most feckless and harmful negotiation I've ever seen, and it's also mostly wholly unnecessary.

Nate Silver’s game theory based analysis.   Bottom line, Trump’s bullying tactics with our best allies are understandable in game theory, but a bad idea in real world terms, plus I might add, immoral.


 https://www.natesilver.net/p/the-game-theory-of-trumps-tariff?utm_source=post-email-title&ublication_id=1198116&ost_id=156465080&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=10lvi0&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

We are not the problem.  Regarding Fentanyl, how, exactly, is Canada supposed to search for fentanyl leaving the country?  We don't inspect the cars or luggage or whatever of those leaving Canada t ent er the USA.  That inspection, and therefore the fentanyl that enters the USA is entirely on the USA!

Some sobering stats:

You make great points, David, and for what it’s worth, I don’t understand why Trump would treat Canada this way. I don’t appreciate it, I don’t like it, and it is embarrassing.