You’re going to have to speak up so we can hear you over your hypocrisy.
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
Well Ivan, see, your previous performances here are not forgotten. You have acted badly, basically p*ssed on the rug, and here you are Sunday night acting like none of it ever happened. Sorry. After all that, maybe you’ll get a serious discussion, and maybe you won’t.
Ivan
15 years ago
Wow, you guys know you’re not playing with a winning hand here.
What was the latest poll, 57% unfavorable? Man you can get one of those hooks they used to use to pull people off the stage as her 15 minutes is about up with that horrid polling.
Okay, let’s try this again: do you guys support her advocating for free-trade?
Simple question. Your inability to answer it is telling.
What “free” trade, Ivan? The US has taken the losing end on trade for a few decades now. If no one answers, it’s because you haven’t a clue how to frame a question.
A crank is what gets a gas engine started. Without the crank, the engine can’t do anything.
Smorgasbord
15 years ago
One of my brothers is a train engineer, and we pick on each other in fun ways. When we get into a battle of wits, I always win because I will ask him, “How many years of schooling does it take to learn, forward, reverse, forward, reverse….?” Then I would always add that I could steer my semi.
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
Smorgasbord – I think Ivan is a Wankel.
All right Ivan, I’ll bite. What pronouncement from Sarah Palin about free trade are you talking about? Was it this week? This year? This is not a Palin for President site, and we don’t follow her every move like you do. Provide a link – you know, in the customary way that a non-troll would do.
Then give me your reaction to Hillary Clinton’s statements on free trade. Immediately.
Wankel engine |ˈwä ng kəl; ˈwa ng-|
noun
a rotary internal combustion engine in which a curvilinear, triangular, eccentrically pivoted piston rotates in an elliptical chamber, forming three combustion spaces that vary in volume as the piston turns.
The W is pronounced with a V sound. The engine has only three moving parts, is very small, is very powerful, and accelerates quickly since the parts rotate in one direction instead of going up and down. My brother had a Mazda that had one in it and he liked it.
You reminded me of the politician many years ago who called his opponent several names just before the election and got elected. After looking all of the words up, they were all complimentary, but they were said in a negative way.
You keep using words that compliment Ivan. Choose your words wisely.
Nan G
15 years ago
I really don’t think Sarah Palin (or any other individual potential candidate) is a problem.
The Republicans have a large number of potentials to run against whoever the Dems field for 2012.
I think what will happen over the coming months is a winnowing process.
As each one of these potentials fall by the wayside, the numbers for the remaining ones will bump up.
Eventually, when we have a nominee, even if it is Sarah, he/she will be quite popular.
But we are NOT at that point ….. yet.
And I’m noting that there’s a Dem talking point that seems to imply there’s something wrong with us for NOT being there yet.
No, you’re arguing from a false premise.
WHEN we are there, THEN we can talk about strength of our candidate.
Not yet.
Lessthantolerant
15 years ago
Why must we continue to watch Palin Derangement Syndrome? First it was Bush Derangement Syndrome, then and forever Cheney.
Now these slugs must continually harp about Sarah.
She brings an honesty and vitality to the Republicans sorely lacking.
John Cooper
15 years ago
I think Sarah makes people like Ivan feel less of a man. I suspect she has the same effect on certain members of the so-called “leadership” of the Republican party. Has anybody read her piece at NRO, Senate Republicans: Vote No on New START ? What I like about it is that she identifies the real issue: “Is it in the interest of the United States?” Contrast that with the future Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s mealy-mouthed statement: Something about how he hadn’t had time to go over it yet and didn’t think the Senate should rush this through.
Who’s displaying real leadership here? Certainly not McConnell, who oh-by-the-way allowed the nationalization of the food industry last night on a voice vote!
Ivan
15 years ago
John Cooper wrote:
I think Sarah makes people like Ivan feel less of a man.
Blah, blah, blah.
I gave $1,000 to the McCain campaign the day he selected her. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I like her, but she’s not Presidential material. She would be great as RNC head, she would raise a ton of dollars for the GOP.
If you don’t believe I donated the money, ask Aye, she’ll tell you. She knows who I am and is very adept at using google.
What is really sad is that you people are refusing to take your reality check.
She has sold us, the nation, out to the international interests.
Did you not learn anything from the last 10 years?
Ivan
15 years ago
Lessthantolerant said,
Now these slugs must continually harp about Sarah.
What harping? I asked two simple questions, questions you people REFUSE to answer.
I’ll ask them again;
1. What do you think of the latest polls showing Palin’s negatives at all-time highs?
2. Her recent support for free-trade agreements?
What is so bad about asking these questions? Is the simple act of asking these two questions evidence of PDS? If so, doesn’t that suggest a “King has no clothes” moment?
Or have you guys become like Democratic Underground and the simple act of asking a question is heresy?
I don’t know if Palin will run for office or if she sees a way to make a bunch of money. I do know that if the liberals would have kept their mouths shut about her after the presidential election she probably would have faded away. They haven’t realized yet that the more you complain about a person or a company, they more people get curious about them.
It didn’t work when Obama told us not to listen to Joe The Plumber, Rush Limbaugh, or Fox News, or when he told college students not to use electronic devises to get information. I still want on Obama’s hit list. I could use the attention and money I would get.
Ivan
15 years ago
Mata said,
What “free” trade, Ivan? The US has taken the losing end on trade for a few decades now. If no one answers, it’s because you haven’t a clue how to frame a question.
Did you not see where she came out in support of two agreements?????
Am I the only one here who keeps up with what she said recently????
What’s your problem, Ivan? Obama structured the Korean trade agreement, and has been dragging his feet on the Columbian trade agreement. Both are, in your labeling, “free trade” agreements. Why? His unions are giving him pressure. AFL-CIO is still opposing the Korean agreement, while the auto unions negotiated INRE the Korean auto surplus.
But I don’t see any specifics yet on the agreements, and the devil always lies in the details. I do, however, see a lot of labels… i.e. “free trade”… being attached without knowing the devil in those details. Until then, it’s just a trade agreement between nations that has to be ironed out for specifics.
Doesn’t much matter because either party is going to give away the American farm… as they’ve been doing for decades.
So I guess I’ll have to revert back to my original point to you… that no one responds to you because you haven’t a clue how to frame a question. Calling something “free trade”, without details, isn’t much substance. It’s just talking points. The details of NAFTA, CAFTA and the SK agreement are not apples to apples. No trade agreement is.
Ivan
15 years ago
Wm T said,
All right Ivan, I’ll bite. What pronouncement from Sarah Palin about free trade are you talking about? Was it this week? This year? This is not a Palin for President site, and we don’t follow her every move like you do. Provide a link – you know, in the customary way that a non-troll would do.
Then give me your reaction to Hillary Clinton’s statements on free trade. Immediately.
I’m sorry, I thought that this branch of the “Palin for President” fan club was up to date on her 11/13/10 “Open letter to Republican Freshman”.
You will also have the opportunity to push job-creating free trade agreements with allies like Colombia and South Korea.
Okay, I won’t charge you for educating you about her stand on Free-trade. Don’t feel bad you didn’t know it, most people, including many here, are completely ignorant about what she really stands for.
Hilary is for free-trade and has always been for it. Terrible position.
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
Ivan: Hilary [sic.] is for free-trade and has always been for it. Terrible position.
Like the free trade agreement with Columbia that this administration was against?
Nan G
15 years ago
The revised free-trade agreement with South Korea announced on Friday by the Obama administration has gotten acclaim from ………..Congressional Republicans.
Obama said on Monday that the accord would “boost our annual exports to South Korea by $11 billion” and “support at least 70,000 American jobs.”
The Obama administration has been careful to use the verb “support,” not “create.”
I remember there was a crank who used to hang out in front of the university library. He was trying to get people recruited for some cult-like organization called Young Scientists for Freedom or something like that. His approach was to ask people if they knew this thing or that thing– did they know that nuclear fusion was the only answer to our energy problems, that the government was not sufficiently committed to funding it and this was because oil companies did not want fusion energy, and so on. I talked to him once – asked him if he had taken courses in physics. He said he had learned extensively on the subject of nuclear physics using the Method of Beethoven. I asked what the Method of Beethoven was, and he replied that I must not have had much of an education if I had not heard of it. Heh.
I said that I did not think anybody was going to take him seriously. He replied that MI5 and Mossad had taken his organization seriously enough to attempt assassination of its leader. Like Ivan, the disingenuous initial approach raises the hair on the back of your neck, and then if you scratch the surface, you find madness. Remember, there’s a whole lot more to Ivan than his Palin hobby.
The approach I’m talking about was summarized in a nutshell (heh) by the National Lampoon’s parodic swami Baba Rum Raisin. He began his spiel, “Everything you know, is wrong.”
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
I would also like to mention an insight I had one day. I don’t claim to be the brightest guy in town – most of you have probably thought of this.
If you can be gulled into doing a Google or similar search for some obscure fact, and one of the places on the web that said obscure fact is mentioned is on the web site of the person doing the gulling, they can get a hit from your search and harvest your IP address. They can tell it was you if they know that you just did the search, based on real-time or near-real-time correspondence.
Right Ivan?
Nan G
15 years ago
Remember the story line about what a secular guy Saddam Hussein was?
Yeah, me, too.
I knew it wasn’t true when he was giving families of suicide bombers $10,000 then in 2002 upped that to $25,000.
But I missed this:
Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink to transcribe a Qur’an!
EWWwww!!!!!
I love the Word of God as much as the next Christian, but make a copy in my own blood?
I don’t THINK so!
Is there some tradition associated with doing this?
I have seen children at madrassas forced to drink the water they use to wash off their chalk boards after they spend time writing Koranic verses on it, but not this!
Nan G, it’s interesting you bring that up. I knew of Saddam’s Qur’an of blood back in 2008, from Ray Robison’s “Both in One Trench” book release about the ISG/Harmony documents. Robison was one of those in Iraq in 2003, part of the ISG team, who was privvy to the contents of Saddam’s internal notes and memos.
From his book, he also made note that Saddam’s “blood” Qur’an certainly put the media/public/political cries that Saddam was reigning over a secular government into question. In other words, other that the Islamic “haraam” novelty, it’s more interesting as to the overview of the perceived secular nature of the Saddam regime.
Out of eleven crucial directives, three of them involve working with Islamic institutions or individuals. One could be interpreted as a cryptic instruction to work with Islamic foreign fighters who were already known to be in Iraq at the time this memorandum was written. This is compelling evidence of prewar coordination between the Ba’athists and Islamic extremists who would indeed fight together against the coalition forces.
The Saddam regime’s documentation provides clues as to how this could happen. One of Saddam’s men, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the former Vice President of Saddam’s revolutionary council, is still on the loose at the time of this writing, although it has been reported that he died of Leukemia in 2005. He is a devout Muslim who presented Saddam with a copy of the Quran written with Saddam’s own blood. The existence of such a Quran has been reported as a curiosity in the western media, but not from whence it came. A bizarre ceremony is noted in a captured daily planner for al-Douri. A government provided translation released at the Foreign Military Studies Office, the Department of Defense website where the documents were available, states:
Pages 151-155 contain a meeting minute between the vice-president Izzat Ibrahim and the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, dated 23 Sep 2000, the vice president hands Saddam a Holy Quran written in Saddam’s blood, the meeting only contains intensive complements.
The reference comes from a document numbered BIAP-2003-00003100-HT. HT means it is a government provided translation as opposed to having been translated by our in-house translator, who we will call Sammi to protect his identity.
It certainly is an odd juxtaposition to imagine the madman whom many say was irreligious giving of his blood for a Quran. This incident raises an interesting question. Was the Ba’athist party a truly secular governing party? It appears that such is not the case.
al Douri… a trusted Saddam confident and government head honcho, was far from a nice guy, and undoubtedly very secular in his beliefs. The ensuing sections about the “blood” Qur’an are about al Douri… the men that Saddam chose to make up his supposedly “non secular” regime.
The Guardian article you linked has some interesting Iraqi observations. First, that to even have such a copy of their holy book written in such a manner was “haraam”… forbidden. Second, that as an archival item, it was too valuable to simply dispose of, even if a negative part of their history.
“It says a lot about him. It should never be put in a museum though, because no Iraqi wants to see it. Maybe in the future it could be sent to a private museum, like memorabilia from the Hitler and Stalin regimes.”
In time, the legacy of Saddam Hussein and his 30 years of brutality is likely to become part of a more detached debate in Iraq’s national consciousness, much like the discussions that took place in Germany in the late 1940s after the ousting of the Nazis.
For now, though, the soul searching is being left to those who made the disputed works, and those entrusted as their temporary caretakers.
Abbas Shakir Joody al-Baghdadi was the calligrapher commissioned to work on the Qur’an. He sat with Saddam for two years after receiving a phone call from the tyrant himself.
Saddam, at that point, had decided to re-embrace with his religion after his elder son, Uday, had survived an assassination attempt.
The result of Baghdadi’s work was an exquisitely crafted book that would take its place in any art exhibition – if it wasn’t for the fact that it was written in blood.
“I don’t like to talk about this now,” says Baghdadi, speaking by telephone from the US state of Virginia, where he now lives. “It was painful part of my life that I want to forget about.”
I think, in the world of political assessment, and in retrospect of Saddam and his potential threat to the western world… specifically targeting the US… it is just another piece in the puzzle that the claims that Saddam was “contained” or harmless because he was not “secular” are simply horse manure. Smoking gun? Nope… but definitely a warm, recently fired firearm.
BTW, Robison’s read, released prior to the Pentagon Perspective reports, is a seriously good read. Obviously an author ahead of his time in interpretative analysis… as was his job with ISG. While few care about historical retrospect, I highly recommend reading this one. Takes the political spin off of alternative universe paths…. i.e., could the nation afford allowing Saddam to continue his underground, off the grid alliances with terrorist groups?
Ivan
15 years ago
Wm T said:
Does Ivan’s approach remind anybody of Assange’s?
Yes, you’ve nailed me. Blown my cover. You see, in 2008, when I gave McCain $1,000 on the day he selected Palin, I gave said money just to enhance my credibility as hated her all along.
Now tell me, William, which voice in your head told you that I’m an Assange in reality?
I quit using Google when I found out they didn’t decorate their home page logo for Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day until the conservative blogs complained about it. If military people knew this, I am guessing they would quit using Google. Now, you have passwords and other personal info they got over WiFi from their Street View car and are storing it. They said it was a programming error. They were just finding WiFi locations. How can you ACCIDENTALLY program a computer to receive WiFi passwords and other personal info and STORE it?
The Feds were investigating it just like other countries are, until one of the Google execs had a $30,000 a plate fund raiser for the liberals and the investigation ended. Google also sells your search info to advertiser so they can target you. I live near Philadelphia and had lots of ads appear advertising stuff in the area. I wondered how they knew I was in that area.
Google also edits there search helps if they don’t want you going to certain web pages, and sometimes they will display a window that says that the web site you are trying to go to could harm your computer. Those are the ones you should go to. Google has donated millions of dollars to liberals.
There are three search engines I know of that guarantee they do not keep track of your search info. They are:
I have been using these for some time now and am very satisfied with them.
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
Ivan, my point of course was that your approach was similar to the one laid out in the earlier Assange romance thread, not that you are Assange.
Manipulative in a particular way.
What a stunning lack of reading comprehension. How can you establish your superiority at this rate?
kcanova
15 years ago
@Ivan
Which poll are you talking about? Source?
Also WHO CARES WHAT THE NUMBERS ARE? Seriously we are too far away from any kind of primary, not to mention she hasn’t stated she was going to run in the first place. So this current poll you are referring is really irrelevant.
As for the support of the “Free” trade agreements of South Korea and Columbia. Again as stated by Nan G #24, the current administration supported enough to make it happen about 2 weeks after the story you quoted. Again big deal.
I don’t care that you gave $1000.00 to the McCain/Palin ticket that still doesn’t exempt you from from PDS. There are several policies and political figures that deserve much more attention than what you and the left have provided to Palin and her beliefs.
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
Smorg, what I’m talking about is not Google-specific. The owner of a web site can see information about search hits, hits that have occurred via any search engine. If the web site owner is clever about getting you to search for something that is very seldom searched for, and they know approximately when you must have done the search, then they will be able to tell that the IP address of a particular hit is most probably yours. The IP address can tell them roughly where your computer is located in the world, withing a few blocks. And, they can then look for other searches that occurred using that same IP address. What you search for on the internet can tell them quite a bit about you.
I’m saying, be wary about being sent on wild goose chases for obscure, seldom-searched-for information.
Wm T. #34, . . . absolutely, . . . I also noted on another post by Curt, that there are plenty of opportunities for things to go horribly wrong for users who aren’t careful.
Greg
15 years ago
I remember steam locomotives from my early childhood; the trailing smoke; the distant sounds of chuffing and whistles carrying across frozen fields on a cold winter night. I was born at the end of that era, as steam locomotives were rapidly giving way to electric/diesel locomotives. Back then, most midwestern towns of any size still had their railroad depots. Passenger trains were a routine means of travel. Radio was the media of the day. Telephone booths were everywhere. People wrote letters by hand which they mailed for the price of a 3-cent stamp, and quick communication at a distance often involved a telegraph office. Much of the daily-use technology we now take for granted existed only in science fiction.
I wish I could revisit that era for a week or two. If I could, I’m not entirely sure I’d use my return trip ticket.
I know one woman who took a wagon train vacation and lived like the earlier settlers.
Pops
15 years ago
WhenI was a kid, I was a locomotive fireman for awhile in Cheyene, District 4. The 3900’s were a 4-6-6-4, and the 4000’s were 4-8-8-4 and weighted a cool 1,000,000 pounds.
Ivan
15 years ago
Wm T. Sherman:
Manipulative in a particular way.
I asked two very, very simple questions about the woman’s policy statement and the recent polling.
I was curious, as you people tend to support her, what you thought of her stand on Free Trade and the recent polling.
The fact you couldn’t answer these simple questions mean she’s nothing more than personality cult here.
Is she better than Obama? Sure, but that isn’t saying much.
Wm T Sherman
15 years ago
Could not answer? No, chose not to. As I pointed out, if you want to be a disingenuous, insulting crank one day, don’t expect that history to be disregarded if you suddenly start trying to act normal the next day.
Asking for opinions about one small section of all knowledge, while being obscure about what aspect of it is meant, and immediately jumping to condemnation for not providing what you would consider a satisfactory answer, is exactly the M.O. of that crank who wasted his hours promoting the nuclear fusion cult . Like him, you didn’t really want an answer. You just wanted to begin shaking the belief system of the people you are addressing. You should be better informed about exactly what a belief system is, before you start trying to undermine it. You are the Palin obsessive here, not me.
Polling: it does not mean much this far from the election. The election is two years away. Recovering from low poll numbers happens all the time. Also, as I pointed out, and which you ignored, this is not a Palin for President site. There are varying degrees of support for her candidacy. I don’t even have a distinct point of view yet.
Trade: You did not provide a link to exactly what you were referring to until asked. That is a bad sign. When I went to the link you provided about the trade agreement statement, what I found was a fairly long essay that deep in the middle, very briefly gave favorable mention to new free trade agreements with South Korea and Columbia.
I haven’t read the agreements. What’s wrong with them? Is free trade simply a bad thing? Or, do they claim to promote free trade but not really do so?
You no doubt recall the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill from the Great Depression. It is generally blamed for making things worse. What’s your position on that? Want to go against the grain?
Ivan
15 years ago
WTS said:
Could not answer? No, chose not to.
Smart man! No sense in defending the indefensible. 🙄
So Ivan – don’t you support Free Trade or would you prefer if nations stopped trading between each other – or ramp up import tariffs and watch as other countries do the same which leads to trade wars and where value for money on goods & choice declines and the losers are the consumer.
Maybe I’m wrong but I always thought the one thing conservatives and economic/classic liberals should agree on is the benefits of free trade. Of course Mata is right that the devil is in the detail and any country needs to ensure that they get a good agreement but I believe protectionism is counterproductive and often shores up inefficient businesses.
You’re correct…the devil is in the details and it’s important for the participants in trade agreements to hold out for the best possible deal that they can get.
Protectionism is not good and those, like Ivan, who appear prepared to push for such ideas are living in a long gone era which is totally disconnected from the realities of a global economy.
As I said, Ivan is a loon on this and many other issues.
@Ivan: The fact you couldn’t answer these simple questions mean she’s nothing more than personality cult here.
First you accuse everyone here of being “Palin for Prez” fanatics, when that subject hasn’t come up in this thread. And in fact, one can admire a conservative woman and her unquestionable power amongst voters without preconceived notions INRE her 2012 nominee status. Palin isn’t my first choice.. and I don’t know who my first choice is yet. I’m still in wait and watch mode for a real conservative leader. The next year will reveal much.
But I will add, when you consider that all the pundits are talking about Romney, I’d welcome Palin over Romney any day. Don’t need Mr. “I stand with the Kennedy’s on wind farms and I love health care mandates” Romney on the ticket… a move that I guarantee you will drive me to a 3rd party vote in a heartbeat. I’m tired of voting between rocks and hard places.
Secondly, as I have pointed out to you at least twice, you aren’t asking a question, you are merely parroting talking point phrases. I understand you’re a PaulBot. But you can’t point out anything in any of the trade agreements specifically, and therefore any debate you try to instigate… just because you throw out the hip phrase, “free trade”…. is utterly meaningless. As I said, you lumped both the SK and Columbian agreements under your “free trade” talking point umbrella, and yet they aren’t the same in the details. And, in fact, Obama helped construct one with some union support, and opposes the other. Obviously, they have some major differences in specifics that you prefer to blanket over with buzz words.
This is actually somewhat amusing because I’m probably the prime person here to be closest to your protectionist PaulBot personality on these issues. But then, you may have gleaned that I’m not a fan of these one way trade agreements when I said to you, what “free trade”? It’s “free” for other countries, but cost this country quite a bit.
Mr. Aye Chi: I’m well aware we live in a global economy… (for those that will be angry with me, again, wandering off the traditional “conservative” reservation)…. but we are far beyond the point where we are financially capable of absorbing tariffs for our exports, and allowing imports from the same countries to flood thru the door tariff free.
But… I don’t give a whit about Palin’s endorsement, the GOP endorsement, or anything else on these agreements. As I said, both parties will give away the American farm… just as they’ve been doing for decades. That is just as sure as both parties are going to spend this country into it’s demise. We’ve already learned, in under two months from a major midterm election, that the difference between the two parties is just a hair’s breadth. With Dems, we die by slashing the wrists. With the GOP, we die from the thousand cuts.
I guess, if I’m trying to live the rest of my life under anything that resembles the country of my childhood, the death from a thousand cuts is the only choice. But it is not one I choose with my heart. And I draw the line at Romney.
Well said. The question of trade is infinitely more complex than the MSM or trolls pretend. It is almost impossible to read anything on trade that delineates each situation effectively. The challenge rests in the fact that most trade relationships of significance between major nations, hold threads of dependence on parameters outside “trading.”
America’s principal trading “partners,” (a mostly inappropriate term) vary widely and no two can be treated the same way. For example, China absolutely cannot and should not be treated with the same broad brush as Canada or Japan. . . . Some trolls demonstrate lack of any insight when attempting to bait for one or the other side of the inane “Free Trader / Protectionist” fulcrum.
The answer to these decisions and to all ensuing such negotiations rests, as in most of the big National questions, on Leadership.
Who do we want defending our interests at the negotiating table making critical, incisive decisions? Do we want someone with self confidence, and broad experience? Or do we want an inexperienced wimp? Personally, I’ve got all the time in the world for someone who can grasp the deeper elements of a situation, and make assertive, determined decisions, even if that individual occasionally makes a mistake.
The current leadership is not respected by anyone of consequence. From Beijing to Moscow, the rolling eyeballs are tiresome, but they provide a measure of the disintegrating respect the world has for the Administration. America may be suffering from an extended recession, but it is still China’s most important customer, for example, and that relationship should be negotiated with more “attitude” than the pathetic stance that has been taken recently, by Obama, Geithner, (I still can’t believe this drip hasn’t been turfed) and Clinton.
Old Trooper 2
15 years ago
The learning curve on World Trade is a very steep one if All You Know came from Marx, Engels and Mao’s Little Red Book. Trade agreements are both Economic and Diplomatic tools from what I know. So far Team Obama got punked on those that are of His Regime’s creation.
So the Nation will continue the Trade Deficit, Manufacturing will continue to enrich our Partners as Industry in the US will flee both over regulation and taxation. As the jobs go away, Unions lose bargaining chips.
A WIN/WIN for China and Asia as a whole and the US takes it on the chin exponentially. Economic Illiterates, Academic Buffoons and folks that never ran a business for a Profit on the US side but negotiate Agreements and Treaties continue to blunder on…much to our detriment.
OT: This one hurts, it is hard to fight when you are already on your knees.
A WIN/WIN for China and Asia as a whole and the US takes it on the chin exponentially. Economic Illiterates, Academic Buffoons and folks that never ran a business for a Profit on the US side but negotiate Agreements and Treaties continue to blunder on…much to our detriment.
Old Trooper 2
15 years ago
@ Skookum, You can thank that 53% of the American Voters that ‘selected’ this POTUS, the 110th and 111th Congress and the Ill Educated, Under Experienced Team of Idiots that Obama put in place to do his dirty work at making the US a Second Rate Nation. Not a ONE of them ever ran a business for a profit but know how to wreck what we have left…
I’m very Proud to be an American but very ashamed that it has come to this. While Obama re-arranges the deck chairs on the Titanic I just wonder what the Voters were thinking of, IF they thought at all in 2006 and 2008. Bush appointed Bernanke and I fault him big time for that. But this is not a joke…
How about some music to go with that?
Yeah, I have a sense of humor but this nonsense has gone too far now. Stuck in Brussels, Belgium right now. Big Snow. Nothing is flying in or out…
JR in his eloquent way painted the picture too well in his posting. I concur with him 100%.
KansasGirl
15 years ago
It’s 1:37AM CST. I’m watching the eclipse of the moon. The sky is hazy and the moon is now completely shadowed by the earth. What a strange end to a strange year.
Eeek! Carbon!
Challenger, the one of the largest steam locomotives ever built, and the largest still in service (6200 hp):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Union_Pacific_Challenger_3985_01.jpg
Curious what people think of the latest polling showing Palin really isn’t very popular with the electorate.
Also, what do you guys think of Palin’s vocal support for even more free-trade agreements.
I think you’re a crank, Ivan. That’s what I think.
Wm T Sherman said:
I think you’re a crank, Ivan. That’s what I think.
Hmmm…”the last act of the desperate mind is the personal insult.”
Thank you for once again, proving the validity of that saying.
Now, what do you think of her free-trade stance?
@Ivan:
This amusing gem is brought to you by the guy who said these things about Sarah Palin, a person with whom he disagrees:
Now…what were you saying again?
You’re going to have to speak up so we can hear you over your hypocrisy.
Well Ivan, see, your previous performances here are not forgotten. You have acted badly, basically p*ssed on the rug, and here you are Sunday night acting like none of it ever happened. Sorry. After all that, maybe you’ll get a serious discussion, and maybe you won’t.
Wow, you guys know you’re not playing with a winning hand here.
What was the latest poll, 57% unfavorable? Man you can get one of those hooks they used to use to pull people off the stage as her 15 minutes is about up with that horrid polling.
Okay, let’s try this again: do you guys support her advocating for free-trade?
Simple question. Your inability to answer it is telling.
What “free” trade, Ivan? The US has taken the losing end on trade for a few decades now. If no one answers, it’s because you haven’t a clue how to frame a question.
Aye, #5
. . . Now That’s funny.
And Wm T, your #3 actually animated a chuckle. It doesn’t even mater what it was in response to, . . . . Thanks.
@Wm T Sherman: #3
A crank is what gets a gas engine started. Without the crank, the engine can’t do anything.
One of my brothers is a train engineer, and we pick on each other in fun ways. When we get into a battle of wits, I always win because I will ask him, “How many years of schooling does it take to learn, forward, reverse, forward, reverse….?” Then I would always add that I could steer my semi.
Smorgasbord – I think Ivan is a Wankel.
All right Ivan, I’ll bite. What pronouncement from Sarah Palin about free trade are you talking about? Was it this week? This year? This is not a Palin for President site, and we don’t follow her every move like you do. Provide a link – you know, in the customary way that a non-troll would do.
Then give me your reaction to Hillary Clinton’s statements on free trade. Immediately.
Lighten it Up a Little… 😛
http://www.papatedsplace.com/Christmas1920s.html
A Christmas Trip to the 1920s for You all. Be careful with that Red Ryder BB Gun. Don’t Put Your Eye Out!!!!
http://www.tropicalglen.com/Jukebox/Virtual%20CDs/Christmas/VCD-Christmas.html
AND NO I AM NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THE 20s BUT SAT AROUND THE DINER IN TOWN TO LISTEN TO THE OLD TIMERS DESCRIBE IT IN GLOWING RETROSPECT. 😉
@Wm T Sherman: #11
I think Ivan is a Wankel.
Wankel engine |ˈwä ng kəl; ˈwa ng-|
noun
a rotary internal combustion engine in which a curvilinear, triangular, eccentrically pivoted piston rotates in an elliptical chamber, forming three combustion spaces that vary in volume as the piston turns.
The W is pronounced with a V sound. The engine has only three moving parts, is very small, is very powerful, and accelerates quickly since the parts rotate in one direction instead of going up and down. My brother had a Mazda that had one in it and he liked it.
You reminded me of the politician many years ago who called his opponent several names just before the election and got elected. After looking all of the words up, they were all complimentary, but they were said in a negative way.
You keep using words that compliment Ivan. Choose your words wisely.
I really don’t think Sarah Palin (or any other individual potential candidate) is a problem.
The Republicans have a large number of potentials to run against whoever the Dems field for 2012.
I think what will happen over the coming months is a winnowing process.
As each one of these potentials fall by the wayside, the numbers for the remaining ones will bump up.
Eventually, when we have a nominee, even if it is Sarah, he/she will be quite popular.
But we are NOT at that point ….. yet.
And I’m noting that there’s a Dem talking point that seems to imply there’s something wrong with us for NOT being there yet.
No, you’re arguing from a false premise.
WHEN we are there, THEN we can talk about strength of our candidate.
Not yet.
Why must we continue to watch Palin Derangement Syndrome? First it was Bush Derangement Syndrome, then and forever Cheney.
Now these slugs must continually harp about Sarah.
She brings an honesty and vitality to the Republicans sorely lacking.
I think Sarah makes people like Ivan feel less of a man. I suspect she has the same effect on certain members of the so-called “leadership” of the Republican party. Has anybody read her piece at NRO, Senate Republicans: Vote No on New START ? What I like about it is that she identifies the real issue: “Is it in the interest of the United States?” Contrast that with the future Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s mealy-mouthed statement: Something about how he hadn’t had time to go over it yet and didn’t think the Senate should rush this through.
Who’s displaying real leadership here? Certainly not McConnell, who oh-by-the-way allowed the nationalization of the food industry last night on a voice vote!
John Cooper wrote:
I think Sarah makes people like Ivan feel less of a man.
Blah, blah, blah.
I gave $1,000 to the McCain campaign the day he selected her. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I like her, but she’s not Presidential material. She would be great as RNC head, she would raise a ton of dollars for the GOP.
If you don’t believe I donated the money, ask Aye, she’ll tell you. She knows who I am and is very adept at using google.
What is really sad is that you people are refusing to take your reality check.
She has sold us, the nation, out to the international interests.
Did you not learn anything from the last 10 years?
Lessthantolerant said,
Now these slugs must continually harp about Sarah.
What harping? I asked two simple questions, questions you people REFUSE to answer.
I’ll ask them again;
1. What do you think of the latest polls showing Palin’s negatives at all-time highs?
2. Her recent support for free-trade agreements?
What is so bad about asking these questions? Is the simple act of asking these two questions evidence of PDS? If so, doesn’t that suggest a “King has no clothes” moment?
Or have you guys become like Democratic Underground and the simple act of asking a question is heresy?
@Lessthantolerant: #16
I don’t know if Palin will run for office or if she sees a way to make a bunch of money. I do know that if the liberals would have kept their mouths shut about her after the presidential election she probably would have faded away. They haven’t realized yet that the more you complain about a person or a company, they more people get curious about them.
It didn’t work when Obama told us not to listen to Joe The Plumber, Rush Limbaugh, or Fox News, or when he told college students not to use electronic devises to get information. I still want on Obama’s hit list. I could use the attention and money I would get.
Mata said,
What “free” trade, Ivan? The US has taken the losing end on trade for a few decades now. If no one answers, it’s because you haven’t a clue how to frame a question.
Did you not see where she came out in support of two agreements?????
Am I the only one here who keeps up with what she said recently????
What’s your problem, Ivan? Obama structured the Korean trade agreement, and has been dragging his feet on the Columbian trade agreement. Both are, in your labeling, “free trade” agreements. Why? His unions are giving him pressure. AFL-CIO is still opposing the Korean agreement, while the auto unions negotiated INRE the Korean auto surplus.
But I don’t see any specifics yet on the agreements, and the devil always lies in the details. I do, however, see a lot of labels… i.e. “free trade”… being attached without knowing the devil in those details. Until then, it’s just a trade agreement between nations that has to be ironed out for specifics.
Doesn’t much matter because either party is going to give away the American farm… as they’ve been doing for decades.
So I guess I’ll have to revert back to my original point to you… that no one responds to you because you haven’t a clue how to frame a question. Calling something “free trade”, without details, isn’t much substance. It’s just talking points. The details of NAFTA, CAFTA and the SK agreement are not apples to apples. No trade agreement is.
Wm T said,
All right Ivan, I’ll bite. What pronouncement from Sarah Palin about free trade are you talking about? Was it this week? This year? This is not a Palin for President site, and we don’t follow her every move like you do. Provide a link – you know, in the customary way that a non-troll would do.
Then give me your reaction to Hillary Clinton’s statements on free trade. Immediately.
I’m sorry, I thought that this branch of the “Palin for President” fan club was up to date on her 11/13/10 “Open letter to Republican Freshman”.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/11/13/sarah-palin-republican-freshmen-congress-election-victory-obamacare-deficit/
Here is the salient quote:
You will also have the opportunity to push job-creating free trade agreements with allies like Colombia and South Korea.
Okay, I won’t charge you for educating you about her stand on Free-trade. Don’t feel bad you didn’t know it, most people, including many here, are completely ignorant about what she really stands for.
Hilary is for free-trade and has always been for it. Terrible position.
Ivan: Hilary [sic.] is for free-trade and has always been for it. Terrible position.
Like the free trade agreement with Columbia that this administration was against?
The revised free-trade agreement with South Korea announced on Friday by the Obama administration has gotten acclaim from ………..Congressional Republicans.
Obama said on Monday that the accord would “boost our annual exports to South Korea by $11 billion” and “support at least 70,000 American jobs.”
The Obama administration has been careful to use the verb “support,” not “create.”
From Dec 7th, 2010.
So, Sarah was for this, too, right?
Does Ivan’s approach remind anybody of Assange’s?
I remember there was a crank who used to hang out in front of the university library. He was trying to get people recruited for some cult-like organization called Young Scientists for Freedom or something like that. His approach was to ask people if they knew this thing or that thing– did they know that nuclear fusion was the only answer to our energy problems, that the government was not sufficiently committed to funding it and this was because oil companies did not want fusion energy, and so on. I talked to him once – asked him if he had taken courses in physics. He said he had learned extensively on the subject of nuclear physics using the Method of Beethoven. I asked what the Method of Beethoven was, and he replied that I must not have had much of an education if I had not heard of it. Heh.
I said that I did not think anybody was going to take him seriously. He replied that MI5 and Mossad had taken his organization seriously enough to attempt assassination of its leader. Like Ivan, the disingenuous initial approach raises the hair on the back of your neck, and then if you scratch the surface, you find madness. Remember, there’s a whole lot more to Ivan than his Palin hobby.
The approach I’m talking about was summarized in a nutshell (heh) by the National Lampoon’s parodic swami Baba Rum Raisin. He began his spiel, “Everything you know, is wrong.”
I would also like to mention an insight I had one day. I don’t claim to be the brightest guy in town – most of you have probably thought of this.
If you can be gulled into doing a Google or similar search for some obscure fact, and one of the places on the web that said obscure fact is mentioned is on the web site of the person doing the gulling, they can get a hit from your search and harvest your IP address. They can tell it was you if they know that you just did the search, based on real-time or near-real-time correspondence.
Right Ivan?
Remember the story line about what a secular guy Saddam Hussein was?
Yeah, me, too.
I knew it wasn’t true when he was giving families of suicide bombers $10,000 then in 2002 upped that to $25,000.
But I missed this:
EWWwww!!!!!
I love the Word of God as much as the next Christian, but make a copy in my own blood?
I don’t THINK so!
Is there some tradition associated with doing this?
I have seen children at madrassas forced to drink the water they use to wash off their chalk boards after they spend time writing Koranic verses on it, but not this!
Nan G, it’s interesting you bring that up. I knew of Saddam’s Qur’an of blood back in 2008, from Ray Robison’s “Both in One Trench” book release about the ISG/Harmony documents. Robison was one of those in Iraq in 2003, part of the ISG team, who was privvy to the contents of Saddam’s internal notes and memos.
From his book, he also made note that Saddam’s “blood” Qur’an certainly put the media/public/political cries that Saddam was reigning over a secular government into question. In other words, other that the Islamic “haraam” novelty, it’s more interesting as to the overview of the perceived secular nature of the Saddam regime.
al Douri… a trusted Saddam confident and government head honcho, was far from a nice guy, and undoubtedly very secular in his beliefs. The ensuing sections about the “blood” Qur’an are about al Douri… the men that Saddam chose to make up his supposedly “non secular” regime.
The Guardian article you linked has some interesting Iraqi observations. First, that to even have such a copy of their holy book written in such a manner was “haraam”… forbidden. Second, that as an archival item, it was too valuable to simply dispose of, even if a negative part of their history.
I think, in the world of political assessment, and in retrospect of Saddam and his potential threat to the western world… specifically targeting the US… it is just another piece in the puzzle that the claims that Saddam was “contained” or harmless because he was not “secular” are simply horse manure. Smoking gun? Nope… but definitely a warm, recently fired firearm.
BTW, Robison’s read, released prior to the Pentagon Perspective reports, is a seriously good read. Obviously an author ahead of his time in interpretative analysis… as was his job with ISG. While few care about historical retrospect, I highly recommend reading this one. Takes the political spin off of alternative universe paths…. i.e., could the nation afford allowing Saddam to continue his underground, off the grid alliances with terrorist groups?
Wm T said:
Does Ivan’s approach remind anybody of Assange’s?
Yes, you’ve nailed me. Blown my cover. You see, in 2008, when I gave McCain $1,000 on the day he selected Palin, I gave said money just to enhance my credibility as hated her all along.
Now tell me, William, which voice in your head told you that I’m an Assange in reality?
🙄
I wonder why Ivan is so fascinated with Palin?
I wonder why he fears her so much?
lol
Ivan, you routinely insult and are obnoxious. Then you pop on here and expect a serious discussion?
@Wm T Sherman: #26
I quit using Google when I found out they didn’t decorate their home page logo for Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day until the conservative blogs complained about it. If military people knew this, I am guessing they would quit using Google. Now, you have passwords and other personal info they got over WiFi from their Street View car and are storing it. They said it was a programming error. They were just finding WiFi locations. How can you ACCIDENTALLY program a computer to receive WiFi passwords and other personal info and STORE it?
The Feds were investigating it just like other countries are, until one of the Google execs had a $30,000 a plate fund raiser for the liberals and the investigation ended. Google also sells your search info to advertiser so they can target you. I live near Philadelphia and had lots of ads appear advertising stuff in the area. I wondered how they knew I was in that area.
Google also edits there search helps if they don’t want you going to certain web pages, and sometimes they will display a window that says that the web site you are trying to go to could harm your computer. Those are the ones you should go to. Google has donated millions of dollars to liberals.
There are three search engines I know of that guarantee they do not keep track of your search info. They are:
http://www.ixquick.com/
http://proxify.com/
I have been using these for some time now and am very satisfied with them.
Ivan, my point of course was that your approach was similar to the one laid out in the earlier Assange romance thread, not that you are Assange.
Manipulative in a particular way.
What a stunning lack of reading comprehension. How can you establish your superiority at this rate?
@Ivan
Which poll are you talking about? Source?
Also WHO CARES WHAT THE NUMBERS ARE? Seriously we are too far away from any kind of primary, not to mention she hasn’t stated she was going to run in the first place. So this current poll you are referring is really irrelevant.
As for the support of the “Free” trade agreements of South Korea and Columbia. Again as stated by Nan G #24, the current administration supported enough to make it happen about 2 weeks after the story you quoted. Again big deal.
I don’t care that you gave $1000.00 to the McCain/Palin ticket that still doesn’t exempt you from from PDS. There are several policies and political figures that deserve much more attention than what you and the left have provided to Palin and her beliefs.
Smorg, what I’m talking about is not Google-specific. The owner of a web site can see information about search hits, hits that have occurred via any search engine. If the web site owner is clever about getting you to search for something that is very seldom searched for, and they know approximately when you must have done the search, then they will be able to tell that the IP address of a particular hit is most probably yours. The IP address can tell them roughly where your computer is located in the world, withing a few blocks. And, they can then look for other searches that occurred using that same IP address. What you search for on the internet can tell them quite a bit about you.
I’m saying, be wary about being sent on wild goose chases for obscure, seldom-searched-for information.
Wm T. #34, . . . absolutely, . . . I also noted on another post by Curt, that there are plenty of opportunities for things to go horribly wrong for users who aren’t careful.
I remember steam locomotives from my early childhood; the trailing smoke; the distant sounds of chuffing and whistles carrying across frozen fields on a cold winter night. I was born at the end of that era, as steam locomotives were rapidly giving way to electric/diesel locomotives. Back then, most midwestern towns of any size still had their railroad depots. Passenger trains were a routine means of travel. Radio was the media of the day. Telephone booths were everywhere. People wrote letters by hand which they mailed for the price of a 3-cent stamp, and quick communication at a distance often involved a telegraph office. Much of the daily-use technology we now take for granted existed only in science fiction.
I wish I could revisit that era for a week or two. If I could, I’m not entirely sure I’d use my return trip ticket.
@Wm T Sherman: #34
Thanks for the extra info. The only thing info about me will tell anyone is that I go to mostly conservative web sites.
@Greg: #37
If you are near Mt. Pleasant, Iowa in September, you can go back in time at the Old Threshers Reunion. I am sure other states do the same thing.
http://www.oldthreshers.com/
I know one woman who took a wagon train vacation and lived like the earlier settlers.
WhenI was a kid, I was a locomotive fireman for awhile in Cheyene, District 4. The 3900’s were a 4-6-6-4, and the 4000’s were 4-8-8-4 and weighted a cool 1,000,000 pounds.
Wm T. Sherman:
Manipulative in a particular way.
I asked two very, very simple questions about the woman’s policy statement and the recent polling.
I was curious, as you people tend to support her, what you thought of her stand on Free Trade and the recent polling.
The fact you couldn’t answer these simple questions mean she’s nothing more than personality cult here.
Is she better than Obama? Sure, but that isn’t saying much.
Could not answer? No, chose not to. As I pointed out, if you want to be a disingenuous, insulting crank one day, don’t expect that history to be disregarded if you suddenly start trying to act normal the next day.
Asking for opinions about one small section of all knowledge, while being obscure about what aspect of it is meant, and immediately jumping to condemnation for not providing what you would consider a satisfactory answer, is exactly the M.O. of that crank who wasted his hours promoting the nuclear fusion cult . Like him, you didn’t really want an answer. You just wanted to begin shaking the belief system of the people you are addressing. You should be better informed about exactly what a belief system is, before you start trying to undermine it. You are the Palin obsessive here, not me.
Polling: it does not mean much this far from the election. The election is two years away. Recovering from low poll numbers happens all the time. Also, as I pointed out, and which you ignored, this is not a Palin for President site. There are varying degrees of support for her candidacy. I don’t even have a distinct point of view yet.
Trade: You did not provide a link to exactly what you were referring to until asked. That is a bad sign. When I went to the link you provided about the trade agreement statement, what I found was a fairly long essay that deep in the middle, very briefly gave favorable mention to new free trade agreements with South Korea and Columbia.
I haven’t read the agreements. What’s wrong with them? Is free trade simply a bad thing? Or, do they claim to promote free trade but not really do so?
You no doubt recall the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill from the Great Depression. It is generally blamed for making things worse. What’s your position on that? Want to go against the grain?
WTS said:
Could not answer? No, chose not to.
Smart man! No sense in defending the indefensible. 🙄
So Ivan – don’t you support Free Trade or would you prefer if nations stopped trading between each other – or ramp up import tariffs and watch as other countries do the same which leads to trade wars and where value for money on goods & choice declines and the losers are the consumer.
@Gaffer:
You should be aware going in that Ivan is a loon.
@Aye
Maybe I’m wrong but I always thought the one thing conservatives and economic/classic liberals should agree on is the benefits of free trade. Of course Mata is right that the devil is in the detail and any country needs to ensure that they get a good agreement but I believe protectionism is counterproductive and often shores up inefficient businesses.
@Gaffer:
You’re correct…the devil is in the details and it’s important for the participants in trade agreements to hold out for the best possible deal that they can get.
Protectionism is not good and those, like Ivan, who appear prepared to push for such ideas are living in a long gone era which is totally disconnected from the realities of a global economy.
As I said, Ivan is a loon on this and many other issues.
First you accuse everyone here of being “Palin for Prez” fanatics, when that subject hasn’t come up in this thread. And in fact, one can admire a conservative woman and her unquestionable power amongst voters without preconceived notions INRE her 2012 nominee status. Palin isn’t my first choice.. and I don’t know who my first choice is yet. I’m still in wait and watch mode for a real conservative leader. The next year will reveal much.
But I will add, when you consider that all the pundits are talking about Romney, I’d welcome Palin over Romney any day. Don’t need Mr. “I stand with the Kennedy’s on wind farms and I love health care mandates” Romney on the ticket… a move that I guarantee you will drive me to a 3rd party vote in a heartbeat. I’m tired of voting between rocks and hard places.
Secondly, as I have pointed out to you at least twice, you aren’t asking a question, you are merely parroting talking point phrases. I understand you’re a PaulBot. But you can’t point out anything in any of the trade agreements specifically, and therefore any debate you try to instigate… just because you throw out the hip phrase, “free trade”…. is utterly meaningless. As I said, you lumped both the SK and Columbian agreements under your “free trade” talking point umbrella, and yet they aren’t the same in the details. And, in fact, Obama helped construct one with some union support, and opposes the other. Obviously, they have some major differences in specifics that you prefer to blanket over with buzz words.
This is actually somewhat amusing because I’m probably the prime person here to be closest to your protectionist PaulBot personality on these issues. But then, you may have gleaned that I’m not a fan of these one way trade agreements when I said to you, what “free trade”? It’s “free” for other countries, but cost this country quite a bit.
Mr. Aye Chi: I’m well aware we live in a global economy… (for those that will be angry with me, again, wandering off the traditional “conservative” reservation)…. but we are far beyond the point where we are financially capable of absorbing tariffs for our exports, and allowing imports from the same countries to flood thru the door tariff free.
But… I don’t give a whit about Palin’s endorsement, the GOP endorsement, or anything else on these agreements. As I said, both parties will give away the American farm… just as they’ve been doing for decades. That is just as sure as both parties are going to spend this country into it’s demise. We’ve already learned, in under two months from a major midterm election, that the difference between the two parties is just a hair’s breadth. With Dems, we die by slashing the wrists. With the GOP, we die from the thousand cuts.
I guess, if I’m trying to live the rest of my life under anything that resembles the country of my childhood, the death from a thousand cuts is the only choice. But it is not one I choose with my heart. And I draw the line at Romney.
Mata, #49
Well said. The question of trade is infinitely more complex than the MSM or trolls pretend. It is almost impossible to read anything on trade that delineates each situation effectively. The challenge rests in the fact that most trade relationships of significance between major nations, hold threads of dependence on parameters outside “trading.”
America’s principal trading “partners,” (a mostly inappropriate term) vary widely and no two can be treated the same way. For example, China absolutely cannot and should not be treated with the same broad brush as Canada or Japan. . . . Some trolls demonstrate lack of any insight when attempting to bait for one or the other side of the inane “Free Trader / Protectionist” fulcrum.
The answer to these decisions and to all ensuing such negotiations rests, as in most of the big National questions, on Leadership.
Who do we want defending our interests at the negotiating table making critical, incisive decisions? Do we want someone with self confidence, and broad experience? Or do we want an inexperienced wimp? Personally, I’ve got all the time in the world for someone who can grasp the deeper elements of a situation, and make assertive, determined decisions, even if that individual occasionally makes a mistake.
The current leadership is not respected by anyone of consequence. From Beijing to Moscow, the rolling eyeballs are tiresome, but they provide a measure of the disintegrating respect the world has for the Administration. America may be suffering from an extended recession, but it is still China’s most important customer, for example, and that relationship should be negotiated with more “attitude” than the pathetic stance that has been taken recently, by Obama, Geithner, (I still can’t believe this drip hasn’t been turfed) and Clinton.
The learning curve on World Trade is a very steep one if All You Know came from Marx, Engels and Mao’s Little Red Book. Trade agreements are both Economic and Diplomatic tools from what I know. So far Team Obama got punked on those that are of His Regime’s creation.
So the Nation will continue the Trade Deficit, Manufacturing will continue to enrich our Partners as Industry in the US will flee both over regulation and taxation. As the jobs go away, Unions lose bargaining chips.
A WIN/WIN for China and Asia as a whole and the US takes it on the chin exponentially. Economic Illiterates, Academic Buffoons and folks that never ran a business for a Profit on the US side but negotiate Agreements and Treaties continue to blunder on…much to our detriment.
OT: This one hurts, it is hard to fight when you are already on your knees.
@ Skookum, You can thank that 53% of the American Voters that ‘selected’ this POTUS, the 110th and 111th Congress and the Ill Educated, Under Experienced Team of Idiots that Obama put in place to do his dirty work at making the US a Second Rate Nation. Not a ONE of them ever ran a business for a profit but know how to wreck what we have left…
I’m very Proud to be an American but very ashamed that it has come to this. While Obama re-arranges the deck chairs on the Titanic I just wonder what the Voters were thinking of, IF they thought at all in 2006 and 2008. Bush appointed Bernanke and I fault him big time for that. But this is not a joke…
How about some music to go with that?
Yeah, I have a sense of humor but this nonsense has gone too far now. Stuck in Brussels, Belgium right now. Big Snow. Nothing is flying in or out…
JR in his eloquent way painted the picture too well in his posting. I concur with him 100%.
It’s 1:37AM CST. I’m watching the eclipse of the moon. The sky is hazy and the moon is now completely shadowed by the earth. What a strange end to a strange year.