Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News

Drudge Retort

User Info

cutiepie

Subscribe to cutiepie's blog Subscribe

Menu

Special Features

Comments

__________
The key is here:

FTA: |------- Trump's fascination with autocrats generally and Putin in particular has been well documented for more than a decade. In 2013, he posted on social media that his hosting of a beauty pageant in Russia might win him Putin's approval.

"Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?" he wrote.

That was followed by years of attempts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow - an effort that continued straight through his first run for president in 2016, it came out later. Trump asked for Russian help to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton that year, and then knowingly used the hacked and stolen emails that Russian spies released during the final month of the presidential campaign.

Then, as both special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee investigated Russia's role in his victory, Trump eagerly bought into a conspiracy theory concocted by Russian operatives that - contrary to the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia helped Trump win in 2016 - it was actually Ukraine that had tried to help Clinton win.

Trump sent his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to Ukraine to collect evidence - an effort that ultimately led to Trump's attempt to extort Zelenskyy into announcing an investigation into the Democrat he most feared in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, using U.S. military aid as leverage. Trump was ultimately impeached for that act, but the Republican-led Senate declined to remove him from office.

Trump's personal antagonism toward Zelenskyy, perhaps stemming from that episode, seems to have continued unabated...
-------|

To paraphrase Corleone, for Trump "It's not just 'business,' it's personal."
__________

__________
#38 | Posted by brass30 at 2025-02-25 10:06 PM
So break this down for me. ... Ukraine is giving something, I assume they get what in return? And is Ukraine simply giving up the land lost in the war?

It's a nothingburger, PR opportunity for Trump. No one is getting anything of real value, it's MOU - Ukraine is not getting a defense guarantee and is only giving "access" to REE mining in the areas that are now occupied by Russia - just as agreements with financial firms like BlackRock and JPM and several E&P companies to develop gas fields and help post-war reconstruction, signed before and after Russian invasion.

Just another Trump's Apprentice s**tshow to stroke his ego, after his opportunistic extortion offer bombed ("Can't blame a guy for trying, right?") He will sell it as a "great win and looking after the American people."

Putin is selling Trump the same "access" to the same REEs in "new territories":

www.newsweek.com - Map Shows Ukraine's Rare Earth Minerals That Putin Wants To Sell to Trump (!)

www.newsweek.com - Ukraine Defies Trump As Zelensky Unanimously Backed

.

#37 | Posted by Corky at 2025-02-25 10:05 PM
In the news, as it turns out, there's something else going on here. The 'valuable minerals' were said to be valuable by Russian studies decades ago using antiquated techniques. Also, experts say it could take that long again to extract enough material to make it worthwhile.

REEs are not rare. www.usgs.gov - USGS | Rare Earths Statistics and Information

www.usitc.gov - Recovering Rare Earth Elements from E-Waste: Potential Impacts on NdFeB Magnet Supply Chains - October 2024 {PDF, 41 pg}

With BEVs and "renewable energy" losing their popularity (b/c batteries are expensive and don't "save the planet" from "climate change," among many other issues) the need for and prices of many REEs have been dropping almost as fast as the price of Bitcoin, DJT, $TRUMP and $MELANIA.

e.g., REE-adjacent Li: carboncredits.com - The Lithium Paradox: Price Plummet, Supply Surge, and Demand Dip? - September 16, 2024

China is dominant in production, but from 2019 to 2022 the US was the world's largest global exporter of REEs.

More valuable than actual supply and extraction is the processing / separation of REEs from ore (like oil refineries for crude) where China has distinct advantage because it invested in that.

KoBold Metals, a company funded in part by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has been looking for suitable new REE mining locations in Greenland for 2 years, but is currently more interested in African locations. Large potential deposits have been recently found in Wyoming, Canada, Norway...

According to a 2022 report, Ukraine has ~5% of the world's mineral resources, including 22 of the 34 "critical" - lanthanum, cerium and erbium, etc. - and has ~500K tons of lithium reserves, and 20% of the world's graphite, used in nuclear plants. Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine where possibly 40% of metal resources are located.

public.flourish.studio - World's map of known mineral deposits (JPG)
__________

__________
#8 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2025-02-24 09:33 PM
#9 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2025-02-24 09:34 PM
What has Ukraine ever done for you? ...
Because they're broke --- ------- who cant even afford themselves? Just an idea to ponder...

Have you and Tucker Carlson** been coached together? Because this is one of the stupidest talking points that Russian assets club of "Make America Go Alone" use to deflect from dictator Putin invading Ukraine to subjugate it, erase national identity and fold it into "glorious Russian Federation Empire" before moving on to subsume other countries ... "because they're broke --- ------- who can't even afford to defend themselves. Just an idea to ponder..."

** https://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2022/a-mere-border-dispute/ :
TC: "Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia?" Carlson said
as he then recited a rightwing tip sheet of pet causes.

So we know what Putin has done for "private messenger" Carlson - in addition to not calling him racist, he "educated" him on Russia-Ukraine "history" in the Moscow interview, and (instead of taking him hostage) let him have a tour of subway and "univermag" (department store/supermarket).

We know what Putin has been doing for his bully asset (aka "man of peace") Trump.

What has Putin done for you?

Czechoslovakia, Poland, Finland, Baltics "have done nothing" for UK and the USA in 1938-1939, so Neville Chamberlain came back from Munich with "Peace for our time" surrender and Molotov-Ribbentrop signed non-aggression Pact - how did that work out?


What message does this send to Taiwan or other Asian "for now" ("for sale?") allies? What confidence do they have that Trump won't sell them out "for peace or treasure" the same way he sold out Kurds and Ukraine?

If anyone has fantasies of the US becoming "great again" going it alone ("America First" / No to "globalism") and divide the world with brutal dictators, then you don't know there has been a very bloody and expensive history of it not that long ago - it would be a very Cold World for the "isolated Americans":

https://time.com/7006686/history-america-first-dawes/ - History Shows How Dangerous 'America First' Really Is - September 10, 2024

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Committee - America First Committee

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tatum - Paul Tatum (doing business in Russia)
"This is entrepreneurs' heaven. There's no telling how quickly [Russia] could develop and how much it could look like the United States in a very short period of time." - Paul Tatum in 1994... gunned down in Russia in 1996.

TrumPutin wants the USA look like Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/31/russia-ukraine-rubio-trump/ - Counting up the costs if the U.S. chooses to lose in Ukraine - January 31, 2025

This is about the future - not "globalism" or transactional "who has done what / how much for whom" in the past.
Not getting the vibe yet?
__________

__________
Argentina's President gets Impeachment Calls after Promoting Cryptocurrency

$WLFI, $TRUMP, $MELANIA, $LIBRA... - from "Crypto is a scam" to "Hey, crypto is a scam - I like it! Liquid gold! Crypto capital of the planet! Strategic Crypto Reserve! Sovereign fund!"

$LIBRA co-creator, market maker and "facilitator" Hayden Davis (a. Kelsier) who bragged "I control that n***a. I send $$ to his sister [Karina Milei] and he signs whatever I say and does what I want" revealed that insiders were able to buy into $TRUMP coin pre-ICO at "special access" dinner in DC... and confirmed that $LIBRA is a clone of $MELANIA and some other dodgy coins ($ENRON, $AIAI, $BOB, $M3M3/"Meme Launchpad"...) He also admitted that the team was sniper trading both $LIBRA and $MELANIA.

.

Eric Trump's tweet on eX-Twitter ("In my opinion, it's a great time to add $ETH. You can thank me later. " Eric Trump (@EricTrump) February 3, 2025) pumped $ETH over +35% in a day, after WLFI (Trump family-affiliated crypto investment firm / slush fund) accumulated 1826 $ETH before. "You can thank me later" part of the post was deleted shortly after... just like Milei deleted his post few hours after promoting $LIBRA.

He also tried to do the same pump with Bitcoin, which is also held by WLFI, but $BTC didn't move... Maybe BTC is bigger than Eric?


Eric Trump is also pushing for 0% cap gains tax for US (?) crypto "projects" (XRP, HBAR...), while Ted Cruz is fighting IRS about DeFi reporting rules.

.

Meanwhile...:

Bukele's El Salvador experiment with Bitcoin as legal tender is over, despite large number of the unbanked and installation of hundreds of Bitcoin ATMs. Beside many technical issues with rollout, it was never widely adopted (only 20% downloaded Chivo to get initial grant of $30 in BTC; ~6% of population used more than 3 times a year), and Chivo was hacked several times. IMF agreed to loan $1.4B (that much!) on condition that Chivo is sold or shut down, taxes paid in USD (not BTC) and private sector no longer mandated to accept BTC. Sorry, volcanoes.

.

In [un]related news:

Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey's defense company Anduril takes over multi-m/billion DoD contract for HoloLens IVAS project, transferred to them by ODM Microsoft... as predicted in November - Palmer is BIL of Matt Gaetz.
__________

__________
#19 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2025-02-16 08:34 PM
wait until you dopes see the theft and graft coming from congresswoman Jasmine Crockett..
pit this week. ...IRS is gonna want to see her shjvt.

So what you're acknowledging here is that DOGE really is Musk-run hacker organization, weaponized specifically to look into IRS files with the goal of finding dirt on people in Trump's "enemies list" and even disseminating it online (most likely using Trump's own eX-Twitter - the cesspool of propaganda and fake "news"), to intimidate or embarrass them?

...

BTW, your / DOGE / Musk's / Trump's effort of shjvt-spreading misfired miserably already:

atlantablackstar.com - MAGA's Smear Campaign Backfires Again As Jasmine Crockett Shuts Down Absurd $9M Net Worth Claim from DOGE Fan Page - The outspoken Democratic representative from Texas is on the defense once again, calling out the latest slander against her as "dumber than bricks.":

|------- ... Clearly, her attackers are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks " and for now, they seem to be having a difficult time of it.

... Just last week, disgraced MAGA influencer Ryan Fournier spun an elaborate lie that Crockett illegally diverted $500,000 of government funds to her "husband." For the record, she's not married, and Fournier quickly deleted the post once she called him out on social media.

... "All the while Elon is robbing the country blind... stealing from your farmers, grannies, and children, all while somehow getting hundreds of millions more in government contracts," she wrote, adding, "But y'all outraged about a easily disprovable lie and unfazed by an absolutely undeniable corrupt truth."
-------|

You should know better than trying to find diamonds in a sewer.
__________

__________
#13 | Posted by Maverick at 2025-02-16 11:26 AM | Reply
Under Dems leadership I can assre you the IRS went over Trump's tax returns with a fine tooth comb

Thanks for your "assurance" that they have already been "audited"... so, if they are no longer "under audit" why couldn't/can't we see them? Every other president had no problems producing them.

You know, in the name of "transparency" - that's what DOGE is supposedly doing, according to "very very special government employees" (Musk and Trump) and a number of other undisclosed "special" DOGE people (like "Big Balls" who had previously been fired for leaking sensitive info from cybersecurity firm to competitor) who are apparently excluded from "transparency" because "they themselves can decide" who has or doesn't have conflicts of interest, needs or doesn't need security clearance, who gets "divine forgiveness for 'human errors'" - applied by "very very special government employees" only to "very special government employees," but not real government employees or non-government employees/non-employees or...

transparency - the quality of allowing light to pass through so that objects behind can be distinctly seen; the quality of being easy to perceive or detect

It's quite transparent that transparency is the last thing on Trump's, Musk's, "MAGA" minds.

Trump's tax returns again, they were already stolen / leaked for all to see

Oh, don't play dumb and deflect. One "stolen (?) and leaked" return (which wouldn't be necessary if Trump were "transparent") from many years ago now constitutes "transparency" and we don't need to remember, ask or mention Trump's tax returns "under audit"? That's from/by a known conman who constantly talks about "corruption," "fraud" and "criminality" of anyone who doesn't sing praises to "their favorite Emperor" - who apparently "has no clothes" according to one 4-year old who saw him up close and personal in the Oval Office?

----

www.washingtonpost.com - It's too late for progressives to be careful what they wish for
Progressives sought an ever more powerful presidency. Now, to their horror, they have it with Trump.
- WP, 2025-02-12

www.washingtonpost.com - On the bright side, maybe Democrats and Republicans will be chastened
Trump's spree holds lessons for Democrats about presidential power and for Republicans about trade.
- WP, 2025-02-06

www.washingtonpost.com - A new version of Trump derangement syndrome'
Progressives overreacted during the first Trump administration. The president's supporters should not fall into a similar trap.
- WP, 2025-02-10
__________

__________
#26 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2025-02-14 08:54 AM | Reply | Funny: 1
Thanks Obama!

Not "Funny", unfortunately - more like, "Sad but True" - How "The Elon" was made... "seriously":

obamawhitehouse.archives.gov - []PDF, 3pg]

FACT SHEET: President Obama's Plan to Make the U.S. the First Country to Put 1 Million Advanced Technology Vehicles on the Road

In 2008, the President set an ambitious goal of putting 1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 " which would reduce dependence on foreign oil and lead to a reduction in oil consumption of about 750 million barrels through 2030. To reach that goal, President Obama will propose in his Budget a new effort to win the future by supporting advanced technology vehicle manufacturing and adoption in the U.S. through new consumer rebates, investments in R&D, and competitive programs to encourage communities that invest in advanced technology vehicle infrastructure.

...

The President's Budget proposes to make the United States the world's leader in manufacturing and deploying next-generation vehicle technologies through three new initiatives, expanding funding for vehicle technologies by almost 90 percent to nearly $590 million and enhancing existing tax incentives:

Making electric vehicles more affordable and accessible for American consumers:

A transformation of the existing $7,500 tax credit into a rebate will give consumers the ability to receive this benefit at the point of sale, similar to "Cash for Clunkers".

...

Recovery Act investments that have already transformed the advanced vehicle industry in the U.S.: ARRA included $2.4 billion for battery and electric drive component manufacturing, and for electric drive demonstration and infrastructure - investments that are already transforming the advanced vehicle batteries industry in the US.

...

Recovery Act investments will help cut battery costs in half, and make the U.S. a global leader in advanced battery production: As a result, in just the next few years, battery costs are expected to drop by half (2009-2013), the United States will be able to produce enough batteries and components to support 500,000 plug-in and hybrid vehicles and will have the capacity to produce 40 percent of the world's advanced batteries (2015).

...

GSA is preparing an initial purchase of 100 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that are anticipated to be delivered in 2011 together with more than 40,000 alternative-fueled and fuel-efficient vehicles that will replace aging and less-efficient sedans, trucks, tankers, and wreckers for Federal agencies across the country. ...
__________

__________
"Soft power" of USAid has been one of the principal and indispensable tools in winning the Cold War and instrumental in advancing and maintaining democracies and peace in the world, including the Middle East.




Aid to Israel comes back not only as purchase contracts for military equipment and munitions, but also as valuable cooperation in military, medical/biotech, STEM and other R&D.

Focusing on Israel as the source of problems in the ME - as the Soviet and later Islamist propaganda have done for decades - is misplaced and simply ignores the history and both tribal and religious issues in the region.

For example, nearly 14 centuries of war between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims; expulsion of Hashemites by Wahhabis from what is now Saudi Arabia in 1919-1925 - one of many Arab "Nakba"s in ME; the centuries of occupations by different Arab and non-Arab entities, like Ottoman Empire occupation of Levant (including "Palestine") until early 20th century (though Turkiye, under Erdogan, is making its way back, initially as a 'protector' to Syria); Trans-Jordan occupation of "Palestine West Bank" etc., etc.

Also ignored is that several major Arab countries, like Egypt, Jordan, UAE and others either have or expressed interest in formal peace treaties or informal peaceful and trading relationship with Israel, and have had their own long-standing problems with Palestinian factions who can't even settle on single leadership - IOW, no one to talk to about whatever the peace with them would look like.

Last attempt at statehood - with Yassir Arafat in 1993-2000 - resulted only in him getting some international legitimacy for himself and Fatah, then using it to ignite Second Intifada (2000-2005), which ended with much worse economic conditions for Palestinians, who before that had one of the best standards of living in Arab world due to trade and work in Israel or working for Israeli companies in the WB and Gaza. In economic terms, Israelis didn't mind having a "trade deficit" with Palestinians.

Leaderships of Palestinians have had many opportunities (at least, four) to have their own independent state(s), but rejected them to either join other Arab countries waging wars against Israel, or using Intifadas and terrorism to achieve 'Palestine' free of Jews, "from the River to the Sea."



__________

__________
#74 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2025-02-05 02:49 PM
TOLD YOU WHAT THIS WAS.
a tool
Iran has just made an "overture".

Iran has made many "overtures" before, during and after Trump-1 - "deny, delay, deflect" is their game, too.

BTW, here's Iran's latest "overture" over Trump shutting down USAID - Tehran, 2025-02-04:
Iran has rare praise for Donald Trump. Trump's cuts to U.S. foreign aid funding could stop the opposition in Iran.

Re "tool" - everybody knows it's a "tool" that only impresses and makes the "Apprentice" cult followers drool and makes Trump feel like he is a "great dealmaker," but except for show and ill will, delivers nothing of substance that couldn't be done with plain conversation with trade partners. But then, there wouldn't be a show, and no claiming "wins"... and what's the fun in that for Trump?

Maslow's Law: "When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - he only knows "this one weird trick" that is not needed with friendly small/weaker countries that rely on and value trade with the US, and doesn't work with stronger countries (like Canada, Mexico, China, EU-10 etc.) who can use counter-tariffs that will hurt US economy/employment, and could specifically target weaker industries, as we've just seen.

Tariffs should only be used in cases of product dumping (selling below their cost), but unfortunately has evolved to be used for protectionism (which didn't work), and now as an "invitation to [some] negotiation" - that's just stupid, and really invites trading partners to diversify their sales channels to depend less on unpredictable trade with US - that only hurts the US in the long run.

Not that Trump cares about the US or the "long run" - he "won" so many "great deals" that ended up in bankruptcies or shuttered businesses that he couldn't find contractors who would work with him and most banks wouldn't lend him money, so he had to launder money from Putin's cronies, before and even after "Apprentice" made him look like "successful businessman."

Here is what Murdoch's WSJ editorial says about the "tool" Trump and his "deals" - "... even though both countries agreed to do things they were already doing" :

|------- Trump 'blinked' before his tariffs could cause real damage
If the North American leaders need to cheer about a minor deal so they all claim victory, that's better for everyone. The need is especially important for Mr. Trump given how much he has boasted that his tariffs are a fool-proof diplomatic weapon against friend or foe. Mr. Trump can't afford to look like the guy who lost. [Claudia] Sheinbaum in particular seems to recognize this, and so far she's playing her Trump cards with skill.

None of this means the tariffs are some genius power play, as the Trump media chorus is boasting. The 25% border tax could return in a month if Mr. Trump is in the wrong mood, or if he doesn't like something the foreign leaders have said or done. It also isn't clear what Mr. Trump really wants his tariffs to achieve. Are they about reducing the flow of fentanyl, or is his real goal to rewrite the North American trade deal he signed in his first term? If it's the latter, there's more political volatility ahead.

Mr. Trump's weekend tariff broadside against a pair of neighbors has opened a new era of economic policy uncertainty that won't calm down until the President does. As we warned many times before Election Day, this is the biggest economic risk of Donald Trump's second term.
-------|

He may look like a "hero" and "genius" to his unquestioning adulating followers, but to the rest he looks to be a tool.
__________

__________
Cackling Putin Pals Celebrate Trump's 'Simply Sensational' First Week of U.S. Self-Destruction - DB, Julia Davis, February 3, 2025

|------- ... Vladimir Solovyov gloated about the latest developments. He said, "It's awesome, right? The Canadians and the Mexicans thought that all was well, but Trump told them, "By the way, I don't like you either." Solovyov played a clip of Trump announcing his tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which was followed by jolly cackling from pundits in the studio. ...

Sardaryan added, "I want us to pay very close attention to the latest statement of Marco Rubio, it was simply sensational. I had to re-check it three times from different sources because I got an impression that this was a statement by Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov - not Marco Rubio... He said what we've been asserting for three years." Sardaryan interpreted the words of the new U.S. Secretary of State to mean that the United States is abdicating its global leadership position in favor of multipolarity.

Sardaryan added that Tucker Carlson was unleashed to publicly "demolish Zelensky" because the Trump administration needs to devalue him in the eyes of the American population, cultivating public opinion to accept future decisions towards Ukraine that will be radically different from the approach of the previous administration. Sardaryan said that Rubio's statement demonstrates that America and Russia will finally be "speaking the same language" with respect to Ukraine.

Sardaryan noted how energized and happy everyone in Russia seems to be about the demise of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which aided countries recovering from disasters, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms. He urged Russia to capitalize on this development and step in to fill the void by creating a domestic equivalent of the program. He emphasized that this program wouldn't be based on philanthropy but rather serve as a tool to exercise influence over the countries that would benefit from Moscow's aid. He stressed, "Foreign assistance should be part of our foreign policy..." Solovyov concurred, "It could be a phenomenal lever."

In 2020, political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev predicted the disintegration of existing political institutions in the United States, prompted by Trump's outright rejection of bipartisanship, which will be replaced by an authoritarian system he is striving to create. Russian experts are happy to report that during his second term, Trump is doing just that. Andrey Sidorov, Deputy Dean of world politics at the MSU noted that the United States is now rapidly moving towards a dictatorship - and the American population won't be able to change this trajectory using the usual democratic means.

No longer fearing additional sanctions against Russia, Solovyov returned to his usual status as Trump's most influential Russian fanboy.
-------|

No surprises there, including Tucker Carlson role... but doesn't this have the tones of 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?
__________

__________
So why is Trump doing this?

For the spectacle and quick "Winning!" which he hopes will boost his "ratings" and standing.

But also, for the same reasons Dems have been doing it before, and Biden did just recently, when not only he didn't cancel Trump's tariffs, but added some new ones ("targeted," of course) - because certain segments of trad Dem constituency, like unions, are attracted to protectionism, and because it also perfectly fits Trump's fake "populism" and "America First" themes - his guru on this issue was lifelong Democrat Prof. Peter "Don't call it a trade war!" Navarro. It doesn't matter that the math or policy doesn't work - it worked/works politically for him, and that's all that matters to him.

It also made it difficult for Dems to explain why "Trump's tariffs are bad" when it's a policy they've been associated with all along.

www.yahoo.com - How Trump wins from his damaging trade wars - YFin, 2024-02-09

|------- The former president promised to boost American manufacturing through import tariffs and other protectionist measures, and it didn't work. Yet the voters Trump was appealing to rewarded him anyway, according to a new study by prominent trade economists. That may explain why Trump now says he'll intensify his trade wars if elected to a second term.

... Trump's first trade war helps explain why. The study, by economists David Autor, Anne Beck, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson, found that Trump's China tariffs did more harm than good to the US economy. Yet they boosted political support for Trump in key parts of the country. Whether through Trump's hucksterism or some other machination, voters seemingly embraced a policy that helped nobody and hurt some.

The study has three conclusions: First, the Trump tariffs produced no boost in manufacturing employment. Second, China's retaliatory tariffs reduced US agricultural employment. Third, Trump's farm bailout helped offset some, but not all, of the job losses in agriculture.

The Tax Foundation, for instance, finds that Trump's tariffs lowered US employment by 166,000 US jobs, with retaliatory tariffs killing another 29,000. The higher taxes paid by importers, meanwhile, amount to $74 billion in increased government revenue over a decade. Contrary to Trump's insistence, however, it's not China paying those higher taxes. It's American firms that import the products, pay the tax and pass the higher costs onto consumers.

The tariffs worked to Trump's advantage anyway.

... "The trade war appears to have been successful in strengthening support for the Republican party," the study concludes. "Residents of tariff-protected locations became less likely to identify as Democrats and more likely to vote for President Trump. Voters appear to have responded favorably to the extension of tariff protections to local industries despite their economic cost."

... The Autor study proposes two possible reasons Trump gained politically from tariffs that didn't really help anybody. The first is that "voters were misinformed about the employment impacts of the trade war." Trump certainly did his best to misinform voters. He called the two-way tariff escalation an "amazing deal" and a "momentous step" and repeatedly bragged about a manufacturing resurgence that never happened.

... Or, Trump made a deliberate and cynical show of trying to help, knowing it wouldn't matter. Sometimes, telling voters what they want to hear might be enough.
-------|

Because of general economic illiteracy and the allure of fake populism, often [both] parties choose "good politics / bad policy" over "good policy / bad politics."
__________

__________
Full text at:
upload.democraticunderground.com

...

Here in America, as we reflect on the many things we have to be grateful for, we should take a moment to recognize that one of the key factors behind our nation's great prosperity is the open trade policy that allows the American people to freely exchange goods and services with free people around the world. The freedom to trade is not a new issue for America. In 1776 our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, charging the British with a number of offenses, among them, and I quote, "cutting off our trade with all parts of the world..."

...

America's most recent experiment with protectionism was a disaster for the working men and women of this country. When Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930, we were told that it would protect America from foreign competition and save jobs in this country - the same line we hear today. The actual result was the Great Depression, the worst economic catastrophe in our history; one out of four Americans were thrown out of work. Two years later, when I cast my first ballot for President, I voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who opposed protectionism and called for the repeal of that disastrous tariff.

Ever since that time, the American people have stayed true to our heritage by rejecting the siren song of protectionism. In recent years, the trade deficit led some misguided politicians to call for protectionism, warning that otherwise we would lose jobs. But they were wrong again. In fact, the United States not only didn't lose jobs, we created more jobs than all the countries of Western Europe, Canada, and Japan combined. The record is clear that when America's total trade has increased, American jobs have also increased. And when our total trade has declined, so have the number of jobs.

Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helps strengthen the free world.

Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism, a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America's military strength and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies - countries that would use violence against us or our allies. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogs who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends - weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world - all while cynically waving the American flag. The expansion of the international economy is not a foreign invasion; it is an American triumph, one we worked hard to achieve, and something central to our vision of a peaceful and prosperous world of freedom.

After the Second World War, America led the way to dismantle trade barriers and create a world trading system that set the stage for decades of unparalleled economic growth. ... We want to open more markets for our products, to see to it that all nations play by the rules, and to seek improvement in such areas as dispute resolution and agriculture. We also want to bring the benefits of free trade to new areas, including services, investment, and the protection of intellectual property. ...

Yes, back in 1776, our Founding Fathers believed that free trade was worth fighting for. And we can celebrate their victory because today trade is at the core of the alliance that secure the peace and guarantee our freedom; it is the source of our prosperity and the path to an even brighter future for America.
__________

_________
Gallup poll:

At 47%, President Donald Trump's initial job approval rating for his second term is similar to the inaugural 45% reading during his first term, again placing him below all other elected presidents dating back to 1953. Trump remains the only elected president with sub-50% initial approval ratings, and his latest disapproval rating (48%) is three percentage points higher than in 2017, marking a new high for inaugural ratings.

Trump's current job approval rating, from Gallup's Jan. 21-27 poll, is not significantly different from the 51% readings earned by George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in the early days of their presidencies. However, initial evaluations of Trump differ in that Americans are much more likely to disapprove of his performance rather than have no opinion, as was the case for the elder Bush and Reagan.

John Kennedy had the highest inaugural approval rating, at 72%, followed closely by Dwight Eisenhower and Barack Obama, who both had strong starts with 68% readings. Jimmy Carter received a 66% approval rating, while Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and George W. Bush had ratings between 57% and 59%.

Although Trump's latest rating is weak compared with past presidents' initial readings, it is among the best he has received as president. His personal high point during his first term was 49%, which he earned on several occasions in 2020.

Trump averaged 41% approval in his first term and is the only president not to receive a job rating of 50% or higher at any point in his presidency. He left office in January 2021 with the lowest rating of his presidency, 34%, after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
_________

__________
#38 | Posted by boaz at 2025-01-30 03:02 PM
I don't know where you ... are getting your "polling" LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

From your own link - www.newsweek.com :

|------- ... [Trump] remains one of the least popular U.S. presidents in history. According to the Gallup poll, Trump still has the lowest approval rating of all elected presidents, dating back to 1953, and he remains the only elected president with sub-50 percent initial approval ratings.

An Ipsos poll conducted between January 24 and 26 showed 46 percent of voters disapprove of Trump, while 45 percent approve.
-------|

Don't you think it's pathetic and weird to celebrate Trump's "honeymoon" poll that is much lower than all previous presidents' at this stage except only his poll from 8 years ago?

|------- Trump began his presidency in 2017 with a 44.6 percent approval rating and a 41.4 percent disapproval rating, based on applying our current averaging methodology retroactively. Before that, the record low for initial net approval rating was set by former President George W. Bush in 2001, at +28 points. However, former President Joe Biden started his first term at +22 in 2021.
-------|

"Joe Biden started his first term at +22 in 2021" - despite being lower than all (except Trump-45) was still far and away better than Trump's "new and improved" second term... and how did that end?

What all these polls really show is that, while people rejected Dems and try to give GOP a benefit of the doubt, they really don't like... Trump.

This poll, like many others, just confirms that most people didn't vote for Trump, they voted against and "fired" Biden / Harris incompetent administration and campaign - just like voters in most European countries are attempting to 'flip' their unpopular governments, most of which happen to be left-of-center. But in UK, where they 'flipped' Tories, the Labour is already less popular than Tories were.

People want "change," no matter how pathetic and weird that "change" may be.


Just to show how bad Harris / Dems campaign was:

House was lost by about 7K votes - one of the closest in decades.

Harris lost 3 "Blue Wall" states by less than 230K votes - underperformed the margins of win for Trump in 2016 (lt 75K) and Biden in 2020 (lt 45K).

She underperformed in 4 states where 4 Dem Senators (3 of them women!) won - AZ, NV, MI, WI - wins there would put her within 5-6 EC votes, but still not enough to win! She absolutely needed PA but didn't choose the popular centrist Dem Governor of PA as her VP - which could have changed the tone and professionalism of campaign. Critical decision / mistake that right off the bat made electoral math and path to winnig incredibly difficult, and punctuated how unserious she / her campaign was to begin with. Tim Walz kept talking about guns and hunting - that shows they had no clue what the voters were concerned about, and how little they thought of the voters they needed to reach.

She underperformed J-Biden by a mile - when Trump reached 74M votes (same as his total in 2020) she had 11M less votes than Biden had in 2020 - again, EC voters that count (ex-CA/OR/WA) stayed home in droves / voted against Harris.

She needed and tried (once) to distance herself from Biden/Bidenomics but couldn't, because:
a) Loyalty
b) Her campaign was essentially run by [inherited] Biden's election team, even though she had time to put together her own - another critical mistake
c) She never had a "Sister Soulja moment" and kept trying to please "all sides" on many issues

Campaigns should add from a pool of available "undecided" voters, she managed to divide and subtract.
__________

__________
#26 | Posted by Hagbard_Celine
And look how much he's managed to do with such little support?

Presidents, especially "lame ducks" who just escaped prison time and are looking for revenge, "don't need no stinking support" to do the damage they are allowed (or even not allowed, but to be adjudicated later) to do by law. "Stroke of the pen - law of the land!" - Paul Begala on Bill Clinton's EOs.

Makes everyone that came before him seem ineffectual by comparison.

You are confusing "hyperactivity" with effectiveness and positive (in normal sense of the word) results - welcome to ADHD / Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder!

"Effectiveness" or "effectively" don't inform about the direction (positive or negative) or give a comparison to a standard of the given effect.

Quantity of activity doesn't imply quality of results. It's true that, in some cases, "quantity has a quality of its own" - presidency is clearly not that case.

Spitballing out loud, worse yet rashly acting on, dumb ideas that his "best people" provide to him, are signs of HD, not sound judgment. That's how Trump run into the ground and bankrupted nearly every business (including real estate and gaming), while stuffing his own pockets - yet still was broke until Mark Burnett (current US envoy to UK) stumbled onto him for "unreality TV" show Apprentice:

www.newyorker.com - How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success | With "The Apprentice," the TV producer mythologized Trump " then a floundering D-lister " as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency. (must read if you want to know more about Trump / "branding" / marketing / "power of media" / "unreality TV")

Enjoy the Celebrity Apprentice 4.0 s**tshow, if you want. You can also buy "matching" $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins and whatever else he's selling.

Unfortunately, unlike the weekly TV show we didn't have to watch, we must live in the "unreality TV" he is putting on. Hopefully the results won't be disastrous and irreparable for the US, like it was for his businesses.
__________

__________
#8 | Posted by MSgt at 2025-01-29 11:11 AM
"Rasmussen Reports surveyed 1,245 likely voters between January 21-23, and asked a very simple, straightforward question "Who do you trust more?" The choices were Donald Trump, the news media, or not sure. A plurality of 44 percent chose Trump. Only 41 percent chose the news media. Fifteen percent were unsure."

Whatever you think the "news media" is now - does social media and podcasts, where people get their "news" "fed" to them, count? - the "news media" has been polling less and less trustworthy for decades, so this "simple" poll - comparing new President to "something" most people don't have high opinion on and care about even less - in first days of Trump's "honeymoon" period is not only meaningless ("simply" designed to show Trump "winning" SOME poll - talk about bias!) but isn't at all favorable to Trump! 56% said he is not trustworthy, and that's compared to "news media" which usually polls in low 30s - latest 2024 media poll showed 69% have no or little trust in "major" news media.

Now Reuters/Ipsos poll just few days later (and still not "full Trump") Jan 24-26:
|------- Americans disapprove Trump's early moves, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
The poll had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.

"While it does seem Trump is getting a honeymoon to some extent, his numbers are still not impressive by historical standards..."

During Trump's first term, his approval rating hit as high as 49% during his first weeks in office but he closed out his term at 34% approval.

It may be too early to evaluate whether Trump is squandering his political capital... But the poll shows that many of his early actions have been supported only by his hardcore base. ...

Only 25% of respondents supported renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. 59% of respondents, including 30% of Republicans, opposed Trump's moves to end federal efforts to promote the hiring of women and members of racial minority groups. 59% of respondents - including 89% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans - said they opposed ending birthright citizenship.

Public is split along partisan lines on billionaire Elon Musk, Trump's most prominent ally. 75% of Republicans in the survey said they had a favorable view of Musk, 90% of Democrats said they had an unfavorable view.

50% of poll respondents said the country was on the wrong track when it came to the cost of living, compared to 25% who said it was moving in the right direction. The rest said they weren't sure or didn't answer the question.
-------|

So early polls are not great now and a lot of time to go down from here (as they tend to do with Trump) particularly because he can't do much about the economic issues the public really worries about (consumer confidence dropped and other numbers this week were not good and well below expectations)... not that he cares anymore. But the GOP at some point might.
__________

__________
#50 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-01-28 09:06 AM
Sitzkrieg with the tinfoil hat

No tinfoil. Nancy P. (and some other Congress-critters) ability to trade on inside info is one of the reasons why NANC/"Nancy" outperformed the "market," even with the reporting lag, price averaging and mixed with other, less "informed" Congressional trades in the fund. One could probably do better just tracking Nancy P. and few others in leadership positions.

That's also the reason for so many calls to ban members of Congress from active trading... yet this can lead to them "whispering" the trades to managers of their "blind" accounts, so no visible trades = no tracking funds or ETFs like NANC or KRUZ.

So, double-edged sword.

#41 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-01-27 08:40 PM
... but how the Chinese seem to have leap-frogged US tech companies.

DeepSeek didn't leap-frog US companies in technology... but it's definitely shown we may have to rethink some "AI"-related economics, especially for non-critical/non-RT environments, like consumer-facing LLMs.

Some of this may actually be very good for AI development ("faster, cheaper, better") but not necessarily for all current vendors and suppliers to AI industry.

Since it's open-source, several companies (e.g., Aurora Mobile) already announced plans to incorporate R1 into their existing products or tech. Inference engine and other logic/calc parts may be developed/enhanced/speeded up through discrete ASICs, to move further along.

Far from perfect analogy, but they are looking to build, at least initially, [on] cheap BYDs, while many are stuck on Teslas.
__________

__________
#19 | Posted by sentinel at 2025-01-27 03:03 PM
"I wonder how Nancy P knew to sell her Nvidia stock just under 2 weeks ago."
Probably uses AI.

You, too, "can invest like Nancy P" - with a little lag, but no AI necessary and, like "the Congress" outperforming "the market":

Two ETFs - Congressional Dems (symbol:NANC / "Nancy") and/or Congressional GOP (symbol:KRUZ / "Cruz")

|------- "We're often asked why... don't we simply hold the "best" traders in Congress or try to pick off member's options trades?
... We launched these ETFs to highlight what members of Congress are trading. We fully support banning members of Congress from active trading, as does Unusual Whales, our data provider.

When a member discloses a trade, we explicitly choose the midpoint of that disclosure range... no matter what the member actually bought or sold. This choice is what drives all the relative allocations in both NANC and KRUZ.

The wisdom of the crowd is once again delivering superior returns with less risk...

These holdings are all expertly managed, fantastic businesses that generate enormous cash flows. But it is telling that the divisions we see in politics are also present in the portfolio holdings between the left and the right.

The top 10 holdings of one ETF are Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Salesforce, Alphabet, Nvidia, Disney, Crowdstrike, Tesla, and API Group.
The other has ConocoPhillips, Shell, Accenture, NGL Energy, Philip Morris International, Fedex, Comfort Systems, Intel, United Therapeutics, and PayPal.

... The most important question for now is why the Democratic portfolio outperformed. It isn't that Democrats are necessarily better traders. Something more important is happening.

We are living through the early stages of what it is going to take to rebuild the world in NATO and non-NATO aligned customers, supply chains, and vendors. The U.S. restrictions on chips were really the early tremors of a decade-long decoupling. That takes time to evolve and will fundamentally shift the term structure of interest rates.

This instability is going to create cycles when a hopeful, optimistic outlook might outperform, and there are times when a value-based, everything-is-going-to-hell focus might outperform. ...
-------|

And if you did your DD on "Trump trade," since November 5 the coffee and cocoa futures are up about 50 percent... Far from Greenland... Then again, it just might be a "climate change trade"... Pick whichever "cause" floats your boat, if you care.

OT: Re DeepSeek, it's 20x-40x cheaper cost all-in, and about 50x less computational-intensive (think speed and energy cost) - so, yes it's a Big F**king Deal, even though it's trained on a very different set of data (for now?), so the comparative results are not really comparable at this point or near future.
__________

__________
Trump is not the only one who can play the stupid game of "trade wars" and "tariffs" - he will claim credit and say that "his tariffs" led to "favorable trade agreement" and that all the previous presidents didn't know how to "Make America First and Great Again."

Like a "geek show" as a prelude to "freak show" at circus - en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.

It's all part of the Celebrity Apprentice 4.0 s**tshow he keeps running to make him look the "man, the legend, like you've never seen before" and justify the "beautiful tariffs" - something about small men with small penises and "Napoleon complex."

www.rawstory.com - Canada vows 'Trump tax' on U.S. in response to tariffs" - AFP, 2025-01-20

www.reuters.com - Mexican leader stresses sovereignty, holds off on retaliatory tariff threats - Reuters, 2025-01-22

apnews.com - Mexico's President Sheinbaum offers sarcastic response to Trump's 'Gulf of America' comment - apnews.com - AP, January 9, 2025
|--- Claudia Sheinbaum suggested dryly that North America should be renamed "America Mexicana", or "Mexican America". "Sounds nice, doesn't it?" she added. ---|



www.newsweek.com - Only 20% of Americans Support Trump Pardoning Jan 6 Rioters: Poll - 2025-01-20

Seems, he "doesn't get no respect" anywhere, except from "blinded by the light" sycophants.


But all this "hyperactivity" is just a distraction from Trump staying out of prison, trying to get Nobel Peace Prize for "'peace' in the Middle East and the World" and the "Abraham Accords," and him and his family enriching themselves by selling worthless things and tokens to mindless adoring cult followers.
__________

__________
www.npr.org - What's An NFT? And Why Are People Paying Millions To Buy Them? - NPR, 2021-03-05

The NFT scam was more "sophisticated," somewhat legalistic about what partial "rights" one would acquire to a "digital art," and a lot more complicated, involving more steps to execute.

This scam is considered a "lottery" unless you are nimble and equipped with specialty trading bots networks, or receive non-public information on "coin" ICO, or pre-allocation.

www.nbcnews.com - Memecoins like Fartcoin are riding Trump's victory to huge valuations. - NBC, 2024-12-17

|------- Yes, it's called Fartcoin. Yes, it is totally useless.
And yes, it has nevertheless grown in value over the past week to a market capitalization of more than $800 million " about equal to those of Office Depot, Guess jeanswear, and the parent company of Steak N' Shake. ...

"A lot of it is people thinking, 'I can get some sort of edge by having a better chance at a lottery ticket..."

Memecoin buyers and sellers alike are, for the most part, aware that their trading activity amounts to the riskiest kind of gambling, Bautista said. It's all about exiting one's position to avoid getting left with "holding the bag" and failing to trade up and strike while the price is hot.

"Because they're worthless, you're betting on the 'greater fool,'" he said, referring to the idea that someone else will pay a higher price for a given memecoin. "You're thinking, 'I'm early to this, someone will buy the bags.' But there's no underlying... value." ...

Blockchain data shows at least one holder of a coin (PNUT) created in the wake of the Peanut the Squirrel incident last month, which involved the death of a rodent possibly being kept without permission by a New York man, is sitting on nearly half a billion dollars. ...

Bautista said that indeed, algorithmic trading, which has long been part of mainstream trading on Wall Street, is now routinely deployed in the memecoin space. He estimates that of the top-20 traded coins in crypto, half are memecoins whose trades are almost entirely driven by bots designed to spot and respond to price movements. ...

World Liberty Financial, a crypto project "inspired by Trump" ... Trump has been named as an eventual "financial beneficiary" of World Liberty.
-------|

This is description of $WLFI "coin" - "World Liberty Financial is the DeFi project backed by Donald Trump and his family members including Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump. World Liberty Financial is a project with the goal of strengthening the global status of the US dollar in the DeFi space" - which must be a sick joke, because the only purpose of these "coins" is to exchange these worthless "currency" into USDs.

As $TRUMP and $MELANIA "coins" show, apparently, even $WLFI cash-grab, along with pumped-up DJT stock scam, has not been enough.

insidebitcoins.com - Trump Family's World Liberty Financial Token Sales Surge Following $TRUMP And $MELANIA Meme Coin Launches - IBC, 2025-01-20
__________

Drudge Retort
 

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy