mtutiger

There were some bad ones... I even said it at the time. Although the moment that Donald Trump pardoned all the J6 rioters pretty much is a conversation ender in terms of "both sides" for me.... the scale and proportion isn't even in the same time zone anymore. Either way, my point is that I'm not going to take lectures from the same people who were all jawboning about "moral relativism" during the Clinton years. All that stuff was clearly bull****.

I argued against it at the time and still am against it, but from watching the first 100+ days of this administration, it's less of a slam dunk for me for the reason given the bolded. I agree completely.

Some family members have hit me with the "both sides" **** about Bill Clinton, and my response has simply that a) I was 9 years old when the impeachment happened and b) you guys were all talking about "moral relativism" and whatnot back then and, lo and behold, you're the moral relativists now! lol I have very little patience for that crap

And my point is that because of his lust towards these types of leaders and inability to discern what their actual motives are, he gives them free license to take advantage of us (and him) over and over again. Hence the comparison to Harry Ellis.... he's a moron, there is no strategy here. He's just an idiot that thinks he can talk a guy out of Putin, who actually has an ethos, out of deeply held convictions.

That's a "defeated Medicare" level ****up. I'm sure Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson are on it lol

I think we need to be honest and admit that Trump's worldview, one where everything is transactional and all about personal gain (ie. how he operates), isn't how every other world leader operates. And that Donald Trump isn't nearly self-aware enough to understand that himself. He was never going to end this war on day one because he doesn't understand either side of the conflict. He's Harry Ellis trying to talk Hans Gruber out of the whole Nakatomi Plaza affair. And we're all along for the ride.

Dave Mlicki had a Maddux... Dang

He's known him "a long time", yet he's shocked that Putin's bombing the ever loving **** out of Kyiv. It's farcical

Since we're talking about it, isn't there some irony to the "dO yOuR oWn ReSeArCh" crowd now outsourcing their cerebral cortex to Musk's ****ty AI?

I tend to trust those who do their own research and don't outsource their thinking to "Grok".... But maybe I'm just old fashioned like that.

Do you have any comment on the tornados that just hit Missouri, Southern Illinois and Kentucky??? And the fact that the feds (under Trump) have been apparently MIA there?

Lutnick's pitch is way too personal and defensive for it to be about talking points IMO

It's all good, Howard Lutnick says we gotta trust the greatest deal maker who ever lived, we're in good hands /s

Weird cultish obsequiousness aside, the fact that he's making this pitch on NEWSMAX... that's 👀

It isn't talked about enough how his tariff strategy basically boils down to "American Juche"

Wow

His advantage on the economy is pretty much gone in polling at this point, fwiw. MAGA will do what they are gonna do, but they are still a minority

I hate to overread his bleats too much, but the "NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS" bit has some real Streisand effect energy to it...

To frame it in a different way, much like COVID, do not be surprised if it's hard to hide from politics in the coming months. It hasn't fully hit retail yet, but working adjacent to the rail industry, container volume numbers have plummeted. And it really could start reflecting on store shelves soon enough.

Not gonna argue with your broader point (I'm still paying attention but posting less here)... But with regard to the bolded, I would have agreed a lot more 100 days ago. Much less convinced now.

It's been clear from various statements that he's made from Day 1 that he's pretty checked out in most things that aren't related to tariffs or his own personal vendettas. So yeah, it's absolutely a fair question

Does it even matter in the grand scheme of things? The bigger tell is that it demonstrates that they *know* their tariff policies are wildly unpopular. And the reality is that it probably doesn't matter; people are going to put the pieces together as to why they can't find a toaster on the shelf at Walmart in a few months.