smjjames

Increasing the deficit didn't stop Obama from being re-elected. Still, Trumps re-election, (or any other president in the past for that matter) rides a lot on the economy, which he is well aware of. Anyways, I'm not convinced that his adminstration can handle a downturn well enough not to completely botch it. It's probably going to depend a lot on the cause behind the downturn and how severe it is.

That's what I thought too, that it looked like Bernie Sanders with a beard, but wasn't sure if it was supposed to be someone else.

Seriously? He looks like the politically correct non-offensive euro-billionaire "terrorist" villain from a Vin Diesel or Bruce Willis movie. Who exactly is that anyway? Or did ktchong pick some random old guy pic?

trump can't drop out, 'cause that would make him a quitter and a loser. the president's world view couldn't handle such a fundamental shift. worse for republicans, even if trump did announce he weren't seeking reelection, 1/3rd o' republicans would still vote for him as a write-in candidate. it don't matter what trump says. president may opine how the sound from windmills causes cancer and his peeps either claim he is joking or they embrace the idiocy with full force. when he first started claiming windmills were evil, he said they decreased property values by 50% (no study backed anywhere near such numbers)... then 65%... and is now 75%. wait six months and trump will get windmill property value drops up to 110%, and folks will still believe him and/or refuse to contradict. trump announces he isn't running? many o' his supporters would insist he were joking, or that he meant something complete different from what he said. Cases of mass hysteria throughout history add trump following to the list. beyond baffling how it don't matter what trump says or even does. HA! Good Fun! He's already invested way too much to just randomly quit running now. Though he could very well sabotage himself via various ways without actually planning to. Tucker Carlson is probably observing the 'Trump isn't actually playing 10 dimensional hyperchess' effect. Hold up. So the same jackasses that rail against feminism in general declaring that it's become a witch hunt and to be mindful of due process and so on, have no problem using the exact same tactics they denounce about, to smear political opponents when it's convenient? I suppose a case could be made that this is in fact a sort of twisted, slippery slope-type parable that's meant to teach the risks of such tactics, but I firmly believe that such subtleties are well beyond what your average "youtuber" can accomplish, and it would be wasted on their audience anyway -- as your post evidences. @protagonist: Uh, because he didn't actually commit a crime?

They still can't decide: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47781009 Theres gotta be a better way to resolve this... Also, a week or two ago, I saw an article saying that a former Irish PM (well, a former politician, I forget who) said that they could ttry public commissions or something which are common in NI or something. That idea would have been good to suggest two years ago.....

How much of it would be recoverable though? If that's the estimated recoverable amounts, that's not very much compared to most of the world. Though the natural gas field sounds like it'd be one of the larger ones out there. Probably too late for Afghanistan to jump on the oil train, but it could still be part of a diverse economy since it's pretty rich in other mineral resources.

@KTchong: Does Afghanistan even HAVE oil? It does have other mineral resources though. I thiiinnnk GD is being not-so-serious there with being nihilist in an ironic fashion. Anyways, they've also been bungling it pretty much every step of the way, not deciding what they want before pulling the trigger on article 50, wasting time with a snap election, and a bunch of other things. Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but still.

Sounds like it's a different thing from the routine hearing that he was going to do in mid-April.

I believe he is Czech. Forget whether Czech Republic or Czechslovakia though. I thought he was testifying in mid-April? Like, second or third week of April. Unless that's different from the already planned DOJ budget hearing thing.

And on top of that, the California GOP is on life support. Not dead neccesarily, but not completely impotent either. If any part of the GOP that is likely to show signs of adapting, it would likely be the California GOP, but I haven't heard any signs of that happening. OC may very well be where Bill Weld thinks he could gain some traction, or even California in general.

Who's Phil the Greek? A royal family member?

Missed by over 20 minutes, anyway... Every. Single. Indicator. Vote. Got. Voted. Down.. O.o How.... just how does this happen? I'm a mix of O.o and WTF here, lol. Since they don't want any of them, that kind of leaves the only option to either pull the plug (revoke article 50) or commit economic seppuku (Brexit crash through). Or maybe let the Queen decide if they're so helpless? I mean, Queen Elizabeth has gotta be seriously facepalming here.

Well, that too, but it doesn't stop the Republicans from trying to pin it as what Democrats are actually doing.

@Gifted1: It was a troll attempt by the GOP since they're basing their criticism off of a draft that wasn't even close to ready for the light of day.

Bah, you beat me to it (by like 20 minutes anyway), but here's the links for the two liveblogs with reactions from MPs. Theresa May says that she'll step down before the next phase of the Brexit proccess. During the summer, possibly earlier. The Guardian liveblog link. Reactions to that are past the linked posts on both liveblogs. Politics....

Would be nice if Republicans like him would actually give their own proposals and counteroffers. The fact that the Republicans don't offer their own ideas is the reason why the New Green Deal is a thing. Can't have a true discussion of ideas if the other side doesn't have any ideas of their own and keeps rejecting all of the other sides.

Huh, someone on another forum I'm on noted that one of Smolletts lawyers is apparently Mike Geragos, the co-conspirator in Avenattis sleazy extortion scam stuff. That could possibly have been a factor in the whole charges getting dropped, no idea.

There was also the fact that the prosecutor either recused or quit the case due to being familiar with Smollett in some way. Which seems to have happened recently rather than at the start of the case, for some reason.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/3/26/18282425/jussie-smollett-hate-crime-attack-hoax-charges-dropped They claim that it was a deal that they made while Smollets people say that it wasn't a deal that they made. Obviously there are stuff like plea deals and out of court settlements, but this still seems weird.

I wonder if there’s more to it because a case wouldn’t necessarily get killed just because the prosecutor or judge refused themselves.

How even does one get North America down almost perfect without going into the details of the coastline while giving South America a misshappen, well, shape.

Is that actually wood or ceramic? Also, South America is strangely misshapen, but I can't tell if it's because geography fail or because it's getting burned off faster for whatever reason. Anyways, I don't really get the reasons for dropping charges, something about not prosecuting via court of public opinion? edit: Looking at the article, it sounds like a buttload of conflicts of interest?

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/25/weld-april-trump-primary-challenge-1235859 Weld somehow thinks he's going to be competitive in the New England area and possibly gain traction in California. Also, didn't John Huntsman Jr. try the NH focus strategy and totally bomb out of the primaries? As for California and other places where it's possible to vote cross-party, it's certainly possible that some will vote strategically to undermine Trump (and I'm thinking of doing so, should the opportunity arise), but it'd probably be more effective during the general than the primaries. He's barely going to be more than a non-biting gnat, though if he manages to get under Trumps skin, kudos to him.

Yeah, just wiki'd it and edited my previous post.

Who the heck names their kid 'Piggy'? Unless you typo'd and meant Peggy. edit: Oh, nickname of Robert Muldoon apparently. Lawyer turns out to be a sleazy lawyer? Who knew! /s I don't think people really took him seriously, though he was included in speculative lists sometimes.