US Politics Thread 2021-24

[Jimbuna]

If this is true I would be very surprised or shocked even.

(Reuters) - Israel and the White House on Thursday condemned remarks by Donald Trump in which he praised the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over an attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed more than 1,300 people in Israel.

Trump, a former Republican president who is the frontrunner to become the party's 2024 presidential nominee, called the Lebanese Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, "very smart" and accused Netanyahu of being "not prepared" for the Hamas attack, which also killed 22 Americans.

Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said Trump's comments to supporters and in a television interview on Wednesday night showed he could not be relied on.

It is "shameful that a man like that, a former U.S. president, abets propaganda and disseminates things that wound the spirit of Israel's fighters and its citizens," Karhi told Israel's Channel 13.

White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates called Trump's comments "dangerous and unhinged."

"It's completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran-backed terrorist organization as 'smart'," Bates said.

Democratic President Joe Biden has condemned the Hamas attack as "an act of sheer evil" and declared his unwavering support for Israel.

"This is a time for all of us to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against 'unadulterated evil,'" Bates said on Thursday. "That's what the President is doing."
On Thursday evening, Trump released a statement, saying there had been "no better friend or ally of Israel" than when he was U.S. president.

Several of Trump's opponents in the Republican contest also criticized the former president.

"It is absurd that anyone, much less someone running for President, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, Israel, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as 'very smart'," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wrote on X social media.

Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, another 2024 rival, said in New Hampshire: "This is no time for any former president or any other American leader to be sending any message other than America stands with Israel."

Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor and a Republican 2024 candidate, said on X that Trump was "out of his mind if he thinks that any candidate for President of the United States should praise the terrorists attacking one of our most important allies."

TRUMP-NETANYAHU RELATIONSHIP SOURS

Trump and Netanyahu had a close relationship during Trump's time as president, though cracks have appeared in their once ironclad rapport. Trump was annoyed when Netanyahu called to congratulate Biden on winning the 2020 presidential election against Trump, an election Trump still calls fraudulent.

Speaking to supporters in Florida on Wednesday, Trump said he was disclosing for the first time that Israel decided at the last minute not to take part in the U.S. assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in Iraq in a drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020, which was ordered by Trump.

Trump said Israel relayed to the United States on the night before the operation that it had decided not to participate. Trump said Israel officials did not explain why they came to that decision.

"I'll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing," Trump said, using Netanyahu's nickname.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip, in retribution for the deadliest militant attack on civilians in Israeli history, when hundreds of gunmen crossed the barrier and rampaged through towns on Saturday.

Israeli officials say the death toll inside Israel has risen to more than 1,300. Most were civilians gunned down in their homes, on the streets or at a dance party. Scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, including Americans, were taken back to Gaza; Israel says it has identified 97 of them.

Gaza authorities said more than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and more than 6,000 have been wounded in retaliatory air strikes by Israel.

(Reporting by Tim Reid, Nathan Layne, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Jeff Mason; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...7e79e48e&ei=11

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

If this is true I would be very surprised or shocked even.

“If this is true”. Just keep padding that post count.

I think he did touch on the truth, according to latest intel it’s said Hezbollah had been planing this for TWO years and days before the attacks we were informed by Egyptian and Saudi intelligence services something was afoot. So yes, leadership and Israeli and Western intelligence services should be called out and feel a little heat for not having a clue about the training and planning of an attack which took them, their citizens and everyone else by surprise.

Even some Israelis are questioning how intel services were ‘out smarted’ by a bunch of supposedly stupid primitive murderous religious asshats.

But we wouldn’t want anyone asking questions about that now would we? It’s better to just dismiss it out right or twist the argument into something about Trump to take the pressure off those responsible and hope it will all go away. It’s been hammered in your brain that to listen to Trump means you’re outcast, racist and should be ashamed and therefore your opinion doesn’t matter. The fools have been takin for a ride

Enough about the orange man and his personal problems they’re just distractions from more pressing issues we should be telling our representatives we want fixed before it really hits the fan.


A troubled world economy points to global catastrophe

BY DESMOND LACHMAN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 10/13/23 10:00 AM ET

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/...l-catastrophe/

Troubles are coming to the world economy — not as single spies, but as battalions. They are doing so on multiple fronts, in the United States, China and Europe. Coupled with renewed geopolitical strains in the Middle East, those troubles heighten the chances of a full-blown world economic and financial market crisis by the middle of next year.

Among the greatest threats to the U.S. and world economic recoveries is the recent spike in U.S. Treasury bond yields, the key interest rate in the world economy. In the short space of two months, the 10-year Treasury bond yield spiked from less than 4 percent to over 4 ¾ percent — a 16-year high. It did so in response to Federal Reserve warnings that interest rates would stay high for longer to contain inflation, as well as to growing market fears about how the U.S. government will fund its budget deficit, at 8 percent of gross domestic product.

The sharp rise in interest rates has already sent the 30-year mortgage rate toward 8 percent and substantially increased the interest rate cost for automobile purchases. This must be expected soon to constitute a major headwind for both home and automobile sales at the very time when most households have run through their pandemic savings and the government faces another shutdown.
It is also likely to exacerbate problems in the commercial property space where property developers are already struggling with low occupancy rates in a post-COVID world. The last thing that these developers needed was to have to pay higher interest rates on the more than $500 billion in commercial property loans that come due over the next few years.

Worse yet, the spike in Treasury bond yields must be expected to soon lead to a U.S. credit crunch. It is likely to do so by raising solvency questions in large swaths of the U.S. banking system in general and the regional banks in particular.
Even before the recent spike in bond yields, it was estimated that the U.S. banking system had more than $600 billion in mark-to-market losses on its bond portfolio. The further plunge in bond prices is going to add substantially to those losses. This puts the regional banks in a particularly poor position to absorb the expected wave of defaults on their commercial property loan portfolios, which constitute almost 20 percent of their balance sheet.

It would never be a good time for the world economy to have China, the world’s second largest economy and until recently its main engine of economic growth, move to a decidedly lower economic growth path. It would be a particularly inopportune time for such an occurrence when the United States appears to be on the cusp of a meaningful economic recession. Yet that is what now seems to be occurring in the wake of the bursting of that country’s outsized housing and credit market bubble. The bursting of that bubble, coupled with China’s very poor demographics, is now raising serious fears that China is well on its way to a Japanese-style lost economic decade.

Similarly, now would seem to be an inopportune time for Europe to succumb to an economic recession and to experience another round of its sovereign debt crisis centered on Italy, a country with an economy some 10 times the size of that of Greece. Yet that now seems to be very much in prospect as the European Central Bank continues to raise interest rates to regain inflation control at a time of economic weakness, and when the Italian government has introduced an expansionary budget while its public debt level is very much higher than it was in 2012. The German economy has now already experienced three consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, as the spread between Italian and German bond yields is increasing at a troubling rate.

All of this would seem to have clear implications for U.S. economic policymakers. The Federal Reserve should back off its high interest rates for longer mantra and start preparing for a world economic and financial system crisis. At the same, Congress should get its act together and start addressing in a meaningful way the country’s long-term budget deficit problem.

American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Desmond Lachman was a deputy director in the International Monetary Fund’s Policy Development and Review Department and the chief emerging-market economic strategist at Salomon Smith Barney.

Another US Congressman has traded stocks before the start of the Middle East Conflict, stocks that benefit directly from war.

Representative Markwayne Mullin disclosed purchasing up to $50,000 of Raytheon, $RTX, on Sept 13.

He sits on the Committee of Armed Services.


Let me guess, “ya but what about Trump!?”

[Jimbuna]

Morning Joe 6AM 10/15/23

[em2nought]

We really really need to be energy independent again, and we could be at the drop of a hat. Since sleepy joe is falling and tripping all the time I don't see why he can't drop a hat or two. Hunter takes a different kind of trip.

Unlike President Trump, I'm sure the press would give brandon a bye if he said everything he thought out loud so he could mull it over, or just because he loved the sound of his own voice. Of course even if sleep joe said it out loud none of us would know what the hell gibberish he was spouting.

[Rockstar]

FBI Director Christopher Wray warns of terror attacks on United States soil in relation to the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

Hopefully they will be taking a break from tracking down Trump supporters and political opposition to confront this.

Wray said the FBI has seen a large increase in reported threats since the attacks and said to be on the lookout for “lone actors”

‘In this heightened environment, there's no question we're seeing an increase in reported threats, and we've got to be on the lookout especially for lone actors who may take inspiration from recent events to commit violence of their own.”

A reported 1.2 million got-aways made it in since the ‘Big Guy’ took office because of a wide assed open uncontrolled southern border. It’s almost like it’s being allowed to happen so when some kook does strike, gubnent can create even more invasive laws and regulations. You know, to protect us.

Meet Jake Sullivan the Jim Kramer of foreign affairs the seemingly dim witted National Security Advisor who just 8 days before Hamas attacked said the middle east was the quietest he’d ever seen! He’s among those other Biden appointments I previously listed. The reason why we went from 4 years of peace and the Abraham accords. To giving Iran six billion dollars, 29 U.S. citizens killed, two carrier strike groups ordered to the Med, Israel invaded and the potential war for in the Middle East spreading uncontrolled like our own southern boarder.

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Morning Joe 6AM 10/15/23

Boy, that video aged well huh?

[Rockstar]

Interview was a month ago, said then he thought we’re beginning to see the effects of FED rate hikes. Get the feeling here no soft landing but rather a national recession is on the way.



Speaking of Jim Kramer, it’s been verified we are in for a National recession. If you ever watched Kramer you can bet your life savings that the exact opposite of what he says will happen

[Rockstar]

She actually said this while we are running deficits over $2 trillion per year.

Janet Yellen: US Treasury secretary says 'We can certainly afford two wars' then proceeds to divert attention from increasing debts to Republicans not having a permanent Speaker.

We’re stuck with it anyhow that’s for sure. First comes the boom then the bust. And by the way legislation will still happen with or without a permanent Speaker she should know that. In fact the legislation she’s talking about has already been introduced on October 10th and has a 86 percent chance of passing.


Janet Yellen: America can certainly afford two wars, US Treasury secretary says

In an exclusive interview, Janet Yellen urges Republicans to appoint a new House of Representatives speaker to enable greater financial support to be agreed for both Israel and Ukraine.


James Sillars
Business reporter @SkyNewsBiz

Janet Yellen has told Sky News the United States can "certainly" afford wars on two fronts, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas threatens stability in the Middle East and the US continues to support Ukraine's fight against Russia.

Talking exclusively to Wilfred Frost ahead of a meeting of finance ministers in Luxembourg, the US Treasury secretary said the economy and public finances were in good shape to ensure backing for US interests abroad.

She said it remained too early to understand the economic ramifications of the latest conflict, with oil and natural gas prices remaining volatile amid growing concerns of a wider war in the Middle East.

Those elements were key factors behind the energy-driven cost of living crisis that started facing Western economies last year.

She pointed to a big easing in inflation but appealed for Republicans to fill the void left by the removal from office of House of Representatives speaker Kevin McCarthy, in order for greater financial support to flow.

"We do need to come up with funds, both for Israel and for Ukraine. This is a priority", Ms Yellen said.

"It's really up to the House to find, seat a speaker and to put us in a position where legislation can be passed."

She added: "We stand with Israel. America has also made clear to Israel, we're working very closely with the Israelis, that they have a right to defend themselves. But it's important to try to spare innocent civilian lives to the maximum extent possible.

"America can certainly afford to stand with Israel and to support Israel's military needs and we also can and must support Ukraine in its struggle against Russia."

Ms Yellen's remarks followed her visit to the IMF/World Bank conference in Morocco last week when the much-discussed topic was the potential ramifications of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Iran has warned Israel against a full-scale ground operation in Gaza in response to the Hamas incursion over a week ago.

[les green01]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

She actually said this while we are running deficits over $2 trillion per year.

Janet Yellen: US Treasury secretary says 'We can certainly afford two wars' then proceeds to divert attention from increasing debts to Republicans not having a permanent Speaker.

We’re stuck with it anyhow that’s for sure. First comes the boom then the bust. And by the way legislation will still happen with or without a permanent Speaker she should know that. In fact the legislation she’s talking about has already been introduced on October 10th and has a 86 percent chance of passing.


Janet Yellen: America can certainly afford two wars, US Treasury secretary says

In an exclusive interview, Janet Yellen urges Republicans to appoint a new House of Representatives speaker to enable greater financial support to be agreed for both Israel and Ukraine.


James Sillars
Business reporter @SkyNewsBiz

maybe she found a couple of money tree's if so she can send some our way

[Otto Harkaman]

[Rockstar]

In 2006, a Green New Deal was created by the Green New Deal Task Force as a plan for one hundred percent clean, renewable energy by 2030 utilizing a carbon tax, a jobs guarantee, free college, single-payer healthcare, and a focus on using public programs

Ford, is laying off about 700 workers who built the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, per CNN.

It’s what happens when government controls the means of production. Makes me wonder how Ford is going to pay Biden’s $9.2 billion hand out from the US Department of Energy as part of Biden’s push to bring more electric vehicle production to the United States.

[Jimbuna]

While Donald Trump's fundraising machine hasn't slowed down, he's spending tens of millions of dollars on attorneys who are defending him in the various criminal cases he's facing – and that could cause him more legal woes.

The Associated Press pointed out Tuesday that campaign finance experts say that campaign money going towards his legal troubles, and not campaign-related expenditures, may violate a federal ban on the personal use of donor money – "even though the Federal Election Commission has ruled the prohibition doesn’t apply to so-called leadership political action committees."

"Trump’s Save America political action committee has paid nearly $37 million to more than 60 law firms and individual attorneys since January 2022, Federal Election Commission records show," the AP's report stated. That amounts to more than half of the PAC’s total expenditures, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign finance filings, and represents a staggering sum compared to other political organizations.

While most of Trump's PAC money went to law firms that defended him in his cases, the rest went to lawyers who represented his businesses, family, and other associates, which also raises legal questions.

“The way these cases get built is you persuade the little fish to testify against the big fish,” former federal prosecutor and criminal law professor Randall Eliason told the AP. “Well, if the little fish’s lawyer is being paid by the big fish, that’s less likely to happen potentially.”

Some donors who spoke to the AP don't have a problem with Trump using their money for legal expenses.

Stetson University College of Law professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy says paying defense attorneys with contributions could come back to haunt Trump.

"After the Mar-a-Lago and January 6th cases are done, I would not be surprised to see a personal use case against Trump for using these millions in donations that are meant to go to his political campaign going instead for the personal use of keeping him out of prison,” Torres-Spelliscy said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...8e8281e1&ei=18

[Rockstar]

Trump Committed Egregious Intelligence Breach, Ex-UK Spy Tells Court
By Reuters
|
Oct. 17, 2023, at 11:46 a.m.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/ar...py-tells-court

By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) - Donald Trump's decision to declassify evidence given by ex-British spy Christopher Steele over the former U.S. president's alleged links with Russia led to the disappearance of two sources, Steele said in court documents made public on Tuesday.

Steele said in a witness statement that Trump's decision to declassify his 2017 testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was "one of the most egregious breaches of intelligence rules and protocol by the US government in recent times".

The former intelligence officer also said: "Two of the named Russian sources have not been seen or heard of since."

His witness statement was made public on Tuesday, the day after Trump asked London's High Court to allow his data protection lawsuit against a British private investigations firm co-founded by Steele to continue.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is suing Orbis Business Intelligence over the "Steele dossier" in order, he said in his own witness statement, to prove its claims were false.

The dossier, published by the BuzzFeed website in 2017, alleged ties between Trump's campaign and Russia, and said Trump engaged in sexual behaviour that gave Russian authorities material with which to blackmail him.

Many of the allegations were never substantiated and lawyers for Trump, 77, said in court filings the report was "egregiously inaccurate", while the former president said it contained "numerous false, phoney or made-up allegations".

Orbis, however, says Trump is bringing the claim simply to address his grievances against the company and Steele.

'UNTRUE AND DISGRACEFUL'

Steele had given evidence in an interview with two FBI agents as part of Mueller's probe into an alleged conspiracy between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

Mueller concluded in 2019 that there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

On the last day of his presidency, Trump declassified Steele's evidence and provided a copy of his testimony to a journalist, Steele said in his statement.

"The publication of this document did serious damage to the U.S. government's Russian operations and their ability to recruit new Russian sources," Steele said.

Steele also said in his witness statement that he believed Trump was "motivated by a personal vendetta against me and Orbis and a desire for revenge".

He suggested Trump's discovery of Steele's friendship with his daughter Ivanka had damaged their relationship and also "deepened his animus towards me and is one of the reasons for his vindictive and vexatious conduct towards me and Orbis".

In his witness statement, Trump said Ivanka was "completely irrelevant to this claim and any mention of her only serves to distract this court from (Orbis') and Mr Steele's reckless behavior".

"Any inference or allegation that Mr Steele makes about my relationship with my daughter is untrue and disgraceful," Trump added.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

[Rockstar]

Trump Says He’s Prepared to Give Evidence in UK Suit With Ex-Spy

Jonathan Browning
Mon, October 16, 2023 at 9:24 AM EDT·2 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump said he is prepared to give evidence at a London trial as part of his legal fight over the notorious dossier that alleged ties between the Kremlin and the former US president’s successful run to the White House.

Trump kicked off his data collection suit in a London court against ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele’s Orbis business intelligence firm on Monday, saying he’d suffered “significant damage and distress” from the publication of the dossier. He’s seeking a judge’s ruling that statements in the report were false.

“A judgment of the English court on this issue will be an immense relief to me as it will completely confirm the true position to the public at large,” Trump said in a witness statement prepared for the two-day hearing at the High Court.

The Steele dossier made headlines around the world when it was leaked to BuzzFeed in January 2017 with allegations that the presidential campaign had been compromised by the Russian security service.

With the London lawsuit, Trump is opening a new front in his already crowded legal calendar. In the US, he faces four prosecutions, on top of two civil trials, as he runs to regain the White House. He’s expected to attend the civil fraud trial against him in New York this week.

Trump has continued to reserve his ire for Steele. The dossier contains “shocking and scandalous claims about the conduct of President Trump,” his lawyer Hugh Tomlinson said. He said Trump wanted a “vindication of his legal rights.”

Steele, who Trump once called a “lowlife” was retained by a Washington-based research firm in June 2016 to examine Trump’s links to Russia. The Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton hired Fusion GPS after Trump was headed for the nomination.

This week’s hearing will decide on Orbis’s bid to knock out the claim at an early date in the case. Lawyers for Steele’s firm argue the claim has no reasonable prospect of success and that Trump is merely pursuing a “vendetta.” Trump has a history of “harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge,” Orbis’s lawyers said.

“It’s uncontroversial for me to say that President Trump is a controversial figure,” Trump’s lawyer Tomlinson told the judge. “His interactions with the US legal system have been many and varied, but we say none of this is relevant.”

Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven previously successfully sued Steele in a data-protection suit but a libel claim brought by another wealthy Russian individual failed.

Orbis said the dossier was never intended to be made public and Trump couldn’t hold the firm responsible for the Buzzfeed publication itself.

(Updates throughout)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

[Jimbuna]

Jim Jordan loses second vote for US House Speaker.

Ally of Donald Trump fails in new bid for gavel, as Republican party remains split 22 members of his own party rejected the firebrand Republican’s efforts to seize the gavel.

That was a worse result for Jordan than just a day earlier, when 20 Republicans voted against him in an initial ballot.

[em2nought]

The swamp is lovely dark and deep.