Democrat Nomination for President

[Alan Klein]

France is spending 2.3% of their GDP on their military budget. Hopefully, on the latest military hardware, not on new uniforms and gourmet meals.

Yeah, but Macron wants to start his own NATO. 

[Alan Klein]

Pretty much identical to Republican behaviour throughout the eight preceding Obama years.

Agreed.  Government at its finest.  I love this kind of conflict.  They do less damage because they pass less legislation.  Exactly what the founders intended.  Grid lock.  It allows regular people to go about their business with less government interference in their lives.  Like stupid laws prohibiting people from shooting photos in public. 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Well, when NATO countries finally pay their 2%, we'll be able to cut some of our defense spending and reduce our deficits.

Keep fooling yourself. The weapons industry has you in a firm grip.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Agreed.  Government at its finest.  I love this kind of conflict.  They do less damage because they pass less legislation.  Exactly what the founders intended.  Grid lock.  It allows regular people to go about their business with less government interference in their lives.  Like stupid laws prohibiting people from shooting photos in public.

Or shooting eachother ...

[Alan Klein]

Make my day !!
Even you should know better. 2008 was the start of the financial crisis - started under a Republican administration and inherited by Obama.
Move forward to mid 2011 and start from there ...

Obama did alright.  Of course going up was the only place to go considering where we were in 2009.  But he could have done a lot better if he spent less time adding regulations in all industries and restricting investments and expansion in the oil industry. 

Unless there's a recession at the last minute, the democrats have to argue against Trump's success in these areas.  Calling him corrupt and evil only goes so far.  Must people who aren't Democrats look at their bank account, investment and pay checks.  If these are doing well, they're not going to vote for a guy like Sanders who wants to upset the apple cart to try something new.  People are conservative about these things.  All this also bodes well for Bloomberg.  People will figure a guy worth 55 billion must know what he's doing even more than a guy only worth 3 billion.   

[RSL]

Make my day !!
Even you should know better. 2008 was the start of the financial crisis - started under a Republican administration and inherited by Obama.
Move forward to mid 2011 and start from there ...

So what you're saying, Manoli, like many others, is that after the recession was over the economy started going back up. Golly. What a revelation. If it hadn't started back up we'd have continued to call it a recession. The question always was, how much was Obama's administration holding back the rise. All you have to do is look at the chart and you can see the answer.

[Alan Klein]

Keep fooling yourself. The weapons industry has you in a firm grip.

Americans like their tanks.

[Alan Klein]

Or shooting eachother ...

Americans like their guns too.

[Manoli]

Keep fooling yourself. The weapons industry has you in a firm grip.

Bart,

I have neither the strength nor inclination but I’m sure Alan and his pals probably haven’t even heard of the EPAA - could you point them to

https://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/missile-defense-systems-2/missile-defense-systems/policy-coming-soon/european-phased-adaptive-approach-epaa/

and explain that the now infamous 2.5% is but a smokescreen.

Thanks,
M

[Manoli]

So what you're saying, Manoli, like many others, is that after the recession was over the economy started going back up. Golly. What a revelation. If it hadn't started back up we'd have continued to call it a recession. The question always was, how much was Obama's administration holding back the rise. All you have to do is look at the chart and you can see the answer.

Russ,

At times you crack me up !
But you'll need to do better than that.
Glibly calling it a 'recession' is, to phrase it politely, somewhat understated.

October 2008, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, putting $700 billion into the hands of the Treasury Department to bail out the nation’s banks at a moment of vanishing credit and peak financial panic. Over the next three months, Treasury poured nearly $239 billion into 296 of the nation’s 8,000 banks. The money went to big banks. It went to small banks. It went to banks that desperately wanted the money. It went to banks that didn’t want the money at all but had been ordered by Treasury to take it anyway. It went to banks that were quite happy to accept the windfall, and used the money simply to buy other banks. Some banks received as much as $45 billion, others as little as $1.5 million. Sixty-seven percent went to eight institutions; 33 percent went to the rest. And that was just the money that went to banks. Tens of billions more went to other companies, all before Barack Obama took office. It was the largest single financial intervention by Treasury into the banking system in U.S. history.

Time to brush up on our economic fundamentals ?

All best,
M

[Alan Klein]

Bart,

I have neither the strength nor inclination but I’m sure Alan and his pals probably haven’t even heard of the EPAA - could you point them to

https://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/missile-defense-systems-2/missile-defense-systems/policy-coming-soon/european-phased-adaptive-approach-epaa/

and explain that the now infamous 2.5% is but a smokescreen.

Thanks,
M

You're putting up the smoke screen.   It doesn't hide the fact that many NATO nations are not meeting their commitment to spend 2% of their GDP on defense.  You're leaving it up tp the American taxpayer to defend you spending our money better spent on on our medical care. Then you criticize us for not spending more public funds for medicine while you can afford to do so because you're cheap when it comes to defending yourself.  That's hypocracy.   No wonder you support Democrats.   They're stupid enough to go along with the game.

[Manoli]

You're leaving it up tp the American taxpayer to defend you spending our money ...

Defending yourselves just as much if not more so than Europe.
Russian Hypersonic nukes travel at Mach8 , that’s 45 minutes Moscow >  NY or Washington.
Submarine launch obviously less, and of course we all remember how much the Americans loved the idea of having nukes sitting on their doorstep.

You wanna talk nuclear defense ? perhaps start another thread.

[kers]

So what you're saying, Manoli, like many others, is that after the recession was over the economy started going back up. Golly. What a revelation. If it hadn't started back up we'd have continued to call it a recession. The question always was, how much was Obama's administration holding back the rise. All you have to do is look at the chart and you can see the answer.

Obama's rise was steeper... and he had to deal with enormous economical problems getting the economy working again.
It was the nonregulation that caused the bankruptcy and it will come again if those regulations are undone by Trump.
Trump had it far easier than Obama when becoming President. If the economy goes well it is time to make the statedeficit less instead of the large grow of it, that is happening.
Of coarse it is much easier to spend money than to save it. It will not be Trumps problem, but for the next generations to come.
( same with the increase of pullution and the old economy he is supporting)

[LesPalenik]

Iowa takes vote counting very seriously, but they are still not done. Now they extended the re-count deadline till Monday. If they succeed, the official Iowa results could be out one full day before the NH results.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/07/politics/iowa-recanvass-recount-deadline/index.html

[RSL]

Russ,

At times you crack me up !
But you'll need to do better than that.
Glibly calling it a 'recession' is, to phrase it politely, somewhat understated.

Time to brush up on our economic fundamentals ?

All best,
M

You lost me with that one. Yes, the Congress made a humongous financial mistake. And Obama kept on making mistake after mistake. Again, if you look at the slopes in that graph, you'll see the difference. That recession was a nasty one, brought on mostly by a Democrat congress and Bush giving away taxpayers' money with subprime loans.

[Alan Klein]

Defending yourselves just as much if not more so than Europe.
Russian Hypersonic nukes travel at Mach8 , that’s 45 minutes Moscow >  NY or Washington.
Submarine launch obviously less, and of course we all remember how much the Americans loved the idea of having nukes sitting on their doorstep.

You wanna talk nuclear defense ? perhaps start another thread.

The Cold War ended 30 years ago.  Russia isn't a threat to America, maybe Eastern Europe.  Also to Hillary.  Mainly, they;re your problem.  Why are you buying their natural gas instead of ours and building a pipeline that you,ll have to rely on Russia?  Seems rather foolish.  What if they shut the spigot when you have an argument with them?

[Alan Klein]

Looks like Nancy's impeachment of Trump impeached Joe Biden and puts him in third place in New Hampshire poll with half the percentage of even the second place runner..

Overall, 28% of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire back Sanders, about even with the 25% who backed him in mid-January. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has seen his numbers rise six points to 21%, while former Vice President Joe Biden slides five points to 11% and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren dips to single digits with 9%.

While I'm still coasting at 0%, that's not much worse then the rest of the field:

Behind these top four, the poll finds no real movement in support for Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (6%), Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (5%), businessman Tom Steyer (3%) or entrepreneur Andrew Yang (3%). Interviewing for the poll finished on Friday night, as the Democratic debate got underway, so the survey does not reflect any reaction to that debate.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/08/politics/new-hampshire-poll/index.html

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

In the meantime, purges continue... in Germany 🤣

Germany AfD: Merkel fires minister over far right row https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51427957

[LesPalenik]

In the meantime, purges continue... in Germany 🤣

Germany AfD: Merkel fires minister over far right row https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51427957

This came out to the surface only because the AfD was feeling cocky and they couldn't keep their mouth shut. Next time, they will do it again, but more surreptitiously.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

The Cold War ended 30 years ago.  Russia isn't a threat to America, maybe Eastern Europe.

Say what???

Also to Hillary.  Mainly, they;re your problem.  Why are you buying their natural gas instead of ours and building a pipeline that you,ll have to rely on Russia?  Seems rather foolish.  What if they shut the spigot when you have an argument with them?

Are you that fooled, into believing that's the only thing done? Europe has made deals with the USA and others as well.

However,
Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-57678-4.pdf?origin=ppub, but that's yet another threat to the planet, courtesy of the dysfunctional USA government.

But then, some are not interested in the truth, are you? In case you are: https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=131117.msg1151334#msg1151334

Anyway, the Russian economy would tank (as long as Trump's plans to forget about the Crimea invasion do not materialize), and Putin might risk re-election into power or create social unrest. Putin first needs, as he is trying, to change the law's re-election terms and Trump is being helpful (WHY?).