Time to Trump to do the right thing politically and morally

March will make 40 years for me

 

Back in 2021 Mitch McConnell had the opportunity to end Trump's political career once and for all and he failed to do so. Trump was at his weakest politically following the failed January 6 coup and McConnell may have been able to persuade enough members of the Republican caucus to convict Trump following the second impeachment. Instead and rather ironically in view of the Supreme Court decision cloaking Trump with immunity Mitch used the rationale that Trump could be convicted and tried in a criminal court for his role in the failed insurrection. If Trump was convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors by the Senate he would have been prohibited from ever running for public office again.

 

Nice opinion. You know what opinions are like?

I'm out of here for a while. I don't mind a good discussion with the regulars, but these under the rock emerging new magas, I don't have the patience for. My business is too busy and I have to take advantage before trumph dumps the real estate market so he and his brethren can take advantage. And yes, we have a shortage of homes because trumph DEREGULATED and allowed corp to scoop up homes early.

Done.

 

@g8orbill - welcome back.

 

Although we disagree about 90% of the time I'm also glad to see him back. I would add that I really like his posts in the Pub and on the sports boards.

 

Shortage of homes may be in part by corporations buying them, but also it’s more homes being used for ARBB, more people have second homes, less building of new units and increased numbers of people needing homes.

It’s not just corporations.
Can you give a link to what laws Trump changed that you referred to? I’m serious as this is the first time i’ve heard deregulation allowed corporations to buy more homes.

 

The weapons that will defeat/neutralize Russia are ECONOMIC, not military. That is a battle that President Trump knows how to fight, and is willing to fight in the first place, unlike some other people who we have had to get to know too well over the last 4 years. And he will not be deterred by Europe's opinions in fighting that battle, in Ukraine OR in Iran.

 

Say what? Russia’s seen a tremendous amount of sanctions. What other “economic” weapon could be deployed? I don’t think there’s any magic economic lever to pull. Autocrats like Putin don’t care, just look to Venezuela or North Korea for the extremes. The people of those countries live like impoverished hermits under their “leaders”. Russia is in nowhere near that bad of conditions either.

Don’t get me wrong, they have to be sanctioned and cut off because of their actions. But all that can do is apply pressure and cause cracks to form. Obviously you could try to use the military to cut off their trade routes w/China or something, but that isn’t close to achievable (nevermind that it would definitely be WW3 at that point). I’m sure that’s all part of Putin’s calculus, knowing there are lines that won’t be crossed. Not that there’s anything brilliant to his thinking (considering the invasion was certainly a failure vs original expectation for easy victory).

The main thing keeping the invasion going in this stalemate is Putin cares not about spending lives, and that his “war economy” appears relatively stable. The only shot Ukraine had to “win” was if their one time counter offensive worked to gain substantial territory. It did not, so from that point it was more about holding a stalemate and Russia would eventually tire from lack of progress. Russia obviously holding out for the Trump win hoping to see support for Ukraine fall.

 

You do know that Russia is starting to run out of soldiers, don't you? Getting 11k North Koreans to fight for him is a fairly desperate move, and not without consequences. Putin is too paranoid to send all of his troops to the front--he is going to withhold some of his better troops to defend Moscow, the Kremlin, and himself, and not necessarily in that order. He also needs to watch the borders of the largest country on earth, so he cannot fully abandon those borders. Ukraine has the ability to use almost all of their soldiers to fight Russia. They know they can trust almost all of the countries that share a border with them with the exception of Russia and Belarus.

Trump knows very little about economic matters, certainly compared to the people that Biden has advising him. Trump knew far less than his own economic advisors in his first administration, but that did not stop him from ignoring their advice. Trump was a failed businessman propped up through deceit, deception, and manipulation. Trump believes that being a great con-man entitles him to make proclamations and demand that people believe them.

 

Ukraine CANNOT defeat Russia militarily. The left wants the bloodbath on both sides to continue militarily in the vain hope that Ukraine will overcome on the field of battle. Russia will be beaten in this fight (and I certainly want it to be) when they are so weakened economically by fighting it that it is pointless to continue. President Trump WILL cause that to happen (unilaterally, if need be) in lieu of letting liberals in Europe and the US keep throwing $$$ at the problem on BOTH sides. Everyone is soooo afraid of hurting the big bad bear in the pocketbook.

In short, Russia needs much larger sanctions against them.

 

The alternative is to have a milligray tribunal look at these crimes and the punishments. With people's Civil Rights and Constitutional Rights being violated being the theme...

Even the clowns that broke into the rooms should have some of their sentences re-evaluated.

Also, the DC murdered a woman for no reason than just being at the wrong place at the wrong time... There is video of that murder out there. Several cops will be held accountable for that senseless murder. And I am NOT talking about the obvious murder (Ashli Babbitt) that will be looked at. This murder happened outside in broad daylight... several DC cops were involved.

 

Isn’t Russia totally cut off from the world financial system? What specific sanction can be added from the U.S. side?

The main “known” weakness to the sanctions I’m aware of or read about is Russia still trades some black market oil, so theres a black market economy going on, and the EU sanctions have never been 100% mainly due to their energy need as well as Hungary’s Orbán blocking them. These are not issues the U.S can just unilaterally overcome, so that’s why I was curious what additional sanctions the U.S. could impose?

I’m glad you wish to see Russia ousted and their invasion fail, I’m just not sure how you have the expectation Trump is going to come in and tighten the screws on sanctions and that this alone will achieve it. Trump can force Zelensky to the table for sure, and that legitimately could end the war. But I doubt the conditions would even be “freezing” the conflict as it is now. It will be favorable to Russia’s side and under threat of cessation of further U.S. aid flowing in. Putin could call off the invasion at any time. He persists, because he clearly wants more territory if not all of Ukraine.

 

But you claimed all those J6 insurrectionists were ANTIFA? Why would we want to pardon the sentences of violent ANTIFA members?

 

Have to disagree concerning the state of Russia’s economy.

 

Well yeah, obviously if you have to ban capital flight and prop up the currency, the economy isn’t in great shape. I didn’t mean it was “normal” in any way, I just meant in terms of Putin’s ability to continue prosecuting his war, nothing seems imminent. I’m not qualified to offer a guess as to how long it can be maintained as a shut-in “war economy”.

The biggest potential economic game changer is Saudi/OPEC increasing oil production. I’ve seen some projecting that as potentially bigger than all western sanctions combined. I’ll believe it when I see it. Last time there was a Russia-Saudi price war, oil futures started trading negative! But that was a crazy scenario heading into COVID and isn’t likely to be repeated. So I guess we’ll have to see what happens with how low the Saudi’s are willing to push oil (or if the expectations are already priced into the oil futures market).

 

I am not going to read this thread but can anyone fix that horribly mistyped title?