Would the United States benefit from, say, adding Canada to the country? Sure!
Will it happen? No!
Would the @dcexaminer give Trump credit for thinking it would be neat to acquire Canada? Apparently, depressingly, yes.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 18, 2019
We’re doomed. Financially as well, because the Repubs don’t want a President, they want a god-emperor. And the top applicant for that position turned out to be — surprise! — insane. Per the Washington Post:
… Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and White House trade director Peter Navarro between them appeared on all five Sunday morning shows to defend the president’s economic record and argue that his trade offensive against China isn’t harming American producers or consumers.
Their push came days after bond market investors sent a powerful signal that they see a potential downturn looming, and economists from Wall Street and beyond further whittled growth forecasts for a record-length economic expansion that appears to be slowing.
“I don’t see a recession at all,” Kudlow said on “Fox News Sunday.” On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he urged Americans, “Let’s not be afraid of optimism.”
“Consumers are working at higher wages,” Kudlow said. “They are spending at a rapid pace. They’re actually saving also while they’re spending. That’s an ideal situation. So I think actually the second half, the economy’s going to be very good in 2019.”
On ABC News’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Navarro maintained that a recession could be staved off if the Federal Reserve stops raising interest rates and banks in Europe and in China make similar moves…
Actual economists insist that neither of these mooks are capable of predicting a bathroom run after an all-night boozer, but the important part of their job is telling the Oval Office Occupant that his every passing delusional outburst is a work of unparalleled brilliance.
Frankensteinbeck
They want an asshole. Saying stupid shit is part of the job qualification.
Adam L Silverman
Kudlow was drunk during his Meet the Press appearance.
Baud
Did they ever say why Trump wanted Greenland? I don’t think I’ve ever heard the official line.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman: I think that’s been suggested of some of his earlier appearances.
MagdaInBlack
@Adam L Silverman:
Ya! Quite the Twitter chatter about that appearance.
Dear. Lord.
MattF
It’s taken Trump three years to find economists who will agree with his beliefs. And it’s worth noting that you could replace the word ‘economists’ with ‘lawyers’ or ‘generals’ or ‘foreign policy experts’— the crucial requirement is ‘agree with his beliefs’ and the crucial quality is a lack of character.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: @MagdaInBlack: Yes and yes. It isn’t surprising to me that he would have fallen off the wagon. Especially given the high stress levels he’s subjecting himself to by taking the job he’s currently in compared to just being a talking head on CNBC. There is a difference between not having any education and/or training and/or credentials in economics and playing one on cable news and not having any education and/or training and/or credentials in economics and being the President’s senior economics advisor. Especially given that this President actually knows less about economics than Kudlow does.
Mary G
Kudlow is always wrong about everything, so we’re definitely going to have a recession.
Wag
@Baud:
Because its there.
It is a nice distraction from anything and everything else.
germy
There’s going to be a really bad recession, isn’t there.
Seeing Kudlow deny it, now I’m certain.
MattF
@Baud: Because, because, because, because, because.
germy
Look what the president is tweeting:
cmorenc
One key difference between current Greenland-owner Denmark and back-then owners of the Louisiana Purchase territory (France) and Alaska (Russia) was that in the latter case, the original owning countries were in need of cash and quite willing to sell off territory which at the time, seemed to them only marginally more useful and secure to try to hold onto than a white Elephant. Also, even if Denmark was even a tiny bit tempted to consider selling Greenland (they aren’t), the Danes are smart enough to be too-wary of Trump’s actual record as a businessman and his persistent inclination to try to screw over everyone he does deals with, to ever be willing to enter any deal to sell Greenland to the US while Trump is President.
Ruckus
Haven’t all god-emperors through out time been insane?
MattF
@Mary G: Kudlow should be sitting on a barstool, beer-in-hand.
Baud
@MattF:
Because of all the wonderful things he does?
germy
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/08/serial-sex-abuser-gets-contract-to-write-unreadable-book
MattF
@cmorenc: Trump has never understood the point of getting out of town when the con is over. Everyone knows him now, everyone knows his game.
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s a nice analysis of Trump and Greenland and why the Louisiana Purchase isn’t a model. Times change.
MattF
@Baud: Flying monkeys, real soon now.
kindness
The clip I saw this morning, Kudrow looked and sounded drunk. Not sure if it was Crooks & Liars or Raw Story. Probably RS. They go for the sensationalism.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: I only heard it. Didn’t watch. Immediately said to Poco, “Kudlow’s drunk this morning.” Poco agreed. ?
MagdaInBlack
@MattF:
Pretty sure Kelly Ann qualifies.
cain
Kudlow is only talking to one person not the rest of the country. That Chuck Todd just sits around doing nothing shows that his show is really about giving people a stage unless of course you are a Democrat then of course there is all kinds of pushy questions, he seems to find himself a journalist then but not for republicans who spew.
I vaguely remember him doing a mea culpa about his coverage about 2016 and others and promised to do better. What an ass.
Bill Arnold
Good to see. Includes some comments on Elizabeth Bruenig’s excellent 2019/08/14 piece.[0]
Do Conservative Evangelicals Like Trump Not Despite But for His Hatefulness? (Ed Kilgore, 2019/08/18)
I was looking a bit at evangelical support for D.J. Trump yesterday. Very interesting. I think the support is rather theologically fragile. Could wax ugly about Prosperity Gospel types (Radical Mammonites) like Paula White, and DJT’s abstracted attraction to them, but this is more positive:
A sometimes rambling, sometimes quite sharp piece on Christianity and Trump, by a co-pastor of a progressive church in Ann Arbor.
Preaching in the Age of Trump (Ken Wilson, Oct 16, 2018)
Medium: Solus Jesus – A Theology of Resistance
Book: Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance (Emily Swan, Ken Wilson, 2018)
I’ve some technical theological differences (details, not broad theme) with them so probably won’t read the book, but the medium pieces have some thoughtful elements.
[0] In God’s country – Evangelicals view Trump as their protector. Will they stand by him in 2020? (Elizabeth Bruenig, August 14, 2019)
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
He sounds like Jon Hamm’s imitation of drunk James Mason on Bill Hader’s Vincent Price Halloween Special.
germy
germy
Is Dana making advances towards an obviously inebriated Kudlow?
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
I figured it was some sort of unholy combination like hearing/seeing news stories about the melting of the Greenland ice cap and thinking about green golf courses, perhaps an obtuse way of admitting that he’s wrong about global warming, and an homage to Lex Luthor asking for Australia in Superman II
Does the WSJ have anything more boring?
MattF
@Bill Arnold: Also, Ben Howe’s book ‘The Immoral Majority’. Howe is a no-foolin’ Tea Partyer, but he’s done with Trump. It’s not an easy read because the point of view is so alien, but I think it’s worth the effort to try.
Dan B
My concern about Drezner’s idea of Trump purchasing Canada is the response of the Canadiens. Quebec secession! Or T discovering America has to go bilingual.
hells littlest angel
If you’ve been up all night snorting coke, having a few drinks in the morning is just good sense.
Butter Emails
If the 56,000 Greenlanders are worth purchasing, why aren’t we accepting the 100s of thousands willing to travel thousands of miles just to join our national family as well as the millions already here?
James E Powell
@Bill Arnold:
When I see headlines like the one on Kilgore’s article, I see a deliberate effort to protect the hateful bigots who call themselves Christians. One would have to be willfully obtuse not to know that right-wing Christians thrive on hatred and oppression of non-whites, the poor, and the powerless.
zhena gogolia
I didn’t know about his cocaine addiction. Apparently it was Gen. Kelly who signed off on him. No biggie.
debbie
Are you fucking kidding me? The farmers are getting bailouts they don’t really need? We are being led by idiots. Is this is the kind of acumen the Economics Departments of our universities are producing?
The farmers will never get their markets back. Ever. This country is no longer a reliable partner. Why would another country trust the U.S. ever again?
And where are the people of courage to stand up to these assholes and call them out every time they say stupid things like this?
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
They’re not Chuck Todd, that’s for damn sure.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
You realize of course those “blockbuster numbers” from last week were the tax-free sales going on everywhere? Gah, these idiots!
Uncle Cosmo
Specifically, God-Emperor of Dung, fourth in the series (Dung, Dung Meshugah, Offspring of Dung) featuring the planet Aufrackus, aka Dung, covered to an average depth of 278 meters in dessicated bullshit, in which Cheeto Atrocities slithers his overweight carcass into a garment stitched together from the bodies of millions of intestinal parasites & declares his intention to rule for every election cycle he can get his short vulgar fingers around…
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
If Cocaine Larry Kudlow doesn’t see a recession, then we’re doomed.
On Christmas 2007 he wrote, “we are about to enter the seventh consecutive year of the Bush boom.” Anyone who thinks otherwise, he added with flair, “are going to wind up with egg on their faces.”
Three months later, his former employer Bear Stearns would be gone and 9 months later the economy would collapse.
Butter Emails
@debbie:
Those people are called Democrats and liberals. The press doesn’t bother having them on very often because being sane and right is so totally boring.
debbie
@Baud:
Ivanka thought it might be fun.
JDH
Think of the possibilities if we could instead get Greenland to buy the US a president.
hells littlest angel
@Butter Emails: Ever confident in his success, Trump has already had 56,000 eviction notices printed up.
Duane
@germy: ” Go shopping!”
Duane
@MagdaInBlack: Pretty sure Kellyanne gets a house dropped on her evil ass.
debbie
@cain:
I’d like to see whichever Democrat next appears on his show to ask Todd exactly that: “Why aren’t you treating me the way you treat your Republican guests?”
David Koch
Portland Thorns issue No-Nazi/No-Fascist policy (photo) ⚽
Citizen Alan
I’m sure the Puerto Ricans are thrilled at this point about the benefits of being in our national family.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
Do you suppose there’s a full bar in the green rooms?? I bet there is, for people to fortify themselves before a nationwide broadcast potentially full of dangers.
PsiFighter37
Kudlow is an idiot. I had to watch him every day for almost 10 years be wrong about everything on CNBC before Donnie decided that he would be the best choice to replace Gary Cohn. The man’s a tool and is a TV commentator passing for an actual economist. He knows less about economics than I do, and I haven’t taken an economics course in almost 15 years.
germy
Jay
MattF
@J R in WV: I’d bet there’s at least a bottle or two of the good stuff.
m.j.
I don’t know why anyone wonders about the possibility of recession. The surest sign of impending recession is electing a Republican for POTUS.
namekarB
Perhaps Trump could offer to trade, say, California in exchange for Greenland. I can only guess that 56,000 (residents of Greenland) would be against that trade. Not unrelated would be the desire of the 3 Pacific states to secede and join Canada.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie:
Kudlow doesn’t have a degree in Economics. His Bachelors is in History, and he never completed his Masters.
MagdaInBlack
@Duane:
Thats a beautiful image, thank you !
M. Bouffant
@Uncle Cosmo: That gave me a LOL, especially as I saw some chunks of the movie last wk. on the telly.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Jay
germy
Pinned tweet from Kudlow:
Jay
chopper
god, it’s almost word-for-word what kudlow said back in the end of 2007. ‘there’s no recession on the horizon, trust me, it’s just gonna get better”.
WASF.
Jay
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Wikipedia tells me Navarro got a PhD In Economics from Harvard. He’s even stupider.
M. Bouffant
@namekarB: My hope: One nation, composed of British Columbia, Wash., Ore., Calif., Baja California & Baja California Sur. The Coast is the most!
Ruckus
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
And about 3 weeks before that Xmas, the recession was already obvious to this then small business owner and every other small business owner around me. And the signs were there if you had a clue and actually studied them before that. But Larry couldn’t find his ass with both hands or even either hand. It’s possible that one of those hands was busy at the time, laying out lines while the other was holding a glass of alcoholic beverage to wash it down with, but that’s just speculation. But because he can’t find his own ass (and he is all fucking ass – so it should be easy) Larry would never be able to find a clue and wouldn’t know what to do with it if he stumbled upon it. Because he wouldn’t recognize it as a clue.
Chris T.
@Adam L Silverman: To be fair, he could be medically unfit, rather than drunk.
But I believe “drunk”.
J R in WV
@Citizen Alan:
We went to a community picnic at a lakeside summer camp nearby, at which we knew nearly everyone but a couple of friends of friends.
One guy was wearing a Puerto Rico tee shirt, and has been hired to work on a FEMA contract to do management of recovery work in Puerto Rico. He’s been doing that for 18 years now, and is really excited.
I hope the reality exceeds his expectations!
This contract should take him to retirement, and it comes with a per diem and periodic visits home.
Jay
mrmoshpotato
@cain: Who was it that kissed their own asses about their 2016 coverage? Was it the FTFNYT? (Can’t remember – 30 years was long ago)
MagdaInBlack
@Ruckus:
Mr.Kudlow is being paid to ignore the clues, not find them.
Maybe?
Eta: not that he isnt an idiot. But, he’s just doing the job he’s paid to do.
mrmoshpotato
@Duane: Two houses.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@debbie:
To any foreign country who thinks this way, I say this: this could very easily happen to you, too, especially in this age of disinformation campaigns via the internet
patrick II
@Baud:
Unofficial white House sources said it was because of the future availability of resources as Grieenland’s ice melts. ( because of climate change that isn’t happening).
Also unofficial- it’s populated by white people.
Grandiosity- it fits in with the wonderfulness of the Trump presidency as he imagines it, unfettered by the reality of it not being for sale.
namekarB
@M. Bouffant:
Oooh, I see “Pacific States of America.” We could probably make room for Hawaii too
Ruckus
@m.j.:
Yep.
It must be in the guarantee.
Here it is:
“No matter what else we do, and it will be bad for everyone except the rich, who will reward us well for making them filthier rich, we will cause a recession. Not to worry though, we will do a lot of other stupid and horrible stuff.”
Ruckus
@MagdaInBlack:
Snort coke and drink like a fish? He seems to be good at those. Not so much at anything else.
I understand that he couldn’t be paid to be a lush, not officially but he can’t even lie reasonably well. He’s useless other than as a bar stool weight.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jay:
Those idiots are vowing to keep returning to Portland, Oregon until all Antifa disbands or some such bullshit. It’s some asinine tit-for-tat. Why even Portland in the first place? This reminds me of Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation by idiot Oafkeepers. Other right-wing militias showed up in neighboring towns and didn’t give one shit whether the locals wanted them there or not. I believe there’s stories or videos of RWNJ militia trying to intimidate local protesters. So much for being small government freedom lovers. Just thugs with guns. The same goes for the Proud Boys
MagdaInBlack
@Ruckus:
He was hired to assure us that the emperor is indeed, fully clothed and everything is just fine.
Apparently that requires a good stiff drink or 10.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard wanted to buy Greenland to rebrand it as “Trumpland”, a potential utopia filled with snowy white, buxom hotties in need of groping. Plus a lot of real estate to sell to Russian oligarchs. At least that was what he took away from Watching FOX & Friends.
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s called Supply Chains. It takes a long time to set up the Credit, Contracts, Inspections, Standards, Payments, Shipments.
It’s not like going down to the WaWa and buying a sack of flour.
In Tech, which moves very fast, a crash program takes 18 months to get a new chip on the board, and out to customers.
And you still need that “stuff”.
So, when Orangemandius blows up 40+ years of carefully constructed trade agreements and trade rules in a petulant fit,
In the short term you counter tariff, or pay more, and start looking for new suppliers ASAP, many of whom will be happy to meet or exceed expectations. Low margin sectors of the economies can’t survive long with the costs of tariffs and sanctions.
Companies that have migrated to new suppliers, have no need to ever “come back” to US Suppliers.
For one, they have replaced them.
For two, Orangemandius has proven that in the case of the US, Trade Treaties and Global Trade Rules, negotiated over decades, and modified over decades, ratified by Congress, are completely meaningless.
The US Government, on trade, is seen as an “Institution” like a Bank. It’s supposed to follow and enforce the agreed rules.
If a Bank cheats to steal your money, and deny you loans, are you going to ever go back to that Bank?
Brachiator
We may hit a recession, but the larger problem is that Trump is a bumbling amateur whose mismanagement of the economy hurts both business and consumers. His tax cuts were supposed to help businesses, but he is undermining them with his tariffs and misguided trade policies which end up increasing business costs. And no matter how he tries to spin it, his tariffs increase costs that consumers pay for goods, again eroding the benefit of the tax cuts for individuals. Even Trump realized how he had blundered, so he ended up delaying additional tariffs on China, otherwise all the Christmas season inventory would become more expensive.
And yet, because he is fundamentally ignorant when it comes to economic policy, he keeps coming back to the same false solutions, tariffs and pointless belligerence aimed at both our allies and supposed opponents such as China. Early on China was puzzled by Trump’s rhetoric and honestly looked for room to compromise. And even if you accept that China is not a totally honest broker, it is foolish to entirely box them in and not allow for any tangible agreement. So finally China got fed up and started to fight back. Hard. And they have more options than Trump, and can even pressure North Korea to make Trump look like even more of an idiot. And even if China “loses” the trade war with the US, they will still have strong relationships with the EU, and with Africa and with other Asian markets.
Meanwhile, Trump will keep fumbling, and blame the Fed for his own errors.
And coming back to fears of a recession, an additional problem is that Trump will not have a clue how to deal with it should he be re-elected.
All these problems are magnified by the stupid loyalty of Trump’s economic advisors, who blindly support Trump. They cannot even claim that they are supporting conservative values or free market principles. Trump is his making shit up and they grovel and kiss his ass. And there is no reason for any honest reporter to pretend that anything this administration says about the economy is worth documenting.
And the problem for the Democrats in Congress is how to blunt the impact of Trump’s increasingly incompetent decisions.
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Why Portland?
It’s a liberal cosmopolitan city surrounded by buttfuck Oregon in a State that made it illegal for minorities to move there, at its founding.
It’s a City who’s Police Force and Civic “Leaders” have welcomed and protected out of City/State Nazis for over 40 years and who’s communities have rallied to drive the Nazis out for over 40 years.
tybee
@mrmoshpotato: i’ll raise you a house.
Keith P.
Maybe Trump tries to take Greenland Crimea-style -> claim some crisis that necessitates sending a bunch of troops there and then spoofing a bunch of polls showing that Greenland citizens *want* to be US citizens.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jay:
Thanks. I thought Portland and Oregon’s histories as Bigot Havens since their foundlings (at least until recently for Portland and to a lesser extent Oregon).
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
There are very few Nazis in Portland. There’s not even a lot left in Oregon.
They had to bring in Nazis from all across the US to get 300.
Amir Khalid
Trump’s trade war vs. China may come to include such things as all manner of musical instruments and related gear. That’s a reminder of how comprehensive the list is, of things that China makes and Americans buy. I don’t there’s any category of manufactured prduct that isn’t going to be affected by these crazy tariffs
mrmoshpotato
@tybee: Three houses dropped on Kellyanne Conjob? OK!
Sloane Ranger
The whole idea of buying Greenland shows how out of touch Trump is to the modern world. Hell, it was an old fashioned idea in the 1940’s when the Truman administration were considering it.
It’s one thing to buy land that’s unpopulated or settled by people whose opinions don’t have to be considered because you don’t think they have any rights, which is what happened with the Louisiana and Alaska purchases, it’s another thing to sell land from under people who are citizens with full political rights without their consent. Which is why no democracy would ever consider it.
If Trump is/was seriously considering this, it confirms what we already know, he does not believe in or value democracy on any level
JDM
Canadians have talked for decades about buying some Caribbean island as a winter getaway; it’s really just a joke now. Unfortunately, for anyone thinking “hey, we could sell them Florida”, even the hosers up there aren’t that dumb.
jonas
If a Dem were in the WH and Kudlow were still on Fox or whatever and looking at these same stats, he’d be rending his clothes, and howling how we were *already* experiencing a Great Depression and that suicide or buying gold were the only options going forward. He’s a goddamn shill — he’ll talk up the agenda of whoever’s paying him. Navarro, on the other hand, is just plum crazy. He’ll be humping that China trade war chicken long after the earth has crashed into the sun (which will be China’s fault).
jonas
@Brachiator: What you said. Which is why I’m coming around to think that Scaramucci is not entirely insane to claim that by spring of 2020, Trump might find himself in such a clusterfuck economically that he simply throws in the towel and walks away. His advisors are all hacks with no real expertise in trade, economics, or foreign policy (unless you call Bolton’s round-the-clock fapping to Dr. Strangelove “expertise”), so when the shit really hits the fan and it’s clear he really can’t handle it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just tells the country to go fuck itself and packs it in to go play golf. And let’s not even try to game out a doomsday scenario where Iran tries to close the Persian Gulf, or sends rockets into a Saudi oil field or something. Half the DOD is staffed by interim leaders.
jonas
@Amir Khalid: China now produces such a high percentage of consumer goods that the US couldn’t even produce them if we wanted to. We simply no longer have the industrial capacity/technology/labor force to produce most electronic and consumer products for as cheaply, or as well, as China does. We can produce super high-tech stuff, or heavy machinery or whatever. John Deere tractors, yes. But rubber boots for my kids or those cheap headphones? Sorry, no. So China kind of has us over a barrel there. Companies can shift production to Vietnam or Bangladesh or something to avoid tariffs, but that will take time and $. There’s absolutely zero chance that Mattel or Hasbro, or whatever, is going to start making Barbies in the US again, or that Apple will start cranking out I-phones over here. That will never happen. Look at the Foxconn bullshit in Wisconsin.
Ruckus
@jonas:
Probably a dead thread but here goes.
I worked on Barbie doll molds when I was a young teen. Mattel was a good customer of ours then. But they got greedy and when Taiwan started hitting the industrialized market hard they went over, it was cheaper. They came back about 10 yrs later because they weren’t satisfied with the work, they had to have full time people there to make sure things were being done properly. Still not satisfied they came back. But they wanted our quality at the price they went over to Taiwan for in the first place. I added 25% to my quote just for the go away value. So it wasn’t worth it for them to go in the first place and we’d replaced them as customers so it wasn’t worth it to us to take them back. To the brain trust that was Mattel at the time, everything was money, more for them, screw everyone else. They were the epitome of the American corporate culture that exists to today. And what a lot of labor doesn’t understand is that the foreign counties found out that a good basic education and modern technology makes things a lot more equal. Something that a lot of Americans have never learned in the last 75 yrs. They think their whiteness and their freedom is everything. And it isn’t.
Steeplejack (phone)
@germy:
Spoof account.
The real one (with the blue check) is
@larry_kudlow.
apocalipstick
@Adam L Silverman: I was wondering what was going on. I couldn’t tell if he was drunk, high, or having a small stroke.