Taiwan Pres. calls Trump

Okay, Donald Trump broke protocol with mainland China by even taking the phone call from Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen--if, in fact, she did call--something that quickly came to the attention of China's President, Xi Jinping. No repercussions yet, but the political experts believe China is laying low to try and figure out the new U.S. President-elect. Good luck on that one. But most feel they will make their move and it might not be pleasing.

But what should be noted here is the fact that even weeks before this mysterious call, a "businesswoman claiming to be associated with Trump's conglomerate made inquiries about a major investment in building luxury hotels as part of the island’s new airport development." The woman reported as Ms. Chen arrived from the U.S. to meet...

"the mayor of Taoyuan, Cheng Wen-tsan, one of the senior politicians involved in the Aerotropolis project, a large urban development being planned around the renovation of Taiwan’s main airport, Taoyuan International."

The above in September, and then in November, Nicola Smith of the Guardian reports...

..."a Chen Si-Ting, a US citizen of Taiwanese origin, had given a speech at a Friends of Trump banquet in central Taipei. Chen claimed at the event on 1 November that Trump’s company was interested in investing in Taiwan and that his son, Eric, would visit the island before the end of the year."

Coincidence, or strategic planning by the Trump family? Of course the man isn't yet President, his promise to leave the Trump organization behind was after he became President, but this looks like a clear use of the American Presidency, even significantly breaking diplomatic protocol to do it, to further Donald Trump business interests. Separately...

"...Anne-Marie Donoghue, who describes herself as the global head of transient sales and Asia at Trump Hotels, was confirmed to have been in Taiwan in October."

C'mon now, where are all the Republicans asking for an investigation of this possible egregious conflict of interest?

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Rep. Greg Walden

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today! 

Congressman: Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) 

Total amount received: $37,250

Tel. Number: (202) 225-6730

Has Donald Trump made a major diplomatic faux pas?

China Pres, Xi Jinping

Donald Trump exclaimed with glee that he was putting all his business interests aside because it was more important that he run the government. And then he "innocently" accepts a phone call from the President of Taiwan, breaking a protocol dating back to 1979 when mainland china was recognized as China's government. But hold on, what about that new hotel in Taiwan that had been in the works weeks before the mysterious phone call.

Lawrence O'Donnell, on MSNBC, in covering the Taiwan call, also mentioned the fact that Trump was in contact with Rodrigo Duterte, Pres. of the Philippines, noting that he had called Barack Obama a "Son of a whore" again. O'Donnell continued that Duterte was the "craziest and possibly most dangerous elected politician in the world...as of now." The emphasis is my own but put there to question whether it might be predicting a future Donald Trump.

In consideration of the breach of protocol alone, Trump or his incompetent minions may not think it is important that they have in effect held Beijing in disrespect, but you can bet China's President, Xi Jinping, is watching every move Donald Trump makes and will take appropriate steps. Jinping was educated in the U.S. and is well aware of our customs here but the President-elects Taiwan move caught the country off guard:

"Breaking decades of American diplomatic practice, he caught the Chinese government off guard by lunging into the most sensitive of its so-called core interests, the 'One China' policy agreed to by President Richard M. Nixon more than four decades ago."

So much for diplomacy with a nation that we need to keep on the good side of not only for trade, but in the interest of a more stable world. But the real story here is the fact that political pundits question whether a major reason he took that call from Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, was to firm up their relationship in order to obtain more favorable arrangements for building a hotel in the country. That would of course be a major conflict of interest which is my next post today.

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Rep. Ken Calvert

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today!

Congressman: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)

Total amount received: $40,550

Tel. Number: (202) 225-1986

Bernie Sanders exposes more of Donald Trump broken promises

President-elect Donald Trump has been waving flags over how he is going to keep Carrier jobs in Indiana from going to Mexico, how he would end up slapping a 35% tax on any Carrier products coming into the U.S. Well, it ends up being his typical bullshit that he typically never follows up on. Instead of heavily taxing Carrier, he's giving them a $7 million tax break. And folks, we haven't even had the inauguration yet.

It all started out with 1,100 jobs leaving the Indiana plant for Mexico when our new blowhard head of the nation said he would save all of them...or else. Or else turned into, OK, you can send 300 jobs to Mexico and keep 800 in Indiana. As it turned out at the time, another Carrier plant planned to send 700 more jobs south. MSNBC's Chris Hayes brought in Bernie Sanders, whose Presidential platform was to keep jobs in America, who basically showed Trump up as a fraud.

Bernie also commented on United Technologies, who own Carrier, and their $6 billion in defense contracts that he said Trump should have threatened taking them away rather than giving the $7 million tax break. Sen. Sanders thinks Donald Trump is setting a very dangerous precedent in his approach and calls for laws that would require American companies to be patriotic corporations by continuing to make their products in the U.S., not shipping jobs overseas.

The bottom line is that Carrier will move some 1,300 jobs to Mexico, keep 800 in the U.S., Paying Mexican workers $23 less per hour with a potential income loss in Indiana of $67 million, a total loss of $108 million to the surrounding area. Now folks this is only one company in one state throughout the United States. You can go here for a complete list of companies moving jobs overseas. Does Donald Trump plan to visit each company? Yeah, sure.

Congressional members with NRA blood on their hands

Rep. Sanford Bishop

Recipients of cash from the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) (1988-2016) who refuse to pass gun control laws that would save lives, as reported by The Nation magazine. Call them today!

Congressman: Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
Total amount received: $40,650

Tel. Number: (202) 225-3631

Trump inherits great President Obama economy

President-elect Donald Trump said that Barack Obama has been very cooperative with him and his transition team, scary as it is, in turning over a government that was rescued from George W. Bush's calamitous eight years as President. Bush almost put the country in the toilet, but Obama has brought things back to a stability that can be built on. All the time with a GOP Congress that resisted virtually every move the President made.

Unemployment, at the lowest level since 2007, home prices at all time highs, with the middle class getting a pay raise. These words from CNN Money where they quote Paul Ashworth, chief economist at Capital Economics, saying, "The 'Obama economy' deserves a 'B or B+' grade." It's not an "A" but many think it should be, and the the President, in defense of his administration commented:

"Anyone claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction."

 Wages are stagnant, have been for some time, not responding to a cycle where they usually rise when unemployment goes down. One of the reasons is, rather than pay higher wages, companies are going overseas for cheaper labor. But with no inflation, workers at least keep a status-quo, which could change soon if the feds up the interest rates. What matters is that the economy is going in the right direction under Pres. Obama. We'll see where it's going a year from now.

If anyone could f*** up the VA more it's Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Once again it's payback time and this time Pres.-elect Donald Trump has thrust his hand to the very bottom of the barrel to make a selection. It's Sarah Palin for a Cabinet post as Sec. of the Veterans Administration. These veterans are dying and going without proper care now and I cannot envision what VA hospitals will be like with her in control. To begin with, her government experience is being mayor of a dinky town in Alaska, and shortly as the state's governor.

And then there was John McCain who amazingly picked her for his running mate in 2008, when the two of them were beaten in a landslide for the presidency by Barack Obama. They're both losers but Palin is the epitome of deadbeat politicians who keep appealing to more deadbeats who, if they would bother to get informed, would realize what a deadbeat she is. It is beyond me how politics have evolved into individuals like Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Joni Ernst, etc.etc.

Here's the MSNBC coverage:

Dr. Sam Foote blew the whistle on the VA in 2013 after 24 years as a physician in a Veterans Affairs hospital. He worked at the Phoenix facility and when he revealed the devastating details of what happened, the hospital director, Sharon Helman, was fired and a judge sentenced her to two years' probation for receiving gifts illegally. I live in Phoenix, and, as a veteran, followed all the media coverage hoping something very positive would happen from this. It didn't.

And now Trump wants to put a bush-league, would-be politician with no experience in charge of something that is already a fiasco but will certainly get much worse with her at the head. But the bombshell here is the fact that she is closely tied to Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's chief strategist, who was accused of being racist, sexist and anti-Semitic, whose comment "darkness is good" should have given the Pres.-elect a clue. It didn't.

Palin is just more of the kind of judgment it took to pick Michael Flynn, clearly a loose cannon, for national security adviser. And, as one observer pointed out, Trump's transition team "reads like a who's who of some of the worst political villains of the last 40 years." We can only wait and hope but it is very likely that in the next four years--or maybe less--there will be hundreds, maybe thousands of 'I told you so.'