Photos from the two events this week

Obama in Vegas vs Trump in TX

Still not tired of winning. In fact, other folks are starting to make lists. Thought I'd share:

“But when it comes to the real barometer of presidential truthfulness — keeping his promises — Trump is a paragon of honesty,” Thiessen claims. “For better or worse, since taking office Trump has done exactly what he promised he would.”

What promises has he kept? Here’s a comprehensive list. Like the moves or not, he does what he says he is going to do.

Trump kept his promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something the last three presidents all promised but failed to do

Obama presided over the rise of ISIS and said it would be a long slow battle to defeat them, Trump promised to “crush and destroy ISIS” and after two years at the helm, the Islamic State’s physical caliphate is all but decimated

Trump promised to impose a travel ban on terrorist-ridden countries, after a bit of trouble getting it going, his latest version has been upheld by the Supreme Court

Trump promised to nominate conservative judges similar to Antonin Scalia, we now have both Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the high court and 29 young conservative judges on the federal appellate courts, more than any recent president at this point in their administration

Trump promised to cut taxes, and with the help of Congressional Republicans, enacted historic tax reforms in the first major overhaul of the tax code in three decades, the law also provided Opportunity Zones, aimed at providing incentives to investors and developers to revitalize struggling cities and urban communities

Trump promised to rollback unnecessary regulations by eliminating two existing regulations for every new one … in his first year, $8.1 billion in regulatory costs has been saved and his administration is on track to achieve $9.8 billion more this year, eliminating far more than the two-to-one

Trump promised jobs for struggling African Americans and today we are witnessing the lowest black unemployment level in history

Trump promised to cancel Obama’s Clean Power Plan, withdraw from the Paris climate accord, approve the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration … he has accomplished all three

Trump promised to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, renegotiate NAFTA, renegotiate the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement … he has recently signed trade deals with Canada, Mexico, and South Korea

Trump promised to take on China’s bullying trade policies and has committed to imposing tariffs

Trump promised to increase defense spending, he has done that

Trump promised to bring back manufacturing jobs, they are growing at the fastest pace in more than two decades

Trump promised to sign “Right to Try” legislation to give dying Americans the ability to access experimental treatments that have been approved in Europe and other countries and he has done that

Trump promised to take on the opioid epidemic, he has labeled it a national health emergency and is on the verge of signing a significant bipartisan bill into law

Trump promised to build a wall … he’s still working on that

Trump promised to get us out of Afghanistan, unfortunately, he has backtracked on that

If Trump keeps this up, he will go down as one of the most accomplished presidents in our nation’s history. Believe me. I don’t agree with everything he does. He is a far from perfect so far. But he is getting things done. He is doing what he said he would do. He doesn’t always make it easy on himself but he knows how to get over the finish line. He knows how to take the country in the right direction. He knows how to get under liberals’ skins. He knows how to play the media. He knows how to put America First. And he is on the right track.

http://www.investmentwatchblog...o-year-track-record/

and the most relevant bit from another:

"Trump is a fighter and he’s shown Republicans that while losing with honor may make you feel good for a day, winning ugly will make you feel good for a lifetime."

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.co...m.html#ixzz5Um87HFhB

If optimism is a super power…

American Spectator
Melissa MacKenzie

Houston

If Donald Trump’s good humor infects even the most sober of politicians, his ebullience positively electrifies crowds. Tonight, Houston is electrified. Jolted, energized and best of all, enjoying itself on the way into one of the tightest midterm elections ever. Win or lose, the Cruz Crew and the Trump acolytes are have a grand old time.

Who doesn’t want to be part of the party? It’s fun. It’s infectious. After eight dour years of being told to accept the inevitable, Trump’s entrée into the political sphere is like the dawning of the sun. His head is a yellow mop of crowning glory, catching the light and casting him in a golden glow. He looks slyly at the crowd. He grins. Everyone is in on the joke and the people all the way back in the cheap seats chant with glee.

Oh, the theater of it. Donald Trump pauses here. Jokes there. Gravely intones and then bursts with self-aware irony. The media grumps along, willfully not getting the punchline, and fretting over something inconsequential.

Will Trump get the Texas dam that Governor Abbott requested named after him? No doubt, some journalist is furiously writing about the horror du jour this instant. The people roll their eyes and play along. And, what if the dam is named for Trump? Everyone is picturing the Hoover Dam in their minds except with the huge gold Trump insignia plastered on the front of it. That idea alone is amusing and the people laugh.

It’s liberating.

Isn’t everyone tired of being so dad gum bleak all the time? Aren’t the words of woe wearying? Barack Obama promised Hope and Change but they were empty slogans. His speech in Colorado, the one with the pretentious columns, was the pinnacle. After that, it was all drearily delivered sloganeering and the only change was more misery.

Since the media won’t tell Americans the real change that has occurred, President Trump does it himself. He listed the economic numbers. The Houston crowd especially enjoyed the fantastic job numbers for Hispanics. There were a lot of Hispanic Trump supporters in attendance.

On the way back to Houston from DC last Friday, the man sitting next to me was a Mexican national. Nice guy. Hated Trump. He pointed to his skin and said, “I’m not for him… obviously.”

I responded, “Well, a lot of my Hispanic friends love him.”

He sighed. “Yeah, that’s true. I try to argue with my friends. They just don’t get it.”

Oh, they get it. Americans get it.

Americans have jobs, the economy is humming, more good is coming. What’s not to get? And in all the getting, one can laugh, too?

The Texas rally was ostensibly about reelecting Ted Cruz. And it was about reelecting “Texas Ted” as Trump called him, but the reason to reelect Ted Cruz wasn’t just Ted. It was about helping President Trump continue his joyous marauding across the political landscape. “We need more Republican votes to get more done. Reelect Ted.”

More tax cuts are coming — 10% for the middle class, the President promised. More promises. President Trump said that it was harder to come to Texas the first time, before he was elected, because he had to tell them what he was going to do. Now, he could tell them what he had done. As he listed the triumphs, he came to Kavanaugh. The crowd roared. Is there any doubt what the crowd would have been like had Kavanaugh not been placed on the Supreme Court? The outrage and disgust would have deflated the Republican hopes. More empty talk from politicians. But Trump is not a politician, I was reminded on Twitter tonight, to which I responded, oh yes he is. He’s just a very, very good politician.

Donald Trump is the freak unnatural phenomenon that pulls energy toward it. A force. He talked indignantly of the hurricane he refused to name coming back to Houston from the gulf once, twice, three times. How dare it do that to Houston! Didn’t Harvey know that only one hurricane was allowed to hit H-town and his name starts with “T” and ends with “P”?

The sheer audacity of this man is astonishing. He believes his own bulls–t, but by God, so do you after listening to him speak with such verve, authenticity, and delight. A wall? Possible. More tax cuts? Possible. Better trade? Possible. Faith and freedom? Possible. Peace with North Korea? Possible. Merkel buying Texas natural gas? Possible. It’s all possible and one wants to vote for him just to see if he can actually pull it off. Give this guy a chance. Vote for Ted Cruz and a straight red ticket. He just might do it.

And if he doesn’t? Well, he’ll have a damn good time trying to make it happen and so will you.

Voting Republican has never been, and may never again be, so much fun.

Link

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Photos from the two events this week

Obama in Vegas vs Trump in TX

And that MF-er referred to himself 96 TIMES in his speech and tried to take all the credit for Trump's booming economy!

Bitch, Trump had to first clean up YOUR mess before he could start making American Great again! You're so pathetic.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Photos from the two events this week

Obama in Vegas vs Trump in TX

And that MF-er referred to himself 96 TIMES in his speech and tried to take all the credit for Trump's booming economy!

Bitch, Trump had to first clean up YOUR mess before he could start making American Great again! You're so pathetic.

96 times in a 38 minute speech.....that is kind of low for Barry The Ass Clown.

^^^^^^^^

It is an excellent sign that Kaptain Kenya is campaigning for the Dems. His Things-Turn-To_Shit midas touch has worked wonders during his presidency. This asshole couldn't even fill an auditorium at a college.

More Winning: Merkel agrees to buy natural gas from the US. This is Trump bending both Putin and Merkel over. How can the Press twist this to Trump doing Putin's bidding?

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/i...yahoo_itp&yptr=yahoo


In Win for Trump, Merkel Changes Course on U.S. Gas Imports

Chancellor calls her decision to open Germany up to U.S. liquefied natural gas a ‘strategic’ move

Bojan PancevskiOct. 22, 2018 8:00 a.m. ET


German Chancellor Angela Merkel told local lawmakers she didn’t think an LNG terminal would break even for at least a decade. Photo: Emmanuele Contini/NurPhoto/Zuma Press
By
Bojan Pancevski
BERLIN—Chancellor Angela Merkel has offered government support to efforts to open up Germany to U.S. gas, a key concession to President Trump as he tries to loosen Russia’s grip on Europe’s largest energy market.
Over breakfast this month, the chancellor told a small group of lawmakers her government had decided to co-finance the construction of a €500 million ($576 million) liquefied natural gas shipping terminal in northern Germany, according to people familiar with the meeting, giving a crucial nudge to a project that had failed to get off the ground for years in a country that gets most of its gas cheaply from Russia.
Mr. Trump has intensively lobbied Europe to buy significant amounts of LNG as part of his campaign to rewrite the terms of trade relations. German and U.S. officials said Berlin hoped embracing U.S. gas might help solve a protracted trade dispute and possibly even defuse threats by Washington to sanction Nord Stream 2, an unbuilt German-Russian gas pipeline that would double Russia’s existing gas export capacity to Germany.
Created with Highcharts 6.0.4Quick RiseU.S. LNG exports to Europe have skyrocketed, but Germanyhas not imported any of it.U.S. exports in cubic feet of LNGSource: U.S. Energy Information Administration
Created with Highcharts 6.0.420172016SpainPortugalLithuaniaItalyU.K.PolandNetherlandsMalta0 billion51015202530
As she briefed lawmakers from Germany’s northern coastal region, Ms. Merkel didn’t describe her change of mind as a defeat but as a “strategic” decision that could pay off in the longer term, according to the people. Experts agree that opening up its energy market won’t have an immediate economic benefit for Germany, but it could eventually help the country diversify.
For years, plans to build an LNG terminal by several groups were stalled because there was no government support that would make such a project economical. On Oct.16, less than a week after the meeting, an international consortium filed its first official bid for state support for a terminal in the northern town of Stade, near Hamburg.
A ceremony took place on a terrace overlooking Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate in the presence of senior politicians and U.S. Ambassador Richard A. Grenell, a confidant of Mr. Trump and the president’s main conduit in his lobbying effort.
“We’re creating jobs and we’re also deepening the trans-Atlantic relationship. The U.S. is totally committed to bringing U.S. LNG to Europe and to Germany,” Mr. Grenell said.

A ship lays pipe for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will carry Russian natural gas to Germany. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
How much support Berlin will provide and in what form—cash subsidies, loans, credit guarantees, loss protection for investors, or a mixture of the four—remains unclear. But the government has already decided to fast-track the review of the application, according to people familiar with the process, making it likely that the decision will be made by the end of the year.
The Stade project is backed by Macquarie Ltd , the Australian financial group, China Harbour Engineering Co mpany Ltd, a Chinese dredging firm, and DowDuPont Inc. of the U.S.
Two competing consortia are expected to file their own applications for government backing to build an LNG terminal—one in Brunsbüttel, some 30 miles to the north of Stade, and a third in Wilhelmshaven, a nearby marine base that boasts a deep-sea container ship terminal. German officials said Stade and Brunsbüttel are front-runners due to their advanced stage and location advantages.
U.S. LNG is mostly mined from underground rock formations, turned into liquid and shipped in 300-meter-long tankers. It requires special terminals for unloading, storing and converting it back into gas. The complex process means it remains around 20% more expensive than Russian gas, which is delivered straight to Germany mainly via the Nord Stream pipeline.
Some of the German projects have been derided by government officials as white elephants that never stood a chance of making a profit. A 2016 University of Cologne study found that the German terminal wouldn’t be viable in the short term since the market’s LNG needs could be covered via an existing terminal in the Netherlands.
During her conversation with local lawmakers, Ms. Merkel said she didn’t think an LNG terminal would break even for at least a decade and would require long-term government support.

Dan Brouillette, U.S Deputy Secretary of Energy, says that LNG is a priority for President Trump. Photo: adrian dennis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
A German government spokesman said the decision to fund a terminal was made in accordance with commercial interests and not U.S. pressure.
One U.S. argument making headway in Germany is that buying U.S. LNG would improve Germany’s energy security by making it less reliant on Moscow. Russia accounts for over 50% of German gas imports, with the rest primarily from Norway and the Netherlands, according to BP’s 2018 Statistical Review of World Energy. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said Berlin was “captive” to Moscow and would become dependent on Russian exports.
Dan R. Brouillette, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary, said the U.S. government felt “very strongly” that Berlin shouldn’t put all its eggs in one basket. “LNG is a personal priority for the president and a policy priority for the government,” he said.

A Dow Chemical plant in Stade on the Elbe. Photo: Carsten Rehder/dpa/Associated Press
The economics of LNG are likely to improve, some experts say. Germany wants to phase out nuclear power and its reliance on coal, which produces large quantities of climate-warming CO2, means it will need to turn to cleaner gas to meet ambitious climate targets, said Oswald Clint, a London-based LNG expert.
Dutch gas mining is expected to be phased out within a decade due to environmental concerns and U.S. LNG could make up for that share of the German market, he said.
Manfred Schubert, the CEO of LNG Stade, said his site would be fully operational by 2023 if the funding is granted by the end of the year.
“Subsidies would of course make our project more attractive, but it’s based on sound economics and it will be profitable,” he said.
The terminal would be based in the 550-hectare (1,400-acre) Dow chemical plants on the bank of the Elbe River. Dow hasn’t publicly commented on the project but senior managers said the plant’s connection to Germany’s gas grid offered synergies that would make building an LNG terminal there some €100 million cheaper than other proposed sites.
Oliver Grundmann, a lawmaker from Ms. Merkel’s conservatives for the Stade constituency, said the terminal could supply LNG to the port of Hamburg to refuel new ocean liners. AidaNova, a luxury cruise ship owned by Carnival Corp. & PLC to be launched this month, will be the first to be powered by LNG, in line with new environmental regulations.
“We need to make this step now, and not just because Mr. Trump is demanding it, but because it’s necessary for our future,” Mr. Grundmann said. “Stade will be a symbol of the new trans-Atlantic relationship.”

Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:
More Winning: Merkel agrees to buy natural gas from the US.

The Poles are doing the same exact thing and giving their Russkie enemies the finger. Choke on your Russkie gas!

Uhm. The WSJ is either completely behind the curve, or got it completely wrong, or both. Plans for German LNG terminals started some time ago already, with the ports of Brunsbüttel (for utility RWE, construction to start in 2020, operations in 2022), Wilhelmshaven (Uniper), and Stade (Dow) competing; the federal government voiced support as far back as July. In fact I mentioned the plans on this thread a month ago.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
In addition to oil in particular being a fungible commodity, the German energy market is also further diversifying; including through building a LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven that also might import American gas one day - something Trump is trying to sell, though that will obviously happen only if it can compete with the prices of other LNG sources.

The decision on how many and which sites will be actually built and get federal/state subsidies is political, of course. Brunsbüttel is in the state of Schleswig-Holstein (ruled by Merkel's CDU), and has already been included in the 2018-2028 national gas grid development plan (the projected site is currently not linked to the national grid). Unlike the other two in Lower Saxony, which is ruled by the Social Democrats - though also with the CDU as a junior partner. The previous state government prefered Wilhelmshaven, but after the 2017 election the SPD state minister of economy was succeeded by a CDU guy who now seems on board with Dow's Stade project.

Now what gas will be imported via one or more of those terminals from the next decade will depend on the market. I'm always puzzled when people say that this nation will buy oil, soy beans, cars, or whatever from that nation; unless we're talking pipelines which are obviously fixed, in free market countries it's not governments on either end deciding, but business. As noted before, American LNG is currently more expensive than that from other sources like the Gulf, Nigeria, Peru, or Trinidad and Tobago, which are already supplying other European terminals.

For supply purposes, we wouldn't even need our own terminals since we could get it from those in the Netherlands, Belgium or France; last year, Rotterdam was working at only six percent of maximum capacity, Dunkerque at seven, and Zeebrugge at twelve. But of course German industry wants a slice of a possibly growing cake, and strategically speaking redundancy is never a bad thing.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
Uhm...

Do you find yourself dizzy often?



.

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
Uhm...

Do you find yourself dizzy often?



.

I heard this on the news, and immediately wondered how long it would take Banshee to be posting here saying no, no, no

Is Professor Banshee setting us dumb Amis straight yet again?

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Is Professor Banshee setting us dumb Amis straight yet again?

Well he certainly can't blame his thinking on overindulging at Oktoberfest.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
Uhm...

WHAT I TELL YOU??!

You see massive crowds and enthusiasm at the rallies then I go on Drudge to see a story about how the GOP is going to lose something. I really wish there was an alternative.

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:
I really wish there was an alternative.

Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, and Whatfinger.

Yes to all three above.

Add Instapundit.com

quote:

Originally posted by lbj:
Yes to all three above.

Rosenstein was supposed to testify behind closed doors tomorrow. But it has been canceled.

????

https://oversight.house.gov/re...iew-with-rosenstein/

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) released the following statement after postponing tomorrow’s interview with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein:

“The Committees are unable to ask all questions of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein within the time allotted for tomorrow’s transcribed interview, therefore, the interview will be postponed. Mr. Rosenstein has indicated his willingness to testify before the Judiciary and Oversight Committees in the coming weeks in either a transcribed interview or a public setting. We appreciate his willingness to appear and will announce further details once it has been rescheduled.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"in the coming weeks" After the election ?

There is a strategy being played, but we don't know who is moving the chess pieces.

JAllen, thanks for your recent post. I watch Trump’s rallies whenever I can, and always feel both uplifted and a little bamboozled.
I think the conclusion correct that Trump is a very, very good politician. We’re not used to seeing them any more.