NATO

[ena]

Trump was rude to everyone at NATO. Then claimed the countries are upping their contributions to 4%. Macron said this was not true. Everyone is still giving 2%. So we cannot believe anything Trump says. He is only interested in making himself look good.
I heard when he meets with Putin, there will only be a translator there. So he can say anything and claim anything happened. This whole thing is very scary. If Trump gets everyone to believe all news except Fox is fake, then the sky is the limit on what he can do.

You are correct to be concerned.

[ena]

Agreed, it was rude to point out that whole Germany and EU buying billions of energy from Russia thing.

There has long been a disparity between what that US spends and others. This has existed for years. Maybe this is new to Trump. Too bad he is aware of so little.

Remember when the fear was that Trump's manner was going to cause North Korea fire some nukes?

They don't have the missiles, yet. The problem is reducing weight of the atomic bomb. Today the nukes are 10-15 times more powerful. A thermonuclear bomb uses a metal hydride around an a atomic bomb. The reaction H + H = He. That is a simple definition of a Hydrogen Bomb. That is what the sun does. God used gravity to bottle it. You don't need a missile or plane to deliver a nuke.

Or even back during the election, we were assured the market and possibly world economy would crash upon Trump being elected and taking office? Not saying all that was fake news, but it sure didn't come true. So I figure the sky is not falling and this will blow over like everything else and things will get better rather than worse...that is pretty much his track record so far.

His track record is not great except for ill thought out tweets. I see him as more destructive than helpful.

But I still don't get why Turkey is in NATO...that is the Russian connection that ought to worry folks.

They need supplies from the US to murder Kurds. The same as we are doing the Saudi's for bombing Yemen. The question is whether he is a Putin puppet. Still waiting for the pee tape.

[B.H.]

I don't get it.

BH, do you think it's possible or likely that Carter was seen with disdain as a president because he was open about his christian beliefs? For example, the "adultery in one's heart" statement. To me, that would just point to a man with a conscience and solid character.

I think it very well may be so. To be honest many of the problems this country has today really isn't the politicians fault or the courts or the special interest/lobbyist groups. The problem is the American people themselves. They are selfish, vain, cannot reason, sexually immoral, druggies, without loyalty to friend and family, all they think about is making money. Fix the American people and you fix 90% of the problems. Good luck with that.

Lots of academic and even government studies are saying the country is going down. I do not think the US will collapse like the Soviets did because there is no succesful tradition of secession. However, I could see us going through civil war and riots with many living in extreme poverty. And you never know. One way to abolish the national debt is to abolish the country owning it.

[agricola]

Jimmy Carter is a good man and a smart man, but as a President he was - less impressive. He was far too much of a micro manager and never seemed to understand the difference between 'small picture' and 'big picture'. He also was confronted with some very very difficult issues, especially overseas.

Not a great president, but a pretty decent human being.

I met him once. He's shorter than you'd think, and he sure has a lot of teeth.

[ena]

Jimmy Carter is a good man and a smart man, but as a President he was - less impressive. He was far too much of a micro manager and never seemed to understand the difference between 'small picture' and 'big picture'. He also was confronted with some very very difficult issues, especially overseas.

Not a great president, but a pretty decent human being.

I met him once. He's shorter than you'd think, and he sure has a lot of teeth.

He did try to deal with the forty-nine hostages in Iran. Interest rates on housing were driven through the roof in 1979. The new Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin was nicknamed JC pennies. Meaning Jimmy Carter pennies.

Through the 70's we had run away inflation. We were taken off the gold standard in 1971 by Nixon. This means the dollar has no price support. However selling gold for $32 an ounce no longer made sense.

He was met with a failure to rescue the 49 hostages. High prices and higher interest from the Federal Reserve. Higher cost on the national debt as we had been spending massive amounts on the Vietnam war. He was victimized by events that were not his fault. He lost the next election to Reagan.