The Real timschochet

None of this is true. Well maybe the first sentence (and perhaps the last one.)

I wasn’t comparing Comey to the guy who had the message on his truck. I was comparing him to Trump who posted the image of the truck. And the reason I brought it up was to remind people that Donald Trump has a long history of promoting political violence, or supposed jokes that seem to suggest political violence, or hints of political violence, etc. like no other figure in American history. There is no close second. I bring this is up not in defense of Comey or in any way a justification or excuse of Comey, but to put in some context the overly aggressive “righteous” outrage of the MAGA crowd over this incident.

Do you believe that Walmart will profit from raising these prices? I don’t. They’re going to sell a lot less items. They will lose money. But they’re forced to do it anyhow because otherwise they’d lose even more.

Any toy that is made here will be a much higher price than toys made elsewhere. Consumers won’t buy it unless you force them to by taxing the imported toys enough to make the difference negligible. But if you do that then you’re limiting the consumer’s ability to buy toys at all, effectively destroying the market you are trying to create. An alternative would be to simply accept the fact that market conditions have changed and, despite the odd occasion like Lego choosing to build one new plant in the USA, in general certain products will never be produced in this country again. But that means embracing world trade, and globalism, and that seems to be something many people are suspicious of and seek to resist.

Look if I have a store that imports products, and the government starts charging me a 30% tax on those products, then the retail price of those products will go up. I will also lose money and there will be scarcity of those products compared to what was before. All three of these things WILL happen. This isn’t rocket science. This is exactly why I wrote these tariffs were stupid, unnecessary, a terrible idea, and will bring us pain for no good reason. The pain is just beginning.

I didn’t say I didn’t care what you think. I said I can’t help what you think. Slight difference but important. I already knew what you thought of me. could tell it in your various offhand comments and responses to my posts. I don’t agree with your representation but that will come as no shock to you. A lot of what you wrote is true of me…SOMETIMES. Sometimes I claim objectivity when my position really is subjective. Sometimes I defend points I shouldn’t. Sometimes I am, unfortunately not open to discussion. Sometimes I am rude and ascribe unfair motives. I am guilty of all of it sometimes. But not all the time. I would argue not most of the time but again that is a subjective view. What I CAN tell you which is NOT subjective: I TRY not to be any of those things. Sometimes I don’t try hard enough I guess, but I do try. As for you I think you are a very smart guy, but overly judgmental, and like so many other smart conservatives too defensive over liberal labels : you take such great umbrage that certain conservative ideas and practices might be called racist or bigoted by liberals that you defend those practices too much. You can also be caustic, rude and extremely patronizing. But again not all of the time. I do enjoy your cultural tastes (what you reveal of them) and sense of humor; these are actually kind of similar to my own I think. My biggest criticism of you is that you often provide intellectual cover for those here who don’t deserve it. Perhaps in time you will change your assessment of me. Perhaps I will change my own behavior in your eyes to give you cause to do so. Perhaps vice- versa. Or perhaps none of this will happen and our future interactions will only confirm for you that I am a jackass and confirm for me that you are, well, what I wrote. We’ll see. Have a great Sunday.

FTR I didn’t say any of that to him because most of it is a characterization that I don’t share. I certainly was NOT self-congratulatory when I publicly apologized; it was a shameful moment for me. I made some dumb comments a dozen years ago for which I apologized for. I’m not a pedophile; I don’t support or tolerate pedophilia. I don’t support or tolerate what Roman Polanski did. His behavior was disgusting and criminal and I was wrong and ignorant to argue otherwise. That’s the end of it for me; actually that was the end of ten years ago or longer (I can’t remember when I first apologized for this.) That certain people keep bringing this up over and over incessantly, that they label me a pedo, At this point says, IMO, more about them than it does about me. But I can’t control what others think.

Does anyone remember this? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68698627.amp

China is wrong. Two months of 145% tariffs followed by 30% tariffs is not a win for them. We can’t afford to buy as many of their products and they can’t afford to buy as many of ours and both countries ar being unnecessarily punished as a result. China and the U.S. should agree to NO tariffs on anything. Complete, unfettered free trade between the two countries. Both nations would become immensely richer.

I just sent you a PM

I think he honestly believes that his supporters will be stupid enough to blame Walmart and not blame him. Based on their track record he’s probably right.

Good luck to you. Hope things get better. You’re a 100% right on this. I got a buddy from Wales, mid 50s, refuses to have a colonscopy. Keeps insisting he doesn’t need it but I figure he just is terrified of the prep. I’ve done it 3 times now, it’s no biggie. And I keep telling him but he won’t listen. I fear that someday he will get bad news that was unnecessary…I hope not.

Biden is the reason Trump imposed tariffs and demands that Walmart eat them?

You’re lucky I did. It gave us a 4 year interim of sanity.

Every day I say the same thing, but…so embarrassing. How did we ever choose this imbecile to be our President?? How did we ever choose this imbecile to be our President TWICE??

Prices going up up up

@Voltaire if you’d like I’d be happy to send you a private message explaining my posts from over a decade ago, what my intent was and why I am neither a pedophile nor approver of pedophiles, and why at the time I took the exact same position on Roman Polanski as Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and Adrian Brody, all of whom worked closely with Polanski AFTER the incident referenced and all of whom made a similar argument to what I made at the time (I have since changed my mind based on facts I wasn’t aware of back then.) But I’m not going to do it here. Let me know, thanks .

MAGA used to sell “8646” t-shirts on Amazon.

Riversco?

Of course. Although when Biden proposed it every Republican voted against, and complained about overspending. But I’m sure you approved of it though right?

Hey I have no problem with what Trump did: I approve 100%. But YOU don’t get to call it “winning” and then at the same time pat yourself on the back for 20 years of complaining about spending. Liar. Hypocrite.

Just yesterday you celebrated Trump spending money on infrastructure. You posted it and called it “winning.” Hypocrite. Liar.

Crybaby Trump tonight: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/16/trump-attacks-supreme-court-venezuelan-deportations/83679791007/ “The Supreme Court is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do!!!!” All 3 of his appointees voted against him. Lololol

It’s not a long term problem. Once Trump is replaced with a Democrat in 2028 it will go right back up. We’re in for a rough 4 years though…

Well we definitely disagree on the first one. On the second two, who knows?