The Jason Stapleton Program

I'm not sure how to say this...

Don't doubt me.

Yesterday on the show I told you the idea China would back down in the face of Trump's new tariffs was foolish. That's not the way this game is played.

Instead the Chinese have responded with the threat of their own tariffs, mostly on American agricultural products.

Granted, it's not much, but the Chinese position is clear. "If you mess with us, we'll mess with you."

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Trump has also fired one of his national security advisors and installed the "The Walrus" John Bolton in his place.

John is everything we hate about modern neoconservatism. He, along with guys like Lindsey Graham and John McCain has never seen a war they didn't think was worth sending someone else to fight.

John on the other hand, effectively dodged the draft by joining the National Guard with his generation's fool crazed war was happening. It turns out he didn't want to go off and die for some politicians foolish war either.

I've got no respect for a man like Bolton. He's been on the wrong side of history continuously and hasn't so much as admitted he's wrong...ever!

He's dangerous, and now he's got the presidents ear.

You might read that headline and think I'm stretching a bit with the "trade war" talk but trust me; this is not going to end well for America.

Trump announced today that he is imposing 50 billion in tariffs on the Chinese for supposed intellectual property violations.

This comes on the heels of his legal counsel quitting over the Presidents unwillingness to take advice.

The DOW lost more than 700 points on the news. This should not come as a shock considering there isn't an economist alive who would suggest tariffs are a net benefit to an economy.

Hold on to your butts. It's going to get ugly.

Jason

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Nickolas Wildstar today and listen to him share his thoughts on how to improve the great state of California.

Nickolas is running for Governor of California as a Libertarian. If you're interested in learning more about him or following him on social media here are all of his details.

http://www.wildstar2018.com

https://www.facebook.com/wildstar2018

https://twitter.com/therealqball

Enjoy the show,

Jason

Facebook is a data mining company. That's their real business. I've been saying it for years. As a marketer, I think its great. I can access all kinds of information to help me target potential prospects who would be interested in my products and services.

But I can't see names or personal information until someone signs up for my stuff.

This is not the case for some political groups like Cambridge Analytica and the 2012 Obama Campaign.

Both groups used special relationships with Facebook to access a smorgasbord of your personal information so they could custom tailor political ads try and get your vote.

But what nobody is talking about is that both the UK and US governments were also buying the data Facebook offered to these political groups.

Now we know what Obama and Trump were using the intel for but why was the government buying it and why isn't the media asking more questions?

Simple, another Trump/Bannon controversy is sexier than another government data mining operation.

Bottom line...if you don't want your personal information harvested and sold to the highest bidder don't be on facebook. If you want to use the social site for all of the positive benefits then just shut up and recognize everything you give them is being resold to someone else.

Jason

Ignoring the philosophical inconsistencies associated with "giving" shotguns away my first thought is "what the $^#%?)

I first saw the article posted in the private Facebook group, and after reading the headline, I thought, "This seems like a bad idea."

But I wanted to give the Libertarian candidate from Michigan the benefit of the doubt before passing judgment. So I read the article. I have now concluded with certainty that Brian Ellison is a moron.

Brian is the aforementioned Libertarian running against incumbent Debbie Stabenow for a US Senate seat. Clearly, Mr. Ellison hasn't spent a lot of time with the homeless, or he would have realized that most of them suffer from mental or drug addiction and giving them firearms is probably not the best solution to solving the violent crime problem the homeless face.

In fact, Ellison seems more concerned with police being armed with rifles than he is handing a depressed alcoholic a loaded shotgun.

Why does the LP keep fielding these types of candidates? I'll tell you why. It's all they can get. Anyone of substance who stands a chance of winning either leaves the party or seeks to distance themselves from it. I cite Austin Petersen and Larry Sharpe as two recent examples.

It breaks my heart to see our ideas promoted by the worst possible people. Just one more reason this show is so important.