Trump's America

[RoseMorninStar]

Oh Griffy, that article makes me so very sad. The old lady could be my mom (although she doesn't live in a trailer). Or my neighbors. *sigh*
I wonder if the woman in the article had any type of awakening after being interviewed by the article.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

My predictions are that the Democrats take back the House, but only by a few seats and are riven by division. In the Senate the Republicans gain one seat. The Democrats also make significant gains in Governors and state legislatures.

This prediction turned out to be pretty darned accurate, if I say so myself. In the Senate, the GOP has currently gained one seat, and though it is favored to win in the remaining race in Mississippi, Sen. Hyde-Smith's bizarre missteps have opened the door to a possible upset (though a repeat of Alabama is unlikely). The Democrats have taken the House by about 15 or so seats, which is more than a few, but they are definitely riven by division, as more than enough representatives have declared that they will absolutely not vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker to prevent her gaining the 218 votes necessary. In the state races, the Democrats picked up seven Governorships and at least 350 state legislative seats. Five chambers—the Colorado Senate, New Hampshire House, New Hampshire Senate, Minnesota House, Maine Senate, and New York State Senate—flipped from Republican to Democratic control. The Connecticut Senate went from being evenly divided to a Democratic majority. Democrats also broke Republican legislative supermajorities in North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and gained a legislative supermajority in both houses of the California and Oregon legislatures. Republicans gained control of one chamber, the Alaska House of Representatives.Democrats gained a "trifecta" (control of the governor's office and both legislative chambers) in Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, New Mexico, New York, and Nevada. Republicans lost trifectas in Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, but gained a trifecta in Alaska. This certainly would constitute significant gains, although the GOP still will have more power to gerrymander than the Democrats.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I guess Ivanka doesn't pay much attention to her dad's rhetoric.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/politics ... index.html

[yovargas]

I keep wondering if there's any damn line that Trump could cross that would cost him among his base. If that line exists, we haven't found it yet.

RNC backs Trump attack on retired Navy Admiral William McRaven

[RoseMorninStar]

I guess Ivanka doesn't pay much attention to her dad's rhetoric.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/politics ... index.html

But rules are for commoners, not Trumps!


yov, I'm not an avid student of politics or history but I can't recall a time when a president, a party, demanded such loyalty to one person and that anyone supporting another person/party was considered an enemy. That is what Trump is setting up here; that someone cannot be a loyal American if they are not loyal to him personally. That is damn dangerous.

[Túrin Turambar]

About a month ago I went to the book launch of a prominent retired Liberal (ie. right-of-centre) politician here in Melbourne. While waiting for it to start, I got into a discussion with a gentleman which quickly turned into a debate on free trade. Ten years ago, it would have been hard to imagine significant criticism of free trade and support for protectionism in a gathering of right-of-centre people in this country. Now, however, it's becoming more common, and this was example - he said that President Trump's trade policies would re-industrialise America, free trade hasn't worked, and we, at the very least, should impose tariffs equal to those of our trading partners and in the long run raise trade barriers to rebuild our domestic industries.

Ford and GM are now closing plants accross North America and laying off workers. This isn't entirely due to tariffs. But making steel and aluminium more expensive has certainly been a factor (as the article mentions). And more significantly, it shows that you can't rebuild industries through protectionism. Putting a tariff on Chinese goods doesn't force the Chinese to pay anything - it's American consumers and businesses which need to pay them. And, when costs increase for business, they need to cut expenditure in other ways. The list of countries which have been made rich by protectionism remains very, very short indeed.

Apologies for the little pro-free trade PSA. Sometimes I feel like I'm the world's last free trader.

[Alatar]

This is getting scary now.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201 ... merica-is/

[yovargas]

The list of countries which have been made rich by protectionism remains very, very short indeed. Apologies for the little pro-free trade PSA. Sometimes I feel like I'm the world's last free trader.

I think the right's recent anti-free trade is surely coming more from a xenophobia/nationalism perspective than from any sound economic analysis.

This is getting scary now.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201 ... merica-is/

There's basically zero chance such a thing could actually happen but I feel very confident that if Trump could do it, he would.

[Sunsilver]

Latest news from Ontario, which is quite apropos to this discussion:
https://www.thestar.com/business/2018/1 ... ource.html

GM actually STARTED in Oshawa. Needless to say, opposition to the closure is extremely strong. Some people are even talking of converting the plant to make an exclusively Canadian car. Personally, I LOVE the idea!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/autos/general-mo ... -1.4192810

[RoseMorninStar]

I'm no economics wizard, but protectionism (really Nationalism) and tariffs aren't going to help average citizens. But do the rich really care? Is it what they want? I don't think it's what the likes of Trump want.

Economic inequality is at an all-time high. If people don't have money they don't buy cars, they don't build houses, they don't go on trips, etc.. Rich people do not create jobs when there is no market for goods so giving tax breaks to the wealthy to 'create jobs' is just a joke. If there is money to be made they will create jobs. What they need is consumers with money to spend.

Henry Ford was laughed at and criticized by the Morgans, Vanderbuilts, and Rockefellers for paying his workers far above the average wage of the day, but he got dedicated workers which increased production, reliability and, as a side-effect, his workers had money to buy his cars (and houses, etc..). In this way Henry Ford almost single-handedly created the middle class. We need a Henry Ford, not a Donald Trump.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is getting scary now.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/201 ... merica-is/

This is (arguably) even worse.

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-r ... -1.6698739

[RoseMorninStar]

It's disturbing, is what it is. Why can't most other people see that as disturbing coming from a PRESIDENT? Abnormal, deranged behavior.

[Dave_LF]

"getting?" "now?"

[yovargas]

Capture.JPG (29.96 KiB) Viewed 6383 times

[Dave_LF]

Frankly I'm not sure one can argue with that

[Primula Baggins]

One can’t argue for it, either.

[Túrin Turambar]

Just saw the breaking news that President George H. W. Bush died on Friday evening. I've seen mixed reactions from commentators on both left- and right-leaning websites. On a practical note, this will change the media cycle for the next week or so, and it'll be interesting to see if President Trump attends the funeral given his poor relationship with the Bush family.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

He will be there. I'm sure that the Bush family doesn't want him there, and I doubt that he really wants to be there, but there would have been no way that he would not be attending.

[Sunsilver]

A very impassioned speech from Tom Ryan re. the GM plant closures. As most of us know, trickle down economics has NEVER worked! Oh, and BTW, GM stock is up 6%! I'm sure that's VERY reassuring to the people who are losing their jobs!

https://www.facebook.com/NowThisPolitic ... U1NzA1NzI/

[RoseMorninStar]

I don't understand the finer workings of finance but I find it ironic when (generally wealthy) people carry-on about how the poor &/or working class need to work harder and not expect hand-outs for health care & whatnot. Yet many of the working poor work plenty of hours. The wealthy often become wealthy not by physically working but by investing money they already have. Companies worry about paying their (non-working) investors more than they worry about investing in their laboring workers. That is why 'trickle down' doesn't work.