Trump Thread

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I don't know what the full spectrum's standing is, but the lynchpins have all gone into effect by now.

US tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico, EU: June 1
Canada's retaliatory tariffs: July 1
Mexico's retaliatory tariffs: June 5
EU retaliatory tariffs: June 22
(More to come)

I'm not going to bother looking up the situation vis-a-vis China, but I'm pretty sure at least one round of tariffs has already been implemented on both sides, with more set to go into effect.

This is a serious situation Seamus, not just rhetoric.


Trump and his supporters believe in the ethic of total retaliation, which is the acceptance that you will never be good enough on your own merits, so the best you can do is create chaos and destruction and inflict cruelty and pain on others.

I have a Comm PhD. I assure you that I believe that rhetoric matters and that it is serious; these tariff disputes will have a significant impact. I hadn't realized we were past the start dates on those yet -- crazy schedule this last month for me.

My basic point is that Trump is assuming we can take the pain better than our "opponents" in these disputes and that they will cave before we do. I am NOT certain he is factoring things correctly in this.

[Montmorency]

I have a Comm PhD. I assure you that I believe that rhetoric matters and that it is serious; these tariff disputes will have a significant impact. I hadn't realized we were past the start dates on those yet -- crazy schedule this last month for me.

My basic point is that Trump is assuming we can take the pain better than our "opponents" in these disputes and that they will cave before we do. I am NOT certain he is factoring things correctly in this.

Alright, how about this hypothesis: To the extent Trump or the admin have considered the costs to the US, they think it can be sublimated into an increasingly-authoritarian rhetoric that actually galvanizes the base - even as trade disruption directly impacts large swathes of Trump land.

By now we've seen Trump supporters respond to a different type of logic and discourse, so it may even be a good bet that economic pain will drive them toward Trump, just as his incompetence and vulgarity and the contrition of his enemies have.

[Shaka_Khan]

I don't know if I said it in this forum. When Trump was running for the candidacy, I warned people that tariffs and counter-tariffs were what worsened the Great Depression. This time, the US is isolating itself and will be the most affected. Other countries have each other for trade.

[Montmorency]

Meanwhile, here's a nice article from the ultra-right Federalist. The author expounds his fatalist bravado on "not going down without a fight" as America plunges into "socialist abyss". He wants to make the Left feel the pain that the Plains Indians made the American colonizers feel before their ultimate capitulation. Take a few scalps for bragging rights in Hell.

They are not political opponents in the sense that you have a debate with them. These modern-day leftists want you to lose your job. They want to destroy you. How do you think they’re going to treat you when they finally sit in the seat of power for good? So fight them tooth and nail. Make them long for the day when you’re no longer fighting them. Be the Lakota.

So, back to scalping thing. When you make that long trek to the reservation the leftists have set up for you—and make that trek you will—what memories do you want to take with you? When living in the liberal utopian nightmare of 57 genders and government control over everything in your life, you will want to have been a Lakota. You’ll want to know, to remember, even just cherish the knowledge that, one day, you rode out onto the plains and made them feel pain.

Jesse is a Marine Corps combat veteran, former congressional candidate in Arizona, and host of "Jesse Kelly Brief." Jesse resides in the Houston area with his wife and two sons.

You know, reading this shit I get a certain feeling. I feel like violence is justified, like I want to see this man die.

But I don't. I really don't. I'm not constitutionally capable of focused violence. I don't like the thought of genuine, visceral violence. Be it as it may that this is a wargaming/military history forum, but the thought of real violence brings me to tears.

That punch Richard Spencer received way back when, regardless of your abstract position, it's hard to really get worked up about: it was a light jab, nothing more, something to ruffle feathers rather than cause damage. But this other
punch, this is the real thing, the kind of brutality that turns my stomach to look upon. Prior to anything else, my instinct toward such violence is compassion and sorrow.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Call me a bleeding heart.

And yet, a society of their making has no place for people like me (or even many of 'their own' as history shows), so seeing them in power is intolerable.

I wish I knew a way to convince these people that NO, you do not need to kill or subjugate liberals to militate against some prospective Communist purges, you stupid mother fucker.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Alright, how about this hypothesis: To the extent Trump or the admin have considered the costs to the US, they think it can be sublimated into an increasingly-authoritarian rhetoric that actually galvanizes the base - even as trade disruption directly impacts large swathes of Trump land.

By now we've seen Trump supporters respond to a different type of logic and discourse, so it may even be a good bet that economic pain will drive them toward Trump, just as his incompetence and vulgarity and the contrition of his enemies have.

Possibly, very possibly. His core supporters really are close to 'cult of personality' types. And those sections that voted Trump are as, and in many cases are MORE, likely to take the highest pain of whatever tradewar pain we endure.

[Husar]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/h...dor-trump.html

Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations.

American officials sought to water down the resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding” and another passage that called on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have deleterious effects on young children.

When that failed, they turned to threats, according to diplomats and government officials who took part in the discussions. Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the measure, was the first to find itself in the cross hairs.
[...]
In the end, the Americans’ efforts were mostly unsuccessful. It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure — and the Americans did not threaten them.

[a completely inoffensive name]

The science just isn't in yet.

How do we know that a mother's milk is in anyway better for babies than Nestle sugar/water?

[Pannonian]

The science just isn't in yet.

How do we know that a mother's milk is in anyway better for babies than Nestle sugar/water?

Not all countries are as tightly regulated as western countries.

2008 Chinese milk scandal

[HopAlongBunny]

Trump and trade.
Well there is one person at least who is roundly cheering Trump's trade policy. Peter Navarro is not a fan of China's economic rise, and sees little (to zero) upside to doing anything to bolster that rise. The policy is to return production to the USA and to keep the American market for American producers. Everyone else is just collateral damage:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trum...-war-1.4735828

As the article (above) says: "Maybe if you're willing to stick it out, it's doable over the very long term, but the medium term is miserable," said Jacqueline Best, a political economist at the University of Ottawa.

Of course over the very long-term we're all dead...

[Husar]

Not all countries are as tightly regulated as western countries.

2008 Chinese milk scandal

Since I'm pretty sure ACIN was being sarcastic, your point is that only tightly regulated mother's milk is truly safe?
Every week comes the breast inspector?