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Author | Topic: The Trump Presidency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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That is, in Russia the propaganda just rolls off like raindrops off a raincoat, but in America if they're already inclined to think that way they drink it up. An old and tangential comment; but I felt obliged to point out that the ex-troll's claim is, of course, horseshit. Lots of absurd conspiracy theories, included those promoted by state propaganda, are very popular in Russia. I know a lot of people who seem to believe that people in ex-communist countries are somehow immune, or at least resistant, to propaganda, but this belief is self-justifying nonsense. People here lap up propaganda that reinforces their prejudices; while having a convenient shield to defend themselves from inconvenient facts (it's their worldy-wise experience with Communism, you see. It prevents them from falling for the state-liberalmedia-American sponsored propaganda regime that Soros paid for). It's not so different from America.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
There was no Canada in 1812. There were two Canadas in 1812. Not really sure what the relevance of this discussion is, but I have a more serious question. Trump keeps justifying his tarrifs with comments about how bad the US trade deals are withother countries - is he right? I've not actually seen this addressed at all in the press. One thing he tweeted about the other day was the extraordinarily high duty Canada slaps on US dairy imports, and it appears Trump was correct - Canada charges duty of 270% on dairy. It's not a duty targeted at the US, of course - it applies to everyone, though I'm sure it's likely that US dairy producers are worst hit for geographical reasons. Clearly I don't understand things like NAFTA - how is it that Canada is slapping such enormous markups on imports from its NAFTA partners, and does the US have similar tarriffs on other products? In Europe we have a European Free Trade Area; within which there are almost no duties - that's kind of the point. Clearly NAFTA is not the same thing. But my bigger question is whether Trump is actually right for once. Do American producers face bigger barriers in exportng to Europe or Canada than vice versa? Or is Trump once again talking out of his arse?
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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1. The US does not have a trade deficit with Canada. Trump has stopped claiming that this is the case after he bragged about making a bogus accusation of such during a meeting with Trudeau. This isn't really what I was asking. I was more trying to figure out if, on average, the barriers for US exporters to send goods to Canada are greater than vice versa. I appreciate this is probably a very complex question since it's not easy to equate different tarrifs and subsidies; that's why I have not been able to find a clear answer.
With respect to Europe? Well, Europe is not a country, and I have to admit to being clueless about the state of trade between the individual countries involved. When saying 'Europe', I'm thinking the EFTA, which is one market even if it's many countries. The absence of internal trade barriers here means that Austria cannot impose a tarrif to protect its bubblegum industry from US imports; as US bubblegum can move freely over the borders from Germany or Hungary. This is why bilateral trade agreements are negotiated by Brussels on behalf of the whole common market.
There are too many German cars in the US" are complete horse ca-ca. An imbalance in trade in a single commodity does not mean necessarily mean that Americans are losing. In part, it indicates that Americans buy more stuff than Europeans buy because they have a bit more money. In another part, it is an indication of whose cars are seen to be a better value. Making great cars is not an unfair trade practice. And it is more than useless to pick out one industry without noting whatever advantages that the US has in other sectors. Americans sell lots of cigarettes. Yet we strongly discourage our own population from smoking. Trump also made a lot of absurd comments regarding the regulations and tests US cars have to pass to export their vehicles to Europe and Japan, apparently blissfully unaware of the often arcane and arbitrary hoops the DOT and EPA require carmakers to jump through to export to the US. German and Japanese carmakers simply approach this by building cars specifically for export to the US; complete with DOT markings. Of course, Japanese car manufacturers are arguably at an advantage here because of the relative sizes of the markets. The per unit cost is going to be higher for a US manufacturer to set up production specifically for Japan than vice versa, simply because there are less people to sell cars to. I don't think being a smaller country with a denser population can be construed as an unfair trade practice. Although if anyone was going to argue that it would probably be Trump.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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But the main reason his support increases among Christians today? Because of the way he reacts to the SATANIC HATRED that comes at him from all directions. Most anyone else would have resigned the presidency by now. He deals with it in a very measured, Christian way. He could have gloated a lot more than he did after so many prominent haters laughed at the possibility of him becoming president, including Obama. And the geniuses of the Democrat party, Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi. I understand that we may differ in political and ideological viewpoints, but I'm not really sure how you can write the above with a straight face; assuming you're not just trolling. No President in living memory has gloated more than Trump. He regularly goes on Twitter to declare himself a political genius. George Bush was excoriated and ridiculed in the press and on the internet. Barack Obama was villified by different sections of the press and was accused by whackos on the internet of all manner of sins. How did they respond to these critics? They didn't, because they were trying to look presidential and had better things to do, being President of the US. Trump, on the other hand, writes angry rants on the internet in response to comedians who mock him and publically denigrates journalists who criticise him. To praise this reaction as measured indicates either a total lack of honesty or a distressing level of self-delusion. The behaviour of many US Republicans at the moment reminds me of my student days organising campaigns against the Iraq War - specifically of those socialists and Communists advocating alliances with Islamic radicals. The idea of supporting someone whose whole ethos is antithetical to everything you claim to believe just because of a couple of policies or some common enemy is baffling to me. Hyroglyphyx said something about Christianity being linked to nationalism - but Trump's not even a good nationalist. The President of the United States is tweeting anti-American Russian state propaganda! Surely you don't need to be a tie-dyed hippy for that to be a step too far?
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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Who told you that? The fake news media? Quote one of those tweets and we'll discuss it. Should the entire presidency be judged on tweets? No one needs to tell me what Trump tweets - it's not secret information. I linked to the Tweet I was thinking of in the previous post. Percy quoted it above:
Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt! The President of the United States is declaring to the world that the problems in US-Russia relations are all America's fault. The fact that this is a tweet is not the relevant point. I'm just baffled how people can see this man as a nationalist.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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quote: But they've stopped now haven't they? Many Americans haven't noticed, because it's not on the news. The New York TimesThe Guardian NPR USA Today The Washington Post (mentioned in one of those opinion pieces that concern you so much, no less) PBS CNN (transcript from the TV broadcast - just to confirm this is being mentioned on US TV, as well.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
Just as a point of fact, all the European democracies, as far as I know, allow people convicted of felonies to vote once they've completed their sentences. Those three countries in particular allow people to vote while they're in prison serving their sentences. (Well, actually, I'm not sure about the Netherlands; my quick internet search was giving me conflicting information.) The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that it is not permissible to disenfranchise people just because they've committed a crime - temporary disenfranchisement while serving a prison sentence included. It's not quite absolute - you can take away the vote as a punishment for specific crimes where it's proportionate and relevant (in the case of someone being convicted of electoral fraud, for example; or participating in a coup to overthrow the democratic order), but not simply because someone's in prison for any old crime. There's not a lot the ECHR can do to enforce it's rulings, though, so the various states like the UK, Bulgaria and Austria that it's ruled against on this issue just carry on as before.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
In most states, a requirement to obtain a driver's license is proof of citizenship. You didn't say driver's license, you just said ID. If you're talking about driver's licenses then I guess it is possible proof of citizenship - it depends on when and where the person obtained their first license. Where I lived when I got my first license they didn't ask for a birth certificate. Each time I moved to another state I only had to show my old driver's license and provide proof of residency. I don't think a driver's licence is ever proof of citizenship in the US, since as far as I can see none of them mention whether you're a US citizen. I think there's some confusion going on between citizenship and residency. Hyroglyphyx mentioned that there are separate licences for temporary residents; but something like 4% of the US population are legal permanent residents but not US citizens. They do not have the right to vote in the US, but they have the same driver's licence as everybody else. For this reason proof of citizenship is self-evidently not a requirement to obtain a driver's licence.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
I actually looked this up for Texas (his state) and New Hampshire (my state). For Texas licenses the images I found online do seem to indicate whether the holder is a non-citizen. Sorry to continue the slightly off topic distraction, but where does it indicate this? I had a look at some pictures and can't see it.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
I can only repeat that I have never been asked to show anything related to being a citizen so far. I will have to renew my license in 2020 or late 2019 and so I can report back then I looked it up. Under recent legislation you have to prove 'lawful presence' when getting a driver's licence in Texas. For you that would mean passport of birth certificate. For a non-US citizen it would be a green card or visa or other document confirming that they're in the US legally. Edited by caffeine, : No reason given.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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He was calling those who voted in a way that he didn't agree with as having a "temper tantrum", those who simply wanted a change from the big government policies of Democrats who controlled the presidency and both houses of congress. Not only does that show zero respect for that political viewpoint, it can be argued that that statement shows that he had little respect for the U.S. election process. That's not really a surprise, because Jennings WASN'T A U.S. CITIZEN AT THAT TIME. He didn't become a citizen of the U.S. until 2003. So most of his reporting was done as a non-U.S. citizen, and there were, and clearly still are, no requirements of U.S. citizenship for any level of U.S. news reporters. I'd guess that little fact is probably nowhere to be found in Kalb's book. Why on earth would anyone care about the citizenship of a journalist? It's 2018, for crying out loud. The cheapest cable TV package here includes news stations from the US, UK, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, France, Germany and Qatar. I don't watch any TV news, but I have the internet. I can read news from anywhere. I find it odd that you're obsessing about something a journalist said slightly before I was born; but either he made a good point or he didn't. His citizenship status isn't really relevant in assessing that.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
There is a big wall in Sahara desert already. More earthern embankments than a wall for most of it's length (image below), but there are minefields in these sections. Have you considered mining the US-Mexico border?
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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Sahara desert is 3000 miles across. And incidentally, its a desert. Which means it is functionally a 'wall' in an of itself. i.e., the likelihood of a poor migrant crossing it safely is probably nil. Dumb idea. While I agree that it's a dumb idea; obviously lots of migrants do in fact cross the Sahara. Where do you think the migrants trying to get from Libya to Europe came from? They cross the desert using new-fangled technologies like the internal combustion engine. These chaps are in Niger getting ready for the long drive across the Libyan Sahara:
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined:
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You don't agree that the allegation was held in secret? As far as "embarrassment" goes, I haven't noticed David Muir of ABC World News Tonight making any mention of what foreign leaders, both friend and foe, have had to say about this. A cover up of the embarrassment? I generally find your references to American news anchors I've never heard of a bit baffling, but assume that perhaps they make sense to Americans. This one, though, is particularly cryptic. It kind of looks like you're suggesting that foreign leaders are talking about what a shambles the nomination process was; and that this is not being covered by US media for ideological reasons. Foreign leaders aren't talking about the Kavanaugh nomination. Maybe the subject comes up with friends and family, but it's not like they're making public pronouncements on it. That would be pretty inappropriate, diplomatically.
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caffeine Member (Idle past 1046 days) Posts: 1800 From: Prague, Czech Republic Joined: |
quote: If you had some kind of runoff voting system then there's no need for open primaries. The only reason you have this strange primary system in the US is because your system favours everyone deciding to get behind one of two candidates. Change the system to one without this bias and the Republican and Democratic parties would be free to fracture into parties representing the half a dozen or so ideologies they currently subsume.
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