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Donald Trump 2018


TheFlyingBoat

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All you are doing here is restating the uniparty argument, not how it doesn't contradict your present argument that modern political dysfunction is a result of the parties polarizing and failing to agree. 


Not exactly sure what is contradictory about recognizing both the polarized and dysfunctional domestic political landscape and the simultaneous shared common platform of the Ds and Rs.
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28 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

I’ve asked but no one can seem to answer. How is the proper equilibrium on tariffs for any good determined?  Who determines when things should be adjusted?

Are you serious?  Do you not understand that there is a multinational accounting book which must be acknowledged when these things are discussed?  Trump is less qualified than the average UT sophomore to speak or (worse) make decisions on these issues.  He sees "trade imbalance" and "tariffs" and flips out when he has no idea of the ACTUAL money flow involved, both internal and external to EACH country in question.

God damn this is frustrating.  This absurd proposition that all academia is fraudulent and that no accumulated knowledge is worthwhile is infuriating.  This is complicated stuff.  It may or may not at any given time be in the "best interests" of Joe Blow on the street but I GUARANTEE you that Trump has no concept of the issues at hand.  What's sad is that his handlers might, at least at some level, and their end game being aligned with his will result in an unfettered destruction of decades of hard work, some good, some bad, but all reasonably well-intentioned.

Edited by jimmyjazz
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Not that it had everything to do with it, but DOTUS declared the new tariffs on the night after Hope Hicks got drilled by the HPSCI. I think there was one other embarrassment for him that week too.

Instead of picking a handful of perceived inequities and sitting down with interested countries to reach a compromise, he just decided that he wanted him some tariffs.

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What in the actual fuck

She’s a randy 40+ yr old woman. We like to encourage that sort of thing, let her be.

I hate to play the hypothetical game, but there would literally be congressional hearings if Obama had done this. 

Of course there would. Add that to the list of, literally 1000+ other things that Trump has done that, had Obama done them, would have been deemed the greatest crisis our republic has ever faced. The hell of it is, they’d have been RIGHT to say that about half of those. The problem is, Obama didn’t do those things; Trump has.

No there's not.  The Ds and Rs share the same neoliberal war party platform. They share essentially identical economic and foreign policy. They curtsy and bow to the same corporate interests, with few exceptions. They are both statist parties that view the government as a tool to implement their own interests and chosen vision of morality. We should all chuckle anytime someone lets the terms small government Republican or progressive Democrat drop out of their mouth. 

 

I’ll indulge your bullshit and concede - for the sake of argument only - that what you say USED to be true.

 

It’s fucking not anymore. Not even close. Just as one easy example, the Dems don’t have a platform of “repeatedly tell our oldest, best allies to fuck off, treat them like enemies, and lie to them shamelessly...while treating our enemies like allies, and giving in to their demands and wishes, and lobbying on their behalf to our allies and the world.” Fucking NOBODY had that platform until the GOP went full Jim Jones Guyana punch cult.

 

Fuck off with your false equivalency both sides bullshit. Fuck. Off. And burn. In. Hell.

 

Shit, maybe I’m going to push to implement your asinine false equivalency into law. Death penalty for capital murder. And for driving 1 mph over the speed limit. Because everyone commits crimes. It’s all the same, a bunch of criminals out there, execute them all. You of all people should be fine with this.

 

You might oughta start taking an Uber everywhere though, if you wanna stay alive.

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11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Are you serious?  Do you not understand that there is a multinational accounting book which must be acknowledged when these things are discussed?  Trump is less qualified than the average UT sophomore to speak or (worse) make decisions on these issues.  He sees "trade imbalance" and "tariffs" and flips out when he has no idea of the ACTUAL money flow involved, both internal and external to EACH country in question.

God damn this is frustrating.  This absurd proposition that all academia is fraudulent and that no accumulated knowledge is worthwhile is infuriating.  This is complicated stuff.  It may or may not at any given time be in the "best interests" of Joe Blow on the street but I GUARANTEE you that Trump has no concept of the issues at hand.  What's sad is that his handlers might, at least at some level, and their end game being aligned with his will result in an unfettered destruction of decades of hard work, some good, some bad, but all reasonably well-intentioned.

Maybe there’s a Dilbert cartoon that can explain it.

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7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Are you serious?  Do you understand that there is a multinational accounting book which must be acknowledged when these things are discussed?  Trump is less qualified than the average UT sophomore to speak or (worse) make decisions on these issues.  He sees "trade imbalance" and "external tarriffs" and flips out when he has no idea of the ACTUAL money flow involved, both internal and external to EACH country in question.

God damn this is frustrating.  This absurd proposition that all academia is fraudulent and that no accumulated knowledge is worthwhile is infuriating.  This is complicated stuff.  It may or may not at any given time be in the "best interests" of Joe Blow on the street but I GUARANTEE you that Trump has no concept of the issues at hand.  What's sad is that his handlers might, at least at some level, and their end game being aligned with his will result in an unfettered destruction of decades of hard work, some good, some bad, but all reasonably well-intentioned.

I am serious.  I bet 98% or more of people have no idea how trade terms have been settled.  When it was settled that China taxed our cars at 25% and we taxed their's at 2.5% that's on the books and any deviation is big negotiation I guess.  How did we come to those numbers?

I didn't bring up anyone in academia.  I'm sure there's a reason for the numbers being the way they are.  I'm not sure why it's such an unforgivable sin to revisit them.  

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22 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

 


Not exactly sure what is contradictory about recognizing both the polarized and dysfunctional domestic political landscape and the simultaneous shared common platform of the Ds and Rs.

 

In support of your dysfunction argument, you just posted a video presenting data that the parties have agreed less and less over time.  You are simultaneously arguing that the parties agree more than ever, to the point that they are essentially the same uniparty.  How can you possibly fail to see the contradiction there?   

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20 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

I didn't bring up anyone in academia.  

No, but the idiot Trumpkins who haven't cracked a book in . . . ever . . .  see him as a white knight destroying all the "elite" who kept them down, when in reality a majority of that "elite" is politically motivated to spread the wealth.  Ignorance is contagious and we are at pandemic levels.  

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Fuck off with your words and data and facts.

This is all done by feel now. The feel of a tinyhanded emotionally-stunted infantile ignorant narcissist. Did you not see the declaration?
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44 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

I am serious.  I bet 98% or more of people have no idea how trade terms have been settled.  When it was settled that China taxed our cars at 25% and we taxed their's at 2.5% that's on the books and any deviation is big negotiation I guess.  How did we come to those numbers?

I didn't bring up anyone in academia.  I'm sure there's a reason for the numbers being the way they are.  I'm not sure why it's such an unforgivable sin to revisit them.  

Name a Chinese car sold in the US.

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36 minutes ago, Tom said:

Both parties are the same!  Except for, you know, all the stuff like this*:

 

House Vote for Net Neutrality

  For Against
Rep 2 234
Dem 177 6

Senate Vote for Net Neutrality

  For Against
Rep 0 46
Dem 52 0

Money in Elections and Voting

Campaign Finance Disclosure Requirements

  For Against
Rep 0 39
Dem 59 0

DISCLOSE Act

  For Against
Rep 0 45
Dem 53 0

Backup Paper Ballots - Voting Record

  For Against
Rep 20 170
Dem 228 0

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

  For Against
Rep 8 38
Dem 51 3

Sets reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by electoral candidates to influence elections(Reverse Citizens United)

  For Against
Rep 0 42
Dem 54 0

The Economy/Jobs

Limits Interest Rates for Certain Federal Student Loans

  For Against
Rep 0 46
Dem 46 6

Student Loan Affordability Act

  For Against
Rep 0 51
Dem 45 1

Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Funding Amendment

  For Against
Rep 1 41
Dem 54 0

End the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

  For Against
Rep 39 1
Dem 1 54

Kill Credit Default Swap Regulations

  For Against
Rep 38 2
Dem 18 36

Revokes tax credits for businesses that move jobs overseas

  For Against
Rep 10 32
Dem 53 1

Disapproval of President's Authority to Raise the Debt Limit

  For Against
Rep 233 1
Dem 6 175

Disapproval of President's Authority to Raise the Debt Limit

  For Against
Rep 42 1
Dem 2 51

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

  For Against
Rep 3 173
Dem 247 4

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

  For Against
Rep 4 36
Dem 57 0

Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Bureau Act

  For Against
Rep 4 39
Dem 55 2

American Jobs Act of 2011 - $50 billion for infrastructure projects

  For Against
Rep 0 48
Dem 50 2

Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension

  For Against
Rep 1 44
Dem 54 1

Reduces Funding for Food Stamps

  For Against
Rep 33 13
Dem 0 52

Minimum Wage Fairness Act

  For Against
Rep 1 41
Dem 53 1

Paycheck Fairness Act

  For Against
Rep 0 40
Dem 58 1

"War on Terror"

Time Between Troop Deployments

  For Against
Rep 6 43
Dem 50 1

Habeas Corpus for Detainees of the United States

  For Against
Rep 5 42
Dem 50 0

Habeas Review Amendment

  For Against
Rep 3 50
Dem 45 1

Prohibits Detention of U.S. Citizens Without Trial

  For Against
Rep 5 42
Dem 39 12

Authorizes Further Detention After Trial During Wartime

  For Against
Rep 38 2
Dem 9 49

Prohibits Prosecution of Enemy Combatants in Civilian Courts

  For Against
Rep 46 2
Dem 1 49

Repeal Indefinite Military Detention

  For Against
Rep 15 214
Dem 176 16

Oversight of CIA Interrogation and Detention Amendment

  For Against
Rep 1 52
Dem 45 1

Patriot Act Reauthorization

  For Against
Rep 196 31
Dem 54 122

FISA Act Reauthorization of 2008

  For Against
Rep 188 1
Dem 105 128

FISA Reauthorization of 2012

  For Against
Rep 227 7
Dem 74 111

House Vote to Close the Guantanamo Prison

  For Against
Rep 2 228
Dem 172 21

Senate Vote to Close the Guantanamo Prison

  For Against
Rep 3 32
Dem 52 3

Prohibits the Use of Funds for the Transfer or Release of Individuals Detained at Guantanamo

  For Against
Rep 44 0
Dem 9 41

Oversight of CIA Interrogation and Detention

  For Against
Rep 1 52
Dem 45 1

Civil Rights

Same Sex Marriage Resolution 2006

  For Against
Rep 6 47
Dem 42 2

Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013

  For Against
Rep 1 41
Dem 54 0

Exempts Religiously Affiliated Employers from the Prohibition on Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

  For Against
Rep 41 3
Dem 2 52

Family Planning

Teen Pregnancy Education Amendment

  For Against
Rep 4 50
Dem 44 1

Family Planning and Teen Pregnancy Prevention

  For Against
Rep 3 51
Dem 44 1

Protect Women's Health From Corporate Interference Act The 'anti-Hobby Lobby' bill.

  For Against
Rep 3 42
Dem 53 1

Environment

Stop "the War on Coal" Act of 2012

  For Against
Rep 214 13
Dem 19 162

EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2013

  For Against
Rep 225 1
Dem 4 190

Prohibit the Social Cost of Carbon in Agency Determinations

  For Against
Rep 218 2
Dem 4 186

Misc

Prohibit the Use of Funds to Carry Out the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

  For Against
Rep 45 0
Dem 0 52

Prohibiting Federal Funding of National Public Radio

  For Against
Rep 228 7
Dem 0 185

Allow employers to penalize employees that don't submit genetic testing for health insurance (Committee vote)

  For Against
Rep 22 0
Dem 0 17

 

*stolen from Reddit.

josh-donaldson-walk-off-home-run-against

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1 hour ago, RayDog said:

To be fair starting a worldwide depression could be Trump's goal. It certainly seems that way based on his actions.

Imagine all the prime real estate he could buy on the cheap during a worldwide depression.

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1 hour ago, GRHorn said:

Great Horns win. 

Are you must upset about G7 relations after trade talks?

I’ve asked but no one can seem to answer. How is the proper equilibrium on tariffs for any good determined?  Who determines when things should be adjusted?  Are there sacred unspoken pacts that Trump is violating by advocating for change?  Is it just that he’s a dick about it?  Because from my experience in business, most of the time the stubborn dickheads are the ones who get the best deals.  

Seriously, I wanna be enlightened. There’s so many experts on this on this board.  Help me.  My personal inclination is more toward free markets and trade.  

I get this one generality.  Cheap goods from overseas, less jobs at home.  It’s a tradeoff.  But why is this such pearl clutching topic for people?  I’ll leave with this...

 

Do you even David Ricardo, bro?

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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Well...first you have to know the interconnected numbers FUCKING EXIST before you can “revisit them.” Tariffs are but one input. Govt subsidies are another. Concessions on other matters (military actions, non actions, support, agreed non-interference) is another. And we could go on. For fucking pages.

 

Trump and his merry band of koolaid drinkers think that every issue is one-dimensional, and zero-sum. That’s because they’re fucking stupid, breathtakingly ignorant, and chest-puffing proud of both.

 

Trump-think looks at one input, and one input only. To use a metaphor, in a plane losing altitude, the only thing they will EVER do is pull back on the stick, because that’s the input to make the plane go “up.” They won’t add speed. They won’t go nose-down to do so, even with altitude to spare. They’ll pull an Air France, pulling back in the stick while we lose 30k feet of altitude and pancake into the fucking ocean. One-dimensional thinking is death...and it also happens to be one full dimension more than Trump and his lobotomized minions can handle.

This. 

The European tariffs Trump calls unfair, and threatened to end all trade with them over is 3%.   3 fuckin' percent.

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2 hours ago, GRHorn said:

 

I get this one generality.  Cheap goods from overseas, less jobs at home.  It’s a tradeoff.  But why is this such pearl clutching topic for people?  I’ll leave with this...

The “one generality you get” isn’t even correct.

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The Sunday morning cry from Peter Navarro and Larry Kudlow was hilarious. 
We're fighting with Canada and Canada is winning.
MAGA
 

Seriously. Canada is winning.

And Trump has managed to make millions of Americans root for the other country in this deal (of course, being that Canada is the only one fighting for what used to matter to us...)

The weakness of Donald Trump is something to behold.


Sure it is. And it was predictable and known beforehand.
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2 hours ago, Mojo Hand said:

In support of your dysfunction argument, you just posted a video presenting data that the parties have agreed less and less over time.  You are simultaneously arguing that the parties agree more than ever, to the point that they are essentially the same uniparty.  How can you possibly fail to see the contradiction there?   

I know that you are smarter than this.  I never said that the parties agree more than ever.  I said that they share a common fundamental platform when it comes to economic, foreign, corporatist and statist policies. You know this, but keep trying to drive that tack. 

And oh yes please, can we get another list of the fundamental differences in posture of our glorious two parties that includes positions on debt ceiling increases.  Jesus y'all are getting stooged and loving it. Oh shocking, Republicans against debt ceiling increase in 2012, but all in for 2017.  Do you realize how exemplary that is of the fucking problem. 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

I know that you are smarter than this.  I never said that the parties agree more than ever.  I said that they share a common fundamental platform when it comes to economic, foreign, corporatist and statist policies. You know this, but keep trying to drive that tack. 

I guess I'm just not smart, because I'm honestly not seeing the distinction you are trying to make.  If the parties share a common fundamental platform on all of those major areas, which covers most of what government does, what is the partisan dysfunction that is evidenced by the data in your video?    Increased disagreement on mere policy superficialities? 

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51 minutes ago, scottsins said:

The “one generality you get” isn’t even correct.

Wow this is a great opportunity to enlighten someone then.  

Again I have said at least a couple times that I’m naive on the details of international trade.  When I asked how these agreements were agreed to and how to know when they should be changed I’ve gotten some haughty comments.  I get it, it’s complicated, maybe too complicated for explanation here.  Those articles Mojo linked had some good points, they also had some comments like “everybody has some tariffs”, and “it’s complex”.  Makes me think it’s not so clear cut and there’s trade offs like many things in life.  

I guess I still don’t see why Trump suggesting figures need to be looked at again or deals need to be redone is the end of the free world, other than he’s being a dick about it. I’m sure the titans of business and finance on this forum have termed contracts or reopened negotiations on deals before. Is this not different?  How are these deals reopened?  

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I mean......
5f3e57db09b1994f5ab4d743b114db0f97d18ad9.jpg_facebook.jpg
VS.
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtZyLyML02mm27963JVodSfcXuJQ98A2-8BK8eWFSs1fEGcUWH
Even super straight, manly men would rather trade with Trudeau.

The correct term is “that DREAMY Justin Trudeau.”
Why don't all these world leaders just use their intelligence agencies' psych profiles of Trump to just troll him into full blown fugue-state insanity?


What makes you think they aren’t?
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5 minutes ago, GRHorn said:

Wow this is a great opportunity to enlighten someone then.  

Again I have said at least a couple times that I’m naive on the details of international trade.  When I asked how these agreements were agreed to and how to know when they should be changed I’ve gotten some haughty comments.  I get it, it’s complicated, maybe too complicated for explanation here.  Those articles Mojo linked had some good points, they also had some comments like “everybody has some tariffs”, and “it’s complex”.  Makes me think it’s not so clear cut and there’s trade offs like many things in life.  

I guess I still don’t see why Trump suggesting figures need to be looked at again or deals need to be redone is the end of the free world, other than he’s being a dick about it. I’m sure the titans of business and finance on this forum have termed contracts or reopened negotiations on deals before. Is this not different?  How are these deals reopened?  

The thing about it is this...

Trump is going about it, not like a dick, but like an uninformed, impetuous, child. You know, like how he does everything.

He's an ignorant fuck who thinks he knows shit. The problem with that is that he's not being all normal, and saying, you know, to our oldest allies, that hey, what say we all sit down and look at our trade shit and see if there's some changes we could make that benefit all of us.

See, a businessman, you know, over who likes to make money, they kinda understand how to bargain.

Trump thinks he's a fucking Don and everyone around are either his lieutenants, or his enemies.

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Wow this is a great opportunity to enlighten someone then.  
Again I have said at least a couple times that I’m naive on the details of international trade.


If you don’t understand that you don’t advance trade policy by talking shit to allied heads of state, “naive” doesn’t really cover it.
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1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


Seriously. Canada is winning.

And Trump has managed to make millions of Americans root for the other country in this deal (of course, being that Canada is the only one fighting for what used to matter to us...)



Sure it is. And it was predictable and known beforehand.

To be fair, Canada is pretty awesome.  Its little brother grown up. In many ways, it feels like what America should be, right down to the waves of grain. In summer at least. In winter, it sucks balls. 

But when you're in NYC, Houston, Chicago, or LA, you realize they're just as diverse and economically better than Toronto and Vancouver even if they aren't as fun as Montreal. (Montreal is really underrated) The real difference is that Canada is way more urbanized. Their rural areas are way less populated. However, their rural areas, while sparse, can be Trump x10 in craziness. 

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