The Trump Presidency VII

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jimbob said:
I have seen the US system described as basically an elected version of the British system of 1777, and it certainly seems to have an element of truth. By that time, the monarch had had a couple of very pointed reminders that Parliament was supreme (1688 possibly more important than 1649) but the King still had a lot of power by that time - indeed his power and influence was one of the main drivers for US independence.
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And we might have to take the path the patriots of 1776 took to reclaim our country from a monarch...
 
dudalb, when I am feeling cynical, I think that your avatar choice seems unfortunately appropriate.
 
jimbob said:
dudalb, when I am feeling cynical, I think that your avatar choice seems unfortunately appropriate.
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Irony is that Grant was personally honest in his presidency,but he was very nieve and allowed a lot of pure crooks into his administration. And in the end, he did try to clean up the mess he had made. Read the Ron Chenow Biography for a balanced look as Grant;s presidency.
But with Trump there is no mitigating factor. And ,of course he nowhere served his country as well as Grant did during the Civil War.
 
The Greater Fool said:
Are you saying Trump's suggestion during the debate of a "second amendment solution" might actually have been a decent idea?
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Depends on the circumstances,frankly. I was thinking more in terms of armed residtence to a dictator rather then what Trumpy was talking about it.
Sorry, but I am not a pacifist .
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
And in the meantime, John Bolton hires a chief of staff that is a CTer who believes 80% of the Muslims in the US are plotting to take over and force Islam on everyone....
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Forgot to add here, on that recording of Fred Fleitz he blames a measles outbreak on Muslims being anti-vaxxers.

Not one word about Christian anti-vaxxers and the only Muslim group I recall that were vaccine averse were rural people in the Middle East refusing polio vaccine based on false information.
 
dudalb said:
And we might have to take the path the patriots of 1776 took to reclaim our country from a monarch...
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Not to be a pendant, but the Patriots of 1776 were rebels against their lawful government - a developing constitutional monarchy.

But I get the sentiment.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
The United States on Thursday said it was moving ahead with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, ending a two-month exemption and potentially setting the stage for a trade war with some of America’s top allies.

U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on a telephone briefing that a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect at midnight (0400 GMT on Friday).

(Reuters)
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Hate to say I'm glad I was fired, but the factory job I was in month ago would/will be hit hard by this.
 
Remember early on, when Trump was bragging about stock market increases on an almost daily basis? The recent drop in the stock market due to proposed tariffs got me thinking....

The DOW hit a peak of 26616.7 back in January 2018. It is currently sitting at 24433 points. So, the market is down over 8% from its high point. So, for the first ~year of Trump's presidency, he hadn't really done much (no major legislation passed, some of his attempts at using executive privilege resulting in court blockages) and the market was going up. Now that he's been in office for a year and Trump has actually started to do more, the stock market has not been doing that great. Heck, if you look at the one major accomplishment of the republicans (the tax cut bill), most of the bill's impact started at the beginning of 2018, but even compared to that, the Market has dropped from January 2 (where the DOW was at 24824) by almost 400 points.

Granted the DOW is not necessarily a measure of the economy as a whole, but it was something Trump was bragging about before. I wonder why he doesn't tweet so much about it now?
 
Details of Tariffs that Canada will impose on US products from 1st July
I would list them here but it is a long list.

https://www.fin.gc.ca/activty/consult/cacsap-cmpcaa-eng.asp


Canada looked for U.S. products to retaliate against "for which there is a Canadian alternative" or another alternative "from a country which is not the United States."

Trudeau describes this as "a turning point in the Canada-U.S. relationship." He says he wanted to meet with Trump to resolve NAFTA, but Pence told him that he couldn't meet with Trump unless Canada accepted an auto-termination "sunset clause" in the deal. He said Canada could never accept a sunset clause in NAFTA. Meeting never happened.

The "sunset clause" Trump wants would mean that NAFTA would vanish in five years unless all three countries agree to renew it at that time. Canada has repeatedly said that such a clause defeats the whole point of a trade deal, which is supposed to provide certainty.

This is a massive gift to Russia. With the strongest economy in the West intentionally ruining it's relationships with it's allies and neighbours.
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
Mexico just announced retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. goods, including "flat steels (hot and cold foil, including coated and various tubes), lamps, legs and shoulders of pork, sausages and food preparations, apples, grapes, blueberries, various cheeses" and more.


EU to enact tariffs by end of the day.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the move was "totally unacceptable" and the EU had "no choice" but to bring a case before the World Trade Organisation and impose duties on US imports.
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Trump could easily change his mind again. He seems to have the executive power to announce any tariff against anybody, but also the power to waive whatever tariff he wants at will. I don't know if he'll stick to this one or just use the announcement to keep even our allies in some state of uncertainty. He'll use them to get headlines and punish countries that he thinks are out of line. Now I wonder where the tariff money goes.

I need to learn more about the economics of it but it seems at a glance to be a shakedown of countries that have crossed him.

Domestic companies know they can just shift the cost of tariffs to customers.

Over the past 200 years an authority that clearly rests with Congress has migrated to the executive branch.

For a little history I checked out a National Review for conservative point of view:

Congress Handed the President the Power to Level Tariffs


They may be a bunch of RINOs over there, I don't know but essentially Trump is making policy by the seat of his pants because he doesn't know how to do it properly and because Congress has rolled over and played dead on this whole issue.
 
Minoosh said:
Domestic companies know they can just shift the cost of tariffs to customers.
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Unless of course the item in question is one which a luxury item (or in some ways discretionary, in which case the consumer may just decide to forgo the item (or purchase less of it).
 
Speaker Ryan against Trump tariffs on Mexico, Canada and EU:

“I disagree with this decision. Instead of addressing the real problems in the international trade of these products, today’s action targets America’s allies when we should be working with them..."
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Speaker Ryan against Trump tariffs on Mexico, Canada and EU:

“I disagree with this decision. Instead of addressing the real problems in the international trade of these products, today’s action targets America’s allies when we should be working with them..."
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So how long before he rolls over?

Or is he starting to worry about his stock portfolio?
 
Minoosh said:
Domestic companies know they can just shift the cost of tariffs to customers.
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They can try.

I recall the success of that strategy depends on how elastic/inelastic the demand for a product is. Price goes up enough, a lot of consumers will just decide to do without a given product.

I see Segnosaur beat me to it.
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
...U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on a telephone briefing that a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect at midnight (0400 GMT on Friday). (Reuters)
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I guess Wilbur's can of soup is going to start costing him a penny more. :rolleyes: Of course he can afford it, even if he has repeatedly lied about his net worth.
Ross repeatedly embellished his net worth by crediting himself with his investors' money...Financial disclosure forms filed after Ross' nomination to the Commerce Department showed he had less than $700 million in assets, far lower than the $2.9 billion Forbes had listed as his net worth a year earlier. And [Forbes reporter Dan] Alexander claims he ultimately found that Ross had been inflating his worth dating back to 2004, when he had first cracked The Forbes 400. CNN Money link
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He's a good fit for the Trump crew, I'll give him that. :(

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