Cont: The Trump Presidency VIII

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A view of where a Trump Supreme Court will take us:
But that’s just the beginning. The real prize for the right is something much broader: a sharp restriction on government’s ability to regulate anything. We may be looking at a return to the Lochner era, named for a 1905 case that struck down a New York state law limiting the hours bakers could be forced to work. The court held that the law arbitrarily interfered in a contract between an employer and his employees. Over the next few decades, they would strike down a series of economic regulations.

We could well be embarking on a new version of that era, in which the court’s conservatives undermine the entire structure of the regulatory state’s protection of Americans’ interests. Regulations on health insurance companies, say, to ban people from being denied coverage because of preexisting conditions? Sorry, that’s an infringement on the right of the companies to offer whatever products they want to consumers. Environmental regulations? Nope, that, too, is a restriction on economic freedom. Anti-discrimination laws? We can’t tolerate such a limit on freedom of speech and “religious liberty.” Reasonable measures to limit gun violence? No, the Second Amendment is virtually limitless. Limits on direct contributions to candidates? The court has already made a mockery of campaign finance laws meant to stop corruption, so why not just let billionaires hand politicians briefcases full of cash?
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...court-they-dreamed-of/?utm_term=.4b6f0c42120c
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump tweets

"Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason. They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere. We will respond!"
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What, is he gonna roll over and show his belly like the last ‘negotiation’ he had with them?
 
Hlafordlaes said:
May have already been posted, but there's this: U.S. Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials.

We can add this embarrassment to the early 20th century push by the State Department to go with "totally safe ethyl gasoline" (ethyl: also known as "whitewashed lead"), or the interventions in Guatemala and other places to support the United Fruit Company (thus, "banana republics").
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But it was not surprising. In fact, it’s just one of several recent examples of the administration’s zeal for badgering weaker countries into tossing public health concerns aside to serve powerful business interests. The baby formula industry is worth $70 billion and, as breast-feeding has become more popular in more developed countries, it has pinned its hopes for growth on developing ones.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/...ticle&region=Footer&contentCollection=Opinion
 
Captain_Swoop said:
It's the turn of NATO to be the tweet subject

Trump Tweets

"The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country. This is not fair, nor is it acceptable. While these countries have been increasing their contributions since I took office, they must do much more. Germany is at 1%, the U.S. is at 4%, and NATO benefits......."

"...Europe far more than it does the U.S. By some accounts, the U.S. is paying for 90% of NATO, with many countries nowhere close to their 2% commitment. On top of this the European Union has a Trade Surplus of $151 Million with the U.S., with big Trade Barriers on U.S. goods. NO!"


I like the conflating the EU with NATO.
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Truly Trump is impervious to education. If at this point he still thinks you pay two percent of GDP into NATO he really is just that stupid.
 
That he thinks the USA gets less out of NATO than Europe is also misguided.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump tweets

"Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason. They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere.
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We Europeans and elsewheres call that a great deal.

We will respond!"
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As I recall, Trump's response to the last outrage was the promise of a no-show plan to sort this appalling situation out. I expect no less this time.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
That he thinks the USA gets less out of NATO than Europe is also misguided.
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He thinks that all of European defense spending goes on NATO : it really doesn't. Nor, for that matter, does all of the US's defence spending. They have the Pacific to contend with as well, apart from anything else.

US defense spending is not, of course, bloated by its involvement in NATO. It's entirely elective.
 
PredicTweet:

Did you see ratings for Supreme Court pick announcement last night? HIGHEST EVER!!! Even better than MASH finale!
 
During Trump's SCOTUS announcement he brings out the notion that a conservative actually cares about the poor.



Sure...:rolleyes: As if I'm going to buy that any conservative is capable of any empathy.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
It's the turn of NATO to be the tweet subject

Trump Tweets

"The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other Country. This is not fair, nor is it acceptable. While these countries have been increasing their contributions since I took office, they must do much more. Germany is at 1%, the U.S. is at 4%, and NATO benefits......."

"...Europe far more than it does the U.S. By some accounts, the U.S. is paying for 90% of NATO, with many countries nowhere close to their 2% commitment. On top of this the European Union has a Trade Surplus of $151 Million with the U.S., with big Trade Barriers on U.S. goods. NO!"


I like the conflating the EU with NATO.
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Would it really surprise anyone to discover that he didn't know the difference?
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump tweets

"Pfizer & others should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason. They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere. We will respond!"
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Does this mean that he intends to lobby Congress to reverse the prohibitions against the government negotiating directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers for better bulk purchasing prices for government funded health care programs?

Medicare, for example? Or the V.A.?
 
I see that Wapo are reporting that the Brookings Institute numbers show that the Chinese trade tariffs appear to be specifically targeting red county industries.

picture.php


Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings who compiled this data, tells me that the jobs targeted by Chinese tariffs include well over 200,000 in poultry processing; nearly 140,000 in other animal slaughtering; over 120,000 in automobile manufacturing; and tens of thousands apiece in industries involving the manufacture of light trucks, utility vehicles and construction machinery, among others. As maps compiled by The Post show, many of these industries are concentrated in the Midwestern heartland and in the South.

The rub here, Muro tells me, is that China’s new retaliatory tariffs actually go further in targeting red counties than its previously threatened list did. “These tariffs will touch down in very specific places,” Muro said. “They appear calculated to have that effect. In its final iteration the list became significantly more rural and agricultural and red.”
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Seems China are playing for keeps.
 
Trump Tweets

"Iranian Harassment of U.S. Warships:

2015: 22
2016: 36
2017: 14
2018: 0"

Now that he has decided to re-impose sanctions on them do you think that might change?
 
Back to NATO

trump Tweets

"Getting ready to leave for Europe. First meeting - NATO. The U.S. is spending many times more than any other country in order to protect them. Not fair to the U.S. taxpayer. On top of that we lose $151 Billion on Trade with the European Union. Charge us big Tariffs (& Barriers)!"

"NATO countries must pay MORE, the United States must pay LESS. Very Unfair!"
 
So the other NATO partners are unfair to US taxpayers because the US spends too much on defense?
Poor snowflake Trump - everything is always other people's/countries fault.
 
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