Trump's Card

[ad hoc]

I lived in a country that was in a "compact of free association" with the US. It (the FSM) was independent but the US defended it (and used it for defence purposes) and it sort of fell under the US in other ways (we had a US zip code and used the USPS for example)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Is it OK to call people from Puerto Rico "PRs"?

A racist cab driver in "Money" does, which makes me worry.

[ursus arctos]

I’ve never heard that term used and tend to think that it wouldn’t be widely understood.

[Tubby Isaacs]

...and the NAFTA talks continue to go swimmingly.

I'm paywalled.

I see another headline there about housing being unaffordable in Canada which intrigues me.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I’ve never heard that term used and tend to think that it wouldn’t be widely understood.

Ah good, cheers. Not that I'm likely to need a slang word for Puerto Ricans ever, but at least I'm not going to put my foot in it if I do.

[Hot Pepsi]

Whoever he/she is they can fuck right off.

Yeah, but you see the point, don't you?
The idea is that an influx of 30m voters accustomed to trusting their government to provide services other than imperialism would dramatically change the course of US politics and, therefore, the world.

[Lang Spoon]

But those crazy fucks in Alberta gave the world Steve Harper.

[Hot Pepsi]

Ah good, cheers. Not that I'm likely to need a slang word for Puerto Ricans ever, but at least I'm not going to put my foot in it if I do.

PR seems to be ok to refer to the whole country as some of us can't quite get that R sound right. It's on their national team's baseball hats.
Not sure about PRs for the people. Sounds like the abbreviation for "personal record." But I can't see why that would be a problem.

[Hot Pepsi]

But those crazy fucks in Alberta gave the world Steve Harper.

Alberta would be an issue.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You can have some our Kipper voters. They're surprisingly pro-public services.

We ask only for Marshall Aid in return.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'm paywalled.

I see another headline there about housing being unaffordable in Canada which intrigues me.

Edited highlights:

President Donald Trump's negotiators tabled stringent Buy American demands at the NAFTA talks in Ottawa that would drastically curtail bidding by Canadian companies on U.S. government-funded infrastructure projects, insiders have told The Globe and Mail.

One Canadian insider described the U.S. demands as the "worst proposal in any trade agreement" that has ever been presented, saying it is being strongly resisted by Canada and Mexico.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has already threatened to respond to protectionist measures if the U.S. implements Buy American policies. In April, she was part of the lobbying that led to the defeat of a Buy American proposal in New York state.

Prof. Gold, who served under former president Barack Obama, said the U.S. Buy American proposal misses the point of free trade and the fact that while Canada gets access to the much larger U.S. market for government procurement, it also faces far greater competition from U.S. bidders for government contracts in Canada.

Dan Ujczo, an international trade lawyer with the cross-border law firm Dickinson Wright, said Mr. Trump's Buy American order appears to be sweeping in scope.

"The way that I've interpreted the Buy American provisions is that this applies to everything, including those old [Canada-U.S.] defence procurement agreements from the 1950s," Mr. Ujczo said.

President Trump, who has repeatedly criticized NAFTA as an unfair deal for the United States, has called for the rules of origin for autos to be tightened, citing trade deficits of $64-billion (U.S.) with Mexico. Trade between the U.S. and Canada is balanced, with the U.S. having a surplus in services and a deficit in goods trade, largely because of Canadian energy exports.

The U.S. is also expected to push for the end of Chapter 19 in the NAFTA pact that provides a binational dispute resolution system to challenge anti-dumping and countervailing duties. Canada has said it would walk away from the talks if the Americans insist on scrapping this provision.

Housing affordability is a long term ongoing issue here. It's been discussed on the "Canadian Voting" thread from time to time.

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...light=Canadian

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yeah, but you see the point, don't you?
The idea is that an influx of 30m voters accustomed to trusting their government to provide services other than imperialism would dramatically change the course of US politics and, therefore, the world.

Or, far more likely, be subsumed by the 300m in the US.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cheers, Amor.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Price resigns!

[Lang Spoon]

Which one is Price? Can’t keep up.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Health.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Replacement might get asked some awkward questions about sabotaging Obamacare in his confirmation. He'll probably just lie.

[San Bernardhinault]

Tom Price is Health and Human Services secretary. He is a completely dogmatically opposed to public money in healthcare extremist nutjob. He's also a former Congressman who sat on the health committees and repeatedly sold or bought stocks in companies just before that committee made announcements on related healthcare policy. He is insanely corrupt as well as being a political lunatic, and also just a very, very terrible human being.

Donald Trump will have to work hard, even by his own high standards, to replace Price with someone worse.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Judging by Price's resume, Jeffrey Archer could be a like-for-like replacement. Except that he's probably not as extreme on healthcare.

[ursus arctos]

Nor was he ever as committed to insider trading.

Price did it repeatedly, so much so that his antics raised the question of whether Congress should eliminate the exemption from insider trading prosecutions that it granted itself.

I wonder if 45 will offer it to Ben Carson, who has already sailed through confirmation for his current position at Housing and Urban Development.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You know about Archer and Anglia TV shares? Or do you mean that he only pulled the stunt once as far as we know?

Carson wouldn't have to reapply? How is passing an interview for one job good enough to get another? There'd be totally different questions.

[ursus arctos]

Archer did it once, Price did it more than a dozen times.

You really are so ridiculously naive about US politics. Carson was confirmed 58-41 for HUD. He might lose a Democratic vote or two for HHS, but he's more qualified for that post than his current one.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I didn't say he wouldn't pass, did I?

I was wondering if he had to be reconfirmed. And I know his background.

[Tubby Isaacs]

.

David FrumVerified account
@davidfrum
More David Frum Retweeted Matt McDermott
All the abusive spending revealed to date still does not add up to one Trump golf outing to Mar-a-Lago

[Hot Pepsi]

"Donald Trump will have to work hard, even by his own high standards, to replace Price with someone worse."

Hold my beer, as the kids say.