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    #26
    Trump's Card

    Satchmo Distel wrote: I think he'll massively inflate the economy and leave his successor with a huge deficit, yet the GOP will still pretend to be the party of fiscal responsibility. And the American public, with the attention spans of goldfish, will buy the lies, as they did with Reagan and with Dubya until after the 2004 election.

    The known unknown, so to speak, is the gullibility of the electorate. Given how the voters defied sanity in 2016, there are no ground rules going forward that one can rely on. Trump has destroyed not just norms of behaviour but also of prediction.
    Obama's already done that, doubling the national debt in 8 years, going through several rounds of QEs, and dropping interest rates to zero. You can't inflate the economy more than what has already been done.

    Comment


      #27
      Trump's Card

      But you are only considering government debt. A country's total debt position includes both private and public debt. Obama inherited a massive private debt crisis that Bush had let grow unchecked - essentially the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of humanity. If he had done nothing, the world economy would have collapsed. So he transferred some private debt onto public books, to stave off a global economic meltdown.

      Total debt (public+private) in the USA has actually declined since 2008:


      The biggest shortcoming of the western media, in my opinion, is to talk only about government debt. It allows the Republicans to get away with selling themselves as financially prudent, all while they enable banks to build massive Ponzi schemes.

      Comment


        #28
        Trump's Card

        linus wrote:
        Originally posted by Hot Pepsi
        Originally posted by matt j
        A checklist for future reference:
        http://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501451368/here-is-what-donald-trump-wants-to-do-in-his-first-100-days
        So
        1) Tank the economy by starting trade wars

        16) Nuke Iran.

        I don't know what to do. I wish I was dying of cancer.

        I hope we lose this match to Mexico. I hope we don't qualify. I'm serious. The sight of that fat fuck paling around with Putin at the matches would be too much to bear. Soccer in the US can take the hit now, and Klinsman isn't the answer anyway, so it's ok.
        Actually, Hillary was the "nuke Iran" candidate, not Trump. She's on record saying that the nuclear option against Iran is on the table. Iran is Putin's main client state in the region. Kagan, Kristol and co have already destroyed, stripped and balkanized Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, Iran is next on their list in their "we came, we saw, he died hahaha" foreign policy.
        Fair enough.

        It just seems much more likely that Trump would actually do something like that because he has so many idiots and Nazis in his cabinet, whereas Hillary's people would be more likely to understand that nuking Iran is would probably be bad for the markets and not good for her brand.

        But I hadn't fully taken into account the Russian angle. Putin is one of history'a great villains, but Hillary would have kept us in league with a lot of other villains too. I guess I'm inclined to pick the devil we know, so to speak.

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          #29
          Trump's Card

          Trump's attempt to intervene in Britain's choice of ambassador to the US is just hilarious:

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38060434

          I mean, it's worrying of course, and it's very bad to see anything that pleases Farage, but it's funny to think of all the face-palming that must be going on in diplomatic circles and especially funny to think how irritating it must be for May.

          Comment


            #30
            Trump's Card

            Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: Trump's attempt to intervene in Britain's choice of ambassador to the US is just hilarious:

            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38060434

            I mean, it's worrying of course, and it's very bad to see anything that pleases Farage, but it's funny to think of all the face-palming that must be going on in diplomatic circles and especially funny to think how irritating it must be for May.
            A gift that gives on giving.

            Does it belong here, on WTF, on the Kipper thread?

            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38064664

            Hasn't someone told the pair of them the US already has a British Ambassador?

            Comment


              #31
              Trump's Card

              It appears that the real reason that Trump is humouring Farrage, Banks and the lot is that he thinks that they can mobilise public opinion to prevent wind farms from being constructed within sight of his British golf courses.

              What a country.

              Comment


                #32
                Trump's Card

                It's just the time-worn Championship Manager/Football Manager tactic of planting a ringer to manage another club, to give yourself an easy win or to sell them your worst players. He's doing to Britain what I did to Tranmere Rovers in 1993/1994.

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                  #33
                  Trump's Card

                  ursus arctos wrote: It appears that the real reason that Trump is humouring Farrage, Banks and the lot is that he thinks that they can mobilise public opinion to prevent wind farms from being constructed within sight of his British golf courses.

                  What a country.
                  The Westminster Tories hate onshore wind, so unless he's got links courses in mind, he's as safe as houses as it is.

                  He's just having a ball with bigot friends, isn't he?

                  Comment


                    #34
                    Trump's Card

                    There's still a certain dissonance on the left as to whether Trump is a cypher or an evil genius. In some ways it doesn't matter because the result is the same*: either Trump is going to cleverly plunder the planet or his family and advisors are on his behalf, while Sessions et al get the racist police apparatus and green light to global torture that they crave, and the Christian right lets it pass because they imagine a Supreme Court reversing gay marriage and Roe v Wade.

                    *see also Reagan, GWB; but Trump is a far more extreme case.

                    Comment


                      #35
                      Trump's Card

                      Tubbs, all of the course he owns in Britain are links layouts (Turnberry being the most famous).

                      Do try to keep up.

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                        #36
                        Trump's Card

                        Isn't it offshore windfarms he opposes, because aren't Turnberry and Aberdeen both links courses?

                        Comment


                          #37
                          Trump's Card

                          The biggest shortcoming of the western media, in my opinion, is to talk only about government debt. It allows the Republicans to get away with selling themselves as financially prudent, all while they enable banks to build massive Ponzi schemes.
                          They should be laughed out of town if government debt is being talked about.

                          Comment


                            #38
                            Trump's Card

                            There was a great comedy series in the 80s, Hot Metal, about a Murdoch type (played by Robert Hardy) who was petty, spiteful but also malevolent, and Trump has many of the qualities of that character, in that he's unbelievably thin-skinned and will kill somebody's career over a minor argument but he can also set in motion processes that destroy countries and cultures.

                            The Trump era is going to be, from one angle, a very dark comedy that will be "a gift that keeps giving", but the comedy will be happening while people are being tortured, deported. bombed and sexually assaulted via processes Trump facilitates.

                            Comment


                              #39
                              Trump's Card

                              Costello's lines can be adapted for Trump:

                              When England was the whore of the world
                              Margaret was her madam
                              And the future looked as bright and as clear as
                              The black tarmacadam
                              Well I hope that she sleeps well at night, isn't
                              Haunted by every tiny detail
                              'Cos when she held that lovely face in her hands
                              All she thought of was betrayal

                              Comment


                                #40
                                Trump's Card

                                ursus arctos wrote: It appears that the real reason that Trump is humouring Farrage, Banks and the lot is that he thinks that they can mobilise public opinion to prevent wind farms from being constructed within sight of his British golf courses.

                                What a country.
                                I don't think UKIP are in much of a position to influence the Scottish alternative energy policy conversation.

                                Comment


                                  #41
                                  Trump's Card

                                  Of course not, but it is equally obvious that Trump has no clue how policy decisions are made in the US, let alone the UK

                                  Meanwhile, Breitbart is mad that he isn't going to lock her up

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                                    #42
                                    Trump's Card

                                    Trump Foundation admits to self-dealing

                                    Comment


                                      #43
                                      Trump's Card

                                      Trump knows exactly how decisions in Scotland are made. He took the First Minister out for dinner to get his Aberdeenshire course built.

                                      Why would he suddenly think UKIP can stop windfarms in Scotland?

                                      Comment


                                        #44
                                        Trump's Card

                                        Satchmo Distel wrote:

                                        The Trump era is going to be, from one angle, a very dark comedy that will be "a gift that keeps giving", but the comedy will be happening while people are being tortured, deported. bombed and sexually assaulted via processes Trump facilitates.
                                        To be fair to Obama, he managed to at least carry out the middle two in that list.

                                        I loved Hot Metal - much better than the similarly-themed Drop the Dead Donkey - but couldn't find it anywhere on Youtube last time I looked.

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                                          #45
                                          Trump's Card

                                          I have it on DVD but not with me. It is good, great cast.

                                          Robert Hardy is now 91, Geoffrey Palmer is 89. Even John Gordon Sinclair is 75.

                                          I made one of those up.

                                          Comment


                                            #46
                                            Trump's Card

                                            Tubby Isaacs wrote: I have it on DVD but not with me. It is good, great cast.
                                            I'll pick it up next time I'm passing through Tower Hamlets.

                                            On another tack, I don't know much about TPP; is it like TTIP - with allegations of secrecy, ability to sue Governments for re-nationalising health services etc - and therefore, as many think about TTIP, should it be abandoned?

                                            Actually, behind this question is probably another; are there any or Trump's 'policies'/intentions (as far as we know them, given they keep changing), that anybody on here thinks are any good - even if by accident?

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                                              #47
                                              Trump's Card

                                              I'm not opposed to term limits for Congress. I'd rather have stricter ethics rules enshrined in a constitutional amendment, but that's not going to happen.

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                                                #48
                                                Trump's Card

                                                A $1tn infrastructure investment would be a good thing, on the face of it.

                                                But Trump's method of creating it using tax cuts for companies to build private toll roads in highly populated areas is, clearly, utter nonsense.

                                                Opposition to TPP is - as I understand it - partly old, paranoid, protectionist nationalism, and is partly concern at how opaque the negotiations have been and how unclear the treaty is, similar to TTIP.

                                                Comment


                                                  #49
                                                  Trump's Card

                                                  johnr wrote:
                                                  On another tack, I don't know much about TPP; is it like TTIP - with allegations of secrecy, ability to sue Governments for re-nationalising health services etc - and therefore, as many think about TTIP, should it be abandoned?

                                                  Actually, behind this question is probably another; are there any or Trump's 'policies'/intentions (as far as we know them, given they keep changing), that anybody on here thinks are any good - even if by accident?
                                                  Yes, the two trade deals are similar, multinationals would be able to sue local governements on items like changes in environmental regulations, or changes in labor law like increases in minimum wages. Those kinds of toxic provisions which enable multinationals to supersede national or local legislation are the reasons behind the lack the transparency in those deals. It was never really just about "free trade" and tariffs, those were sweeping laws which would have profoundly altered the regulatory environment in favor of multinationals.

                                                  Trashing the TPP was an excellent decision, one that Sanders would have probably made as well. Hillary would have changed a couple of items and rammed it through.

                                                  Foreign policy under Trump is a bit of an unknown right now. There is an ongoing battle between the neocons, who are trying to place a total scumbag/moron like Bolton as SoS, and paleoconservative military brass who favor a scaling back of US interventionism. Trump has reportedly told off Kissinger earlier this Fall, but he has a very close personal relationship with Nethanyahu (that's probably one of the most troubling aspects of his presidency IMHO). It's hard to tell if there will be a real departure from Hillary's neocon approach or if inertia from past administrations prevails, his staffing decisions in weeks to come will give us some indication.

                                                  Comment


                                                    #50
                                                    Trump's Card

                                                    multinationals would be able to sue local governements on items like changes in environmental regulations, or changes in labor law like increases in minimum wages.
                                                    I don't get this.

                                                    Bernie Sanders put forward a strongly pro-labour agenda, and HRC took a few points on board. Now you tell me they couldn't do it without being buried under an avalanche of NAFTA suits? Same with California's plans to raise its minimum wage.

                                                    Those kinds of toxic provisions which enable multinationals to supersede national or local legislation
                                                    How? They allow for- and I certainly recognise it's controversial- arbitration for loss on investments. The multinational doesn't special dispensation to ignore the law.

                                                    It was never really just about "free trade" and tariffs, those were sweeping laws which would have profoundly altered the regulatory environment in favor of multinationals.
                                                    I can see why you don't like the ISDS, and I see that, but trade is surely very important, albeit more as a means than an end. It's intended to bind the region closely to US "interests" rather than Chinese ones or Russian ones.

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