American Politics the 2016 edition

The UK strategy concerning the realtionship to the US must surely worry the British now.

On the one side we have the American juggernaut plowing relentlessly onward, on the other we have a small country with a non-elected prime minister who crawled out from nowhere, faced with managing BREXIT and desperately looking for trading partners.

So, who's the dog and who's the tail?


Edited by npjnpj - January 28 2017 at 01:56

JJLehto wrote: Best line "The fact that Obamacare itself relies on several specific Republican, market-based ideas, now vilified, makes politically acceptable alternatives that much harder to devise."  Like I said, a real "oh sh*t" moment that clearly neither movement was actually ready for.

We managed to retain the individual mandate because John Roberts is an old-school Republican who didn't bite on the new kids' talking points. If it weren't for the earlier Republican support of the core policies that make up the ACA, I rather doubt it would have survived.

Given the willing dishonesty of the past two decades, I believe they will ultimately make some extremely minor tweaks to the ACA, then take credit for its success. If they leave it alone, Dems will get credit for the success, and they get blamed for doing nothing. If they blow it up, they get blamed for the loss of insurance for many people. Instead, they'll just shift the tax burden off the rich a bit, maybe fix a few provisions like the prescription drug ones, then leave it and take credit for the provisions they called to repeal. They've been on this dishonesty train too long to get off now.

Coincidence? LOL obviously not.

Edited by JJLehto - January 28 2017 at 19:48

One of the many issues I have with Trump's ban is the illogical manner in which it was enacted. For instance, we as a country destroyed Iraq (and whether you blame Bush and Cheney or Obama makes little difference to me) yet Iraqis are banned, but you allow Saudi Arabia full access. Need I remind you that 15 of 19 terrorists from 9/11 were Saudi citizens and Wahhabist Saudi Arabia is biggest exporter and funder of terrorism worldwide. Please remember which country Osama bin Laden came from.

The first loss for Trump!

In all seriousness, I do hope he doesn't take on China for real.  Not that China is an angel.  Many of the things he accuses them of have a kernel of truth to them.  But by now, so many nations have deeply entrenched interests in China that going for a showdown with them will almost certainly lead to a major realignment of world powers...in a way that may isolate the USA.  If forced to choose between NATO (a NATO that Trump threatens to dismantle) and China, EU may choose China.  Why, even Theresa May would say definitely rather than maybe to China.  And even if it is merely delaying the inevitable, I would like to see a new China-led world order delayed for as long as possible.  But the fact that Trump is mum about China so far may not necessarily mean he is not going to take them on, just that he's going for the low hanging fruit first.  And since scrapping TPP has likely strengthened China's position in Asia, the showdown may happen sooner or later if only to placate Trump's disgruntled supporters.

I wouldn't put it beyond Trump to just ignore the court ruling. or rather call it "a conspiracy to bring down the USA" or something of that kind and then ignore it

Any chance of one of our cousins across the pond opening a new thread to reflect the fact that we are now virtually 1/12th of the way into 2017?

How about Trumping our way into a new year as a thread title?

According to some reports from international news agencies, some of the travelers (men and women) from the evil countries have been taken off planes in several US airports, put in handcuffs, and kept in custody for several hours. Mind that they are green card owners who have lived and worked in the USA for years. They've been let go now; just routine.

Did anyone say fascism? Surely not. A little heavy-handed, perhaps. Nothing like what was done to the Jews in Nazi Germany, beggar the thought.


Edited by npjnpj - January 29 2017 at 06:10

BaldJean wrote: npjnpj wrote: According to some reports from international news agencies, some of the travelers (men and women) from the evil countries have been taken off planes in several US airports, put in handcuffs, and kept in custody for several hours. Mind that they are green card owners who have lived and worked in the USA for years. They've been let go now; just routine. Did anyone say fascism? Surely not. A little heavy-handed, perhaps. Nothing like what was done to the Jews in Nazi Germany, beggar the thought. the Nazis started small as well. that's why I repeat "principiis obsta"

I am sorry, Jean, but principiis obsta (nip it in the bud, or stop something at the beginning, for those unaware of the meaning) really doesn't apply here. Trump is many things, but he is not a fascist bully boy in charge of a bunch of thugs. He is a democratically elected head of a mature liberal democracy, with more than enough checks and balances to keep some of his wilder ideas at bay. Witness, in fact, a judge yesterday, suspending the deportation of certain arrivals.

There is an absolute difference between a wish to provide protection against immigrants deigned to be a "threat", and the wish to obliterate from the face of the earth a race, or races, who are felt "not to belong". Any comparison between the two calls to mind, in my opinion, a distinct and continuing lack of understanding as to the forces which brought Trumpalot to power in the first place.

Trump has expressed a wish to obliterate Isis from the face of the earth. Good. I hope he succeeds, although he should be careful as to what replaces it He has not, in any of his utterings, expressed a wish to obliterate entire people's, or religions, from the face of the earth, and any such suggestion, I am afraid, diminishes you and others, not him.