The American Politics Thread

This move will be applauded by U.S. timber companies and sawmills. This will level the playing field for competition with the Canadian timber companies and perhaps assure that American timber is milled out in America. Having spent years in the timber industry as a logger this is good news.

^^^  So on a tangent, I want to play devil's advocate here.  Hasn't USA been the so called city upon a hill, the guardian of freedom and all that for long enough?  I mean, what are these countries that have zero import duties AND absolutely open, no questions asked immigration?  Maybe there are a few really tiny ones that are that open but which large nations are?  Don't Canada or Australia have merit based immigration already?  Does China allow any tom, dick, harry from any country to export into their country without duties? So why is USA suddenly being made out as this horrible protectionist beast?  Why shouldn't other countries walk the talk?  Let Germany show themselves to be the true leader of the free world hence forth.  It would be a welcome development if other nations shared USA's burden as well.  There was an inherent hypocrisy in this arrangement where USA was doing all the heavy lifting in exchange for being the undisputed world superpower.  It has obviously rocked not one but several boats now that it's being called into question but let somebody else step up and truly take over the reigns so as to truly punish USA for its protectionism.  I mean, not by deviousness or brute force like Russia or China to a lesser extent, but by actually championing free trade and movement of labour.  Are the heads of state of any of the nations vehemently condemning Trump actually prepared to pick up the tab? Yeah, I am not exactly waiting with bated breath to find out.  

rogerthat wrote: ^^^  So on a tangent, I want to play devil's advocate here.  Hasn't USA been the so called city upon a hill, the guardian of freedom and all that for long enough?  I mean, what are these countries that have zero import duties AND absolutely open, no questions asked immigration?  Maybe there are a few really tiny ones that are that open but which large nations are?  Don't Canada or Australia have merit based immigration already?  Does China allow any tom, dick, harry from any country to export into their country without duties? So why is USA suddenly being made out as this horrible protectionist beast?  Why shouldn't other countries walk the talk?  Let Germany show themselves to be the true leader of the free world hence forth.  It would be a welcome development if other nations shared USA's burden as well.  There was an inherent hypocrisy in this arrangement where USA was doing all the heavy lifting in exchange for being the undisputed world superpower.  It has obviously rocked not one but several boats now that it's being called into question but let somebody else step up and truly take over the reigns so as to truly punish USA for its protectionism.  I mean, not by deviousness or brute force like Russia or China to a lesser extent, but by actually championing free trade and movement of labour.  Are the heads of state of any of the nations vehemently condemning Trump actually prepared to pick up the tab? Yeah, I am not exactly waiting with bated breath to find out.

interesting question man.. and probably a rather deep subject.

Basically  I do think it goes back to the first point you made. The house upon the hill and all that jazz. We do take a national pride in being as such thus the extreme reaction to Trump who merely isn't a President with whom you disagree but one who is fundementally opposed to the ideals which made this country was it became,  and yes the world still looks to us to be that thus their very strong reaction against Trump   There are benefits that come with it... just as there are costs.  Quite simply you can't have your cake and eat it to.. which is the apparent motto of the current administration.


Edited by micky - April 29 2017 at 08:14

Trump: 'This Job's Harder Than I Thought' - Free Beacon

Edited by SteveG - April 29 2017 at 08:26

of course it is...  he thought he was going to be CEO of America.. appoint a bunch of people to do all the hard work while he plays golfs, gropes the secretaries and takes credit for the underlings work. (see the first Health Care debacle where he thought he'd swoop in, knowing nothing of the details of the bill, and 'close' the deal and take credit for its passage. Whoops)

as often is said... for so many think it translates.... running a business is NOTHING like running a nation or a government. 

^and you have done both in your fantasy world

Edited by timothy leary - April 29 2017 at 09:00

yeah...  and I bet his fantasy world doesn't involve Captcha unlike ours 

ehh... Demonizing the left has worked for the right for decades..it fires up the troops and gets them out to vote. about time the left learned it.. and applied it for you know what.. .looking the double digit increases for Democrats across the board in elections (local, state, and national) since Trump was elected.

it works...

man what a scary thought....that just might make his unhinged twitter rants even more deranged and thus entertaining.. lord knows we all know how Captcha can get under ones skin...and who has thinner skin than our dear President.

But that's such a short-sighted reasoning that gets rehashed all the time; if lumber is so cheap doesn't that mean your country as a whole has to put in less money and effort to obtain it, and as such don't you collectively have more money in the end? Then you look at who gains this extra money, probably the people buying the most new 'house' by measure of lumber used, so probably the highest class, and then you tax a part of this new profit away so you can invest in companies who CAN compete with the international market as well as the education needed to work there and you improve unemployment, right? This isolationist theory only looks at when a job is lost, what the direct cause of it is, without looking at the new possibilities that also came from this cause. You can be a bit isolationist of course, for the sake of stability, but DO think of the future...