Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete F.
Trump started a trade war, without allies against China.
He has US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his stated aim of turning China into a market-based economy. Donald Trump, a populist obsessed with forcing China to buy more goods — a market-distorting demand. His stated objective and his representative don't agree and he thinks he is winning. Or quite possibly, he has no clue what he is doing.
Trump has done nothing about infrastructure, nobody knows more about infrastructure than him and has accomplished less.
Worse than nothing to healthcare.
He did DeVos to education.
He eliminated anything he possibly could to do with climate, even the car companies thought that was foolish.
And while you were cracking up (much like Trump) you missed a lot.
So I'll repeat it and add some, keep in mind that even among nations, Trust comes in on foot and leaves on horseback.
No leaders trust Trump, he doesn't have core values other than what he can get.
China is reaching out to the world and supporting development, in Central and South America, Australia, Africa and the Bahamas. They will gain alliances and commerce by doing so and are.
National ascendancy is a very long term endeavor, that the US has been pursuing for many decades. It has enabled us to have the largest economy and become world leaders in many fields and to help others, while helping ourselves. Trump's America First nationalism is the start of America Alone in a destabilized world.
James Mattis explains the importance of NATO and the cultivation of allies quite well in various media.
George HW Bush and his son both used the support of allies in Iraq and Afghanistan and they came at a moment's notice.
I fear that is lost to us now. Look at the Iran arms agreement for one example.
Along with that we have reduced our ability to call one of our allies who seems to have a problem with another, and to work it out without conflict, much like a big brother.
More than 60% of career diplomats have left the State Department.
These are senior people who have developed relationships with their counterparts in other countries. They are the gears that make diplomacy work and that trust doesn't come easy. It will take many years to get that back, but Trumps all set he has his kids to deal with it.
PS your spelling and grammar sucks, is your education why you think teachers should be paid less.
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Thanks for the laughs today, I mean that. In no special order...
"your spelling and grammar sucks"
My spelling and grammar are terrific (Jesuit high school), my typing really sucks. Big difference.
"I blame him (Trump) for us losing more ground"
Did you blame Obama for losing ground? Just curious...China became developed long after we did. That gives them the advantage of being more modern right now. Not worth the price of being in the dark as long as they were.
"Trump is not a dealmaker, despite his boasts"
Interesting, this was on infrastructure. I asked you why Trump has set infrastructure further back than Obama did, and all you could muster was a lame jab at Trump. Your refusal to concede that Trump didn't invent our dilapidated infrastructure, is very telling.
So any economic gains under Trump are thanks to Obama, but all bad things that occur under Trump are his alone. Can we boil it all down to that, Pete? That's what you're clearly saying, so let's just say it out loud...
"Ending mandatory insurance will not make healthcare cheaper"
It will if the mandatory insurance is disproportionately purchased by sick people, while healthy people opt out. That's what happened. And I'm in favor of requiring that healthy people subsidize the care of sick people, especially for diseases that people get through no fault of their own. I'm liberal that way. But Obamacare was executed in a way that led to way too many healthy people opting out, which was one reason why prices soared. I work in health insurance, sort of. I know what I'm talking about.
"Issues with education are all due to unions, really? "
Let's not move the goalposts, you specifically mentioned "inefficiencies", not all "issues". I have taught in public school, have you? The unions make most things horrifyingly inefficient. And they do much more harm than good, to the students. Much more harm. When awesome, untenured teachers are always let go before low-quality tenured teachers, if that helps students, I fail to see how. And it happens all the time. Nothing is based on merit, seniority is all that matters. It's stupid and counter productive.
"Is it that teachers have a calling and therefor should work for less"
No, it's that they are public servants, whose compensation is confiscated from their customers through force of law, as opposed to the private sector, where revenue is generated by customers making a free choice to hand over their money. Big difference.
"all the fault of irresponsible parents and failure to go to church"
Also a huge driver. Sorry if you don't happen to like that. I saw it, I lived it. Have you? We're spending a ton more money on public education than we did 50 years ago, why aren't we churning out huge numbers of higher quality graduates?
"In 2017, investments in renewable energy amounted to US$279.8 billion worldwide, with China accounting for US$126.6 billion or 45% of the global investments. That is equal to the US, Europe and India combined"
Oh man, this is a riot! So when YOU look at who is helping the environment the most, all that matters is who spends the most, not who pollutes the most? The volume of polluting, has NOTHING to do with whether or not a nation helps or hurts the environment?
My God, your logic is something to behold.
This thread had as many laughs as season two of The Office. I owe you one!