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Poll

What do you expect on Wednesday?

Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.
- 5 (45.5%)
A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.
- 5 (45.5%)
A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.
- 0 (0%)
More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.
- 0 (0%)
A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.
- 1 (9.1%)
More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.
- 0 (0%)
DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.
- 0 (0%)
Huge disruption to the day.
- 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM


Pages: 1 ... 1244 1245 [1246] 1247 1248 ... 4288

Author Topic: Trump Administration  (Read 1583634 times)

FlyingVProd

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18675 on: August 17, 2019, 06:41:57 PM »

China has been buying a lot of avocados, especially from the Mexicans.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/chinas-middle-class-is-boosting-demand-for-avocados.html

We need for China's workers to earn more money so that they can buy American products, including products from Latin America.

And Ivanka has been helping the women in Africa as well, they treat her like a Queen, Ivanka is helping women in Africa to start their own businesses, and they can sell to the Chinese too. And I am sure that parts of Africa can even grow avocados, the African business women can get in on the love of avocados, they can export avocados to the Chinese too.

Salute,

Tony V.
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luee

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18676 on: August 17, 2019, 07:42:38 PM »

Last Israeli election, the choice was between Netanyahu and his right-wing and Russian allies v. a party led by a quartet of generals who argued Netanyahu was too soft on the Palestinians.  The concept and reality of Israel has been deeply harmed by the protracted dispute with the Palestinians.


Perhaps not exactly divide and conquer, but Israel has done a masterful job at separating and stratifying the Palestinians into many groups.  You have the Arab-Israelis who are IL citizens (1.8M).  Palestinians living in and around East Jerusalem with certain rights (nearly 0.5M); 2.1M West Bank Palestinians (with significant self-rule within one of the three West Bank security zones); and 1.8M Gazans under heavy restriction which some have taken to calling "an open air prison."







Almost amazing that the Palestinians in and around Israel/Palestine have been divided into 3 almost equal sized groups with different interests, rights, geography.  Then there's another 2M Palestinians in Jordan, with about 400K of those stateless refugees.  And another 500K Palestinian refugees in camps in Lebanon.   Added all up, and it's similar to the 8.7M population of Israel itself, and more than the 6.5M Jewish population there.

Right now, the Gazan and WB Palestinians are at odds.
Gaza under severe lockdown; West Bank Palestinians largely responsible for policing themselves; Arab-Israelis fairly marginalized with little political power; and Palestinians outside Israel/Palestine nearly invisible.
So Israel with little incentive to change much.  And emboldened by the the Trumpeters to inappropriately appropriate more land.

If only the Palestinians didn't keep saying "We will drive Israel into the sea".


---Rep. Tlaib Compares BDS Movement Against Israel To U.S. Boycotting Nazi Germany---

https://news.yahoo.com/rep-tlaib-compares-bds-movement-160800997.html

Seems like dems are being dragged into another lost cause. Antagonizing the unions, blue collar labor and now evangelical Christians and supporters of the one modern democratic state in the area and a close ally since its' inception.
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Stuck in Nueva Tegucigalpa with a shotgun by my side.

REDSTATEWARD

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18677 on: August 17, 2019, 10:48:43 PM »

Many things would have been different if the US had encouraged businesses to invest in factories and supply chains in India and Pakistan, instead of China. 

And it would have made more sense to encourage outsourcing and production in South America rather than China. 

Unfortunately, the US rarely does economic planning or consider the links between geo-politics and economics.  Buying Saudi oil and continuing to do so has had a fair amount of blowback and negative consequences.

The above is totally nonsensical.
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josh

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18678 on: August 17, 2019, 10:54:20 PM »

Many things would have been different if the US had encouraged businesses to invest in factories and supply chains in India and Pakistan, instead of China. 

And it would have made more sense to encourage outsourcing and production in South America rather than China. 

Unfortunately, the US rarely does economic planning or consider the links between geo-politics and economics.  Buying Saudi oil and continuing to do so has had a fair amount of blowback and negative consequences.

The above is totally nonsensical.

Your keen, insightful, and point-by-point analysis, as ever, really drives a  discussion, Ward.
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The day Richard Nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from Congress over the impeachment process away from Congress, and he became the judge and jury." ~Lindsey Graham

REDSTATEWARD

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18679 on: August 17, 2019, 11:20:09 PM »

Many things would have been different if the US had encouraged businesses to invest in factories and supply chains in India and Pakistan, instead of China. 

And it would have made more sense to encourage outsourcing and production in South America rather than China. 

Unfortunately, the US rarely does economic planning or consider the links between geo-politics and economics.  Buying Saudi oil and continuing to do so has had a fair amount of blowback and negative consequences.

The above is totally nonsensical.

Your keen, insightful, and point-by-point analysis, as ever, really drives a  discussion, Ward.
Then you make sense of the non- sensical.
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josh

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18680 on: August 17, 2019, 11:32:36 PM »

The  Chairwoman of the Federal Elections Commission has called President Trump on his bullshit about the NH 2016 presidential election: "put your cards on the table or fold."

The President has no cards to show, just hot air.

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The day Richard Nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from Congress over the impeachment process away from Congress, and he became the judge and jury." ~Lindsey Graham

kiidcarter8

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18681 on: August 17, 2019, 11:48:26 PM »

Last Israeli election, the choice was between Netanyahu and his right-wing and Russian allies v. a party led by a quartet of generals who argued Netanyahu was too soft on the Palestinians.  The concept and reality of Israel has been deeply harmed by the protracted dispute with the Palestinians.


Perhaps not exactly divide and conquer, but Israel has done a masterful job at separating and stratifying the Palestinians into many groups.  You have the Arab-Israelis who are IL citizens (1.8M).  Palestinians living in and around East Jerusalem with certain rights (nearly 0.5M); 2.1M West Bank Palestinians (with significant self-rule within one of the three West Bank security zones); and 1.8M Gazans under heavy restriction which some have taken to calling "an open air prison."







Almost amazing that the Palestinians in and around Israel/Palestine have been divided into 3 almost equal sized groups with different interests, rights, geography.  Then there's another 2M Palestinians in Jordan, with about 400K of those stateless refugees.  And another 500K Palestinian refugees in camps in Lebanon.   Added all up, and it's similar to the 8.7M population of Israel itself, and more than the 6.5M Jewish population there.

Right now, the Gazan and WB Palestinians are at odds.
Gaza under severe lockdown; West Bank Palestinians largely responsible for policing themselves; Arab-Israelis fairly marginalized with little political power; and Palestinians outside Israel/Palestine nearly invisible.
So Israel with little incentive to change much.  And emboldened by the the Trumpeters to inappropriately appropriate more land.

If only the Palestinians didn't keep saying "We will drive Israel into the sea".


---Rep. Tlaib Compares BDS Movement Against Israel To U.S. Boycotting Nazi Germany---

https://news.yahoo.com/rep-tlaib-compares-bds-movement-160800997.html

Seems like dems are being dragged into another lost cause. Antagonizing the unions, blue collar labor and now evangelical Christians and supporters of the one modern democratic state in the area and a close ally since its' inception.

Fucking daft duck
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facilitatorn

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18682 on: August 18, 2019, 12:14:51 AM »

Many things would have been different if the US had encouraged businesses to invest in factories and supply chains in India and Pakistan, instead of China. 

And it would have made more sense to encourage outsourcing and production in South America rather than China. 

Unfortunately, the US rarely does economic planning or consider the links between geo-politics and economics.  Buying Saudi oil and continuing to do so has had a fair amount of blowback and negative consequences.

The above is totally nonsensical.

Your keen, insightful, and point-by-point analysis, as ever, really drives a  discussion, Ward.
Then you make sense of the non- sensical.

It make perfect sense to those who aren’t suffering from Syphilis.

Since you are suffering from a very late stage of Syphilis, as evidenced by your posts, there is no point in explaining what is clear and straight forward to you.
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Will the Supreme Court grant trump work release to attend the republican national convention?

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

Richard P. Feynman

HamiltonIII

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18683 on: August 18, 2019, 12:57:31 AM »

Many things would have been different if the US had encouraged businesses to invest in factories and supply chains in India and Pakistan, instead of China. 

And it would have made more sense to encourage outsourcing and production in South America rather than China. 

Unfortunately, the US rarely does economic planning or consider the links between geo-politics and economics.  Buying Saudi oil and continuing to do so has had a fair amount of blowback and negative consequences.

The above is totally nonsensical.

Your keen, insightful, and point-by-point analysis, as ever, really drives a  discussion, Ward.
Then you make sense of the non- sensical.

It make perfect sense to those who aren’t suffering from Syphilis.

Since you are suffering from a very late stage of Syphilis, as evidenced by your posts, there is no point in explaining what is clear and straight forward to you.

Your keen, insightful, and point-by-point analysis, as ever, really drives a  discussion.


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bodiddley

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18684 on: August 18, 2019, 01:03:49 AM »

China has been buying a lot of avocados, especially from the Mexicans.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/chinas-middle-class-is-boosting-demand-for-avocados.html

Interestingly, there is a woman in Shanghai who started selling avocados about 20+ years ago.  Previously avocados were very much a specialty food sold at very high prices in foreign-oriented supermarkets.  She became known as The Avocado Lady, and ten years later got a plaque from the Mexican Consulate for her contributions to Mexican trade and culture.  As Westerners started coming to her shop to buy avocados, she smartly branched out into selling other Western food items -- olive oil, jam, tomato sauce, cereal, etc -- and has run a profitable business. 
It used to be every foreigner knew the Avocado Lady and at least occasionally hit up her shop.

But in the past 3 or 4 years, avocados started to be sold everywhere in SH -- most fruit stores, Chinese supermarkets, etc --at reasonable prices.  The best are from Mexico, but they are sourced seasonally from Chile and the Philippines as well (ranked in that order).  So far the local Chinese avocados are not good, with a bland watery taste.  Avocados still aren't cheap, and the expansion in China will be mostly in large cities for the next decade.  Shanghai is pretty well saturated.  Chinese girls believe avocados are good for the skin, nice their oil is found in Loreal and other beauty products.  But without the price dropping further, I think the avocado boom has already probably peaked in Shanghai.  No idea the availability in other cities, but I think Shanghai and the Avocado Lady were pioneers. 


Sidenote: for whatever reason, this year and last year = a golden age of Discounted Import Specialty foods.   Plenty of shops keep springing up all over selling fancy, mostly high-quality Asian junk food for very cheap.
Thai coconut-watermelon juice (Koh brand) is impressive, especially at $1 per liter.  I haven't tried the durian-coconut milk I recently bought (Malaysian).  Banana chips with tamarind jam was an unusual Thai hit -- basically little banana chip sandwiches.  Vietnamese cashews are nice. As well as Planters fancy mixed nuts.   All the cheap juices from Cyprus, Turkey, Spain has been very welcome as juice here tends to be overpriced or crappy.  The fancy chocolate selection on the cheap has been great -- Lindt Intense Strawberry Dark Chocolate and Witor's White Chocolate Cappucino being my faves.  It's also just been nice to get reasonably priced olive oil and jam.
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bodiddley

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18685 on: August 18, 2019, 01:07:40 AM »

Yeah, Tony it would be great if China suddenly became like the US.
But that's extremely unlikely.
And there are plenty of other models out there. 
China has been winning with its special brand of authoritarianism.
Kleptocracies such as Putin's Russia and Erdogan's Turkey -- intolerant nationalistic fake-democracies have done pretty well.  There's nationalistic retrenchment in Europe.
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facilitatorn

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18686 on: August 18, 2019, 01:09:36 AM »

If you’re having a hard time, Ham, having the economies of India and Pakistan (habitually at each others’ throats, now with nukes) more dependent on the US as both a partner and a market would give us a lever we could use at a moment like this to put brakes on aggression. Talk softly and carry a big wallet. At the same time, boosting China’s regional rivals such as India dilutes China’s leverage over us and the over the global economy. Bo was pointing out a long term missed opportunity wiffed on your many administrations. It would have been a better use of several trillion dollars geopolitically than invading Iraq.

Hammy, you should maybe consider seeing a doctor. You might be getting that Red thing if you are starting to show the symptoms. 
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Will the Supreme Court grant trump work release to attend the republican national convention?

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

Richard P. Feynman

bodiddley

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18687 on: August 18, 2019, 01:23:20 AM »

I'm tired of Israel being criticism-proof. 
Everyone who doesn't like Netanyahu's right-wing pro-settler gov't isn't anti-semitic or anti-Israel. 

And the tired line about Israel being the only true democracy in the ME* is countered by Israel being the only country in the ME militarily occupying land captured in war and keeping millions stateless.    And that tension between being a democracy following the rule of law and being a military occupying power enforcing statelessness and violating international law is exactly why Israel is a flashpoint and singled out for criticism.  Like when the US was a champion of freedom and human rights yet enforced harsh segregation.  At some point, something has to give.

* Lebanon is a democracy and used to be very tolerant until the Palestinian issue spilled over into a civil war and Israel invasions.
Turkey has been a genuine democracy, but with increasing autocratic tendencies, much in the Putin model.  Isn't Iraq a democracy now?
Tunisia seems to have genuine elections.   Algeria has tried.
Iran holds elections in which non-gov't candidates frequently win.  Though there is a two-tier political system, with the religious authorities trumping the elected leaders.     

And of course when the Palestinians held free elections, the US and Israel tried hard to nullify the results after Hamas won, leading to the split between Gaza and the West Bank.
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LarryBnDC

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18688 on: August 18, 2019, 01:25:37 AM »

Yeah, Tony it would be great if China suddenly became like the US.
But that's extremely unlikely.
And there are plenty of other models out there. 
China has been winning with its special brand of authoritarianism.
Kleptocracies such as Putin's Russia and Erdogan's Turkey -- intolerant nationalistic fake-democracies have done pretty well.  There's nationalistic retrenchment in Europe.
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If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

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bodiddley

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Re: Trump Administration
« Reply #18689 on: August 18, 2019, 02:02:06 AM »

A confluence of external factors helped make China an economic power.   Taiwan had industrial expertise and Hong Kong money and finance.
Taiwan needed to move up the consumer chain of products, as it's labor was getting too pricey to continue producing cheap items, while Hong Kong had little choice as it was reuniting with China in 1997.

In the Clinton Era, there was hope that communism was going to fade away for good, and that boosting China's economy would create a middle class who would then demand democracy and a gentle transition would occur, resulting in a peaceful prosperous China being just like us.  Fantasy unfulfilled.  So Clinton granted China MFN and then allowed China to accede to the WTO as a developing nation (allowing it to continue protectionism for a substantial period).

Things could have gone very differently.
The US could have demanded political changes in China before granting preferential access to world markets.  Or the US could have encouraged Taiwan and Japan and Korea -- all close US allies -- to ramp up manufacturing in India/Pakistan (or South America) as globalization and outsourcing kicked in in the 90's.  It was not foreordained that China would become the factory of the world, and if you suggested such in the 80's or circa 1990, people would have chuckled at your outlandishness.

The US (and allies) could have been much more strategic about where to outsource manufacturing.  We did that to some extent with NAFTA and Mexico, which was old partly on the idea of stabilizing Mexican institutions and raising wages there to stem immigration and drug crime.  Not exactly a success, but some strategic intent, and some good has occurred.

During the Cold War, the US was very circumspect about trading with the USSR or its Eastern European satellites.  When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Carter used his small economic leverage and stopped wheat sales to Russia. 

I agree with Trump -- why does the US want to hand over $300M annually to China just to buy low-cost consumer products that can be produced most anywhere?  Why enrich a country who is a competitor, a threat to the South China Sea, an occupier in Tibet, communist, engaging in a large-scale human rights disaster in its Muslim far west?  China has become prosperous and the US has lost almost all influence over China.
(except the threat of boycotting China products and shifting production elsewhere).

In a way, it's great that China has helped a few hundred million people escape utter poverty.  Quite an accomplishment in 25 years.  But India could have had the same poverty-reduction, is a democracy, is more or less an ally (and would become moreso with increased trade), etc.  While Pakistan likely would not have gone to the brink of becoming a failed state, and might have even not sponsored the Taliban (getting into far-speculation there, but if the military could have been making money as in China, they might not have cared much about meddling as much in Afghanistan.  And Pakistan might have had the resources and institutional ability to control its lawless tribal lands).  A prosperous subcontinent would have made a strategic bulwark against communist China and a recidivist Russia.


As Trump has said, the long-term China strategy has failed (no political liberalization), but big business is amoral as always and is happy with its profits.  And the US Gov't has failed to course-correct.   
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