ajuuiomml
5mo ago
We are stronger than Canada, Mexico, the EU, China, and Japan. We are not strong enough to pick a fight with all of them at the same time! The only sane trade policy for industrialization is to encourage trade within the Americas, with our friends, with whom we exert outsized influence as opposed to the EU and the Pacific. Free trade has very clearly worked in this context as evidenced by the comparative economic success of the US. The extent to which it hasn’t is the extent to which we should fuck with it (not much) which I was under the impression that we already resolved under Trump 1.
How much has Canada actually taken advantage of the US?
At the end of the day, the US will not be a net exporter and have the strongest currency in the world.
ajuuiomml
5mo ago
The Ukrainians at the front were abducted off the street. It’s a conscript army. If I lived in Ukraine, I would have fled by now.
Ukraine may not win - not morally or practically, but because it’s too dangerous. Ukrainian troops approaching Russia or taking back Crimea will see nuclear weapons flying. Pushing Russia to the brink is a bad idea.
ajuuiomml
5mo ago
The US could easily crush Canada or Mexico in a trade war. It would do fine against the EU or China. It’s suicide to attempt all at once! The bargaining position of the US isn’t going to be better after a year of tariffs with neighbors that hate us and -10% gdp growth.
Fucking up the economy has got to be the one way to get congress to step up.
ajuuiomml
5mo ago
No, I don’t believe that. China making it zero sum is throwing fuel on the fire though.
ajuuiomml
5mo ago
Looks like trade with the US is ~20% of Canadas GDP. Imports are also sizeable. This will not end well for Canada - my sincere apologies from the US. I honestly wonder what Trump is after.
ajuuiomml
5mo ago
What odds do you place on this causing local depressions or a global recession?
I’d go for at least single digit.
ajuuiomml
6mo ago
That is not our beef with China. China runs a market closed to American business - it forces the transfer of ownership and IP, while our market is relatively open. China systematically spies on American businesses and academia to steal IP for the purpose of competition (not national security). China was the main supplier of synthetic opioids to the US.
Ukraine is not an ally of the US. We have entered no treaty as such and have no obligations. We have shipped them armaments to the tune of 100-250 billion dollars out of mutual interest. If the US is attacked by Canada today, tomorrow, or ten years from now, Ukraine is not sending troops, arms, or aid. Ukraine is not entitled to our money.
Russia is a hostile nation, a rogue state, and our geopolitical adversary, but it is not our enemy. We are not at war with Russia and owning Putin is not our goal.
Our actual European allies, NATO or otherwise, are not entitled to our money on behalf of the defense of Ukraine. If Europe wants to indefinitely fund a stalemate, go for it, but fund it too well and risk a nuclear war. Just because we have crossed 5 red lines with no consequence doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
ajuuiomml
6mo ago
Won’t we just switch to funding the lab directly instead of indirect taxation?
ajuuiomml
6mo ago
Enforcement is an exercise for Congress, not the courts. We have been exactly in the presumptive, possibly apocryphal, here before: “Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it”.
What crisis?
ajuuiomml
8mo ago
This would bankrupt pretty much every non-ivy inside of a few years. Higher ed operates on razor thin margins. I want to burn down the system, but this is too much fire.
ajuuiomml
8mo ago
Private parties wouldn’t give out loans for worthless degrees and bad students when the degree is the collateral.
ajuuiomml
8mo ago
SFB took a swing at the king, Dollars, and missed. Trump just threatened 100% tariffs against BRICS for the same potential transgression. Don’t create a competitor to the dollar built on fraud is my take.
ajuuiomml
9mo ago
Protectionism in Argentina is off the charts. Maybe it doesn’t register as such by their standards.
ajuuiomml
9mo ago
Does the crown have the authority to pardon, or perhaps parliament itself?
ajuuiomml
9mo ago
Winning the popular vote provides enormous legitimacy. This won’t happen.
Terrorism is a meme - a true social contagion. Shooting into a random crowd is a popular meme in the US. Driving into one is popular in Germany [1]. Talking about a meme in the context of concern and apprehension is the vector. I think in the US, putting “assault rifles” in the news in perpetuity chiefly serves to remind individuals that the meme exists - it’s within the realm of possibilities for stuff to do and it’s easy/doable (quotidian). I acknowledge it’s somewhat ridiculous, but very clearly people couldn’t shoot masses without first considering it. I can enumerate any number of ridiculous things that no one is doing, benign or terrible. Naming and discussing them births them into the world.
Not naming the shooter is just the opposite. Not discussing the shooting is even better; no notoriety, no acknowledgment, no fame, no infamy, no victims, no crying mothers, no nothing. The extent to which Democrats rail against public shootings is the extent to which we will continue to have more. They communicate: “I’m so upset when you do this thing” which is received as a nine year old would: “do this to upset me”. The incentive is wrong for the media as defecting is directly rewarded with money/praise/concern! This is the lifecycle of the meme without which it would not exist.
Sometimes memes go out of style. Domestic bombings were all the rage in 1973 in the US (although those were not distributed in nature). In that case, they stopped when the perpetrators sorta blew themselves up, sorta got arrested, the news sorta stopped reporting it, and they sorta decided bombing police stations wasn’t changing the world, so they became Ivy League professors instead! So good luck to you. Planting bollards everywhere is a strong reminder that driving your car into people is a thing that you can do this weekend and telling people not to talk about it is worse!
1.https://old.reddit.com/r/2westerneurope4u/comments/1j2je9e/your_average_german_afternoon/
More options
Context Copy link