US Politics Mega-thread - Page 237

On June 01 2018 05:41 Simberto wrote:
Gotta say, i don't think i could find a way to ruin the US more efficiently if i was president. Then again, that usually shouldn't be the goal of the president either.

Trump just strikes at all fronts at the same time. Internally, increase strife between population groups and destroy trust in the system through obvious corruption and nepotism. Externally, pissing off every ally, making sure everyone knows that any contract with you cannot be trusted and getting into a trade war. Economically, getting into a trade war to ruin the industry.

I don't know if Trump is the main problem you guys have, i have heard good points that a lot of underlying issues are maybe more important. But Trump is basically doing anything within his power to make stuff worse. One could ask whether it is because of incompetence or malice (i tend towards incompetence), but that isn't the most important question either. The main question is how one can stop the senile guy from doing any more harm in the future.

What i am wondering is if it is possible to effectively tailor countertariffs in such a way that they hit Trump personally in a way that hurts.

On June 01 2018 04:04 JimmyJRaynor wrote:

thx man. i will try to be a good new yorker. i love the buffalo bills. Jerry Seinfeld and Andy Kaufman are my 2 favourite comedians. imo, Ayn Rand is my favourite fiction writer and the most important intellectual of the 20th century. Barry Scheck is a real life super hero. These people are all new yorkers.

i really need to work on getting some non-jewish heroes... my bias is showing.

On June 01 2018 06:52 Plansix wrote:
https://twitter.com/willmauldin/status/1002252512555040773

I am always impressed with Trumps ability to piss everyone off, even this own party and hard line supporters. It is a rare talent. This most recent plan has turned even the steel workers against him. I’m going to enjoy watching Trump cave and back off his brash tariffs.

This also confirms my belief that literally no one knew about these tariff before they were thrown out there. The administration consulted with no one that these tariffs would impact.

On June 01 2018 07:19 Mohdoo wrote:

I don't understand why steel workers would dislike this

On June 01 2018 07:19 Mohdoo wrote:

I don't understand why steel workers would dislike this

On June 01 2018 05:08 Mohdoo wrote:
Blogojevich pardon is just downright messed up. The others can be almost somewhat argued as fair, but there is no ethical argument to pardoning Blogojevich. The dude is recorded with zero ambiguity trying to sell a senate seat. He is so beyond guilty, and guilty of something extremely terrible that the idea of a pardon is downright incorrect.

On June 01 2018 07:33 GreenHorizons wrote:


I think Blago should get a pardon (well at least clemency), the guy was just a noob who didn't know those conversations are typically had in person in states where you need both parties to record or secure lines. You always get the person you're talking to to make the first illegal statement (if any are made directly) and make sure your insurance/leverage is solid.

You guys really think the same things weren't happening for the seats Trump opened up by appointing people?

That Blago was the first modern politician to make the realization of the value and influence someone in his position had? I mean the whole thing is so Chicago they should indict every politician in the city. Sure it also had nothing to do with Rahm taking his seat when he was removed.

Trump is terrible in more ways than I count, but he is a inadvertent master of holding a mirror to America's face and assuring them that horrid manifestation they see is in fact them.

On June 01 2018 08:30 Plansix wrote:
That isn’t a great platform for legislator. You just end up going after you political opponents in congress. Campaign finance reform, stabilizing healthcare costs and jobs seem to be the big issues this cycle. With jobs and healthcare sort of taking the lead.

On June 01 2018 05:31 Mohdoo wrote:
It is extremely important that North America and Europe don't blink and have absolute resolve. Allowing Trump to win a game of chicken will empower him politically and allow him to drastically increase this behavior. This needs to be strongly punished and NA/EU need to be willing to bleed for this. Protectionism needs to be shut down immediately.

iamthedave
Profile PM Joined February 2011
England
1267 Posts

On June 01 2018 17:23 iamthedave wrote:


Don't worry, dude. If there's one thing we Europeans can do, it's be stubborn and win trade wars. We're veterans at it. Not to mention the US's political structure is very easy to 'sanction snipe'. Can't do that with us.

The United States does not stack up favorably when compared to other nations with advanced economies when it comes to childhood poverty worldwide, according to a new report, which considered factors such as the lack of access to quality food, high adolescent birth rates and a child dropping out of school.

Out of 175 nations, the U.S. ranks 36th – far behind Singapore, Slovenia, Norway, Sweden and Finland, which round out the top five — and just behind Bahrain and Belarus in the report produced by the advocacy group Save the Children.

"We are just above Russia, Kuwait and Bosnia," says president and CEO Carolyn Miles. "So I wouldn't say that the United States is doing terribly well as far as childhoods."

The report looks at so-called childhood enders or "events that rob children of their childhood and prevent them from reaching their full potential," including things like displacement due to war, gender bias, child labor and child mortality.

There are three childhood disruptors that account for why the U.S. ranking is relatively low, says Miles, "One was our infant mortality rate, which is by global standards, pretty high. The second was the teen pregnancy rate, which, although it's getting better in the United States, it's still, again, globally quite high," Miles says.

"And then the third was the number of children that are actually victims of homicide in the United States."

In total, the report estimates more than 1.2 billion children worldwide are at risk of missing out on childhood.

Though, the report does say there is welcome news when comparing numbers last year to this year.

"The index finds the overall situation for children appears more favorable in 95 of 175 countries." In 40 other countries, however, "conditions appear considerably worse."

Poverty in the U.S.
Included in the report is a U.S. component that focuses on rural poverty in America, which the report calls "an emergency."

According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly a quarter of children growing up in rural America were poor in 2016, compared to slightly more than 20 percent in urban areas.

It was a southwestern state, Arizona, according to the report, that had the highest rural child rate of any state, with 36 percent.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the report found the highest concentrations of child poverty, overall, in the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and on Native American reservations.

Looking at poverty, regardless of geography, research released last year from progressive-leaning Center on Budget Policy Priorities found that child poverty in the United States fell to a record low in 2016, to 15.6 percent. That's down from 28.4 percent in 1967.

"The robust progress against child poverty is largely an unheralded development. So is the role of government programs in driving this progress," the authors of the report wrote at the time of its release.

Danilo Trisi, one of those authors, says the drop in child poverty was due in large part to the federal safety net programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, and the earned income tax credit help low-income families make ends meet.

"At the same time, the U.S. doesn't do as much as other countries to protect children from poverty," Trisi says.

When child poverty is compared across wealthy countries and before taking into account government assistance programs, he says, there's not that much difference between child poverty in the U.S. and child poverty in the well-off nations.

"But because those countries have a stronger safety net, fewer children [in those countries] live in poverty."

In recent months, Save the Children and other western charity organizations have been the subject of sexual misconduct allegations. As NPR reported in April, Sir Alan Parker resigned his post as chair of Save the Children International. The move came on the heels of "accusations of inappropriate behavior leveled against former leadership."

On June 01 2018 23:41 Plansix wrote:


Source

Lost in the garbage fire of yesterday’s news cycle was this report that one in four children in rural America is growing up in poverty. Nationally we are at a record low, but that is only because of the coastal areas having much higher populations. The rural areas of the country are being left behind, but they are also self governed so the coastal regions have no control over how they govern themselves.

On June 01 2018 23:44 a_flayer wrote:

You're failing to take into account the centralization of media and hardcore propaganda efforts by the millionaires and billionaires who live in the coastal regions but both directly and indirectly influence policy in Middle America.