Trump actually believes he can win

[HedonistForever]

Originally Posted by sportfisherman

I truly believe we be better off with Biden on many fronts.Some policy wise and some just on restoring some presidential calm to the picture.Which I think has some importance.

There is just too much Trump ! Trump Trump Trump Tweet Tweet Tweet !
Too much !

Policy wise ; I don't believe in that "Trickle Down" shit.I don't believe that by taxing high earners and corporations a little more that the economy will slow down and crash.And actually the increase put forth by Biden will mostly just restore the rates to previous levels that had done fine for years.

On another front not intended to be confrontational ; If Trump and his China policy is so great with the tariffs and all ; Why is our Trade Deficit at the 3rd highest of all time ?

That may be the easiest question to answer ever asked. Because for the past few decades, we have been letting China eat our lunch. Trump has been trying for the last few years to change that but change will not come unless a bi-partisan Congress decides to hold China accountable. Does it sound to you like Trump wants our high trade deficit with China to continue or does it sound like he is doing everything he can to reverse what has taken us decades to get to? This isn't something that just happened 4 years ago.



Of course China has cards to play in the short game. Refusing to buy American goods during this time period could increase our trade deficit. So what do we do, give in to their demands or take a short term hit for the long term benefit of reducing our dependence on China?


It may very well hurt for a while. There may disruptions in trade but the point is to slowly cut China out of the equation because that is what will be best for the US and the world in the long run. If we do not change the current dynamic, in the next couple of years China will be the dominate economic and military force in the world and what kind of a position will that put us in? We and the entire Western world will be at their mercy.


Ask yourself if that sounds like a good place to be.


Changing the mistakes we have made for the past few decades might be tough but if we don't, we might as well just let China write the trade policies as they see fit.


This really isn't that hard to understand once you take hatred for Donald Trump out of the equation.

[PythonLeeJackson]

Old Trumpy just posted 5 wacky and berserk tweets about the 25Th amendment
In the past hour.

If Pelosi was looking to get under his skin, and get him to complete implode.

It’s working already.

Trump should show up to debate. So he can recover some of the ground he lost in the first debate when he was clearly hammered into submission.

Poor boy, the pressure is getting to him. But hey Donnie Boy, be a bit more calm and collected this time. Being unhinged doesn’t suit you. You’re frightening my kitty cats.

[sportfisherman]

That sounds reasonable.
But it seems he has put some tariffs and they don't seem to have had any effect yet.
Not only no good effect yet but our trade deficit has gotten worse.

It seems you are saying it just needs more time.

I actually do not hate Trump the private citizen.He has been on the fringe of things my whole life.I always just saw him as a character.

But as a politician,he is the worst ever.
The experiment of such an Amateur president has been bad.

I get the disenchantment with "Professional Politicians" alright.

But I may not like Lawyers too much,but when I need one I want a Professional one.
I would not want an Amateur New-Comer lawyer.

Trump pushes and agitates continuously on many fronts and his supporters revel in the Exploding Heads of Libtards over his antics.

But it has come back to bite him on his ass for this election.

It appears Trump's support has a ceiling of around 40%.

[GastonGlock]

Originally Posted by PythonLeeJackson

Old Trumpy just posted 5 wacky and berserk tweets about the 25Th amendment
In the past hour.

I dunno man, Grandma Nancy is the one acting upset and throwing the 25th around. Why do they need to invoke the 25th if Joe's so far ahead in the polls?

[Chung Tran]

Originally Posted by GastonGlock

I dunno man, Grandma Nancy is the one acting upset and throwing the 25th around. Why do they need to invoke the 25th if Joe's so far ahead in the polls?

She owns Trump. Your question is irrelevant. Nancy is sharp, she has Trump fidgeting with worry, teasing the 25th amendment 24 hours in advance. She knew Trump would implode, she is playing him like Stradivarius.

[TryWeakly]

Originally Posted by Chung Tran

She owns Trump. Your question is irrelevant. Nancy is sharp, she has Trump fidgeting with worry, teasing the 25th amendment 24 hours in advance. She knew Trump would implode, she is playing him like Stradivarius.

Far from it ...

Sounds like TDS causes sleep deprivation I guess...


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...e-b742220.html

[LexusLover]

It's a "win-win" for Trump. It's a "lose-lose" for Bitten.

[Lapdog]

Originally Posted by GastonGlock

I dunno man, Grandma Nancy is the one acting upset and throwing the 25th around. Why do they need to invoke the 25th if Joe's so far ahead in the polls?

Trump is toast. There's no doubt that he'll lose the election, but he'll still have a lot of power as a lame duck until 1/20/21, and he'll use that power to punish all of us for not re-electing him.
He'll do as much damage as he can to this nation and its people until then.

[SecretE]

Originally Posted by GastonGlock

I dunno man, Grandma Nancy is the one acting upset and throwing the 25th around. Why do they need to invoke the 25th if Joe's so far ahead in the polls?

Came on to post this very thing. Harris got defeated soundly by Pence (which I was surprised he was able to do so easily, BTW). Why all this talk, if Biden has it "in the bag"?

[Strokey_McDingDong]

They are obviously trying to cheat and using a by-all-means-necessary approach to gaining and remaining in power.

[TryWeakly]

Yep. ... I guess they will continue to be TRUMPED ....

After the unredacted material come out, they're gonna need a bigger boat.

[HedonistForever]

Originally Posted by sportfisherman

That sounds reasonable.
But it seems he has put some tariffs and they don't seem to have had any effect yet.


If by "any effect" you mean the deficit would be reduced, you would be correct but this problem didn't happen over night, it was decades in the making and it will not be solved over night. Hopefully it won't take decades to have the desired effect if we have the will to see it through and I don't think a Biden/ Harris administration will have the will or even the understanding of the necessity. We must start to un-couple from China and it's going to involve some hurt or we keep going like we are going and China will be the dominate economic power in the world and China plays hardball as countries like in Africa are finding out when they accept loans that the Chinese know they can't pay back. Loan sharking on a global scale.



Reasonable people can disagree on the effectiveness of tariffs. To my way of thinking, people fall into 3 different categories. Those that understand all the ramifications of tariffs, those that don't and those that simply don't care. That last category are people who want the cheapest price on an item they can get and couldn't care less what that means for American workers and the trade balance. They would be people with limited means who don't have the luxury of paying a little more to keep a job in America. They can't afford to care.


The second category are people either to busy with their lives to think about such matters or just plain aren't interested because they don't have the intellect to give it the thought it may deserve.


The first category comes in two parts. Both understand the dynamics of tariffs, what actually happens but disagree on it's effectiveness.


There has been a lot of confusion from what I have seen about what exactly a tariff does and doesn't do and I don't think Trump helped at all explaining it to the American people. Here is the simple definition of what a tariff does

So putting a tariff on a Chinese product means an American wanting to buy that product will have to pay more for that product. Some people like myself think that is OK because (A) I can afford to feel that way and ( B) I think it ensures more jobs in America if we limit buying goods from China. And that would reduce our trade deficit "in theory". Of course what China buys also comes into the equation but we can't control how much China buys from us, we can only control how much we buy from China. If we force a tariff on a Chinese product and make it more expensive, in theory, it gives American manufacturing a better chance to compete and that means more American jobs but it also means Americans will have to pay more if we want to keep those jobs here. Some want cheap shit giving no thought at all to the overall cost and some are willing to pay more if it means reducing the trade deficit and more American jobs.



Problem is ( one of many ) people want jobs to stay in America but they don't want to pay higher prices. If the Chinese product now costs more because of a tariff "maybe" while complaining about paying more, we bring back manufacturing jobs to America or at the very least, take those sales away from China.


It seems you are saying it just needs more time.


Time and the will to do it but it is inevitable that the trade deficit will go up if China decides to cut back on buying from us to punish us for our impudence and we are unwilling to pay more to keep those jobs in America. It's entirely possible that even with a tariff on a Chinese product, an American company can't compete because they still can't produce a product because of oh say union wages, environmental controls, a multitude of problems America has that China doesn't.


I actually do not hate Trump the private citizen.He has been on the fringe of things my whole life.I always just saw him as a character.

But as a politician,he is the worst ever.
The experiment of such an Amateur president has been bad.


It sure as hell wasn't bad for the economy pre-Covid. No honest person could say different because the statistics say so. To this very day, right now, a majority of Americans give Trump a higher rating on the economy than Biden. And traditionally, the economy ranks number one but not necessarily so with Trump in the mix because of one thing, character.




https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/15/polit...sis/index.html

And that's from CNN!!!! By any and all economic measures, Trump has been good for the country so it is purely subjective to say he hasn't but you have the right to your opinion.


I get the disenchantment with "Professional Politicians" alright.

But I may not like Lawyers too much,but when I need one I want a Professional one.
I would not want an Amateur New-Comer lawyer.


But what you call a new comer ( Trump ) has a proven record. You simply can't get around that. You don't like the man, your prerogative.


Trump pushes and agitates continuously on many fronts and his supporters revel in the Exploding Heads of Libtards over his antics.

But it has come back to bite him on his ass for this election.


Maybe. There seems to be some "movement" tonight over the matter that neither Biden or Harris will answer the question about packing the SC and they are starting to pay a price for it. Biden just said something I don't think any other nominee for President has ever said. "I'mnot going to answer that question because my answer would be all over the front page tomorrow and that's all you guys would want to talk about". Say what? You don't want the American people to discuss part of your plan? Why not?


I'll tell you why not. It's the classic dilemma for Biden. Answer yes, I will support packing the SC and you lose the majority of the country according to polling.


https://today.yougov.com/topics/poli...t-packing-poll

But if Biden answer's no, he will not support packing the court, he loses the base of his party.

So Biden loses big time by answering the question but he will now be asked everyday, at every appearance until he answers.


It appears Trump's support has a ceiling of around 40%.

Appearances can be deceiving. They have been in the past. There is no doubt what so ever that in this "cancel culture" we live in and people being fired at any hint that they support Trump, are keeping their thoughts to themselves but they won't in their ballot. Will it be enough, I have no idea.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by sportfisherman

On another front not intended to be confrontational ; If Trump and his China policy is so great with the tariffs and all ; Why is our Trade Deficit at the 3rd highest of all time ?

Because the goods that aren't coming from China anymore are now coming from Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and a lot of other places. In many instances it's Chinese companies that are adding capacity in these other countries, sometimes to side step U.S. tariffs but more commonly to take advantage of lower labor costs outside China. So the trade deficit doesn't go down, it just gets switched to other countries.

Consumer prices in the USA go up because of the tariffs on goods that are still coming from China. And also because producers outside China in some instances charge more. In textiles and consumer electronics in particular, China has huge supply chains that don't exist elsewhere in the world. When you go to try to replicate something like that in a place like Vietnam, it costs money, and those costs get passed onto consumers.

So who wins from this in our country? There are a few crony capitalists in the USA who can hide behind tariffs and make more money than they would if they actually had to compete. But most of us lose out. We're not going to start knitting garments or making toys or low priced consumer electronic items here. It's very repetitive, menial, low skilled work. When you've got a 3.6% unemployment rate like we did in the U.S. before Covid, it doesn't make sense to do that crap. Better to build airplanes and machinery and write software and produce movies.

We prosper the most when there's free trade. Comparative advantage is the reason why:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage

[HedonistForever]

Originally Posted by Tiny

Because the goods that aren't coming from China anymore are now coming from Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and a lot of other places. In many instances it's Chinese companies that are adding capacity in these other countries, sometimes to side step U.S. tariffs but more commonly to take advantage of lower labor costs outside China. So the trade deficit doesn't go down, it just gets switched to other countries.

Consumer prices in the USA go up because of the tariffs on goods that are still coming from China. And also because producers outside China in some instances charge more. In textiles and consumer electronics in particular, China has huge supply chains that don't exist elsewhere in the world. When you go to try to replicate something like that in a place like Vietnam, it costs money, and those costs get passed onto consumers.

So who wins from this in our country? There are a few crony capitalists in the USA who can hide behind tariffs and make more money than they would if they actually had to compete. But most of us lose out. We're not going to start knitting garments or making toys or low priced consumer electronic items here. It's very repetitive, menial, low skilled work. When you've got a 3.6% unemployment rate like we did in the U.S. before Covid, it doesn't make sense to do that crap. Better to build airplanes and machinery and write software and produce movies.

We prosper the most when there's free trade. Comparative advantage is the reason why:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage

When has there ever been or ever will be free trade with China? Of course free trade would be the best of all worlds but can the US sell anything it wants in China at a price we set?


Free trade is a pipe dream. Plus we know that China employs slave labor and pays slave wages in many industries.



We should do everything in our power to un-couple from China and encourage our allies to do the same for their own best interest before they find themselves part of that slave labor work force trying to pay back to China what it owes.

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by HedonistForever

When has there ever been or ever will be free trade with China? Of course free trade would be the best of all worlds but can the US sell anything it wants in China at a price we set?


Free trade is a pipe dream. Plus we know that China employs slave labor and pays slave wages in many industries.



We should do everything in our power to un-couple from China and encourage our allies to do the same for their own best interest before they find themselves part of that slave labor work force trying to pay back to China what it owes.

Outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, there's no argument to be made that China employs slave labor. Average wage growth in China over the last 10 years has averaged 11% per year. There's a huge amount of labor turnover in factories, with people typically switching jobs around once every year or two. That's not indicative of slavery. China's not even cheap anymore, in terms of wages. Like I said, you see Chinese companies migrating to other countries to take advantage of lower labor costs.

China does have barriers that make it difficult for some U.S. companies in certain industries to sell there. Others have no problem. Yes we should be pushing them along with other countries to open up their markets. But a lot of this is sour grapes. China's an intensely competitive place and in many businesses the locals have an advantage, because they're locals. It's the same in the USA.

It makes a lot of sense to have a domestic supply of things like drugs, rare earth metals, and advanced electronics with military applications. Not that we've been working at getting that done, under Trump or before him, but it makes a lot of sense. Mindlessly decoupling from China is another thing. Why do it? Because the politicians and the military can't stand being in a world where we don't have an enemy like the Soviet Union during the cold war. So they need to invent one. Yeah, Xi's no angel, and we've got to watch our backs, but there's no sense destroying a global trading system that's brought prosperity to billions.