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Trump's Trip to Europe

Lafayette

Lafayette

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From the Guardian, "Trump's big trip began well – but in Europe his flaws were painfully exposed"

Excerpt:
Trump’s denunciation of the Germans at a European Union meeting for being “bad, very bad,” because of the large number of German brand cars sold in the US, showed his comprehension of the global auto trade was just as shaky. The vast majority of German cars sold in the US are made there by American workers. For example, the BMW plant in South Carolina is the company’s largest anywhere in the world. It is also the biggest exporter of cars from the US.
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Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.

This guy talks like a TV-commercial. Everything he says is in less than 30-seconds, the average attention span of viewers.

More about the PotUS:
These are the ways of a man without curiosity. He does not read books, and listens fitfully and reluctantly to others. He is reportedly fed up with McMaster because he goes on for too long about world affairs. The briefing papers McMaster’s team drew up before this trip had to be condensed to a few bullet points on a single page for each issue, and even then Trump grew bored of reviewing them before departure, and groused about how long the whole excursion would take.

The lack of preparation began to show when he reached Brussels. At Nato, his prepared remarks at a 9/11 monument were largely a retread of his campaign speech about the alliance, which in turn was constructed around a misunderstanding of how it works. He accused the US allies gathered alongside him (in the shadow of a shattered fragment of the World Trade Center) of being deadbeats who had not paid their club dues.

In terms of the common expenses of running Nato headquarters and infrastructure, this was simply not true. When it comes to the goal of Nato members spending 2% of their GDP on defence, the deadline is 2024, and the European allies have been increasing their expenditure since the Russian annexation of Crimea.​
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If only Trump had something "intelligent" to say. At least he is true to form. Which never changes, he gets bored with any subject that lasts more than 20 minutes ...
 
Lafayette said:
From the Guardian, "Trump's big trip began well – but in Europe his flaws were painfully exposed"

Excerpt:
Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.

This guy talks like a TV-commercial. Everything he says is in less than 30-seconds, the average attention span of viewers.

More about the PotUS:

If only Trump had something "intelligent" to say. At least he is true to form. Which never changes, he gets bored with any subject that lasts more than 20 minutes ...
Click to expand...

Look at the numbers and don't act as though you didn't know the numbers. Trump might be rude and inexperienced at the niceties of diplomatic life. He might even say cars, when the greatest problems are other products. But even the German elite admits that every point he made is substantially true. They just don't really know how to manage it.They also know that if they want the Americans to spend money on emissions reductions that they will themselves have to pay more for other global public goods and restructure their economy to be less dependent on exports. This will be all the more unpleasant as the Eu cannot go on covering their structural export surplus.

So address the real topics instead of trying to deflect from the problems that need fixing.
 
joG said:
So address the real topics instead of trying to deflect from the problems that need fixing.
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Who cares ... "real problems" are not the point of the article.

He's a first-class dork and showing it.

Also, he was NOT elected PotUS by the American voters but made PotUS by an electoral anachronism ...
 
Lafayette said:
Who cares ... "real problems" are not the point of the article.

He's a first-class dork and showing it.

Also, he was NOT elected PotUS by the American voters but made PotUS by an electoral anachronism ...
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Gosh, we're real sorry you don't like our system of electing POTUS. :(
 
Lafayette said:
Who cares ... "real problems" are not the point of the article.

He's a first-class dork and showing it.

Also, he was NOT elected PotUS by the American voters but made PotUS by an electoral anachronism ...
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I realize that real problems are not your forte, but the are the real problems nonetheless and trying to be as rude as others won't make the subterfuge any less obvious.
 
countryboy said:
Gosh, we're real sorry you don't like our system of electing POTUS. :(
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He's "your PotUS", not mine.

But the electoral system is "ours" and it's a pity. There's nothing like it in the rest of world where the popular vote predominates in the election of the Executive.

Is the rest of the world smarter than we are?

Scratch your head over that one ...
 
Lafayette said:
He's "your PotUS", not mine.

But the electoral system is "ours" and it's a pity. There's nothing like it in the rest of world where the popular vote predominates in the election of the Executive.

Is the rest of the world smarter than we are?

Scratch your head over that one ...
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Just so we can have an accurate discussion. Are you an American living in France, or a Frenchman?
 
Lafayette said:
He's "your PotUS", not mine.

But the electoral system is "ours" and it's a pity. There's nothing like it in the rest of world where the popular vote predominates in the election of the Executive.

Is the rest of the world smarter than we are?

Scratch your head over that one ...
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Then stop complaining. Just say thank you and move on.
 
Lafayette said:
Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.
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Apparently, nobody knows lots of things that everybody else knows that Trump does not know.

But anyway, to me the trip was mostly unremarkable. A handful of gaffes, but really not bad considering the source.
 
Lafayette said:
From the Guardian, "Trump's big trip began well – but in Europe his flaws were painfully exposed"

Excerpt:
Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.

This guy talks like a TV-commercial. Everything he says is in less than 30-seconds, the average attention span of viewers.

More about the PotUS:

If only Trump had something "intelligent" to say. At least he is true to form. Which never changes, he gets bored with any subject that lasts more than 20 minutes ...
Click to expand...

Trump has a severe mental disorder. Compare his statements while in Europe to his statements on Oprah 20 years ago, which were nuanced, articulate, and very well thought out.
 
Lafayette said:
From the Guardian, "Trump's big trip began well – but in Europe his flaws were painfully exposed"

Excerpt:
Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.

This guy talks like a TV-commercial. Everything he says is in less than 30-seconds, the average attention span of viewers.

More about the PotUS:

If only Trump had something "intelligent" to say. At least he is true to form. Which never changes, he gets bored with any subject that lasts more than 20 minutes ...
Click to expand...

Just cuz german made cars and japanese made cars are heavily assembled in america doesnt mean the companies are doing good for americans. Something that would be even better and I think this is what Trump was getting at that you and your media sources forgett is that American car companies made in America is better for America over all. We're not just talking jobs here we are talking company taxes. BMW, Volkswagon, Toyota, & Honda are heavily assembled here but the parts are made outside the US, and the companies themselves arnt taxed by the American gov cuz they arnt american companies.
 
Imagine a American owned car company, using american made steel, plastics, and computers, hiring americans to assemble the cars and selling them to americans and exporting them to sell in other countries.

Way more tax revenue for the states and feds. Also way more americans being employed.
 
Lafayette said:
From the Guardian, "Trump's big trip began well – but in Europe his flaws were painfully exposed"

Excerpt:
Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.

This guy talks like a TV-commercial. Everything he says is in less than 30-seconds, the average attention span of viewers.

More about the PotUS:

If only Trump had something "intelligent" to say. At least he is true to form. Which never changes, he gets bored with any subject that lasts more than 20 minutes ...
Click to expand...

A foreign owned plant in the USA send its profits back to that country. We are happy to have those jobs but there are a lot of games that are being played.

For example: let's say the engine and FWD assembly is made in Germany and shipped in. Their cost plus a "normal" margin in Germany may be $15k bolt on cost. Then they invoice it to the USA for $30K, thus transferibg $15K of US taxi blue profit over seas, untaxed. They could invoice it at $50k and avoid showing profits altogether, but even the Germans aren't that brassy.

The Japanese and Koreans do the same think. Europe's elites view of us rebels in the colonies? BOHICA. Trump is trying to change the "old ways" of trade when we were helping war torn countries rebuild. Well, they are built. Time to make some changes.
 
jdog21 said:
Just cuz german made cars and japanese made cars are heavily assembled in america doesnt mean the companies are doing good for americans. Something that would be even better and I think this is what Trump was getting at that you and your media sources forgett is that American car companies made in America is better for America over all. We're not just talking jobs here we are talking company taxes. BMW, Volkswagon, Toyota, & Honda are heavily assembled here but the parts are made outside the US, and the companies themselves arnt taxed by the American gov cuz they arnt american companies.
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Nice concept, but a bit antiquated.

You see, when a country elects to participate in international trade, in order to benefit from expanded sales of its product/services, it also adheres to a set or rules as identified and signed in a treaty overseen by the World Trade Organization.

The purpose of this organization is to see to the smoothness of trade-relations. So, if Donald Dork is grieved that the US does not have a "fair and equitable" trade situation with its principle trade-partners, that's where he should go to complain.

Not national television.

If, otoh, he wants to start a Trade War, what he can do is unilaterally raise import taxes with those trade-partners that he thinks are "unfair". In which case, they will do the same in reverse.

The result will then be a total reduction of international trade, and a consequent loss of jobs resulting from the reduced production of the products sold ...
 
danarhea said:
Trump has a severe mental disorder. Compare his statements while in Europe to his statements on Oprah 20 years ago, which were nuanced, articulate, and very well thought out.
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Now that comes as a surprise.

Boy, is he aging quickly ... !
 
radcen said:
Apparently, nobody knows lots of things that everybody else knows that Trump does not know.

But anyway, to me the trip was mostly unremarkable. A handful of gaffes, but really not bad considering the source.
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Contrast it with Obama.

Obama did not slap people on the back. Did not move them to the back of a photo-op to get in front. And a few other "did nots".

In fact, the one surprise to the Europeans is that he did not insist on the inanities that he had told the American public last year as presidential candidate. Most of which, in terms of international relations, where very, very wrong.

His audience was different. This time it was a group of educated people, and not some who had been out of work in West Virginia for a donkey's age and new full well that the jobs they had had were gone forever.

As I never tire of repeating, whether one likes the message or not:
*We are exiting the Industrial Age. (In fact, given that only 12% of the workforce is occupied in Manufacturing we have left it almost entirely.)
*We are entering the Information Age - and that does not mean just the Internet. So,
*We don't need all that much people who know how to manipulate machines. (We're teaching robots how to do that.)
*We need people who know how to manipulate ideas and communicate.

Let's just hope that is what they are being taught ...
 
Lafayette said:
Nice concept, but a bit antiquated.

You see, when a country elects to participate in international trade, in order to benefit from expanded sales of its product/services, it also adheres to a set or rules as identified and signed in a treaty overseen by the World Trade Organization.

The purpose of this organization is to see to the smoothness of trade-relations. So, if Donald Dork is grieved that the US does not have a "fair and equitable" trade situation with its principle trade-partners, that's where he should go to complain.

Not national television.

If, otoh, he wants to start a Trade War, what he can do is unilaterally raise import taxes with those trade-partners that he thinks are "unfair". In which case, they will do the same in reverse.

The result will then be a total reduction of international trade, and a consequent loss of jobs resulting from the reduced production of the products sold ...
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I believe he is trying to curve public opinion on the situation with his comments. Apealing to the WTO is nonsense and would have no effect. I think the US should pull out of the WTO cause it doesnt have americas best intrests at heart. Its a globalist economy concept to push towards one goverment. If the USA wasnt in the WTO we would have better control over our trade deals that we could negotiate for things americans wanted instead of having bad deals pushed down our throats that is bad for our people and bad for our economy.
The idea that terrifs would lead to trade wars is an antiquated concept. Proof is that other countries are doing it around the world and theyre not experiencing a trade war.
 
Lafayette said:
From the Guardian, "Trump's big trip began well – but in Europe his flaws were painfully exposed"

Excerpt:
Nobody told him before meeting with Merkel in Brussels? Not surprising. Nobody knew.

This guy talks like a TV-commercial. Everything he says is in less than 30-seconds, the average attention span of viewers.

More about the PotUS:

If only Trump had something "intelligent" to say. At least he is true to form. Which never changes, he gets bored with any subject that lasts more than 20 minutes ...
Click to expand...

He's contradicting himself in mid sentence nowadays. He seems to say the first thing that comes into his head with no regard for the meaning of the words.
 
countryboy said:
Just so we can have an accurate discussion. Are you an American living in France, or a Frenchman?
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I am an American living in France, and I vote in the US.
 
joG said:
I realize that real problems are not your forte, but the are the real problems nonetheless and trying to be as rude as others won't make the subterfuge any less obvious.
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Ignorance of the facts of a matter is also tantamount to rudeness in a Debate Forum.

If you don't believe that, perhaps you'd be happier on a Message Board ... ?
 
zyzygy said:
He's contradicting himself in mid sentence nowadays. He seems to say the first thing that comes into his head with no regard for the meaning of the words.
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Perhaps the Dork is too old to be president?

Frankly, I think he's always been that way - he just got away with it because people wanted to do business with him. You don't have to like someone to do business with them, and it always helps to have a good lawyer writingyour contracts. (Because THAT is where the "fit hits the shan" ... ;^)
 
Lafayette said:
He's "your PotUS", not mine.

But the electoral system is "ours" and it's a pity. There's nothing like it in the rest of world where the popular vote predominates in the election of the Executive.

Is the rest of the world smarter than we are?

Scratch your head over that one ...
Click to expand...

But in much of the rest of the world, the executive has no real power. He or she is just a figurehead.
The heads of government is where the power resides. And in many of these countries, the prime minister is not elected nationally, and his party did not receive the majority vote across the country. Coalition building, political instability and all that.
The American system settles the issue in one shot.
Perhaps the rest of the world isn't as smart as they like to think they are.
 
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jdog21;1067252039 I think the US should pull out of the WTO cause it doesnt have americas best intrests at heart. Its a globalist economy concept to push towards one goverment..[/QUOTE said:
The WTC is none of that.

As I have said elsewhere on this particular forum, the WTC simply tries to install Trade Agreements. Which actually enhances international trade.

I have been to their offices in Geneva, and I've seen not indication whatsoever that the WTC thinks it is going to Master the World by Organizing Trade. It's purpose is to arrange for the rules of Trade Agreements in a very complex world of trading partners.
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Lafayette said:
Nice concept, but a bit antiquated.

You see, when a country elects to participate in international trade, in order to benefit from expanded sales of its product/services, it also adheres to a set or rules as identified and signed in a treaty overseen by the World Trade Organization.

The purpose of this organization is to see to the smoothness of trade-relations. So, if Donald Dork is grieved that the US does not have a "fair and equitable" trade situation with its principle trade-partners, that's where he should go to complain.

Not national television.

If, otoh, he wants to start a Trade War, what he can do is unilaterally raise import taxes with those trade-partners that he thinks are "unfair". In which case, they will do the same in reverse.

The result will then be a total reduction of international trade, and a consequent loss of jobs resulting from the reduced production of the products sold ...
Click to expand...

Actually, your simplification misses the point, as you know. I don't want to get into the manifold adjustments with which one can set non tariff import barriers. But there are a good many and Germany has developed a large set of them. China is worse on the face of it, but they are much more open about it too.
 
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