That is really completely irrelevant. It’s a win to his voters (and likely to him), and worse it legitimises the negotiation tactic. If Trump threatens Greenland with a potential military invasion, the only correct negotiation tactic is to expel US soldiers from Greenland/Denmark. Why the heck would Greenland host US military when this might be an invasion force?
Eatspancakes84
joined 2 years ago
I agree in principle, but in practice it’s tricky. You must have courts that are strong enough to throw out election results if foreign interference can be proven. This has recently happened in Romania, but there are also many examples in which these laws were meaningless. The US is the obvious case where the 2016 election result should have been thrown out, but nothing happened. For the Brexit vote I think some pretty meaningless fines were handed out.
Another question is what should happen with foreign interference that is not financial in nature. For instance, Musk speaking at AFD, or the Meta algorithms pushing political content.
Not so clear what you mean with “not working” here. Tariffs are costly to both countries. To Mexico because Mexican products become more costly in the US, which reduces demand. To Americans because consumer prices go up. So it’s a lose-lose. Now if Mexico enacts counter tariffs, you get to a lose-lose-lose-lose.
Now who is the biggest loser crucially depends on the size of the countries and how important trade is. For Mexico trade with the US is much more important than vice versa. These tariffs would be devastating to Mexico. So if that’s what you mean with “working” yeah sure tariffs work.
What’s important to realise is that these tariffs were enacted without clear demands. So without a clear intention it is impossible to define whether it works. Another point is that such generic barriers to trade are usually reserved for rogue states like Venezuela. Enacting them against arguably your closest friends is a huge escalation of the instrument, and in the long run leaves you without friends.
To be honest, I really worry about what will happen when he dies. I think the only somewhat positive feature of Trump is that he is a coward. He will back down if you push back. Vance will try to simulate Trump by copying his bluster, but he won’t back down even in the face of a war (because dear leader would not have done so either).
I don’t actually think the US would survive such a war. The trouble is that many states would defect. Can you imagine CA footing the bill for an invasion of Canada? Already a trade war is extremely dangerous. How easy would it be for, say NY, to sabotage the border controls?
When your main identity is nationalism it just doesn’t make sense to work together with any foreign leader.
Two things can be true at the same time. German soldiers were incredibly cruel in non-combat situations, and at the same time highly competent in combat.
The strength of the Germans was that I.) they had a really good industrial base, and ii.) the traditions within the army meant they had extremely well trained soldiers. Both of these predate nazi-rule. For instance, Germans also arguably had the best (equipped) army in WW1.
One thing I really do not understand. How can a bear be roadkill? What does your car look like after you hit a bear?
Clearly not. Business calls should happen during business hours only. BUT, it is also pretty clear that direct speech is the most efficient way of communication when you don’t need a written record, so calls definitely have a purpose.
My pet theory is actually that Bernie helped, rather than gutted HRC/Biden. Through his primary campaign so many young people became convinced to vote Democrat. Even if Berniebros were disappointed, most of them still voted for a Democrat in the general election.
One thing you could really see in this election was that confused progressives moved to Trump (or stayed home) after a successful misinformation campaign. Would have been far harder for that misinformation to find a home, if progressive voters had already voted in the Democratic primary, and their preferred candidate had pointed them to the winner of the primary.
You could even see this on the GOP side. Because Hailey supported Trump, almost no GOP voters defected in the general election which ultimately resulted in the complete failure of the Democratic strategy.
TLDR: primaries with a wide variety of choices are extremely helpful in the General election.
Democrats cannot fix this. Perhaps you lived under a rock, but they lost power in all branches of government. Further, whether the actions by Musk violate the constitution is up for review by the courts, not congress. Remember who is in charge there? People warned that electing Trump would end Democracy, but I guess they were just scaremongering.