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The Trump administration has crafted a draft bill — ordered by the president — that would declare America's abandonment of World Trade Organization rules, according to Axios. The bill essentially provides President Donald Trump — who has argued for a better position for the U.S. in big trade pacts — a license to raise U.S. tariffs at will, without congressional consent and largely outside of the international rules governed by the WTO. The bill, titled the "United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act," would give Trump unilateral power to ignore the two most basic principles of the WTO and negotiate one-on-one with any country.
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'FART' Bill Indicates Trump's Intention to Dump WTO
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There will be big changes for you but you will be happy.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Tuesday July 03 2018, @09:41AM (33 children)
So, the logical next steps:
- Get out of the UN (and kick them out of the country)
- More power to the president
- Make dissent a criminal offense
- Change the constitution to remain president for life
- Invade Canada and Mexico - prepare to anex the rest of the south american continent
(Score: 3, Touché) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday July 03 2018, @10:03AM (4 children)
Thank you for your support! So many countries have a President for life. China, Russia, many more. And it's terrific for them. Let's make our Constitution great again! #RepealThe22nd [twitter.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:10PM (2 children)
why do you feel the need to lie?
Russia does not have president for life. Putin has been abusing the loopholes, yes, but there is no "president for life" law.
When Putin reached the max term, he let his pal win the next elections, and after that run for president again.
In other words, yes, in Russia there is no law saying that you can be president only x years, but it says that you can only be president x years in a row.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:29PM
I think they changed the law, when Putler's terms maxed out.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday July 05 2018, @02:25AM
Did I say law? I didn't say law. But look how long President Putin has been President. And he switched with Medvedev, with Dmitry Medvedev. But I think Vladimir Putin was in charge the whole time. They called him Prime Minister Putin, he was very strong. And he's still very strong. And you don't think he's a President for life, OK, let me know when he resigns. Or loses an election. And I'll eat a #MAGA [twitter.com] hat!!!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:40PM
To be fair, you could make your Constitution great again by following the damned thing for once.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @10:40AM (1 child)
- Rename country to People's Democratic United Republic of America
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:20PM
I prefer this as a new name for Our Great Union (tm):
Republic of Excited Trumpian Americans Restoring Dignity to the States, or RETARDS for short.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:26PM (6 children)
We would never anex Mexico. That would make them de facto US citizens, and Trump wants nothing more than to deport anyone and everyone who might be, be related to, or even know, a person with less-than lily white complexion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @02:55PM (1 child)
TDS is strong in this one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:09PM
We want to build a wall to keep them out, and then annex them? That makes as much sense as banning Muslims who don't have oil, but saying the ones who do have oil are fine people.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:15PM (2 children)
Personally, I would. It would take a giant shit on the US economy but it would remove the massive income disparity pressure from our southern border, which would leave us better off in the long term. It would also lower the value of the dollar which would make domestic production much more viable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:42PM (1 child)
The Mexico-Guatemala border is only 541 miles, and none of it requires Eminent-Domain of US citizens.
There would be a lot easier to build The Wall, and make Mexico pay for it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 04 2018, @02:54AM
Yup, plus we'd get some damned nice beaches, lots of tequila, and many a senorita. You know what, I convinced myself. Screw the downsides.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:24PM
> We would never anex Mexico.
It's not like it ever happened before [wikipedia.org], eh?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:12PM (18 children)
The second and beyond steps do not follow logically from the first. Protectionism/Isolationism and totalitarianism have no mandatory relationship whatsoever. Thus your entire premise is fundamentally flawed.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday July 03 2018, @03:36PM (3 children)
Well, as hyperbole goes, it is flawed, of course. However, the state of affairs seems to indicate that mandatory relationships have nothing to do with what is actually happening. Sometimes fantasy simply cannot predict the idiocy of real life.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:00PM (2 children)
All true but assuming that just because a guy's got policies you disagree with and a bit of an authoritarian bent that he's going to go full on Stalin is an astoundingly enormous stretch.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:36PM (1 child)
Could you imagine NSA spying on Americans 20 years ago?
"astoundingly enormous stretch" != impossible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:10PM
Absolutely. My brother worked for MCI up in Tulsa and told me all about the NSA having an office in their building that all the circuits ran through and how even talking about it was a firing offense.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @04:32PM (13 children)
When the things go to shit (and isolationism tends to lead there), you need a strong hand to continue down this path.
Since isolationism imply "us vs them", the usual way to totalitarianism goes through defining an external enemy and practising the "daily hate" routine. Isolationism and totalitarianism form a symbiotic pair.
A dose of protectionism is actually good for developing countries - those fathers of yours practised it quite... umm... joyfully** [wikipedia.org] in their time.
---
**I'm sure they could use "gayly", but nowadays... in the "founding fathers" context... mmm... better not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Disagree) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:12PM (11 children)
You're seeing a relation where there isn't one. Pick a totalitarian regime at random and you're very likely not going to see isolationism.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:20PM (10 children)
North Korea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @06:04PM (2 children)
Every damn time he makes such statements there is always an immediate example of how he's wrong.
I dream of a day when his brain functions normally and I pray it is caused by a infectious virus with no bad health outcomes. That way he can spread it and we might be able to get this country into a semblance of working order.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday July 03 2018, @06:09PM
Alas, it will never happen.
Not because he's a buzzard, no, those do have normally functioning brains. But because, like his country, he holds the delusion he's mighty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 04 2018, @02:57AM
The trick is you gotta read what I actually say instead of what you want me to have said.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday July 03 2018, @06:24PM
Yes, but also Thailand.
They aren't necessarily connected, they are only frequently connected. Also isolationism is only directed against those either areas not controlled or those controlled groups needed as scapegoats. When you expand the borders, you've got new folks to be isolationist against.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 04 2018, @02:56AM (5 children)
I said pick one at random not cherry pick one. Please don't link the xkcd.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 04 2018, @03:21AM (4 children)
No, mate, who do you think I am?
It just happened I was just that lucky**: I did pick at random and my first pick was the relevant one.
(large grin)
---
** Not only I was lucky in this particular instance but, in general, I'm resistant to suggestions imposing restrictions that don't make sense.
Be if only to make the life harder to those who want to define a particular frame of reference (I think the right-wing usians call frame a "narrative", but I might be wrong).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 04 2018, @03:53AM (3 children)
That restriction absolutely makes sense though. It's a way to keep from having to look at every totalitarian regime around now and throughout history. I dunno about you but I have better things to do than spend years studying for an Internet argument. In any case, the point was that most totalitarian regimes aren't isolationist today and haven't even historically been.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:00AM (2 children)
Did I say that?
I thought that I said "totalitarianism and isolationism regimes can happen, in which case the two traits go quite well hand in hand".
At least, that's what I wanted to say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:29AM (1 child)
Ahh, I gotcha now. Like porn and chicken. Not related but complimentary nonetheless.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 04 2018, @04:44AM
A bit more than just complementary, they sorta enhance each other: isolationism makes easier to define an "enemy", totalitarianism make easier to "fight the enemy following the glorious leader" and offers legitimacy to the leader and the "righteous fight" enhances the isolationism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 05 2018, @07:14AM
That's gaily, not gayly. Tsk!