Trump Proposes Rejoining Trans-Pacific Partnership
President Trump, in a surprising reversal, told a gathering of farm state lawmakers and governors on Thursday morning that he was directing his advisers to look into rejoining the multicountry trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal he pulled out of within days of assuming the presidency.
Rejoining the 11-country pact could be a sharp reversal of fortune for many American industries that stood to benefit from the trade agreement's favorable terms and Republican lawmakers who supported the pact. The deal, which was initiated by the Obama administration, was largely viewed as a tool to prod China into making the type of economic reforms that the United States and others have long wanted.
Both Democrats and Republicans attacked the deal during the president campaign, but many business leaders were disappointed when Mr. Trump withdrew from agreement, arguing that the United States would end up with less favorable terms attempting to broker an array of individual trade pacts and that scrapping the deal would empower China.
Republicans in Congress have also been skeptical of Mr. Trump's tendencies on trade, and 25 Republican senators sent a letter to Mr. Trump urging him to re-engage with the pact "so that the American people can prosper from the tremendous opportunities that these trading partners bring."
Previously: Donald Trump to Withdraw US from Trans-Pacific Partnership
Renamed TPP Signed, Without the IP Rules, Without the USA
Related: "Legal Scrub" of TPP Makes Massive Change to Penalties for Copyright Infringement
US Government's Own Report Shows Toxic TPP "Not Worth Passing"
Australia Leads Charge to Revive TPP While Canada Abstains
Related Stories
TechDirt reports
In early November, the "final text" of the [Trans-Pacific Partnership] was finally released. The [United States Trade Representative] even posted the thing to Medium, pretending that after years of secrecy it was now being transparent. As we've been told time and time again, the final document is not open to any changes. The only thing left to do was a "legal scrub" which is a final process in which the lawyers comb through the document word by word, basically to make sure there are no typos or out-and-out errors. The legal scrub is NOT when any substantial changes can be made.
...yet the eagle-eyed Jeremy Malcolm over at [the Electronic Freedom Frontier] has spotted an apparent change in the "legal scrub" of the Intellectual Property chapter that will massively expand criminal penalties for copyright infringing activities that have no impact on the actual market. Technically, the scrub just changed the word "paragraph" to "subparagraph" in the following sentence:
With regard to copyright and related rights piracy provided for under paragraph 1, a Party may limit application of this subparagraph to the cases in which there is an impact on the right holder's ability to exploit the work, performance or phonogram in the market.
[...] It's obviously a significant change that could end up criminalizing plenty of activity that is infringing, but which is totally not for profit and which may have plenty of legitimate uses. There's been a long push by the legacy copyright players to use the TPP to ratchet up criminal penalties, and many of the worst proposals were stripped from the agreement--but, with this "legal scrub", things have moved massively towards criminalization.
Common Dreams reports
The government's own assessment of the toxic Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) shows that the controversial trade deal will produce negligible economic benefits while damaging most Americans' jobs and wages.
The U.S. International Trade Commission's (ITC) report (PDF), issued [May 18], shows that the TPP "would likely have only a small positive effect on U.S. growth," Reuters reported.
"This may be the most damning government report ever submitted for a trade agreement." --Leo W. Gerard, United Steelworkers
Public Citizen reports via Common Dreams: TPP Study Projects Worsening Trade Balances for 16 of 25 U.S. Economic Sectors; Overall U.S. Trade Deficit Increase
[Continues...]
Donald Trump says he will issue an executive action on his first day in office to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
In a video updating Americans on the White House transition, the President-elect described TPP as a "potential disaster for our country".
[...] Mr Trump said his administration instead intends to generate "fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores".
Sky Correspondent Greg Milam said: "Donald Trump has been very critical of what trade deals have done for American workers and the damage that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did in the 1990s - particularly to low-income workers in the Midwest, who it turns out voted for Mr Trump in huge numbers."
Source: Sky News
In Da Nang Vietnam, Australia and 10 other countries have tried to revive the TPP without the US.
Even though the analysis of the TPP has shown that the so called 'free trade agreement' has only minimal benefits and many drawbacks for developed nations the Australian Prime Minister is still set on having the agreement ratified. The Australian Prime Minister may be trying to push through the TPP before his government collapses due to the citizenship audit which is rapidly culling members of his party which could result in his party losing power in parliament. With the majority of the Australian public being against the TPP and with Malcolm Turnbull facing an election soon the reasons for this move to try to ratify the TPP is unknown.
If this trade agreement is accepted it will be the last in a series of detrimental trade agreements where Australia is on the wrong end of the stick. With Australia still reeling from the impact of the terrible China-Australia Free Trade Agreement the move to try to bring in another bad trade agreement may spell the end of the liberal government's long run in parliament.
The renamed TPP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership has been signed by 11 countries. https://globalnews.ca/news/4069924/tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-signing-canada/
Thankfully, Trump's withdrawal from the TPP allowed the Canadian people to persuade their government to push for removal of most of the contentious IP obligations that the US demanded, http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2017/11/rethinking-ip-in-the-tpp/. America is considering rejoining, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/politics/mnuchin-tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-trump.html
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will reduce tariffs in countries that together amount to more than 13 per cent of the global economy – a total of $10 trillion. With the United States, it would have represented 40 per cent.
Even without the United States, the deal will span a market of nearly 500 million people, making it one of the globe's three largest trade agreements, according to Chilean and Canadian trade statistics.
[...] Trump has also threatened to dump the North American Free Trade Agreement unless the other two members of the pact, Canada and Mexico, agree to provisions that Trump says would boost U.S. manufacturing and employment. He argues that the 1994 accord has caused the migration of jobs and factories southward to lower-cost Mexico.
[...] The 11 member countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:53PM (24 children)
>a deal he pulled out of within days of assuming the presidency.
because nobody had explained the "behind the scenes" reasons why we were in it in the first place. Why does anyone think that the negotiations are held in secret?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:02PM (23 children)
He never really left. SNAFU
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by Fluffeh on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:27PM (22 children)
Actually, as soon as the US withdrew from the TPP, the whole Copyright and IP section that they were super snippy about was dropped from the entire agreement.
The agreement as the other 11 signatories signed it is actually about material goods and markets to support the less inhibited movement of those products. This will work well with the Soybean farmers that Trump was talking to just before this announcement, but there aren't many people that truly think the US will get a "better deal" than they had when it was all being drawn up initially. If they get in, it will be a much less attractive deal as they are the last one entering an already agreed to set of rules - and no-one will want to change that agreement much further.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by arcz on Friday April 13 2018, @12:19AM (17 children)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by arcz on Friday April 13 2018, @12:24AM (3 children)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Friday April 13 2018, @02:14AM
+1
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @10:51AM (1 child)
People can sue governments and they do all the time.
(Score: 5, Informative) by jb on Friday April 13 2018, @01:23PM
Both of those comments miss the key problem with TPP's ISDS provisions, which are:
1. They allow foreign investors to sue governments for causes of action explicitly not available to domestic investors....
...which turns domestic businesses into second-class citizens in their own countries;
2. They define "investment" so ridiculously broadly that even many run-of-the-mill operational (as opposed to capital) transactions give rise to "investor" status; and
3. You end up with democratically elected governments having to pass up sensible domestic public policy reforms if they can't afford to "compensate" all the foreign "investors" who might object.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 13 2018, @01:25AM (6 children)
Well, I still don't like the TPP very much, but without the IP parts, it does lose most of it's evil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @07:05AM (5 children)
Agreed, but it makes it also a VASTLY less favourable deal for the US, as it basically does nothing to help its biggest export: IP.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @04:54PM (4 children)
Maybe the US should stop focusing on exporting Imaginary Property?
The absurd lengths of time (even 20 year patents) vastly exceed what seems reasonable. If you can't get your reward within the market advantage time before your competitors can figure out what you did to copy it, then is it really worth protecting?
Many innovations simply happen because the time is ripe for it. Like 1-click shopping. No reason Amazon should have a patent on that. If Amazon hadn't added that button, someone else would have within six months. It's not an innovation. Simply a "who did it first", and everyone would have done it within a short time. It was fairly obvious. But these days being fairly obvious is the primary thing that makes something patentable.
I understand there are some who argue that some innovations should be protected. And some good justifications are offered -- even for some software. But it always seems like edge cases. Now if you could get rid of the vast majority of patent-noise so that these edge-cases were the mainstream of patent applications, then you might convince me.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday April 13 2018, @05:49PM (3 children)
[1-click shopping]
It is an innovation. But patents were not introduced to protect innovation, they were introduced to protect inventions. That's an important difference.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @05:51PM (2 children)
Okay.
But if 1-click shopping is an invention, then we're protecting the wrong thing.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday April 13 2018, @10:08PM (1 child)
Read my post again.
1-click shopping is an innovation. It is not an invention. Patents were not meant to protect innovations, they were meant to protect inventions.
Again, innovations and inventions are not the same thing.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Saturday April 14 2018, @02:32PM
Sorry, I misread. I agree.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday April 13 2018, @02:10PM (5 children)
Side note: "Insightful" probably isn't the right mod for this. Can we get an Agree mod as a counterpart to the Disagree mod?
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 13 2018, @02:27PM (2 children)
Defend your idea: https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/issues/445 [github.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @05:01PM (1 child)
Okay, I done writed this thar comment . . .
What if Agree and Disgree were "vote counters" instead of mods? Instead of, and independent of mods. This idea has +121,719 Agree and -449 Disagree.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 13 2018, @05:18PM
I like the idea and I think I've brought it up before.
Essentially, you would be using a Reddit like scheme. We could filter/sort comments by moderation OR like/dislike stats (high number of likes, high like ratio, absolute value of votes, high votes but close to 1:1 likes/dislikes, etc). It would work as a second system on top of moderation, and could be given a larger number of points per day to spend, and convenient up and down arrows.
Is it too much a departure from the Slashdot formula? Possibly, but people complain about how things work now and we already have the Disagree mod in place, just waiting to be liberated.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @05:24PM (1 child)
I got a better idea. First, remove the Disagree mod. Then, when someone disagrees with a comment they can...wait for it...post a cogent reason for why they disagree with the post they are responding to. Yeah, it means that the drag and drool crowd might find themselves left out of the discussion when they have their Smite button taken away from them. Or, they could just man up and articulate reasons for why they disagree with a comment they read on the intertubes. It could work.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Friday April 13 2018, @05:54PM
No, it means they'll abuse the "Troll" or "Flamebait" moderation options to express "Disagree". Guess why the "Disagree" moderation option (with no effect on the score!) was introduced?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @06:58AM (1 child)
"Actually, as soon as the US withdrew from the TPP, the whole Copyright and IP section that they were super snippy about was dropped from the entire agreement."
Actually, they weren't dropped. They were just "suspended". Meaning they're still in there, but not being enforced. Many have speculated that they'll be activated once the US joins the TPP. At which point the entire dropping out of the TPP was probably just a ruse to let the entire thing pass and get every other country on board first.
We'll see what happens, but don't be surprised if that whole copyright/ip section starts biting people in the ass.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @05:04PM
The Copyright and IP cesspool of TPP are a sort of Sword of Damocles hanging in the air.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Informative) by jb on Friday April 13 2018, @07:21AM
No it wasn't. The IP Chapter remains in CPTPP. Sure, the provisions on copyright and on ISP enforcement have been "suspended", but almost all the other provisions of the IP Chapter (including most of the ones on patents) still remain.
Also, "suspended" doesn't mean dropped. It means put in hold "until the parties decide otherwise"...
CPTPP is a scam, much as the original TPP was. The degree to which it is a scam is, or at least should be, irrelevant.
Frankly, deceptively marketing a highly restrictive, mostly anti-free-trade treaty like TPP/CPTPP as being "about free trade" (which is exactly what the AU, CA, JP & NZ govs are doing now, as was the US back when they were involved) really should be made a hanging offence. Trouble is, if it were, there'd be almost no politicians left at all in AU, CA, JP, NZ or US (possibly in some of the other TPP parties too, but I don't know enough about them to comment).
Don't believe me? Read the text [dfat.gov.au] for yourself (it's been available publicly since February this year; the original TPP text for a couple of years longer). Chapter 2 (out of 30 chapters) is the only part of TPP that's pro free trade and even it would achieve very little -- the World Bank modelled its economic impact as so close to zero as to be within margins for error (except for VN, who it seems will actually get a few percentage points of growth).
Why do we collectively go on rewarding our politicians for lying to us?
One can only hope (and I admit it's a pretty slim hope) that when Trump talks about free trade, he's talking about actual free trade, not the mountains of restrictions masquerading as free trade that TPP's peddlers have been pushing for so long...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:00PM
As far as I could tell, the TPP was actually a really good idea, but was ruined by the US's insistence on that copyright/IP bullshit, which is what got all us techies up in arms about it.
We probably *should* be part of the TPP, just without that copyright crap. Freer trade between highly developed nations like Canada, Japan, South Korea, etc. is in our best interests. What's not in our interests (as people not affiliated with RIAA/MPAA/Disney) or the interests of non-US countries that aren't corrupted by Disney lobbyists, is all that ridiculous copyright bullshit. We need shorter copyright terms, not longer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @10:57PM (1 child)
Ha ha!
One of the few decent things Trump did and he's now gonna walk us right back into it.
MAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG
suuuuuuuuckaaaaaaaassssss
MAMAGMAGAGAGAGMAMGMAGMAMGAMGMAMG
idiooooooootttssssssssssssss
MAMGAMGAGAGAMGAMGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAG
all the way to the bank! #sad
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:43AM
Trump! Trump! Trump!
Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
*rolls eyeballs*
It's tragicomic. I wonder if all the Russia collusion garbage goes away suddenly if 'Trump! '*3 commits to ratifying TPP/TTIP/TISA. All in all it was nothing but brilliant. Wouldn't it be grand if the big reveal in S18Q2 is that Cadet Bone Spurs was framed? Why, it might just align the working class with the (short-sighted) goals of reckless, end-stage imperialist capitalism.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:08PM (5 children)
It's like TP but with extra P.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:45PM (2 children)
TP Paper...
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday April 13 2018, @02:08AM (1 child)
I just use the receipts from ATM machines.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday April 13 2018, @05:56PM
Don't forget to enter your personal PIN number at the automated ATM machines!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 13 2018, @02:15AM
Guess it's good it's not the TPPOO!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @05:08PM
Since you said that, I'll offer my own anecdote.
Whenever I see World Intellectual Property Organization, eg, WIPO, I think it must be a brand of TPP.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:17PM
The Mar-a-lago restaurant now offers a new delicacy : Cold Bitter Crow.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:18PM (19 children)
This is not a surprise. You can read about the technique in "The Art of the Deal".
Often, the good results don't make the news. For example, consider the tariff issue with China. Trump raises tariffs (still below what China does to us), then China responds, then Trump doesn't back down and announces more tariffs... then China backs down severely. (going to cut back on the demands for Chinese-controlled "joint ventures" with technology transfer) Trump wins again.
One day Trump is tweeting a threat to nuke North Korea, and soon afterward a face-to-face meeting is being negotiated.
It's like magic.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tizan on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:30PM (2 children)
What did China give so far ...really what has been given up concretely ?
The trick as always China promises that it will lower tariffs....it has done that several times in the past...
people take that as a win and stop complaining and nothing happens ...and the Chinese government wins without declaring victory....subtle...but US lose again.
The Koreans are learning it too....see what will happen...bet you North Korea will still have nukes ..and South Korea will praise Trump for great leadership and North Korea will start recovering its economy without losing any military capability....and China wins without declaring any victory.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @12:13AM (1 child)
If the Chinese don't deliver, our proper response is obvious: don't deliver.
We only get problems when we have wimpy unpatriotic presidents and/or too many people in congress who are too severely corrupted by bribes. This is, admittedly, a frequent problem. About half the republicans (none of the democrats) are better though, and will fight for the nation. It isn't even hard: just grow a spine and do what is best for America.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @09:19AM
the country regularly is Ron Wyden, followed up on the right by Rand Paul (although I've seen him cave more often than Wyden.) Outside of them the rest of the trash in Congress really needs to be scraped out... or paved under. I mean if you can't drain the swamp, you might as well roll out a parking lot over it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:30PM
TPP "continuing rape of our country" is back, and Lil' Rocket Man successfully hoodwinked the Orange Wizard of Oz.
(Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 13 2018, @12:27AM (1 child)
Well, yes, I could. You could too. Mr. Trump could as well if he was a reader, but he never has.
That book was just another licensing deal. Mr. Trump puts his name on it, gets paid some money but actually has nothing else to do with it.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tonyPick on Friday April 13 2018, @09:59AM
That's slightly unfair (not very unfair admittedly, but some)
Although someone else wrote it that person (Tony Schwartz) did spend some time with Trump
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all [newyorker.com]
(TL;DR: Schwartz was hired to write an Autobiography, but decided there wasn't any way to make that work given DT's unreliability. Instead he spent 18 months following Trump around, then writing essentially a fictionalized version of Trump into a book, glossing over the whole "failure and dishonesty" thing. Then slapped Don's name on the cover and pretended it was non-fiction.)
And it's likely he at least Skimmed the draft:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @12:36AM (5 children)
I love these sarcastic comments as AC touting how much of a genius our president is. And the reference to the book is priceless. Keep it up! I had a good laugh at this. Thanks for cheering me up!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 13 2018, @02:32AM (4 children)
Well, his posts somewhat balance the other side's post, which harp on the idiocy of Old Carrot Top. How about something near the middle ground, which is more realistic? The man is neither an idiot, nor a genius. His intelligence is probably a few points above normal - I'll call it 105 to 110. He IS however, one of the most privileged people on the earth, and he is out of touch with the needs of the people, as well as the needs of the nation. He's a rather sorry excuse of a president. But, he's certainly not an idiot, nor a genius.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:51AM (3 children)
His "intelligence"? Do you mean 'IQ'? It's unknown whether or not we have a method of accurately measuring someone's intellect. Many people assume that that's what IQ is, but that is backed up mostly by some correlations which may or may not have all that much to do with one's intelligence.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @11:00AM (2 children)
Did your IQ measure a bit lower than you expected?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:44PM (1 child)
No, it measured much higher than expected - almost 50!
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday April 13 2018, @06:01PM
50 factorial? That's enormous! ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 13 2018, @12:56AM
Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers...also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday April 13 2018, @09:58AM (1 child)
You mean the book Trump didn't write, and that isn't true anyway? [newyorker.com]
You make it sound like he managed to persuade NK to meet when no other president before him could.
In fact, The Kims have been desperately trying to get the Americans to meet them for years. Decades, even. They've sent invite after invite and the US has turned them all down [cnn.com], in order to maintain the strength of their negotiating position:
Because a meeting with the US President is so valuable to the North Koreans, it's always been the American position that it should be reserved for the moment a deal is on the table -- and deliver a significant return.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @03:17PM
These suckers are neck deep in Stockholm syndrome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:56PM
China didn't 'back down severely' They mentioned things that they had already mentioned before (and funnily enough didn't actually do yet). Xi has just been made dictator for life, he's hardly going to have his first move after that being backing down to Trump (of all people), even if they want to back down, they are unlikely to.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @05:15PM (2 children)
It's not like magic. Re-read what you describe.
My take is this. Come off as highly unstable, vindictive, unpredictable, unreliable and that nothing you say can be taken very seriously. This will make people afraid. They consider what you do and what you say. Then realize, that you could do anything, damn the consequences -- even to the US.
Create fear in people by building the perception that you are mentally unstable and could do anything.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @05:38PM
< rolling eyes >Yeah, those are exactly the qualities one would want in a leader.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @10:04PM
I'm not sure this is a strategy per se.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by arslan on Thursday April 12 2018, @11:55PM (8 children)
Depends on how you view the TPP and where Trump is coming from. He pulled out from the TPP the very first moment as it was the easiest thing to do, pull out before you commit so you can assess. It is always easier to run away before the wedding than after...
If the TPP is structured so that it does indeed level the field a little with China, then it makes sense to potentially go back into it now that he has _started_ to go full retard on the trade war with China, with the TPP being the lesser evil you tolerate.
Not saying that's the case, but that's one potential scenario.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 13 2018, @12:30AM (7 children)
You're assuming Mr. Trump knows what he's doing.
I'm not sure you should assume that.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday April 13 2018, @01:19AM (6 children)
Indeed, you should assume the opposite, for the very simple reason that he's never had anything to do with foreign policy before now, and negotiating deals between nations is a very different beast from negotiating deals with, say, bankers and mobsters. For instance, while the bankers and mobsters certainly can do damage, they don't have the capacity to wipe out life on Earth like China and Russia do.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @01:51AM (5 children)
President Trump at least did business all over the world. Compare with recent democratic presidents:
* peanut farmer, governor of non-border state
* governor of non-border state
* community organizer (sounds like "unemployed"), senator
Yeah... President Trump has that beat. Well shit, Sarah Palin has that beat too.
I'll grant that we had an alternative with far more foreign policy experience, but massive fuckups (Benghazi, ISIS growing, dumb "reset button" with the Russian ambassador, Kim building nukes, cash to Iran...) aren't something to be proud of.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday April 13 2018, @02:41AM (2 children)
There's an important difference: Carter, Clinton, and Obama (as well as other presidents with minimal foreign policy experience, like Reagan and George W Bush) hired secretaries of state with at least some experience working in foreign policy, so that they were getting diplomatic advice from someone who has done that kind of work. Trump neither has any background in foreign policy nor hired someone with any background in foreign policy to be his secretary of state.
And the presidents with the most experience in foreign policy also tend to choose a fairly experienced hand at the state department. For instance, George H.W. Bush, himself no slouch when it came to diplomacy, picked James Baker for that role in part because he'd managed several important negotiations in the Reagan administration. That probably helped as the Soviets were tearing themselves apart.
But obviously you're a true Trump believer, and no matter what I say you believe he can do no wrong. I hope they're paying you well, at least.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @03:13AM
These people with massive amounts of foreign policy experience are responsible for disaster after disaster and unjust war after unjust war. Their experience was with corruption. Trump, being just as evil as they were (if not more so), is now continuing those practices. I'd take someone who isn't authoritarian but has little experience over the evil scumbags we've had time and time again.
The problem here isn't merely a lack of experience, but that Trump supports the wrong policies.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @03:27AM
I'm going to miss Rex Tillerson. It's too bad he had trouble obeying his boss.
Much of foreign policy involves oil-rich regions, places that need oil, transportation for oil, and all the interactions. You couldn't make a better choice than an experienced oil executive. An oil executive has to deal with supplies like Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Nigeria, Russia, and nearly all of the Middle East. An oil executive has to deal with buyers like China and Japan. An oil executive has to think about oceanic shipping routes, including canals, and land-based pipelines that cross national boundaries. Every oil executive has to have a mercenary team, possibly outsourced, to extract people from trouble spots around the world.
It doesn't get much better than that.
Pompeo is probably OK. He's a bit swampy, with his Bain and Koch connections. He at least has a military background and a dislike of islam, so that counts for something.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Friday April 13 2018, @03:26AM
Wow, Sarah Palin?
I'm not sure comparing her positively really helps your argument. Even Mr. Trump had a look of absolute horror on his face when she insisted on endorsing him. it's the funniest piece of TV I've seen in years.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @09:18AM
Cool! SN has become important enough for the Russians to spend Rubbles on!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday April 13 2018, @12:22AM (1 child)
Trump looks like that kid that threatens to take the ball home, takes it, flees, and returns in a minute because there's homework for him at home.
And the way he treats the russkies that elected him? He sends MISSILES? ungrateful as a... as a politician, actually.
Teaches you to put a friggin' REDHEAD in charge.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday April 13 2018, @03:25AM
> Trump looks like that kid that threatens to take the ball home, takes it, flees, and returns in
> a minute because there's homework for him at home.
which ball? which kid? what on earth does that even mean?
(Score: 2, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 13 2018, @01:22AM
I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That will never change or evolve. It was a great thing for the American worker when we (I) left the TPP. And we won't go back into it unless it's a great thing for the American worker. I will never, ever be pushed around by the global special interests!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RamiK on Friday April 13 2018, @01:42AM (3 children)
Thursday morning Trump offhand remarked to a bunch of farmer's reps telling how he mentioned to his advisors to look into rejoining the TPP. Thursday afternoon a reporter asked an advisor about it and he was basically completely unprepared and could only say they're putting a team together.
Seriously folks, don't waste your time reading too much into this. This comment has as much weight to it as Trump's typical ass-pulled twitts. Hell, I wouldn't even be too surprised if El Presidente just made that whole shit up that morning and his advisors only got word of it just before the interview when the reporter asked about it.
compiling...
(Score: 4, Informative) by captain normal on Friday April 13 2018, @06:31AM (1 child)
If you really want to know what Trump is going to do, just watch late night Faux News. That's where he gets all his hairbrain ideas.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @12:06PM
As in the the brain of a hare.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tonyPick on Friday April 13 2018, @08:46AM
So it's as significant as his comments on Steel Tariffs against China [nbcnewyork.com] and Military action in Syria [cnn.com]?
I don't know if you've noticed, but defending DT's offhand remarks [theglobeandmail.com] as something other than the ramblings of an uninformed halfwit are the how policy gets made in the White House these days...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 13 2018, @01:00PM (1 child)
Whichever way the wind is blowing today.
He'll get back in to TPP.
Then back out again.
Then back in again.
He puts it in, then out, then in, according to whether he can keep it up, or what mood he's in.
Is there any issue Trump isn't flip-floppy on? Even things he promised in his campaign aren't guaranteed to be what he'll do once in office.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:24PM
Well, seems to me it's fairly certain we'll get a border wall!
Sort of a border wall.
Well, there will be parts of the border you can go to and see a wall.
In fact, there may have been parts of the border you could go to already and see a wall.
Mission accomplished!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @02:13PM
Republican party in disarray.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday April 13 2018, @06:22PM
Second Waffle this week, right behind Getting Out of Syria and now we're planning.... rockets or something... so we can draw another line in the sand Assad will cross. Looks like the world has Trump's number now and will wag the dog anytime they want.
This sig for rent.