Politics Can our Republican friends here please explain something...

Well, that might be another topic, but it's a damn interesting one - at least not one that I'd ever heard expressed before (possibly only because of my lack of thumping background).

Place there by Heaven for whatever reason, sure. I get that part. But support for that reason??? So... you'd support Hitler?

barfo

 

In general, the submission to authorities comes from Romans 13:1-7 (Remember, Romans was written during the time of Nero and the persecution of Christians). Less clear, though still prevalent, is the concept from Acts 5:29-39 that discusses that the duty of the Christian is to follow the laws of God if men pervert the government to evil. There may be (are) consequences, up to and including martyrdom, but them's the basics.

There's much more to it than that, but if Trump started, I don't know, rounding up legal citizens, taking their property through eminent domain and then killing them by the millions, I'd probably not be cool with that.

 

Ok, thanks for clarifying. He did say he was ok with rounding up your guns yesterday, and as you know that's the first step.

barfo

 

From what I've observed of Trump, "Make America Great Again" means to get the economy back to how it was in the 50s and 60s.

Unemployment was low and jobs were good. The world was recovering from WW II and the US was effectively the only manufacturing powerhouse. Our factories weren't bombed to rubble in the war. The American dream of owning a home and a car and ability to raise a family and succeed was real.

The public school system was modern(ized) and excellent. Our kids graduated and went to college or at least left school with a skill to earn a living for life. The schools featured music and art as well as football. Our college graduates were the elite high level workers of the world - now we have to import a lot of those workers from other countries (Silicon Valley, for example, is dominated by immigrants from India, at the highest levels of the companies).

We used to make radios and TVs and washing machines and so on. Our steel industry built our cities and bridges, but now we're buying steel from overseas. Our auto companies dominated, at least in the US. Our unions were strong, too.

Trump's every economic move makes my assessment look more and more correct.

Some people are focused on consensual relations between the man and a playboy centerfold while he's being quite effective at getting his agenda done.

A lot of his agenda I don't agree with (immigration, tariffs, deficit spending, etc.). But it is coherent and focused like a laser beam.

Like I said, some people are focused on what are ultimately silly things.

Trump came into office as an outsider. He ran against the republican establishment almost as much as he did against the democrats. He didn't have a ready to go staff of people to come in and start governing. Reagan, for example, had his people from his time as governor of California. Bill Clinton (who I actually liked as president) had his people from his time as governor of Arkansas. Trump's people are his family and business associates. It's not surprising he's had to go through a bunch of people to find ones that help him govern.

 

Yes - I do know that gun control is not the first step to the government killing millions of citizens. I was saying that as a bit of a joke.

barfo

 

What happened is we had wars in Korea and Vietnam. In order to keep our supply lines short, we had spare parts and other gear built in Japan. That was a lot of our government money going to build up Japan's manufacturing. After a while, Japan was kicking our ass - they were buying movie studios and skyscrapers, here in the USA, in the 1980s, and their corporations dwarfed our largest.

What also happened is we have been generous in rebuilding Japan's and Germany's (among others, see Marshall Act) factories. They were newer than ours, more modern. At our expense.

We're also generous in how we give away money to other countries. $billions to Egypt and Israel, yearly. Foreign aid of all kinds to assorted countries. Money that could build infrastructure here but isn't.

We also made China MFN and shipped our manufacturing to their slave wage sweat shops. Our trade deficit with China alone is near $500B, if not more.

Other countries dump product in ours. We used to make steal. Then we were shipping our junk metal to Japan where they recycled it all and sold it back to us.

Other countries apply other unfair trade practices. Our private companies like Boeing are hurt by European governments subsidizing AirBus, for example.

We also made a number of trade deals that seem to have hurt. Our companies move manufacturing to Mexico because we incentivize them to do so. If you actually listen to Trump, he says those deals are bad and that we got a much worse deal than our partners. I think there's some merit to that, but I also think there's reasons it is OK to be helping other nations.

Our government cannot control its spending. In order to pay for what it cannot afford, the government borrows money from China (and other countries). We spend it on food stamps, which literally turns to shit. They end up holding bonds that the US pays interest on, and pays back the principal, too. We're taxing ourselves and sending $400B+ in interest payments to the Chinese.

 

Dead Vegan In Salem

barfo