Trump 2.0

[DB008]

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[DB008]

Word of the day, ambish

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[StockyGuy]

Word of the day, ambish

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It's very out of vogue to stand up for whites in any way. Trump standing up for these hardworking people and putting the South African government allowing their ongoing rapes / murders / beatings on blast is the act of a hero in these times. (The world has long known very well what's being done to these people, even if some imbecile (who is hopefully found and fired) stuffed up POTUS's visual aid. There's an abundance of proof.) And it's not just words: he's saved 59 so far I believe, with his new Afrikaner refugee program.

 

[basilio]

Trumps assault on Education in the USA. Why ? Is anyone worried ?

Because Ignorance is the Handmaiden of Tyranny.

Trump's Biggest "Duck You" Yet to Higher Education and the Rest of the World​

Yesterday, Kristi Noem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, notified Harvard University that “effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked.”

Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students. Existing foreign students must transfer to another university or lose their legal status.

This could affect more than a quarter of Harvard’s student body.

Noem said she did this because of the university’s “failure to comply with simple reporting requirements.”

Rubbish. There was nothing simple about the trove of information Noem demanded from Harvard — including the coursework of every international student and information on any student visa holder who had been involved in “illegal” activity — information beyond what Harvard is legally allowed to share with the government.

We are in deep authoritarian fascist territory, friends.

Trump is escalating his war against American higher education and against the rest of the world.

We will be the worse for this.

To Trump, the only useful non-Americans are those who invest in his crypto schemes and global resorts, or gift him jumbo “palace in the sky” aircraft.

Yet global brains have been crucial sources of our scientific and economic advances. Since the end of World War II in particular, we have benefitted enormously from talented students and faculty drawn here from all over the planet to learn, study, research, and innovate.

Once again, it will be up to the federal courts to stop this idiocy. The rest of us must speak out loudly and clearly against what is being done.

Here’s what I told the graduates from U. Cal. Berkeley’s School of Education at their commencement ceremony earlier this week (before I learned of the Trump regime’s latest move):

Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited the enslaved from learning to read. Nazis burned books. Putin and Xi censor the media.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.

America’s founders knew this. They saw how easily emperors and kings could mislead uneducated publics. The survival of the new nation required a public wise enough to keep power within bounds. People imbued, in the language of the time, with civic virtue.
Jefferson assured Americans that if they could “enlighten the people generally … tyranny and the oppressions of mind and body will vanish, like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

So America became the cradle of free, universal, public education.
I don’t have any easy answers to the many challenges we’re experiencing today in classrooms across the land, but we must never give up on these three basic educational ideals: free, universal, and public.

If we stop thinking about education solely as a private investment on the way to a good-paying job and see it as a public good, we’d give every child an understanding of the Constitution, the meaning and importance of the rule of law, and why no one should be above it.

This is, after all, what we demand of people who want to become naturalized citizens: They have to pass a civics test covering the organization of the U.S. government and the Constitution.

Civic education should instill in young people a passion for truth — enabling them to think critically, be skeptical (but not cynical) about what they hear and read, find reliable sources of information, apply basic logic and analysis, and know enough about history and the physical world to differentiate fact from fiction.

Such an education would also urge young people to communicate with others. With people of different races, classes, creeds, nationalities.
Teach them how to listen, to open their minds to the possibility their own views and preconceptions may be wrong, to discover why people with opposing views believe what they do.

Yet the current president of the United States does not appear to have learned any of this.

On the campaign trail, he vowed to “liberate our children from the Marxist lunatics and perverts who have infested our educational system.”
He has canceled federal exams that measure student progress and ordered his wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary to shut most of her department.

He is attacking the freedom of speech of university students and professors, trying to deport international students and faculty solely because of what they say or write, and threatening to halt federal funds to universities that practice DEI.

He has gutted the funding of the National Institutes of Health, which provides a large portion of biomedical research, and the National Science Foundation, responsible for much of America’s engineering and computer research.

Along with certain governors, he is attacking the teaching in our schools of America’s shameful histories of slavery and Native American genocide.

He has cut funding for libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, and reliable internet access for those without it at home.

I keep hearing that all this amounts to an “attack on the liberal state” or “the culmination of our culture wars.”
No. What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind.

You who are soon to graduate from this wonderful school of education have chosen instead to enhance the American mind, to broaden it, to enlighten our young people, to expose them to a world of possibility.
May you educate like democracy depends on it.

Robert Reich

 

[sptrawler]

Sounds like the G7 are falling in line with Trump on tariffs.

G7 members agree to counter China’s global trade practices

Finance ministers and central bank governors pledge to address ‘economic imbalances’, without naming China

www.theguardian.com

 

[basilio]

A Permanent Stain on Our History​

The Trump administration’s embrace of nativism is as shameful as it is self-destructive.​

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by William Kristol

If the Trump administration’s sudden assault on thousands of foreign students legally studying at Harvard seems unprecedented, it’s because it is.

If the abrupt abrogation of temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans legally living and working in the United States seems unprecedented, it’s because it is.

If the sudden arrests and deportations of law-abiding immigrants checking in as ordered at government offices seems unprecedented, it’s because it is.

If the deportations of other immigrants without anything like due process and basically in defiance of court orders to prisons in third countries seems unprecedented, it’s because it is.

And if it all seems utterly stupid and terribly cruel and amazingly damaging to this country, it’s because it is.

But it turns out nativism is one hell of a drug. The Trump administration has ingested it in a big way, and it’s driving its dealers and users in the administration into a fanatical frenzy of destructive activity. And the Republican party and much of Conservatism Inc.—and too much of the country as a whole—is just watching it happen.

The United States has many problems. No one seriously thinks that Harvard’s certification to participate in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program is one of them. And the Department of Homeland Security’s announcement of the action against Harvard makes clear this isn’t just about Harvard: “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.” Are our other institutions of higher education suffering from their ability to attract and enroll students from abroad, if they chose to do so? Are the rest of us?

No. And to the degree there are some discrete problems, nothing justifies this kind of action against Harvard. As Andrea Flores, a former DHS official, told the New York Times, “D.H.S. has never tried to reshape the student body of a university by revoking access to its vetting systems, and it is unique to target one institution over hundreds that it certifies every year.”

Similarly, what’s the justification for the Trump administration’s unprecedented sudden and early abrogation of temporary protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans who fled tyranny and are now living peacefully and working productively in this country? There is no broad unhappiness at their presence, no serious case that they are causing more harm than doing good. Nor for that matter is there a real argument that the presence of 20,000 Haitians living and working in Springfield, Ohio, is a problem that required first lies to denigrate them and now attempts to deport them.

And this week, the nominee to head U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the Trump administration intends to end the well-established Optional Practical Training Program, which is the single largest channel for highly skilled immigrants to stay and work in the United States after finishing their education here. A study by a leading immigration scholar, Michael Clemens of George Mason University, finds that slashing that program would cause permanent losses to U.S. innovation, productivity, economic growth, and even job opportunities for native workers.

But here we are, with an administration where fantasy trumps reality, ideology trumps evidence, and demagoguery trumps decency. As the economist Dani Rodrik puts it, “Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.”

Foreigners studying and working here are not damaging the United States. A virulently nativist administration is what’s damaging the United States. It’s doing so in ways from which it will be difficult to recover. Just as important, it’s doing so in ways that will be a permanent stain on this nation’s history.

 

[basilio]

Harvards Response to the US Government attempt to stop foreign students studying at Harvard.

Harvard v Trump: takeaways from university’s legal battle over international student ban

Ivy League school condemns Trump officials’ ‘blatant violation’ of constitution and ‘retribution’ in 72-page lawsuit

www.theguardian.com

Fresh attack on Harvard intensifies chaos for international students in US

Students will need to move schools to keep legal status, as US universities reel from funding cuts and Trump orders

www.theguardian.com

 

[sptrawler]

Trump taking a leaf out of Indonesia's book and hitting the U.S multinational companies, which is long overdue IMO.

Trump threatens tariffs on European Union, Apple as his trade war intensifies

The EU says it will “defend its interests” as Trump threatens a 50 per cent tax on its imports, as well a 25 per cent tariff on Apple unless iPhones are made in America.

www.theage.com.au

US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a 25 per cent tariff on Apple products unless iPhones are made in America.

Indonesia made iPhones a forbidden fruit — and triumphed over Apple

It's one of the largest companies in the world. That didn't stop the Indonesian government from banning Apple's iPhone 16 and gaining enormous investment pledges.

www.abc.net.au

The government in October prohibited the marketing and sale of the iPhone 16 over the tech titan's failure to meet regulations requiring 40 per cent of mobile phones be made from local parts.

As part of a memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said Apple had pledged to establish a semiconductor research and development facility in Indonesia — "the first of its kind in Asia".

Under the plan, the company will build two other facilities: one in the city of Bandung in West Java to manufacture accessories and, as previously reported by the ABC, another in Batam near Singapore worth $US150 million ($238 million) to produce AirTags.

The lengthy negotiations with Apple were "tough" according to Mr Kartasasmita, who was quoted by CNBC Indonesia as saying the iPhone 16 would go on sale "as soon as possible".

 

[basilio]

Fresh attack on Harvard intensifies chaos for international students in US

Students will need to move schools to keep legal status, as US universities reel from funding cuts and Trump orders

www.theguardian.com

Trump taking a leaf out of Indonesia's book and hitting the U.S multinational companies, which is long overdue IMO.

Trump threatens tariffs on European Union, Apple as his trade war intensifies

The EU says it will “defend its interests” as Trump threatens a 50 per cent tax on its imports, as well a 25 per cent tariff on Apple unless iPhones are made in America.

www.theage.com.au

US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a 25 per cent tariff on Apple products unless iPhones are made in America.

Indonesia made iPhones a forbidden fruit — and triumphed over Apple

It's one of the largest companies in the world. That didn't stop the Indonesian government from banning Apple's iPhone 16 and gaining enormous investment pledges.

www.abc.net.au

The government in October prohibited the marketing and sale of the iPhone 16 over the tech titan's failure to meet regulations requiring 40 per cent of mobile phones be made from local parts.

As part of a memorandum of understanding signed on Wednesday, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said Apple had pledged to establish a semiconductor research and development facility in Indonesia — "the first of its kind in Asia".

Under the plan, the company will build two other facilities: one in the city of Bandung in West Java to manufacture accessories and, as previously reported by the ABC, another in Batam near Singapore worth $US150 million ($238 million) to produce AirTags.

The lengthy negotiations with Apple were "tough" according to Mr Kartasasmita, who was quoted by CNBC Indonesia as saying the iPhone 16 would go on sale "as soon as possible".

Yes Apple is building a R and D plant and another faciltity to make accessories. That is nowhere near Trumps demands that the IPhone in total be manufactured in the US. It's small fry vs the whole kebang.

Trumps tariff threats to the EU and the recurring demands on Apple to bring manufacturing home sound like a demand that they should just jump off the cliff and FLY Baby FLY !!

He is totally unhinged. I think the bond markets are going to move badly in Monday. I noted that the Australian RBA is quietly preparing for potentially cataclysmic economic outcomes. They don't believe in jumping off cliffs and flying either.

Trump has thrown out anyone who refuses totally and complete loyalty. A can't see how the current Republician Party can deal with a President who is dismantling the country every day . Realistically it will take a cataclysmic economic event or Trump kneeling over with a heart attack.

 

[sptrawler]

Fresh attack on Harvard intensifies chaos for international students in US

Students will need to move schools to keep legal status, as US universities reel from funding cuts and Trump orders

www.theguardian.com

Yes Apple is building a R and D plant and another faciltity to make accessories. That is nowhere near Trumps demands that the IPhone in total be manufactured in the US. It's small fry vs the whole kebang.

Trumps tariff threats to the EU and the recurring demands on Apple to bring manufacturing home sound like a demand that they should just jump off the cliff and FLY Baby FLY !!

He is totally unhinged. I think the bond markets are going to move badly in Monday. I noted that the Australian RBA is quietly preparing for potentially cataclysmic economic outcomes. They don't believe in jumping off cliffs and flying either.

Trump has thrown out anyone who refuses totally and complete loyalty. A can't see how the current Republician Party can deal with a President who is dismantling the country every day . Realistically it will take a cataclysmic economic event or Trump kneeling over with a heart attack.

How are you going to cope, if he actually turns things around?
The reality is, if he doesn't turn it around, the U.S will be a basket case like the EU and UK in 20 years.Lol

Even the EU have realised he is correct and they have to turn their economic model around, it has been based on social non productive agendas, at the expense of responsible fiscal policy.
The money had to run out eventually, it always does.
We have the same problem, we are just at an earlier stage in the process and have minerals propping us up.

 

[sptrawler]

Another example of Trump politics getting traction in Australia, hopefully some lost skills return onshore.

Trump tariffs prompt push to bring clothes manufacturing back to Australia

It has been decades since garment manufacturing flourished in Australia, but with rising pressures on the domestic fibre and fashion industry, a strategy is being developed to bring it back.

www.abc.net.au

During Australian Fashion Week last week, models walked the runway clothed by home-grown designers, but while the designs were local, the outfits themselves were made overseas

Determined to future-proof the industry from rising costs and tariff uncertainty, the Australian Fashion Council is embarking on a bold plan to bring the textile industry home.

While welcomed by wool and cotton farmers, there are concerns the economic reality of the supply chain may scupper any home-made dreams.

In the 1950s, Australia's 'rag trade' was booming.

Surry Hills in Sydney and Flinders Lane in Melbourne were bursting with garment manufacturing factories and workshops.

But as worker shortages and rising electricity costs combined with cheaper labour overseas, much of it moved offshore.
The fashion council, which represents the industry, now estimates 97 per cent of Australia's $28 billion of fashion is produced overseas.

"Our sector is at a critical tipping point," chief executive Jaana Quaintance-James said.

"We've identified an urgent need for a national manufacturing strategy — one that safeguards jobs, restores technical capability, and strengthens our global competitiveness."

Partnering with RM Williams, which has been manufacturing clothing and shoes in Adelaide since 1932, the council will hold six industry consultation sessions, with the full detail of the strategy to be delivered in late 2025.

Australia is a leading producer of cotton and wool, though both industries have struggled in recent years; the cotton industry faced a trade ban from China in 2020 while Australian wool production this year fell to a 100-year low.

Adam Kay, chief executive of grower group Cotton Australia, said the last local cotton spinning mills moved offshore 20 years ago, under pressure from rising labour costs.

He said that issue had largely been overcome through automation, but now the high cost of electricity would be a barrier to re-establishing the industry.

Mr Kay said the cotton industry already worked with more than 50 fashion brands across the country to supply Australian-grown cotton.

"Having a spinning mill locally and doing that next stage of processing, and maybe going all the way through to garment manufacturer, it really is a more circular economy," he said.

"It could really reduce the carbon miles that the products have."

If Australia is to turn back the clock textile manufacturing, Ms Quaintance-James said the national strategy would require a co-ordinated effort from government and the private sector.

"Tariffs are just the latest example. In COVID, we were unable to produce our own healthcare uniforms," she said.

"And we're in exactly the same situation. We have not evolved from that.

"So when are we going to learn this lesson?"

 

[DB008]

 

[Smurf1976]

Yes Apple is building a R and D plant and another faciltity to make accessories. That is nowhere near Trumps demands that the IPhone in total be manufactured in the US. It's small fry vs the whole kebang.

Trumps tariff threats to the EU and the recurring demands on Apple to bring manufacturing home sound like a demand that they should just jump off the cliff and FLY Baby FLY !!

I'm extremely unconvinced with the detail of Trump's approach but as I've said previously, what's the actual alternative here?

If not manufacturing then what, exactly, is the alternative?

Same applies to Australia. The writing's firmly on the wall that our business of selling fossil fuels and metal ores and running a few farms on the side in order to balance the import of everything else isn't going to last. How long we'll get out of it isn't clear, but anyone paying attention can see the warnings are there.

 

[IFocus]

I'm extremely unconvinced with the detail of Trump's approach but as I've said previously, what's the actual alternative here?

If not manufacturing then what, exactly, is the alternative?

Same applies to Australia. The writing's firmly on the wall that our business of selling fossil fuels and metal ores and running a few farms on the side in order to balance the import of everything else isn't going to last. How long we'll get out of it isn't clear, but anyone paying attention can see the warnings are there.

David Rosenberg

“It's the structure of the US economy. I mean, take a look at this chart. For anybody that's saying, ‘Oh, well, the United States is being ripped off,’ no. It's simply because the United States is run on consumer spending. There's no country in the world where consumer spending as a share of GDP is as high…

“Most countries have actually a national sales tax [VAT]. You would never get that passed through the United States. You can't put a sales tax on the consumer. The consumer runs the economy. Not investment, the consumer.

“What country has a lower savings rate? What country has as much a consumption share of GDP? And there's a 95% correlation between consumer spending and imports. So, for the people that support this view that we have to eliminate all these trade deficits the United States runs, well, then maybe we have to basically take the US economy and make it more European or Asian in nature, embrace frugality, and that way we'll have less consumption and fewer imports.”

 

[sptrawler]

David Rosenberg

. So, for the people that support this view that we have to eliminate all these trade deficits the United States runs, well, then maybe we have to basically take the US economy and make it more European or Asian in nature, embrace frugality, and that way we'll have less consumption and fewer imports.”

You can apply that to all Western countries and all them are in the same balance of payments problem, so the answer is drop people's standard of living?
Try floating that one, we can't even get people to downsize their houses.

Maybe we could try and get China to use its trade surplus to improve its social welfare and the life of its poor people, rather than pour it back into overcapacity in its manufacturing, so that it can send Western manufacturing broke.

 

[macca]

You can apply that to all Western countries and all them are in the same balance of payments problem, so the answer is drop people's standard of living?
Try floating that one, we can't even get people to downsize their houses.

Maybe we could try and get China to use its trade surplus to improve its social welfare and the life of its poor people, rather than pour it back into overcapacity in its manufacturing, so that it can send Western manufacturing broke.

Agreed, I recently read a book about the poor Muslim people in the western areas of China.

What I don't understand is why aren't the Muslims of the world raging about the mistreatment of these people.

They rant and rave all around the world about First world problems yet at the same time millions of their fellow Muslims are sweat shop inhabitants in China yet we hear nothing from them.

I can recall famous brands being criticised for using sweatshops in India, Bangladesh etc but China is doing the same thing and no one raises the issue.

 

[finicky]

This is inctedible. It's a dog shelter series with a dog king who never abuses his power, never pushes it beyond creating peace and order and has an affectionate nature. It's the equivalent of Donald Trump stripping chaos causing idiots like AOC, Nancy Pelosi, Dr Jill Biden and the supreme fool Kamala of all their power. We can learn from this!



I want to see this done to Chuck Schumer!



Chuck again

 

[PZ.]

Don't let them eat that dog

 

[sptrawler]

Yes Apple is building a R and D plant and another faciltity to make accessories. That is nowhere near Trumps demands that the IPhone in total be manufactured in the US. It's small fry vs the whole kebang.

Trumps tariff threats to the EU and the recurring demands on Apple to bring manufacturing home sound like a demand that they should just jump off the cliff and FLY Baby FLY !!

He is totally unhinged.

So you think it is fine to design and develop products in say the U.S, U.K, EU and Australia, then get the product manufactured in sweat shops in third world countries? Meanwhile does the country who invested in developing the technology get anything out of it? Obviously not by your thinking. They don't get the tax from the profit, they don't get paid for the intellectual property, they just get the pineapple.

Then in the next breath it is fine for Indonesia to demand compensation from Apple for selling phones there, but it isn't fine for the U.S to demand the phones be built in the U.S where they were designed and developed.

What in gods name did Indonesia do, to make their position fine?
They didn't contribute to the development, they didn't supply the founders of Apple with an education and the R and D facilities to actually design the first iPhones, but somehow you think they deserve Apple investing in Indonesia but not in the U.S.

Well that is exactly why the West is in the strife it is in, there is certainly someone unhinged, that's a given.

What chance do we have, with your reasoning, we may as well just cc China and every other Asian country into our R & D and let them get on with it.

Loading...

www.nytimes.com

It was May 2013, and Mr. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, appeared before a United States Senate investigative subcommittee. After a lengthy inquiry, the committee found that the company had avoided tens of billions of dollars in taxes by shifting profits into Irish subsidiaries that the panel’s chairman called “ghost companies.”

E.U. Court Rules Against Apple in $14 Billion Irish Tax Bill Case

The Apple-Ireland case was by far the biggest in outgoing E.U. antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s decade-long campaign against selective tax benefits to big firms.

time.com

EU’s Apple ‘victory’ highlights the failure of international tax rules - Tax Justice Network

‘Tax justice delayed is tax justice denied,’ says the Tax Justice Network

taxjustice.net

How tech giants pay just 1% tax in Australia

Creative accounting bilks the ATO out of billions.

ia.acs.org.au

 

[sptrawler]

Yes Apple is building a R and D plant and another faciltity to make accessories. That is nowhere near Trumps demands that the IPhone in total be manufactured in the US. It's small fry vs the whole kebang.

Trumps tariff threats to the EU and the recurring demands on Apple to bring manufacturing home sound like a demand that they should just jump off the cliff and FLY Baby FLY !!

He is totally unhinged. I think the bond markets are going to move badly in Monday. I noted that the Australian RBA is quietly preparing for potentially cataclysmic economic outcomes. They don't believe in jumping off cliffs and flying either.

Trump has thrown out anyone who refuses totally and complete loyalty. A can't see how the current Republician Party can deal with a President who is dismantling the country every day . Realistically it will take a cataclysmic economic event or Trump kneeling over with a heart attack.

Bas, Indonesia was asking for a complete manufacturing facility, they chose to accept the R & D and air tag offer, that is called prerogative. Indonesia did nothing to help Apple develop their product, they just buy the product.

Indonesia is expected to accept an investment offer from Apple to lift the ban on iPhone 16 sales, but the details and timeline remain unclear. Indonesia had previously rejected Apple's $100 million investment proposal and a later $1 billion offer to build an AirTag factory. The ban was imposed due to Apple's failure to meet local component requirements.

Trump's situation is somewhat different, he is demanding Apple build the phones in the U.S that they are selling the U.S, as it was U.S money that developed the phone and Apple is supposedly a U.S company yet it offshores its profits.
How you find what he is trying to do unhinged, speaks volumes to your perception of fiscal sustainability, in Western economies IMO.

From Google:

Like many other multinationals, Apple exploits this loophole by using accounting maneuvers to shift its U.S. profits overseas (often only on paper) and then indefinitely deferring U.S. taxes on them. Apple has booked $252.3 billion[iv] in profits offshore on which it has not paid a dime in U.S. taxes. 5 Nov 2017

Paradise Papers: Apple's secret tax bolthole revealed

The US multinational has used a Channel Island to protect its low tax regime, the Paradise Papers show.

www.bbc.com

For your info:
Fiscal sustainability refers to a government's ability to maintain its public finances in a sound and serviceable position over the long term, ensuring it can meet current and future spending needs without requiring significant policy adjustments. It's crucial for macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic growth.

Current Situation:
The US debt is currently around $36.2 trillion, which is 122% of the annual economic output (GDP),

Historical Trends:
The debt-to-GDP ratio has fluctuated over time. It reached a record low of 31.8% in September 1974 and a high of 130.4% in March 2021,
Projections:
The debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to continue to increase in the long term, reaching around 126.8% in 2026 and 128.1% in 2027