Trump 47

[Donnyboy]

Consider that a major reason that we are a large part of their exports is because we have been reasonable and judicious with tariffs, which any decent economist will tell you harm economic output. The may be trying to gain more access to the US in the short term but this wild threatening behavior with tariffs from the largest long-term trading partner would have anyone thinking that they will have to change and no longer depend on one long-term trading partner. And, in comes China to play the major role in fostering that change.

The major reason is NAFTA which is a bad deal for us as a whole....cheap avocados and poutine doesn't replace manufacturing jobs. They are set up to ship stuff to us far easier than rest of the world....that change will take longer than it takes for tariffs to bankrupt them and US raiders to come buy them at cents on the dollar. Their largest export in dollars by far is petroleum/gas and again they aren't really set up to ship it to anyone but us....they actually ship it through the US to themselves in cases. Timber and electricity are bolstered by getting around state environmental rules. Wanna know why we get electricity from Canada because states like New York made environmental regs that Canada didn't.....same with logging.....because it's completely different to burn natural gas or cut down 100K acres of trees if they are 200 miles north when considering the climate of the whole Earth.

Canada's 23 GDP was 2.14 T (or less than 10% of ours). They have 2.3 million people of their 16M strong work force employed in jobs tied to exports to the US not counting all the other drivers, shop owners, banks, etc . In 2023 they shipped 440 B to the US.....128B was oil/gas/minerals which we have 52B was vehicles which we used to make....there are only 9 product categories according the the UN that total more than 10B and one is "Commodities not specified by kind" we get more "Precious stones and pearls" you know vital stuff than aluminum or steel.....if a real 25% tariff was put on all goods they don't make it 6 months without a full on depression. Canada is dependent on us. I'm not for the way Trump is going about this and I'm not for a contentious relationship with our next door neighbor but a "trade war" with Canada needs put in the context it belongs.

Their currency dropped 11.5% on the headline. The grown ups in Canada saw that....they may have to talk tough about booze or beaver pelts but a message was sent however haphazardly delivered. I really hope that this exercise cuts through the crap of acting like we are peers and sets the tone for future deals and is the end of it....it rarely is with Trump.

 

[JTOSU]

You're right on 1 point. He is "technically" a govt. employee. A special employee that is expected to work less than 130 days out of a 365 day calendar year. You also glossed over the point where DOGE is not a department of the government. The president has no authority to just create departments.

I also forget if Anita Dunn was given access to the entire treasury department and carte blanche to just "delete" (Elon's words) spending programs?

I think you may be getting hung up on the word “department” and thinking “agency”. DOGE is not an agency of the federal government.

The President absolutely does have the authority to hire unelected people to work for him. If he wants them to run a cabinet head position then they need to be confirmed by Congress, but there is no such requirement for the type of work Musk is doing. Musk’s authority is limited, but his access to the Treasury was approved the the head of the Treasury.

Don’t know about Anita Dunn and Treasury access. My assumption is she did not. But she and her team did have access to student debt records to do an end-around of the laws.

Again, I understand concerns that you and others have…but arguing that it is illegal (or President has “no authority”) was not correct yesterday and not correct today.

 

[Donnyboy]

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This is absolutely the wrong way to go about this.

The Department of Education has to be considered a failure that needs a total overhaul. I don't know what the answer is part of me likes the idea of states being more involved more local control smaller bites at the elephant kind of thing then you get states like Oklahoma that want to teach that gay people have tails and the planets formed when Jesus sneezed. But something big has to be done with education.....we peaked 13 years ago. We have lost 30 of progress and the trend is not improving. The current generation will be less educated than the previous and not by an insignificant amount. That's a first for the US.

The wife of disgraced wrestling executive and blowing it up isn't the answer.

 

[milehighpoke]

I think you may be getting hung up on the word “department” and thinking “agency”. DOGE is not an agency of the federal government.

The President absolutely does have the authority to hire unelected people to work for him. If he wants them to run a cabinet head position then they need to be confirmed by Congress, but there is no such requirement for the type of work Musk is doing. Musk’s authority is limited, but his access to the Treasury was approved the the head of the Treasury.

Don’t know about Anita Dunn and Treasury access. My assumption is she did not. But she and her team did have access to student debt records to do an end-around of the laws.

Again, I understand concerns that you and others have…but arguing that it is illegal (or President has “no authority”) was not correct yesterday and not correct today.

I am hung up on the word department, because that's what it's being called.

"Despite the broad authority granted by the United States Constitution to the president, he does not have "unilateral and unrestrained authority over the Executive Branch" and "congressional action is required to create Executive Branch departments, to fund them, to determine the nature and scope of their duties and to confirm the appointment of their top leaders". While the president manages the conduct of executive branch offices, "it is Congress, not the President, that establishes departments and agencies, and to whatever degree it chooses, the internal organization of agencies".

This page, on the whitehouse website, sure makes it sound like a department and agency. Although I guess your argument now is that "it's not technically part of the executive branch!". But reading that page, it sure sounds a LOT like an arm of the president...since he explicitly says it's to further his agenda.

Establishing And Implementing The President's "Department Of Government Efficiency" – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

www.whitehouse.gov

 

[steross]

The major reason is NAFTA which is a bad deal for us as a whole....cheap avocados and poutine doesn't replace manufacturing jobs. They are set up to ship stuff to us for easier than rest of the world....that change will take longer than it takes for tariffs to bankrupt them and US raiders to come buy them at cents on the dollar. Their largest export in dollars by far is petroleum/gas and again they aren't really set up to ship it to anyone but us....they actually ship it through the US to themselves in cases. Timber and electricity are bolstered by getting around state environmental rules. Wanna know why we get electricity from Canada because states like New York made environmental regs that Canada didn't.....same with logging.....because it's completely different to burn natural gas or cut down 100K acres of trees if they are 200 miles north when considering the climate of the whole Earth.

Canada's 23 GDP was 2.14 T (or less than 10% of ours). They have 2.3 million people of their 16M strong work force employed in jobs tied to exports to the US not counting all the other drivers, shop owners, banks, etc . In 2023 they shipped 440 B to the US.....128B was oil/gas/minerals which we can have 52B was vehicles we absolutely used to make....there are only 9 product categories according the the UN that total more than 10B and one is "Commodities not specified by kind" we get more "Precious stones and pearls" you know vital stuff than aluminum or steel.....if a real 25% tariff was put on all goods they don't make it 6 months without a full on depression. Canada is dependent on us. I'm not for the way Trump is going about this and I'm not for a contentious relationship with our next door neighbor but a "trade war" with Canada needs put in the context it belongs.

Their currency dropped 11.5% on the headline. The grown ups in Canada saw that....they may have to talk tough about booze or beaver pelts but a message was sent however haphazardly delivered. I really hope that this exercise cuts through the crap of acting like we are peers and sets the tone for future deals and is the end of it....it rarely is with Trump.

We have excelled as an economy despite the loss of "good manufacturing jobs." Funny how that works.

Again, Canada may be dependent on us. That dependence grew not because we had a child wanting to take his ball and go home.

The law of unintended consequences is gonna love this. I just hope he doesn't blow our economy up like an Atlantic City Casino.

 

[mugatu]

Yeah, at this point I don't really care who uncovers it and you shouldn't either. The argument that we shouldn't pull back the curtain because Trump "might" do something shady is just ridiculous. I have no way of knowing if this post is accurate but the more I see the more I'm convinced that the whole dang thing needs burned to the ground.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1886623414024131002

If they are going after corruption or fraud, this should be run by the DOJ not by DOGE (aka Musk and some random gen Z kids). At this point I'm not sure if there is any ability to legally use anything they find because they have no legal authority and have been digging and around and potentially changing things in the system.

If it is as bad as you claim then the DOJ should be investigating USAID, not who in the FBI was working Jan 6 cases.

The way they have been doing this is going to cast a shadow on any "discovery" they make and announce.

 

[mugatu]

We have excelled as an economy despite the loss of "good manufacturing jobs." Funny how that works.

The US gov (and society) has not prioritized or cared about manufacturing jobs since Reagan. The priority has been put on financial work not production work. Just look at how tax code has been worked, it incentivizes financial trade not commodity creation.

 

[mugatu]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/epa-spending-freeze-court-orders-00202253

Trump is proving now that he doesn't have to listen to courts, they can't enforce anything and Congress is his pawn so no one who can check him is going to.

 

[GOGETUMPOKE]

If they are going after corruption or fraud, this should be run by the DOJ not by DOGE (aka Musk and some random gen Z kids). At this point I'm not sure if there is any ability to legally use anything they find because they have no legal authority and have been digging and around and potentially changing things in the system.

If it is as bad as you claim then the DOJ should be investigating USAID, not who in the FBI was working Jan 6 cases.

The way they have been doing this is going to cast a shadow on any "discovery" they make and announce.

Right....because the DOJ has done such an outstanding job of rooting out corruption thus far. If the DOJ had been doing its job we wouldn't be here. The perfect person to do this job is someone that isn't running for re-election and really has nothing to lose regardless of who's toes they step on. Whether Elon is that person remains to be seen.

 

[cowboyinexile]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/epa-spending-freeze-court-orders-00202253

Trump is proving now that he doesn't have to listen to courts, they can't enforce anything and Congress is his pawn so no one who can check him is going to.

So if they are going to do what they want no matter what the courts say and Congress isn't going to step in, what happens?

 

[Vakarian74]

So if they are going to do what they want no matter what the courts say and Congress isn't going to step in, what happens?

We become a fascist country. Only thing a bully understands is a punch to the face.

 

[Polds4OSU]

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[Polds4OSU]

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[Donnyboy]

We have excelled as an economy despite the loss of "good manufacturing jobs." Funny how that works.

Again, Canada may be dependent on us. That dependence grew not because we had a child wanting to take his ball and go home.

The law of unintended consequences is gonna love this. I just hope he doesn't blow our economy up like an Atlantic City Casino.

It can't blow up our economy. If you take the combined amount we export to them and import from them it's 3.6% of our GDP. They get a seat at tables because we invite them not because they belong. They are less than 2% of our GDP in exports.....or about what we grow in a ho hum quarter.

I'm not defending Trumps methods but all the trade war with Canada talk is just like the he is going to start WWIII talk the first time around. If Canada vanished tomorrow we could recover before mid terms. They are a big cold uninhabited buffer. Their greatest asset to us is physical size and the barrier that creates for defense. Trump may blow up the economy but he could literally blow up Canada and it won't do it....

 

[Polds4OSU]

Trump: "Look, the Gaza thing has not worked. It's never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land. We'll get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice."

Aaron Rupar (@aaron.rupar) on Threads

Trump: "Look, the Gaza thing has not worked. It's never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land. We'll get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice."

www.threads.net

 

[Polds4OSU]

Trump on American citizens who are in prisons:

"If we could these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people ... we don't want these people in our country."

Aaron Rupar (@aaron.rupar) on Threads

Trump on American citizens: "If we could these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people ... we don't want these people in our country."

www.threads.net

 

[cowboyinexile]

Trump on American citizens who are in prisons:

"If we could these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people ... we don't want these people in our country."

Aaron Rupar (@aaron.rupar) on Threads

Trump on American citizens: "If we could these animals out of our country and put them in a different country under the supervision of somebody that made a relatively small fee to maintain these people ... we don't want these people in our country."

www.threads.net

Grandpa needs a werthers original and a nap

 

[Stillwater Townie]

Trump sued due to Musk's federal data breach. Several years ago, I protected myself from fraud when I put my credit on freeze with the 3 credit reporting agencies. If you don't anticipate needing credit, I would suggest doing that.

 

[steross]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1886905073193640169

 

[mugatu]

Right....because the DOJ has done such an outstanding job of rooting out corruption thus far. If the DOJ had been doing its job we wouldn't be here. The perfect person to do this job is someone that isn't running for re-election and really has nothing to lose regardless of who's toes they step on. Whether Elon is that person remains to be seen.

So who is running the DOJ now and has the ability to push on it to focus on certain areas?